Determinants of outcome in operatively and non-operatively treated Weber-B ankle fractures

Introduction: Treatment of ankle fractures is often based on fracture type and surgeon's individual judgment. Literature concerning the treatment options and outcome are dated and frequently contradicting. The aim of this study was to determine the clinical and functional outcome after AO-Weber B-type ankle fractures in operatively and conservatively treated patients and to determine which factors influenced outcome. Patients and methods: A retrospective cohort study in patients with a AO-Weber B-type ankle fracture. Patient, fracture and treatment characteristics were recorded. Clinical and functional outcome was measured using the Olerud-Molander Ankle Score (OMAS), the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society ankle-hindfoot score (AOFAS) and a Visual Analog Score (VAS) for overall satisfaction (range 0-10). Results: Eighty-two patients were treated conservatively and 103 underwent operative treatment. The majority was female. Most conservatively treated fractures were AO-Weber B1.1 type fractures. Fractures with fibular displacement (mainly AO type B1.2 and Lauge-Hansen type SER-4) were predominantly treated operatively. The outcome scores in the non-operative group were OMAS 93, AOFAS 98, and VAS 8. Outcome in this group was independently negatively affected by age, affected side, BMI, fibular displacement, and duration of plaster immobilization. In the surgically treated group, the OMAS, AOFAS, and VAS scores were 90, 97, and 8, respectively, with outcome negatively influenced by duration of plaster immobilization. Conclusion: Treatment selection based upon stability and surgeon's judgment led to overall good clinical outcome in both treatment groups. Reducing the cast immobilization period may further improve outcome

Physicochemical and biological characterization of 1E10 Anti-Idiotype vaccine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>1E10 monoclonal antibody is a murine anti-idiotypic antibody that mimics N-glycolyl-GM3 gangliosides. This antibody has been tested as an anti-idiotypic cancer vaccine, adjuvated in Al(OH)₃, in several clinical trials for melanoma, breast, and lung cancer. During early clinical development this mAb was obtained <it>in vivo </it>from mice ascites fluid. Currently, the production process of 1E10 is being transferred from the <it>in vivo </it>to a bioreactor-based method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we present a comprehensive molecular and immunological characterization of 1E10 produced by the two different production processes in order to determine the impact of the manufacturing process in vaccine performance. We observed differences in glycosylation pattern, charge heterogeneity and structural stability between <it>in vivo</it>-produced 1E10 and bioreactor-obtained 1E10. Interestingly, these modifications had no significant impact on the immune responses elicited in two different animal models.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Changes in 1E10 primary structure like glycosylation; asparagine deamidation and oxidation affected 1E10 structural stability but did not affect the immune response elicited in mice and chickens when compared to 1E10 produced in mice.</p

Interactions between Surround Suppression and Interocular Suppression in Human Vision

Several types of suppression phenomena have been observed in the visual system. For example, the ability to detect a target stimulus is often impaired when the target is embedded in a high-contrast surround. This contextual modulation, known as surround suppression, was formerly thought to occur only in the periphery. Another type of suppression phenomena is interocular suppression, in which the sensitivity to a monocular target is reduced by a superimposed mask in the opposite eye. Here, we explored how the two types of suppression operating across different spatial regions interact with one another when they simultaneously exert suppressive influences on a common target presented at the fovea. In our experiments, a circular target grating presented to the fovea of one eye was suppressed interocularly by a noise pattern of the same size in the other eye. The foveal stimuli were either shown alone or surrounded by a monocular annular grating. The orientation and eye-of-origin of the surround grating were varied. We found that the detection of the foveal target subjected to interocular suppression was severely impaired by the addition of the surround grating, indicating strong surround suppression in the fovea. In contrast, when the interocular suppression was released by superimposing a binocular fusion ring onto both the target and the dichoptic mask, the surround suppression effect was found to be dramatically decreased. In addition, the surround suppression was found to depend on the contrast of the dichoptic noise with the greatest surround suppression effect being obtained only when the noise contrast was at an intermediate level. These findings indicate that surround suppression and interocular suppression are not independent of each other, but there are strong interactions between them. Moreover, our results suggest that strong surround suppression may also occur at the fovea and not just the periphery

Caenorhabditis elegans Semi-Automated Liquid Screen Reveals a Specialized Role for the Chemotaxis Gene cheB2 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Virulence

