Older adults walk using their hips relatively more and their ankles relatively less than young adults. This "distal-to-proximal redistribution" in leg joint mechanics is thought to drive the age-related increase in metabolic rate during walking. However, many morphological differences between hip and ankle joints make it difficult to predict how - or if - the distal-to-proximal redistribution affects metabolic rate during walking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSuccessful reactive balance control requires coordinated modulation of hip, knee, and ankle torques. Stabilizing joint torques arise from neurally-mediated feedforward tonic muscle activation that modulates muscle short-range stiffness, which provides instantaneous "mechanical feedback" to the perturbation. In contrast, neural feedback pathways activate muscles in response to sensory input, generating joint torques after a delay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The world experienced a huge number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in birds, which could represent one of the largest registered epidemics of infectious disease in food-producing animals. Therefore, mammals, including humans, are continuously exposed to HPAI viruses leading to sporadic and sometimes unusual mammal infections. The aim of this paper is to assess the risk of crossing the avian/mammalian species barrier by the currently circulating HPAI viruses, focusing on the epidemiological situation of Belgium, a representative country for Western Europe.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Pharm Assoc (2003)
December 2024
Background: Growing evidence has shown feasibility for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention service integration in pharmacies, including HIV testing and screening for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Yet, further work is needed to determine whether pharmacies can effectively reach those at increased risk of HIV transmission.
Objective: We aimed to describe the HIV risk profiles and willingness to obtain HIV prevention services from a sample of pharmacy clients.
Unlabelled: Successful reactive balance control requires coordinated modulation of hip, knee, and ankle torques. Stabilizing joint torques arise from feedforward neural signals that modulate the musculoskeletal system's intrinsic mechanical properties, namely muscle short-range stiffness, and neural feedback pathways that activate muscles in response to sensory input. Although feedforward and feedback pathways are known to modulate the torque at each joint, the role of each pathway to the balance-correcting response across joints is poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Exhaled breath (EB) aerosol was in principle shown to be a suitable matrix for bioanalysis of volatile but also non-volatile compounds. This attracted particular interest in the field of drug analysis. However, a big gap still exists in the understanding how and which drugs and/or their metabolites are excreted into exhaled breath and could thus actually be detected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA copper-catalyzed alkyne-selective hydroboration of 1,3-enynes is disclosed, providing access to the previously elusive 2-boryl-1,3-dienes. Using CuOAc, Xantphos, and HBpin, Bpin was installed on the internal carbon of a series of symmetric and nonsymmetric 1,3-enynes, affording products with excellent : selectivity. The utility of the 2-boryl-1,3-diene products was demonstrated by transformation to useful functional groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCanine distemper has been observed infrequently in Belgian wildlife, mainly stone martens (Martes foina) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). This report describes an outbreak in the Brussels urban red fox population, characterized by its high density. The identified virus matched those within a cluster of viruses found previously in red foxes in Germany.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci
June 2024
Aerosol microparticles in exhaled breath carry non-volatile compounds from the deeper parts of the lung. When captured and analyzed, these aerosol microparticles constitute a non-invasive and readily available specimen for drugs of abuse testing. The present study aimed to evaluate a simple breath collection device in a clinical setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhosphatidylethanol (PEth) measurement in whole blood samples is established as a specific alcohol biomarker with clinical and forensic applications. Establishment of dried blood spots (DBSs) as a specimen for PEth determination offers several advantages and was the focus of this work. A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method using a 96-well format for sample preparation was developed and validated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Self-sampling of dried blood spots (DBS) offers new routes to gather valuable health-related information from the general population. Yet, the utility of using deep proteome profiling from home-sampled DBS to obtain clinically relevant insights about SARS-CoV-2 infections remains largely unexplored.
Methods: Our study involved 228 individuals from the general Swedish population who used a volumetric DBS sampling device and completed questionnaires at home during spring 2020 and summer 2021.
