Investigating patellar motion using weight-bearing dynamic CT: normative values and morphological considerations for healthy volunteers.

Background: Patellar instability is a well-known pathology in which kinematics can be investigated using metrics such as tibial tuberosity tracheal groove (TTTG), the bisect offset (BO), and the lateral patellar tilt (LPT). We used dynamic computed tomography (CT) to investigate the patellar motion of healthy subjects in weight-bearing conditions to provide normative values for TTTG, BO, and LPT, as well as to define whether BO and LPT are affected by the morphology of the trochlear groove.

Methods: Dynamic scanning was used to acquire images during weight-bearing in 21 adult healthy volunteers.

Variations in vertebral muscle mass and muscle quality in adult patients with different types of cancer.

Objectives: Assessment of malnutrition-related muscle depletion with computed tomography (CT) using skeletal muscle index (SMI) and muscle radiation attenuation (MRA) at the third lumbar vertebra is well validated. However, SMI and MRA values at other vertebral locations and interchangeability as parameters in different types of cancer are less known. We aimed to investigate whether adult patients with different types of cancer show differences in SMI and MRA at all vertebral levels.

Skeletal Muscle Echo Intensity Values Differ Significantly across Ultrasound Parameter Settings.

Echo intensity determined by muscle ultrasound has been proposed as an efficient method for the assessment of muscle quality. The influence of changing ultrasound parameter settings on echo intensity values was assessed using a standardized approach. In this repeated measures cross-sectional study, sixteen repeated scans of rectus femoris, gracilis, and rectus abdominis were taken in 21 middle-aged persons with a portable Mindray M7 premium ultrasound machine equipped with a linear 5.

Reliability of Muscle Quantity and Quality Measured With Extended-Field-of-View Ultrasound at Nine Body Sites.

Objective: Measuring muscle quantity and quality is very important because the loss of muscle quantity and quality is associated with several adverse effects specifically in older people. Ultrasound is a method widely used to measure muscle quantity and quality. One problem with ultrasound is its limited field of view, which makes it impossible to measure the muscle quantity and quality of certain muscles.

The correlation of muscle quantity and quality between all vertebra levels and level L3, measured with CT: An exploratory study.

Introduction: In patients with cancer, low muscle mass has been associated with a higher risk of fatigue, poorer treatment outcomes, and mortality. To determine body composition with computed tomography (CT), measuring the muscle quantity at the level of lumbar 3 (L3) is suggested. However, in patients with cancer, CT imaging of the L3 level is not always available.

Non-linear Associations Between Visceral Adipose Tissue Distribution and Anthropometry-Based Estimates of Visceral Adiposity.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that excess visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is associated with future loss of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) and skeletal muscle (SM) with aging. In clinical settings (abdominal) circumferences are commonly used to estimate body composition (BC). We aimed to study the linearity of VAT distribution ratios (i.

The validity of ultrasound-derived equation models to predict whole-body muscle mass: A systematic review.

Background & Aims: Sarcopenia is defined as the age-related loss in muscle quantity and quality which is associated with physical disability. The assessment of muscle quantity plays a role in the diagnosis of sarcopenia. However, the methods used for this assessment have many disadvantages in daily practice and research, like high costs, exposure to radiation, not being portable, or doubtful reliability.

Effectiveness of local exercise therapy versus spinal manual therapy in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome: medium term follow-up results of a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Increasing evidence has shown benefits of spinal manipulations in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS). There is scarcity regarding medium term effects of spinal manual therapy on outcome measures in PFPS patients. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of local exercise therapy and spinal manual therapy for knee pain, function and maximum voluntary peak force (MVPF) velocity of the quadriceps in PFPS patients.

Association between prenatal dietary methyl mercury exposure and developmental outcomes on acquisition of articulatory-phonologic skills in children in the Republic of Seychelles.

Methyl mercury (MeHg) is a neurotoxicant that with sufficient exposure can seriously impair the central nervous system and cause mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and neuromotor dysfunction. The level of exposure needed to adversely affect the nervous system is unknown. Human exposure to low levels of MeHg is common from consumption of fish.

Conformational analysis of a cyclic AKH neuropeptide analog that elicits selective activity on locust versus honeybee receptor.

Neuropeptides belonging to the adipokinetic hormone (AKH) family elicit metabolic effects as their main function in insects, by mobilizing trehalose, diacylgycerol, or proline, which are released from the fat body into the hemolymph as energy sources for muscle contraction required for energy-intensive processes, such as locomotion. One of the AKHs produced in locusts is a decapeptide, Locmi-AKH-I (pELNFTPNWGT-NH). A head-to-tail cyclic, octapeptide analog of Locmi-AKH-I, cycloAKH (cyclo[LNFTPNWG]) was synthesized to severely restrict the conformational freedom of the AKH structure.

Corrigendum to " beyond stools: dog nasal discharge as a possible new vector of bacterial transmission" [Heliyon 5 (5) (May 2019) e01629].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.

Seasonality of Clostridium difficile in the natural environment.

Clostridium difficile is considered the leading cause of antibiotic-associated disease worldwide. In the past decade, a large number of studies have focused on identifying the main sources of contamination in order to elucidate the complete life cycle of the infection. Hospitals, animals and retail foods have been considered as potential vectors.

beyond stools: dog nasal discharge as a possible new vector of bacterial transmission.

Zoonotic transmission of has been largely hypothesised to occur after direct or indirect contact with contaminated animal faeces. Recent studies have reported the presence of the bacterium in the natural environment, including in soils and rivers. If spores are scattered in the environment, they can easily enter the respiratory tract of dogs, and therefore, dog nasal discharge could be a direct route of transmission not previously investigated.

RNA Interference in Insects: Protecting Beneficials and Controlling Pests.

Insects constitute the largest and most diverse group of animals on Earth with an equally diverse virome. The main antiviral immune system of these animals is the post-transcriptional gene-silencing mechanism known as RNA(i) interference. Furthermore, this process can be artificially triggered via delivery of gene-specific double-stranded RNA molecules, leading to specific endogenous gene silencing.

Correction to: Effects of early feeding on growth velocity and overweight/obesity in a cohort of HIV unexposed South African infants and children.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13006-015-0041-x.].

Clostridium difficile in beef cattle farms, farmers and their environment: Assessing the spread of the bacterium.

In recent years, several studies have described the presence of Clostridium difficile in healthy and diarrhoeic farm and domestic animals. In pigs and cattle, the isolation of some PCR-ribotypes associated with human infection, especially PCR-ribotypes 014 and 078, has led us to hypothesize about the zoonotic transmission of C. difficile infections.

Clinical and laboratory features of the most common Clostridium difficile ribotypes isolated in Belgium.

Background: Previous studies comparing Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) due to different ribotypes have been conflicting, and many have only compared small numbers of cases or few ribotypes.

Aim: To compare patient and episode characteristics for CDI due to different ribotypes.

Methods: The ribotyping results from 3333 toxin-producing isolates collected from 110 Belgian hospitals between October 2010 and December 2015 were matched to clinical data from the national CDI surveillance database.

Orcokinin neuropeptides regulate ecdysis in the hemimetabolous insect Rhodnius prolixus.

To grow and develop insects must undergo ecdysis. During this process, the individual sheds the old cuticle to emerge as the following developmental stage. During ecdysis, different programed behaviors are regulated by neuropeptidergic pathways.

Fatal community-acquired ribotype 002 Clostridium difficile bacteremia.

Extra-colonic infections, and especially bacteremia, are infrequent manifestations of Clostridium difficile infection. C. difficile bacteremia is generally health-care associated and polymicrobial.

Clostridium difficile presence in Spanish and Belgian hospitals.

Clostridium difficile is recognised worldwide as the main cause of infectious bacterial antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in hospitals and other healthcare settings. The aim of this study was to first survey C. difficile prevalence during the summer of 2014 at the Central University Hospital of Asturias (Spain).

Objectively Assessed Physical Activity and Associated Factors Among Adults in Peri-Urban and Rural Eastern Uganda: A Population-based Study.

Background: Data on physical inactivity, a known risk factor for noncommunicable diseases and its correlates in sub-Saharan Africa are almost absent. We assessed physical activity patterns and associated factors among adults.

Methods: A populationbased study of 1208 adults was conducted in the Iganga-Mayuge Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, Uganda.

Longitudinal survey of Clostridium difficile presence and gut microbiota composition in a Belgian nursing home.

Background: Increasing age, several co-morbidities, environmental contamination, antibiotic exposure and other intestinal perturbations appear to be the greatest risk factors for C. difficile infection (CDI). Therefore, elderly care home residents are considered particularly vulnerable to the infection.

Persistent RNA virus infection of lepidopteran cell lines: Interactions with the RNAi machinery.

RNAi is broadly used as a technique for specific gene silencing in insects but few studies have investigated the factors that can affect its efficiency. Viral infections have the potential to interfere with RNAi through their production of viral suppressors of RNAi (VSRs) and the production of viral small RNAs that can saturate and inactivate the RNAi machinery. In this study, the impact of persistent infection of the RNA viruses Flock house virus (FHV) and Macula-like virus (MLV) on RNAi efficiency was investigated in selected lepidopteran cell lines.