Functional Outcomes of Thoracolumbar Junction Spine Fractures

Introduction. Few studies have evaluated the functionaloutcomes of traumatic thoracic and lumbar vertebral bodyfractures. This study evaluated the functional and clinicaloutcomes of patients, who sustained a fracture to thethoracolumbar area of the spine (T10 to L2 region), with≥ 25° kyphosis versus those with less kyphotic curvature. Methods. The trauma registry records of two level 1 traumacenters using ICD-9 codes for fracture to the thoracolumbarjuncture (T10 to L2 region) were reviewed. Kyphosis anglewas measured on the standing lateral thoracolumbar (T1 -L5) radiograph at initial trauma and at clinical follow-up.Functional outcome questionnaires, including the OswestryDisability Questionnaire (ODQ), the Roland Morris DisabilityQuestionnaire (RMDQ), and the Nottingham Health Profile(NHP), were evaluated at clinical follow-up. Work statusand medication used after trauma also were recorded. Results. A total of 38 patients met the inclusive criteria. Seventeenpatients (45%) had ≥ 25° kyphosis and 21 patients (55%)had < 25° kyphosis at follow-up. These two groups were similarbased on sex and age. Based on the ODQ Score, the RMDQScore, and the NHP, no statistically significant differenceswere detected between the two groups in regards to energy,pain, mobility, emotional reaction, social isolation, and sleep. Conclusions. Patients who sustained a fracture to the thoracolumbararea of the spine with ≥ 25° kyphosis do notreport worse clinical outcomes. When using the kyphosisangle as an indication for surgery, it should be used withcaution and not exclusively. KS J Med 2017;10(2):30-34

Far-infrared spectroscopic images of M83

We have mapped the nearby face on barred spiral galaxy, M83 in the bright [CII] 158 μm, [OI] 63 and 146 μm, [NII] 122 μm, and [OIII] 88 μm fine-structure lines with the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) on ISO. The maps are nearly fully sampled, and cover the inner 6.75' x 6' region - essentially the entire optical disk. We also obtained a full LWS grating scan of the nucleus. The lines are detectable over the entire disk, and enhanced at the nucleus, where the [OI] 63 μm and [NII] lines are particularly strong. At the nucleus, the line ratios indicate a strong starburst headed by O9 stars. Surprisingly, the [OI] and [CII] line emission (from photodissociation regions) is not enhanced relative to [NII] (from low density HII regions) on the spiral arms. The line ratios are the same for the spiral arms and interarm regions. We find very strong emission in the [OIII] 88 μm, [OI] 146 μm, and [CII] lines at the intersection of the bar and spiral arm to the SW indicating particularly strong star formation activity there. The [OI] 63 μm/146 μm line ratio is quite small there likely the result of self absorption in the 63 μm line by enveloping clouds. The total luminosity of this emission peak is 1.2 x 109 Lodo

Ultra-Sensitive Hot-Electron Nanobolometers for Terahertz Astrophysics

The background-limited spectral imaging of the early Universe requires spaceborne terahertz (THz) detectors with the sensitivity 2-3 orders of magnitude better than that of the state-of-the-art bolometers. To realize this sensitivity without sacrificing operating speed, novel detector designs should combine an ultrasmall heat capacity of a sensor with its unique thermal isolation. Quantum effects in thermal transport at nanoscale put strong limitations on the further improvement of traditional membrane-supported bolometers. Here we demonstrate an innovative approach by developing superconducting hot-electron nanobolometers in which the electrons are cooled only due to a weak electron-phonon interaction. At T<0.1K, the electron-phonon thermal conductance in these nanodevices becomes less than one percent of the quantum of thermal conductance. The hot-electron nanobolometers, sufficiently sensitive for registering single THz photons, are very promising for submillimeter astronomy and other applications based on quantum calorimetry and photon counting.Comment: 19 pages, 3 color figure

Inhibition of Fungi and Gram-Negative Bacteria by Bacteriocin BacTN635 Produced by Lactobacillus plantarum sp. TN635