Background: Drug testing commonly use urine as a specimen and immunoassays for screening. The need for supervised urine collection has led to an interest in alternative specimens and a need for using mass spectrometry methods already for screening. In addition, mass spectrometry methods allow for broad multipanel screening which of great value because of the increased number of substances that needs to be covered has increased over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Appl Physiol (1985)
March 2024
The habitual use of high-heeled footwear may structurally remodel user leg muscle tendons, thereby altering their functional capabilities. High heels set users' ankles in relatively plantarflexed positions, causing calf muscle tendons to operate at relatively short lengths. Habitually operating muscle tendons at relatively short lengths induces structural remodeling that theoretically affects muscle metabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreased acceptance of cannabis containing the psychoactive component, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), raises concerns about the potential for impaired drivers and increased highway accidents. In contrast to the "breathalyzer" test, which is generally accepted for determining the alcohol level in a driver, there is no currently accepted roadside test for THC in a motorist. There is a need for an easily collectible biological sample from a potentially impaired driver coupled with an accurate on-site test to measure the presence and quantity of THC in a driver.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCongenital defects of the erythrocyte membrane are common in northern Europe and all over the world. The resulting diseases, for example, hereditary spherocytosis (HS), are often underdiagnosed, partly due to their sometimes mild and asymptomatic courses. In addition to a broad clinical spectrum, this is also due to the occasionally complex diagnostics that are not available to every patient.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFH3K27M mutant (mut) diffuse midline glioma (DMG) is a lethal cancer with no effective cure. The glycosphingolipids (GSL) metabolism is altered in these tumors and could be exploited to develop new therapies. We tested the effect of the glucosylceramide synthase inhibitors (GSI) miglustat and eliglustat on cell proliferation, alone or in combination with temozolomide or ionizing radiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed to determine a method for prescribing a standing prosthetic leg length (ProsL) that results in an equivalent running biological leg length (BioL) for athletes with unilateral (UTTA) and bilateral transtibial amputations (BTTA). We measured standing leg length of ten non-amputee (NA) athletes, ten athletes with UTTA, and five athletes with BTTA. All athletes performed treadmill running trials from 3 m/s to their maximum speed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuscle coactivation increases in challenging balance conditions as well as with advanced age and mobility impairments. Increased muscle coactivation can occur both in anticipation of (feedforward) and in reaction to (feedback) perturbations, however, the causal relationship between feedforward and feedback muscle coactivation remains elusive. Here, we hypothesized that feedforward muscle coactivation would increase both the body's initial mechanical resistance due to muscle intrinsic properties and the later feedback-mediated muscle coactivation in response to postural perturbations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOvarian cancer is difficult to treat, and the mucinous epithelial subtype has a particularly poor response to traditional chemotherapy regimens. Entrectinib is a tumor-agnostic tyrosine kinase inhibitor with limited data regarding its use in ovarian cancers, though it demonstrates significant tumor response and patient tolerability in other settings. Here we outline what we believe to be the first case in which Entrectinib was successfully utilized to treat a patient with mucinous ovarian cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDetecting the presence of Δ-THC and CBD is mainly done through venous blood sampling, but other methods are becoming available. Oromucosal administration of Δ-THC and CBD is less studied than inhalation, but this mode of administration is growing. In this study, we analyze samples obtained through invasive and noninvasive methods in a cohort of patients given oromucosally administered Δ-THC and CBD to gain understanding in the strengths and weaknesses of the various detection methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite massive improvements in the treatment of B-ALL through CART-19 immunotherapy, a large number of patients suffer a relapse due to loss of the targeted epitope. Mutations in the locus and aberrant splicing events are known to account for the absence of surface antigen. However, early molecular determinants suggesting therapy resistance as well as the time point when first signs of epitope loss appear to be detectable are not enlightened so far.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Appl Physiol (1985)
April 2023
Physiologists commonly use single-value energy equivalents (e.g., 20.
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