Properties and prospects of adjuvants in influenza vaccination - messy precipitates or blessed opportunities?

Influenza is a major challenge to healthcare systems world-wide. While prophylactic vaccination is largely efficient, long-lasting immunity has not been achieved in immunized populations, at least in part due to the challenges arising from the antigen variation between strains of influenza A virus as a consequence of genetic drift and shift. From progress in our understanding of the immune system, the mode-of-action of vaccines can be divided into the stimulation of the adaptive system through inclusion of appropriate vaccine antigens and of the innate immune system by the addition of adjuvant to the vaccine formulation.

Impact of thyrotropin receptor antibody levels on fetal development in two successive pregnancies in a woman with Graves' disease.

Background: Treatment with radioiodine for Graves' disease regularly increases the level of antithyroid antibodies, and transplacental passage of stimulating thyrotropin receptor antibodies (TRAb) may cause fetal hyperthyroidism.

Case Presentation: A 21-year-old woman with Graves' disease received radioiodine treatment to avoid use of antithyroid drugs in pregnancy. She became pregnant 4 months later and was euthyroid during pregnancy.

Laser in situ keratomileusis in patients with collagen vascular disease: a review of the literature.

Purpose: To evaluate the current United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommendations regarding laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery in patients with collagen vascular diseases (CVD) and assess whether these patients make appropriate candidates for laser vision correction, and offer treatment recommendations based on identified clinical data.

Methods: A literature search was conducted using PubMed, Medline, and Ovid to identify all existing studies of LASIK in patients with collagen vascular diseases. The search was conducted without date limitations.

Anesthetic keratopathy presenting as bilateral Mooren-like ulcers.

This observational case report describes the development of bilateral Mooren-like ulcers in a patient with anesthetic keratopathy. A 42-year-old man with a recent history of minor eye trauma and pain self-treated with tetracaine eye drops presented with complaints of acutely worsening vision and severe pain bilaterally. His visual acuity at presentation was limited to hand motion.

Laser in-situ keratomileusis in patients with diabetes mellitus: a review of the literature.

Purpose: A growing number of diabetic patients request laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) for elective vision correction each year. While the United States Food and Drug Administration considers diabetes a relative contraindication to LASIK surgery, there are several reports in the literature of LASIK being performed safely in this patient population. The purpose of this review was to examine whether diabetes should still be considered a contraindication to LASIK surgery by reviewing the ocular and systemic complications of diabetes, and examining the existing data on the outcomes of LASIK in diabetic patients.

Low maternal care exacerbates adult stress susceptibility in the chronic mild stress rat model of depression.

In the present study we report the finding that the quality of maternal care, in early life, increased the susceptibility to stress exposure in adulthood, when rats were exposed to the chronic mild stress paradigm. Our results indicate that high, as opposed to low maternal care, predisposed rats to a differential stress-coping ability. Thus rats fostered by low maternal care dams became more prone to adopt a stress-susceptible phenotype developing an anhedonic-like condition.

Comparison of the ratio of keratometric change to refractive change induced by myopic ablation.

Purpose: To compare the ratio of keratometric change (ΔK) to refractive change (ΔSE) induced by refractive laser ablation.

Methods: The charts of 3337 eyes that underwent LASIK or photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) from 2002 to 2011 were retrospectively reviewed, and the ratio ΔK/ΔSE measured at 3 months postoperatively was compared between eyes with low ΔSE (0.00 to 2.

Direct contact with endoderm-like cells efficiently induces cardiac progenitors from mouse and human pluripotent stem cells.

Rationale: Pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) have emerged as a powerful tool to study cardiogenesis in vitro and a potential cell source for cardiac regenerative medicine. However, available methods to induce CPCs are not efficient or require high-cost cytokines with extensive optimization due to cell line variations.

Objective: Based on our in-vivo observation that early endodermal cells maintain contact with nascent pre-cardiac mesoderm, we hypothesized that direct physical contact with endoderm promotes induction of CPCs from pluripotent cells.

Evaluate, assess, treat: development and evaluation of the EAT framework to increase effective communication regarding sensitive oral-systemic health issues.

Oral healthcare providers are likely to encounter a number of sensitive oral/systemic health issues whilst interacting with patients. The purpose of the current study was to develop and evaluate a framework aimed at oral healthcare providers to engage in active secondary prevention of eating disorders (i.e.

Diplopia after glaucoma surgery.

The occurrence of strabismus and symptomatic diplopia following glaucoma surgery is becoming more common as the use of implanted setons increases. Understanding the factors contributing to the diplopia is critical to the development of treatment strategies to alleviate the patient's symptoms.

Development and process evaluation of a Web-based responsible beverage service training program.

Background: Responsible beverage service (RBS) training designed to improve the appropriate service of alcohol in commercial establishments is typically delivered in workshops. Recently, Web-based RBS training programs have emerged. This report describes the formative development and subsequent design of an innovative Web-delivered RBS program, and evaluation of the impact of the program on servers' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy.

Epilepsy due to a temporal ganglioglioma and its subsequent malignant transformation into a primitive neuroectodermal tumor.

Background: Gangliogliomas (GGs) are rare brain tumors, and their malignant changes are still less frequent. In these cases, almost always the malignant component is the glial one. However, there are few cases in which the neuronal component exhibits malignant transformation.

Effects of sequential injections of hepatocyte growth factor and insulin-like growth factor-I on adult rabbit extraocular muscle.

