Peyronie's disease (PD) is a fibrotic disorder of the tunica albuginea that results in penile deformity and/or curvature. Patients usually present complaining of penile pain, shortening and deformity resulting in dissatisfaction with intercourse. Many patients with PD will present with concomitant erectile dysfunction (ED).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Poor adherence to inhaled corticosteroid medications for children with high-risk asthma is both well documented and poorly understood. It has a disproportionate prevalence and impact on children of minority demographics in urban settings. Financial incentives have been shown to be a compelling method to engage those in a high-risk asthma population, but whether adherence can be maintained by offering financial incentives and how these incentives can be used to sustain high adherence are unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine the association between daily water intake and 24-hour urine volume among adolescents with nephrolithiasis in order to estimate a "fluid prescription," the additional water intake needed to increase urine volume to a target goal.
Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of an ecological momentary assessment study that prospectively measured daily water intake of 25 adolescents with nephrolithiasis over 7 days. We identified 24-hour urine volumes obtained for clinical care within 12 months of water intake assessment.
Purpose: Maintaining high water intake decreases kidney stone recurrence but is difficult to do. Strategies to reduce stone recurrence among adolescents are lacking. We conducted an ecological momentary assessment study to identify factors associated with water intake in adolescents with nephrolithiasis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFlaviviruses are small, capped positive sense RNA viruses that replicate in the cytoplasm of infected cells. Dengue virus and other related flaviviruses have evolved RNA capping enzymes to form the viral RNA cap structure that protects the viral genome and directs efficient viral polyprotein translation. The N-terminal domain of NS5 possesses the methyltransferase and guanylyltransferase activities necessary for forming mature RNA cap structures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are no effective antivirals currently available for the treatment of flavivirus infection in humans. As such, the identification and characterization of novel drug target sites are critical to developing new classes of antiviral drugs. The flavivirus NS5 N-terminal capping enzyme (CE) is vital for the formation of the viral RNA cap structure, which directs viral polyprotein translation and stabilizes the 5' end of the viral genome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have developed a new method for producing infectious double subgenomic alphaviruses from plasmids transfected into mammalian cells. A double subgenomic Sindbis virus (TE3'2J) was transcribed from a cytomegalovirus PolII promoter, which results in the production of infectious virus. Transfection of as little as 125 ng of plasmid is able to produce 1 × 10(8) plaque forming units/ml (PFU/ml) of infectious virus 48 hours post-transfection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF