A combined stability function to quantify flood risks to pedestrians and vehicle occupants.

With the increase of the frequency and severity of flooding events, coupled with population growth, the risks posed to people from flooding is ever more apparent. This paper proposes a methodology to examine the risks posed to vehicles' occupants and pedestrians simultaneously in an urban context. Through considering stability functions of a range of vehicle types and pedestrian, a risk assessment profile for a vehicle occupant was derived.

A pathology order interface based on the transmission of texts obtained from pathology requisitions and just-in-time construction of HL7 messages.

Background: A pathology order interface using Health Level 7 standards (HL7) generally has an HL7 client program that gathers information from the clinical electronic medical record system, packages the information in the form of HL7 message, and sends the message using secure communication protocols to an HL7 interface engine located on the pathology side. We describe an alternative approach that transmits the texts obtained from requisitions, with subsequent just-in-time construction of HL7 messages.

Materials And Methods: The order interface is between a dermatology clinic EMR and pathology information system.

Odorant Receptor Inhibition Is Fundamental to Odor Encoding.

Most natural odors are complex mixtures of volatile components, competing to bind odorant receptors (ORs) expressed in olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) of the nose. To date, surprisingly little is known about how OR antagonism shapes neuronal representations in the detection layer of the olfactory system. Here, we investigated its prevalence, the degree to which it disrupts OR ensemble activity, and its conservation across phylogenetically related ORs.

Integrated 1D and 2D model for better assessing runoff quantity control of low impact development facilities on community scale.

This study proposes a modelling framework of integrated one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic modelling to evaluate the effectiveness of sponge city construction at community scale. Through a case study in Zhuhai, we integrate Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) and Cellular Automata Dual-DraInagE Simulation (CADDIES) 2D model to analyze the rainfall-runoff process involving green infrastructures. SWMM is applied to analyze the change of surface runoff control effects before and after the implementation of sponge city low impact development (LID) facilities, and CADDIES is adopted to simulate the propagation of excess runoff on the surface.

An evaluation of the mid-ventilation method for the planning of stereotactic lung plans.

Background And Purpose: Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy for lung plans requires 4DCT. Most radiotherapy centres use this to determine an internal target volume (ITV), despite studies suggesting that planning on a mid-ventilation (Mid-V) phase can reduce target volumes. The purpose of this study is two-fold: to determine whether the Mid-V approach provides adequate coverage and to discuss methods to enable the Mid-V approach to be applied more widely.

The physician's role in perioperative management of older patients undergoing surgery.

Life-sustaining and life-improving surgical interventions are increasingly available to older, frailer patients, many of whom have multimorbidity. Physicians can help support perioperative multidisciplinary teams with assessment and preoperative optimisation of physiological reserve, comorbidities and associated geriatric syndromes. Similar structured support can be useful in the postoperative period where older patients are at increased risk of delirium, medical complications, increased functional dependency and where discharge planning can prove more difficult than in younger cohorts.

Drug-associated arrhythmia in the military patient.

Members of the Armed Forces may be exposed to drugs, or combinations of drugs, with the potential to prolong the QRS or QT intervals. The effect of this is to increase the likelihood of developing dangerous ventricular tachyarrhythmias, including ventricular tachycardia, torsades de pointes or ventricular fibrillation. Common examples of the pharmacological agents associated include antibiotics, antiemetics and antimalarials.

Heme oxygenase-1 gene promoter polymorphism is associated with the development of necrotizing acute pancreatitis.

Objectives: Acute pancreatitis is a severe and frequently life-threatening disease, which can lead to pancreatic necrosis, acute lung injury, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and other complications. In this study, we hypothesized that the expression of heme oxygenase-1 determined by the number of guanidinium thiocyanate (GT) repeats can influence the occurrence of acute pancreatitis.

Methods: Patients with acute pancreatitis (n = 131) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls (n = 108) were studied.

