Introduction
Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease with low bone mineral density (BMD) and high incidence of vertebral fractures (VFs). Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis have decreased total ...fat and lean mass. This study aimed to investigate the associations between body composition and VF risk and explore the potential predictor of VF risk in postmenopausal women.
Methods
Enrolled 731 postmenopausal women were referred by various departments and outpatient clinics to assess vertebral status between October 2016 and November 2017. The main measures were total body lean mass, fat mass, and BMD. Patients were divided into osteopenia, osteoporosis, and normal groups based on T-scores. Logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate associations between body composition parameters and VF.
Results
VF was significantly associated with increased age, lower height, and lighter weight in all participants, and higher BMI was observed in VF participants. Participants in the osteoporosis group were older and had lower height, weight, and BMD than those in normal and osteopenia groups. Femoral and total hip T-scores as well as T-scores for lumbar spine were significantly lower in participants with VF than in non-VF participants. Percentage of bone mass was also significantly lower in VF participants compared to that of non-VF participants. Women with increased BMD and lower bone mass had reduced odds for VF occurrence. Bone mass was significantly able to identify VF occurrence.
Conclusions
Body composition analysis discerns differences in the bone status of postmenopausal women with and without VF. The cutoff value of the bone mass might be used effectively as an indicator of risk for VF occurrence.
The High Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider will deliver 10 times more integrated luminosity than the existing collider, posing significant challenges for radiation tolerance and event ...pileup on detectors, especially for forward calorimetry. As part of its upgrade program, the Compact Muon Solenoid collaboration is designing a high-granularity calorimeter (HGCAL) to replace the existing endcap calorimeters. It will feature unprecedented transverse and longitudinal readout and triggering segmentation for both electromagnetic and hadronic sections. The electromagnetic section and a large fraction of the hadronic section will be based on hexagonal silicon sensors of 0.5–1 cm2 cell size, with the remainder of the hadronic section being based on highly-segmented scintillators with silicon photomultiplier readout. The intrinsic high-precision timing capabilities of the silicon sensors will add an extra dimension to event reconstruction, especially in terms of pileup rejection. First hexagonal silicon modules, using the existing Skiroc2 front-end ASIC developed for CALICE, have been tested in beams at Fermilab and CERN in 2016. We present results from these tests, in terms of system stability, calibration with minimum-ionizing particles and resolution (energy, position and timing) for electrons, and the comparisons of these quantities with GEANT4-based simulation.
Observations of H2O masers from circumnuclear disks in active galaxies for the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP) allow accurate measurement of the mass of supermassive black holes (BH) in these ...galaxies. We present the Very Long Baseline Interferometry images and kinematics of water maser emission in six active galaxies: NGC 1194, NGC 2273, NGC 2960 (Mrk 1419), NGC 4388, NGC 6264 and NGC 6323. We use the Keplerian rotation curves of these six megamaser galaxies, plus a seventh previously published, to determine accurate enclosed masses within the central ~0.3 pc of these galaxies, smaller than the radius of the sphere of influence of the central mass in all cases. We also set lower limits to the central mass densities of between 0.12 X 1010 and 61 X 1010 M pc--3. For six of the seven disks, the high central densities rule out clusters of stars or stellar remnants as the central objects, and this result further supports our assumption that the enclosed mass can be attributed predominantly to a supermassive BH. The seven BHs have masses ranging between 0.75 X 107 and 6.5 X 107 M , with the mass errors dominated by the uncertainty of the Hubble constant. We compare the megamaser BH mass determination with BH mass measured from the virial estimation method. The virial estimation BH mass in four galaxies is consistent with the megamaser BH mass, but the virial mass uncertainty is much greater. Circumnuclear megamaser disks allow the best mass determination of the central BH mass in external galaxies and significantly improve the observational basis at the low-mass end of the M- Delta *s relation. The M- Delta *s relation may not be a single, low-scatter power law as originally proposed. MCP observations continue and we expect to obtain more maser BH masses in the future.
