Neural mechanisms driving speech and language recovery following childhood stroke: a scoping review.

Purpose: This scoping review aimed to inform future research priorities by collating evidence on neural correlates of speech and language recovery following childhood stroke.

Methods: Neuroimaging, motor speech, or language outcomes following childhood stroke (28 days to 18 years age) in the subacute to chronic community stages (care occurring after acute medical management, including inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, and community-based programs) were identified and extracted from Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, and Clinical databases.

Results: Of the 3990 studies screened, 11 met the inclusion criteria.

Review on Sertoli-Leydig Cell Tumours of the Ovary.

Sertoli-Leydig cell tumours (SLCTs) represent a subset of mixed sex cord-stromal tumours (SCSTs), a rare form of non-epithelial ovarian tumours comprising less than 7% of malignant cases. Among other types of SCSTs, SLCTs are one of the more prevalent types observed in young adults. SLCTs are classified into 5 histologic categories based on differentiation levels and histological variants.

Benefits, limitations and implementation issues for integrating organic foods into hospital foodservices: a systematic review.

Background: Public institutions have the opportunity to implement environmental sustainability policies through leveraging their buying potential. Given the role of hospitals within the food system, the implementation of sustainable initiatives into hospital foodservices is a priority. Compared to conventional agricultural methods, organic food production uses more sustainable practices and warrants consideration for utilisation in hospitals.

Observational, Retrospective Evaluation of a New Nurse-Initiated Emergency Department Pain Management Protocol.

Background: Triage nurses are important in pain management and in early relief of pain among patients admitted to the emergency department (ED).

Aims: To assess a new nurse-initiated pain management protocol, without the requirement for medical prescription, wich was implemented in October 2016 for patients with moderate or severe pain in the ED. It allows the administration of oral acetaminophen and oral oxycodone chlorydrate during the first evaluation of the patient by a nurse and eliminates the use of codeine or tramadol.

CD47 prevents the elimination of diseased fibroblasts in scleroderma.

Scleroderma is a devastating fibrotic autoimmune disease. Current treatments are partly effective in preventing disease progression but do not remove fibrotic tissue. Here, we evaluated whether scleroderma fibroblasts take advantage of the "don't-eat-me-signal" CD47 and whether blocking CD47 enables the body's immune system to get rid of diseased fibroblasts.

Emerging atypical connectivity networks for processing angry and fearful faces in very preterm born children.

Very preterm born (VPT) children are those born before 32/40 weeks' gestational age and comprise 10% of the 15 million babies born prematurely worldwide each year. Due to advancements in neonatal medicine, the survival rate of VPT birth has increased, but few studies have investigated the nonmedical, social-cognitive morbidities that affect these children. In this study, we examined emotional face processing networks in VPT compared to age and sex matched full-term born (FT) children.

Expansion of Bone Precursors through Jun as a Novel Treatment for Osteoporosis-Associated Fractures.

Osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures lead to decreased life quality and high healthcare costs. Current treatments prevent losses in bone mass and fractures to some extent but have side effects. Therefore, better therapies are needed.

Sport Sampling Is Associated With Improved Landing Technique in Youth Athletes.

Background: Sport sampling is recommended to promote fundamental movement skill acquisition and physical activity. In contrast, sport specialization is associated with musculoskeletal injury risk, burnout, and attrition from sport. There is limited evidence to support the influence of sport sampling on neuromuscular control, which is associated with injury risk, in youth athletes.

The role of seminal fluid in infertility.

Approximately 15% of couples worldwide are considered infertile, with up to 50% due to a defect in the male reproductive physiology. Many of these latter defects are idiopathic or genetically related and mostly focused on the spermatozoon and as such, the majority of studies to date have focused mainly on disorders related with the sperm cell. In this review, the importance of seminal fluid integrity and its effect on the female reproductive physiology is described in the context of male infertility.

oocytes detect meiotic errors in the absence of canonical end-on kinetochore attachments.

