Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Soc Sci Med 2019 Apr 16;230:147-157. Epub 2019 Apr 16.

Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

Life expectancy inequalities are an established indicator of health inequalities. More recent attention has been given to lifespan variation, which measures the amount of heterogeneity in age at death across all individuals in a population. International studies have documented diverging socioeconomic trends in lifespan variation using individual level measures of income, education and occupation. Read More

Leuk Res 2019 Apr 13;81:43-49. Epub 2019 Apr 13.

University of Colorado Division of Hematology, Aurora, CO, United States. Electronic address:

Background: Patients with relapsed and refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have limited treatment options. Genomically-defined personalized therapies are only applicable for a minority of patients. Therapies without identifiable targets can be effective but patient selection is challenging. Read More

J Biomed Inform 2019 Apr 19:103182. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

There have been many attempts to identify relationships among concepts corresponding to terms from biomedical information ontologies such as the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). In particular, vector representation of such concepts using information from UMLS definition texts is widely used to measure the relatedness between two biological concepts. However, conventional relatedness measures have a limited range of applicable word coverage, which limits the performance of these models. Read More

J Biomed Inform 2019 Apr 19:103183. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Insitute of Cristallography - CNR, Rome, Italy.

Health data exchange is a major challenge due to the sensitive information and the privacy issues entailed. Considering the European context, in which health data must be exchanged between different European Union (EU) Member States, each having a different national regulatory framework as well as different national healthcare system structures/organizations, the challenge is even greater. Europe has tried to address this challenge by launching in 2008, the epSOS ("Smart Open Services for European Patients") project, which was a European large-scale pilot on cross-border sharing of specific health data and services. Read More

Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2019 Apr 19. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. Electronic address:

Objective: To propose an artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision-making rule in modified Ashworth scale (MAS) that draws maximum agreement from multiple human raters and to analyze how various biomechanical parameters affect scores in MAS.

Design: Prospective observational study SETTING: Two university hospitals PARTICIPANTS: Hemiplegic adults with elbow flexor spasticity due to acquired brain injury INTERVENTION: Not applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 28 rehabilitation doctors and occupational therapists examined MAS of elbow flexors in 34 subjects with hemiplegia due to acquired brain injury while the MAS score and biomechanical data (i.e. Read More

Int J Cancer 2019 Apr 22. Epub 2019 Apr 22.

Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Germany.

Next-generation sequencing has become a cornerstone of therapy guidance in cancer precision medicine and an indispensable research tool in translational oncology. Its rapidly increasing use during the last decade has expanded the options for targeted tumor therapies, and molecular tumor boards have grown accordingly. However, with increasing detection of genetic alterations, their interpretation has become more complex and error-prone, potentially introducing biases and reducing benefits in clinical practice. Read More

BMC Rheumatol 2019 10;3:14. Epub 2019 Apr 10.

The Rheumatology Department, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 28 Woodville Road, Woodville, SA 5011 Australia.

Background: To compare the utility of ESR, CRP and platelets for the diagnosis of GCA.

Method: A clinical diagnosis of GCA was determined by case-note review of 270 individuals (68% female, mean age 72 years) referred to a central pathology service for a temporal artery biopsy between 2011 and 2014. The highest levels of ESR, CRP and platelets (within 2 weeks of diagnosis) were documented. Read More

Comput Toxicol 2019 Feb;9:143-151

European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, Italy.

Different types of computational models have been developed for predicting the biokinetics, environmental fate, exposure levels and toxicological effects of chemicals and manufactured nanomaterials (MNs). However, these models are not described in a consistent manner in the scientific literature, which is one of the barriers to their broader use and acceptance, especially for regulatory purposes. Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) are models based on the assumption that the activity of a substance is related to its chemical structure. Read More

J Med Educ Curric Dev 2019 Jan-Dec;6:2382120519840332. Epub 2019 Apr 10.

Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, University of Bath, Bath, UK.

Background: Adult learning theories play a pivotal role in the design and implementation of education programs, including healthcare professional programs. There is a variation in the use of theories in healthcare professional education programs and this is may be in part due to a lack of understanding of the range of learning theories available and paucity of specific, in-context examples, to help educators in considering alternative theories relevant to their teaching setting. This article seeks to synthesize key learning theories applicable in the learning and teaching of healthcare professionals and to provide examples of their use in context. Read More

ACS Catal 2019 Apr 14;9(4):3228-3241. Epub 2019 Mar 14.

