Association of Baseline Lipopolysaccharide-Binding Protein with Expanded Disability Status Score Dynamics in Patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis: A Pilot Study.

Forecasting the progression of the disease in the early inflammatory stage of the most prevalent type of multiple sclerosis (MS), referred to as relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), is essential for making prompt treatment modifications, aimed to reduce clinical relapses and disability. In total, 58 patients with RRMS, having an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score less than 4, were included in this study. Baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed, and brain and spinal cord lesions were evaluated.

Applying Psycholinguistic Evidence to the Construction of a New Test of Verbal Memory in Late-Life Cognitive Decline: The Auditory Wordlist Learning Test.

The construction of the German Auditory Wordlist Learning Test (AWLT) for the assessment of verbal memory in late-life cognitive decline was guided by psycholinguistic evidence, which indicates that a word's linguistic characteristics influence its probability of being learned and recalled. The AWLT includes four trials of learning, short and long delayed free recall, and a recognition task. Its words were selected with taking into account their semantic content, orthographic length, frequency in the language, and orthographic neighborhood size (the number of words derived by adding, subtracting, or replacing a single letter at a time).

The 5-amino acid N-terminal extension of non-sulfated drosulfakinin II is a unique target to generate novel agonists.

The ability to design agonists that target peptide signaling is a strategy to delineate underlying mechanisms and influence biology. A sequence that uniquely characterizes a peptide provides a distinct site to generate novel agonists. Drosophila melanogaster sulfakinin encodes non-sulfated drosulfakinin I (nsDSK I; FDDYGHMRF-NH2) and nsDSK II (GGDDQFDDYGHMRF-NH2).

Assessing Planning Ability Across the Adult Life Span: Population-Representative and Age-Adjusted Reliability Estimates for the Tower of London (TOL-F).

Planning ahead the consequences of future actions is a prototypical executive function. In clinical and experimental neuropsychology, disc-transfer tasks like the Tower of London (TOL) are commonly used for the assessment of planning ability. Previous psychometric evaluations have, however, yielded a poor reliability of measuring planning performance with the TOL.

Assessment of planning ability: Psychometric analyses on the unidimensionality and construct validity of the Tower of London Task (TOL-F).

Objective: The Tower of London (TOL) is widely used to assess planning ability as a prototypical executive function in healthy and clinical populations. Despite its popularity, there is still no consensus on (a) whether the TOL measures a psychometrically unidimensional trait, and (b) how differences in problem structure relate to the difficulty of individual items.

Method: Employing the framework of factor analysis and item response theory we investigated these issues of construct validity in a sample of 798 participants (443 female; 16 to 84 years).

The Internet School of Medicine: use of electronic resources by medical trainees and the reliability of those resources.

Background: Electronic sources of medical information are plentiful, and numerous studies have demonstrated the use of the Internet by patients and the variable reliability of these sources. Studies have investigated neither the use of web-based resources by residents, nor the reliability of the information available on these websites.

Methods: A web-based survey was distributed to surgical residents in Michigan and third- and fourth-year medical students at an American allopathic and osteopathic medical school and a Caribbean allopathic school regarding their preferred sources of medical information in various situations.

Simulation training improves resident performance in hand-sewn vascular and bowel anastomoses.

Background: Surgical training has recently emphasized simulation-based training of core surgical skills and tasks such as bowel and vascular anastomoses. This may increase efficiency of training within the operating room. Objective data regarding the effectiveness of instruction or monitoring progress in simulating vascular and bowel anastomoses are lacking.

Short-term surgical mission to the Dominican Republic: a cost-benefit analysis.

Objective: This study determines the cost-effectiveness of a recurring short-term surgical mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

Background: The global burden of surgical disease is significant. Recent investigations have shown surgical treatment to be cost-effective at established hospitals within low- or middle-income countries (LMIC), drawing attention to surgical diseases world-wide.

Program directors' perspective of transplant training during general surgery residency.

In 2011, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) began to mandate "a formal transplant experience" rather than a formal rotation to allow programs more flexibility. What constitutes a "transplant experience" or how to optimize such education remains unclear. The objectives of this study were to identify changes in residents' transplant exposure and determine the opinions of program directors (PDs) in response to the new requirements.

Internal hernias through the falciform ligament: a case series and comprehensive literature review of an increasingly common pathology.

Purpose: Internal hernias remain difficult to diagnose, despite advances in preoperative imaging. The anatomy of internal hernias varies widely, but herniation through the falciform ligament remains a rare entity. Sparse case reports are present, and no review has adequately synthesized all available information within the literature.

The different effects of structurally related sulfakinins on Drosophila melanogaster odor preference and locomotion suggest involvement of distinct mechanisms.

