CXCR2 Inhibition Profoundly Suppresses Metastases and Augments Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma.

CXCR2 has been suggested to have both tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressive properties. Here we show that CXCR2 signaling is upregulated in human pancreatic cancer, predominantly in neutrophil/myeloid-derived suppressor cells, but rarely in tumor cells. Genetic ablation or inhibition of CXCR2 abrogated metastasis, but only inhibition slowed tumorigenesis.

Difficulty in differentiating trustworthiness from untrustworthiness in older age.

Older adults report being more trusting than young adults, and this may be particularly evident in close social relationships. This is beneficial for well-being when trust is reciprocated, but detrimental when trust is exploited. In a repeated trust game, young (n = 35) and older adults (n = 33) invested real money over repeated interactions with trustees of varying social distances (close, neutral, distant) and trustworthiness (trustworthy, untrustworthy).

Driven by a passion for people and their pets (and dancing).

Paula Bailey thought she might enter academia after gaining clinical experience. However, a period of travelling and locum work confirmed her enjoyment of practice life.

Emergency department 'undercrowding' is associated with decreased waiting times.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a sudden and sustained decrease in patient presentations on waiting times and other measures of workload and flow following the opening of a large, greenfields ED adjacent to our own.

Method: A descriptive study involving all patients presenting to a private urban district hospital ED for two 60 day periods, immediately before and after the opening of the tertiary hospital ED. Changes in median waiting time, case-mix distribution, method of arrival, total admissions and total waiting time were compared pre-opening and post-opening.

Deconstructing the nature of episodic foresight deficits associated with chronic opiate use.

Objectives: Episodic foresight refers to the capacity to mentally travel forward in time and has been linked to a wide variety of important functional behaviours. Evidence has recently emerged that chronic opiate use is associated with deficits in this critical capacity and that these difficulties are not simply a secondary consequence of broader cognitive dysfunction. The current study aimed to better understand the circumstances in which chronic opiate users might be expected to have problems with episodic foresight, by addressing whether deficits reflect compromised scene construction, self-projection, or narrative ability.

Socioeconomic deprivation and barriers to live-donor kidney transplantation: a qualitative study of deceased-donor kidney transplant recipients.

Objectives: Socioeconomically deprived individuals with renal disease are less likely to receive a live-donor kidney transplant than less-deprived individuals. This qualitative study aimed to identify reasons for the observed socioeconomic disparity in live-donor kidney transplantation.

Design: A qualitative study using face-to-face in-depth semistructured interviews.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation quality: Widespread variation in data intervals used for analysis.

Aim: There is a growing body of evidence for the relationship between CPR quality and survival in cardiac arrest patients. We sought to describe the characteristics of the analysis intervals used across studies.

Methods: Relevant papers were selected as described in our recent systematic review.

Preorganized tridentate analogues of mixed hydroxyoxime/carboxylate nickel extractants.

A series of 22 tridentate unsaturated mono-anionic ligands having the atom-sequence Y-C[double bond, length as m-dash]C-N=CH-C=C-Z(-1), with Y = N, O, or S and Z = O or S, has been studied to establish whether this backbone could be used to develop strong solvent extractants for nickel(II) which will preferably also show a high selectivity over iron(III) in the pH-dependent process: 2LH(org) + NiSO4 ⇌ [(L)2Ni]org + H2SO4. All are capable of forming octahedral [(L)2Ni] complexes with a mer-arrangement of the YNZ(-1) donor set. X-ray crystal structures of three salicylaldimine proligands derived from 3-bromo-5-t-butyl-2-hydroxybenzaldehyde show these to have pre-organised donor sets in which the three donors are held in an approximately orthogonal arrangement by intramolecular hydrogen bonds.

Ampullary Cancers Harbor ELF3 Tumor Suppressor Gene Mutations and Exhibit Frequent WNT Dysregulation.

The ampulla of Vater is a complex cellular environment from which adenocarcinomas arise to form a group of histopathologically heterogenous tumors. To evaluate the molecular features of these tumors, 98 ampullary adenocarcinomas were evaluated and compared to 44 distal bile duct and 18 duodenal adenocarcinomas. Genomic analyses revealed mutations in the WNT signaling pathway among half of the patients and in all three adenocarcinomas irrespective of their origin and histological morphology.

Contributions of inner and outer coordination sphere bonding in determining the strength of substituted phenolic pyrazoles as copper extractants.

Alkyl-substituted phenolic pyrazoles such as 4-methyl-2-[5-(n-octyl)-1H-pyrazol-3-yl]phenol (L2H) are shown to function as Cu-extractants, having similar strength and selectivity over Fe(iii) to 5-nonylsalicylaldoxime which is a component of the commercially used ACORGA® solvent extraction reagents. Substitution in the phenol ring of the new extractants has a major effect on their strength, e.g.

Better the donor you know? A qualitative study of renal patients' views on 'altruistic' live-donor kidney transplantation.

Background: In the UK there is a short-fall between individuals requiring a renal transplant and kidneys available for transplantation. Non-directed 'altruistic' living kidney donation has emerged as a strategy for bridging this gap between supply and demand, with the number increasing each year.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the views of potential recipients towards non-directed 'altruistic' live-donor kidney transplantation.

