Performance of Claims-Based Algorithms for Adherence to Positive Airway Pressure Therapy in Commercially Insured Patients With OSA.

Background: Positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy is first-line therapy for OSA, but consistent use is required for it to be effective. Previous studies have used Medicare fee-for-service claims data (eg, device, equipment charges) as a proxy for PAP adherence to assess its effects. However, this approach has not been validated in a US commercially insured population, where coverage rules are not standardized.

Depression and comorbid obstructive sleep apnea: Association between positive airway pressure adherence, occurrence of self-harm events, healthcare resource utilization, and costs.

Objective: Previous studies have shown that treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy in patients with depression may improve depression symptoms and response to antidepressant therapy. We investigated the association between PAP therapy adherence, self-harm events, healthcare resource utilization (HCRU), and costs over 2 years in a national sample of patients with pre-existing depression and newly diagnosed comorbid OSA.

Methods: Administrative claims data were linked to objective PAP therapy usage.

THE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS OF A TOTAL MOTION RELEASE® WARM-UP ON ACTIVE ROTATIONAL HIP RANGE OF MOTION IN OVERHEAD ATHLETES.

Background: Reductions in hip range of motion (ROM) correlate with lower extremity injury and alterations in shoulder mechanics in overhead athletes. Such shifts in kinetic-chain dynamics may lead to additional stresses at common injury sites of the upper and lower extremities. Researchers have suggested that Total Motion Release (TMR) increases shoulder ROM more effectively than traditional warm-up methods.

A Luciferase Immunoprecipitation System (LIPS) assay for profiling human norovirus antibodies.

A luciferase immunoprecipitation systems (LIPS) assay was developed to define the antigenic specificity and titer of antibodies directed against human norovirus (HuNoV). Recombinant proteins, expressed by plasmid constructs encoding Renilla luciferase (Ruc) fused to the full-length HuNoV major capsid protein (VP1) (Ruc-antigen), were generated for ten HuNoV strains. In addition, subdomain constructs Ruc-Shell (S) and Ruc-Protruding (P) were engineered for a representative GII.

On the use of non-negative matrix factorisation to characterise wastewater from dairy processing plants.

A portable field spectrometer was used to record the time-resolved ultraviolet/visible (UV/Vis) spectrum of the effluent stream at two different dairy processing plants (a Drier Plant and Cheese Factory). The spectra exhibited significant variability. As an alternative to the partial least squares regression methods usually used in the online UV/Vis field a non-negative matrix factorisation technique was employed to compress the spectral data.

Improving the safety of chemotherapy administration: an oncology nurse-led failure mode and effects analysis.

Purpose/objectives: To assess and improve the safety of hospital-based adult chemotherapy administration.

Design: Prospective, systems-focused clinical risk assessment.

Setting: An adult inpatient and outpatient oncology unit in a large urban hospital in the United Kingdom.

Real-time in-situ measurement of haemoglobin in wastewater.

The meat processing industry generates large volumes of relatively high load wastewater. In New Zealand and Australia this wastewater is often pre-treated on site and then discharged to environmental waters or municipal sewers. Owing to the limited number of water quality parameters which can be measured in real-time it is often difficult for industry to optimise treatment processes or public bodies to monitor for water-quality compliance.

Continuous measurement of dissolved sulfide in sewer systems.

Sulfides are particularly problematic in the sewage industry. Hydrogen sulfide causes corrosion of concrete infrastructure, is dangerous at high concentrations and is foul smelling at low concentrations. Despite the importance of sulfide monitoring there is no commercially available system to quantify sulfide in waste water.

Tissue-specific PhBPBT expression is differentially regulated in response to endogenous ethylene.

Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone involved in many physiological processes including senescence, fruit ripening, and defence. Here the effects of pollination and wound-induced ethylene signals on transcript accumulation of benzoyl CoA:benzyl alcohol/phenylethanol benzoyltransferase (PhBPBT) are shown in Petuniaxhybrida cv. Mitchell 'Diploid' (MD).

Surveying polypeptide and protein domain conformation and association with FlAsH and ReAsH.