The poly(ether-ether-ketone) (PEEK) polymer filled with nano-sized silica or alumina measuring 15-30 nm to 2.5-10 wt.% are fabricated by vacuum hot press molding at 400 deg C. The resulting ...nanocomposites with 5-7.5 wt.% SiO2 or Al2O3 nanoparticles exhibit the optimum improvement of hardness, elastic modulus, and tensile strength by 20-50%, with the sacrifice of tensile ductility. With no surface modification for the inorganic nanoparticles, the spatial distribution of the nanoparticles appears to be reasonably uniform. There seems no apparent chemical reaction or new phase formation between the nanoparticle and matrix interface. The crystallinity degree and thermal stability of the PEEK resin with the addition of nanoparticles are examined by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravity analyzer, and it is found that a higher crystallinity fraction and degradation temperature would result in the composites as compared with the unfilled PEEK.
The effects of tofacitinib in treating moderate‐to‐severe plaque psoriasis were unclear. We aimed to assess the effects of tofacitinib in treating moderate‐to‐severe plaque psoriasis. We searched ...PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and EMBASE for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Four RCTs with 2724 participants were included. Compared to placebo, tofacitinib significantly improved psoriasis {≥75% reduction in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score: 5 mg BID: risk difference (RD) 0.32 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28–0.35, 10 mg BID: RD 0.51 (95% CI 0.43–0.58); ≥90% reduction in the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index score: 5 mg BID: RD 0.19 (95% CI 0.17–0.22), 10 mg BID: RD 0.36 (95% CI 0.31–0.42); Physician's Global Assessment 0/1: 5 mg BID: RD 0.31 (95% CI 0.27–0.35), 10 mg BID: RD 0.48 (95% CI 0.44–0.53)} and participants’ life quality Dermatology Life Quality Index 0/1: 5 mg BID: RD 0.24 (95% CI 0.20–0.2), 10 mg BID: RD 0.36 (95% CI 0.33–0.40). Tofacitinib was associated with an increase in minor adverse events upper respiratory tract infection: 5 mg BID: RD 0.02 (95% CI 0.00–0.03), 10 mg BID: RD 0.02 (95% CI 0.00–0.04); hypercholesterolaemia: 5 mg BID: RD 0.02 (95% CI 0.01–0.04), 10 mg BID: RD 0.02 (95% CI 0.01–0.04). In conclusion, tofacitinib may be a treatment option for moderate‐to‐severe plaque psoriasis that is unresponsive to other therapies and patients who are intolerable to other therapies or prefer oral medications.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a devastative neurodegenerative disease characterized by selective loss of motoneurons. While several breakthroughs have been made in identifying ALS genetic ...defects, the detailed molecular mechanisms are still unclear. These genetic defects involve in numerous biological processes, which converge to a common destiny: motoneuron degeneration. In addition, the common comorbid Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) further complicates the investigation of ALS etiology. In this study, we aimed to explore the protein-protein interaction network built on known ALS-causative genes to identify essential proteins and common downstream proteins between classical ALS and ALS+FTD (classical ALS + ALS/FTD) groups. The results suggest that classical ALS and ALS+FTD share similar essential protein set (VCP, FUS, TDP-43 and hnRNPA1) but have distinctive functional enrichment profiles. Thus, disruptions to these essential proteins might cause motoneuron susceptible to cellular stresses and eventually vulnerable to proteinopathies. Moreover, we identified a common downstream protein, ubiquitin-C, extensively interconnected with ALS-causative proteins (22 out of 24) which was not linked to ALS previously. Our in silico approach provides the computational background for identifying ALS therapeutic targets, and points out the potential downstream common ground of ALS-causative mutations.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The TP53 mutation is frequently detected in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with complex karyotype (CK), but the stability of this mutation during the clinical course remains unclear. In this ...study, TP53 mutations were identified in 7% of 500 patients with de novo AML and 58.8% of patients with CK. TP53 mutations were closely associated with older age, lower white blood cell (WBC) and platelet counts, FAB M6 subtype, unfavorable-risk cytogenetics and CK, but negatively associated with NPM1 mutation, FLT3/ITD and DNMT3A mutation. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that TP53 mutation was an independent poor prognostic factor for overall survival and disease-free survival among the total cohort and the subgroup of patients with CK. A scoring system incorporating TP53 mutation and nine other prognostic factors, including age, WBC counts, cytogenetics and gene mutations, into survival analysis proved to be very useful to stratify AML patients. Sequential study of 420 samples showed that TP53 mutations were stable during AML evolution, whereas the mutation was acquired only in 1 of the 126 TP53 wild-type patients when therapy-related AML originated from different clone emerged. In conclusion, TP53 mutations are associated with distinct clinic-biological features and poor prognosis in de novo AML patients and are rather stable during disease progression.
