Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Bone 2021 Apr 6:115945. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Division of Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences, UCLA School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address:

Medication related osteonecrosis of the Jaws (MRONJ) is a severe complication of antiresorptive and anti-angiogenic medications. Osteoclast inhibition is central in MRONJ pathogenesis. Here, we investigated if local application of RANKL (a key molecule in osteoclast activation) could enhance osteoclast generation and improve extraction socket healing in the presence of bisphosphonates. Read More

Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany.

Purpose: Patients with surgically treated acetabular fractures using extensive dissection of hip muscles demonstrate an incomplete biomechanical recovery and limited joint mobility during movement. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the early biomechanical outcome in a series of patients with acetabular fractures treated using the less invasive anatomical pararectus approach.

Methods: Eight patients (48 ± 14 years, BMI 25. Read More

Acta Dermatovenerol Croat 2020 Dec;28(7):233-235

Martyna Sławińska MD, PhD, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergology Medical University of Gdańsk, Smoluchowskiego 17 Street, 80-214 Gdańsk;

Giant molluscum contagiosum (MC) is a peculiar variant of the disease with the presence of multiple or single lesions larger than 5 mm. In contrast to typical molluscum contagiosum, dermoscopic features of giant lesions have been poorly described, and none of the reports included multiple giant lesions in an immunocompromised patient. We present a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome diagnosed with multiple giant molluscum contagiosum along with the dermoscopic features of this entity. Read More

Demography 2021 Apr;58(2):685-710

Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

An extensive social scientific literature has documented the importance of schooling in preventing overweight and obesity among women. However, prior quasi-experimental studies investigating the causal effect of schooling on women's overweight and obesity have focused almost exclusively on high-income countries (HICs). Schooling effects may differ in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs), where information about the harms of being overweight is often sparse and where larger body sizes can be socially valued. Read More

Med Image Anal 2021 Mar 23;71:102039. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China; Department of Research and Development, Shanghai United Imaging Intelligence Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China; Department of Artificial Intelligence, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:

Fully convolutional networks (FCNs), including UNet and VNet, are widely-used network architectures for semantic segmentation in recent studies. However, conventional FCN is typically trained by the cross-entropy or Dice loss, which only calculates the error between predictions and ground-truth labels for pixels individually. This often results in non-smooth neighborhoods in the predicted segmentation. Read More

Dev Neurobiol 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) can lead to cognitive, behavioural, and social-emotional challenges. Previous neuroimaging research has identified structural brain alterations in newborns, older children, adolescents, and adults with PAE; however, little is known about brain structure in young children. Extensive brain development occurs during early childhood; therefore, understanding the neurological profiles of young children with PAE is critical for early identification and effective intervention. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 7;11(1):7606. Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Department of Invertebrate Evolution, Institute of Zoology and Biomedical Research, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 9, 30-387, Kraków, Poland.

Tardigrades constitute a micrometazoan phylum usually considered as taxonomically challenging and therefore difficult for biogeographic analyses. The genus Pseudechiniscus, the second most speciose member of the family Echiniscidae, is commonly regarded as a particularly difficult taxon for studying due to its rarity and homogenous sculpturing of the dorsal plates. Recently, wide geographic ranges for some representatives of this genus and a new hypothesis on the subgeneric classification have been suggested. Read More

Obes Surg 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Department of Bariatric Surgery (ObesidadAlmería), General Surgery, Hospital Mediterráneo, Almería, Spain.

Background: Obesity surgery is justified as it produces sustained weight loss, increases life expectancy, and reduces the complications of obesity. For this reason, increasing numbers of patients are undergoing this surgery [1]. Complications following surgical treatment of severe obesity vary based upon the procedure performed and, although it is currently below 7% in more experienced centers, it may increase in more complex surgeries (such as revision surgery) and can be as high as 40% [2, 3]. Read More

Am J Case Rep 2021 Apr 7;22:e928930. Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Department of Emergency Medicine, Lebanese American University (LAU) Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.

BACKGROUND Iodine contrast allergy can cause acute and delayed allergic reactions. Just like any other sensitivity reaction, the severity can vary from mild to moderate skin manifestations such as erythematous rash to an even more severe presentation or life-threatening event, such as angioedema and anaphylaxis. CASE REPORT This case report discusses a patient who presented to our institution with a diffuse complex rash 2 days after undergoing CT scan imaging with intravenous iodine contrast injection. Read More

JCI Insight 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States of America.

Telomerase catalyzes chromosome end replication in stem cells and other long-lived cells. Mutations in telomerase or telomere-related genes result in diseases known as telomeropathies. Telomerase is recruited to chromosome ends by the ACD/TPP1 protein (TPP1 hereafter), a component of the shelterin complex that protects chromosome ends from unwanted end-joining. Read More

Inorg Chem 2021 Apr 6. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

China-Australia Joint Research Center for Functional Molecular Materials, School of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, People's Republic of China.