Purpose: To determine whether hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) have synergistic effects in promoting extraocular muscle fiber growth and force generation.

Methods: A superior rectus muscle of adult rabbits was treated with either a single injection of HGF or sequential injections of HGF followed 1 week later by IGF-I. One week after HGF alone and 1 week after the IGF-I injection, the superior rectus muscles from treated and control orbits were examined for alterations in force generation as well as changes in myofiber size.

First record of the deep-water whalefish Cetichthys indagator (Actinopterygii: Cetomimidae) in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The whalefish Cetichthys indagator is reported for the first time in the North Atlantic Ocean. This record increases to five the number of specimens ever caught and represents the northernmost occurrence of this species in the northern hemisphere.

Early stages of oxide growth in H-terminated silicon nanowires: determination of kinetic behavior and activation energy.

Silicon nanowires (Si NWs) terminated with hydrogen atoms exhibit higher activation energy under ambient conditions than equivalent planar Si(100). The kinetics of sub-oxide formation in hydrogen-terminated Si NWs derived from the complementary XPS surface analysis attribute this difference to the Si-Si backbond and Si-H bond propagation which controls the process at lower temperatures (T < 200 °C). At high temperatures (T≥ 200 °C), the activation energy was similar due to self-retarded oxidation.

Nanowire arrays in multicrystalline silicon thin films on glass: a promising material for research and applications in nanotechnology.

Silicon nanowires (SiNW) were formed on large grained, electron-beam crystallized silicon (Si) thin films of only ∼6 μm thickness on glass using nanosphere lithography (NSL) in combination with reactive ion etching (RIE). Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies revealed outstanding structural properties of this nanomaterial. It could be shown that SiNWs with entirely predetermined shapes including lengths, diameters and spacings and straight side walls form independently of their crystalline orientation and arrange in ordered arrays on glass.

Field-effect transistors based on silicon nanowire arrays: effect of the good and the bad silicon nanowires.

Aligned arrays of silicon nanowires (aa-Si NWs) allow the exploitation of Si NWs in a scalable way. Previous studies explored the influence of the Si NWs' number, doping density, and diameter on the related electrical performance. Nevertheless, the origin of the observed effects still not fully understood.

Improving preterm ophthalmologic care in the era of accountable care organizations.

OBJECTIVES To understand retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) follow-up care for preterm very low-birth-weight infants (VLBW; <1500 g) in the context of the chronic care model and identify opportunities for improvement under accountable care organizations. METHODS We conducted focus groups and interviews with parents (N = 47) of VLBW infants and interviews with neonatal intensive care unit and ophthalmologic providers (N = 28) at 6 sites in Massachusetts and South Carolina. Themes are reported according to consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research guidelines.

The relationship between body mass index, activated protein C resistance and risk of venous thrombosis.

Background: High body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of venous thrombosis (VT). Clotting factor VIII levels are increased in obese subjects, possibly because of a chronic inflammatory state, which increases activated protein C (APC) resistance. The APC resistance in FV Leiden carriers could be aggravated and further worsened by high FVIII levels in blood group non-O carriers.

Increased levels of free thyroxine and risk of venous thrombosis in a large population-based prospective study.

Background: Recent studies have shown that high levels of free thyroxine (FT4), even without leading to hyperthyroidism, are associated with a procoagulant state.

Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine whether high levels of thyroid hormones are associated with an increased risk of venous thrombosis.

Patients/methods: From a prospective nested case-cohort design within the second Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT2) cohort (1995-1997; 66,140 subjects), all patients with venous thrombosis during follow-up (n=515) and 1476 randomly selected age-stratified and sex-stratified controls were included.

Persistent developmental toxicity in rat offspring after low dose exposure to a mixture of endocrine disrupting pesticides.

There is growing concern of permanent damage to the endocrine and nervous systems after developmental exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. In this study the permanent reproductive and neurobehavioral effects of combined exposure to five endocrine disrupting pesticides, epoxiconazole, mancozeb, prochloraz, tebuconazole and procymidone, were examined. Pregnant and lactating rat dams were dosed with a mixture of the five pesticides at three different doses, or with the individual pesticides at one of two doses.

Adverse effects on sexual development in rat offspring after low dose exposure to a mixture of endocrine disrupting pesticides.

The present study investigated whether a mixture of low doses of five environmentally relevant endocrine disrupting pesticides, epoxiconazole, mancozeb, prochloraz, tebuconazole and procymidone, would cause adverse developmental toxicity effects in rats. In rat dams, a significant increase in gestation length was seen, while in male offspring increased nipple retention and increased incidence and severity of genital malformations were observed. Severe mixture effects on gestation length, nipple retention and genital malformations were seen at dose levels where the individual pesticides caused no or smaller effects when given alone.

Epigenetic regulation of Arc and c-Fos in the hippocampus after acute electroconvulsive stimulation in the rat.

Electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS) remains one of the most effective treatments of major depression. However, the underlying molecular changes still remain to be elucidated. Since ECS causes rapid and significant changes in gene expression we have looked at epigenetic regulation of two important immediate early genes that are both induced after ECS: c-Fos and Arc.

Use of loteprednol for routine prophylaxis after photorefractive keratectomy.

Background: The purpose of this work is to report our experience using loteprednol 0.5% for routine prophylaxis after photorefractive keratectomy in an academic refractive surgery center.

Materials And Methods: Photorefractive keratectomy was performed on 579 eyes from 316 patients in this retrospective chart review of patients treated postoperatively with either fluorometholone 0.