Recombinant polypeptides and protein domains containing two cysteine pairs located distal in primary sequence but proximal in the native folded or assembled state are labeled selectively in vitro and in mammalian cells using the profluorescent biarsenical reagents FlAsH-EDT2 and ReAsH-EDT2. This strategy, termed bipartite tetracysteine display, enables the detection of protein-protein interactions and alternative protein conformations in live cells. As proof of principle, we show that the equilibrium stability and fluorescence intensity of polypeptide-biarsenical complexes correlates with the thermodynamic stability of the protein fold or assembly.

Characterization of a petunia acetyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of the floral volatile isoeugenol.

Petunia flower petals emit large amounts of isoeugenol, which has been shown to be synthesized by isoeugenol synthase (PhIGS1) from an ester of coniferyl alcohol, hypothesized to be coniferyl acetate. This paper describes the identification and characterization of a novel petunia gene encoding an enzyme belonging to the BAHD acyltransferase family whose expression correlates with isoeugenol biosynthesis. RNAi suppression of this gene results in inhibition of isoeugenol biosynthesis.

Ethylene-regulated floral volatile synthesis in petunia corollas.

In many flowering plants, such as petunia (Petunia x hybrida), ethylene produced in floral organs after pollination elicits a series of physiological and biochemical events, ultimately leading to senescence of petals and successful fertilization. Here, we demonstrate, using transgenic ethylene insensitive (44568) and Mitchell Diploid petunias, that multiple components of emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are regulated by ethylene. Expression of benzoic acid/salicylic acid carboxyl methyltransferase (PhBSMT1 and 2) mRNA is temporally and spatially down-regulated in floral organs in a manner consistent with current models for post-pollination ethylene synthesis in petunia corollas.

DNA sequence recognition in the minor groove by hairpin pyrrole polyamide-Hoechst 33258 analogue conjugate.

A hairpin pyrrole polyamide conjugated to a Hoechst 33258 (Ht) analogue, PyPyPy-gamma-PyPyPy-gamma-Ht, was synthesized on solid-phase by adaptation of an Fmoc technique using a series of PyBOP/HOBt mediated coupling reactions. Sequence selectivity and complex stabilities were characterized by spectrofluorometric titrations and thermal melting studies. The polyamide of the conjugate was observed to bind in a hairpin motif forming 1:1 conjugate:dsDNA complexes.

Cardiac rhabdomyoma presenting as sudden infant death syndrome.

A case of cardiac rhabdomyoma presenting as sudden infant death in a four-and-one-half month-old infant is reported. The child was the product of an essentially uncomplicated pregnancy and enjoyed good health before his unexpected, sudden death. Autopsy examination revealed the presence of multiple cardiac lesions which histologically were diagnosed as rhabdomyomas.

Severe blood transfusion reaction from leukoagglutinin antibody with successful treatment by membrane oxygenation.

In the intensive care unit immediately after a triple aortocoronary bypass procedure, a 62-year-old man presented with copious amounts of frothy secretions in the endotracheal tube, became severely hypotensive, and remained hypoxic in the presence of maximum respiratory support. Chest roentgenograms showed pronounced pulmonary edema. Prior to leaving the operating room, the patient had received 1 unit of whole blood.

A family with three recessive traits and homozygosity for a long 9qh+ chromosome segment.

We report a family in which a mentally retarded, proportionately dwarfed girl had a child from a presumably incestuous mating that had the Ellis van-Creveld syndrome, presumed autosomal recessive hydrocephalus (Dandy-Walker type), and homozygosity for an extremely long 9qh+ chromosomal marker. The mentally retarded mother had normal birth weight, unusual facial appearance, and virtual absence of secondary sexual hair; she developed severe hypoglycemia during pregnancy. Her parents were first cousins, and she may have a previously unreported autosomal recessive syndrome.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ANGIOGRAPHIC ABSENCE OF LEFT ANTERIOR DESCENDING CORONARY ARTERY IN A LEFT VENTRICLE WITH INTACT ANTERIOR WALL.

Fifteen patients having total occlusion of the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery were studied. All fifteen had normal left ventricular anterior walls. The electrocardiogram was normal in eight patients; old inferior wall infarction was evident in one; anterior ischemia in five; and left anterior hemiblock in one.