Continuous endurance-type exercise training does not modulate satellite cell content in obese type 2 diabetes patients.

Endurance-type exercise training represents a cornerstone in type 2 diabetes treatment. However, the effects of prolonged continuous, endurance-type exercise on muscle fiber characteristics remain equivocal. Fifteen obese male type 2 diabetes patients (61 ± 6 years) participated in a 6-month continuous, endurance-type exercise program.

Characteristics of muscle fiber type are predictive of skeletal muscle mass and strength in elderly men.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between skeletal muscle fiber type-specific characteristics, circulating hormone concentrations, and skeletal muscle mass and strength in older men.

Design: Cross-sectional analyses.

Setting: University research center.

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION FOR SOCIAL NETWORK DYNAMICS.

A model for network panel data is discussed, based on the assumption that the observed data are discrete observations of a continuous-time Markov process on the space of all directed graphs on a given node set, in which changes in tie variables are independent conditional on the current graph. The model for tie changes is parametric and designed for applications to social network analysis, where the network dynamics can be interpreted as being generated by choices made by the social actors represented by the nodes of the graph. An algorithm for calculating the Maximum Likelihood estimator is presented, based on data augmentation and stochastic approximation.

Effective connectivity of cortical and subcortical regions during unification of sentence structure.

In a recent fMRI study we showed that left posterior middle temporal gyrus (LpMTG) subserves the retrieval of a word's lexical-syntactic properties from the mental lexicon (long-term memory), while left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (LpIFG) is involved in unifying (on-line integration of) this information into a sentence structure (Snijders et al., 2009). In addition, the right IFG, right MTG, and the right striatum were involved in the unification process.

Smoking-based selection and influence in gender-segregated friendship networks: a social network analysis of adolescent smoking.

Aims: The main goal of this study was to examine differences between adolescent male and female friendship networks regarding smoking-based selection and influence processes using newly developed social network analysis methods that allow the current state of continuously changing friendship networks to act as a dynamic constraint for changes in smoking behaviour, while allowing current smoking behaviour to be simultaneously a dynamic constraint for changes in friendship networks.

Design: Longitudinal design with four measurements.

Setting: Nine junior high schools in Finland.

Dynamics of adolescent friendship networks and smoking behavior: social network analyses in six European countries.

The co-evolution of adolescents' friendship networks and their smoking behavior is examined in a large sample across six European countries. Selection and influence processes are disentangled using new methods of social network analysis that enable alternative selection mechanisms to be controlled for. The sample consisted of 7704 adolescents participating in the control group of the ESFA (European Smoking prevention Framework Approach) study.

Attentional modulation fails to attenuate the subjective pain experience in chronic, unexplained pain.

Background: Chronic, unexplained pain is a common, ill-understood clinical problem. Increased sensitivity for pain and other stimuli is often implied as an underlying mechanism. Attentional processes influence central pain processing and might mediate hypersensitivity at a cerebral level.

The impact of sarcopenia and exercise training on skeletal muscle satellite cells.

It has been well-established that the age-related loss of muscle mass and strength, or sarcopenia, impairs skeletal muscle function and reduces functional performance at a more advanced age. Skeletal muscle satellite cells (SC), as precursors of new myonuclei, have been suggested to be involved in the development of sarcopenia. In accordance with the type II muscle fiber atrophy observed in the elderly, recent studies report a concomitant fiber type specific reduction in SC content.

MCMC estimation for the p(2) network regression model with crossed random effects.

The p(2) model is a statistical model for the analysis of binary relational data with covariates, as occur in social network studies. It can be characterized as a multinomial regression model with crossed random effects that reflect actor heterogeneity and dependence between the ties from and to the same actor in the network. Three Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation methods for the p(2) model are presented to improve iterative generalized least squares (IGLS) estimation developed earlier, two of which use random walk proposals.

Retrieval and unification of syntactic structure in sentence comprehension: an FMRI study using word-category ambiguity.

Sentence comprehension requires the retrieval of single word information from long-term memory, and the integration of this information into multiword representations. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging study explored the hypothesis that the left posterior temporal gyrus supports the retrieval of lexical-syntactic information, whereas left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) contributes to syntactic unification. Twenty-eight subjects read sentences and word sequences containing word-category (noun-verb) ambiguous words at critical positions.

Course of distress in breast cancer patients, their partners, and matched control couples.

Background: Previous studies offer a limited perspective on the dynamic course of distress in cancer patients and their partners, owing to a restricted number of assessment points and the absence of comparison controls drawn from the general population.

Purpose: This study investigated the course of distress among breast cancer patients and their partners (N = 92 couples) in comparison to matched control couples (N = 64). Furthermore, the influence of neuroticism on distress was investigated.

Myeloid sarcoma presenting as a recurrent, multifocal nerve root entrapment syndrome.

