Role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor {delta}/{beta} in hepatic metabolic regulation.

Pharmacological activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ/β (PPARδ/β) improves glucose handling and insulin sensitivity. The target tissues of drug actions remain unclear. We demonstrate here that adenovirus-mediated liver-restricted PPARδ activation reduces fasting glucose levels in chow- and high fat-fed mice.

Preoperative atorvastatin treatment in CABG patients rapidly improves vein graft redox state by inhibition of Rac1 and NADPH-oxidase activity.

Background: Statins improve clinical outcome of patients with atherosclerosis, but their perioperative role in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is unclear. We hypothesized that short-term treatment with atorvastatin before CABG would improve the redox state in saphenous vein grafts (SVGs), independently of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL)-lowering.

Methods And Results: In a randomized, double-blind controlled trial, 42 statin-naïve patients undergoing elective CABG received atorvastatin 40 mg/d or placebo for 3 days before surgery.

The reaction chemistry of plutonyl(VI) chloride complexes with triphenyl phosphineoxide and triphenyl phosphinimine.

The reaction between Ph(3)PO dissolved in acetone and "PuO(2)Cl(2)" in dilute HCl resulted in the formation of [PuO(2)Cl(2)(Ph(3)PO)(2)]. Crystallographic characterization of the acetone solvate revealed the expected axial trans plutonyl dioxo, with trans Cl and Ph(3)PO in the equatorial plane. Spectroscopic analyses ((31)P NMR, (1)H NMR, and vis/nIR) indicate the presence of both cis and trans isomers in solution, with the trans isomer being more stable.

Gender influences the response to experimental silica-induced lung fibrosis in mice.

Accumulating evidence suggests that gender can have a profound effect on incidence and severity of a variety of pulmonary diseases. To address the influence of gender on the development of silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis, we instilled 0.2 g/kg silica into male and female C57BL/6 mice and examined the fibrotic and inflammatory response at 14 days postexposure.

Landing in basal frogs: evidence of saltational patterns in the evolution of anuran locomotion.

All frogs are assumed to jump in a similar manner by rapidly extending hindlimbs during the propulsive phase and rotating the limbs forward during flight in order to land forelimbs first. However, studies of jumping behavior are lacking in the most primitive living frogs of the family Leiopelmatidae. These semi-aquatic or terrestrial anurans retain a suite of plesiomorphic morphological features and are unique in using an asynchronous (trot-like) rather than synchronous "frog-kick" swimming gait of other frogs.

Synthesis and structural characterization of molecular Dy(III) and Er(III) tetra-carbonates.

Single crystal structures of lanthanide carbonate and hydroxy-carbonate compounds have been previously reported in the literature, with the majority of these compounds being extended one- to three-dimensional compounds. Very few lanthanide compounds have been isolated that contain molecular moieties, and none have been reported for either erbium or dysprosium. Single crystals of the tetra-carbonate complexes, [C(NH(2))(3)](5)[Er(CO(3))(4)].

Low-dose ultraviolet radiation selectively degrades chromophore-rich extracellular matrix components.

Photoageing of human skin due to chronic exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is characterized histologically by extensive remodelling of the dermal elastic fibre system. Whilst enzymatic pathways are thought to play a major role in mediating extracellular matrix (ECM) degeneration in UV-exposed skin, the substrate specificity of UVR-up-regulated and activated matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) is low. It is unclear, therefore, how such cell-mediated mechanisms alone could be responsible for the reported selective degradation of elastic fibre components such as fibrillin-1 and fibulin-5 during the early stages of photoageing.

Predictors of parents seeking help or advice about children's communication development in the early years.

Background: Children's access to services for communication disorders is often determined by parental decisions to seek help or advice. The factors that predict whether parents seek help/advice about their child's communication development were explored in this study.

Methods: Parents of children in a large, community cohort of children (the Early Language in Victoria Study) were asked whether they had sought help or advice about speech and language development at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years.

Increased liking for a solution is not necessary for the attenuation of neophobia in rats.

Recent evidence suggests that liking and wanting of food rewards can be experimentally dissociated (e.g., Berridge, 1996); this dissociation extends to attenuated neophobia in the present study.

Probing the 5f electrons in a plutonyl(VI) cluster complex.

We report the structural, spectroscopic and preliminary magnetic characterisation of a tri-metallic plutonyl(VI) polyoxometalate complex, K(11)[K(3)(PuO(2))(3)(GeW(9)O(34))(2)] x 12 H(2)O.

Case management for long-term conditions: developing targeting processes.

Intensive case management (ICM) is traditionally targeted at patients with complex needs and exists within a wider service context. Targeting is integral to the efficiency of the service. A process and outcome evaluation of case management was conducted in a large urban area in England between 2007 and 2008.

Basolateral amygdala and morphine-induced taste avoidance in the rat.

The present experiment examined the influence of excitotoxic lesions of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) on morphine-induced saccharin avoidance. Neurologically intact subjects rapidly learned to avoid drinking the taste conditioned stimulus (CS), an effect that was sustained throughout the experiment. Although the BLA-lesioned (BLAX) rats showed CS avoidance over the first few trials, the effect was not sustained.