Mitotically dividing cells use a surveillance mechanism, the spindle assembly checkpoint, that monitors the attachment of spindle microtubules to kinetochores as a means of detecting errors. However, end-on kinetochore attachments have not been observed in oocytes and chromosomes instead associate with lateral microtubule bundles; whether errors can be sensed in this context is not known. Here, we show that oocytes delay key events in anaphase, including AIR-2/Aurora B relocalization to the microtubules, in response to a variety of meiotic defects, demonstrating that errors can be detected in these cells and revealing a mechanism that regulates anaphase progression.

Potential contribution of mitochondrial DNA damage associated molecular patterns in transfusion products to the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome after multiple transfusions.

Background: Massive transfusions are accompanied by an increased incidence of a particularly aggressive and lethal form of acute lung injury (delayed transfusion-related acute lung injury) which occurs longer than 24 hours after transfusions. In light of recent reports showing that mitochondrial (mt)DNA damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are potent proinflammatory mediators, and that their abundance in the sera of severely injured or septic patients is predictive of clinical outcomes, we explored the idea that mtDNA DAMPs are present in transfusion products and are associated with the occurrence of delayed transfusion-related acute lung injury.

Methods: We prospectively enrolled fourteen consecutive severely injured patients that received greater than three units of blood transfusion products and determined if the total amount of mtDNA DAMPs delivered during transfusion correlated with serum mtDNA DAMPs measured after the last transfusion, and whether the quantity of mtDNA DAMPs in the serum-predicted development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Mitochondrial DNA damage associated molecular patterns in ventilator-associated pneumonia: Prevention and reversal by intratracheal DNase I.

Background: Previous studies in isolated perfused rat lungs have revealed that endothelial barrier disruption after intratracheal administration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (strain 103; PA103) only occurs after accumulation of extracellular mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) in the perfusate and is suppressed by addition of DNase to the perfusion medium. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that intratracheal DNase-a route of administration readily translatable to patient with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)-also enhances degradation of mtDNA and prevents bacteria-induced lung injury.

Methods: Intratracheal DNase was administered to isolated rat lungs either before or after intratracheal challenge with PA103 to determine if bacteria-induced mtDNA DAMP-dependent lung injury could be prevented or reversed by enhanced mtDNA degradation.

Kinetochore-independent chromosome segregation driven by lateral microtubule bundles.

During cell division, chromosomes attach to spindle microtubules at sites called kinetochores, and force generated at the kinetochore-microtubule interface is the main driver of chromosome movement. Surprisingly, kinetochores are not required for chromosome segregation on acentrosomal spindles in Caenorhabditis elegans oocytes, but the mechanism driving chromosomes apart in their absence is not understood. In this study, we show that lateral microtubule-chromosome associations established during prometaphase remain intact during anaphase to facilitate separation, defining a novel form of kinetochore-independent segregation.

Psychology and theology meet: illness appraisal and spiritual coping.

This descriptive exploratory study explored illness appraisal and spiritual coping of three groups of individuals with life-threatening illness. These were hospice clients with cancer (Ca; n = 10), clients with first myocardial infarction (MI; n = 6), and parents of children with cystic fibrosis (CF; n = 16). Qualitative data were collected by audiotaped face-to-face interviews (parents) and focus groups (MI and Ca).

Allorecognition in a basal chordate consists of independent activating and inhibitory pathways.

Histocompatibility in the basal chordate Botryllus schlosseri is controlled by the polymorphisms of a single gene: the fuhc. A polymorphic candidate receptor (fester) appeared to play roles in both initiating the reaction and discriminating between fuhc alleles. Here we report the characterization of a related protein, uncle fester.

The hepato-pulmonary-cutaneous syndrome: description of a case and suggestion of a unifying hypothesis.

We report a 54-year-old patient with the association of hepatic dysfunction with cyanosis, severe hypoxemia, platypnea-orthodeoxia, diffuse cutaneous spider nevi, telangiectasia, palmar erythema, digital clubbing and findings of marked intrapulmonary vascular dilation and arterovenous shunt. The diagnosis of hepato-pulmonary-cutaneous syndrome, a term we think more appropriate and inclusive than that of hepato-pulmonary syndrome for this clinicopathological picture, is proposed. The putative underlying mechanism for these connected pulmonary and extrapulmonary syndromic features is discussed.

