To estimate the percentage of healthy women in whom the uterosacral ligaments are identifiable on standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and to determine origin points from the genital tract ...and insertion points on the pelvic sidewall.
Eighty-two asymptomatic women (mean +/- standard deviation age 53 +/- 12 years; mean parity 2.5, range 0-7) volunteered for this study. They were eligible if the most dependent vaginal wall point lay at least 1 cm above the hymenal ring remnant during a Valsalva maneuver. Axial proton density MRI of the entire pelvis was analyzed at 5-mm intervals. All results were referenced to the ischial spine. We determined the visibility of the uterosacral ligaments and located their origins from the genital tract and their insertion points on the pelvic sidewall.
Uterosacral ligaments were visible in 61 (87%) of 70 analyzable scans. They extended over a mean craniocaudal distance of 21 +/- 8 mm (range 10-50). Three regions of origin were found: cervix alone, cervix and vagina in the same section, and vagina alone. Thirty-three percent, 63%, and 4% of 254 identified origin points were from these three areas, respectively. Of 259 uterosacral insertion points, 82% overlaid the sacrospinous ligament/coccygeus muscle complex, 7% the sacrum, and 11% the piriformis muscle, the sciatic foramen, or the ischial spine. Although uterosacral ligament morphology was similar bilaterally, its craniocaudal extent was greater on the right side.
In healthy women, the uterosacral ligament origin and insertion points exhibited greater anatomic variation than their name would imply.
Mammalian cells are constantly exposed to a wide variety of genotoxic agents from both endogenous and exogenous sources. Genetic variability in DNA repair may contribute to human cancer risk. We used ...a case-control study design (162 cases and 302 controls) to test the association between three amino acid substitution variants of DNA repair genes (
XRCC1 Arg194Trp,
XRCC1 Arg399Gln, and
XRCC3 Thr241Met) and breast cancer susceptibility. We found a weak association between the
XRCC1 194Trp allele and breast cancer risk (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=1.98; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.85–4.63). We also found a potential gene-gene interaction between the
XRCC1 194Trp allele and
XRCC3 241Met allele and breast cancer risk (adjusted OR=8.74; 95% CI=1.13–67.53). Although larger studies are needed to validate the study results, our data suggest that amino acid substitution variants of
XRCC1 and
XRCC3 genes may contribute to breast cancer susceptibility.
In summarizing the main results on recruitment that emerged from the series of Flatfish Symposia, two aspects were distinguished: mean level and interannual variability. Recruitment to a stock ...appears to be related to the quantity of juvenile nursery habitats, suggesting that either larval supply or the carrying capacity of the nurseries is the limiting factor. However, available information on growth of 0-group flatfish suggests that the carrying capacity of nursery areas is never reached. Variability in year-class strength is generated during the pelagic egg and larval stage, probably by variations in the hydrodynamic circulation and in the mortality rates of eggs and larvae. Density-dependent processes seem to occur only during the juvenile stages, particularly in respect of growth. However, no impact on recruitment variability has been found. Density-dependent mortality during the phase shortly after settlement dampens the interannual recruitment variability. There is no evidence of density-dependent effects in the adult phase at present, but these may have been important at lower levels of exploitation. The importance of the factors determining recruitment vary not only among species, but also over the species' range. It is suggested that damping processes can only occur in the demersal stage, implying that variability in year-class strength can only decrease in fish species with a demersal stage. If true, ultimate variability in recruitment in fish species will be related to the relative duration of the pelagic and demersal stages.
Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) -Richardson's Syndrome and Corticobasal Syndrome (CBS) are the two classic clinical syndromes associated with underlying four repeat (4R) tau pathology. The PSP ...Rating Scale is a commonly used assessment in PSP clinical trials; there is an increasing interest in designing combined 4R tauopathy clinical trials involving both CBS and PSP.
To determine contributions of each domain of the PSP Rating Scale to overall severity and characterize the probable sequence of clinical progression of PSP as compared to CBS.
Multicenter clinical trial and natural history study data were analyzed from 545 patients with PSP and 49 with CBS. Proportional odds models were applied to model normalized cross-sectional PSP Rating Scale, estimating the probability that a patient would experience impairment in each domain using the PSP Rating Scale total score as the index of overall disease severity.
The earliest symptom domain to demonstrate impairment in PSP patients was most likely to be Ocular Motor, followed jointly by Gait/Midline and Daily Activities, then Limb Motor and Mentation, and finally Bulbar. For CBS, Limb Motor manifested first and ocular showed less probability of impairment throughout the disease spectrum. An online tool to visualize predicted disease progression was developed to predict relative disability on each subscale per overall disease severity.
The PSP Rating Scale captures disease severity in both PSP and CBS. Modelling how domains change in relation to one other at varying disease severities may facilitate detection of therapeutic effects in future clinical trials.
•PSP Rating Scale captures overall disease and domain severity in both PSP and CBS.•Using large body of existing data gives robust characterization of disease spectrum.•Modelled online tool may facilitate detection of therapeutic effects.•Online tool https://pspmodel.shinyapps.io/PSP_Progression/.
While the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) has been the standard instrument for the assessment of the severity of depression for many years, this scale has a number of limitations. We ...developed the Modified Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (MHRSD) to overcome some of these limitations and to enable paraprofessional research assistants to make reliable and valid assessments of depressive symptoms. The present study investigates the reliability and validity of the MHRSD. Interrater reliability among paraprofessional research assistants was excellent. The relationship between the MHRSD and expert clinician ratings on the MHRSD and the original HRSD was also high. Thus, the MHRSD appears to be a useful addition to the clinical researcher's assessment battery.
We report cross-section measurements of the final-state muon kinematics for \numu charged-current interactions in the NOvA near detector using an accumulated 8.09\(\times10^{20}\) protons-on-target ...(POT) in the NuMI beam. We present the results as a double-differential cross section in the observed outgoing muon energy and angle, as well as single-differential cross sections in the derived neutrino energy, \(E_\nu\), and square of the four-momentum transfer, \(Q^2\). We compare the results to inclusive cross-section predictions from various neutrino event generators via \(\chi^2\) calculations using a covariance matrix that accounts for bin-to-bin correlations of systematic uncertainties. These comparisons show a clear discrepancy between the data and each of the tested predictions at forward muon angle and low \(Q^2\), indicating a missing suppression of the cross section in current neutrino-nucleus scattering models.
We report new constraints on flavor-changing nonstandard neutrino interactions from the MINOS long-baseline experiment using νe and ν¯e appearance candidate events from predominantly νμ and ν¯μ ...beams. We used a statistical selection algorithm to separate νe candidates from background events, enabling an analysis of the combined MINOS neutrino and antineutrino data. We observe no deviations from standard neutrino mixing, and thus place constraints on the nonstandard interaction matter effect, |ϵeτ|, and phase, (δCP+δeτ), using a 30-bin likelihood fit.
PDF
