Test-retest reliability of three life balance measures in people with neuromuscular disease: the activity card sort-NL, the activity calculator, and the occupational balance questionnaire.

Purpose: Life balance is a new and important concept in occupational therapy. New measurements are needed to assess and evaluate life balance and interventions aimed to achieve this concept. This article describes the test-retest reliability of three life balance measures: the Activity Calculator (AC), Activity Card Sort (ACS-NL(18-64)) and Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ11-NL).

Pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase/lactate axis: a therapeutic target for neovascular age-related macular degeneration identified by metabolomics.

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is the leading cause of blindness in aging populations. Here, we applied metabolomics to human sera of patients with nAMD during an active (exudative) phase of the pathology and found higher lactate levels and a shift in the lipoprotein profile (increased VLDL-LDL/HDL ratio). Similar metabolomics changes were detected in the sera of mice subjected to laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV).

Benchtop Low-Frequency 60 MHz NMR Analysis of Urine: A Comparative Metabolomics Investigation.

Metabolomics techniques are now applied in numerous fields, with the ability to provide information concerning a large number of metabolites from a single sample in a short timeframe. Although high-frequency (HF) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis represents a common method of choice to perform such studies, few investigations employing low-frequency (LF) NMR spectrometers have yet been published. Herein, we apply and contrast LF and HF H-NMR metabolomics approaches to the study of urine samples collected from type 2 diabetic patients (T2D), and apply a comparative investigation with healthy controls.

Potential Adverse Public Health Effects Afforded by the Ingestion of Dietary Lipid Oxidation Product Toxins: Significance of Fried Food Sources.

Exposure of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-rich culinary oils (COs) to high temperature frying practices generates high concentrations of cytotoxic and genotoxic lipid oxidation products (LOPs) via oxygen-fueled, recycling peroxidative bursts. These toxins, including aldehydes and epoxy-fatty acids, readily penetrate into fried foods and hence are available for human consumption; therefore, they may pose substantial health hazards. Although previous reports have claimed health benefits offered by the use of PUFA-laden COs for frying purposes, these may be erroneous in view of their failure to consider the negating adverse public health threats presented by food-transferable LOPs therein.

Combining rapid 2D NMR experiments with novel pre-processing workflows and MIC quality measures for metabolomics.

Introduction: The use of 2D NMR data sources (COSY in this paper) allows to reach general metabolomics results which are at least as good as the results obtained with 1D NMR data, and this with a less advanced and less complex level of pre-processing. But a major issue still exists and can largely slow down a generalized use of 2D data sources in metabolomics: the experiment duration.

Objective: The goal of this paper is to overcome the experiment duration issue in our recently published MIC strategy by considering faster 2D COSY acquisition techniques: a conventional COSY with a reduced number of transients and the use of the Non-Uniform Sampling (NUS) method.

Pedi-IKDC or KOOS-child: which questionnaire should be used in children with knee disorders?

Background: The Pedi International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) child are validated questionnaires for children with knee disorders. The aim of this study was to translate these questionnaires in Dutch and to recommend which questionnaires should - based on their psychometric properties - be used in clinical practice.

Methods: The English Pedi-IKDC and KOOS-Child were translated by the forward-backward procedure.

Proteomic Bioprofiles and Mechanistic Pathways of Progression to Heart Failure.

Background Identifying the mechanistic pathways potentially associated with incident heart failure (HF) may provide a basis for novel preventive strategies. Methods and Results To identify proteomic biomarkers and the potential underlying mechanistic pathways that may be associated with incident HF defined as the first hospitalization for HF, a nested-matched case-control design was used with cases (incident HF) and controls (without HF) selected from 3 cohorts (>20 000 individuals). Controls were matched on cohort, follow-up time, age, and sex.

Underreported and unknown student harassment at the Faculty of Science.

Reports of sexual harassment at medical faculties throughout the world, including the Radboud University, raised the question how prevalent this is at the Faculty of Science. We performed a survey among students to assess their experiences with harassment. This questionnaire consisted of questions from the EGERA survey, a questionnaire held among staff of multiple European Universities.

Two data pre-processing workflows to facilitate the discovery of biomarkers by 2D NMR metabolomics.

Introduction: The pre-processing of analytical data in metabolomics must be considered as a whole to allow the construction of a global and unique object for any further simultaneous data analysis or multivariate statistical modelling. For 1D H-NMR metabolomics experiments, best practices for data pre-processing are well defined, but not yet for 2D experiments (for instance COSY in this paper).