Department of Chemistry, Yale University, P.O. Box 208107, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, United States.

The nickel-catalyzed carboxylation of organic halides or pseudohalides using carbon dioxide is an emerging method to prepare synthetically valuable carboxylic acids. Here, we report a detailed mechanistic investigation of these reactions using the carboxylation of aryl halides with (PPh)NiCl as a model reaction. Our studies allow us to understand several general features of nickel-catalyzed carboxylation reactions. Read More

Adv Simul (Lond) 2019 11;4. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

1Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institute, Tomtebodavägen 18a, SE-171 65 Solna, Sweden.

Objectives: Trauma is the leading cause of death in children. The lack of an accepted definition of what constitutes a high-quality stabilisation of a traumatically injured child has limited the evaluation of direct interventions in simulation-based education and service-delivery models to improve trauma care. The aim of this study was to create a framework that delineates quality by exploring the perceptions of the multi-disciplinary team providing and improving this initial care. Read More

Res Integr Peer Rev 2019 9;4. Epub 2019 Apr 9.

4Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 127, 1018 WS Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Background: The emphasis on impact factors and the quantity of publications intensifies competition between researchers. This competition was traditionally considered an incentive to produce high-quality work, but there are unwanted side-effects of this competition like publication pressure. To measure the effect of publication pressure on researchers, the Publication Pressure Questionnaire (PPQ) was developed. Read More

Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul 2019 10;6. Epub 2019 Apr 10.

1Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, via Stamira d'Ancona 20, 20127 Milan, Italy.

Background: Extant literature indicates that Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) may be reliably assessed in adolescence. Sharp and colleagues' (2011) suggested that mentalization could be an important early target for intervention in BPD adolescents and showed that hypermentalizing may represent an important marker to distinguish emerging BPD from adolescent turmoil. We aimed at testing if both dimensionally-assessed and categorically-diagnosed BPD was selectively associated with hypermentalizing errors on the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) task in Italian adolescent inpatients and community adolescents. Read More

Arch Public Health 2019 10;77:13. Epub 2019 Apr 10.

1Al-Fabari Kazakh National University, al-Farabi avenue 71, Almaty, Kazakhstan 050040.

Background: No data exist in the published literature on burnout in physicians from Central Asia. The aim of this analysis was to assess burnout prevalence in doctors and nurses of a cardiological hospital in Almaty, Kazakhstan and ascertain whether smoking, alcohol and physical activity may predict job-associated burnout.

Methods: The staff of the City Cardiological Centre of Almaty ( = 259, 82% females) filled in the questionnaire with the questions on demographics, lifestyle, including smoking, alcohol and physical activity, as well as fatigue (using Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS)) and burnout using Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel. Read More

Mol Autism 2019 8;10:17. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

1Biomedical Research Networking Center of Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.

Background: Epidemiological and clinical evidence points to cancer as a comorbidity in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A significant overlap of genes and biological processes between both diseases has also been reported.

Methods: Here, for the first time, we compared the gene expression profiles of ASD frontal cortex tissues and 22 cancer types obtained by differential expression meta-analysis and report gene, pathway, and drug set-based overlaps between them. Read More

Mob DNA 2019 8;10:14. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

Molecular and Computational Biology Section, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.

Background: L1Md retrotransposons are the most abundant and active transposable elements in the mouse genome. The promoters of many L1Md retrotransposons are composed of tandem repeats called monomers. The number of monomers varies between retrotransposon copies, thus making it difficult to annotate L1Md promoters. Read More

J Foot Ankle Res 2019 11;12:22. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

1Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), University of South Australia, Adelaide, 5001 Australia.

Background: Onychomycosis, a fungal infection affecting the nail plate, is a common condition often requiring prolonged treatment regimens, with low success rates. Urea is one treatment option, which is thought to improve the efficacy of topical and oral antifungal agents. Despite a theoretical basis for the use of urea for the treatment of onychomycosis, the evidence-base for this treatment has not been systematically reviewed. Read More

Infect Agent Cancer 2019 8;14. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

4Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, Laboratoire de Virologie, and Faculté de Médecine Paris Descartes, Université Paris V, Paris Sorbonne Cité, Paris, France.

