Structural and Compositional Changes in Aging Bone: Osteopenia in Lumbar Vertebrae of Wistar Female Rats

Changes in vertebral bone mineral content and density during aging were quantified in female Wistar rats. This study represents a longitudinal follow up utilizing single photon absorptiometry for the measurement of bone mineral content (BMC), quantitative computed tomography (OCT) for the measurement of bone mineral density (BMD), and image analysis histomorphometry for the measurement of trabecular bone volume (TBV) and bone cortical area (BCA). The above measurements were accompanied by biochemical assays of calcium concentrations in the respective bones. All aging animals experienced significant decreases in BMC, BMD, TBV, BCA and in the calcium content of their bones. The above features have been further emphasized through the use of scanning electron micrographs showing the age-related structural changes in a three-dimentional fashion. New, advanced technologies will enable the quantitation of 3-dimensional images that are currently obtained from the scanning electron micrograph; thus will provide new consideration as related to trabecular bone compactness (density). Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy indicated that the nature of crystals in aging bones does not differ markedly from that encountered in young specimens. Data are also provided with regard to the health of the animals, and it became apparent that aging rats undergo changes in their kidneys yet do not show any significant change in renal functional parameters as measured in both the serum and the urine. Hence, new noninvasive methodologies are currently available for longitudinal studies related to the skeleton in laboratory animals enabling reliable monitoring of age-related and hormonally induced changes in bones (spine and hip) of well defined experimental models

Determination of parking space and its concurrent usage over time using semantically segmented mobile mapping data

Public space is a scarce good in cities. There are many concurrent usages, which makes an adequate allocation of space both difficult and highly attractive. A lot of space is allocated by parking cars - even if the parking spaces are not occupied by cars all the time. In this work, we analyze space demand and usage by parking cars, in order to evaluate, when this space could be used for other purposes. The analysis is based on 3D point clouds acquired at several times during a day. We propose a processing pipeline to extract car bounding boxes from a given 3D point cloud. For the car extraction we utilize a label transfer technique for transfers from semantically segmented 2D RGB images to 3D point cloud data. This semantically segmented 3D data allows us to identify car instances. Subsequently, we aggregate and analyze information about parking cars. We present an exemplary analysis of the urban area where we extracted 15.000 cars at five different points in time. Based on this aggregated we present analytical results for time dependent parking behavior, parking space availability and utilization

Tooth brushing, tongue cleaning and snacking behaviour of dental technology and therapist students

Objective: To determine the tooth brushing, tongue cleaning and snacking behaviour of dental technology and therapist students. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of students of Federal School of Dental Therapy and Technology Enugu, Nigeria. Self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information on demography, frequency, duration and technique of tooth brushing and tongue cleaning as well as information on consumption of snacks. Results: A total of 242 students responded. Dental technology students made up 52.5% of the respondents and dental therapist in training made up 47.5%. Majority (63.2%) of the respondents considered the strength of tooth brush when purchasing a tooth brush and 78.9% use tooth brushes with medium strength. Seven-tenth (71.9%) of the respondents brush their teeth twice daily and 52.1% brush for 3–5 minutes. About one-third (30.2%) brush their teeth in front of a mirror. Chewing stick was used by 51.7% of respondents in addition to the use of tooth brush. Tongue cleaning was done by 94.2% with only 9.5% using a tongue cleaner. Only 20.2% reported regular snacks consumption. Nine-tenth (90.4%) of respondents were previously involved in educating others, apart from their colleagues, on tooth brushing. Conclusion: This survey revealed that most of the dental therapy and technology students had satisfactory tooth-brushing behaviour. The zeal to educate others about proper tooth brushing revealed in this study suggests that the students may be helpful in oral health promotion

Severe neurological outcomes after very early bilateral nephrectomies in patients with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD)