The aim of this study was to evaluate 54 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains isolated from meat, fermented vegetables and dairy products for their capacity to produce antimicrobial activities against several bacteria and fungi. The strain designed TN635 has been selected for advanced studies. The supernatant culture of this strain inhibits the growth of all tested pathogenic including the four Gram-negative bacteria (Salmonella enterica ATCC43972, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 49189, Hafnia sp. and Serratia sp.) and the pathogenic fungus Candida tropicalis R2 CIP203. Based on the nucleotide sequence of the 16S rRNA gene of the strain TN635 (1,540 pb accession no FN252881) and the phylogenetic analysis, we propose the assignment of our new isolate bacterium as Lactobacillus plantarum sp. TN635 strain. Its antimicrobial compound was determined as a proteinaceous substance, stable to heat and to treatment with surfactants and organic solvents. Highest antimicrobial activity was found between pH 3 and 11 with an optimum at pH = 7. The BacTN635 was purified to homogeneity by a four-step protocol involving ammonium sulfate precipitation, centrifugal microconcentrators with a 10-kDa membrane cutoff, gel filtration Sephadex G-25, and C18 reverse-phase HPLC. SDS-PAGE analysis of the purified BacTN635, revealed a single band with an estimated molecular mass of approximately 4 kDa. The maximum bacteriocin production (5,000 AU/ml) was recorded after a 16-h incubation in Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) medium at 30 °C. The mode of action of the partial purified BacTN635 was identified as bactericidal against Listeria ivanovii BUG 496 and as fungistatic against C. tropicalis R2 CIP203

Stratification of Patients With Sjögren’s Syndrome and Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus According to Two Shared Immune Cell Signatures, With Potential Therapeutic Implications

OBJECTIVE: Similarities in the clinical and laboratory features of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have led to attempts to treat pSS and SLE patients with similar biologic therapeutics. However, the results of many clinical trials are disappointing, and no biologic treatments are licensed in pSS, while few are available for SLE patients with refractory disease. Identifying shared immunological features between pSS and SLE could lead to better treatment selection using a stratification approach. METHODS: Immune-phenotyping of 29 immune-cell subsets in peripheral blood from patients with pSS (n=45), SLE (n=29) and secondary SS associated with SLE (SLE/SS) (n=14) with low disease activity or in clinical remission, and sex-matched healthy controls (n=31), was performed using flow cytometry. Data were analysed using supervised machine learning (balanced random forest, sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis), logistic regression and multiple t-tests. Patients were stratified by k-means clustering, and clinical trajectory analysis. RESULTS: Patients with pSS and SLE had a similar immunological architecture despite having different clinical presentations and prognosis. K-means cluster analysis of the combined pSS, SLE and SLE/SS patient cohorts identified two endotypes characterized by distinct immune-cell profiles which spanned patient diagnoses. Logistic regression and machine learning models identified a signature of eight T-cell subsets that differentiated between the two endotypes with high accuracy (AUC=0.9979). Baseline and five-year clinical trajectory analysis identified differential damage scores and disease activity between the two endotypes. CONCLUSION: An immune-cell toolkit could differentiate patients across diseases with high accuracy for targeted therapeutic approaches

Enhanced insulin sensitivity associated with provision of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids in skeletal muscle cells involves counter modulation of PP2A

International audienceAims/Hypothesis: Reduced skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity is a feature associated with sustained exposure to excess saturated fatty acids (SFA), whereas mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids (MUFA and PUFA) not only improve insulin sensitivity but blunt SFA-induced insulin resistance. The mechanisms by which MUFAs and PUFAs institute these favourable changes remain unclear, but may involve stimulating insulin signalling by counter-modulation/repression of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). This study investigated the effects of oleic acid (OA; a MUFA), linoleic acid (LOA; a PUFA) and palmitate (PA; a SFA) in cultured myotubes and determined whether changes in insulin signalling can be attributed to PP2A regulation. Principal Findings: We treated cultured skeletal myotubes with unsaturated and saturated fatty acids and evaluated insulin signalling, phosphorylation and methylation status of the catalytic subunit of PP2A. Unlike PA, sustained incubation of rat or human myotubes with OA or LOA significantly enhanced Akt-and ERK1/2-directed insulin signalling. This was not due to heightened upstream IRS1 or PI3K signalling nor to changes in expression of proteins involved in proximal insulin signalling, but was associated with reduced dephosphorylation/inactivation of Akt and ERK1/2. Consistent with this, PA reduced PP2Ac demethylation and tyrosine 307 phosphorylation-events associated with PP2A activation. In contrast, OA and LOA strongly opposed these PA-induced changes in PP2Ac thus exerting a repressive effect on PP2A.Conclusions/Interpretation: Beneficial gains in insulin sensitivity and the ability of unsaturated fatty acids to oppose palmitate-induced insulin resistance in muscle cells may partly be accounted for by counter-modulation of PP2A