We carried out a retrospective study on the prevalence of HPV and genotype distribution by nested PCR and nucleotide sequencing analysis, in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded biopsies of 135 head and neck cancers (HNC) and 29 cervical cancers received between 2009 and 2017 for diagnosis at the Laboratoire National de Biologie Clinique et de Santé Publique of Bangui, the capital city of the Central African Republic. One oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma sample was positive for HPV type 16. The overall HPV prevalence in HNC biopsies was 0. Read More

World J Emerg Surg 2019 11;14:18. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

1Department of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Background: Severe acute pancreatitis is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Melatonin is known as the activator of antioxidant enzymes. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical effect of melatonin treatment in a pig model with induced acute pancreatitis. Read More

Front Zool 2019 11;16:10. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

1School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, 1072 New Zealand.

Background: Intermittent fasting (IF) is receiving increasing attention as an alternative to continuous restriction of calories because of its benefits in aging-related disease prevention and lifespan extension. However, whether both sexes with sexual dimorphism have similar response to IF have rarely been assayed. In this study, we determined how different durations of IF influence lifespan and whether males and females differed in their responses to IF. Read More

Hereditas 2019 9;156:11. Epub 2019 Apr 9.

1Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, No. 321 Zhongshan Road, Gulou District, Nanjing, 210008 Jiangsu China.

Background: Cervical cancer is a malignancy that's common in female with high incidence and mortality worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) act a pivotal part in human cancer development. Our aim was to investigate the effect of miR-126 on cervical cancer and its underlying molecular mechanism. Read More

Proc Math Phys Eng Sci 2019 Mar 13;475(2223):20180761. Epub 2019 Mar 13.

Institut für Mathematik, MA 7-1, Technische Universität Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 136, 10623 Berlin, Germany.

Kahan discretization is applicable to any quadratic vector field and produces a birational map which approximates the shift along the phase flow. For a planar quadratic canonical Hamiltonian vector field, this map is known to be integrable and to preserve a pencil of cubic curves. Generically, the nine base points of this pencil include three points at infinity (corresponding to the asymptotic directions of cubic curves) and six finite points lying on a conic. Read More

Trop Med Health 2019 11;47:25. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

1Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada.

Background: RNA virus-1 (LRV1) is a double-stranded RNA virus identified in 20-25% of -species endemic to Latin America, and is believed to accelerate cutaneous to mucosal leishmaniasis over time. Our objective was to quantify known virulence factor (VF) RNA transcript expression according to LRV1 status, causative species, and isolate source.

Methods: Eight cultured isolates of were used, four of which were LRV1-positive ( [ = 1], . Read More

Trop Med Health 2019 11;47:24. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, Institute Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz, Av Brasil 4365. Pavilhão Arthur Neiva, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21040-900 Brazil.

Background: The epidemiological surveillance of malaria is a necessary intervention for eliminating the disease from the planet. The international border zones of the Amazon continue to be highly vulnerable to malaria since population mobility impedes elimination. Although in the past few years, cases of malaria have had an essential reduction in Brazil, this trend was not confirmed in municipalities along the border. Read More

Trop Med Health 2019 11;47:23. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

Cotonou Entomological Research Center (CREC), Cotonou, Benin.

Background: Several studies have reported the strong resistance of complex species to pyrethroids. The voltage-dependent sodium channel () gene is the main target of pyrethroids and DDT. In Benin, the frequency of the resistant allele () of this gene varies along the north-south transect. Read More

Chem Eng Technol 2018 Dec 30;41(12):2298-2305. Epub 2018 Oct 30.

BASF SE Carl-Bosch-Strasse 38 67056 Ludwigshafen Germany.

One intention of the PRODIAS (processing diluted aqueous systems) project is to develop and establish a toolbox of innovative and tailored separation technologies applicable to design energy-efficient water removal and product recovery techniques. Within this project, the recovery of -aminobutyric acid (GABA) was investigated. Using both synthetic as well as fermented solutions, reactive extraction of GABA with the solvent di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid + isododecane was performed. Read More

Med Eng Phys 2019 Apr 18. Epub 2019 Apr 18.

