Soft palatal radiofrequency reduces the volume of palatal soft tissue and produces scar tissue to alleviate velopharyngeal vibration and collapse in snoring and mild sleep-disordered breathing. This ...innovative alternative to laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty or uvulopalatopharyngoplasty is performed in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia with minimal postoperative discomfort, a low incidence of posttreatment sequelae, and good treatment results.
We give a systematic construction of epimorphisms between 2-bridge link groups. Moreover, we show that 2-bridge links having such an epimorphism between their link groups are related by a map between ...the ambient spaces which only have a certain specific kind of singularity. We show applications of these epimorphisms to the character varieties for 2-bridge links and pi_1-dominating maps among 3-manifolds.
INTRODUCTIONPercutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with a high risk of contrast-induced nephropathy and resulting progression of ...CKD to need for renal replacement therapy. Chronic total occlusions (CTO) PCI is increasingly utilized in the treatment of refractory stable angina and ischaemic heart failure. Recent studies have described the feasibility of 'minimal' or 'zero' contrast PCI by employing intravascular imaging and intra-coronary physiology to guide successful stent implantation with resolution of ischaemia. We extended these techniques to CTO lesions via the retrograde approach. CASE PRESENTATIONTwo patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate ≤15 mL/min who presented with angina symptoms and had subsequent positive stress tests were referred for CTO-PCI. The patients had diagnostic angiography with minimal contrast. After a recovery period, the patients underwent successful retrograde zero contrast CTO-PCI with the use of adjunctive intravascular ultrasound imaging. DISCUSSIONThe described reports are the first two successful attempts at zero contrast retrograde procedures and demonstrate the feasibility of imaging and physiology-guided retrograde PCI without contrast administration in two patients with significant coronary artery disease requiring intervention. When indicated, zero contrast PCI offers the ability to treat obstructive coronary disease without worsening renal function in patients with severe CKD.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008.
"Graduate Program in Computational Biology and Molecular Biophysics." Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-179).
The p53 protein has been called the "gatekeeper" of the cell. After DNA damage, p53 transcriptionally activates downstream pathways to prevent cancer from occurring. Target genes are activated to ...cause cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, cell senescence, and apoptosis. However, the exact transcriptional program that determines the specific outcome of a certain cell stress is not completely understood. We present an analysis to help shed light on the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation by the p53 protein. First, we present a detailed analysis of the known modes of p53-regulation, and a dataset of 160 functional human p53-binding sites curated from the literature. Second, we present a new method (called p53HMM) to model p53-binding sites using Profile Hidden Markov Models (PHMMs). This new method is the most accurate predictor of functional p53 single-sites and cluster-sites to date. Third, we show that functional sites with low estimated relative affinity scores are highly correlated with distances from the TSS. Fourth, we show that the capability to fold into a non-linear cruciform DNA structure is an important predictor in estimating the overall binding affinity of a functional p53-binding site. We use UNAFold to calculate free energies and probabilities of p53-binding sites folding into different non-linear cruciform structures. Fifth, we present a new motif-finding algorithm (called PURE) that uses relative entropy to find over- and under-represented motifs near functional p53-binding sites. The goal is to find possible motifs (like co-factor motifs) that can help designate functional p53-binding sites, thereby reducing the false positive rate that currently plagues motif-finding algorithms.
Radiofrequency has been an evolving technology in volumetric reduction of tissues in the upper airway, including the nasal turbinates, soft palate, and tongue. Radiofrequency tongue base reduction is ...an alternative technique of improving upper airway patency by reducing the size of the tongue in sleep-disordered breathing. This modality is a multiple-staged procedure separated by approximately 4 weeks, performed in an outpatient setting using local anesthesia with minimal discomfort and morbidity. Short-term results appear promising using the present treatment protocol, but our practice recommends caution using this new technology until long-term results and multicenter findings are available to determine the modalities efficacy.
Major depression in elderly individuals has been linked to dysfunction in the frontal lobes of the brain. While there have been compelling neuroanatomical and neuropsychological studies of frontal ...lobe functioning which provide evidence for this idea, there has not always been consistent agreement between such studies regarding the nature and extent of this dysfunction. The purpose of the present study was to identify specific aspects of depression and to evaluate the contribution of each of these aspects with regard to neuropsychological measures of frontal lobe functioning. It was hypothesized that particular aspects of depression may be more strongly related to frontal lobe functioning than some other aspects of depression. There were a total of 203 participants in the present study, Each received testing which included a measure of depression, tests of frontal lobe functioning, and a measure of overall cognitive status. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis of the depression measure indicated a four factor structure, consisting of positive mood, negative mood, awareness of cognitive impairment, and a general depression factor which subsumed the other three factors. Using structural equation modeling, each factor was analyzed in relationship to performance on the cognitive measures. Results indicated that the positive mood factor was most strongly related to performance on all of the cognitive measures. It is suggested that the frontal lobe neuropsychological impairments observed in geriatric depression may be related to syndromes (i.e, apathy syndromes) which may be distinct from depression but which may be commonly diagnosed as depression.
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