Cardiovascular morphometry with high-resolution 3D magnetic resonance: First application to left ventricle diastolic dysfunction.

In this study, an image-based morphometry toolset quantifying geometric descriptors of the left ventricle, aorta and their coupling is applied to investigate whether morphological information can differentiate between subjects affected by diastolic dysfunction (patient group) and their age-matched controls (control group). The ventriculo-aortic region of 20 total participants (10 per group) were segmented from high-resolution 3D magnetic resonance images, from the left ventricle to the descending aorta. Each geometry was divided into segments in correspondence of anatomical landmarks.

Uncertainty propagation of phase contrast-MRI derived inlet boundary conditions in computational hemodynamics models of thoracic aorta.

This study investigates the impact that uncertainty in phase contrast-MRI derived inlet boundary conditions has on patient-specific computational hemodynamics models of the healthy human thoracic aorta. By means of Monte Carlo simulations, we provide advice on where, when and how, it is important to account for this source of uncertainty. The study shows that the uncertainty propagates not only to the intravascular flow, but also to the shear stress distribution at the vessel wall.

Uncovering the role of nuclear Lysyl oxidase (LOX) in advanced high grade serous ovarian cancer.

Objective: Lysyl oxidase (LOX) is an enzyme that catalyzes the cross-linking of collagen and elastin in the extracellular matrix, thus controlling the tensile strength of tissues. Along with this primary function, there are evidences supporting a role for LOX in many critical biological functions, including gene expression regulation, cell growth, adhesion and migration. Accordingly, recent studies have supported a pivotal role for LOX in cancer progression and metastasis.

Healthy and diseased coronary bifurcation geometries influence near-wall and intravascular flow: A computational exploration of the hemodynamic risk.

Local hemodynamics has been identified as one main determinant in the onset and progression of atherosclerotic lesions at coronary bifurcations. Starting from the observation that atherosensitive hemodynamic conditions in arterial bifurcation are majorly determined by the underlying anatomy, the aim of the present study is to investigate how peculiar coronary bifurcation anatomical features influence near-wall and intravascular flow patterns. Different bifurcation angles and cardiac curvatures were varied in population-based, idealized models of both stenosed and unstenosed bifurcations, representing the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery with its diagonal branch.

Physical performance in newly diagnosed hypothyroidism: a pilot study.

Objective: Hypothyroidism is complicated by neuromuscular symptoms (myalgias, slowness of movements, and tiredness) and signs (easy fatigability and cramps), which may have a negative impact on general well-being and quality of life. In a pilot, prospective, controlled study, we investigated the features of muscle dysfunction in hypothyroidism by disease questionnaire, biochemical measures, and physical performance tests.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-seven consecutive patients with newly diagnosed hypothyroidism were enrolled, 27 subclinical (S-Hypo) and 30 overt (O-Hypo).

Intratracheal instillation of neutrophils rescues bacterial overgrowth initiated by trauma damage-associated molecular patterns.

Background: Nosocomial pneumonias are common in trauma patients and so interventions to prevent and treat nosocomial pneumonia may improve outcomes. Our prior work strongly suggests that tissue injury predisposes to infections like nosocomial pneumonia because mitochondrial debris originating from injured cells contains damage-associated molecular patterns that can reduce neutrophil (PMN) migration into the airway and diminish PMN function in response to bacterial inoculation of the airway. This suggested that putting exogenous "normal" PMN into the airway might be beneficial.

Molecular characterisation, genetic variability and detection of a functional polymorphism influencing the promoter activity of OXT gene in goat and sheep.

The purpose of the study described in this Research Communication was to report the full characterisation of the goat and sheep oxytocin-neurophysin I gene (OXT), their promoters and amino acid sequences. Using the genomic DNA as template, we sequenced and compared the whole OXT gene (3 exons), plus 958/960 nucleotides at the 5' flanking region and 478/477 nucleotides at the 3' flanking region, in 46 sheep and 24 goats belonging to different breeds/genetic types reared in Italy, Greece and Germany. The comparison of the obtained sequences showed a high degree of genetic variability at these loci.

Hormone receptor expression profile of low-grade serous ovarian cancers.