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Hypothermia, if provided before coronary reperfusion, reduces infarct size in animal models of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Translation to humans has failed so far, because the target temperature is not reached in time within the endangered myocardium using systemic hypothermia method. Hence, a clinically applicable method has been developed to provide intracoronary hypothermia using cold saline, selectively infused locally into the infarct area. Read More

CJEM 2019 Apr 22:1-5. Epub 2019 Apr 22.

†Emergency Department,Vancouver General Hospital,Vancouver Coastal Health,Vancouver,BC.

Objective: Use of personal mobile devices to record patient data appears to be increasing, but remains poorly studied. We sought to determine the extent and reasons that Canadian emergency physicians (EPs) and emergency medicine residents use personal mobile devices to record patient data in the emergency department (ED).

Methods: A national survey was distributed to Canadian EPs and residents between 27/02/17 and 23/03/17. Read More

Gait Posture 2019 Apr 11;71:56-61. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

Movement Biomechanics and Motor Control Lab, DEIB, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.

Background: Power and work at the ankle joint during gait are usually computed considering the foot as a rigid body [1-6] (Ankle Joint method, AJ). The foot is instead a deformable structure and can absorb and produce work by pronation/supination, foot arch deformation and other intrinsic movements. A different approach, named "the Distal Shank method (DS)" [7-12] considers all these aspects without increasing the complexity of the protocol, and thus it seems promising for clinical applications [12]. Read More

Carbohydr Res 2019 Apr 3;477:58-65. Epub 2019 Apr 3.

Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary. Electronic address:

Glycogen phosphorylase enzymes (GP) catalyse reversible reactions; the glucose transfer from glycogen to inorganic phosphate (P, phosphorolysis) or the reverse glucose transfer from glucose-1-phosphate (G-1-P) to glycogen (synthesis). Rabbit muscle GPb (rmGPb) was used as a model enzyme to study the reversible enzyme reaction. To follow both directions of this reversible reaction, we have developed a novel isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) method for the determination of the direct reaction rate. Read More

Clin Breast Cancer 2019 Mar 11. Epub 2019 Mar 11.

Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

Background: Lower socioeconomic status is strongly associated with decreased perception of cancer risk. Fewer low socioeconomic status women than expected currently access cancer genetic services from which they may benefit.

Patients And Methods: We screened women presenting for a screening mammogram at a safety net academic hospital using the Breast Cancer Genetics Referral Screening Tool Version 3. Read More

J Chem Phys 2019 Apr;150(15):154114

Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Key Laboratory of High Energy Density Physics and Technology, Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) may have a significant effect on the structure and harmonic frequencies of particularly heavy p-block element compounds. However, reports on analytical energy gradients with SOC are scarce, especially for excited states. In this work, we implemented analytical energy gradients for ionized states using the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (CC) theory at the CC singles and doubles level (EOM-IP-CCSD) with SOC. Read More

J Chem Phys 2019 Apr;150(15):154122

Mulliken Center for Theoretical Chemistry, Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie der Universität Bonn, Beringstr. 4, D-53115 Bonn, Germany.

The so-called D4 model is presented for the accurate computation of London dispersion interactions in density functional theory approximations (DFT-D4) and generally for atomistic modeling methods. In this successor to the DFT-D3 model, the atomic coordination-dependent dipole polarizabilities are scaled based on atomic partial charges which can be taken from various sources. For this purpose, a new charge-dependent parameter-economic scaling function is designed. Read More

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 2019 Apr 17;178:178-187. Epub 2019 Apr 17.

Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, USA; Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, USA. Electronic address:

Read-across has become a primary approach to fill data gaps for chemical safety assessments. Chemical similarity based on structure, reactivity, and physic-chemical property information is a traditional approach applied for read-across toxicity studies. However, toxicity mechanisms are usually complicated in a biological system, so only using chemical similarity to perform the read-across for new compounds was not satisfactory for most toxicity endpoints, especially when the chemically similar compounds show dissimilar toxicities. Read More

J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci 2019 Apr 6;1117:86-102. Epub 2019 Apr 6.

