The injury epidemiology of cyclists based on a road trauma registry

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bicycle use has increased in some of France's major cities, mainly as a means of transport. Bicycle crashes need to be studied, preferably by type of cycling. Here we conduct a descriptive analysis.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>A road trauma registry has been in use in France since 1996, in a large county around Lyon (the Rhône, population 1.6 million). It covers outpatients, inpatients and fatalities. All injuries are coded using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). Proxies were used to identify three types of cycling: learning = children (0-10 years old); sports cycling = teenagers and adults injured outside towns; cycling as means of transport = teenagers and adults injured in towns. The study is based on 13,684 cyclist casualties (1996-2008).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The percentage of cyclists injured in a collision with a motor vehicle was 8% among children, 17% among teenagers and adults injured outside towns, and 31% among those injured in towns. The percentage of serious casualties (MAIS 3+) was 4.5% among children, 10.9% among adults injured outside towns and 7.2% among those injured in towns. Collisions with motor-vehicles lead to more internal injuries than bicycle-only crashes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The description indicates that cyclist type is associated with different crash and injury patterns. In particular, cyclists injured in towns (where cycling is increasing) are generally less severely injured than those injured outside towns for both types of crash (bicycle-only crashes and collisions with a motor vehicle). This is probably due to lower speeds in towns, for both cyclists and motor vehicles.</p

A Novel Approach of Using Electrostatic Field to Reduce Thawing Time and Improve Frozen Beef Quality

Objective:The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of applying an electrostatic field (EF) on thawing characteristics, such as thawing speed and purge loss, as well as its impact on quality attributes during subsequent aging and retail display of beef. Study Description:Striploins from both sides of USDA Choice carcasses (n = 12) were collected and portioned into four equal parts (n = 48). Portions were vacuum packaged and frozen at -40°F for 14 days and randomly assigned to one of four EF thawing treatments: 0 kV (control), 2.5 kV (EF-2.5), 5 kV (EF-5), and 10 kV (EF-10). Within each EF treatment, half of the striploin portions were thawed in an inside cooler (32°F) and half in an outside cooler (36°F). The thawing process was considered complete when all striploin portions reached 30.2°F. After thawing, striploin portions were weighed and purge was collected for analysis, and portions were fabricated into steaks. One steak was used for histological analysis to assess muscle fiber damage and remaining steaks were vacuum packaged and subjected to either 0 or 14 days of aging. After the aging, steaks were placed on Styrofoam trays, overwrapped with polyvinyl chloride, and retail displayed for either 0 or 7 days. Steaks were evaluated daily for objective color as well as subjective evaluation of discoloration. After completion of the designated aging and display period, steaks were utilized for Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), sarcomere length, lipid oxidation, pH, and myofibrillar protein degradation analysis. Results: There was an increase in purge loss for all EF samples compared to the control in the outside cooler location (P\u3c0.05). Application of EF did not reduce thawing times (P\u3e0.05), with EF-10 taking longer to reach the targeted 30.2°F (P\u3c0.05). All EF treatments reduced purge aerobic plate count (P\u3c0.01) in the outside cooler location. The EF-10 had lower WBSF (P\u3c0.05), and EF-10 samples from the outside cooler location tended to have greater muscle fiber spacing (P= 0.09). For the 0-day aged samples, EF-5 on day 7 resulted in more discoloration than the rest of the treatments (P\u3c0.05). In samples aged for 14 days, the EF-5 and EF-2.5 had less discoloration than the control and EF-10 (P\u3c0.05). When looking at the impact of EF on a* (redness), EF-5 had higher a* values (more redness) than the control and EF-2.5 on days 4 and 5 of retail display (P\u3c0.05). The EF applications did not alter myofibrillar protein degradation, sarcomere length, lipid oxidation, and purge protein concentrations (P\u3e0.05). The Bottom Line:The application of EF during thawing did not reduce purge loss and thawing times but showed potential as an antimicrobial intervention and color stabilizer

