Specific cultural traits of the precarity of older Latinos living alone with cognitive impairment in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Objectives: Latinos are about twice as likely to develop cognitive impairment. Culturally, filial support and familismo are expected within Latino families. Yet approximately twenty percent of Latinos live alone in the United States.

Subsidence induced recurrent radiculopathy after staged two-level standalone endoscopic lumbar interbody fusion with a threaded cylindrical cage: a case report.

We report a case of subsidence induced recurrence of unilateral L5 and S1 radiculopathy six months following a successful staged two-level endoscopic standalone lumbar interbody fusion using the VARILIF-L™ device. The patient was a 64-year-old female who first underwent outpatient endoscopic fusion L4/5 for failed non-operative care of Grade I spondylolisthesis. Within 11 months from the L4/5 index procedure, she developed symptomatic adjacent segment disease stemming from the L5/S1 level.

Navigating the learning curve of spinal endoscopy as an established traditionally trained spine surgeon.

Background: Traditionally trained spine surgeons may want to transition from open spinal surgeries to endoscopic decompressions. The aspiring endoscopic spine surgeon may have to overcome multiple hurdles to master a learning curve without readily available training. Replacing traditional time-proven open spinal surgeries with endoscopic decompression may put the surgeons' reputation at risk and have an additional negative impact on his or her practice due to reduced revenue.

Return to work and recovery time analysis after outpatient endoscopic lumbar transforaminal decompression surgery.

Background: This study aimed to analyze the return to work (RTW) and recovery time (RT) to narcotic independence following outpatient endoscopic decompression for contained lumbar herniated disc causing sciatica-type low back and leg pain.

Methods: A retrospective study of 442 patients with symptomatic contained lumbar herniated disc was treated with the transforaminal endoscopic decompression surgery. The mean follow-up was 33.

Five-year clinical outcomes with endoscopic transforaminal outside-in foraminoplasty techniques for symptomatic degenerative conditions of the lumbar spine.

Background: Lumbar foraminal stenosis in the extraforaminal zone is best directly visualized with the transforaminal endoscopic technique. Stenosis in that area is often missed with traditional translaminar surgery. The authors analyzed the long-term 5-year clinical results, reoperation rates, and unintended after care with the endoscopic transforaminal foraminoplasty for symptoms from lumbar foraminal stenosis to better establish clinical indications and prognosticators of favorable outcomes.

The Concept for A Standalone Lordotic Endoscopic Wedge Lumbar Interbody Fusion: The LEW-LIF.

Objective: To review concepts of a standalone endoscopically assisted lumbar interbody fusion as a simplified method to treat spinal instability.

Methods: MacNab outcomes and complications were analyzed in a series of 48 consecutive patients who underwent standalone lordotic endoscopic wedge lumbar interbody fusion (LEW-LIF) for advanced lumbar disc degeneration, spinal stenosis, and spondylolisthesis.

Results: Forty-two of the 48 patients (77.

The leaky lung test: a pilot study using inhaled mannitol to measure airway barrier function in asthma.

: Airway epithelial barrier dysfunction is emerging as an important feature of asthma pathogenesis, but this is difficult to measure in individual subjects. We aimed to develop a noninvasive way to measure airway permeability in asthma. : Healthy controls and subjects with mild asthma inhaled dry powder mannitol in a dose-escalating manner on two separate occasions, stopping at 155 mg or 315 mg.

A systems biology approach toward understanding seed composition in soybean.

Background: The molecular, biochemical, and genetic mechanisms that regulate the complex metabolic network of soybean seed development determine the ultimate balance of protein, lipid, and carbohydrate stored in the mature seed. Many of the genes and metabolites that participate in seed metabolism are unknown or poorly defined; even more remains to be understood about the regulation of their metabolic networks. A global omics analysis can provide insights into the regulation of seed metabolism, even without a priori assumptions about the structure of these networks.

Comprehensive analysis of correlation coefficients estimated from pooling heterogeneous microarray data.

Background: The synthesis of information across microarray studies has been performed by combining statistical results of individual studies (as in a mosaic), or by combining data from multiple studies into a large pool to be analyzed as a single data set (as in a melting pot of data). Specific issues relating to data heterogeneity across microarray studies, such as differences within and between labs or differences among experimental conditions, could lead to equivocal results in a melting pot approach.

Results: We applied statistical theory to determine the specific effect of different means and heteroskedasticity across 19 groups of microarray data on the sign and magnitude of gene-to-gene Pearson correlation coefficients obtained from the pool of 19 groups.

A global approach to analysis and interpretation of metabolic data for plant natural product discovery.

Discovering molecular components and their functionality is key to the development of hypotheses concerning the organization and regulation of metabolic networks. The iterative experimental testing of such hypotheses is the trajectory that can ultimately enable accurate computational modelling and prediction of metabolic outcomes. This information can be particularly important for understanding the biology of natural products, whose metabolism itself is often only poorly defined.

Functional identification of valerena-1,10-diene synthase, a terpene synthase catalyzing a unique chemical cascade in the biosynthesis of biologically active sesquiterpenes in Valeriana officinalis.

Valerian is an herbal preparation from the roots of Valeriana officinalis used as an anxiolytic and sedative and in the treatment of insomnia. The biological activities of valerian are attributed to valerenic acid and its putative biosynthetic precursor valerenadiene, sesquiterpenes, found in V. officinalis roots.

Massive human co-expression network and its medical applications.