Food Chemistry, Technical University Dresden, Bergstraße 66, D-01069 Dresden, Germany.

A 2D LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of 350 pesticides, 16 mycotoxins as well as the growth regulators Chlormequat and Mepiquat was developed. The method is applicable to cereals and products thereof. Attention should be paid to the simultaneous analysis of the cereal-relevant mycotoxins aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2, ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone. Read More

Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol 2019 Apr 3;122:117-125. Epub 2019 Apr 3.

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, St. Elisabeth-Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.

Objectives: Bone conduction hearing devices integrated in softbands (BCDSs) are frequently not well accepted by children with conductive hearing loss due to pressure on the head, sweating, or cosmetic stigma. A non-surgical hearing system (ADHEAR) uses a new bone conduction concept consisting of an audio processor connected to an adhesive adapter fixed behind the ear. This study is the first to evaluate the audiological and clinical outcome of this novel system, comparing it with conventional BCDSs in a short- and mid-term follow-up in children under 10 years of age. Read More

Int J Gynaecol Obstet 2019 Apr 19. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Research and Technical Assistance, Metrics for Management, Oakland, CA, USA.

Objective: To develop a shortened, valid and reliable scale applicable across multiple settings for routine monitoring of person-centered maternity care (PCMC).

Methods: Exploratory analysis was used to generate parsimonious versions of a 30-item PCMC scale in four datasets from cross-sectional surveys conducted between August 2016 and October 2017, involving women aged 15-49 years in Kenya, Ghana and India who had recently given birth. Analysis was informed by expert opinion via a separate online survey of global maternal and child health experts. Read More

Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2019 Apr 19. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Department of Thoracic Surgery, Istinye University Medical Faculty, Liv Hospital Ulus, Istanbul, Turkey.

Background: The aim of this study was to discuss indications and outcomes for conversion to thoracotomy during thoracoscopic lobectomy.

Materials And Methods: Patients who underwent lobectomy for non-small cell lung cancer between January 2012 and December 2016 were evaluated retrospectively. The study included 129 patients who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy (group-V) and 18 patients converted from thoracoscopic lobectomy to thoracotomy due to unexpected intraoperative complications (group-T). Read More

Plant Cell Rep 2019 Apr 19. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Department of BioAgricultural Sciences, National Chiayi University, Chiayi, 60004, Taiwan.

Key Message: A 146-bp sugar response complex MTSRC is identified in the promoter of rice metallothionein OsMT2b gene conferring high-level expression of luciferase reporter gene and bioactive recombinant haFGF in transgenic rice. A rice subfamily type 2 plant metallothionein (pMT) gene, OsMT2b, encoding a reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger protein, has been previously shown to exhibit the most abundant gene expression in young rice seedling. Expression of OsMT2b was found to be regulated negatively by ethylene and hydrogen peroxide in rice stem node under flooding stress, but little is known about its response to sugar depletion. Read More

Mol Biol Evol 2019 Apr 19. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

The fate of alleles in the human population is believed to be highly affected by the stochastic force of genetic drift. Estimation of the strength of natural selection in humans generally necessitates a careful modeling of drift including complex effects of the population history and structure. Protein-truncating variants (PTVs) are expected to evolve under strong purifying selection and to have a relatively high per-gene mutation rate. Read More

Sci Rep 2019 Apr 19;9(1):6324. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Departamento de Física Aplicada, Instituto de Investigacións Tecnolóxicas. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, E-15782, Campus Vida s/n, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Topological Insulators are the best thermoelectric materials involving a sophisticated physics beyond their solid state and electronic structure. We show that exists a topological contribution to the thermoelectric effect that arises between topological and thermal quantum field theories applied at very low energies. This formalism provides us with a quantized topological mass proportional to the temperature T leading, through an electric potential V, to a Seebeck coefficient where we identify an anomalous contribution that can be associated to the creation of real electron-hole Schwinger's pairs close to the topological bands. Read More

Clin Cancer Res 2019 Apr 19. Epub 2019 Apr 19.

Molecular Biology, Genentech Inc.

Purpose: Four consensus molecular subtypes (CMS1-4) of colorectal cancer (CRC) were identified in primary tumors and found to be associated with distinctive biological features and clinical outcomes. Given that distant metastasis largely accounts for CRC-related mortality, we examined the molecular and clinical attributes of CMS in metastatic CRC (mCRC).