Generation of a monoclonal antibody library against human embryonic stem cells.

Differentiated cell types derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) may serve in the future to treat various human diseases and to model early human embryonic development in vitro. Fulfilling this potential, however, requires extensive development of methods and reagents for studying hESCs self-renewal and differentiation. One of the most widely used experimental approaches in the field of stem cell research is the identification of cell surface markers that can be used to prospectively define and isolate specific populations of stem cells and their progenitors.

Mycoplasma pneumonia - an unusual cause of acute myocarditis in childhood.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is primarily a respiratory pathogen but may affect exhibit a diverse range of presentations from asymptomatic infection to life threatening conditions. Myocarditis of varying severity is an unusual complication. We report a 6 year old with mycoplasma myocarditis, a rare age for such a presentation, and who responded well to treatment with no sequelae.

Salicylates inhibit T cell adhesion on endothelium under nonstatic conditions: induction of L-selectin shedding by a tyrosine kinase-dependent mechanism.

Salicylates inhibit T cell adhesion to and transmigration through endothelium by preventing integrin activation induced by contact with endothelial cells. In the present study the effects of aspirin and sodium salicylate on the first steps of T cell adhesion have been analyzed in a nonstatic in vitro system. Salicylates partially reduced adhesion to activated endothelium and, in parallel, L-selectin expression on resting T cells by inducing shedding of the molecule without affecting its mRNA transcript.

Long-term immunologic effects of thymectomy in patients with myasthenia gravis.

Background: Thymectomy (Tx) is a common therapeutic option to treat myasthenia gravis (MG), but its effects on the immune system are still obscure in humans.

Objective: We sought to evaluate long-term immunologic effects of therapeutic Tx in patients with MG.

Methods: T- and B-cell subsets and T-cell repertoire were analyzed in 35 patients with MG, 16 with previous Tx (at least 8 years before), 6 with recent (<1 year) Tx, and 13 without Tx, as well as in 32 healthy subjects used as normal control subjects.

Salicylates inhibit adhesion and transmigration of T lymphocytes by preventing integrin activation induced by contact with endothelial cells.

The inhibition of cyclooxygenase does not fully account for the spectrum of activities of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs. It is evident, indeed, that regulation of inflammatory cell function may contribute in explaining some of the effects of these drugs. Tissue recruitment of T cells plays a key role in the development of chronic inflammation.

Quantitative assessment of salivary gland inflammatory infiltration in primary Sjögren's syndrome: its relationship to different demographic, clinical and serological features of the disorder.

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relationship between the degree of inflammatory infiltration of salivary glands in Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and the different demographic, clinical and serological features of the disease. A quantitative assessment of the extension of the infiltrates was performed on histology samples from the labial salivary glands (LSG) of 82 patients with primary SS, by calculating the ratio of the infiltrated area to the total area of glandular tissue in the samples. The correlations between the amount of inflammatory infiltrate and the main features of the disorder were then analysed.

CD26 surface molecule involvement in T cell activation and lymphokine synthesis in rheumatoid and other inflammatory synovitis.

T cell surface expression and the functional role of CD26 antigen (Ag), a surface ectoenzyme involved in T cell activation and migration across the extracellular matrix, were analyzed in the peripheral blood (PB) and synovial fluid (SF) from patients with inflammatory arthritides. CD26 membrane expression on T cells was detected by cytofluorometry using two different monoclonal antibodies, anti-Ta1 and anti-1F7, while cell proliferation and both IL-2 and IFN-gamma production were evaluated in anti-CD3- or anti-CD2-stimulated cell cultures after Ag surface modulation with anti-1F7. The results showed that Ta1 and 1F7 Ag expression were increased on T cells from PB of patients with active, but not inactive, rheumatoid arthritis (RA).