Kinematic bidimensional analysis of the propulsion technique in wheelchair rugby athletes

Wheelchair rugby is a sport ideated for individuals with cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) which is extremely important for maintaining their neuromuscular abilities and improving their social and psychological wellbeing. However, due to the frequent changes in direction and speed it considerably stresses the players' upper limbs. 13 athletes have undergone two sports-related tests on an inertial drum bench and several kinematic parameters have been registered. Most athletes use a semi-circular pattern which is considered protective for the upper limb. With increasing speed, range of motion (ROM) increases. Release angles increment and contact angles reduce, displacing the push angle forward to increase speed. Instead, the more anterior late push angle used to increase velocity is a factor which further loads the shoulder joint. However, other factors affecting propulsion technique, such as posture and wheelchair set up should be studied to further reduce loading on the upper limb

Histopathologic Alterations Associated with Global Gene Expression Due to Chronic Dietary TCDD Exposure in Juvenile Zebrafish

The goal of this project was to investigate the effects and possible developmental disease implication of chronic dietary TCDD exposure on global gene expression anchored to histopathologic analysis in juvenile zebrafish by functional genomic, histopathologic and analytic chemistry methods. Specifically, juvenile zebrafish were fed Biodiet starter with TCDD added at 0, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 ppb, and fish were sampled following 0, 7, 14, 28 and 42 d after initiation of the exposure. TCDD accumulated in a dose- and time-dependent manner and 100 ppb TCDD caused TCDD accumulation in female (15.49 ppb) and male (18.04 ppb) fish at 28 d post exposure. Dietary TCDD caused multiple lesions in liver, kidney, intestine and ovary of zebrafish and functional dysregulation such as depletion of glycogen in liver, retrobulbar edema, degeneration of nasal neurosensory epithelium, underdevelopment of intestine, and diminution in the fraction of ovarian follicles containing vitellogenic oocytes. Importantly, lesions in nasal epithelium and evidence of endocrine disruption based on alternatively spliced vasa transcripts are two novel and significant results of this study. Microarray gene expression analysis comparing vehicle control to dietary TCDD revealed dysregulated genes involved in pathways associated with cardiac necrosis/cell death, cardiac fibrosis, renal necrosis/cell death and liver necrosis/cell death. These baseline toxicological effects provide evidence for the potential mechanisms of developmental dysfunctions induced by TCDD and vasa as a biomarker for ovarian developmental disruption

Exceptionally potent human monoclonal antibodies are effective for prophylaxis and therapy of tetanus in mice

Human monoclonal antibodies were used here to study the mechanism of neuron intoxication by tetanus neurotoxin and to evaluate them as a safe preventive and therapeutic substitute of hyperimmune sera for tetanus in mice. By screening memory B cells of immune donors, we selected two monoclonal antibodies specific for tetanus neurotoxin with exceptionally high neutralizing activities, which were extensively characterized both structurally and functionally. We found that these antibodies interfere with the binding and translocation of the neurotoxin into neurons by interacting with two epitopes, whose definition pinpoints crucial events in the cellular pathogenesis of tetanus. This information explains the unprecedented neutralization ability of these antibodies, which were found to be exceptionally potent in preventing experimental tetanus when injected in mice long before the neurotoxin. Moreover, their Fab derivatives neutralized tetanus neurotoxin in post-exposure experiments, suggesting their potential therapeutic use via intrathecal injection. As such, these human monoclonal antibodies, as well as their Fab derivatives, meet all requirements for being considered for prophylaxis and therapy of human tetanus and are ready for clinical trials

Histopathologic Alterations Associated with Global Gene Expression Due to Chronic Dietary TCDD Exposure in Juvenile Zebrafish