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that causes infections in a variety of animal and plant hosts. Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple model with which one can identify bacterial virulence genes. Previous studies with C. elegans have shown that depending on the growth medium, P. aeruginosa provokes different pathologies: slow or fast killing, lethal paralysis and red death. In this study, we developed a high-throughput semi-automated liquid-based assay such that an entire genome can readily be scanned for virulence genes in a short time period. We screened a 2,200-member STM mutant library generated in a cystic fibrosis airway P. aeruginosa isolate, TBCF10839. Twelve mutants were isolated each showing at least 70% attenuation in C. elegans killing. The selected mutants had insertions in regulatory genes, such as a histidine kinase sensor of two-component systems and a member of the AraC family, or in genes involved in adherence or chemotaxis. One mutant had an insertion in a cheB gene homologue, encoding a methylesterase involved in chemotaxis (CheB2). The cheB2 mutant was tested in a murine lung infection model and found to have a highly attenuated virulence. The cheB2 gene is part of the chemotactic gene cluster II, which was shown to be required for an optimal mobility in vitro. In P. aeruginosa, the main player in chemotaxis and mobility is the chemotactic gene cluster I, including cheB1. We show that, in contrast to the cheB2 mutant, a cheB1 mutant is not attenuated for virulence in C. elegans whereas in vitro motility and chemotaxis are severely impaired. We conclude that the virulence defect of the cheB2 mutant is not linked with a global motility defect but that instead the cheB2 gene is involved in a specific chemotactic response, which takes place during infection and is required for P. aeruginosa pathogenicity

Motivation and treatment engagement intervention trial (MotivaTe-IT): The effects of motivation feedback to clinicians on treatment engagement in patients with severe mental illness

Background: Treatment disengagement and non-completion poses a major problem for the successful treatment of patients with severe mental illness. Motivation for treatment has long been proposed as a major determinant of treatment engagement, but exact mechanisms remain unclear. This current study serves three purposes: 1) to determine whether a feedback intervention based on the patients' motivation for treatment is effective at improving treatment engagement (TE) of severe mentally ill patients in outpatient psychiatric treatment, 2) to gather insight into motivational processes and pos

The proportion of cancer-related entries in PubMed has increased considerably; is cancer truly "The Emperor of All Maladies"?

In this work, the public database of biomedical literature PubMed was mined using queries with combinations of keywords and year restrictions. It was found that the proportion of Cancer-related entries per year in PubMed has risen from around 6% in 1950 to more than 16% in 2016. This increase is not shared by other conditions such as AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Diabetes, Cardiovascular, Stroke and Infection some of which have, on the contrary, decreased as a proportion of the total entries per year. Organ-related queries were performed to analyse the variation of some specific cancers. A series of queries related to incidence, funding, and relationship with DNA, Computing and Mathematics, were performed to test correlation between the keywords, with the hope of elucidating the cause behind the rise of Cancer in PubMed. Interestingly, the proportion of Cancer-related entries that contain "DNA", "Computational" or "Mathematical" have increased, which suggests that the impact of these scientific advances on Cancer has been stronger than in other conditions. It is important to highlight that the results obtained with the data mining approach here presented are limited to the presence or absence of the keywords on a single, yet extensive, database. Therefore, results should be observed with caution. All the data used for this work is publicly available through PubMed and the UK's Office for National Statistics. All queries and figures were generated with the software platform Matlab and the files are available as supplementary material

Prospect and potential of Burkholderia sp. against Phytophthora capsici Leonian: a causative agent for foot rot disease of black pepper

Foot rot disease is a very destructive disease in black pepper in Malaysia. It is caused by Phytophthora capsici Leonian, which is a soilborne pathogenic protist (phylum, Oomycota) that infects aerial and subterranean structures of many host plants. This pathogen is a polycyclic, such that multiple cycles of infection and inoculum production occur in a single growing season. It is more prevalent in the tropics because of the favourable environmental conditions. The utilization of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) as a biological control agent has been successfully implemented in controlling many plant pathogens. Many studies on the exploration of beneficial organisms have been carried out such as Pseudomonas fluorescens, which is one of the best examples used for the control of Fusarium wilt in tomato. Similarly, P. fluorescens is found to be an effective biocontrol agent against the foot rot disease in black pepper. Nowadays there is tremendous novel increase in the species of Burkholderia with either mutualistic or antagonistic interactions in the environment. Burkholderia sp. is an indigenous PGPR capable of producing a large number of commercially important hydrolytic enzymes and bioactive substances that promote plant growth and health; are eco-friendly, biodegradable and specific in their actions; and have a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity in keeping down the population of phytopathogens, thus playing a great role in promoting sustainable agriculture today. Hence, in this book chapter, the potential applications of Burkholderia sp. to control foot rot disease of black pepper in Malaysia, their control mechanisms, plant growth promotion, commercial potentials and the future prospects as indigenous PGPR were discussed in relation to sustainable agriculture