Quantifying the Human Health Benefits of Using Satellite Information to Detect Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms and Manage Recreational Advisories in U.S. Lakes.

Significant recent advances in satellite remote sensing allow environmental managers to detect and monitor cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHAB), and these capabilities are being used more frequently in water quality management. A quantitative estimate of the socioeconomic benefits generated from these new capabilities, known as an impact assessment, was missing from the growing literature on cyanoHABs and remote sensing. In this paper, we present an impact assessment framework to characterize the socioeconomic benefits of satellite remote sensing for detecting cyanoHABs and managing recreational advisories at freshwater lakes.

Persistent Renin-Angiotensin System Sensitization Months After Body Weight Recovery From Severe Food Restriction in Female Fischer Rats.

Background Prior exposure to periods of severe food restriction (sFR) is associated with increased risk of developing hypertension and cardiovascular disease later in life. Methods and Results To investigate the mechanism of these long-term adverse effects of sFR, 4-month-old female Fischer rats were divided in 2 groups and maintained on a normal diet ad libitum (control) or on an sFR diet with 60% reduction in daily food intake for 2 weeks that resulted in a 15% reduction in body weight. After the 2-week sFR period ended, both groups received normal chow ad libitum for 3 months.

Are serum cortisol measurements by immunoassays reliable?: A case series.

Routinely used automated immunoassays have been found to give unrealiable measurements of thyroid hormones in the presence of either high or low levels of thyroxine-binding globulin. Thyroid hormones are not the only analytes bound to specific binding proteins that are measured by immunoassays. Preliminary data from a series of cases, comparing IA measurements to those obtained by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, reveal for the first time that IA measurements report falsely low (by an average of 27%) serum cortisol concentrations.

The Most Bothersome Aspects of Periods Reported by Individuals with Parkinson's Disease.

Introduction: The periods in Parkinson's disease have a significantly negative impact on quality of life. What the most bothersome aspects of periods are from the patient's perspective are not well studied, nor is the degree to which screening tools for wearing off such as the Wearing Off Questionnaires (WOQs) capture what bothers patients most.

Methods: A questionnaire was deployed to eligible participants of Fox Insight, an online study of individuals with self-reported Parkinson's disease.

A dissociation between syntactic and lexical processing in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD), which involves the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia, has long been associated with motor deficits. Increasing evidence suggests that language can also be impaired, including aspects of syntactic and lexical processing. However, the exact pattern of these impairments remains somewhat unclear, for several reasons.

Effect of Intensive and Standard Clinic-Based Hypertension Management on the Concordance Between Clinic and Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Blood Pressure Variability in SPRINT.

Background Blood pressure ( BP ) varies over time within individual patients and across different BP measurement techniques. The effect of different BP targets on concordance between BP measurements is unknown. The goals of this analysis are to evaluate concordance between (1) clinic and ambulatory BP , (2) clinic visit-to-visit variability and ambulatory BP variability, and (3) first and second ambulatory BP and to evaluate whether different clinic targets affect these relationships.

Informing a roadmap for cross-sectoral collaboration on portion size management as a national strategy to improve population nutrition - a Delphi study.

Background: Addressing food portion sizes is a key untapped opportunity to help tackle obesity. This study sought to inform the agenda of a national movement involving diverse sectors to manage portion sizes in packaged foods, restaurants, cafeterias and prepared foods in grocery stores.

Methods: A Delphi study was conducted with representatives from public health, private-sector food companies and academia that formed a panel of experts ( = 32).

Magnitude of the Difference Between Clinic and Ambulatory Blood Pressures and Risk of Adverse Outcomes in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease.

Background Obtaining 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure ( BP ) is recommended for the detection of masked or white-coat hypertension. Our objective was to determine whether the magnitude of the difference between ambulatory and clinic BP s has prognostic implications. Methods and Results We included 610 participants of the AASK (African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension) Cohort Study who had clinic and ambulatory BPs performed in close proximity in time.

