Effects of Exogenous and Endogenous Distracters on Immediate and Long-Term Recall in Toddlers.

We explored the role that exogenous and endogenous competitors for attention play in infants' abilities to encode and retain information over a 6-month period. Sixty-six children visited the laboratory at 15 months, and 32 returned for a second visit at 21 months. Children observed models of conventional- relation and enabling-relation action sequences.

Understanding the side effects of glucocorticoid therapy: shining a light on a drug everyone thinks they know.

Glucocorticoids are one of the most frequently prescribed therapies in rheumatology, a reflection of their effectiveness as a powerful anti-inflammatory drug. Glucocorticoids are also, however, associated with a wide range of adverse events, particularly at higher doses. To make appropriate decisions, doctors and patients need to weigh these benefits against the potential harms.

Field shaping arrays: a means to address shading in high field breast MRI.

Purpose: To develop a simple correction approach to mitigate shading in 3 Tesla (T) breast MRI.

Materials And Methods: A slightly modified breast receive (Rx) array, which we termed field shaping array (FSA), was shown to mitigate breast shading at 3T. In this FSA, one Rx element was selectively unblocked and tuned off the Larmor frequency during the transmit (Tx) phase.

Fat-referenced MR thermometry in the breast and prostate using IDEAL.

Purpose: To demonstrate a three-echo fat-referenced MR thermometry technique that estimates and corrects for time-varying phase disturbances in heterogeneous tissues.

Materials And Methods: Fat protons do not exhibit a temperature-dependent frequency shift. Fat-referenced thermometry methods exploit this insensitivity and use the signal from fat to measure and correct for magnetic field disturbances.

Temporal candidate gene expression in the sow placenta and embryo during early gestation and effect of maternal Progenos supplementation on embryonic and placental development.

The present study characterised gene expression associated with embryonic muscle development and placental vascularisation during early gestation in the pig and examined effects of Progenos supplementation in early pregnancy. Tissues were collected from commercial multiparous sows (n = 48) from Days 16 to 49 of gestation. In the placenta, qPCR revealed that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFA) expression did not change from Day 17 to 49 of gestation; however, KDR receptor and angiopoietin-1 and -2 expression were differentially regulated, with periods of high expression corresponding to two critical phases of angiogenesis in the pig.

Risk of skin and soft tissue infections (including shingles) in patients exposed to anti-tumour necrosis factor therapy: results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register.

Introduction: Anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy is a mainstay of treatment in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In 2001, BSRBR was established to evaluate the safety of these agents. This paper addresses the safety of anti-TNF therapy in RA with specific reference to serious skin and soft tissue infections (SSSI) and shingles.

Immediate and delayed impact of oral glucocorticoid therapy on risk of serious infection in older patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a nested case-control analysis.

Objectives: To explore the relationship of serious infection risk with current and prior oral glucocorticoid (GC) therapy in elderly patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: A case-control analysis matched 1947 serious infection cases to five controls, selected from 16207 RA patients aged ≥ 65 between 1985-2003 in Quebec, Canada. Adjusted odds ratios for infection associated with different GC patterns were estimated using conventional models and a weighted cumulative dose (WCD) model.

The influence of anti-TNF therapy upon incidence of keratinocyte skin cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: longitudinal results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register.

Objectives: To compare the risk of keratinoctye skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC)) in patients treated for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared with the general population, and to determine whether anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy exacerbates this risk.

Methods: Patients with RA enrolled in the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register, a prospective national cohort established in 2001 to monitor the safety of anti-TNF, were followed until 2008. 11 881 patients treated with anti-TNF were compared with 3629 patients receiving non-biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (nbDMARD).

Quantifying the longitudinal value of healthcare record collections for pharmacoepidemiology.

We introduce an information score for longitudinal healthcare record data, specifically in the monitoring of chronic conditions. The score is designed to capture the value of different observation patterns in terms of shaping and testing clinical epidemiological hypotheses. The score is first developed for the simple case where equally spaced observations are most informative, then extended to a more context-specific version where the optimal density of observations can be elicited.

Laurel Wilt, Caused by Raffaelea lauricola, is Confirmed in Miami-Dade County, Center of Florida's Commercial Avocado Production.

Laurel wilt, caused by Raffaelea lauricola, threatens native and nonnative species in the Lauraceae in the southeastern United States, including the important commercial crop, avocado, Persea americana (2,4). Although the pathogen's vector, Xyleborus glabratus, was detected in Miami-Dade County, FL in January 2010, laurel wilt had not been reported (4). In February 2011, symptoms of the disease were observed on native swampbay, P.

