Lymphatic Function in Autoimmune Diseases.

Lymphatic vessels are critical for clearing fluid and inflammatory cells from inflamed tissues and also have roles in immune tolerance. Given the functional association of the lymphatics with the immune system, lymphatic dysfunction may contribute to the pathophysiology of rheumatic autoimmune diseases. Here we review the current understanding of the role of lymphatics in the autoimmune diseases rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, lupus, and dermatomyositis and consider the possibility that manual therapies such as massage and acupuncture may be useful in improving lymphatic function in autoimmune diseases.

Imaging object-scene relations processing in visible and invisible natural scenes.

Integrating objects with their context is a key step in interpreting complex visual scenes. Here, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) while participants viewed visual scenes depicting a person performing an action with an object that was either congruent or incongruent with the scene. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed different activity for congruent vs.

Biodiversity recovery of Neotropical secondary forests.

Old-growth tropical forests harbor an immense diversity of tree species but are rapidly being cleared, while secondary forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural lands increase in extent. We assess how tree species richness and composition recover during secondary succession across gradients in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturbance in an unprecedented multisite analysis for the Neotropics. Secondary forests recover remarkably fast in species richness but slowly in species composition.

Fragmentation, forest structure, and topography modulate impacts of drought in a tropical forest landscape.

Climate models predict increases in drought conditions in many parts of the tropics. Yet the response of tropical forests to drought remains highly uncertain, especially with regards to the factors that generate spatial heterogeneity in drought response across landscapes. In this study, we used Landsat imagery to assess the impacts of a severe drought in 2015 across an ~80,000-ha landscape in Puerto Rico.

Quantifying 1-deoxydihydroceramides and 1-deoxyceramides in mouse nervous system tissue.

Accumulation of deoxysphingolipids (deoxySLs) has been implicated in many neural diseases, although mechanisms remain unclear. A major obstacle limiting understanding of deoxySLs has been the lack of a method easily defining measurement of deoxydihydroceramide (deoxydhCer) and deoxyceramide (deoxyCer) in neural tissues. Furthermore, it is poorly understood if deoxySLs accumulate in the nervous system with aging.

Intravenous iron treatment reduces coagulability in patients with iron deficiency anaemia: a longitudinal study.

Although many case reports and observational studies have reported a correlation between iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and thrombotic events, the mechanism for this is poorly understood. To evaluate this, we examined the change in coagulability in patients receiving treatment for IDA. Adult patients with IDA were recruited for this study and treated with intravenous iron.

Neuropsychiatric lupus: new mechanistic insights and future treatment directions.

Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) frequently show symptoms of central nervous system (CNS) involvement, termed neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE). The CNS manifestations of SLE are diverse and have a broad spectrum of severity and prognostic implications. Patients with NPSLE typically present with nonspecific symptoms, such as headache and cognitive impairment, but might also experience devastating features, such as memory loss, seizures and stroke.

Enhanced thrombin generation in patients with arterial hypertension.

Background: Arterial hypertension is associated with greater risk of cardiovascular diseases and thrombotic complications, suggesting that hypertension is a prothrombotic state.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between arterial hypertension and thrombin generation, and between blood pressure level and thrombin generation in hypertensive patients.

Methods: A total of 165 hypertensive patients and 47 healthy adults controls were include in the study.

Multiple actions of doxorubicin on the sphingolipid network revealed by flux analysis.

Sphingolipids (SLs) have been implicated in numerous important cellular biologies; however, their study has been hindered by the complexities of SL metabolism. Furthermore, enzymes of SL metabolism represent a dynamic and interconnected network in which one metabolite can be transformed into other bioactive SLs through further metabolism, resulting in diverse cellular responses. Here we explore the effects of both lethal and sublethal doses of doxorubicin (Dox) in MCF-7 cells.

United States National Postdoc Survey results and the interaction of gender, career choice and mentor impact.

The postdoctoral community is an essential component of the academic and scientific workforce, but a lack of data about this community has made it difficult to develop policies to address concerns about salaries, working conditions, diversity and career development, and to evaluate the impact of existing policies. Here we present comprehensive survey results from 7,603 postdocs based at 351 US academic and non-academic (e.g.

Effects of Instruction on Parent Competency During Infant Handling in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of 3 different methods for delivering instruction on infant handling to parents in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Methods: Ninety-six parents in the NICU received instruction. Parents were taught the same 3 infant-handling techniques after random assignment to the (1) direct, (2) video, or (3) written-pictorial instructional groups.

Two-year safety and clinical outcomes in chronic ischemic stroke patients after implantation of modified bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (SB623): a phase 1/2a study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and clinical outcomes associated with stereotactic surgical implantation of modified bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (SB623) in patients with stable chronic ischemic stroke.

Methods: This was a 2-year, open-label, single-arm, phase 1/2a study; the selected patients had chronic motor deficits between 6 and 60 months after nonhemorrhagic stroke. SB623 cells were administered to the target sites surrounding the subcortical stroke region using MRI stereotactic image guidance.

