Accurate measures of changes in regional lung air volumes from chest x-rays of small animals.

. To develop a robust technique for calculating regional volume changes within the lung from x-ray radiograph sequences captured during ventilation, without the use of computed tomography (CT)..

Creating a Global Community of Practice for Oncofertility.

Fertility preservation in the cancer setting, known as oncofertility, is a field that requires cross-disciplinary interaction between physicians, basic scientists, clinical researchers, ethicists, lawyers, educators, and religious leaders. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Oncofertility Consortium (OC) was formed to be a scientifically grounded, transparent, and altruistic resource, both intellectual and monetary, for building this new field of practice capable of addressing the unique needs of young patients with cancer. The OC has expanded its attention to include other nonmalignant conditions that can threaten fertility, and the work of the OC now extends around the globe, involving partners who together have created a community of shared effort, resources, and practices.

ERS/TSANZ Task Force Statement on the management of reproduction and pregnancy in women with airways diseases.

This European Respiratory Society/Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand statement outlines a review of the literature and expert opinion concerning the management of reproduction and pregnancy in women with airways diseases: asthma, cystic fibrosis (CF) and non-CF bronchiectasis. Many women with these diseases are now living into reproductive age, with some developing moderate-to-severe impairment of lung function in early adulthood. The statement covers aspects of fertility, management during pregnancy, effects of drugs, issues during delivery and the post-partum period, and patients' views about family planning, pregnancy and parenthood.

Normal foetal kidney volume in offspring of women treated for gestational diabetes.

Aims: The worldwide prevalence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing. Studies in rodent models indicate that hyperglycaemia during pregnancy alters kidney development, yet few studies have examined if this is so in humans. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of treated GDM with foetal kidney size.

Pre-pubertal growth, muscle and fat accumulation in male and female sheep-Relationships with metabolic hormone concentrations, timing of puberty and reproductive outcomes.

Metabolic homeostasis is aligned with changes in growth and body composition, through processes mediated by circulating metabolites and metabolic hormones, and is eventually linked to reproductive success. In the present study with sheep, we determined the relationships among phenotypic and genotypic rates of growth, muscle and fat accumulation, and the circulating concentrations of metabolic and tested for relationships with the timing of puberty and subsequent reproductive outcomes. We used 64 females and 62 males with known phenotypic values for depth of eye muscle (EMD) and fat (FAT) and known Australian Sheep Breeding Values at post-weaning age for live weight (PWT), depth of eye muscle (PEMD) and depth of fat (PFAT).

Correction to: Identification of novel Y chromosome encoded transcripts by testis transcriptome analysis of mice with deletions of the Y chromosome long arm.

Following publication of the original article [1], the following error was reported: The actin control panel in Fig. 3 of this paper is reproduced from Fig. 7 of Touré et al, 2004 [2] by kind permission of the Genetics Society of America.

Burden of hypoxia and intraventricular haemorrhage in extremely preterm infants.

Objective: Thresholds of cerebral hypoxia through monitoring of near-infrared spectroscopy tissue oxygenation index (TOI) were used to investigate the relationship between intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) and indices of hypoxia.

Design: Prospective observational study.

Setting: A single-centre neonatal intensive care unit.

Effect of spontaneous breathing on umbilical venous blood flow and placental transfusion during delayed cord clamping in preterm lambs.

Introduction: During delayed umbilical cord clamping, the factors underpinning placental transfusion remain unknown. We hypothesised that reductions in thoracic pressure during inspiration would enhance placental transfusion in spontaneously breathing preterm lambs.

Objective: Investigate the effect of spontaneous breathing on umbilical venous flow and body weight in preterm lambs.

Comparative Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Reveal Multiple Pathways Associated with Polymyxin Killing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Polymyxins are a last-line therapy against multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa; however, resistance to polymyxins has been increasingly reported. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms of polymyxin activity and resistance is crucial for preserving their clinical usefulness. This study employed comparative metabolomics and transcriptomics to investigate the responses of polymyxin-susceptible P.

C-reactive protein and immature-to-total neutrophil ratio have no utility in guiding lumbar puncture in suspected neonatal sepsis.

Aim: Meningitis may complicate neonatal sepsis, but there is scant evidence to inform the decision to perform a lumbar puncture (LP) and considerable variation in practice. We investigated whether inflammatory markers - C-reactive protein (CRP) and immature-to-total neutrophil ratio (ITR) - were predictive of meningitis or significant cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis and useful in guiding the decision to perform a LP.

Methods: We studied all inpatients in a single tertiary neonatal unit who were <6 months of age who had a LP performed between March 2011 and October 2014.

A Pre-Clinical Assessment of the Pan-ERBB Inhibitor Dacomitinib in Pediatric and Adult Brain Tumors.

Glioblastoma in adults, and medulloblastoma and pineoblastoma that mainly affect children, are aggressive brain tumors. The survival for patients with glioblastoma remains dismal. While the cure rate for medulloblastoma exceeds 70%, this figure has stagnated over the past few decades and survivors still contend with significant long-term debilitating side effects.

Hepatotoxicity after paracetamol overdose in a patient with cystic fibrosis despite early acetylcysteine and utility of microRNA to predict hepatotoxicity.

Case Details: A 19-year-old girl presented to the emergency department following overdose of 10 g of paracetamol on a background history of cystic fibrosis. Paracetamol concentration was below the nomogram line, but was treated with acetylcysteine seven hours post-overdose given her symptomatology. Nineteen hours following her overdose she developed hepatotoxicity, despite early initiation of acetylcysteine.

miR-222 isoforms are differentially regulated by type-I interferon.