Materials capable of generating coherent short-wave (<300 nm) light have attracted extensive scientific and technical interest due to their wide utilization in laser research. In this study, a the rare-earth-metal sulfate NaCe(SO)(HO) (NCSO) was synthesized through a hydrothermal method, while NaBi(SO)(HO) (NBSO) was successfully obtained via a homovalent cation substitution of the parent compound NCSO under hydrothermal conditions. The space groups of crystalline NCSO and NBSO are 32 and 32, respectively. Read More

J Bacteriol 2021 Apr 5. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Department of Science, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, JAPAN

is a facultative anaerobic haloarchaeon that can grow using nitrate or dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as respiratory substrates in an anaerobic condition. Comparative transcriptome analysis of denitrifying and aerobic cells of indicated extensive changes in the gene expression involving activation of denitrification, suppression of DMSO respiration, and conversion of the heme biosynthetic pathway under denitrifying condition. Anaerobic growth of by DMSO respiration was inhibited at nitrate concentrations lower than 1 mM, whereas the nitrate-responsive growth inhibition was not observed in the Δ mutant. Read More

Eur J Cancer 2021 Apr 2;149:23-33. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Department of Neurosurgery, Ludwig-Maximilians-University School of Medicine, Munich, Germany; German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner Site Munich, Germany. Electronic address:

Surgical resection represents the standard of care in diffuse glioma, and more extensive tumour resection appears to be associated with favourable outcome. Up to now, terminology to describe extent of resection has been inconsistently applied across clinical trials which hampers comparative analysis of cohorts between different studies. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we developed evidence-based expert recommendations on categories for extent of resection. Read More

Free Radic Biol Med 2021 Apr 2. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Department of Biomedical Sciences, Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2200, Denmark. Electronic address:

Humans have extensive adverse exposure to alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (ABuCs) as these are major toxins in smoke and exhaust fumes, as well as products of lipid peroxidation. In contrast, another ABuC, dimethylfumarate, is used to treat psoriasis and multiple sclerosis. ABuCs undergo Michael adduction with amine, imidazole and thiol groups, with reaction at Cys residues predominating. Read More

ACS Omega 2021 Mar 19;6(12):8680-8686. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

School of Pharmacy, Health Sciences Campus, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.

The β-amyloid (Aβ) protein aggregation into toxic forms is one of the major factors in the Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Screening compound libraries as inhibitors of Aβ-aggregation is a common strategy to discover novel molecules as potential therapeutics in AD. In this regard, thioflavin T (ThT)-based fluorescence spectroscopy is a widely used in vitro method to identify inhibitors of Aβ aggregation. Read More

ACS Omega 2021 Mar 19;6(12):8308-8312. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Centre for Materials and Microsystems, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, via Sommarive 18, I-38123 Trento, Italy.

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a glassy engineering polymer that finds extensive use in a number of applications. Over the past decade, thin films of PMMA were combined with graphene or other two-dimensional materials for applications in the area of nanotechnology. However, the effect of size upon the mechanical behavior of this thermoplastic polymer has not been fully examined. Read More

Adv Biomed Res 2020 28;9:73. Epub 2020 Nov 28.

Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.

Temporomandibular disorder is a multifactorial disease that causes pain in the jaw and face area with nondental origin, which frequently limits talking, chewing, and other jaw activities. Various factors such as malocclusion, trauma, stress, parafunctional habits (clenching and bruxing), osteoarthritis, and synovitis play a role in its occurrence, although the etiology of these disorders is little understood. Several treatments are being used to treat these disorders. Read More

Front Neurosci 2021 17;15:627994. Epub 2021 Mar 17.

Brazilian Biosciences National Laboratory (LNBio), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas, Brazil.

The assessment of three-dimensional (3D) brain cytoarchitecture at a cellular resolution remains a great challenge in the field of neuroscience and constant development of imaging techniques has become crucial, particularly when it comes to offering direct and clear obtention of data from macro to nano scales. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electron or optical microscopy, although valuable, still face some issues such as the lack of contrast and extensive sample preparation protocols. In this context, x-ray microtomography (μCT) has become a promising non-destructive tool for imaging a broad range of samples, from dense materials to soft biological specimens. Read More

Med Image Anal 2021 Mar 26;71:102043. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

Department of Oncological Imaging, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus Research Building, Headington, Oxford OX3 7DQ, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

We introduce Region of Interest Contrast Enhancement (RICE) to identify focal densities in mammograms. It aims to help radiologists: 1) enhancing the contrast of mammographic images; and 2) detecting regions of interest (such as focal densities) that are candidate masses potentially masked behind dense parenchyma. Cancer masking is an unsolved issue, particularly in breast density categories BI-RADS C and D. Read More

Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2021 Mar 26;14(4). Epub 2021 Mar 26.

School of Pharmacy, University of Camerino, via Madonna delle Carceri, 9, 62032 Camerino, Italy.

The Neuropeptide S (NPS), a 20 amino acids peptide, is recognized as the endogenous ligand of a previously orphan G protein-coupled receptor, now termed NPS receptor (NPSR). The limited distribution of the NPS-expressing neurons in few regions of the brainstem is in contrast with the extensive expression of NPSR in the rodent central nervous system, suggesting the involvement of this receptor in several brain functions. In particular, NPS promotes locomotor activity, behavioral arousal, wakefulness, and unexpectedly, at the same time, it exerts anxiolytic-like properties. Read More

Sensors (Basel) 2021 Mar 5;21(5). Epub 2021 Mar 5.

