312 research outputs found
Gene expression subtraction of non-cancerous lung from smokers and non-smokers with adenocarcinoma, as a predictor for smokers developing lung cancer
Left ventricular assist device implantation in high risk destination therapy patients: an alternative surgical approach
Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) for Destination Therapy (DT) is an established therapy for end stage heart failure patients who are not transplant candidates. Many DT patients requiring LVADs have had prior open heart surgery, the majority of whom had prior sternotomy. In addition, DT patients tend to be older and more likely to have more significant co-morbidities than their Bridge-To-Transplant (BTT) counterparts. As such, placement of an implantable LVAD in DT patients can be technically hazardous and potentially prone to more perioperative complications. The purpose of this report is to describe an alternative implantation approach for the implantation of the Heartmate II™ LVAD in high risk DT patients
Search for Exotic Strange Quark Matter in High Energy Nuclear Reactions
We report on a search for metastable positively and negatively charged states
of strange quark matter in Au+Pb reactions at 11.6 A GeV/c in experiment E864.
We have sampled approximately six billion 10% most central Au+Pb interactions
and have observed no strangelet states (baryon number A < 100 droplets of
strange quark matter). We thus set upper limits on the production of these
exotic states at the level of 1-6 x 10^{-8} per central collision. These limits
are the best and most model independent for this colliding system. We discuss
the implications of our results on strangelet production mechanisms, and also
on the stability question of strange quark matter.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Nuclear Physics A (Carl Dover
memorial edition
Optimizing the mobility of residents with dementia: a pilot study promoting healthcare aide uptake of a simple mobility innovation in diverse nursing home settings
Air pollution and emergency department visits for cardiac and respiratory conditions: a multi-city time-series analysis
Single Molecule In Vivo Analysis of Toll-Like Receptor 9 and CpG DNA Interaction
Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) activates the innate immune system in response to oligonucleotides rich in CpG whereas DNA lacking CpG could inhibit its activation. However, the mechanism of how TLR9 interacts with nucleic acid and becomes activated in live cells is not well understood. Here, we report on the successful implementation of single molecule tools, constituting fluorescence correlation/cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCS and FCCS) and photon count histogram (PCH) with fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to study the interaction of TLR9-GFP with Cy5 labeled oligonucleotide containing CpG or lacking CpG in live HEK 293 cells. Our findings show that i) TLR9 predominantly forms homodimers (80%) before binding to a ligand and further addition of CpG or non CpG DNA does not necessarily increase the proportion of TLR9 dimers, ii) CpG DNA has a lower dissociation constant (62 nM±9 nM) compared to non CpG DNA (153 nM±26 nM) upon binding to TLR9, suggesting that a motif specific binding affinity of TLR9 could be an important factor in instituting a conformational change-dependant activation, and iii) both CpG and non CpG DNA binds to TLR9 with a 1∶2 stoichiometry in vivo. Collectively, through our findings we establish an in vivo model of TLR9 binding and activation by CpG DNA using single molecule fluorescence techniques for single cell studies
Adherence to 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years and associations with social-cognitive development among Australian preschool children
Background: The new Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years recommend that, for preschoolers, a healthy 24-h includes: i) ≥180 min of physical activity, including ≥60 min of energetic play, ii) ≤1 h of sedentary screen time, and iii) 10–13 h of good quality sleep. Using an Australian sample, this study reports the proportion of preschool children meeting these guidelines and investigates associations with social-cognitive development.
Methods: Data from 248 preschool children (mean age = 4.2 ± 0.6 years, 57% boys) participating in the PATH-ABC study were analyzed. Children completed direct assessments of physical activity (accelerometry) and social cognition (the Test of Emotional Comprehension (TEC) and Theory of Mind (ToM)). Parents reported on children’s screen time and sleep. Children were categorised as meeting/not meeting: i) individual guidelines, ii) combinations of two guidelines, or iii) all three guidelines. Associations were examined using linear regression adjusting for child age, sex, vocabulary, area level socio-economic status and childcare level clustering.
