Evaluation of the Pubocervical Fascia With 3-Dimensional Endovaginal Ultrasonography and Correlation With Intraoperative Findings During Robotic Sacrocervicopexy.

Objectives: To evaluate the pubocervical fascia (PF) in patients with pelvic organ prolapse (POP) using 3-dimensonal endovaginal ultrasonography (EVUS) and to correlate the PF appearance with both pelvic examination and intraoperative findings during ultrasonographic robotic-assisted laparoscopic sacrocervicopexy and pubocervical fascia reconstruction (u-RALS-PFR).

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed in 120 women with symptomatic POP. Preoperative evaluation was done using EVUS.

Detection of skin alterations in mild-to-moderate chronic venous disease using non-invasive techniques.

Background: Chronic venous disease (CVD) is secondary to venous hypertension, leading to vascular inflammation and tissue changes. The impact of CVD on skin structure and barrier function is not well characterized.

Objective: We aimed to assess the characteristics of skin alterations in mild-to-moderate CVD by non-invasive techniques based on a prospective exploratory study.

Bilingualism May Be Protective Against Executive Function and Visual Processing Deficits Among Children With Attention Problems.

The current study examined how the opposing effects of bilingualism and attention problems operate on executive functioning, visual processing, and verbal fluency in children with clinically significant levels of attention problems. We tested whether bilingualism moderated associations between attention problems and visual processing, executive functioning, and verbal fluency. Bilingual children ( = 331) showed visual processing advantages relative to their monolingual peers ( = 165), but only at higher, and not lower, levels of attention problems.

Synthesis and spectroscopic and DNA-binding properties of fluorogenic acridine-containing cyanine dyes.

The synthesis of a new subclass of mono- and polymethine cyanine dyes that incorporate an acridinium moiety and that absorb in the orange to near-infrared region of the spectrum is reported. The mono-, tri-, and pentamethine dyes in particular exhibit promising fluorogenic properties. Their ability to aggregate in solution and to interact with B-DNA is also discussed.

9-Amino acridines undergo reversible amine exchange reactions in water: implications on their mechanism of action in vivo.

9-Amino substituted acridines undergo a reversible amine exchange reaction in water under near-physiological conditions via an unstable hemiaminal intermediate. This thermodynamically controlled reaction may have implications in understanding the mode of action of 9-aminoacridines in vivo and in the future design of drugs based on this scaffold.

Combining G-quadruplex targeting motifs on a single peptide nucleic acid scaffold: a hybrid (3+1) PNA-DNA bimolecular quadruplex.

We describe the first G-quadruplex targeting approach that combines intercalation and hybridization strategies by investigating the interaction of a G-rich peptide nucleic acid (PNA) acridone conjugate 1 with a three-repeat fragment of the human telomere G 3 to form a hybrid PNA-DNA quadruplex that mimicks the biologically relevant (3+1) pure DNA dimeric telomeric quadruplex. Using a combination of UV and fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), and mass-spectrometry, we show that PNA 1 can induce the formation of a bimolecular hybrid quadruplex even at low salt concentration upon interaction with a single-stranded three-repeat fragment of telomeric DNA. However, PNA 1 cannot invade a short fragment of B-DNA even if the latter contains a CCC motif complementary to the PNA sequence.