Defence and Systems Institute, UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.

Thermal infrared imaging provides an effective sensing modality for detecting small moving objects at long range. Typical challenges that limit the efficiency and robustness of the detection performance include sensor noise, minimal target contrast and cluttered backgrounds. These issues become more challenging when the targets are of small physical size and present minimal thermal signatures. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2021 Mar 25;781:146711. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

U.S. Geological Survey, South Atlantic Water Science Center, Columbia, SC, USA.

The United States (US) National Park Service (NPS) manages protected public lands to preserve biodiversity. Exposure to and effects of bioactive organic contaminants in NPS streams are challenges for resource managers. Recent assessment of pesticides and pharmaceuticals in protected-streams within the urbanized NPS Southeast Region (SER) indicated the importance of fluvial inflows from external sources as drivers of aquatic contaminant-mixture exposures. Read More

IEEE Trans Image Process 2021 7;30:4070-4083. Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Infrared and visible image fusion has gained ever-increasing attention in recent years due to its great significance in a variety of vision-based applications. However, existing fusion methods suffer from some limitations in terms of the spatial resolutions of both input source images and output fused image, which prevents their practical usage to a great extent. In this paper, we propose a meta learning-based deep framework for the fusion of infrared and visible images. Read More

Heart Surg Forum 2021 03 3;24(2):E223-E230. Epub 2021 Mar 3.

Department of Critical Care Medicine ICU, Fu Wai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

Background: Acute type A aortic dissection (ATAAD) has a high risk of perioperative bleeding and often requires extensive blood product infusions. Analysis of the changes in coagulation and fibrinolysis is both helpful for proper treatment and an improved prognosis. The present study investigated the changes in the coagulation and fibrinolysis systems during the perioperative period of ATAAD. Read More

Drugs R D 2021 Apr 2. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Centre for Translational Anti-infective Pharmacodynamics, School of Pharmacy, The University of Queensland, Cornwall St, Woolloongabba, QLD, 4102, Australia.

Background: Even though nebulised administration of amikacin can achieve high epithelial lining fluid concentrations, this has not translated into improved patient outcomes in clinical trials. One possible reason is that the cellular and chemical composition of the epithelial lining fluid may inhibit amikacin-mediated bacterial killing.

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify whether the epithelial lining fluid components inhibit amikacin-mediated bacterial killing. Read More

Pharm Stat 2021 Apr 1. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.

Incorporating historical data has a great potential to improve the efficiency of phase I clinical trials and to accelerate drug development. For model-based designs, such as the continuous reassessment method (CRM), this can be conveniently carried out by specifying a "skeleton," that is, the prior estimate of dose limiting toxicity (DLT) probability at each dose. In contrast, little work has been done to incorporate historical data into model-assisted designs, such as the Bayesian optimal interval (BOIN), Keyboard, and modified toxicity probability interval (mTPI) designs. Read More

Syst Biol 2021 Mar 31. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37-49, Barcelona, Spain.

The geographic distribution of biodiversity is central to understanding evolutionary biology. Paleogeographic and paleoclimatic histories often help to explain how biogeographic patterns unfold through time. However, such patterns are also influenced by a variety of other factors, such as lineage diversification, that may affect the probability of certain types of biogeographic events. Read More

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021 Mar 31. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

College of Petrochemical Technology, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, China.

The design of a functional electrolyte system that is compatible with the LiNiCoAlO (LNCA) cathode is of great importance for advanced lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this work, chelated lithium salts of lithium difluoro(bisoxalato) phosphate (LiDFBOP) and lithium tetrafluoro(oxalate) phosphate (LTFOP) are synthesized by a facile and general method. Then, the complexes of LiDFBOP, LTFOP, and lithium difluorophosphate (LiDFP), all of which have a central phosphorus atom, were selected as the salt-type additives for the LiPF-based electrolyte to improve the electrochemical performances of LNCA/Li half-batteries, respectively. Read More

Acta Neuropathol 2021 Mar 29. Epub 2021 Mar 29.

Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology, Amsterdam UMC, MS Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam Neuroscience, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Meningeal inflammation strongly associates with demyelination and neuronal loss in the underlying cortex of progressive MS patients, thereby contributing significantly to clinical disability. However, the pathological mechanisms of meningeal inflammation-induced cortical pathology are still largely elusive. By extensive analysis of cortical microglia in post-mortem progressive MS tissue, we identified cortical areas with two MS-specific microglial populations, termed MS1 and MS2 cortex. Read More

Pediatr Investig 2021 Mar 22;5(1):28-32. Epub 2021 Mar 22.

Department of Non-communicable Disease Management Beijing Children's Hospital Capital Medical University National Center for Children's Health Beijing China.

Importance: Extensive population-based studies have explored the prevalence of primary hypertension (HTN) in children and adolescents. However, there is little published data on the characteristics of different types of pediatric HTN and the causes of secondary HTN.

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of different types of pediatric HTN and the causes of secondary HTN in a hospital setting. Read More