Assessment of uterine artery geometry and hemodynamics in human pregnancy with 4d flow mri and its correlation with doppler ultrasound.

Background: Uterine artery (UtA) hemodynamics might be used to predict risk of hypertensive pregnancy disorders, including preeclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction.

Purpose Or Hypothesis: To determine the feasibility of 4D flow MRI in pregnant subjects by characterizing UtA anatomy, computing UtA flow, and comparing UtA velocity, and pulsatility and resistivity indices (PI, RI) with transabdominal Doppler ultrasound (US).

Study Type: Prospective cross-sectional study from June 6, 2016, to May 2, 2018.

Glycemic control with a basal-bolus insulin protocol in hospitalized diabetic patients treated with glucocorticoids: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Improved glycemic control is the desired outcome after the discharge of patients with diabetes. We aimed to determine the efficacy of a basal-bolus insulin protocol in hospitalized patients with diabetes treated with glucocorticoids.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study compared the glycemic control of 150 hospitalized patients with diabetes and elevated inflammatory markers who were either treated with (n = 61) or without glucocorticoids (n = 89).

Barrett's esophagus with high grade dysplasia is associated with non-esophageal cancer.

Aim: To study factors associated with esophageal and non-esophageal cancer morbidity among Barrett's esophagus (BE) patients.

Methods: A cohort study within a single tertiary center included 386 consecutive patients with biopsy proven BE, who were recruited between 2004-2014. Endoscopic and histologic data were prospectively recorded.

Placental Pulsatility: Quantitative Assessment of Placental Bed Vasculature by 2-Dimensional Doppler Cine Imaging.

Objectives: Vascular resistance is known to be one of the determinants of pulsatile flow. This study aimed to investigate whether quantitative 2-dimensional Doppler ultrasound can capture and evaluate the pulsatility within the placental bed vasculature.

Methods: The placental bed vasculature was imaged by directional power Doppler ultrasound.

Serum adiponectin levels in patients with diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH).

To evaluate the relationship between serum adiponectin ADP (sADP) levels and the risk of metabolic syndrome (MS) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with DISH and to assess the relationship between sADP levels, and the tendency for new bone formation in these patients. sADP levels were measured in DISH and non-DISH (NDISH) patients. sADP levels were compared between the two groups and were also correlated with weight circumference, BMI, serum lipid profile, concomitant diseases, use of medications, the presence of MS, the risk of developing CVD, and the extent of bony bridges.

Bloodstream Infections Caused by Contaminants: Epidemiology and Risk Factors: A 10-Year Surveillance.

Background: Skin colonization of microorganisms in blood cultures (BCs) are generally considered clinically non-significant and can be the source of a true infection, particularly in immunosuppressed patients.

Objectives: To study the epidemiology and risk factors for bacteremia caused by contaminants.

Methods: This retrospective, descriptive study is based on adult BCs collected (2004-2013) and categorized as positive (True bacteremia [TrueB] or contamination) or negative.

User-Guided Segmentation of Multi-modality Medical Imaging Datasets with ITK-SNAP.

ITK-SNAP is an interactive software tool for manual and semi-automatic segmentation of 3D medical images. This paper summarizes major new features added to ITK-SNAP over the last decade. The main focus of the paper is on new features that support semi-automatic segmentation of multi-modality imaging datasets, such as MRI scans acquired using different contrast mechanisms (e.

Mortality in bullous pemphigoid: A systematic review and meta-analysis of standardized mortality ratios.

There are inconsistent data on mortality rates in patients with bullous pemphigoid (BP). Trends in mortality in BP throughout the years are yet to be established. The aim of the present study was to study the mortality in BP patients relative to the general population and to estimate trends in standardized mortality over the past 30 years.

Effects of selective breeding for high voluntary wheel-running behavior on femoral nutrient canal size and abundance in house mice.

Bone modeling and remodeling are aerobic processes that entail relatively high oxygen demands. Long bones receive oxygenated blood from nutrient arteries, epiphyseal-metaphyseal arteries, and periosteal arteries, with the nutrient artery supplying the bulk of total blood volume in mammals (~ 50-70%). Estimates of blood flow into these bones can be made from the dimensions of the nutrient canal, through which nutrient arteries pass.

Legume abundance along successional and rainfall gradients in Neotropical forests.

The nutrient demands of regrowing tropical forests are partly satisfied by nitrogen-fixing legume trees, but our understanding of the abundance of those species is biased towards wet tropical regions. Here we show how the abundance of Leguminosae is affected by both recovery from disturbance and large-scale rainfall gradients through a synthesis of forest inventory plots from a network of 42 Neotropical forest chronosequences. During the first three decades of natural forest regeneration, legume basal area is twice as high in dry compared with wet secondary forests.

Postprandial glycemic control during gestational diabetes pregnancy predicts the risk of recurrence.

In this study we aimed to explore the significance of glycemic control during gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) pregnancy in predicting recurrence as this is unknown. A retrospective population-based cohort study of women with first diagnosed GDM pregnancy was conducted. A total of 426 women with 4,226 glucose charts were obtained.