Characterization of the receptor binding residues of kisspeptins by positional scanning using peptide photoaffinity probes.

Kisspeptins, endogenous peptide ligands for GPR54, play an important role in GnRH secretion. Since in vivo administration of kisspeptins induces increased plasma LH levels, GPR54 agonists hold promise as therapeutic agents for the treatment of hormonal secretion diseases. To facilitate the design of novel potent GPR54 ligands, residues in kisspeptins that involve in the interaction with GPR54 were investigated by kisspeptin-based photoaffinity probes.

MicroRNA profiling in lung cancer reveals new molecular markers for diagnosis.

Objective: To identify new molecular diagnostic markers for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) by analyzing microRNA (miRNA) expression profile differences in samples from NSCLC patients and adults with nonneoplastic diseases.

Study Design: miRNA expression was studied in archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues by microarray and confirmed by real-time PCR analysis of NSCLC and normal lung tissues. An algorithm for discriminating normal, squamous cell carcinoma (SQCC), and adenocarcinoma (ADC) tissue was derived from miRNA expression studies and applied towards characterization of poorly differentiated NSCLC samples.

Decorin protein core affects the global gene expression profile of the tumor microenvironment in a triple-negative orthotopic breast carcinoma xenograft model.

Decorin, a member of the small leucine-rich proteoglycan gene family, exists and functions wholly within the tumor microenvironment to suppress tumorigenesis by directly targeting and antagonizing multiple receptor tyrosine kinases, such as the EGFR and Met. This leads to potent and sustained signal attenuation, growth arrest, and angiostasis. We thus sought to evaluate the tumoricidal benefits of systemic decorin on a triple-negative orthotopic breast carcinoma xenograft model.

The metastasis suppressor KISS1 lacks antimetastatic activity in the C8161.9 xenograft model of melanoma.

The objective of this study was to use the established xenograft model of human melanoma (C8161.9) to test a pharmacological approach to the effect of the metastasis suppressor KISS1. A KISS1 analog was used to inhibit the metastatic development of C8161.

Open-Source web-based Geographical Information System for health exposure assessment.

This paper presents the design and development of an open source web-based Geographical Information System allowing users to visualise, customise and interact with spatial data within their web browser. The developed application shows that by using solely Open Source software it was possible to develop a customisable web based GIS application that provides functions necessary to convey health and environmental data to experts and non-experts alike without the requirement of proprietary software.

Has estimation of numbers of cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 in England in 2009 provided a useful measure of the occurrence of disease?

Background: Surveillance indicators of influenza activity have generally provided robust comparative trend data for England. These indicators became less reliable, however, for monitoring trends in activity, or comparisons with previous years, during the influenza pandemic in 2009 because of changes in the perception of risk and changes in the systems of healthcare delivery. An approach was developed to estimate the number of cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) occurring because of infection with pandemic influenza virus.

Hepatitis C and B testing in English prisons is low but increasing.

Background: Prisons are important settings for blood-borne virus control because of the high prevalence of hepatitis C and B viral infections (HCV and HBV), and behaviours associated with transmission among prisoners.

Methods: Data from sentinel laboratories in England were used to identify testing for hepatitis C (anti-HCV) and hepatitis B [hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-hepatitis B core antigen (HBc)] among male and female prisoners between 2005 and 2008.

Results: Between 2005 and 2008, 10 723 prisoners from 39 prisons in England were tested for anti-HCV, anti-HBc and/or HBsAg.

Variations in the epidemiology of primary, secondary and early latent syphilis, England and Wales: 1999 to 2008.

Objective: To investigate factors associated with variations in diagnoses of primary, secondary and early latent syphilis in England and Wales.

Methods: Data were derived from two sources: diagnoses made in genitourinary medicine clinics reported on form KC60, and information collected through National Enhanced Syphilis Surveillance (NESS). Multinomial regression modelling was used for data analysis.

Integrating evidence based medicine into undergraduate medical education: combining online instruction with clinical clerkships.