Objective: Low-grade serous ovarian carcinomas (LGSOCs) are a histological subtype of epithelial ovarian tumors, accounting for fewer than 5% of all cases of ovarian carcinoma. Due to the chemoresistant nature of this subtype a search for more effective systemic therapies is actively ongoing, hormonal therapy showing some degree of activity in this clinical setting. The present study ought to investigate the hormone receptor status of LGSOCs, as a strategy to provide molecular support for patient-tailored hormonal treatments.

Children's Use of Memory Editing Strategies to Reject Source Misinformation.

This is the first reported study of children's use of two metacognitive strategies, recollection rejection and diagnostic monitoring, to reject misinformation. Recollection rejection involves the retrieval of details that disqualify an event, whereas diagnostic monitoring involves the failure to retrieve expected details. First (n = 56, age 7 years) and third graders (n = 52, age 9 years) witnessed a staged classroom interaction involving common and bizarre accidents, were presented with misinformation about the source of these events, and took a memory test.

[Lipid and glucose profile in patients with ischemic cerebrovascular accidents in Dakar].

Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) is defined as the rapid development of localized or global clinical signs of neurological dysfunction with no apparent cause other than that of vascular origin. A variety of risk factors have been identified and associated with the occurrence of Ischemic CVA, including glucose and lipid metabolism disturbances. We conducted a retrospective study at the Clinic of Neurology, Fann.

Reduced interference from memory testing: A postretrieval monitoring account.

Initial learning can interfere with subsequent learning (proactive interference [PI]), but recent work indicates initial testing can reduce PI. Here, we tested 2 alternative hypotheses of this effect: Does testing reduce PI by constraining retrieval to the target list, or by facilitating a postretrieval monitoring process? Participants first studied 4 lists of unrelated words. The study-only group performed a distractor task following each list, whereas the tested group recalled each list.

On the quantification and visualization of transient periodic instabilities in pulsatile flows.

Turbulent-like flows without cycle-to-cycle variations are more frequently being reported in studies of cardiovascular flows. The associated stimuli might be of mechanobiological relevance, but how to quantify them objectively is not obvious. Classical Reynolds decomposition, where the flow is separated into mean and fluctuating velocity components, is not applicable as the phase-average is zero.

Circulating miRNA landscape identifies miR-1246 as promising diagnostic biomarker in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma: A validation across two independent cohorts.

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is the most lethal gynecologic neoplasm, with five-year survival rate below 30%. Early disease detection is of utmost importance to improve HGSOC cure rate. Sera from 168 HGSOC patients and 65 healthy controls were gathered together from two independent collections and stratified into a training set, for miRNA marker identification, and a validation set, for data validation.

Two mechanisms of constructive recollection: Perceptual recombination and conceptual fluency.

Recollection is constructive and prone to distortion, but the mechanisms through which recollections can become embellished with rich yet illusory details are still debated. According to the conceptual fluency hypothesis, abstract semantic or conceptual activation increases the familiarity of a nonstudied event, causing one to falsely attribute imagined features to actual perception. In contrast, according to the perceptual recombination hypothesis, details from actually perceived events are partially recollected and become erroneously bound to a nonstudied event, again causing a detailed yet false recollection.

Polymyositis anti-SRP antibodies and pregnancy about 2 cases.

Anti-SRP myopathy represents 4 to 6% of all the inflammatory myopathies. It has been described since the 80s and its influence on pregnancy and vice versa has been highlighted recently. We report two cases of anti-SRP myopathy associated with pregnancy.

Variable but consistent pattern of Meningioma 1 gene (MN1) expression in different genetic subsets of acute myelogenous leukaemia and its potential use as a marker for minimal residual disease detection.

Meningioma 1 (MN1) gene overexpression has been reported in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients and identified as a negative prognostic factor. In order to characterize patients presenting gene overexpression and to verify if MN1 transcript could be a useful marker for minimal residual disease detection, MN1 was quantified in 136 AML patients with different cytogenetic risk and in 50 normal controls. In 20 patients bearing a fusion gene transcript suitable for minimal residual disease quantitative assessment and in 8 patients with NPM1 mutation, we performed a simultaneous analysis of MN1 and the fusion-gene transcript or NPM1 mutation during follow-up.