Objective: By considering the added value of a second dimension, the objective is to propose two workflows dedicated to 2D NMR data handling and preparation (the Global Peak List and Vectorization approaches) and to compare them (with respect to each other and with 1D standards).

Transforming growth factor beta-induced, an extracellular matrix interacting protein, enhances glycolysis and promotes pancreatic cancer cell migration.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a deadly malignancy with no efficient therapy available up-to-date. Glycolysis is the main provider of energetic substrates to sustain cancer dissemination of PDAC. Accordingly, altering the glycolytic pathway is foreseen as a sound approach to trigger pancreatic cancer regression.

Computer and internet use among people with long-standing spinal cord injury: a cross-sectional survey in the Netherlands.

Study Design: Cross-sectional survey OBJECTIVES: To describe computer and Internet use (other than for work or study) among people with long-standing spinal cord injury (SCI), examine associations between demographic and lesion characteristics and Internet use, and examine associations between Internet use and mental health, participation, and life satisfaction.

Setting: Community, The Netherlands METHODS: Participants were 265 individuals living with SCI for at least 10 years, who were 18-35 at the onset of SCI, aged 28-65 at the time of the study and wheelchair-user. Scales for General and Health-related Internet use were developed.

Active neuroborreliosis or inflammation: are the diagnostic guidelines at stake?

Neuroborreliosis can induce a variety of neurological syndromes: e.g., cranial neuritis, plexitis, radiculitis, meningitis, cerebellitis, … We report on five cases of patients with a diagnosis of neuroborreliosis based on clinical symptoms, serologic tests and MR imaging results.

CXCL12 and MYC control energy metabolism to support adaptive responses after kidney injury.

Kidney injury is a common complication of severe disease. Here, we report that injuries of the zebrafish embryonal kidney are rapidly repaired by a migratory response in 2-, but not in 1-day-old embryos. Gene expression profiles between these two developmental stages identify cxcl12a and myca as candidates involved in the repair process.

The influence of oxygen delivery during cardiopulmonary bypass on the incidence of delirium in CABG patients; a retrospective study.

Introduction: Postoperative delirium is the most common neurological complication of cardiac surgery. Hypoxia has been shown to increase the risk of postoperative delirium. The possibility to continuously monitor oxygen delivery (DO) during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) offers an adequate approximation of the oxygen status in a patient.

PepsNMR for H NMR metabolomic data pre-processing.

In the analysis of biological samples, control over experimental design and data acquisition procedures alone cannot ensure well-conditioned H NMR spectra with maximal information recovery for data analysis. A third major element affects the accuracy and robustness of results: the data pre-processing/pre-treatment for which not enough attention is usually devoted, in particular in metabolomic studies. The usual approach is to use proprietary software provided by the analytical instruments' manufacturers to conduct the entire pre-processing strategy.

Radiotherapy-Activated Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Promote Tumor Progression through Paracrine IGF1R Activation.

Preoperative radiotherapy (RT) is a mainstay in the management of rectal cancer, a tumor characterized by desmoplastic stroma containing cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF). Although CAFs are abundantly present, the effects of RT to CAF and its impact on cancer cells are unknown. We evaluated the damage responses of CAF to RT and investigated changes in colorectal cancer cell growth, transcriptome, metabolome, and kinome in response to paracrine signals emerging from irradiated CAF.

Prognostic value of circulating microRNAs on heart failure-related morbidity and mortality in two large diverse cohorts of general heart failure patients.

Aims: Small studies suggested circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers for heart failure (HF). However, standardized approaches and quality assessment for measuring circulating miRNAs are not uniformly established, and most studies have been small, so that results are inconsistent. We used a standardized data handling protocol, optimized for circulating miRNA qPCRs to remove noise and used it to assess which circulating miRNAs robustly add prognostic information in patients with HF.

Methylglyoxal, a glycolysis side-product, induces Hsp90 glycation and YAP-mediated tumor growth and metastasis.

Metabolic reprogramming toward aerobic glycolysis unavoidably induces methylglyoxal (MG) formation in cancer cells. MG mediates the glycation of proteins to form advanced glycation end products (AGEs). We have recently demonstrated that MG-induced AGEs are a common feature of breast cancer.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Metabolomic Profiling of Mouse Kidney, Urine and Serum Following Renal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

Background: Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) is the most common cause of acute kidney injury (AKI). Its pathophysiology remains unclear. Metabolomics is dedicated to identify metabolites involved in (patho)physiological changes of integrated living systems.