Bone-to-bone and implant-to-bone impingement : a novel graphical representation for hip replacement planning

Bone-to-bone impingement (BTBI) and implant-to-bone impingement (ITBI) risk assessment is generally performed intra-operatively by surgeons, which is entirely subjective and qualitative, and therefore, lead to sub-optimal results and recurrent dislocation in some cases. Therefore, a method was developed for identifying subject-specific BTBI and ITBI, and subsequently, visualising the impingement area on native bone anatomy to highlight where prominent bone should be resected. Activity definitions and subject-specific bone geometries, with planned implants were used as inputs for the method. The ITBI and BTBI boundary and area were automatically identified using ray intersection and region growing algorithm respectively to retain the same ‘conical clearance angle’ obtained to avoid prosthetic impingement (PI). The ITBI and BTBI area was then presented with different colours to highlight the risk of impingement, and importance of resection. A clinical study with five patients after 2 years of THA was performed to validate the method. The results supported the study hypothesis, in that the predicted highest risk area (red coloured zone) was completely/majorly resected during the surgery. Therefore, this method could potentially be used to examine the effect of different pre-operative plans and hip motions on BTBI, ITBI, and PI, and to guide bony resection during THA surgery

The hormone response element mimic sequence of GAS5 lncRNA is sufficient to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells.

Growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) lncRNA promotes apoptosis, and its expression is down-regulated in breast cancer. GAS5 lncRNA is a decoy of glucocorticoid/related receptors; a stem-loop sequence constitutes the GAS5 hormone response element mimic (HREM), which is essential for the regulation of breast cancer cell apoptosis. This preclinical study aimed to determine if the GAS5 HREM sequence alone promotes the apoptosis of breast cancer cells. Nucleofection of hormone-sensitive and -insensitive breast cancer cell lines with a GAS5 HREM DNA oligonucleotide increased both basal and ultraviolet-C-induced apoptosis, and decreased culture viability and clonogenic growth, similar to GAS5 lncRNA. The HREM oligonucleotide demonstrated similar sequence specificity to the native HREM for its functional activity and had no effect on endogenous GAS5 lncRNA levels. Certain chemically modified HREM oligonucleotides, notably DNA and RNA phosphorothioates, retained pro-apoptotic. activity. Crucially the HREM oligonucleotide could overcome apoptosis resistance secondary to deficient endogenous GAS5 lncRNA levels. Thus, the GAS5 lncRNA HREM sequence alone is sufficient to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells, including triple-negative breast cancer cells. These findings further suggest that emerging knowledge of structure/function relationships in the field of lncRNA biology can be exploited for the development of entirely novel, oligonucleotide mimic-based, cancer therapies.Breast Cancer No

Targeting long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) with oligonucleotides in cancer therapy

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in Translational Cancer Research. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr.2016.10.63No abstrac

Ice and mineral licks used by caribou in winter

In winter, barren-ground caribou obtain minerals from ice and soil licks. Between December and April we have seen caribou cratering on the surface of frozen lakes and licking the ice. Ice samples from eight licks on four lakes contained concentrations of calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, chloride and sulphate many times higher than in the surrounding unlicked ice or than would be expected in lake water. Soil licks being used in March and June had high concentrations of calcium, magnesium, sodium phosphorus and potassium. In winter caribou may be seeking supplements of all of the major mineral elements (calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium) at ice and soil licks because lichens, their staple winter diet, are low in minerals and may also reduce the absorption of some minerals

Response of a gall-forming guild (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) to stressed and vigorous prairie roses