An Investigation into the Poor Survival of an Endangered Coho Salmon Population

To investigate reasons for the decline of an endangered population of coho salmon (O. kisutch), 190 smolts were acoustically tagged during three consecutive years and their movements and survival were estimated using the Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project (POST) array. Median travel times of the Thompson River coho salmon smolts to the lower Fraser River sub-array were 16, 12 and 10 days during 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively. Few smolts were recorded on marine arrays. Freshwater survival rates of the tagged smolts during their downstream migration were 0.0–5.6% (0.0–9.0% s.e.) in 2004, 7.0% (6.2% s.e.) in 2005, and 50.9% (18.6% s.e.) in 2006. Overall smolt-to-adult return rates exhibited a similar pattern, which suggests that low freshwater survival rates of out-migrating smolts may be a primary reason for the poor conservation status of this endangered coho salmon population

Clinical presentation, histology, and prognoses of malignant melanoma in ethnic Chinese: A study of 522 consecutive cases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Malignant melanoma is a rare disease in Asia, and knowledge on its characteristics and clinical outcome in Asian patients is limited. The purpose of this observational study was to determine the clinical presentation and outcome of patients with melanoma in China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A database was prospectively established for the purpose of this analysis. The elements of the database included basic demographic data of patients and prognosticators previously reported in literature, as well as follow-up data including clinical outcome after treatment. Medical record of all patients with pathologically diagnosed malignant melanoma consulted in our center since 2006 were retrieved and reviewed. No patient was excluded in this study. Statistical analyses including survival and multivariate analyses of factors associated with survival were respectively performed by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 522 consecutive and nonselected cases were evaluated. There were 218 cases (41.8%) of acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM), 118 (22.6%) of mucosal melanoma (MCM), 103 (19.7%) of nodular melanoma (NM), 33 (6.3%) of superficial spreading melanoma (SSM), and others were Lentigo maligna melanoma or unclassifiable disease. The proportion of patients with clinical stage I, II, III, and IV diseases were 6.1%, 55.9%, 25.1%, and 12.8%, respectively. Among the 357 cases of cutaneous melanoma, 234 patients (65.5%) had ulceration.</p> <p>The 5-year overall survival rate of all 522 patients was 41.6%, and the median survival time was 3.92 years (95% CI, 3.282 to 4.558). Five-year survival rates of patients with stage I, II, III, and IV diseases were 94.1%, 44.0%, 38.4% and 4.6% respectively (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that clinical stage and the ulceration were two significant prognosticators for OS. In addition, extent of surgery and use of adjuvant therapy were significant prognosticators for DFS in patients with non-metastatic disease after definitive treatment. Pathological subtype was not a significant prognostic factor to predict wither OS or DFS.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Prognoses of patients with malignant melanoma diagnosed in China were suboptimal, and most patients were diagnosed with locally advanced disease (i.e., stage II or above). ALM and MCM are the two most commonly diagnosed pathological subtypes. Clinical staging and presence of ulceration was significantly associated with clinical outcome in terms of OS, while treatment strategy including extent of surgery and use of adjuvant therapy were significant predictors of DFS.</p

Comparison of immunohistochemistry with immunoassay (ELISA) for the detection of components of the plasminogen activation system in human tumour tissue

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods and immunohistochemistry (IHC) are techniques that provide information on protein expression in tissue samples. Both methods have been used to investigate the impact of the plasminogen activation (PA) system in cancer. In the present paper we first compared the expression levels of uPA, tPA, PAI-1 and uPAR in a compound group consisting of 33 cancer lesions of various origin (breast, lung, colon, cervix and melanoma) as quantitated by ELISA and semi-quantitated by IHC. Secondly, the same kind of comparison was performed on a group of 23 melanoma lesions and a group of 28 breast carcinoma lesions. The two techniques were applied to adjacent parts of the same frozen tissue sample, enabling the comparison of results obtained on material of almost identical composition. Spearman correlation coefficients between IHC results and ELISA results for uPA, tPA, PAI-1 and uPAR varied between 0.41 and 0.78, and were higher for the compound group and the breast cancer group than for the melanoma group. Although a higher IHC score category was always associated with an increased median ELISA value, there was an overlap of ELISA values from different scoring classes. Hence, for the individual tumour cases the relation between ELISA and IHC is ambiguous. This indicates that the two techniques are not directly interchangeable and that their value for clinical purposes may be different. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig