Spatiotemporal gait changes in people with multiple sclerosis with different disease progression subtypes.

Background: Gait impairment is common in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), but less is known about gait differences between MS disease progression subtypes. The objective here was to examine differences in spatiotemporal gait in MS and between relapsing-remitting and progressive subtypes during the timed-25-ft-walk test. Our specific aims were to investigate (1) spatiotemporal, (2) spatiotemporal variability, and (3) gait modulation differences between healthy controls and MS subtypes at preferred and fast walking speed.

Non-ambulatory measures of lower extremity sensorimotor function are associated with walking function in Multiple Sclerosis.

Background: Disease progression of multiple sclerosis (MS) is often monitored by ambulatory measures, but how non-ambulatory sensorimotor measures differentially associate to walking measures in MS subtypes is unknown. We determined whether there are characteristic differences between relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), progressive MS (PMS), and non-MS controls in lower extremity sensorimotor function and clinical walking tasks and the sensorimotor associations with walking function in each group.

Methods: 18 RRMS, 13 PMS and 28 non-MS control participants were evaluated in their plantar cutaneous sensitivity (vibration perception threshold, Volts), proprioception during ankle joint position-matching (|∆°| in dorsiflexion), motor coordination (rapid foot-tap count/10 s), and walking function with three tests: Timed 25-foot walk (T25FW) at preferred and fast speeds (s), and timed-up-and-go (TUG, s).

Sensorimotor function in progressive multiple sclerosis.

Background: A sensitive test reflecting subtle sensorimotor changes throughout disease progression independent of mobility impairment is currently lacking in progressive multiple sclerosis.

Objectives: We examined non-ambulatory measures of upper and lower extremity sensorimotor function that may reveal differences between relapsing-remitting and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis.

Methods: Cutaneous sensitivity, proprioception, central motor function and mobility were assessed in 32 relapsing-remitting and 31 progressive multiple sclerosis patients and 30 non-multiple sclerosis controls.

Rapid foot-tapping but not hand-tapping ability is different between relapsing-remitting and progressive multiple sclerosis.

Background: Rapid tapping tests have been shown to be reliable measures of upper motor neuron disease, and effectively examine motor function differences between multiple sclerosis (MS) and non-MS controls (CON), and between relapsing-remitting and progressive MS subtypes. To successfully perform rapid repetitive movements such as tapping, a person must be able to consistently turn on and off motor units to switch between the up and down movement phases. However, it is not clear which specific movement phase that occurs during tapping is different between MS subtypes.

Model-based bootstrapping when correcting for measurement error with application to logistic regression.

When fitting regression models, measurement error in any of the predictors typically leads to biased coefficients and incorrect inferences. A plethora of methods have been proposed to correct for this. Obtaining standard errors and confidence intervals using the corrected estimators can be challenging and, in addition, there is concern about remaining bias in the corrected estimators.

Correcting for binomial measurement error in predictors in regression with application to analysis of DNA methylation rates by bisulfite sequencing.

Motivated by a genetic application, this paper addresses the problem of fitting regression models when the predictor is a proportion measured with error. While the problem of dealing with additive measurement error in fitting regression models has been extensively studied, the problem where the additive error is of a binomial nature has not been addressed. The measurement errors here are heteroscedastic for two reasons; dependence on the underlying true value and changing sampling effort over observations.

Frequency of cutis laxa-like clinical features and elastolysis in scleromyxedema: a retrospective clinicopathologic study of 19 patients with scleromyxedema.

Background: Cutis laxa-like features were observed in a subset of patients with scleromyxedema. Given this observation, clinical and histopathologic features of scleromyxedema were reviewed in correlation with elastic tissue staining.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records and histopathologic features from patients with scleromyxedema seen at our institution from 1992 through 2013.

Sensitivity of regression calibration to non-perfect validation data with application to the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study.

Measurement error occurs when we observe error-prone surrogates, rather than true values. It is common in observational studies and especially so in epidemiology, in nutritional epidemiology in particular. Correcting for measurement error has become common, and regression calibration is the most popular way to account for measurement error in continuous covariates.

Physiological integration plays key role in cranberry (Ericales: Ericaceae) for tolerance of damage by Dasineura oxycoccana (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae).

Understanding the mechanisms by which plants tolerate herbivory is important in the study of insect-plant interactions. In cranberry, current season growth has been identified as the main source of photosynthate for the developing fruits. Feeding injury by larvae of cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, disrupts the apical growth of cranberry shoots or uprights, but does not impact fruit output.

Impact of early season apical meristem injury by gall inducing tipworm (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on reproductive and vegetative growth of cranberry.

Larvae of cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, disrupt early season growth of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) uprights or shoots by feeding on apical meristem tissue. A 2-yr field study was carried out at three different locations to determine the impact of tipworm feeding injury on the reproductive and vegetative growth of two cranberry cultivars ('Howes' and 'Stevens') in Massachusetts. In addition to tipworm-injured and intact control uprights, an artificial injury treatment simulating tipworm feeding was also included.

Diagnostic utility and comparative immunohistochemical analysis of MITF-1 and SOX10 to distinguish melanoma in situ and actinic keratosis: a clinicopathological and immunohistochemical study of 70 cases.

The histologic assessment of intraepidermal melanocytic proliferations involving sun-damaged skin may be challenging in scant biopsy material. Melanoma in situ may occasionally be confused with intraepidermal melanocytic hyperplasia on sun-damaged skin; thus, dermatopathologists may use immunohistochemical studies to help distinguish these entities. Historically, melanoma antigen recognized by T-cells 1 (MART-1) has been regarded as a valuable stain to confirm intraepidermal melanocytes; however, MART-1 may overestimate the number of melanocytes because it labels the melanoma dendrites and might also label pigmented keratinocytes, including structures mimicking junctional melanocytic nests in the setting of a lichenoid infiltrate.

Muscle weakness, fatigue, and torque variability: effects of age and mobility status.

Introduction: Whereas deficits in muscle function, particularly power production, develop in old age and are risk factors for mobility impairment, a complete understanding of muscle fatigue during dynamic contractions is lacking. We tested hypotheses related to torque-producing capacity, fatigue resistance, and variability of torque production during repeated maximal contractions in healthy older, mobility-impaired older, and young women.

Methods: Knee extensor fatigue (decline in torque) was measured during 4 min of dynamic contractions.

Atypical melanocytic lesions of the thigh with spitzoid and dysplastic features: a clinicopathologic study of 29 cases.

Melanocytic nevi in certain anatomic locations can display unusual histopathologic features potentially creating diagnostic uncertainty. Benign melanocytic nevi in sites such as acral, genital, and flexural areas may show unusual architecture and cytologic atypia, which can mimic dysplastic nevi and, sometimes, melanoma. Twenty-nine benign melanocytic skin lesions were identified in the thigh of 26 women and 3 men who showed atypical histologic features, including both dysplastic and spitzoid features.

Injury to apical meristem of cranberry by Dasineura oxycoccana (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) reduces production of floral-units in the next growing season.

Cranberry tipworm, Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson (a gall-making fly), disrupts normal growth of cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton) by injuring the apical meristem of shoots or uprights. The impact of larval feeding injury on reproductive parameters of cranberry was determined, from one growing season to next, at upright (Maine and Massachusetts, 2008-2009) and plot levels (Massachusetts, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011). We also estimated the proportions of uprights injured because of tipworm feeding at several cranberry production sites (Massachusetts and Maine) and the proportions of uprights that produced flowers and fruits in the next growing season.

Role of CD10, wide-spectrum keratin, p63, and podoplanin in the distinction of epithelioid and spindle cell tumors of the skin: an immunohistochemical study of 81 cases.

Cutaneous epithelioid and spindle cell neoplasms occasionally pose a significant diagnostic challenge on purely histologic grounds. Given the substantial clinicopathologic overlap between these lesions, especially in small biopsies, the use of immunohistochemical studies are essential. We evaluated the utility of a battery of immunohistochemical markers, including podoplanin (D2-40), CD10, p63, and wide-spectrum cytokeratin, for distinguishing cutaneous epithelioid and spindle cell tumors.

The histomorphologic spectrum of primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: a study of 79 cases.

Primary cutaneous large B-cell lymphomas (PCLBCL) have historically been a matter of debate in the literature. The 2005 World Health Organization-European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (WHO-EORTC) classification scheme segregated cutaneous B-cell lymphomas into 3 groups: primary cutaneous marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, primary cutaneous follicle center cell lymphoma, and primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (PCDLBCL), "leg type" (PCDLBCL-LT). Additionally, the WHO-EORTC classification scheme utilized the term PCLBCL "other" not otherwise specified (NOS) type for rare cases of PCLBCL not belonging to either the "leg type" or the primary cutaneous follicle center cell lymphoma group.

