Biodiversity recovery following delta-wide measures for flood risk reduction.

Biodiversity declined markedly over the past 150 years, with the biodiversity loss in fluvial ecosystems exceeding the global average. River restoration now aims at flood safety while enhancing biodiversity and has had success locally. However, at the scale of large river distributaries, the recovery remained elusive.

Relationship Between Medial Meniscal Extrusion and Cartilage Loss in Specific Femorotibial Subregions: Data From the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Objective: Medial meniscal extrusion is known to be related to structural progression of knee osteoarthritis. However, it is unclear whether medial meniscal extrusion is more strongly associated with cartilage loss in certain medial femorotibial subregions than in others.

Methods: Segmentation of the medial tibial and femoral cartilage (baseline; 1-year followup) and the medial meniscus (baseline) was performed in 60 participants with frequent knee pain (mean ± SD ages 61.

Longitudinal change in quantitative meniscus measurements in knee osteoarthritis--data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Objective: We aimed to apply 3D MRI-based measurement technology to studying 2-year change in quantitative measurements of meniscus size and position.

Methods: Forty-seven knees from the Osteoarthritis Initiative with medial radiographic joint space narrowing had baseline and 2-year follow-up MRIs. Quantitative measures were obtained from manual segmentation of the menisci and tibia using coronal DESSwe images.

Contribution of regional 3D meniscus and cartilage morphometry by MRI to joint space width in fixed flexion knee radiography--a between-knee comparison in subjects with unilateral joint space narrowing.

Background: Radiographic joint space width (JSW) is considered the reference standard for demonstrating structural therapeutic benefits in knee osteoarthritis. Our objective was to determine the proportion by which 3D (regional) meniscus and cartilage measures explain between-knee differences of JSW in the fixed flexion radiographs.

Methods: Segmentation of the medial meniscus and tibial and femoral cartilage was performed in double echo steady state (DESS) images.

Meniscus body position, size, and shape in persons with and persons without radiographic knee osteoarthritis: quantitative analyses of knee magnetic resonance images from the osteoarthritis initiative.

Objective: To quantitatively evaluate the position, size, and shape of the menisci in subjects with radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA) compared to subjects without OA, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Methods: We studied the right knees of 39 Osteoarthritis Initiative participants (24 women and 15 men with a mean age of 59.6 ± 8.

Tibial coverage, meniscus position, size and damage in knees discordant for joint space narrowing - data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.

Introduction: Meniscal extrusion is thought to be associated with less meniscus coverage of the tibial surface, but the association of radiographic disease stage with quantitative measures of tibial plateau coverage is unknown. We therefore compared quantitative and semi-quantitative measures of meniscus position and morphology in individuals with bilateral painful knees discordant on medial joint space narrowing (mJSN).

Methods: A sample of 60 participants from the first half (2,678 cases) of the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort fulfilled the inclusion criteria: bilateral frequent pain, Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) mJSN grades 1-3 in one, no-JSN in the contra-lateral (CL), and no lateral JSN in either knee (43 unilateral mJSN1; 17 mJSN2/3; 22 men, 38 women, body mass index (BMI) 31.

Serological diagnosis of autoimmune bullous skin diseases: prospective comparison of the BIOCHIP mosaic-based indirect immunofluorescence technique with the conventional multi-step single test strategy.

Background: Various antigen-specific immunoassays are available for the serological diagnosis of autoimmune bullous diseases. However, a spectrum of different tissue-based and monovalent antigen-specific assays is required to establish the diagnosis. BIOCHIP mosaics consisting of different antigen substrates allow polyvalent immunofluorescence (IF) tests and provide antibody profiles in a single incubation.

Identification of tumor-specific Salmonella Typhimurium promoters and their regulatory logic.

Conventional cancer therapies are often limited in effectiveness and exhibit strong side effects. Therefore, alternative therapeutic strategies are demanded. The employment of tumor-colonizing bacteria that exert anticancer effects is such a novel approach that attracts increasing attention.

Interobserver reproducibility of quantitative meniscus analysis using coronal multiplanar DESS and IWTSE MR imaging.

The objective of this study was to determine the interobserver reproducibility of quantitative measures of meniscus size and position, and to compare the interobserver reproducibility and agreement between a double echo steady state water excitation and an intermediately-weighted turbo spin-echo sequence. Eight knees (four healthy, four with radiographic knee osteoarthritis) from the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort were studied. Manual segmentation of the menisci was performed by three observers and quantitative measures of meniscus size and position (i.

Revision 1 size and position of the healthy meniscus, and its correlation with sex, height, weight, and bone area- a cross-sectional study.

Background: Meniscus extrusion or hypertrophy may occur in knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, currently no data are available on the position and size of the meniscus in asymptomatic men and women with normal meniscus integrity.

Methods: Three-dimensional coronal DESSwe MRIs were used to segment and quantitatively measure the size and position of the medial and lateral menisci, and their correlation with sex, height, weight, and tibial plateau area.

Morphometric differences between the medial and lateral meniscus in healthy men - a three-dimensional analysis using magnetic resonance imaging.

The objective of this work was to characterize tibial plateau coverage and morphometric differences of the medial (MM) and lateral meniscus (LM) in a male reference cohort using three-dimensional imaging. Coronal multiplanar reconstructions of a sagittal double-echo steady state with water excitation magnetic resonance sequence (slice thickness: 1.5 mm, and in-plane resolution: 0.

Signal-theoretical DNA similarity measure revealing unexpected similarities of E. coli promoters.

We present an implementation of the signal theory based approach for detection of novel types of DNA similarity which are based on physical properties of DNA. Systematic study of the sensitivity of the new similarity measure revealed qualitative differences to letter-based similarity. A variety of physical parameters of DNA double strands, which in a straightforward way reflect different kinds of information hidden behind the primary structure of DNA, showed a wide range of recognition power of the signal similarity measure.

The role of the MHC on resistance to group a streptococci in mice.

The severity of infection with Streptococcus pyogenes is strongly influenced by the host's genetics. This observation extends to the murine model of streptococcal infection, where the background of the mouse strain determines the infection outcome (BALB/c are resistant, whereas C3H/HeN are susceptible). To determine the extent to which the MHC complex (H2) contributed to diseases susceptibility, the response to S.

Four-helix bundle topology re-engineered: monomeric Rop protein variants with different loop arrangements.

We converted the small homodimeric four-helix bundle repressor of primer protein (Rop) into a monomeric four-helix bundle by introduction of connecting loops. Both left- and right-handed four-helix bundles were produced. The left-handed bundles were more stable and were used to introduce biologically interesting peptides in one of the loops.

Comparative genomics of Listeria species.

Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen with a high mortality rate that has also emerged as a paradigm for intracellular parasitism. We present and compare the genome sequences of L. monocytogenes (2,944,528 base pairs) and a nonpathogenic species, L.

Nucleotide sequence analysis of a 32,500 bp region of the right arm of Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome IV.

We have sequenced a region containing 32.5 kb of the right arm of chromosome IV of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Twenty open reading frames (ORFs) greater than 100 amino acids could be identified in this region.