Omega-3 fatty acids inhibit tumor growth in a rat model of bladder cancer.

Omega-3 (ω-3) fatty acids have been tested on prevention and treatment of several cancer types, but the efficacy on "in vivo" bladder cancer has not been analyzed yet. This study aimed at evaluating the chemopreventive efficacy of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) mixture in an animal model of bladder cancer. Forty-four male Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups during a 20-week protocol: control; carcinogen-N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (BBN); ω-3 (DHA + EPA); and ω-3 + BBN.

SmeltCam: underwater video codend for trawled nets with an application to the distribution of the imperiled delta smelt.

Studying rare and sensitive species is a challenge in conservation biology. The problem is exemplified by the case of the imperiled delta smelt Hypomesus transpacificus, a small delicate fish species endemic to the San Francisco Estuary, California. Persistent record-low levels of abundance and relatively high sensitivity to handling stress pose considerable challenges to studying delta smelt in the wild.

Population coding and the labeling problem: extrinsic versus intrinsic representations.

Current population coding methods, including weighted averaging and Bayesian estimation, are based on extrinsic representations. These require that neurons be labeled with response parameters, such as tuning curve peaks or noise distributions, which are tied to some external, world-based metric scale. Firing rates alone, without this external labeling, are insufficient to represent a variable.

The human homologue of macaque area V6A.

In macaque monkeys, V6A is a visuomotor area located in the anterior bank of the POs, dorsal and anterior to retinotopically-organized extrastriate area V6 (Galletti et al., 1996). Unlike V6, V6A represents both contra- and ipsilateral visual fields and is broadly retinotopically organized (Galletti et al.

Perceptual and production training of intervocalic /d, r, r/ in American English learners of Spanish.

This study investigates the effectiveness of three high variability training paradigms in training 42 speakers of American English to correctly perceive and produce Spanish intervocalic /d, r, r/. Since Spanish spirantization and English flapping both affect /d/ intervocalically, the acquisition of the /d/-/r/ contrast proves difficult for English learners of Spanish. The acquisition of the trill /r/ is also problematic because it is a new phoneme for English learners and is articulatorily difficult to produce.

Using high angular resolution diffusion imaging data to discriminate cortical regions.

Brodmann's 100-year-old summary map has been widely used for cortical localization in neuroscience. There is a pressing need to update this map using non-invasive, high-resolution and reproducible data, in a way that captures individual variability. We demonstrate here that standard HARDI data has sufficiently diverse directional variation among grey matter regions to inform parcellation into distinct functional regions, and that this variation is reproducible across scans.

Reducing Salmonella horizontal transmission during egg incubation by phage therapy.

Salmonella is a serious problem for both animal production and public health worldwide. Contaminated poultry is the main vehicle of Salmonella and the most important serotype is Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis. In order to test the efficiency of bacteriophages to treat Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis infections in poultry, a cocktail of two phages, F1055S and F12013S, isolated from chicken litter was applied by aerosol spray on fertile eggs challenged with Salmonella Enteritidis.

Serum and renal tissue markers of nephropathy in rats under immunosuppressive therapy: cyclosporine versus sirolimus.

Cyclosporin (CsA) has been progressively replaced by other drugs with putatively fever side effects, including nephrotoxicity and hypertension. Sirolimus (SRL) is one of the main options for management of kidney transplant patients in the post-CsA era. It shows identical efficacy with apparently less cardiorenal side effects than CsA.

Effects of cyclosporine and sirolimus on insulin-stimulated glucose transport and glucose tolerance in a rat model.

Cyclosporine (CsA) and sirolimus (SRL) have been associated with undesirable side effects, including posttransplantation diabetes and hyperlipidemia, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects remain to be elucidated. Animal studies focusing on clinically relevant doses are advised. This study sought to compare the metabolic effects on isolated rat adipocytes treated with either CsA or SRL ex vivo and after long-term in vivo treatment in Wistar rats.

Diabetes abrogates sex differences and aggravates cardiometabolic risk in postmenopausal women.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of gender and menopause in cardiometabolic risk in a type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) population, based on classical and non-traditional markers.

Methods: Seventy four volunteers and 110 T2DM patients were enrolled in the study. Anthropometric data, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and the following serum markers were analyzed: glucose, Total-c, TGs, LDL-c, Oxidized-LDL, total HDL-c and large and small HDL-c subpopulations, paraoxonase 1 activity, hsCRP, uric acid, TNF-α, adiponectin and VEGF.

New markers of early cardiovascular risk in multiple sclerosis patients: oxidized-LDL correlates with clinical staging.

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize a population of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in terms of traditional and new cardiovascular risk factors and assess their putative correlation with clinical disease activity (evaluated by the Expanded Disability Status Scale [EDSS]).

Methods: Thirty relapsing MS patients and 66 subjects, matched by age and sex, were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. For each subject, anthropometric data were collected and classical biochemical (including lipid profile, glucose and C reactive protein [CRP] levels) and novel markers (paraoxonase 1 [PON1] enzyme activity and contents of high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol, oxidized low-density lipoprotein [Ox-LDL], tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-alfa, vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF] and adiponectin) were studied.

Evidence of cognitive dysfunction after soccer playing with ball heading using a novel tablet-based approach.

Does frequent head-to-ball contact cause cognitive dysfunctions and brain injury to soccer players? An iPad-based experiment was designed to examine the impact of ball-heading among high school female soccer players. We examined both direct, stimulus-driven, or reflexive point responses (Pro-Point) as well as indirect, goal-driven, or voluntary point responses (Anti-Point), thought to require cognitive functions in the frontal lobe. The results show that soccer players were significantly slower than controls in the Anti-Point task but displayed no difference in Pro-Point latencies, indicating a disruption specific to voluntary responses.