Adenosine induces growth-cone turning of sensory neurons

The formation of appropriate connections between neurons and their specific targets is an essential step during development and repair of the nervous system. Growth cones are located at the leading edges of the growing neurites and respond to environmental cues in order to be guided to their final targets. Directional information can be coded by concentration gradients of substrate-bound or diffusible-guidance molecules. Here we show that concentration gradients of adenosine stimulate growth cones of sensory neurons (dorsal root ganglia) from chicken embryos to turn towards the adenosine source. This response is mediated by adenosine receptors. The subsequent signal transduction process involves cAMP. It may be speculated that the in vivo function of this response is concerned with the formation or the repair and regeneration of the peripheral nervous system

Precision and accuracy of single-molecule FRET measurements - a multi-laboratory benchmark study

Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is increasingly being used to determine distances, structures, and dynamics of biomolecules in vitro and in vivo. However, generalized protocols and FRET standards to ensure the reproducibility and accuracy of measurements of FRET efficiencies are currently lacking. Here we report the results of a comparative blind study in which 20 labs determined the FRET efficiencies (E) of several dye-labeled DNA duplexes. Using a unified, straightforward method, we obtained FRET efficiencies with s.d. between ±0.02 and ±0.05. We suggest experimental and computational procedures for converting FRET efficiencies into accurate distances, and discuss potential uncertainties in the experiment and the modeling. Our quantitative assessment of the reproducibility of intensity-based smFRET measurements and a unified correction procedure represents an important step toward the validation of distance networks, with the ultimate aim of achieving reliable structural models of biomolecular systems by smFRET-based hybrid methods

Immunoscreening of the extracellular proteome of colorectal cancer cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The release of proteins from tumors can trigger an immune response in cancer patients involving T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes, which results in the generation of antibodies to tumor-derived proteins. Many studies aim to use humoral immune responses, namely autoantibody profiles, directly, as clinical biomarkers. Alternatively, the antibody immune response as an amplification system for tumor associated alterations may be used to indicate putative protein biomarkers with high sensitivity. Aiming at the latter approach we here have implemented an autoantibody profiling strategy which particularly focuses on proteins released by tumor cells in vitro: the so-called secretome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>For immunoscreening, the extracellular proteome of five colorectal cancer cell lines was resolved on 2D gels, immobilized on PVDF membranes and used for serological screening with individual sera from 21 colorectal cancer patients and 24 healthy controls. All of the signals from each blot were assigned to a master map, and autoantigen candidates were defined based of the pattern of immunoreactivities. The corresponding proteins were isolated from preparative gels, identified by MALDI-MS and/or by nano-HPLC/ESI-MS/MS and exemplarily confirmed by duplex Western blotting combining the human serum samples with antibodies directed against the protein(s) of interest.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>From 281 secretome proteins stained with autoantibodies in total we first defined the "background patterns" of frequently immunoreactive extracellular proteins in healthy and diseased people. An assignment of these proteins, among them many nominally intracellular proteins, to the subset of exosomal proteins within the secretomes revealed a large overlap. On this basis we defined and consequently confirmed novel biomarker candidates such as the extreme C-terminus of the extracellular matrix protein agrin within the set of cancer-enriched immunorectivities.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest, first, that autoantibody responses may be due, in large part, to cross-presentation of antigens to the immune system via exosomes, membrane vesicles released by tumor cells and constituting a significant fraction of the secretome. In addition, this immunosecretomics approach has revealed novel biomarker candidates, some of them secretome-specific, and thus serves as a promising complementary tool to the frequently reported immunoproteomic studies for biomarker discovery.</p

Aquaporin water channels in the nervous system.

The aquaporins (AQPs) are plasma membrane water-transporting proteins. AQP4 is the principal member of this protein family in the CNS, where it is expressed in astrocytes and is involved in water movement, cell migration and neuroexcitation. AQP1 is expressed in the choroid plexus, where it facilitates cerebrospinal fluid secretion, and in dorsal root ganglion neurons, where it tunes pain perception. The AQPs are potential drug targets for several neurological conditions. Astrocytoma cells strongly express AQP4, which may facilitate their infiltration into the brain, and the neuroinflammatory disease neuromyelitis optica is caused by AQP4-specific autoantibodies that produce complement-mediated astrocytic damage