PHYSIOLOGICAL BASAL PARAMETERS OF FREE-RANGING OPOSSUMS ( DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA) IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA, MEXICO.

  The aim of the present study is to determine the basal parameters in opossums ( Didelphis virginiana) during physical examination in Yucatan, Mexico. Sixty-six opossums were captured and manually handled for physical examinations. Sex, age, cardiac and respiratory rate, body temperature, pulse, mucous membranes, capillary refill time, hydration, size of superficial lymph nodes, mental status, and body condition were evaluated.

The First Year of the AEVD Primary Cutaneous Lymphoma Registry.

Background And Objective: Primary cutaneous lymphomas are uncommon. This article describes the Primary Cutaneous Lymphoma Registry of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV) and reports on the results from the first year.

Patients And Methods: Disease registry for patients with primary cutaneous lymphoma.

Sequential Induction of Chirality in Helical Polymers: From the Stereocenter to the Achiral Solvent.

Several steps of chiral induction have been detected in poly(phenylacetylene)s among their different hierarchical levels of chirality by vibrational circular dichroism, namely, (i) from the stereogenic centers to the innermost polyacetylene helical covalent backbone (helix), (ii) from this to the external helix (helix) formed by the side phenyl pendants that form a complementary helix or counter-helix, and (iii) from this pendant helix to the helical solvation sphere (helix), the last one being observed along this work. The pendant to polyene backbone chiral induction determines the helical structure adopted by the polymer and therefore the solvation helix. This helical structure is promoted by two mechanisms: steric effects and hydrogen bonding.

Microencapsulation of lutein by spray-drying: Characterization and stability analyses to promote its use as a functional ingredient.

Lutein, a xanthophyll, is associated to decreased risk of age-related macular degeneration, atherosclerosis and other diseases (Bovier et al., 2013; El-raey, Ibrahim, & Eldahshan, 2013). When lutein is extracted, it becomes highly unstable, reducing its functionality as an antioxidant.

Destabilizing mutations encode nongenetic variation that drives evolutionary innovation.

Evolutionary innovations are often achieved by repurposing existing genes to perform new functions; however, the mechanisms enabling the transition from old to new remain controversial. We identified mutations in bacteriophage λ's host-recognition gene that confer enhanced adsorption to λ's native receptor, LamB, and the ability to access a new receptor, OmpF. The mutations destabilize λ particles and cause conformational bistability of J, which yields progeny of multiple phenotypic forms, each proficient at different receptors.

Choices Behind Numbers: a Review of the Major Air Pollution Health Impact Assessments in Europe.

Purpose Of Review: The aim of this review is to identify the key contextual and methodological differences in health impact assessments (HIA) of ambient air pollution performed for Europe. We limited our review to multi-country reviews. An additional aim is to quantify some of these differences by applying them in a HIA template in three European cities.

Aronia-citrus juice (polyphenol-rich juice) intake and elite triathlon training: a lipidomic approach using representative oxylipins in urine.

In the present study, we examined whether particular urinary oxylipins (isoprostanes (IsoPs), leukotrienes (LTs), prostaglandins (PGs), and thromboxanes (TXs)) in 16 elite triathletes could alter during 145 days of training. Within this time span, 45 days were dedicated to examining the effects of the intake of a beverage rich in polyphenols (one serving: 200 mL per day) supplemented in their diet. The beverage was a mixture of citrus juice (95%) and Aronia melanocarpa juice (5%) (ACJ).

Sex Ed by Brown Med: A Student-Run Curriculum and Its Impact on Sexual Health Knowledge.

Background And Objectives: Risky sexual behavior among adolescents is a public health crisis. We describe a novel approach to sexual health education where medical students manage a curriculum for an entire seventh grade in one Rhode Island city to better equip students with comprehensive knowledge about sexual health.

Methods: Medical students were trained to teach 12 sessions to seventh-grade students under the supervision of the classroom teacher using a curriculum designed by medical students and faculty (modeled on the Family Life and Sexual Health [FLASH] curriculum but tailored to meet the community's needs).