Feasibility study of a smoking cessation intervention in Directly Observed Therapy Short-Course tuberculosis treatment clinics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A pilot feasibility study was conducted to determine whether Directly Observed Therapy Short-Course (DOTS) workers could be trained to deliver smoking cessation counseling and referral interventions, identify potential barriers to a full-scale randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of integrated smoking cessation in DOTS, and determine whether tuberculosis (TB) patients who smoke would agree to participate in such a program. DOTS providers in two Rio de Janeiro primary health clinics received 1-day training in cessation counseling. They completed pre- and post-training surveys and participated in post-program focus groups.

Inhibition of bladder tumor growth by chitooligosaccharides in an experimental carcinogenesis model.

Urinary bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide, with the highest incidence in industrialized countries. Patients with cancer commonly use unconventional and complementary therapy including nutraceuticals. In this study we evaluated the efficacy of chitooligosaccharides (in orange juice) in rat bladder cancer chemoprevention and as therapeutic agent, on a rat model of urinary bladder carcinogenesis induced with N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine.

Fine-grained nociceptive maps in primary somatosensory cortex.

Topographic maps of the receptive surface are a fundamental feature of neural organization in many sensory systems. While touch is finely mapped in the cerebral cortex, it remains controversial how precise any cortical nociceptive map may be. Given that nociceptive innervation density is relatively low on distal skin regions such as the digits, one might conclude that the nociceptive system lacks fine representation of these regions.

In vivo functional and myeloarchitectonic mapping of human primary auditory areas.

In contrast to vision, where retinotopic mapping alone can define areal borders, primary auditory areas such as A1 are best delineated by combining in vivo tonotopic mapping with postmortem cyto- or myeloarchitectonics from the same individual. We combined high-resolution (800 μm) quantitative T(1) mapping with phase-encoded tonotopic methods to map primary auditory areas (A1 and R) within the "auditory core" of human volunteers. We first quantitatively characterize the highly myelinated auditory core in terms of shape, area, cortical depth profile, and position, with our data showing considerable correspondence to postmortem myeloarchitectonic studies, both in cross-participant averages and in individuals.

General practitioners and management of patients with respiratory diseases in a real life survey.

Aim: The prevalence of respiratory diseases has been assessed in community based epidemiological studies. General practice is the ideal position to intercept chronic respiratory illness and manage the first level of follow up as well. Aim of this study was to obtain General Practitioners (GPs) data about management and clinical setting of patients with respiratory diseases.

Antibacterial and leishmanicidal activities of temporin-SHd, a 17-residue long membrane-damaging peptide.

Temporins are a family of short antimicrobial peptides (8-17 residues) that mostly show potent activity against Gram-positive bacteria. Herein, we demonstrate that temporin-SHd, a 17-residue peptide with a net charge of +2 (FLPAALAGIGGILGKLF(amide)), expressed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. This peptide displayed potent antibacterial activities against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, including multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains, as well as antiparasitic activity against promastigote and the intracellular stage (amastigote) of Leishmania infantum, at concentration not toxic for the macrophages.

Mapping multisensory parietal face and body areas in humans.

Detection and avoidance of impending obstacles is crucial to preventing head and body injuries in daily life. To safely avoid obstacles, locations of objects approaching the body surface are usually detected via the visual system and then used by the motor system to guide defensive movements. Mediating between visual input and motor output, the posterior parietal cortex plays an important role in integrating multisensory information in peripersonal space.

Is a Mean Machine Better than a Dependable Drive? It's Geared Toward Your Regulatory Focus.

While many studies have investigated the role of message-level valence in persuasive messages (i.e., how positive or negative message content affects attitudes), none of these have examined whether word-level valence can modulate such effects.

Epidemiology, responses, and way forward: the silent epidemic of viral hepatitis and HIV coinfection in Vietnam.

Viral hepatitis is a disease of great concern to public health that is now met by a favorable momentum to combat the global epidemic. This article is intended to highlight the importance of viral hepatitis in the Vietnam population as well in the group of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). We reviewed available data on epidemiology and response on hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV coinfection in Vietnam.

Mapping the human cortical surface by combining quantitative T(1) with retinotopy.

We combined quantitative relaxation rate (R1= 1/T1) mapping-to measure local myelination-with fMRI-based retinotopy. Gray-white and pial surfaces were reconstructed and used to sample R1 at different cortical depths. Like myelination, R1 decreased from deeper to superficial layers.

Doctor-patient relationship: a resource to improve respiratory diseases management.

Background: Many respiratory diseases are chronic conditions that are strongly linked with the patient-physician relationship, disease perception and therapy adherence. The aim of the present study was to evaluate patient's viewpoint about the different aspects involved in their respiratory diseases.

Methods: This is a prospective observational survey.

Leishmania infantum nicotinamidase is required for late-stage development in its natural sand fly vector, Phlebotomus perniciosus.

Leishmania infantum nicotinamidase, encoded by the Lipnc1 gene, converts nicotinamide into nicotinicacid to ensure Nicotinamide–Adenine–Dinucleotide (NAD+) biosynthesis. We were curious to explore the role of this enzyme during L. infantum development in its natural sand fly vector, Phlebotomus perniciosus (Diptera, Phlebotominae), using null mutants with a deleted Lipnc1 gene.

Wing size and shape variation of Phlebotomus papatasi (Diptera: Psychodidae) populations from the south and north slopes of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

The wing shape and size morphology of populations of the medically important phlebotomine sand fly, Phlebotomus papatasi, were examined in two endemic (south of the Atlas Mountains) and nonendemic (north of the Atlas Mountains) foci of cutaneous leishmaniasis by using geometric morphometrics in Morocco. Although it is present in all of Morocco, P. papatasi is the main vector of Leishmania major in only southern part of the Atlas Mountains.