Home blood pressure monitoring among adults-American Heart Association Cardiovascular Health Consumer Survey, 2012.

Home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) among hypertensive adults was assessed using the 2012 American Heart Association Cardiovascular Health Consumer Survey. The prevalence of hypertension was 25.5% and 53.

Phosphorylation of GSK3α/β correlates with activation of AKT and is prognostic for poor overall survival in acute myeloid leukemia patients.

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with highly active AKT tend to do poorly. Cell cycle arrest and apoptosis are tightly regulated by AKT via phosphorylation of GSK3α and β isoforms which inactivates these kinases. In the current study we examine the prognostic role of AKT mediated GSK3 phosphorylation in AML.

COMPASS: navigating the rules of scientific engagement.

COMPASS shares a decade of experience in helping scientists become effective leaders by navigating a path from outreach to meaningful engagement with journalists and policymakers.

Corpus Callosum Area in Children and Adults with Autism.

Despite repeated findings of abnormal corpus callosum structure in autism, the developmental trajectories of corpus callosum growth in the disorder have not yet been reported. In this study, we examined corpus callosum size from a developmental perspective across a 30-year age range in a large cross-sectional sample of individuals with autism compared to a typically developing sample. Midsagittal corpus callosum area and the 7 Witelson subregions were examined in 68 males with autism (mean age 14.

An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.

The ocean plays a critical role in supporting human well-being, from providing food, livelihoods and recreational opportunities to regulating the global climate. Sustainable management aimed at maintaining the flow of a broad range of benefits from the ocean requires a comprehensive and quantitative method to measure and monitor the health of coupled human–ocean systems. We created an index comprising ten diverse public goals for a healthy coupled human–ocean system and calculated the index for every coastal country.

Surface Adjustment of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays using Positive Control Spots.

Reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) measure the relative expression levels of a protein in many samples simultaneously. Observed signal from these arrays is a combination of true signal, additive background, and multiplicative spatial effects. Background subtraction alone is not sufficient to remove all nonbiological trends from the data.

Ebf1 or Pax5 haploinsufficiency synergizes with STAT5 activation to initiate acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

As STAT5 is critical for the differentiation, proliferation, and survival of progenitor B cells, this transcription factor may play a role in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Here, we show increased expression of activated signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5), which is correlated with poor prognosis, in ALL patient cells. Mutations in EBF1 and PAX5, genes critical for B cell development have also been identified in human ALL.

Prenatal stress differentially alters brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression and signaling across rat strains.

Background: Psychiatric illness and anxiety disorders have strong neurodevelopmental components. Environmental insults such as prenatal exposure to stress and genetic differences in stress responses may affect brain development.

Methods: A rat model of random variable prenatal stress was used to study the expression and processing of hippocampal brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the offspring of the stressed rat dams.

Strain dependent effects of prenatal stress on gene expression in the rat hippocampus.

Multiple animal models have been developed to recapitulate phenotypes of the human disease, schizophrenia. A model that simulates many of the cognitive and sensory deficits of the disorder is the use of random variable prenatal stress (PS) in the rat. These deficits suggest a molecular origin in the hippocampus, a brain region that plays a role in the regulation of stress.

Cerebral volume loss, cognitive deficit, and neuropsychological performance: comparative measures of brain atrophy: II. Traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in a variable degree of cerebral atrophy that is not always related to cognitive measures across studies. However, the use of different methods for examining atrophy may be a reason why differences exist. The purpose of this manuscript was to examine the predictive utility of seven magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-derived brain volume or indices of atrophy for a large cohort of TBI patients (n = 65).

Maternal stress during pregnancy causes sex-specific alterations in offspring memory performance, social interactions, indices of anxiety, and body mass.

Prenatal stress (PS) impairs memory function; however, it is not clear whether PS-induced memory deficits are specific to spatial memory, or whether memory is more generally compromised by PS. Here we sought to distinguish between these possibilities by assessing spatial, recognition and contextual memory functions in PS and nonstressed (NS) rodents. We also measured anxiety-related and social behaviors to determine whether our unpredictable PS paradigm generates a behavioral phenotype comparable to previous studies.

Exploring separable components of institutional confidence.

Despite its contemporary and theoretical importance in numerous social scientific disciplines, institutional confidence research is limited by a lack of consensus regarding the distinctions and relationships among related constructs (e.g., trust, confidence, legitimacy, distrust, etc.

Intracranial volume and dementia: some evidence in support of the cerebral reserve hypothesis.

The brain reserve hypothesis has been posited as being one important mediating factor for developing dementia, especially Alzheimer's disease (AD). Evidence for this hypothesis is mixed though different methodologies have made these findings difficult to interpret. We examined imaging data from a large cohort (N=194) of mixed dementia patients and controls, 65years old and older from the Cache County, Utah Study of Memory and Aging for evidence of the brain reserve hypothesis using total intracranial volume (TICV) as a quantitative measure of pre-morbid brain size and a vicarious indicator of reserve.