The phenotype of newly diagnosed Graves' disease in Italy in recent years is milder than in the past: results of a large observational longitudinal study.

Objective: The Merseburg triad (hyperthyroidism, goiter, and orbitopathy) characterizes classical description of Graves' disease (GD). Aim of this observational, longitudinal study was to evaluate the current clinical features of newly diagnosed GD in Italy.

Materials And Methods: In two Northern Italy centers (Varese and Pavia), 283 consecutive patients (211 women, 72 men; mean age 47.

Ovarian low and high grade serous carcinomas: hidden divergent features in the tumor microenvironment.

Only recently low-grade serous carcinoma (LGSOC) of the ovary has been recognized as a disease entity distinct from the more common high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSOC), with significant differences in pathogenesis and clinical and pathologic features. The present study aimed at evaluating whether the different natural histories and patterns of response to therapy demonstrated for LGSOC and HGSOC, along with a diverse genomic landscape, may also reside in the supporting tumor stroma, specifically in the state of differentiation and activation of tumor associated macrophages (TAMs). TAMs play complex roles in tumorigenesis since they are believed to possess both tumor rejecting (M1 macrophages) and tumor promoting (M2 macrophages) activities.

Effect of Alcohol on Encoding and Consolidation of Memory for Alcohol-Related Images.

Background: Drug and alcohol abusers develop strong memories for drug-related stimuli. Preclinical studies suggest that such memories are a result of drug actions on reward pathways, which facilitate learning about drug-related stimuli. However, few controlled studies have investigated how drugs affect memory for drug-related stimuli in humans.

Masked hypertension in newly diagnosed hypothyroidism: a pilot study.

Purpose: Masked hypertension (MH) is the association of normal office blood pressure (BP) with high ambulatory or home BP. This condition is associated with increased cardiovascular target organ damage, as true hypertension. Because the relation with hypothyroidism is controversial, we investigated it in a pilot longitudinal and controlled study.

Tetrahydro-iso-alpha Acids Antagonize Estrogen Receptor Alpha Activity in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells.

Tetrahydro-iso-alpha acids commonly called THIAA or Tetra are modified hop acids extracted from hop (Humulus lupulus L.) which are frequently used in brewing industry mainly in order to provide beer bitterness and foam stability. Interestingly, molecular structure of tetrahydro-iso-alpha acids is close to a new type of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) antagonists aimed at disrupting the binding of coactivators containing an LxxLL motif (NR-box).

The Wilms' tumor (WT1) gene expression correlates with the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) score in patients with myelofibrosis and it is a marker of response to therapy.

The Wilms tumor gene WT1 is a useful marker of clonal hematopoiesis and it has been shown to be a good marker of residual disease and it reflects the response to therapy. Although myelofibrosis is characterized by mutations of JAK2 and calreticulin (CALR), these mutations are not useful to monitor response to therapy. In this study we demonstrated that in patients affected by myelofibrosis WT1 correlates with the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) score at diagnosis.

A Versatile Bioreactor for Dynamic Suspension Cell Culture. Application to the Culture of Cancer Cell Spheroids.

A versatile bioreactor suitable for dynamic suspension cell culture under tunable shear stress conditions has been developed and preliminarily tested culturing cancer cell spheroids. By adopting simple technological solutions and avoiding rotating components, the bioreactor exploits the laminar hydrodynamics establishing within the culture chamber enabling dynamic cell suspension in an environment favourable to mass transport, under a wide range of tunable shear stress conditions. The design phase of the device has been supported by multiphysics modelling and has provided a comprehensive analysis of the operating principles of the bioreactor.

Correction: Hairless Streaks in Cattle Implicate TSR2 in Early Hair Follicle Formation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.

Validation of the Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Variability: Can Manual Segmentations Be Trusted as Ground Truth?

The common carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) is widely accepted and used as an indicator of atherosclerosis. Recent studies, however, have found that the irregularity of the IMT along the carotid artery wall has a stronger correlation with atherosclerosis than the IMT itself. We set out to validate IMT variability (IMTV), a parameter defined to assess IMT irregularities along the wall.