Reduce Acute Care Costs, and All Other Healthcare Costs Too.

See Article Cowper et al.

Association of Statin Use and Mortality After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

Background Statins may reduce mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) through prevention of atherosclerotic events or pleiotropic effects. However, the competing mortality risks in TAVR patients may dilute any positive effect of statins. We sought to understand the association of statin use with post-TAVR mortality.

Pathological Remodeling of Mitral Valve Leaflets from Unphysiologic Leaflet Mechanics after Undersized Mitral Annuloplasty to Repair Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation.

Background Undersized ring annuloplasty is a commonly used surgical repair for ischemic mitral regurgitation, in which annular downsizing corrects regurgitation, but alters valve geometry and elevates tissue stresses. In this study, we investigated if unphysiological leaflet kinematics after annuloplasty might cause pathogenic biological remodeling of the mitral valve leaflets, and if preserving physiologic leaflet kinematics with a better technique can moderate such adverse remodeling. Methods and Results Twenty-nine swine were induced with ischemic mitral regurgitation, and survivors were assigned to groups: 7 underwent annuloplasty, 12 underwent annuloplasty with papillary-muscle approximation, 6 underwent papillary-muscle approximation, and 3 were sham controls.

Role of Farnesoid X Receptor and Bile Acids in Hepatic Tumor Development.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, and an association between altered bile acid (BA) metabolism, down-regulation of farnesoid X receptor (FXR), which is a master regulator of BA metabolism, and hepatocarcinogenesis has been documented. While global FXR deficiency in mice results in spontaneous HCC with aging, the contribution of tissue-specific FXR deficiency to hepatocarcinogenesis remains unclear. In this study, the prevalence of hepatic tumors, expression of genes related to tumorigenesis, and serum/liver BA levels were compared among male whole-body -null, hepatocyte-specific -null ( ), and enterocyte-specific -null ( ) mice at the age of 3, 14, and 20 months.

Tissue distribution and subcellular localizations determine in vivo functional relationship among prostasin, matriptase, HAI-1, and HAI-2 in human skin.

The membrane-bound serine proteases prostasin and matriptase and the Kunitz-type protease inhibitors HAI-1 and HAI-2 are all expressed in human skin and may form a tightly regulated proteolysis network, contributing to skin pathophysiology. Evidence from other systems, however, suggests that the relationship between matriptase and prostasin and between the proteases and the inhibitors can be context-dependent. In this study the in vivo zymogen activation and protease inhibition status of matriptase and prostasin were investigated in the human skin.

Factors influencing decisions about a career in hepatology: A survey of gastroenterology fellows.

Despite an unmet need for hepatologists in the United States, every year transplant hepatology (TH) fellowship positions remain unfilled. To address this, we investigated factors that influence trainee decisions about pursuing a career in hepatology. We invited current gastroenterology (GI) and TH fellows from all Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-accredited programs for the academic year 2014-2015 to participate in an online survey about factors influencing decisions to train in hepatology.

Population genomics of the Asian tiger mosquito, : insights into the recent worldwide invasion.

, the "Asian tiger mosquito," is an aggressive biting mosquito native to Asia that has colonized all continents except Antarctica during the last ~30-40 years. The species is of great public health concern as it can transmit at least 26 arboviruses, including dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. In this study, using double-digest Restriction site-Associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing, we developed a panel of ~58,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) based on 20 worldwide populations representing both the invasive and the native range.

Arthropod communities on hybrid and parental cottonwoods are phylogenetically structured by tree type: Implications for conservation of biodiversity in plant hybrid zones.

Although hybridization in plants has been recognized as an important pathway in plant speciation, it may also affect the ecology and evolution of associated communities. Cottonwood species ( and ) and their naturally occurring hybrids are known to support different plant, animal, and microbial communities, but no studies have examined community structure within the context of phylogenetic history. Using a community composed of 199 arthropod species, we tested for differences in arthropod phylogenetic patterns within and among hybrid and parental tree types in a common garden.