Correction 25 Aug 2014: The PLOS ONE Staff (2014) Correction: Histopathologic Alterations Associated with Global Gene Expression Due to Chronic Dietary TCDD Exposure in Juvenile Zebrafish. PLOS ONE 9(8): e106605. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0106605The goal of this project was to investigate the effects and possible developmental disease implication of chronic dietary TCDD exposure on global gene expression anchored to histopathologic analysis in juvenile zebrafish by functional genomic, histopathologic and analytic chemistry methods. Specifically, juvenile zebrafish were fed Biodiet starter with TCDD added at 0, 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 ppb, and fish were sampled following 0, 7, 14, 28 and 42 d after initiation of the exposure. TCDD accumulated in a dose- and time-dependent manner and 100 ppb TCDD caused TCDD accumulation in female (15.49 ppb) and male (18.04 ppb) fish at 28 d post exposure. Dietary TCDD caused multiple lesions in liver, kidney, intestine and ovary of zebrafish and functional dysregulation such as depletion of glycogen in liver, retrobulbar edema, degeneration of nasal neurosensory epithelium, underdevelopment of intestine, and diminution in the fraction of ovarian follicles containing vitellogenic oocytes. Importantly, lesions in nasal epithelium and evidence of endocrine disruption based on alternatively spliced vasa transcripts are two novel and significant results of this study. Microarray gene expression analysis comparing vehicle control to dietary TCDD revealed dysregulated genes involved in pathways associated with cardiac necrosis/cell death, cardiac fibrosis, renal necrosis/cell death and liver necrosis/cell death. These baseline toxicological effects provide evidence for the potential mechanisms of developmental dysfunctions induced by TCDD and vasa as a biomarker for ovarian developmental disruption

The Translational Medicine Ontology and Knowledge Base: driving personalized medicine by bridging the gap between bench and bedside

Background: Translational medicine requires the integration of knowledge using heterogeneous data from health care to the life sciences. Here, we describe a collaborative effort to produce a prototype Translational Medicine Knowledge Base (TMKB) capable of answering questions relating to clinical practice and pharmaceutical drug discovery. Results: We developed the Translational Medicine Ontology (TMO) as a unifying ontology to integrate chemical, genomic and proteomic data with disease, treatment, and electronic health records. We demonstrate the use of Semantic Web technologies in the integration of patient and biomedical data, and reveal how such a knowledge base can aid physicians in providing tailored patient care and facilitate the recruitment of patients into active clinical trials. Thus, patients, physicians and researchers may explore the knowledge base to better understand therapeutic options, efficacy, and mechanisms of action. Conclusions: This work takes an important step in using Semantic Web technologies to facilitate integration of relevant, distributed, external sources and progress towards a computational platform to support personalized medicine. Availability: TMO can be downloaded from http://code.google.com/p/translationalmedicineontology and TMKB can be accessed at http://tm.semanticscience.org/sparql

Supporting porphyrins on resin-beads by cyanuric chloride linker

A straightforward procedure for supporting porphyrin-derivatives onto resin beads has been developed by reacting the commercially available 4,6-dichloro-1,3,5-triazene polymer-bound, with 5-(4-aminophenyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrins as free base and as Zn(II) and Co(II) complexes. The supported porphyrins have been characterized by on-resin UV-vis spectroscopy. Kinetic and Hammett LFER studies have shown that the SNAr reaction with the triazine-bound reagent occurs at a similar rate for free and metalated. complexes, with a nucleophilic strength comparable to that of the unsubstituted aniline (sigma(+)(p) = 0.07-0.08)

Getting on board with new ideas: An analysis of idea commitments on a crowdsourcing platform

While it is commonly known that ideas submitted through crowdsourcing platforms need support from others to be realized, our understanding of what idea creators can do to garner this support is still limited. In this study, we argue that the behavior of idea creators on a crowdsourcing platform plays a critical role to attract support. In particular, we suggest that creators who commit their time and energy to the development and realization of others’ ideas may activate generalized exchange dynamics that result in an increased number of commitments from other peers to their own ideas—especially when these ideas are very novel or not very feasible. To test our hypotheses, we studied 1,201 participants and their behavior related to 244 ideas on the internal crowdsourcing platform of the car manufacturer Renault. Controlling for a series of relevant individual and idea characteristics, our findings confirm that creators who commit themselves to others’ ideas on the crowdsourcing platform elicit more commitments from others for their own ideas. This relationship becomes stronger for very novel and not very feasible ideas. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings that contribute to the general discussion of crowdsourcing and how idea creators can assemble a team of supporters on such platforms

A new selective fluorescence chemosensor for Cu(II) in water

5nonenoneBELTRAMELLO M.; GATOS M.; MANCIN F.; TECILLA P.; TONELLATO U.Beltramello, M.; Gatos, M.; Mancin, F.; Tecilla, Paolo; Tonellato, U

Multiple functional group cooperation in phosphate diesters cleavage promoted by Zn(II) complexes

Zn(II) complexes bearing multiple auxiliary organic groups greatly accelerate the cleavage of a phosphate diester