Legacy AdvanTec and Sovereign WhiteStar: a wound temperature study

Journal ArticlePURPOSE: To assess the wound temperature of the Sovereign WhiteStar (S-WS) (AMO) and Legacy AdvanTec (L-ADV) (Alcon) phacoemulsification systems. SETTING: John A. Moran Eye Center, Health Sciences Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. METHODS: Phacoemulsification using 20-gauge, 30-degree straight tips with the L-ADV and S-WS systems was performed in fresh cadaver eyes. The power was set at 50%, and aspiration was 12 mL/min; the L-ADV was run at 15 pulses per second (pps) and the S-WS at WS CF (6 milliseconds on, 12 milliseconds off). Temperature was measured at 5-second intervals for 60 seconds using a microthermistor placed in the wound. The phaco tip was angled 30 degrees to increase wound-tissue contact. At 10 seconds, the flow was clamped to simulate occlusion. Five runs, sleeved and unsleeved, were averaged for the phaco tip. RESULTS: The mean temperature was significantly higher with L-ADV than with S-WS (from 10 seconds on in the sleeved condition and from 5 seconds on in the unsleeved condition after the aspiration line was clamped). In 2 of 5 sleeved runs and 4 of 5 unsleeved runs, the L-ADV handpiece decreased power as the temperature increased. One run with the L-ADV with sleeve showed signs of wound burn. There were no signs of wound burn with the S-WS. The highest temperature recorded was 57.5 degrees C with the L-ADV and 38.6 degrees C with the S-WS. Power tests showed L-ADV protected the stroke length and S-WS had constant power except in air where it increased power. CONCLUSIONS: There was less increase in wound temperature over time with the S-WS than with the L-ADV system in sleeved and unsleeved simulated surgery in human eye-bank eyes. Because the ultrasound handpieces respond differently under different load scenarios, meaningful comparisons of pulsing features are difficult to creat

Green Tea Induces Annexin-I Expression in Human Lung Adenocarcinoma A549 Cells: Involvement of Annexin-I in Actin Remodeling

Green tea polyphenols exhibit multiple antitumor activities in various in vitro and in vivo tumor models, and the mechanisms of action are not clear. Previously, we found that green tea extract (GTE) regulates actin remodeling in different cell culture systems. Actin remodeling plays an important role in cancer cell morphology, cell adhesion, motility, and invasion. Using proteomic approaches, we found GTE-induced expression of annexin-I, a multifunctional actin binding protein, in these cell lines. In this study, we aimed to further define the functional role of GTE-induced annexin-I expression in actin remodeling, cell adhesion, and motility in lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. We found that GTE stimulates the expression of annexin-I in a dose-dependent fashion. The GTE-induced annexin-I expression appears to be at the transcription level, and the increased annexin-I expression mediates actin polymerization, resulting in enhanced cell adhesion and decreased motility. Annexin-I specific interference resulted in loss of GTE-induced actin polymerization and cell adhesion, but not motility. In fact, annexin-I specific interference itself inhibited motility even without GTE. Together, annexin-I plays an important role in GTE-induced actin remodeling, and it may serve as a potential molecular target associated with the anticancer activities of green tea. © 2007 USCAP, Inc All rights reserved

In vitro study of modulatory effects of Strobilanthes crispus extracts on human cDNA-expressed cytochrome P450 2A6 (CYP2A6) and CYP3A4

Aim: Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2A6 and CYP3A4 play important roles in biotransformation of endogenous substances as well as xenobiotics. Strobilanthes crispus (L.) Blume (S. crispus) has been found to have anti-cancer activities and this was suggested to be due to inhibition of enzymes involved in metabolic activation of procarcinogens. The purpose of this study was to look into the potential inhibitory effects of various extracts (aqueous, hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol) of S. crispus from leaf and stem on human cDNA-expressed CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 activities. Methods: The activity of CYP2A6 was examined via a fluorescence-based 7-hydroxylase coumarin assay. Meanwhile, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based testosterone 6β-hydroxylase assay was established to assess CYP3A4 activity. Results: It was shown that none of the extracts from both leaf and stem potently inhibited CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 activities with IC50values above 100μg/ml. Conclusion: The anticancer potency of S. crispus is unlikely due to the modulation of CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 activities, while other mechanisms might be involved and merits further investigation. On the other hand, potential drug-herb interactions occurring between CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 substrates and S. crispus preparations is relatively low, which requires further investigations via in vivo animal as well as clinical studies

Effects of the neurogranin variant rs12807809 on thalamocortical morphology in schizophrenia

10.1371/journal.pone.0085603PLoS ONE812-POLN

Evaluation of individual and ensemble probabilistic forecasts of COVID-19 mortality in the United States

Short-term probabilistic forecasts of the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States have served as a visible and important communication channel between the scientific modeling community and both the general public and decision-makers. Forecasting models provide specific, quantitative, and evaluable predictions that inform short-term decisions such as healthcare staffing needs, school closures, and allocation of medical supplies. Starting in April 2020, the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub (https://covid19forecasthub.org/) collected, disseminated, and synthesized tens of millions of specific predictions from more than 90 different academic, industry, and independent research groups. A multimodel ensemble forecast that combined predictions from dozens of groups every week provided the most consistently accurate probabilistic forecasts of incident deaths due to COVID-19 at the state and national level from April 2020 through October 2021. The performance of 27 individual models that submitted complete forecasts of COVID-19 deaths consistently throughout this year showed high variability in forecast skill across time, geospatial units, and forecast horizons. Two-thirds of the models evaluated showed better accuracy than a naïve baseline model. Forecast accuracy degraded as models made predictions further into the future, with probabilistic error at a 20-wk horizon three to five times larger than when predicting at a 1-wk horizon. This project underscores the role that collaboration and active coordination between governmental public-health agencies, academic modeling teams, and industry partners can play in developing modern modeling capabilities to support local, state, and federal response to outbreaks

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

In vitro study of modulatory effects of extracts of Strobilanthes Crispus on human cDNA-expressed cytochrome P450 2A6 (CYP2A6) and CYP3A4

Aim: Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2A6 and CYP3A4 play important roles in biotransformation of endogenous substances as well as xenobiotics. Strobilanthes crispus (L.) Blume (S. crispus) has been found to have anti-cancer activities and this was suggested to be due to inhibition of enzymes involved in metabolic activation of procarcinogens. The purpose of this study was to look into the potential inhibitory effects of various extracts (aqueous, hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol) of S. crispus from leaf and stem on human cDNA-expressed CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 activities. Methods: The activity of CYP2A6 was examined via a fluorescence-based 7-hydroxylase coumarin assay. Meanwhile, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based testosterone 6β-hydroxylase assay was established to assess CYP3A4 activity. Results: It was shown that none of the extracts from both leaf and stem potently inhibited CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 activities with IC50 values above 100μg/ml.   Conclusion: The anticancer potency of S. crispus is unlikely due to the modulation of CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 activities, while other mechanisms might be involved and merits further investigation. On the other hand, potential drug-herb interactions occurring between CYP2A6 and CYP3A4 substrates and S. crispus preparations is relatively low, which requires further investigations via in vivo animal as well as clinical studies