Acute suppurative thyroiditis seeded from infective endocarditis and intravenous drug use.

Acute suppurative thyroiditis (AST) is a rare infection of the thyroid gland, and most patients are euthyroid upon presentation. We present an interesting case of a 42-year-old man with a history of intravenous drug use (IVDU) and poorly controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus who was admitted for sepsis and thyrotoxicosis from infective endocarditis (IE), AST, prostate abscess, and pyelonephritis. He suffered from a cerebral vascular accident (CVA) from septic embolic showering.

Awareness and Attitudes Toward HIV Self-Testing in Northern Thailand.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus self-testing (HIVST) was recently introduced in Thailand, but little is known about receptivity among its residents. Because Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) testing is a critical component of HIV prevention, it is important to understand how HIVST is perceived among potential users. The purpose of this study was to examine awareness and attitudes toward HIVST among adults in Northern Thailand.

Correlates of Health Literacy among Farmers in Northern Thailand.

Low health literacy is a barrier to public health efforts worldwide. Agricultural workers have an elevated risk for lower health literacy, with important health implications because of their potential exposure to harmful chemicals. The Asian Health Literacy Survey (AHLS) has been developed and translated for use in several different Asian countries and is standardized for easy comparisons across regions.

Carbonate formation in salt dome cap rocks by microbial anaerobic oxidation of methane.

Major hydrocarbon accumulations occur in traps associated with salt domes. Whereas some of these hydrocarbons remain to be extracted for economic use, significant amounts have degraded in the subsurface, yielding mineral precipitates as byproducts. Salt domes of the Gulf of Mexico Basin typically exhibit extensive deposits of carbonate that form as cap rock atop salt structures.

Manta rays feed using ricochet separation, a novel nonclogging filtration mechanism.

Solid-liquid filtration is a ubiquitous process found in industrial and biological systems. Although implementations vary widely, almost all filtration systems are based on a small set of fundamental separation mechanisms, including sieve, cross-flow, hydrosol, and cyclonic separation. Anatomical studies showed that manta rays have a highly specialized filter-feeding apparatus that does not resemble previously described filtration systems.

Interkingdom microbial consortia mechanisms to guide biotechnological applications.

Microbial consortia are capable of surviving diverse conditions through the formation of synergistic population-level structures, such as stromatolites, microbial mats and biofilms. Biotechnological applications are poised to capitalize on these unique interactions. However, current artificial co-cultures constructed for societal benefits, including biosynthesis, agriculture and bioremediation, face many challenges to perform as well as natural consortia.

Competition between sympatric wolf taxa: an example involving African and Ethiopian wolves.

Carnivore populations are declining globally due to range contraction, persecution and prey depletion. One consequence of these patterns is increased range and niche overlap with other carnivores, and thus an elevated potential for competitive exclusion. Here, we document competition between an endangered canid, the Ethiopian wolf (EW), and the newly discovered African wolf (AW) in central Ethiopia.

Post-Translational Modifications in Polypyrimidine Tract Binding Proteins PTBP1 and PTBP2.

RNA binding proteins play an important role in regulating alternative pre-mRNA splicing and in turn cellular gene expression. Many of these RNA binding proteins occur as gene families with members sharing a high degree of primary structure identity and domain organization yet have tissue-specific expression patterns and regulate different sets of target exons. How highly similar members in a gene family can exert different splicing outcomes is not well understood.

Immediate effect of vibratory stimuli on quadriceps function in healthy adults.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of whole body vibration (WBV) and local muscle vibration (LMV) on quadriceps function.

Methods: Sixty adults were randomized to WBV, LMV, or control groups. Quadriceps function [Hoffmann (H)-reflex, active motor threshold (AMT), motor evoked potential (MEP) and electromyographic amplitude, peak torque (PT), rate of torque development (RTD), and central activation ratio (CAR)] was assessed before and immediately after and 10 and 20 minutes after interventions.

Obesity and Prader-Willi Syndrome Affect Heart Rate Recovery from Dynamic Resistance Exercise in Youth.

Following exercise, heart rate decline is initially driven by parasympathetic reactivation and later by sympathetic withdrawal. Obesity delays endurance exercise heart rate recovery (HRR) in both children and adults. Young people with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a congenital cause for obesity, have shown a slower 60-s endurance exercise HRR compared to lean and obese children, suggesting compromised regulation.

Patterns of habitual physical activity in youth with and without Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Children classified as overweight or obese and those with disabilities are at a greater risk of not meeting the minimum recommendation of 60 min a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity (PA). Youth with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) appear to participate in less PA compared to nonsyndromal children, likely due to syndrome-related factors. However, description of PA patterns in youth with PWS is lacking.

Radius constants for analytic functions with fixed second coefficient.

Let f(z) = z + ∑(n=2)(∞) (a)n(z) (n) be analytic in the unit disk with the second coefficient a2 satisfying |a2| = 2b, 0 ≤ b ≤ 1. Sharp radius of Janowski starlikeness is obtained for functions f whose nth coefficient satisfies |a(n)| ≤ cn + d (c, d ≥ 0) or |a(n)| ≤ c/n  (c > 0 and n ≥ 3). Other radius constants are also obtained for these functions, and connections with earlier results are made.

