Cervical spinal cord morphometrics in degenerative cervical myelopathy: quantification using semi-automated normalized technique and correlation with neurological dysfunctions.

Background Context: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is characterized by spinal cord atrophy. Accurate estimation of spinal cord atrophy is key to the understanding of neurological diseases, including DCM. However, its clinical application is hampered by difficulties in its precise and consistent estimation due to significant variability in spinal cord morphometry along the cervical spine, both within and between individuals.

Porous orbital implant after enucleation in retinoblastoma patients: indications and complications.

This study aims to identify risk factors associated with complications in retinoblastoma patients following primary and secondary enucleations with porous implant placement. A retrospective case-control study was performed between 2010 and 2015. Data pertaining to subjects' demographics, medical history, clinical, and pathological findings, implant characteristics and complications were collected.

Neighborhood Factors and Urinary Metabolites of Nicotine, Phthalates, and Dichlorobenzene.

Background And Objectives: Exposures to environmental chemicals are ubiquitous in the US. Little is known about how neighborhood factors contribute to exposures.

Methods: Growing Up Healthy is a prospective cohort study of environmental exposures and growth and development among Hispanic and African American children ( = 506) in New York City.

Potential of Aqueous Humor as a Surrogate Tumor Biopsy for Retinoblastoma.

Importance: Retinoblastoma (Rb) is one of the first tumors to have a known genetic etiology. However, because biopsy of this tumor is contraindicated, it has not been possible to define the effects of secondary genetic changes on the disease course.

Objective: To investigate whether the aqueous humor (AH) of Rb eyes has sufficient tumor-derived DNA to perform genetic analysis of the tumor, including DNA copy number alterations.

Risk of metastasis and orbital recurrence in advanced retinoblastoma eyes treated with systemic chemoreduction versus primary enucleation.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk of metastatic disease and orbital recurrence in advanced retinoblastoma treated with systemic chemoreduction versus primary enucleation.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients with Group D/E retinoblastoma was conducted with data collection from 1995 to 2015. Overall, 345 eyes (294 patients) were included (165 Group D and 180 Group E).

Treatment Outcomes of Focal Laser Consolidation during Chemoreduction for Group B Retinoblastoma.

Purpose: To evaluate the ocular treatment outcomes of focal laser consolidation during systemic chemoreduction for Group B tumors in the posterior fundus.

Design: Single-institution retrospective chart review from 1995 to 2016.

Participants: Patients with Group B retinoblastoma with at least 1 tumor in the posterior fundus.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and indicators of immune function in children aged 12-19 y: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Background: Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are immunotoxic in laboratory studies. Human studies of immune effects are inconsistent. Using the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we examined PFAS serum concentration and indicators of prevalent immune function among 12-19-y-old children.

Environmental phenols and pubertal development in girls.

Environmental exposures to many phenols are documented worldwide and exposures can be quite high (>1 μM of urine metabolites). Phenols have a range of hormonal activity, but knowledge of effects on child reproductive development is limited, coming mostly from cross-sectional studies. We undertook a prospective study of pubertal development among 1239 girls recruited at three U.

Surpassing the Target: How a Recruitment Campaign Transformed the Participant Accrual Trajectory in the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project.

Participant recruitment challenges pervade the majority of publicly funded clinical trials. However, little is known about methods for enhancing participant accrual. The Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project (EPGP), a multicenter study funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), aimed to enroll a total of 5,250 participants to better understand the genetic causes and phenotypic manifestations of epilepsy.

Systems biology of cancer: a challenging expedition for clinical and quantitative biologists.

A systems-biology approach to complex disease (such as cancer) is now complementing traditional experience-based approaches, which have typically been invasive and expensive. The rapid progress in biomedical knowledge is enabling the targeting of disease with therapies that are precise, proactive, preventive, and personalized. In this paper, we summarize and classify models of systems biology and model checking tools, which have been used to great success in computational biology and related fields.

Dietary predictors of urinary environmental biomarkers in young girls, BCERP, 2004-7.

Background: Exposures of children to phthalates, parabens, and bisphenol-A (BPA) are of concern because of their hormonal potential. These agents are found in a wide range of foods and packaging. We investigated whether intake of certain foods predict exposures to these chemicals in young girls.

Asthma and physical activity in multiracial girls from three US sites.

Objective: Studies comparing physical activity levels in children with and without asthma have had mixed results. Our objective was to investigate the association between asthma diagnosis and physical activity and to examine differences in these associations by race/ethnicity, weight status and caregiver education.

Methods: We investigated the association between asthma (defined as report of physician-diagnosed asthma with at least one asthma related symptom) and measures of physical and sedentary activity in a study of 6- to 8-year-old girls in the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Project.

Associations between neighborhood resources and physical activity in inner-city minority children.

Objective: The role of neighborhood physical activity resources on childhood physical activity level is increasingly examined in pediatric obesity research. We describe how availability of physical activity resources varies by individual and block characteristics and then examine its associations with physical activity levels of Latino and black children in East Harlem, New York City.

Methods: Physical activity resource availability by individual and block characteristics were assessed in 324 children.

A lysine-rich arabinogalactan protein in Arabidopsis is essential for plant growth and development, including cell division and expansion.

Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs), a family of hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins, occur throughout the plant kingdom. The lysine-rich classical AGP subfamily in Arabidopsis consists of three members, AtAGP17, 18 and 19. In this study, AtAGP19 was examined in terms of its gene expression pattern and function.