A comparative study of two acoustic measures of hypernasality.

Purpose: This study aimed to compare 2 quantitative acoustic measures of nasality in children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and healthy controls using formalized perceptual assessment as a guide.

Method: Fifty participants (23 children with CLP and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy controls) aged between 4 and 12 years produced a variety of high and low vowels that allowed perceptual ratings of nasal resonance severity as well as acoustic analysis of spectral changes. Two objective measures of nasality were used: 1/3 octave spectra analysis and the voice low tone high tone ratio.

Bike, walk, and wheel: a way of life in Columbia, Missouri.

Background: With funding support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Active Living Partnership of Columbia, Missouri, sought to make routine physical activity more commonplace in the community through behavioral and environmental change strategies.

Intervention: The Active Living by Design 5P model (partnerships, promotions, programs, policy changes, and physical projects) was modified to create two mutually reinforcing components. Programs and promotions (e.

Characteristics influencing participation of Australian children with cerebral palsy.

Purpose: To investigate the extent to which selected individual, family and environmental variables were associated with participation of children who have cerebral palsy in activities outside school.

Methods: Data were gathered through a population-based survey of 114 children born in 1994 or 1995 in Victoria, Australia. Participation was measured using the Children's Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment.

Assessing early communication behaviours: structure and validity of the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) in 12-month-old infants.

Background: Parent report instruments are frequently used for the identification of both 'at-risk' children and to support the diagnosis of communication delay. Whilst the evidence is strong for the accuracy of parent report of vocabulary between 2 and 3 years, there are fewer studies that have considered the ability of parents to report on early communication behaviours in 12-month-old infants.

Aims: To investigate the validity of the underlying structure of the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales-Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) for each of the direct observation and parent reports of communication behaviour in infants at 12 months of age.

Predictors of early precocious talking: a prospective population study.

This study examines potential predictors of 'precocious talking' (expressive language ≥90th percentile) at one and two years of age, and of 'stability' in precocious talking across both time periods, drawing on data from a prospective community cohort comprising over 1,800 children. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between precocious talking and the following potential predictors: gender, birth order, birth weight, non-English speaking background, socioeconomic status, maternal age, maternal mental health scores, and vocabulary and educational attainment of parents. The strongest predictors of precocity (being female and having a younger mother) warrant further exploration.

Abdominal muscle and epipubic bone function during locomotion in Australian possums: insights to basal mammalian conditions and Eutherian-like tendencies in Trichosurus.

Mammals have four hypaxial muscle layers that wrap around the abdomen between the pelvis, ribcage, and spine. However, the marsupials have epipubic bones extending anteriorly into the ventral hypaxial layers with two additional muscles extending to the ventral midline and femur. Comparisons of South American marsupials to basal eutherians have shown that all of the abdominal hypaxials are active bilaterally in resting ventilation.

Investigation of Van Gogh-like 2 mRNA regulation and localisation in response to nociception in the brain of adult common carp (Cyprinus carpio).

The Van Gogh-like 2 (vangl2) gene is typically associated with planar cell polarity pathways, which is essential for correct orientation of epithelial cells during development. The encoded protein of this gene is a transmembrane protein and is highly conserved through evolution. Van Gogh-like 2 was selected for further study on the basis of consistent regulation after a nociceptive stimulus in adult common carp and rainbow trout in a microarray study.

Taste-potentiated odor aversion learning in rats with lesions of the insular cortex.

The current study assessed the influence of excitotoxic lesions of the insular cortex (IC) on taste-potentiated odor aversion (TPOA) learning. Water-deprived rats initially received a single odor-toxicosis or odor/taste-toxicosis pairing and were subsequently tested, in separate trials, with the odor and the taste stimulus. Indicating TPOA, neurologically intact rats conditioned with the odor/taste compound stimulus acquired significantly stronger odor aversions than normal rats conditioned with the odor stimulus.

Clostridium septicum aortitis causing aortic dissection in a 22-year-old man.

Clostridium septicum infection is a rare cause of aortic dissection, and the mortality rate for the condition is high. Only 26 cases of C. septicum aortitis have been reported; all of those patients were elderly, and 20 of them had an associated colonic neoplasm.

Validation of an improved method for detection of Campylobacter jejuni in foods.

Campylobacter jejuni ATCC 29428 and 33560 were inoculated separately into beef muscle, ground beef, and chicken skin to yield approximately 10 to 100 CFU/g of food sample. The samples were stored at 4 degrees C for 10 d. On days 0, 3, 7, and 10, enrichment cultures in Bolton broth supplemented with antibiotics, with and without blood supplementation were made for each sample, for 24 and 48 h following the Food and Agricultural Products Center (FAPC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocols.

Parental consent for neuroimaging in paediatric research.

Background: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is increasingly applied in paediatric research. Parents typically provide research consent for their children; yet, no study has examined the rates of consent, nor factors influencing parental decision making for consent. The present study aimed to determine the proportion of parents that would consent to their child undergoing an fMRI study, and to elicit the reasons, motivators and detractors affecting their decision.

Insular cortex and consummatory successive negative contrast in the rat.

Rats that are expecting a high value reward (e.g., 1.