HIV testing in an ethnically diverse sample of American university students: associations with violence/abuse and covariates.

Associations linking HIV infection to violence and abuse are well documented; however, little is known about how violence/abuse is related to HIV testing behavior, particularly among undergraduate university students, who test at lower rates compared to non-student peers in the United States. We assessed history of HIV testing in an ethnically diverse sample of undergraduates in California (n = 1,210); and examined potential associations between testing and various forms of violence/abuse, while controlling for covariates. Whereas 73.

A computerized decision support system to predict the variations in the cerebral blood flow of mechanically ventilated infants.

A computerized decision support system is described to predict the changes in the cerebral blood flow (CBF) of mechanically ventilated infants in response to different ventilatory settings. A CBF controller was developed and combined with a mathematical model of the infant's respiratory system to simulate the effects of ventilatory settings on the infant's CBF. The performance of the system was examined under various ventilatory treatments and the results were compared with available experimental data.

Effects of adiposity and Prader-Willi Syndrome on postexercise heart rate recovery.

Heart rate recovery (HRR) is an indicator of all-cause mortality in children and adults. We aimed to determine the effect of adiposity and Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), a congenital form of obesity, on HRR. Sixteen children of normal weight (NW = body fat % ≤85th percentile, 9.

A closed-loop system for control of the fraction of inspired oxygen and the positive end-expiratory pressure in mechanical ventilation.

A system for automatic control of the fraction of inspired oxygen (F(IO2)), and positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) for patients on mechanical ventilation is presented. In this system, F(IO2) is controlled by using two interacting mechanisms; a fine control mechanism and a fast stepwise procedure used when patient's oxygen saturation level (S(pO2)) falls abruptly. The PEEP level is controlled automatically and in relation to F(IO2) to prevent hypoxemia.

Mother-child interaction and resilience in children with early developmental risk.

Although prenatal and genetic factors make strong contributions to the emergence of intellectual disability (ID), children's early environment may have the potential to alter developmental trajectories and to foster resilience in children with early risk. The present study examined mother-child interaction and the promotion of competence in 50 children with early developmental delays. Three related but distinct aspects of mother-child interaction were considered: maternal technical scaffolding, maternal positive sensitivity, and mother-child dyadic pleasure.

The role of exercise in fall prevention for older adults.

This article reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of stand-alone exercise interventions and multifactorial intervention strategies that include exercise in lowering fall incidence rates and/or fall risk among older adults residing in the community, acute, subacute, and long-term care settings. Stand-alone exercise programs that emphasize multiple exercise categories are effective in reducing fall rates and fall risk in community-residing older adults, and may also be effective when conducted for a sufficient duration with older adult patients in subacute settings. In contrast, multifactorial fall risk reduction programs that include exercise as a component and are delivered by a multidisciplinary team are more effective in lowering fall rates in long-term care settings.

Location of plantar ulcerations in diabetic patients referred to a Department of Veterans Affairs podiatry clinic.

This study described the location of foot ulcerations via a retrospective chart review of diabetic patients in a Department of Veterans Affairs podiatry clinic and correlated location of ulceration with specific medical parameters. The heel was a site of ulceration in 11% of the patients. By multiple logistic regression, patients with diminished vascular function were more than five times more likely to have heel ulceration than patients with adequate vascular status.

The effect of intertalker speech rate variation on acoustic vowel space.

The present study aimed to examine the size of the acoustic vowel space in talkers who had previously been identified as having slow and fast habitual speaking rates [Tsao, Y.-C. and Weismer, G.

Smoking among adolescents in China: an analysis based upon the meanings of smoking theory.

Purpose: This study utilized the Meanings of Behavior theory to examine whether meanings of smoking differ among adolescents in China who were never smokers, ever smokers, and past-30-day smokers. The Meanings of Behavior theory argues that affect takes precedence over cognitive constructs in motivating behavior This study also examined whether the associations among meanings of smoking and smoking behavior vary by age and gender

Design: This study was a cross-sectional study using survey data.

Setting: Middle and high schools in seven cities in China.

An Arabidopsis mutant tolerant to lethal ultraviolet-B levels shows constitutively elevated accumulation of flavonoids and other phenolics.

The isolation and characterization of mutants hypersensitive to ultraviolet (UV) radiation has been a powerful tool to learn about the mechanisms that protect plants against UV-induced damage. To increase our understanding of the various mechanisms of defense against UVB radiation, we searched for mutations that would increase the level of tolerance of Arabidopsis plants to UV radiation. We describe a single gene dominant mutation (uvt1) that leads to a remarkable tolerance to UVB radiation conditions that would kill wild-type plants.

Crystal structures of ligand complexes of P450eryF exhibiting homotropic cooperativity.

Several mammalian cytochrome P450 (P450) isoforms demonstrate homotropic cooperativity with a number of substrates, including steroids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. To identify structural factors contributing to steroid and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon binding to P450 enzymes and to determine the location of the allosteric site, we investigated interactions of the macrolide hydroxylase P450eryF from Saccharopolyspora erythraea with androstenedione and 9-aminophenanthrene. Spectroscopic binding assays indicate that P450eryF binds androstenedione with an affinity of 365 microM and a Hill coefficient of 1.