Results: High proportions of children met the physical activity (93.1%) and sleep (88.7%) guidelines, whereas fewer met the screen time guideline (17.3%). Overall, 14.9% of children met all three guidelines. Children meeting the sleep guideline performed better on TEC than those who did not (mean difference [MD] = 1.41; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.36, 2.47). Children meeting the sleep and physical activity or sleep and screen time guidelines also performed better on TEC (MD = 1.36; 95% CI = 0.31, 2.41) and ToM (MD = 0.25; 95% CI = −0.002, 0.50; p = 0.05), respectively, than those who did not. Meeting all three guidelines was associated with better ToM performance (MD = 0.28; 95% CI = −0.002, 0.48, p = 0.05), while meeting a larger number of guidelines was associated with better TEC (3 or 2 vs. 1/none, p < 0.02) and ToM performance (3 vs. 2, p = 0.03).
Conclusions: Strategies to promote adherence to the 24-Hour Movement Behaviour Guidelines for the Early Years among preschool children are warranted. Supporting preschool children to meet all guidelines or more guidelines, particularly the sleep and screen time guidelines, may be beneficial for their social-cognitive development
Effect of local cold-pack application on systemic anabolic and inflammatory response to sprint-interval training: a prospective comparative trial
We evaluated the effect of cold ice-pack application following a brief sprint-interval training on the balance between anabolic mediators [growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), testosterone], catabolic markers (cortisol, IGFBP-1), and circulating pro [Interlukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1β]- and anti-inflammatory cytokines [IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra)]. Twelve males, elite junior handball players performed 4 × 250 m treadmill run, at 80% of each individual’s maximal speed, followed by a rest period with and without local cold-pack application. Pre, immediately post, and 60-min post-exercise blood samples were drawn. Exercise was associated with a significant increase in IL-6, GH, IGFBP-3, and testosterone levels. Local cold-pack application was associated with significant decreases in IL-1β, IL-1ra, IGF-I, and IGFBP-3 and a greater increase of IGFBP-1 during recovery. Local ice therapy immediately following sprint-interval training was associated with greater decreases in both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and anabolic hormones supporting some clinical evidence for possible negative effects on athletic performance
Chronic hypothermia and energy expenditure in a neurodevelopmentally disabled patient: a case study
Hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature of \u3c35°C and results in a decrease in measured resting energy expenditure. A 51-year-old mentally disabled patient experienced chronic hypothermia from neurologic sequelae. Because of her continued weight gain and increased body fat in the presence of presumed hypocaloric nutrition, indirect calorimetry measurements were performed twice in a 3-month period. The resting energy expenditure measurements prompted a reduction of her daily caloric intake to prevent further overfeeding. Hypothermia reduces oxygen consumption and, as a consequence, decreases resting energy expenditure. In patients for whom chronic hypothermia is a problem, nutritional intake must be adjusted to prevent overfeeding, excessive weight gain, and the long-term complications of an excess of total calories
Studying the Underlying Event in Drell-Yan and High Transverse Momentum Jet Production at the Tevatron
We study the underlying event in proton-antiproton collisions by examining
the behavior of charged particles (transverse momentum pT > 0.5 GeV/c,
pseudorapidity |\eta| < 1) produced in association with large transverse
momentum jets (~2.2 fb-1) or with Drell-Yan lepton-pairs (~2.7 fb-1) in the
Z-boson mass region (70 < M(pair) < 110 GeV/c2) as measured by CDF at 1.96 TeV
center-of-mass energy. We use the direction of the lepton-pair (in Drell-Yan
production) or the leading jet (in high-pT jet production) in each event to
define three regions of \eta-\phi space; toward, away, and transverse, where
\phi is the azimuthal scattering angle. For Drell-Yan production (excluding the
leptons) both the toward and transverse regions are very sensitive to the
underlying event. In high-pT jet production the transverse region is very
sensitive to the underlying event and is separated into a MAX and MIN
transverse region, which helps separate the hard component (initial and
final-state radiation) from the beam-beam remnant and multiple parton
interaction components of the scattering. The data are corrected to the
particle level to remove detector effects and are then compared with several
QCD Monte-Carlo models. The goal of this analysis is to provide data that can
be used to test and improve the QCD Monte-Carlo models of the underlying event
that are used to simulate hadron-hadron collisions.Comment: Submitted to Phys.Rev.
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