Experimental Design: We developed a CRC-focused Nanostring based CMS classifier that is ideally suited to interrogate archival tissues. Read More

EBioMedicine 2019 Apr 16. Epub 2019 Apr 16.

Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

Background: Recent deep learning models have shown remarkable accuracy for the diagnostic classification. However, they have limitations in clinical application due to the gap between the training cohorts and real-world data. We aimed to develop a model trained only by normal brain PET data with an unsupervised manner to identify an abnormality in various disorders as imaging data of the clinical routine. Read More

Ultrasound Med Biol 2019 Apr 16. Epub 2019 Apr 16.

Healthcare Business Unit, Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

A vascular vector flow mapping (VFM) method visualizes 2-D cardiac flow dynamics by estimating the radial component of flow from the Doppler velocities and wall motion velocities using the mass conservation equation. Although VFM provides 2-D flow, the algorithm is applicable only to bounded regions. Here, a modified VFM algorithm, vascular VFM, is proposed so that the velocities are estimated regardless of the flow geometry. Read More

Complement Ther Clin Pract 2019 May 15;35:224-231. Epub 2019 Feb 15.

Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Department of Women Health and Gynecologic Nursing, Abide-i Hürriyet Street, 34381, Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address:

Background: Emotional freedom techniques (EFT) and breathing awareness (BA) are applicable during labour. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of EFT and BA in the reduction of childbirth fear.

Materials And Methods: This randomized controlled study included 120 pregnant women, of whom the EFT, BA and control groups. Read More

Fertil Steril 2019 Apr 9. Epub 2019 Apr 9.

Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; Monash IVF Group Pty Ltd, Richmond, Victoria, Australia; Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.

Objective: To determine the health outcomes for adults aged 22-35 years old who were conceived via assisted reproduction technology (ART) compared with adults of the same age conceived without use of ART.

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Not applicable. Read More

Genes (Basel) 2019 Apr 18;10(4). Epub 2019 Apr 18.

Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology, University of Basel, Vesalgasse 1, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland.

Measuring the magnitude of differentiation between populations based on genetic markers is commonplace in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. The predominant differentiation metric used for this purpose is F. Based on a qualitative survey, numerical analyses, simulations, and empirical data, I here argue that F does not express the relationship to allele frequency differentiation between populations generally considered interpretable and desirable by researchers. Read More

Molecules 2019 Apr 18;24(8). Epub 2019 Apr 18.

Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Liesel-Beckmann-Straße 1, 85354 Freising, Germany.

Feeding experiments with stable isotopes are helpful tools for investigation of metabolic fluxes and biochemical pathways. For assessing nitrogen metabolism, the heavier nitrogen isotope, [N], has been frequently used. In plants, it is usually applied in form of [N]-nitrate, which is assimilated mainly in leaves. Read More

Chemosphere 2019 Apr 8;227:435-443. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

Department of Physical and Environmental Science, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail Toronto, Ontario, M1C 1A4, Canada; Department of Earth Sciences, 22 Russell Street, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3B1, Canada.

Passive air sampling is increasingly used for air quality monitoring and for personal sampling. In a novel experimental exposure chamber study, 3 types of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS, including sheet and wristband) and 1 type of polyurethane foam (PUF) passive air samplers were tested for gas-phase uptake of 200 semi volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) during six months. For 155 SVOCs including PAH, PCB, phthalates, organophosphate esters, musk compounds, organochlorine- and other pesticides, a normalized generic uptake rate (Rs) of 7. Read More

J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2019 Apr 17. Epub 2019 Apr 17.

British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Background: In 2017, a clinical trial of 37 subjects demonstrated that preschool peanut oral immunotherapy (P-OIT) was safe, with predominantly mild symptoms reported and only 1 moderate reaction requiring epinephrine.

Objectives: We sought to examine whether these findings would be applicable in a real-world setting.

Methods: As part of a Canada-wide quality improvement project, academic and community allergists administered P-OIT to preschool-age children who had (1) skin prick test wheal diameter greater than or equal to 3 mm or specific IgE level greater than or equal to 0. Read More