Transpiration Response and Growth in Pearl Millet Parental Lines and Hybrids Bred for Contrasting Rainfall Environments.

Under conditions of high vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and soil drying, restricting transpiration is an important avenue to gain efficiency in water use. The question we raise in this article is whether breeding for agro-ecological environments that differ for the rainfall have selected for traits that control plant water use. These are measured in pearl millet materials bred for zones varying in rainfall (8 combinations of parent and F-hybrids, 18 F-hybrids and then 40 F-hybrids).

Patient and physician satisfaction in an observational study with methyl aminolevulinate daylight photodynamic therapy in the treatment of multiple actinic keratoses of the face and scalp in six European countries.

Background: Guidelines recommend treating actinic keratoses (AKs) as they are recognized as precursors of invasive squamous cell carcinoma.

Objective: The objective of this study was to collect real-world clinical data on the use of methyl aminolevulinate daylight photodynamic therapy (MAL DL-PDT) for the treatment of face and scalp AK in Europe.

Methods: A prospective, multicenter, non-interventional study was conducted in six European countries in patients receiving a single treatment of MAL DL-PDT for face and/or scalp AK.

Untargeted metabolomics reveals specific withanolides and fatty acyl glycoside as tentative metabolites to differentiate organic and conventional Physalis peruviana fruits.

The agronomic production systems may affect the levels of food metabolites. Metabolomics approaches have been applied as useful tool for the characterization of fruit metabolome. In this study, metabolomics techniques were used to assess the differences in phytochemical composition between goldenberry samples produced by organic and conventional systems.

MicroRNA and mRNA Dysregulation in Astrocytes Infected with Zika Virus.

The Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic is an ongoing public health concern. ZIKV is a flavivirus reported to be associated with microcephaly, and recent work in animal models demonstrates the ability of the virus to cross the placenta and affect fetal brain development. Recent findings suggest that the virus preferentially infects neural stem cells and thereby deregulates gene expression, cell cycle progression, and increases cell death.

Tactile localization biases are modulated by gaze direction.

Identifying the spatial location of touch on the skin surface is a fundamental function of our somatosensory system. Despite the fact that stimulation of even single mechanoreceptive afferent fibres is sufficient to produce clearly localised percepts, tactile localisation can be modulated also by higher level processes such as body posture. This suggests that tactile events are coded using multiple representations using different coordinate systems.

Epileptogenic networks in nodular heterotopia: A stereoelectroencephalography study.

Objective: Defining the roles of heterotopic and normotopic cortex in the epileptogenic networks in patients with nodular heterotopia is challenging. To elucidate this issue, we compared heterotopic and normotopic cortex using quantitative signal analysis on stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) recordings.

Methods: Clinically relevant biomarkers of epileptogenicity during ictal (epileptogenicity index; EI) and interictal recordings (high-frequency oscillation and spike) were evaluated in 19 patients undergoing SEEG.

Presurgical thalamocortical connectivity is associated with response to vagus nerve stimulation in children with intractable epilepsy.

Although chronic vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an established treatment for medically-intractable childhood epilepsy, there is considerable heterogeneity in seizure response and little data are available to pre-operatively identify patients who may benefit from treatment. Since the therapeutic effect of VNS may be mediated by afferent projections to the thalamus, we tested the hypothesis that intrinsic thalamocortical connectivity is associated with seizure response following chronic VNS in children with epilepsy. Twenty-one children (ages 5-21 years) with medically-intractable epilepsy underwent resting-state fMRI prior to implantation of VNS.

Phenolic composition profiling of different edible parts and by-products of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by using HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS.

Fruits and vegetables are an important source of dietary antioxidants and epidemiological studies show that their regular intake in the diet may decrease the risk of several chronic diseases. Phoenix dactylifera L. (date palm or dates) is an important crop, widely used in the Arabian region and in other parts of the world as a food and also in folk medicine, due to its health-promoting properties.