Reduced facial reactivity as a contributor to preserved emotion regulation in older adults.

This study investigated whether differences in the type of strategy used, or age-related differences in intensity of facial reactivity, might contribute to preserved emotion regulation ability in older adults. Young (n = 35) and older (n = 33) adults were instructed to regulate their emotion to positive and negative pictures under 3 conditions (watch, expressive suppression, cognitive 'detached' reappraisal). Participants were objectively monitored using facial electromyography (EMG) and assessed on memory performance.

Trends in traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Perth, Western Australia from 1997 to 2014.

Aim: This study aims to describe and compare traumatic and medical out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurring in Perth, Western Australia, between 1997 and 2014.

Methods: The St John Ambulance Western Australia (SJA-WA) OHCA Database was used to identify all adult (≥ 16 years) cases. We calculated annual crude and age-sex standardised incidence rates (ASIRs) for traumatic and medical OHCA and investigated trends over time.

The triple threat of pregnancy, HIV infection and malaria: reported causes of maternal mortality in two nationwide health facility assessments in Mozambique, 2007 and 2012.

Background: The paper's primary purpose is to determine changes in magnitude and causes of institutional maternal mortality in Mozambique. We also describe shifts in the location of institutional deaths and changes in availability of prevention and treatment measures for malaria and HIV infection.

Methods: Two national cross-sectional assessments of health facilities with childbirth services were conducted in 2007 and 2012.

Regioselective Ring Opening of Di-isopropylsilylenes Derived from 1,3-Diols with Alkyl Lithium Reagents.

The selective alkyl lithium-induced ring opening of 1,3-di-isopropylsilylenes is described. The reaction affords a differentially substituted 1,3-diol bearing a silane that resides at the oxygen in the more sterically demanding position. The reaction can be highly selective with a regiochemical preference up to >50:1 and likely proceeds via an alkoxy-silane intermediate.

Trust and trustworthiness in young and older adults.

In a series of 1-shot economic trust games in which participants could make real monetary profits, but also risked losing money, 2 studies compared young and older adults' trust (amount invested with trustees) and trustworthiness (amount returned to investors by trustees). In Study 1, young (n = 35) and older (n = 32) participants acted as investors, and the age of simulated trustees (young, older) was manipulated. In Study 2, young (n = 61) and older (n = 67) participants acted in real life as both investors and trustees.

Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Intracranial Abnormalities in Unprovoked Seizures.

Background And Objectives: Prospective data are lacking to determine which children might benefit from prompt neuroimaging after unprovoked seizures. We aimed to determine the prevalence of, and risk factors for, relevant intracranial abnormalities in children with first, unprovoked seizures.

Methods: We conducted a 6-center prospective study in children aged >28 days to 18 years with seemingly unprovoked seizures.

When Opportunity Knocks Twice: Dual Living Kidney Donation, Autonomy and the Public Interest.

Living kidney transplantation offers the best treatment in terms of life-expectancy and quality of life for those with end-stage renal disease. The long-term risks of living donor nephrectomy, although real, are very small, with evidence of good medium-term outcomes. Who should be entitled to donate, and in which circumstances, is nevertheless a live question.

Airway obstruction after lingual frenulectomy in two infants with Pierre-Robin Sequence.

Pierre-Robin Sequence (PRS) is defined as the triad of micrognathia, glossoptosis, and cleft palate and affects approximately 1/8500 births. Airway obstruction is common in infants with PRS and results from glossoptosis leading to pharyngeal obstruction. Any procedure that increases the severity of glossoptosis, such as lingual frenulectomy, may increase the risk of obstruction or aggravate existing obstruction.

Presurgical fMRI and DTI for the Prediction of Perioperative Motor and Language Deficits in Primary or Metastatic Brain Lesions.

Background And Purpose: To determine whether lesion to activation distance (LAD) on presurgical blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and degree of white matter involvement by primary or metastatic brain lesions predict perioperative motor and language deficits.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 76 patients with intra-axial brain lesions referred for presurgical fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). We measured expressive, receptive, global language and motor LAD and assessed degree of involvement of the corticospinal tract (CST) and the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF).

Integrated genomic and transcriptomic analysis of human brain metastases identifies alterations of potential clinical significance.

Treatment options for patients with brain metastases (BMs) have limited efficacy and the mortality rate is virtually 100%. Targeted therapy is critically under-utilized, and our understanding of mechanisms underpinning metastatic outgrowth in the brain is limited. To address these deficiencies, we investigated the genomic and transcriptomic landscapes of 36 BMs from breast, lung, melanoma and oesophageal cancers, using DNA copy-number analysis and exome- and RNA-sequencing.

Massively parallel simulations of hemodynamics in the primary large arteries of the human vasculature.

We present a computational model of three-dimensional and unsteady hemodynamics within the primary large arteries in the human on 1,572,864 cores of the IBM Blue Gene/Q. Models of large regions of the circulatory system are needed to study the impact of local factors on global hemodynamics and to inform next generation drug delivery mechanisms. The HARVEY code successfully addresses key challenges that can hinder effective solution of image-based hemodynamics on contemporary supercomputers, such as limited memory capacity and bandwidth, flexible load balancing, and scalability.