Laparoscopic conservative management of ureteral endometriosis: a survey of eighty patients submitted to ureterolysis

Background  

this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of laparoscopic conservative management of ureteral endometriosis.     

TabSQL: a MySQL tool to facilitate mapping user data to public databases

Background  

With advances in high-throughput genomics and proteomics, it is challenging for biologists to deal with large data files and to map their data to annotations in public databases.     

Attachment style contributes to the outcome of a multimodal lifestyle intervention

Background & Aims  

The long-term success of life-style interventions in the treatment of obesity is limited. Although psychological factors have been suggested to modify therapeutic effects, specifically the implications of attachment styles and the patient-therapist relationship have not been examined in detail yet.     

Response of tibialis anterior tendon to a chronic exposure of stretch-shortening cycles: age effects

Background  

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of aging on tendon response to repetitive exposures of stretch-shortening cycles (SSC's).     

Minimally perturbing a gene regulatory network to avoid a disease phenotype: the glioma network as a test case

Background  

Mathematical modeling of biological networks is an essential part of Systems Biology. Developing and using such models in order to understand gene regulatory networks is a major challenge.     

Shift from facilitative to neutral interactions by the cushion plant Silene acaulis along a primary succession gradient

Background

The stress‐gradient hypothesis predicts a shift from facilitative to competitive plant interactions with decreasing abiotic stress. This has been supported by studies along elevation and temperature gradients, but also challenged by the hypothesis of a facilitation collapse at extremely harsh sites. Although facilitation is known to be important in primary succession, few studies have examined these hypotheses along primary succession gradients.

Aim

To examine whether there is a relationship between the presence of the circumpolar cushion plant Silene acaulis and other species, and if so, whether there is a shift between positive and negative interactions along a primary succession gradient in a glacier foreland.

Location

Finse, southern Norway.

Methods

We examined the performance of the common alpine forb Bistorta vivipara, species richness of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens, and the number of seedlings and fertile vascular plants in S. acaulis cushions, and control plots without S. acaulis, along a succession gradient with increasing distance from a glacier front, and thus decreasing abiotic stress. To examine if S. acaulis cushions modify the abiotic environment, we recorded soil temperature, moisture, organic content and pH in cushions and control plots.

Results

Bistorta vivipara performed better, as shown by bigger leaves in S. acaulis cushions compared to control plots in the harshest part of the gradient close to the glacier. There were few differences in B. vivipara performance between cushion and control plots in the more benign environment further away from the glacier. This suggests a shift from facilitative to mainly neutral interactions by S. acaulis on the performance of B. vivipara with decreasing abiotic stress. A trend, although not significant, of higher vascular species richness and fertility inside S. acaulis cushions along the whole gradient, suggests that S. acaulis also facilitates community‐level species richness. The causal mechanism of this facilitation is likely that the cushions buffer extreme temperatures.

Conclusions

Our results support the stress‐gradient hypothesis for the relationship between the cushion plant S. acaulis and the performance of a single species along a primary succession gradient in a glacier foreland. S. acaulis also tended to increase vascular plant species richness and fertility regardless of stress level along the gradient, suggesting facilitation at the community level. We found no collapse of facilitation at the most stressful end of the gradient in this alpine glacier foreland.     

Bilateral metastasis to the femoral head as the only manifestation of recurrence of gastric adenocarcinoma: a case report

Background  

Metastases to the bone as the sole manifestation of recurrence of a gastric carcinoma are extremely rare.     

Unusual metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma to larynx and hypopharynx a case report

Background  

Although direct infiltration of papillary carcinoma of thyroid to larynx, trachea and esophagus is well recognized, lymphatic and vascular metastases to larynx and hypopharynx have rarely been reported.     

WordCloud: a Cytoscape plugin to create a visual semantic summary of networks

Background  

When biological networks are studied, it is common to look for clusters, i.e. sets of nodes that are highly inter-connected. To understand the biological meaning of a cluster, the user usually has to sift through many textual annotations that are associated with biological entities.     