On the power of the Cochran-Armitage test for trend in the presence of misclassification.

The Cochran-Armitage (CA) test is commonly used in both epidemiology and genetics to test for linear trend in two-way tables with a binary outcome. There has been increasing interest in the power and size of the test and in determination of sample size, especially when there is potential misclassification in the 'exposure' category. This article provides a unified approach to determination of the power function over different sampling strategies (fixed overall sample size or fixed marginal sample sizes) and allowing for misclassification in one or both variables.

Clinicopathologic analysis of the impact of CD23 expression in plasma cell myeloma with t(11;14)(q13;q32).

A recent study has shown that 10% of plasma cell myelomas (PCMs) express CD23 and that expression is associated with abnormalities of chromosome 11, mainly t(11;14)(q13;q32); however, only 40% of t(11;14)(+) PCMs express CD23. Because these results were generated in a limited patient cohort and because the clinical relevance of CD23 expression in PCMs with t(11;14)(q13;q32) has not been fully characterized, we addressed this question in a large series of patients with t(11;14)(+) PCM. Forty-two bone marrow biopsies from patients with t(11;14)(+) PCM were evaluated for CD23 expression by immunohistochemistry.

Correction for misclassification of a categorized exposure in binary regression using replication data.

Continuous epidemiologic exposure data are often categorized according to one or more cut points before inclusion in a regression analysis involving some outcome variable. If the original data are subject to measurement error, the categorized data will be afflicted with misclassification, which is differential, and which induces biases in naïve methods that ignore the misclassification. We propose a method for measurement error adjustment in these settings, when there are replicate data available on the original measurements, and when the outcome variable is dichotomous.

20-HETE increases survival and decreases apoptosis in pulmonary arteries and pulmonary artery endothelial cells.

20-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) is an endogenous cytochrome P-450 product present in vascular smooth muscle and uniquely located in the vascular endothelium of pulmonary arteries (PAs). 20-HETE enhances reactive oxygen species (ROS) production of bovine PA endothelial cells (BPAECs) in an NADPH oxidase-dependent manner and is postulated to promote angiogenesis via activation of this pathway in systemic vascular beds. We tested the capacity of 20-HETE or a stable analog of this compound, 20-hydroxy-eicosa-5(Z),14(Z)-dienoic acid, to enhance survival and protect against apoptosis in BPAECs stressed with serum starvation.

Host heterogeneity in susceptibility and disease dynamics: tests of a mathematical model.

Most mathematical models of disease assume that transmission is linearly dependent on the densities of host and pathogen. Recent data for animal diseases, however, have cast doubt on this assumption, without assessing the usefulness of alternative models. In this article, we use a combination of laboratory dose-response experiments, field transmission experiments, and observations of naturally occurring populations to show that virus transmission in gypsy moths is a nonlinear function of virus density, apparently because of heterogeneity among individual gypsy moth larvae in their susceptibility to the virus.

Multiple antiapoptotic targets of the PI3K/Akt survival pathway are activated by epoxyeicosatrienoic acids to protect cardiomyocytes from hypoxia/anoxia.

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) reduce infarction of the myocardium after ischemia-reperfusion injury to rodent and dog hearts mainly by opening sarcolemmal and mitochondrial potassium channels. Other mediators for the action of EET have been proposed, although no definitive pathway or mechanism has yet been reported. Using cultured cells from two rodent species, immortalized myocytes from a mouse atrial lineage (HL-1) and primary myocytes derived from neonatal rat hearts, we observed that pretreatment with EETs (1 microM of 14,15-, 11,12-, or 8,9-EET) attenuated apoptosis after exposure to hypoxia and reoxygenation (H/R).

Measurement error in a random walk model with applications to population dynamics.

Population abundances are rarely, if ever, known. Instead, they are estimated with some amount of uncertainty. The resulting measurement error has its consequences on subsequent analyses that model population dynamics and estimate probabilities about abundances at future points in time.

Regression analysis with categorized regression calibrated exposure: some interesting findings.

Background: Regression calibration as a method for handling measurement error is becoming increasingly well-known and used in epidemiologic research. However, the standard version of the method is not appropriate for exposure analyzed on a categorical (e.g.