Postoperative radiotherapy use and patterns of care analysis for node positive or parametria positive cervical cancer.

Objective: The objective of this study is to perform a patterns of care analysis for post-hysterectomy patients with node positive (LN+) or parametria positive cervical cancer.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted utilizing the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program from 1973 to 2006. We identified 2247 women with cervical carcinoma who had undergone hysterectomy and were found to have LN+ and/or positive parametria.

Communicating marine reserve science to diverse audiences.

As human impacts cause ecosystem-wide changes in the oceans, the need to protect and restore marine resources has led to increasing calls for and establishment of marine reserves. Scientific information about marine reserves has multiplied over the last decade, providing useful knowledge about this tool for resource users, managers, policy makers, and the general public. This information must be conveyed to nonscientists in a nontechnical, credible, and neutral format, but most scientists are not trained to communicate in this style or to develop effective strategies for sharing their scientific knowledge.

A population-based study of subsequent primary malignancies after endometrial cancer: genetic, environmental, and treatment-related associations.

Purpose: To examine the risk of subsequent primary malignancies (SPMs) in women diagnosed with endometrial cancer.

Methods And Materials: The National Cancer Institute's Survival, Epidemiology, and End Results database was used to determine the risk of SPM after endometrial cancer in 69,739 women diagnosed between 1973 and 2005. Standardized incidence ratios were calculated (observed/expected [O/E]) for SPM sites.

Variations in IC(50) values with purity of mushroom tyrosinase.

The effects of various inhibitors on crude, commercial and partially purified commercial mushroom tyrosinase were examined by comparing IC(50) values. Kojic acid, salicylhydroxamic acid, tropolone, methimazole, and ammonium tetrathiomolybdate had relatively similar IC(50) values for the crude, commercial and partially purified enzyme. 4-Hexylresorcinol seemed to have a somewhat higher IC(50) value using crude extracts, compared to commercial or purified tyrosinase.

Comparison of Lumin LED fluorescent attachment, fluorescent microscopy and Ziehl-Neelsen for AFB diagnosis.

Design: Cross-sectional studies in Russia (n = 502) and Macedonia (n = 205), with fluorochrome-stained sputum examined by 1) the new Lumin light emitting diode (LED) fluorescent attachment on a light microscope, and 2) conventional fluorescent microscope (CFM) available in each laboratory, and compared to 3) Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) restaining/reading of the same smears. Poor readings of ZN-restained smears in Russia stimulated a retrospective laboratory registry analysis for sensitivity and specificity of directly ZN-stained smears (n = 791) from a previous period.

Results: In Macedonia, the sensitivity of the Lumin and CFM were 87.

Variable slope normalization of reverse phase protein arrays.

Motivation: Reverse phase protein arrays (RPPA) measure the relative expression levels of a protein in many samples simultaneously. A set of identically spotted arrays can be used to measure the levels of more than one protein. Protein expression within each sample on an array is estimated by borrowing strength across all the samples, but using only within array information.

Overexpression of ZNF342 by juxtaposition with MPO promoter/enhancer in the novel translocation t(17;19)(q23;q13.32) in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia and analysis of ZNF342 expression in leukemia.

We report a novel translocation t(17;19)(q22;q13.32) found in 100% of blast cells from a pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and vectorette polymerase chain reaction were used to precisely map the chromosomal breakpoint located on the derivative chromosome 17 at 352 bp 5' of MPO, encoding myeloperoxidase a highly expressed protein in myeloid cells, and 2,085 bp 5' of ZNF342 on 19q, encoding a transcription factor expressed in human stem cells and previously implicated in mouse models of leukemia.

Superior temporal gyrus, language function, and autism.

Deficits in language are a core feature of autism. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) is involved in auditory processing, including language, but also has been implicated as a critical structure in social cognition. It was hypothesized that subjects with autism would display different size-function relationships between the STG and intellectual-language-based abilities when compared to controls.

Evidence for placing the false gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) into the family Gavialidae: inferences from nuclear gene sequences.

The extant crocodylians comprise 23 species divided among three families, Alligatoridae, Crocodylidae, and Gavialidae. Currently, based on morphological data sets, Tomistoma schlegelii (false gharial) is placed within the family Crocodylidae. Molecular data sets consistently support a sister-taxon relationship of T.

Quantitative temporal lobe differences: autism distinguished from controls using classification and regression tree analysis.

The temporal lobe is thought to be abnormal in autism, yet standard volumetric analyses are often unrevealing when age, sex, IQ, and head size are controlled. Quantification of temporal lobe structures were obtained in male subjects with autism and controls, where subjects with head circumference (HC) defined macrocephaly were excluded, so that volume differences were not just related to the higher prevalence of macrocephaly in autism. Various statistical methods were applied to the analysis including a classification and regression tree (CART) method, a non-parametric technique that helps define patterns of relationships that may be meaningful in distinguishing temporal lobe differences between subjects with autism and age and IQ matched controls.