Prognostic role of acute kidney injury on long-term outcome in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic role of postnatal acute kidney injury (AKI) on neurodevelopmental outcome in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) receiving therapeutic hypothermia (TH).

Methods: This is a prospective observational study including all neonates with HIE receiving TH between 2009 and 2016 at a single center. AKI was classified according to the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes definition modified for neonatal age.

Biomechanical behaviour of heel pad tissue: experimental testing, constitutive formulation, and numerical modelling.

This paper deals with the constitutive formulation of heel pad tissue and presents a procedure for identifying constitutive parameters using experimental data, with the aim of developing a computational approach for investigating the actual biomechanical response. The preliminary definition of constitutive parameters was developed using a visco-hyperelastic formulation, considering experimental data from in vitro compression tests on specimens of fat pad tissue and data from in vivo tests to identify the actual trend of tissue stiffness. The discrepancy between model results and experimental data was evaluated on the basis of a specific cost function, adopting a stochastic/deterministic procedure.

Assessment of CK2 constitutive activity in cancer cells.

At variance with the great majority of protein kinases that become active only in response to specific stimuli and whose implication in tumors is caused by genetic alterations conferring to them unscheduled activity, the highly pleiotropic Ser/Thr-specific protein kinase CK2 is constitutively active even under normal conditions and no gain-of-function CK2 mutants are known. Nevertheless, CK2 level is abnormally high in cancer cells where it is believed to generate an environment favorable to the development of malignancy, through a mechanism denoted as "non-oncogene addiction." This makes CK2 not only an appealing target to counteract different kinds of tumors but also a valuable marker of cells predisposed to undergo neoplastic transformation owing to the presence in them of CK2 level exceeding a critical threshold.

The effects of weight changes after middle age on the rate of disability in an elderly population sample.

Objectives: To analyze the association between weight loss and weight gain after middle age and the prevalence of late disability.

Design: Secondary analysis of baseline data from a longitudinal population study.

Setting: Progetto Veneto Anziani Study.