To test the association between bilateral nephrectomies in patients with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) and long-term clinical outcome and to identify risk factors for severe outcomes, a dataset comprising 504 patients from the international registry study ARegPKD was analyzed for characteristics and complications of patients with very early (� 3 months; VEBNE) and early (4�15 months; EBNE) bilateral nephrectomies. Patients with very early dialysis (VED, onset � 3 months) without bilateral nephrectomies and patients with total kidney volumes (TKV) comparable to VEBNE infants served as additional control groups. We identified 19 children with VEBNE, 9 with EBNE, 12 with VED and 11 in the TKV control group. VEBNE patients suffered more frequently from severe neurological complications in comparison to all control patients. Very early bilateral nephrectomies and documentation of severe hypotensive episodes were independent risk factors for severe neurological complications. Bilateral nephrectomies within the first 3 months of life are associated with a risk of severe neurological complications later in life. Our data support a very cautious indication of very early bilateral nephrectomies in ARPKD, especially in patients with residual kidney function, and emphasize the importance of avoiding severe hypotensive episodes in this at-risk cohort. © 2020, The Author(s)

Effectiveness and Safety of rhIGF-1 Therapy in Children: The European Increlex® Growth Forum Database Experience.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We report data from the EU Increlex® Growth Forum Database (IGFD) Registry, an ongoing, open-label, observational study monitoring clinical practice use of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor-1 (rhIGF-1) therapy in children. METHODS: Safety and effectiveness data on rhIGF-1 treatment of 195 enrolled children with growth failure were collected from December 2008 to September 2013. RESULTS: Mean ± SD (95% CI) height velocity during first year of rhIGF-1 treatment was 6.9 ± 2.2 cm/year (6.5; 7.2) (n = 144); in prepubertal patients naïve to treatment, this was 7.3 ± 2.0 cm/year (6.8; 7.7) (n = 81). Female sex, younger age at start of rhIGF-1 therapy, and lower baseline height SDS predicted first-year change in height SDS. The most frequent targeted treatment-emergent adverse events (% patients) were hypoglycemia (17.6%, predictors: young age, diagnosis of Laron syndrome, but not rhIGF-1 dose), lipohypertrophy (10.6%), tonsillar hypertrophy (7.4%), injection site reactions (6.4%), and headache (5.9%). Sixty-one serious adverse events (37 related to rhIGF-1 therapy) were reported in 31 patients (16.5%). CONCLUSION: Safety and effectiveness data on use of rhIGF-1 in a 'real-world' setting were similar to those from controlled randomized trials. Severe growth phenotype and early start of rhIGF-1 improved height response and predicted risk of hypoglycemia

Mutation analysis of 18 nephronophthisis associated ciliopathy disease genes using a DNA pooling and next generation sequencing strategy

Background Nephronophthisis associated ciliopathies (NPHP-AC) comprise a group of autosomal recessive cystic kidney diseases that includes nephronophthisis (NPHP), Senior-Loken syndrome (SLS), Joubert syndrome (JBTS), and Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS). To date, causative mutations in NPHP-AC have been described for 18 different genes, rendering mutation analysis tedious and expensive. To overcome the broad genetic locus heterogeneity, a strategy of DNA pooling with consecutive massively parallel resequencing (MPR) was devised.Methods In 120 patients with severe NPHP-AC phenotypes, five pools of genomic DNA with 24 patients each were prepared which were used as templates in order to PCR amplify all 376 exons of 18 NPHP-AC genes (NPHP1, INVS, NPHP3, NPHP4, IQCB1, CEP290, GLIS2, RPGRIP1L, NEK8, TMEM67, INPP5E, TMEM216, AHI1, ARL13B, CC2D2A, TTC21B, MKS1, and XPNPEP3). PCR products were then subjected to MPR on an Illumina Genome-Analyser and mutations were subsequently assigned to their respective mutation carrier via CEL I endonuclease based heteroduplex screening and confirmed by Sanger sequencing.Results For proof of principle, DNA from patients with known mutations was used and detection of 22 out of 24 different alleles (92% sensitivity) was demonstrated. MPR led to the molecular diagnosis in 30/120 patients (25%) and 54 pathogenic mutations (27 novel) were identified in seven different NPHP-AC genes. Additionally, in 24 patients only single heterozygous variants of unknown significance were found.Conclusions The combined approach of DNA pooling followed by MPR strongly facilitates mutation analysis in broadly heterogeneous single gene disorders. The lack of mutations in 75% of patients in this cohort indicates further extensive heterogeneity in NPHP-AC