Few published data are available for two‐phase flow in fractures from field studies. All measurements of relative permeability reported in the literature were done in laboratory‐scale. The in situ ...water saturations are normally not known for multiphase flow in natural fractures; therefore, the direct measurements of relative permeability are difficult in field‐scale. With the help of a case study before and after the 2008 Mw 5.4 Antung earthquake, groundwater radon was used as a tracer to determine the gas and water saturations in a small naturally fractured aquifer. Well tests were also conducted to estimate aquifer transmissivity before and after the 2008 Antung earthquake. Anomalous declines in both groundwater radon concentration and transmissivity were observed precursory to the 2008 Antung earthquake. Both declines are two precursory phenomena having a common effect of gas bubbles. Using the data from well tests and radon tracer, one data point of water relative permeability can be obtained for in situ fractures. This data point reveals strong phase interference between water and gas bubbles for multiphase flow in natural fractures. Both the data of well tests and radon tracer are essential to gain an improved understanding of mass transfer behavior of groundwater‐dissolved gases between water and gas phases.
•Fractions of Ti(C, N) precipitates were increased during GBE process.•Fraction of twins appeared to affect the formation of non-twin type Σ3.•The internal oxidation was interrupted by special ...boundaries.•A model has been developed to relate creep behaviour to special boundary.
Special boundaries have the potential to improve high temperature properties of metal alloys, and a type of microstructure engineerings called grain boundary engineering (GBE) can increase fractions of special boundaries and optimize their distribution in the microstructure. The present study has found that unavoidable microstructure changes associated with the formation of titanium carbonitride (Ti(C, N)) could occur during the process of GBE in a solid solution strengthen Incoloy800H superalloy. Experimental results indicate that although fraction of non-twin type Σ3 special boundaries could be increased by multiple-cycles of thermomechanical processes, the presence of Ti(C, N) hindered the migration of grain boundary, and affected both grain size and special boundary formation. Although formation of non-twin type Σ3 special boundaries in the superalloy had lead to improvements in oxidation resistances, its creep resistance was degraded in present study; to elucidate the underlying mechanisms, correlations between minimum creep strain rate, grain size, and the fractions of special boundaries have been determined.
Influenza viruses, like other viruses, rely on host factors to support their life cycle as viral proteins usually "hijack," or collaborate with, cellular proteins to execute their functions. ...Identification and understanding of these factors can increase the knowledge of molecular mechanisms manipulated by the viruses and facilitate development of antiviral drugs. To this end, we developed a unique genome-wide pooled shRNA screen to search for cellular factors important for influenza A virus (IAV) replication. We identified an E3 ubiquitin ligase, Itch, as an essential factor for an early step in the viral life cycle. In Itch knockdown cells, the incorporation of viral ribonucleoprotein complex into endosomes was normal, but its subsequent release from endosomes and transport to the nucleus was retarded. In addition, upon virus infection, Itch was phosphorylated and recruited to the endosomes, where virus particles were located. Furthermore, Itch interacted with viral M1 protein and ubiquitinated M1 protein. Collectively, our findings unravel a critical role of Itch in mediating IAV release from the endosome and offer insights into the mechanism for IAV uncoating during virus entry. These findings also highlight the feasibility of pooled RNAi screening for exploring the cellular cofactors of lytic viruses.
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