Network-based analysis is indispensable in analyzing high-throughput biological data. Based on the assumption that the variation of gene interactions under given biological conditions could be better interpreted in the context of a large-scale and wide variety of developmental, tissue, and disease conditions, we leverage the large quantity of publicly available transcriptomic data >40,000 HG U133A Affymetrix microarray chips stored in ArrayExpress (http://www.ebi.

Medicinal plants: a public resource for metabolomics and hypothesis development.

Specialized compounds from photosynthetic organisms serve as rich resources for drug development. From aspirin to atropine, plant-derived natural products have had a profound impact on human health. Technological advances provide new opportunities to access these natural products in a metabolic context.

Syntaxin 3 and SNAP-25 pairing, regulated by omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid, controls the delivery of rhodopsin for the biogenesis of cilia-derived sensory organelles, the rod outer segments.

The biogenesis of cilia-derived sensory organelles, the photoreceptor rod outer segments (ROS), is mediated by rhodopsin transport carriers (RTCs). The small GTPase Rab8 regulates ciliary targeting of RTCs, but their specific fusion sites have not been characterized. Here, we report that the Sec6/8 complex, or exocyst, is a candidate effector for Rab8.

Articulation of three core metabolic processes in Arabidopsis: fatty acid biosynthesis, leucine catabolism and starch metabolism.

Background: Elucidating metabolic network structures and functions in multicellular organisms is an emerging goal of functional genomics. We describe the co-expression network of three core metabolic processes in the genetic model plant Arabidopsis thaliana: fatty acid biosynthesis, starch metabolism and amino acid (leucine) catabolism.

Results: These co-expression networks form modules populated by genes coding for enzymes that represent the reactions generally considered to define each pathway.

Rhodopsin C terminus, the site of mutations causing retinal disease, regulates trafficking by binding to ADP-ribosylation factor 4 (ARF4).

The maintenance of photoreceptor cell polarity is compromised by the rhodopsin mutations causing the human disease autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. The severe form mutations occur in the C-terminal sorting signal of rhodopsin, VXPX-COOH. Here, we report that this sorting motif binds specifically to the small GTPase ARF4, a member of the ARF family of membrane budding and protein sorting regulators.

Tonopen measurement of intraocular pressure in mice.

Purpose: To standardize a method of non-invasive measurement of intraocular pressure (IOP) in mice.

Methods: Cannulated-eye study: IOP was measured simultaneously with a Tonopen and by direct cannulation of the vitreous compartment while pressure was manipulated in steps between 10 and 45 mmHg by a saline reservoir via a second vitreal cannula (five mice, one rat). Non-cannulated-eye study: Tonopen and servo-null measurements were performed in independent groups (48 mice) to verify Tonopen measurements in non-cannulated-eyes.

Alpha-fodrin is cleaved by caspase-3 in a chronic ocular hypertensive (COH) rat model of glaucoma.

Purpose: alpha-Fodrin is a neuronal cytoskeletal protein and a known caspase-3 target. We sought to determine whether caspase-3 cleaves alpha-fodrin in COH rat retinas and whether this process is reduced by adeno-associated virus (AAV)-induced retinal ganglion cell expression of baculovirus inhibitory repeat-containing 4 (BIRC4), a potent caspase-3 inhibitor.

Methods: Ocular hypertension was induced unilaterally in five rat eyes by limbal injection of hypertonic saline.

Phosphoinositides, ezrin/moesin, and rac1 regulate fusion of rhodopsin transport carriers in retinal photoreceptors.

The post-Golgi trafficking of rhodopsin in photoreceptor cells is mediated by rhodopsin-bearing transport carriers (RTCs) and regulated by the small GTPase rab8. In this work, we took a combined pharmacological-proteomic approach to uncover new regulators of RTC trafficking toward the specialized light-sensitive organelle, the rod outer segment (ROS). We perturbed phospholipid synthesis by activating phospholipase D with sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) or inhibiting phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase by propranolol (Ppl).

Caspase activation and amyloid precursor protein cleavage in rat ocular hypertension.

Purpose: Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in glaucoma involves apoptosis. Activation of caspases and abnormal processing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) are important events in other chronic neurodegenerations, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The retinal expression and activation of caspases and the patterns of caspase-3-mediated APP processing in ocular hypertensive models of rat glaucoma were investigated.

Apoptosis in the murine rd1 retinal degeneration is predominantly p53-independent.

Purpose: To determine if p53 mediates apoptosis in photoreceptors of retinal degeneration, rd1, mice.

Methods: The rd1/rd1 mice were interbred with p53 null mice to generate p53-/- rd1/rd1 and p53+/+ rd1/rd1 mice. Rates of loss and incidence of apoptosis in rod photoreceptors were analyzed at appropriate ages (postnatal days 12, 14 and 16).

Ultrastructural features of retinal dystrophy in mutant vitiligo mice.

Ultrastructural features of the retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptor cells were studied in vitiligo (C57BL/6 mivit/mivit) mice. Eyes from 12-day- to 56-week-old animals were analysed. Abnormal photoreceptors were seen in 12-day-old mice.

rab8 in retinal photoreceptors may participate in rhodopsin transport and in rod outer segment disk morphogenesis.

Small GTP-binding protein rab8 regulates transport from the TGN to the basolateral plasma membrane in epithelial cells and to the dendritic plasma membrane in cultured hippocampal neurons. In our approach to identify proteins involved in rhodopsin transport and sorting in retinal photoreceptors, we have found, using [32P]GTP overlays of 2D gel blots, that six small GTP-binding proteins are tightly bound to the post-Golgi membranes immunoisolated with a mAb to the cytoplasmic domain of frog rhodopsin. We report here that one of these proteins is rab8.