Background: Myeloid sarcoma is an extramedullary manifestation of haematologic malignancy, most commonly acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which can cause neurological symptoms.

Case Description: A 45-year-old male with a history of AML presented with a lumbosacral nerve root entrapment syndrome followed by cauda equina compression, but without systemic signs of AML recurrence. MRI showed a mass compressing the spinal cord at level L5-S2.

[Progressive, ascending neurological impairment: a spinal epidural abscess that presents as Guillain-Barré syndrome].

Over the course of 4 days, a 65-year-old man developed fever and thoracic back pain, followed by weakness and sensory changes in both legs. Physical examination revealed dyspnoea, subfebrile temperature, neck pain withoutnuchal rigidity, sensory impairment, areflexia and weakness in both legs (and arms to a lesser extent). Guillain-Barré syndrome was considered, and treatment with intravenous immunoglobulins was started.

Do older patients who refuse to participate in a self-management intervention in the Netherlands differ from older patients who agree to participate?

Background And Aims: Refusal of patients to participate in intervention programs is an important problem in clinical trials but, in general, researchers devote relatively little attention to it. In this article, a comparison is made between patients who, after having been invited, agreed to participate in a self-management intervention (participants) and those who refused (refusers). Compared with other studies of refusers, relatively more information could be gathered with regard to both their characteristics and reasons for refusing, because all potential participants were invited personally.

Sensitivity of MRQAP Tests to Collinearity and Autocorrelation Conditions.

Multiple regression quadratic assignment procedures (MRQAP) tests are permutation tests for multiple linear regression model coefficients for data organized in square matrices of relatedness among n objects. Such a data structure is typical in social network studies, where variables indicate some type of relation between a given set of actors. We present a new permutation method (called "double semi-partialing", or DSP) that complements the family of extant approaches to MRQAP tests.

Neurophysiological evidence of delayed segmentation in a foreign language.

Previous studies have shown that segmentation skills are language-specific, making it difficult to segment continuous speech in an unfamiliar language into its component words. Here we present the first study capturing the delay in segmentation and recognition in the foreign listener using ERPs. We compared the ability of Dutch adults and of English adults without knowledge of Dutch ('foreign listeners') to segment familiarized words from continuous Dutch speech.

General Practitioners reduced benzodiazepine prescriptions in an intervention study: a multilevel application.

Objective: This study investigated the effects of general practitioner, patient, and prescription characteristics on the reduction of long-term benzodiazepine prescribing by sending a letter to chronic users. The data were analyzed with a method respecting the hierarchical data structure.

Study Design And Setting: Data were obtained from 8,170 chronic users nested in 147 general practices.

[Functional imaging of the brain in the investigation of chronic unexplained pain].

Chronic unexplained pain poses a major problem in both clinical practice and society. The traditional psychological explanations have recently been supplemented by neurobiological data from functional neuroimaging studies, particularly functional MRI. Sensitization, hypersensitivity of the nervous system for sensory stimuli, is an important element in several theories about the pathophysiology of chronic pain.

Evaluation of the chronic disease self-management program (CDSMP) among chronically ill older people in the Netherlands.

Many chronically ill older patients in the Netherlands have a combination of more than one chronic disease. There is therefore a need for self-management programs that address general management problems, rather than the problems related to a specific disease. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) seems to be very suitable for this purpose.

Open-book tests to complement assessment-programmes: analysis of open and closed-book tests.

Today's health sciences educational programmes have to deal with a growing and changing amount of knowledge. It is becoming increasingly important for students to be able to use and manage knowledge. We suggest incorporating open-book tests in assessment programmes to meet these changes.

Pair-housing of male and female rats during chronic stress exposure results in gender-specific behavioral responses.

Unlabelled: Social support has a positive influence on the course of a depression and social housing of rats could provide an animal model for studying the neurobiological mechanisms of social support. Male and female rats were subjected to chronic footshock stress for 3 weeks and pair-housing of rats was used to mimic social support. Rats were isolated or housed with a partner of the opposite sex.

Prevalence and predictors of unexplained neurological symptoms in an academic neurology outpatient clinic--an observational study.

Objectives: (a) To determine the prevalence of unexplained symptoms among newly referred patients in a Dutch academic outpatient clinic for general neurology; (b) To identify factors that can serve as characteristics and possibly as screening instruments for unexplained symptoms in this population.

Methods: Observational study, consisting of self-assessment questionnaires. Patients and resident neurologists completed self-designed questionnaires, which included questions about possible features of unexplained symptoms.

Estimation of the Wing-Kristofferson model for discrete motor responses.

A number of estimation methods for the variance components in the Wing-Kristofferson model for inter-response times are examined and compared by means of a simulation study. The estimation methods studied are the method of moments, maximum likelihood, and an alternative approach in which the Wing-Kristofferson model is recognized as a moving average model.