Sulfakinins are myoactive peptides and antifeedant factors. Naturally occurring drosulfakinin I (DSK I; FDDYGHMRFNH(2)) and drosulfakinin II (DSK II; GGDDQFDDYGHMRFNH(2)) contain sulfated or nonsulfated tyrosine. We discovered sDSK II and nsDSK II influenced Drosophila melanogaster larval odor preference.

Toxicological evaluation of mu-agonists. Part II: Assessment of toxicity following 30 days of repeated oral dosing of male and female rats with levo-alpha-noracetylmethadol HCl (NorLAAM).

This study evaluated levo-alpha-noracetylmethadol (NorLAAM), the first N-demethylated metabolite of levo-alpha-acetylmethadol (LAAM), a long-acting morphine-like (mu) agonist, approved in 1993 to treat opiate dependence. After acute and 7-day pilot studies to define dose levels appropriate for use in longer term evaluations, Sprague-Dawley rats (20 of each sex per group) were gavaged with doses of 4.4-25.

Toxicological evaluation of mu-agonists. Part I: Assessment of toxicity following 30 days of repeated oral dosing of male and female rats with levo-alpha-acetylmethadol HCl (LAAM).

This study evaluated levo-alpha-acetylmethadol hydrochloride (LAAM), a long-acting morphine-like (mu) agonist approved in 1993 to treat opiate dependence. Sprague-Dawley rate (20/sex/group) were gavaged with doses of 3.0-33.

Dominant lethal assay of chlordecone and its distribution in the male reproductive tissues of the rat.

Male rats received 3.6 or 11.4 mg/kg/day of chlordecone orally for 5 days.

Pharmacological effects of 1,2,3,5,6,10b-hexahydropyrido[2,3g]indolizine, a bridged-nicotine analog.

The racemate of a bridged-nicotine (BN) analog was synthesized and resolved into its enantiomers for pharmacological comparisons to (+)- and (-)-nicotine. The EC50 values for (-)- and (+)-nicotine and (-)- and (+)-BN were 4, 170, 53 and 400 microM, respectively, for producing contractions of guinea-pig ilea. (-)-Nicotine was an effective antinociceptive agent in the mouse tail-flick procedure at i.

Acute toxicity of monochlorophenols, dichlorophenols and pentachlorophenol in the mouse.

Acute oral LD50 values were determined for 2-, 3-, and 4-chlorophenol, 2,3-, 2,4-, 2,5-, 2,6-, 3,4-, and 3,5 dichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol in male and female mice. LD50 values (mg/kg) ranged from 117 (females) and 177 (males) for pentachlorophenol to 2389 (females) and 2643 (males) for 3,5-dichlorophenol. It was found that 2-chlorophenol and 3-chlorophenol were considerably more toxic than the dichlorophenol series.

Acute and subchronic toxicity of 2,4-dichlorophenol in CD-1 mice.

The acute oral LD50 of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) employing corn oil as vehicle was determined to be 1352 mg/kg for female and 1276 mg/kg for male CD-1 mice. CD-1 mice of both sexes were exposed to 2,4-DCP in drinking water containing 10% Emulphor for 90 days at concentrations of 0.2, 0.

Reproductive toxicity and lack of dominant lethal effects of 2,4-dinitrotoluene in the male rat.

Adult male Sprague Dawley rats were gavaged with 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) dissolved in corn oil at 0, 60, 180, or 240 mg/kg/day for five days. A single oral dose (0.5 mg/kg) of triethylenemelamine was used as a positive control.

The effects of acetaldehyde and acrolein on blood pressure in guanethidine-pretreated hypertensive rats.

These experiments were undertaken to study the effect of the interaction of the antihypertensive agent guanethidine and two aldehydes possessing sympathomimetic activity on the blood pressure of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Acetaldehyde, when administered iv to acutely guanethidine-pretreated (15 mg/kg) SHRs under urethane anesthesia, caused a potentiated pressor response in the dose range of 3 to 40 mg/kg. When administered iv to chronically guanethidine-pretreated SHRs, a pressor response was noted at low doses and a depressor response at high doses.

Effects of intravenous acetaldehyde, acrolein, formaldehyde and propionaldehyde on arterial blood pressure following acute guanethidine treatment.

Guanethidine (G) is currently used in the treatment of essential hypertension. Acetaldehyde (A), acrolein (AR), formaldehyde (F) and propionaldehyde (P) are constituents of cigarette smoke and (A) is also an intermediate oxidative metabolite of ethanol. These aldehydes are known to produce sympathomimetic effects by the release of NE from adrenergic neurons and to exert cardioinhibitory effects.