Effect of the dietary intake of melatonin- and hydroxytyrosol-rich wines by healthy female volunteers on the systemic lipidomic-related oxylipins.

Oxylipins are lipid mediators involved in the physiopathology of all organs. Moreover, isoprostanes have been established as general and reliable in vivo oxidative stress biomarkers. Red wine has proved to exert several benefits through the maintenance of the oxidative balance of the organism.

Fluorous Phase-Directed Peptide Assembly Affords Nano-Peptisomes Capable of Ultrasound-Triggered Cellular Delivery.

Here, we report the design, synthesis and efficacy of a new class of ultrasound (US)-sensitive self-assembled peptide-based nanoparticle. Peptisomes are prepared via templated assembly of a de novo designed peptide at the interface of fluorinated nanodroplets. Utilizing peptide assembly allows for facile particle synthesis, direct incorporation of bioactive sequences displayed from the particle corona, and the ability to easily encapsulate biologics during particle preparation using a mild solvent exchange procedure.

Genotoxicity induced by monomethylarsonous acid (MMA) in mouse thymic developing T cells.

Drinking water exposure to arsenic is known to cause immunotoxicity. Our previous studies demonstrated that monomethylarsonous acid (MMA) was the major arsenical species presented in mouse thymus cells after a 30 d drinking water exposure to arsenite (As). MMA was also showed to be ten times more toxic than As on the suppression of IL-7/STAT5 signaling in the double negative (DN) thymic T cells.

Thalidomide for the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Bleeding Due to Angiodysplasia in a Patient with Glanzmann's Thrombasthenia.

Angiodysplasia is a frequent cause of persistent gastrointestinal (GI) hemorrhage in elderly patients. Although GI bleeding isn't the most common manifestation in patients with bleeding disorders, when present, it represents a challenging complication. We describe a 62-year-old patient with Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, who used thalidomide for severe and recurrent GI bleeding.

Optimal response to dimethyl fumarate associates in MS with a shift from an inflammatory to a tolerogenic blood cell profile.

Background: The precise mechanism of action of dimethyl fumarate (DMF) treatment in MS remains unknown.

Objective: To identify the changes in the blood lymphocyte profile of MS patients predicting no evidence of disease activity (NEDA) status after DMF treatment.

Methods: We studied blood lymphocyte subsets of 64 MS patients treated with DMF at baseline and after 6 months of treatment by flow cytometry.

Intermittent low platelet counts hampering diagnosis of X-linked thrombocytopenia in children: report of two unrelated cases and a novel mutation in the gene coding for the Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein.

Background: Thrombocytopenia can occur in different circumstances during childhood and although immune thrombocytopenia is its most frequent cause, it is important to consider other conditions, especially when there is a persistent or recurrent low platelet count. We report two cases of intermittent thrombocytopenia, previously misdiagnosed as immune thrombocytopenia.

Cases Presentation: Both cases described were boys who presented with an intermittent pattern of thrombocytopenia, with a persistently low mean platelet volume.

Evaluation of the immature platelet fraction contribute to the differential diagnosis of hereditary, immune and other acquired thrombocytopenias.

The differential diagnosis of immune (ITP) and hereditary macrothrombocytopenia (HM) is key to patient management. The immature platelet fraction (IPF) represents the subset of circulating platelets with higher RNA content, and has been shown to distinguish hypo- from hyperproliferative thrombocytopenias. Here we evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of IPF in the differential diagnosis between HM and other thrombocytopenias in a population of patients with post-chemotherapy thrombocytopenia (n = 56), bone marrow failure (n = 22), ITP (n = 105) and HM (n = 27).

Prenatal manganese exposure and intrinsic functional connectivity of emotional brain areas in children.

Manganese (Mn) is an essential trace metal that is neurotoxic at high levels of exposure. Disruption of brain maturation processes during the prenatal period may have lasting consequences. During this critical period, the developing human brain is uniquely vulnerable to exposure to environmental toxicants such as Mn, and prenatal Mn exposure has been associated with changes in brain areas involved in emotion processing and regulation.