Background: Incorporation of evidence based medicine into the undergraduate curriculum varies from school to school. The purpose of this study was to determine if an online course in evidence based medicine run concurrently with the clinical clerkships in the 3rd year of undergraduate medical education provided effective instruction in evidence based medicine (EBM).

Description: During the first 18 weeks of the 3rd year, students completed 6 online, didactic modules.

Investigation into the dissolution rate increase on storage of Wellbutrin SR 100 mg tablets.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the New Drug Application for Wellbutrin sustained release (SR) 100 mg tablets on October 4, 1996. However, by 1998, the FDA expressed concern about the stability of this drug product based on an increase in the dissolution profile on storage. Data submitted in the annual report showed that this drug product could not meet the expiry of 18 months at the International Committee on Harmonization storage condition of 25 degrees C/60% relative humidity.

Fluorescent imaging of high-grade bladder cancer using a specific antagonist for chemokine receptor CXCR4.

We previously reported that the expression of CXC chemokine receptor-4 (CXCR4) was upregulated in invasive bladder cancers and that the small peptide T140 was a highly sensitive antagonist for CXCR4. In this study, we identified that CXCR4 expression was induced in high-grade superficial bladder tumors, including carcinoma in situ and invasive bladder tumors. To visualize the bladder cancer cells using urinary sediments from the patients and chemically induced mouse bladder cancer model, a novel fluorescent CXCR4 antagonist TY14003 was developed, that is a T140 derivative.

Structure-activity relationship study on artificial CXCR4 ligands possessing the cyclic pentapeptide scaffold: the exploration of amino acid residues of pentapeptides by substitutions of several aromatic amino acids.

Previously, downsizing of a 14-residue peptidic CXCR4 antagonist has led to the development of a highly potent CXCR4 antagonist [cyclo(-d-Tyr(1)-Arg(2)-Arg(3)-Nal(4)-Gly(5)-)]. In the present study, cyclic pentapeptide libraries that were designed by substitutions of several amino acids for d-Tyr(1) and Arg(2) in peptide were prepared and screened to evaluate binding activity for CXCR4. The above structure-activity relationship study led to the finding of several potent CXCR4 ligands.

Expression of CXCR4, a G-protein-coupled receptor for CXCL12 in yeast identification of new-generation inverse agonists.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) are prime targets for therapies with small molecule-antagonists. Since yeast have GPCR triggered signaling pathways analogous to those present in mammalian cells, it is possible to express human receptors in yeast coupled to the pheromone responsive signaling cascade in variants that contain mammalian-yeast Galpha subunit chimeras. CXCR4 and CXCR4(N119S), a constitutively active mutant were expressed in yeast coupled to pheromone responsive reporter genes, HIS3, lacZ, or FUI, and tested for signaling activity.

Clinical practice parameters for hemodynamic support of pediatric and neonatal septic shock: 2007 update from the American College of Critical Care Medicine.

Background: The Institute of Medicine calls for the use of clinical guidelines and practice parameters to promote "best practices" and to improve patient outcomes.

Objective: 2007 update of the 2002 American College of Critical Care Medicine Clinical Guidelines for Hemodynamic Support of Neonates and Children with Septic Shock.

Participants: Society of Critical Care Medicine members with special interest in neonatal and pediatric septic shock were identified from general solicitation at the Society of Critical Care Medicine Educational and Scientific Symposia (2001-2006).

Physical association of GPR54 C-terminal with protein phosphatase 2A.

KiSS1 was discovered as a metastasis suppressor gene and subsequently found to encode kisspeptins (KP), ligands for a G protein coupled receptor (GPCR), GPR54. This ligand-receptor pair was later shown to play a critical role in the neuro-endocrine regulation of puberty. The C-terminal cytoplasmic (C-ter) domain of GPR54 contains a segment rich in proline and arginine residues that corresponds to the primary structure of four overlapping SH3 binding motifs.