Nitric oxide synthase inhibition delays low-frequency stimulation-induced satellite cell activation in rat fast-twitch muscle.

This study examined the effect of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition via N(ω)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME) administration on low-frequency stimulation-induced satellite cell (SC) activation in rat skeletal muscle. l-NAME only delayed stimulation-induced increases in SC activity. Also, stimulation-induced increases in hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) mRNA and protein expression were only abrogated at the mRNA level in l-NAME-treated animals.

A novel modulation strategy to increase stimulation duration in neuromuscular electrical stimulation.

Introduction: Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) has been shown to be an effective treatment for muscular dysfunction. Yet, a fundamental barrier to NMES treatments is the rapid onset of muscle fatigue. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of feedback-based frequency modulation on the closed-loop performance of the quadriceps during repeated dynamic contractions.

Predictor-based compensation for electromechanical delay during neuromuscular electrical stimulation.

Electromechanical delay (EMD) is a biological artifact that arises due to a time lag between electrical excitation and tension development in a muscle. EMD is known to cause degraded performance and instability during neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES). Compensating for such input delay is complicated by the unknown nonlinear muscle force-length and muscle force-velocity relationships.

Biological markers of boar fertility.

The semen evaluation techniques used in most commercial artificial insemination centers, which includes sperm motility and morphology measurements, provides a very conservative estimate of the relative fertility of individual boars. As well, differences in relative boar fertility are masked by the widespread use of pooled semen for commercial artificial insemination (AI) in many countries. Furthermore, the relatively high sperm numbers used in commercial AI practice usually compensate for reduced fertility, as can be seen in some boars when lower numbers of sperm are used for AI.

The association between systemic glucocorticoid therapy and the risk of infection in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: systematic review and meta-analyses.

Introduction: Infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The objective of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of glucocorticoid (GC) therapy on the risk of infection in patients with RA.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted by using MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials database to January 2010 to identify studies among populations of patients with RA that reported a comparison of infection incidence between patients treated with GC therapy and patients not exposed to GC therapy.

Restricted feed intake in lactating primiparous sows. II. Effects on subsequent litter sex ratio and embryonic gene expression.

Expression of panels of candidate genes controlling myogenesis, angiogenesis and gender-specific imprinting of development were analysed in embryonic, placental and endometrial tissues recovered at Day 30 of gestation from a subset of primiparous sows that were either feed restricted (Restrict; n=17) or fed to appetite (Control; n=15) during the last week of the previous lactation. Embryos were also sex typed to investigate gender bias in response to treatments. Average embryonic weight was lower in the subset of Restrict compared with Control litters (1.

Lysine α-ketoglutarate reductase, but not saccharopine dehydrogenase, is subject to substrate inhibition in pig liver.

The activity of lysine α-ketoglutarate reductase (LKR), the initial enzyme in the principal pathway of lysine catabolism, is a primary determinant of whole-body lysine status. Past research indicated that LKR activity was predominantly hepatic; recent in vivo data suggest that other tissues can also catabolize lysine. The hypothesis of this investigation was that lysine catabolism takes place in extrahepatic tissues in pigs and that the enzymes involved may be subject to inhibition or activation.

Risk of septic arthritis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and the effect of anti-TNF therapy: results from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register.

Objectives: To evaluate the risk of septic arthritis (SA) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy.

Methods: Using data from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register, a prospective observational study, the authors compared the risk of SA between 11 881 anti-TNF-treated and 3673 non-biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (nbDMARD)-treated patients.

Results: 199 patients had at least one episode of SA (anti-TNF: 179, nbDMARD: 20).

Fast radiofrequency flip angle calibration by Bloch-Siegert shift.

In a recent work, we presented a novel method for B 1+ field mapping based on the Bloch-Siegert shift. Here, we apply this method to automated fast radiofrequency transmit gain calibration. Two off-resonance radiofrequency pulses were added to a slice-selective spin echo sequence.

Bisphosphonates and esophageal cancer--a pathway through the confusion.

Two recent papers that examined the association between oral bisphosphonates and the risk of esophageal cancer reported seemingly discrepant findings, despite both studies using data from the UK General Practice Research Database, from similar time periods. Each paper set out brief conclusions within their abstracts, generating two opposing impressions: that the risk of incident esophageal cancer is not significantly increased with bisphosphonate use, or that the risk is increased when bisphosphonates have been prescribed ten or more times, or for longer than 5 years. Of course, the latter conclusion was more widely reported in the popular press, and with patients arriving at the clinic wanting to discuss the reports, clinicians must be able to interpret the existing evidence correctly.