Incremental cost effectiveness of proton pump inhibitors for the prevention of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ulcers: a pharmacoeconomic analysis linked to a case-control study

Introduction  

We estimated the cost effectiveness of concomitant proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) in relation to the occurrence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ulcer complications.     

Investigation of Mannheimia haemolytica bacteriophages relative to host diversity

Aims

This study aimed to characterize the impact of lytic and temperate bacteriophages on the genetic and phenotypic diversity of Mannheimia haemolytica from feedlot cattle.

Methods and Results

Strictly lytic phages were not detected from bovine nasopharyngeal (n = 689) or water trough (n = 30) samples, but Myoviridae‐ or Siphoviridae‐like phages were induced from 54 of 72 M. haemolytica strains by mitomycin C, occasionally from the same strain. Phages with similar restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles (RFLP ≥70% relatedness) shared common host serotypes 1 or 2 (P < 0·000 1). Likewise, phages with similar RFLP tended to occur in genetically related host bacteria (70–79% similarity). Host range assays showed that seven phages from host serotypes 1, 2 and 6 lysed representative strains of serotypes 1, 2 or 8. The genome of vB_MhM_1152AP from serotype 6 was found to be collinear with P2‐like phage φMhaA1‐PHL101.

Conclusions

Prophages are a significant component of the genome of M. haemolytica and contribute significantly to host diversity. Further characterization of the role of prophage in virulence and persistence of M. haemolytica in cattle could provide insight into approaches to control this potential respiratory pathogen.

Significance and Impact of the Study

This study demonstrated that prophages are widespread within the genome of M. haemolytica isolates and emphasized the challenge of isolating lytic phage as a therapeutic against this pathogen.     

A convenient scheme for coupling a finite element curvilinear mesh to a finite element voxel mesh: application to the heart

Background  

In some cases, it may be necessary to combine distinct finite element meshes into a single system. The present work describes a scheme for coupling a finite element mesh, which may have curvilinear elements, to a voxel based finite element mesh.     

An evaluation of minimal cellular functions to sustain a bacterial cell

Background  

Both computational and experimental approaches have been used to determine the minimal gene set required to sustain a bacterial cell. Such studies have provided clues to the minimal cellular-function set needed for life. We evaluate a minimal cellular-function set directly, instead of a geneset.     

Female philopatry in a heterogeneous environment: ordinary conditions leading to extraordinary ESS sex ratios

Background  

We use a simulation-based model to study the impact of female philopatry and heterogeneity of habitat quality on the evolution of primary sex ratio.     

Autoantibodies to BRAF,a new family of autoantibodies associated with rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction  

BRAF (v raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1) is a serine-threonine kinase involved in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling pathway, known to be implicated in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.     

Engineering of a multi-functional extracellular matrix protein for immobilization to bone mineral hydroxyapatite

Purpose of Work  

We have developed a strategy of designing multi-functional extracellular matrix proteins for functionalizing bone tissue engineering scaffolds and other biomedical surfaces to achieve improvements in bone grafting, bone repair and bone regeneration.     

CHSMiner: a GUI tool to identify chromosomal homologous segments

Background  

The identification of chromosomal homologous segments (CHS) within and between genomes is essential for comparative genomics. Various processes including insertion/deletion and inversion could cause the degeneration of CHSs.     

GeneBins: a database for classifying gene expression data,with application to plant genome arrays

Background  

To interpret microarray experiments, several ontological analysis tools have been developed. However, current tools are limited to specific organisms.     

Placentation in Sigmodontinae: a rodent taxon native to South America

Background  

Sigmodontinae, known as "New World rats and mice," is a large subfamily of Cricetidae for which we herein provide the first comprehensive investigation of the placenta.     

Multi-line split DNA synthesis: a novel combinatorial method to make high quality peptide libraries

Background  

We developed a method to make a various high quality random peptide libraries for evolutionary protein engineering based on a combinatorial DNA synthesis.