Selective Inhibition of Prostasin in Human Enterocytes by the Integral Membrane Kunitz-Type Serine Protease Inhibitor HAI-2.

Mutations of hepatocyte growth factor activator inhibitor (HAI)-2 in humans cause sodium loss in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract in patients with syndromic congenital sodium diarrhea (SCSD). Aberrant regulation of HAI-2 target protease(s) was proposed as the cause of the disease. Here functional linkage of HAI-2 with two membrane-associated serine proteases, matriptase and prostasin was analyzed in Caco-2 cells and the human GI tract.

Matriptase and prostasin are expressed in human skin in an inverse trend over the course of differentiation and are targeted to different regions of the plasma membrane.

Matriptase and prostasin, acting as a tightly coupled proteolytic cascade, were reported to be required for epidermal barrier formation in mouse skin. Here we show that, in human skin, matriptase and prostasin are expressed with an inverse pattern over the course of differentiation. Matriptase was detected primarily in epidermal basal keratinocytes and the basaloid cells in the outer root sheath of hair follicles and the sebaceous gland, where prostasin was not detected.

Don't stand so close to me: psychopathy and the regulation of interpersonal distance.

Psychopathy is characterized by callous and unemotional personality traits, such as reduced empathy and remorse, and a tendency toward deviant interpersonal behaviors. It has been suggested that subtle behavioral cues in individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits may betray their personality during interpersonal interactions, but little research has addressed what these clues might be. In this study, we investigated whether psychopathic traits predict interpersonal distance preferences, which have been previously linked to amygdala functioning.

Emergence of ETS transcription factors as diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets in prostate cancer.

The discovery of chromosomal translocations in prostate cancer has greatly enhanced our understanding of prostate cancer biology. Genomic rearrangements involving the ETS family of transcription factors are estimated to be present in 50-70% of prostate cancer cases. These rearrangements fuse the ETS factors with promoters of genes that are androgen regulated.

Specification of neural cell fate and regulation of neural stem cell proliferation by microRNAs.

In the approximately 20 years since microRNAs (miRNAs) were first characterized, they have been shown to play important roles in diverse physiologic functions, particularly those requiring coordinated changes in networks of signaling pathways. The ability of miRNAs to silence expression of multiple gene targets hints at complex connections that research has only begun to elucidate. The nervous system, particularly the brain, and its progenitor cells offer opportunities to examine miRNA function due to the myriad different cell types, numerous functionally distinct regions, and fluidly dynamic connections between them.

Loss of imprinting of IGF2 and the epigenetic progenitor model of cancer.

Among the hypotheses discussing cancer formation, the cancer stem cell (CSC) theory is one receiving widespread support. One version of this theory states that changes in otherwise healthy cells can cause formation of tumor- initiating cells (TICs), which have the potential to create precancerous stem cells that can lead to CSC formation. These CSCs can be rare, in contrast to their differentiated progeny, which give rise to the vast majority of the tumor mass in most cancers.

Comparison of uniformity of dose response of double layer radiochromic films (MD-55-2) measured at 5 institutions.

In recent years, double-layer radiochromic films (MD-55-2) also known as new improved Gafchromic Films (NMD-55), have been used for measuring dose distributions of radiation fields. It is reported that the response of radiochromic film is affected by the scanning densitometry systems used to read the film. To quantify the response of MD-55-2 films, two sheets (12.

Integrated analysis of transcriptomic and proteomic data of Desulfovibrio vulgaris: zero-inflated Poisson regression models to predict abundance of undetected proteins.

Motivation: Integrated analysis of global scale transcriptomic and proteomic data can provide important insights into the metabolic mechanisms underlying complex biological systems. However, because the relationship between protein abundance and mRNA expression level is complicated by many cellular and physical processes, sophisticated statistical models need to be developed to capture their relationship.

Results: In this study, we describe a novel data-driven statistical model to integrate whole-genome microarray and proteomic data collected from Desulfovibrio vulgaris grown under three different conditions.