Endogenous microRNAs (miRNAs) often exist as multiple isoforms (known as "isomiRs") with predominant variation around their 3'-end. Increasing evidence suggests that different isomiRs of the same family can have diverse functional roles, as recently demonstrated with the example of miR-222-3p 3'-end variants. While isomiR levels from a same miRNA family can vary between tissues and cell types, change of templated isomiR stoichiometry to stimulation has not been reported to date.

Vitamin B deficiency.

Vitamin B (B12; also known as cobalamin) is a B vitamin that has an important role in cellular metabolism, especially in DNA synthesis, methylation and mitochondrial metabolism. Clinical B12 deficiency with classic haematological and neurological manifestations is relatively uncommon. However, subclinical deficiency affects between 2.

Porphyromonas gulae Activates Unprimed and Gamma Interferon-Primed Macrophages via the Pattern Recognition Receptors Toll-Like Receptor 2 (TLR2), TLR4, and NOD2.

is an anaerobic, Gram-negative coccobacillus that has been associated with periodontal disease in companion animals. The aims of this study were to analyze the ligation of pattern recognition receptors by and the subsequent activation of macrophages. Exposure of HEK cells transfected with Toll-like receptors (TLRs) or NOD-like receptors to resulted in the ligation of TLR2, TLR4, and NOD2.

Dimeric but not monomeric α-lactalbumin potentiates apoptosis by up regulation of ATF3 and reduction of histone deacetylase activity in primary and immortalised cells.

α-lactalbumin is a protein of dual function found in milk of most mammals. α-lactalbumin binds β-1,4-galactosyltransferase to form the regulatory subunit for lactose synthesis and has also been shown to cause cell death. This study shows, for the first time, that α-lactalbumin isolated in a rare 28kDa dimeric form induces cell death, while 14kDa monomeric α-lactalbumin is inactive.

Positional modification techniques for supine obstructive sleep apnea: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

This review aimed to determine the effectiveness of positional modification techniques in preventing supine sleep, sleep-disordered breathing and other clinically important outcomes in patients with supine obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Randomized controlled trials comparing positional modification techniques with any other therapy or placebo were included. Electronic searches of databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science up to April 2016 were performed.

Genome-wide gain-of-function screen for genes that induce epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in breast cancer.

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental program that has been implicated in progression, metastasis and therapeutic resistance of some carcinomas. To identify genes whose overexpression drives EMT, we screened a lentiviral expression library of 17000 human open reading frames (ORFs) using high-content imaging to quantitate cytoplasmic vimentin. Hits capable of increasing vimentin in the mammary carcinoma-derived cell line MDA-MB-468 were confirmed in the non-tumorigenic breast-epithelial cell line MCF10A.

Self-reported sleepwalking in Australian senior secondary school students.

Background: Few studies have examined self-reported sleepwalking in older adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence rates of sleepwalking in a one-month self-report period in Australian adolescents.

Methods: Participants were 532 Australian adolescents in their final two years of secondary school.

The immune modulatory peptide FhHDM-1 secreted by the helminth Fasciola hepatica prevents NLRP3 inflammasome activation by inhibiting endolysosomal acidification in macrophages.

The NLRP3 inflammasome is a multimeric protein complex that controls the production of IL-1β, a cytokine that influences the development of both innate and adaptive immune responses. Helminth parasites secrete molecules that interact with innate immune cells, modulating their activity to ultimately determine the phenotype of differentiated T cells, thus creating an immune environment that is conducive to sustaining chronic infection. We show that one of these molecules, FhHDM-1, a cathelicidin-like peptide secreted by the helminth parasite, Fasciola hepatica, inhibits the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome resulting in reduced secretion of IL-1β by macrophages.

The Rheumatoid Arthritis Risk Variant CCR6DNP Regulates CCR6 via PARP-1.

Understanding the implications of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for disease biology requires both identification of causal variants and definition of how these variants alter gene function. The non-coding triallelic dinucleotide polymorphism CCR6DNP is associated with risk for rheumatoid arthritis, and is considered likely causal because allelic variation correlates with expression of the chemokine receptor CCR6. Using transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) gene editing, we confirmed that CCR6DNP regulates CCR6.

Cranial Pilocytic Astrocytoma With Spinal Drop Metastasis in an Adult: Case Report and Literature Review.

Background: Pilocytic astrocytoma (PA) is a benign neoplasm that typically occurs in the brain within the pediatric and adolescent age groups and is uncommon in adults. It rarely occurs within the ventricles, and the overall prognosis is favorable. A PA of the brain with spinal metastasis at presentation has never been reported in an adult.

Novel Approaches to Neonatal Resuscitation and the Impact on Birth Asphyxia.

Historically, recommendations for neonatal resuscitation were largely based on dogma, but there is renewed interest in performing resuscitation studies at birth. The emphasis for resuscitation following birth asphyxia is administering effective ventilation, as adequate lung aeration leads not only to an increase in oxygenation but also increased pulmonary blood flow and heart rate. To aerate the lung, an initial sustained inflation can increase heart rate, oxygenation, and blood pressure recovery much faster when compared with standard ventilation.

Creating a Global Community of Practice for Oncofertility.

Fertility preservation in the cancer setting, known as oncofertility, is a field that requires cross-disciplinary interaction between physicians, basic scientists, clinical researchers, ethicists, lawyers, educators, and religious leaders. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Oncofertility Consortium (OC) was formed to be a scientifically grounded, transparent, and altruistic resource, both intellectual and monetary, for building this new field of practice capable of addressing the unique needs of young patients with cancer. The OC has expanded its attention to include other nonmalignant conditions that can threaten fertility, and the work of the OC now extends around the globe, involving partners who together have created a community of shared effort, resources, and practices.