Background: The Association of American Medical Colleges suggests an Experiences-Attributes-Metrics framework for holistic review, but there is minimal research on demographic and personal characteristic attributes and the interplay between these Attributes subcategories. Understanding how personal attributes may vary among students considered represented and those considered underrepresented in one or more categories is critical to avoid unintentionally perpetuating practices that favor represented groups. This study explored differences in six personal characteristics either consistently related to academic performance or deemed positive professional traits based on diversity characteristics (categories of underrepresentation), age, and sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Doctor of physical therapy (PT) (DPT) programs are rigorous, and students report facing overwhelming challenges. Faculty may not be cognizant of the extent of these challenges and miss opportunities to support student learning. The purpose of this article is to describe factors affecting student coping abilities and the lessons they learned from managing their self-identified challenges.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Genet
June 2023
The (cell division cycle homolog 42) gene product, Cdc42 belongs to the Rho GTPase family which plays a pivotal role in the regulation of multiple cellular functions, including cell cycle progression, motility, migration, proliferation, transcription activation, and reactive oxygen species production. The Cdc42 molecule controls various tissue-specific functional pathways underpinning organogenesis as well as developmental integration of the hematopoietic and immune systems. Heterozygous c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The purpose of this work was to evaluate the influence of residual quadrupolar interaction on the determination of human brain apparent tissue sodium concentrations (aTSCs) using quantitative sodium magnetic resonance imaging ( 23 Na MRI) in healthy controls (HCs) and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Especially, it was investigated if the more detailed examination of residual quadrupolar interaction effects enables further analysis of the observed 23 Na MRI signal increase in MS patients.
Materials And Methods: 23 Na MRI with a 7 T MR system was performed on 21 HC and 50 MS patients covering all MS subtypes (25 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, 14 patients with secondary progressive MS, and 11 patients with primary progressive MS) using 2 different 23 Na pulse sequences for quantification: a commonly used standard sequence (aTSC Std ) as well as a sequence with shorter excitation pulse length and lower flip angle for minimizing signal loss resulting from residual quadrupolar interactions (aTSC SP ).
Many female people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) are in childbearing age; however, only few data exist about the situation of breastfeeding in pwMS. Our study analyzed breastfeeding rate and duration, reasons for weaning, and the impact of disease severity on successful breastfeeding in pwMS. The study included pwMS giving birth within 3 years before study participation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRNA-binding proteins (RBPs) control every RNA metabolic process by multiple protein-RNA and protein-protein interactions. Their roles have largely been analyzed by crude mutations, which abrogate multiple functions at once and likely impact the structural integrity of the large ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs) these proteins function in. Using UV-induced RNA-protein crosslinking of entire cells, protein complex purification and mass spectrometric analysis, we identified >100 in vivo RNA crosslinks in 16 nuclear mRNP components in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvolutionary change following gene duplication can lead to functionally divergent paralogous proteins. If comprising identical subunits their random assortment would also form potentially detrimental heteromeric proteins. In Arabidopsis, the ARF GTPase guanine-nucleotide exchange factor GNOM is essential for polar recycling of auxin-efflux transporter PIN1 from endosomes to the basal plasma membrane whereas its paralog GNL1 mediates retrograde Golgi-endoplasmic reticulum traffic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFApparent tissue sodium concentrations (aTSCs) determined by Na brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have the potential to serve as a biomarker in pathologies such as multiple sclerosis (MS). However, the quantification is hindered by the intrinsically low signal-to-noise ratio of Na MRI. The purpose of this study was to improve the accuracy and reliability of quantitative Na brain MRI by implementing a dedicated postprocessing pipeline and to evaluate the applicability of the developed approach for the examination of MS patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To demonstrate direct imaging of the white matter ultrashort T components at 7 Tesla using inversion recovery (IR)-enhanced ultrashort echo time (UTE) MRI. To investigate its characteristics, potentials and limitations, and to establish a clinical protocol.
Material And Methods: The IR UTE technique suppresses long T signals within white matter by using adiabatic inversion in combination with dual-echo difference imaging.
Background: Sodium enhancement has been demonstrated in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions.
Purpose: To investigate sodium MRI with and without an inversion recovery pulse in acute MS lesions in an MS relapse and during recovery.
Study Type: Prospective.
Background: Pivotal trials showed good clinical efficiency of the monoclonal antibody ocrelizumab while being well tolerated and manageable in multiple sclerosis (MS). However, data on adverse events in everyday practice are scarce. Hence, our study aims at investigating short-term tolerability of ocrelizumab in a "real-world" setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn multiple sclerosis (MS), experimental and studies indicate that pathologic intra- and extracellular sodium accumulation may play a pivotal role in inflammatory as well as neurodegenerative processes. Yet, assessment of sodium in the microenvironment is hard to achieve. Here, sodium magnetic resonance imaging (NaMRI) with its non-invasive properties offers a unique opportunity to further elucidate the effects of sodium disequilibrium in MS pathology in addition to regular proton based MRI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Physical therapy, along with most health professions, struggles to describe clinical reasoning, despite it being a vital skill in effective patient care. This lack of a unified conceptualization of clinical reasoning leads to variable and inconsistent teaching, assessment, and research.
Objective: The objective was to conceptualize a broad description of physical therapists' clinical reasoning grounded in the published literature and to unify understanding for future work related to teaching, assessment, and research.
Background: Over the last decade, therapy of relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) has evolved with the approval of several new treatment concepts. Thus, treatment goals have become more ambitious aiming at "no evidence of disease activity" (NEDA). As NEDA-3, this concept comprises freedom of clinical disease progression and relapses as well as inflammatory MRI activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSecondary paroxysmal dyskinesia is a rare but life-quality-compromising symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS) and might be associated with particular MS lesions. The present study intended to determine associations between paroxysmal dyskinesia and the MS-associated lesion site using a voxelwise lesion analysis. We conducted a retrospective study and sought MS patients with documented paroxysmal dyskinesia and controls without paroxysmal dyskinesia matched for age, disease severity, and disease duration in a local database.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) requires efficient immunomodulatory treatment to reach "no evidence of disease activity" status at best. Alemtuzumab and fingolimod have proved to be efficient options in RRMS with active disease course. Yet, side effects and break-through disease may limit long-time treatment and necessitate switch of medication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the CNS typically show a limited lesion size. However, extended lesions may appear with an atypical configuration. Large lesions with a diameter>2cm accompanied by tumor-like edema are entitled "tumefactive" and may occur in multiple sclerosis (MS) and other demyelinating diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The objectives of the study were to 1) describe the implementation of the "Testing is Healthy" campaign in four locations in British Columbia (BC) and 2) report process evaluation indicators for the campaign.
Participants: Young adults ages 20-29 years, the age group with the highest reported rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in BC.
Settings: Movie theatres located in Langley, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey, which are communities served by the Fraser Health Authority (FHA) in BC.
Fingolimod is an oral sphingosine-1-phosphate-receptor modulator which reduces the recirculation of immune cells and may also directly target glial cells. Here we investigate effects of fingolimod on expression of astroglial glutamate transporters under pro-inflammatory conditions. In astrocyte cell culture, the addition of pro-inflammatory cytokines led to a significant downregulation of glutamate transporters glutamate transporter-1 (slc1a2/SLC1A2) and glutamate aspartate transporter (slc1a3/SLC1A3) expression on the mRNA or protein level.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the CNS typically affecting younger adults and resulting in neuro-axonal degeneration already at early stages of the disease. Less is known about the effects of a later disease onset (LOMS, onset >50years of age). Analysis of retinal layers by optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive method to investigate retinal and neuro-axonal degeneration.
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