Two general hypotheses that describe the relationship between plant quality and host-plant preference of insect herbivores are the plant-stress and plant-vigor hypotheses. We examined the response of a gall-forming guild of insect herbivores associated with prairie rose, Rosa arkansana Porter (Rosaceae), to experimental manipulations of plant stress (addition of NaCl) and vigor (addition of nitrogen; NH4NO3). The most common members of the gall-forming guild on roses are Diplolepis ignota Osten Sacken, D. nodulosa Beutenmüller, and D. rosaefolii Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae). The repeated application of nitrogen throughout the growing season to prairie plots resulted in significantly higher plant nitrogen levels and plant growth rates. Both low and high NaCl additions caused leaves to turn yellow and wilt, but reductions in rose growth rates or xylem water potentials with NaCl additions were not statistically significant. All three members of the cynipid guild responded similarly to nitrogen and NaCl additions to rose plots. Incidence of occurrence and density within a plot decreased with increasing nitrogen or NaCl, but the decline associated with increasing NaCl was not significant for any of the cynipids. Neither the plant-vigor hypothesis (higher abundance on fast-growing, vigorous plants) nor the plant-stress hypothesis (higher abundance on physiologically stressed plants) was supported by this study. For cynipids, there is growing evidence that larvae perform best on plant tissues low in nitrogen (less vigorous plants). Agricultural runoff, of which nitrogen is an important constituent, may be significantly altering cynipid distributions and their interactions with other members of the tall-grass prairie ecosystem

Optical instruments for measuring leaf area index in low vegetation : application in Arctic ecosystems

Author Posting. © Ecological Society of America, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of Ecological Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecological Applications 15 (2005): 1462–1470, doi:10.1890/03-5354.Leaf area index (LAI) is a powerful diagnostic of plant productivity. Despite the fact that many methods have been developed to quantify LAI, both directly and indirectly, leaf area index remains difficult to quantify accurately, owing to large spatial and temporal variability. The gap-fraction technique is widely used to estimate the LAI indirectly. However, for low-stature vegetation, the gap-fraction sensor either cannot get totally underneath the plant canopy, thereby missing part of the leaf area present, or is too close to the individual leaves of the canopy, which leads to a large distortion of the LAI estimate. We set out to develop a methodology for easy and accurate nondestructive assessment of the variability of LAI in low-stature vegetation. We developed and tested the methodology in an arctic landscape close to Abisko, Sweden. The LAI of arctic vegetation could be estimated accurately and rapidly by combining field measurements of canopy reflectance (NDVI) and light penetration through the canopy (gap-fraction analysis using a LI-COR LAI-2000). By combining the two methodologies, the limitations of each could be circumvented, and a significantly increased accuracy of the LAI estimates was obtained. The combination of an NDVI sensor for sparser vegetation and a LAI-2000 for denser vegetation could explain 81% of the variance of LAI measured by destructive harvest. We used the method to quantify the spatial variability and the associated uncertainty of leaf area index in a small catchment area.This research was funded by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DEB0087046

World status of wild Rangifer tarandus populations

We recognized 184 herds of wild Rangifer tarandus, 102 in North America, 55 in Europe, 24 in Asia and 3 on South Georgia. Seventy-five percent of the world population of 3.3 to 3.9 million animals occurred in nine herds. All seven herds larger than 120 000 animals were censused by some means of aerial photography and all were increasing. Herds between 20 000 and 120 000 were most often censused using aerial strip transect methods, while total counts were usually employed to census smaller herds. The most pronounced changes in Rangifer herd status between 1979 and 1985 occurred in North America where population "estimates for five herds increased by a total of about one million animals. Part of this increase is attributable to a change from visual to photographic surveys. Eighty-three percent of North American, 88% of European, and 68% of Asian herds were stable or increasing

A holistic multi-scale approach to using 3D scanning technology in accident reconstruction

Three-dimensional scanning and documentation methods are becoming increasingly employed by law enforcement personnel for crime scene and accident scene recording. Three-dimensional documentation of the victim’s body in such cases is also increasingly used as the field of forensic radiology and imaging is expanding rapidly. These scanning technologies enable a more complete and detailed documentation than standard autopsy. This was used to examine a fatal pedestrian-vehicle collision where the pedestrian was killed by a van whilst crossing the road. Two competing scenarios were considered for the vehicle speed calculation: the pedestrian being projected forward by the impact or the pedestrian being carried on the vehicle’s bonnet. In order to assist with this, the impact area of the accident vehicle was scanned using laser surface scanning, the victim was scanned using postmortem CT and micro-CT and the data sets were combined to virtually match features of the vehicle to injuries on the victim. Micro-CT revealed additional injuries not previously detected, lending support to the pedestrian-carry theory