Douglas discusses her experience of getting Asherman's Syndrome. Asherman's is characterized by adhesions in the uterus typically caused through trauma to the basal layer of the endometrium through ...curettage of a pregnant uterus. This means that it often occurs, as in my case, following surgical management of a miscarriage. The resultant effects are reduced or absent menstruation. She comments that through her own personal exploration of this condition, I discovered that many primary care colleagues like herself were unaware of this as a diagnosis and its presentation.
Oxytocin and cortisol are hormones that can influence cognition and behavior, but the relationships between endogenous concentrations and individual differences in cognitive and behavioral phenotypes ...remain poorly understood. Across mammals, oxytocin has important roles in diverse social behaviors, and in dogs, it has been implicated in human-oriented behaviors such as social gaze and point-following. Cortisol, an end-product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, is often studied in relation to temperament and emotional reactivity, but it is also known to modulate executive functions. In this study, we measured basal fecal cortisol (n = 247) and plasma oxytocin (n = 249) in dog puppies from a pedigreed population (Canine Companions ®). We collected cognitive and behavioral data from these subjects (n = 247), including measures of human-oriented social cognition, memory, inhibitory control, perceptual discriminations, and temperament. Oxytocin concentrations were estimated to be very highly heritable (h2 = 0.90−0.99) and cortisol concentrations were estimated to be moderately-highly heritable (h2 = 0.43−0.47). Bayesian mixed models controlling for relatedness revealed that oxytocin concentrations were positively associated with spatial working memory and displayed a negative quadratic relationship with behavioral laterality, but no credible associations were seen for social measures. Cortisol concentrations exhibited a negative linear relationship with performance on an inhibitory control task and a negative quadratic relationship with bold behavioral reactions to a novel object. Collectively, our results suggest that individual differences in oxytocin and cortisol concentrations are under strong genetic control in dogs and are associated with phenotypic variation in aspects of temperament, behavioral laterality, and executive function.
Display omitted
•Basal plasma oxytocin concentrations were highly heritable in 2-month old puppies.•Basal fecal cortisol concentrations were moderately heritable in 2-month old puppies.•Oxytocin was associated with spatial working memory and motor laterality.•Cortisol was associated with inhibitory control and shy-bold temperament.
Scatter-hoarding birds find their caches using spatial memory and have an enlarged hippocampus. Finding a cache site could be achieved using either Recollection (a discrete recalling of previously ...experienced information) or Familiarity (a feeling of “having encountered something before”). In humans, these two processes can be distinguished using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. ROC curves for olfactory memory in rats have shown the hippocampus is involved in Recollection, but not Familiarity. We test the hypothesis that food-hoarding birds, having a larger hippocampus, primarily use Recollection to find their caches. We validate a novel method of constructing ROC curves in humans and apply this method to cache retrieval by coal tits (
Periparus ater
). Both humans and birds mainly use Familiarity in finding their caches, with lower contribution of Recollection. This contribution is not significantly different from chance in birds, but a small contribution cannot be ruled out. Memory performance decreases with increasing retention interval in birds. The ecology of food-hoarding Parids makes it plausible that they mainly use Familiarity in the memory for caches. The larger hippocampus could be related to associating cache contents and temporal context with cache locations, rather than Recollection of the spatial information itself.
We determine the ensemble properties of z∼ 5 Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) selected as V-band dropouts to iAB < 26.3 in the Chandra Deep Field-South using their rest-frame UV-to-visible spectral energy ...distributions. By matching the selection and performing the same analysis that has been used for z∼ 3 samples, we show clear differences in the ensemble properties of two samples of LBGs which are separated by 1 Gyr in look-back time. We find that z∼ 5 LBGs are typically much younger (<100 Myr) and have lower stellar masses (∼109 M⊙) than their z∼ 3 counterparts (which are typically ∼ few ×1010 M⊙ and ∼320 Myr old). The difference in mass is significant even when considering the presence of an older, underlying population in both samples. Such young and moderately massive systems dominate the luminous z∼ 5 LBG population (≳70 per cent), whereas they comprise ≲30 per cent of LBG samples at z∼ 3. This result, which we demonstrate is robust under all reasonable modelling assumptions, shows a clear change in the properties of the luminous LBGs between z∼ 5 and z∼ 3. These young and moderately massive z∼ 5 LBGs appear to be experiencing their first (few) generations of large-scale star formation and are accumulating their first significant stellar mass. Their dominance in luminous LBG samples suggests that z∼ 5 witnesses a period of wide-spread, recent galaxy formation. As such, z∼ 5 LBGs are the likely progenitors of the spheroidal components of present-day massive galaxies. This is supported by their high stellar mass surface densities, and is consistent with their core phase-space densities, as well as the ages of stars in the bulge of our Galaxy and other massive systems. With implied formation redshifts of z∼ 6–7, these luminous z∼ 5 LBGs could have only contributed to the UV photon budget at the end of reionization. However, their high star formation rates per unit area suggest these systems host outflows or winds that enrich the intragalactic and intergalactic media with metals, as has been established for z∼ 3 LBGs. Their estimated young ages are consistent with inefficient metal-mixing on galaxy-wide scales. Therefore these galaxies may contain a significant fraction of Population III stars as proposed for z∼ 3 LBGs by Jiminez & Haimann.
Introduction
Hemarthrosis causes chronic haemophilic synovitis (CHS). Although neutrophils are major immune cells infiltrating joints after bleeding, their role on the pathogenesis of CHS is unknown. ...Neutrophils release extracellular DNA traps (ETs), structures of DNA with bound granular enzymes that were associated with tissue damage.
Aims
To evaluate the presence of ETs as pathogenic biomarker and the protective effect of intraarticular injection of platelet‐rich plasma (PRP) in patients with CHS.
Methods
Haemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS) and bleeding episodes (BE) were measured and correlated with ETs indicators (DNA/DNA‐Elastase) in synovial fluids (SF), PRP and plasma of 21 patients.
Results
Soluble DNA and DNA‐Elastase were detected in SF and plasma of patients. The synovial and plasma levels of DNA‐Elastase positively correlated with worse HJHS/BE. Interestingly, remaining ETs‐inducer factors were present in SF that induced the in vitro release of ETs from blood‐isolated neutrophils. This phenomenon was impaired by adding plasma or PRP. Finally, preliminary data obtained from five patients indicate that levels of DNA‐Elastase and HJHS/BE decreased after receiving intraarticular injection of PRP.
Conclusions
The synovial and plasma levels of DNA‐Elastase correlated with worse HJHS/BE suggesting that ETs formation could be a biomarker and potential therapeutic target for CHS. The intraarticular injection of PRP underlined a new potential alternative therapy, decreasing ETs formation in synovia of patients with CHS. However, our hypotheses must be confirmed in the future with better designed and more statistical power studies. Meanwhile, the use of intraarticular injections of PRP for the treatment of CHS remains controversial.
Introduction
Haemophilic pseudotumour (HP) is an encapsulated haematoma in patients with haemophilia (PWH) which has a tendency to progress and produce clinical symptoms related to its anatomical ...location.
Aim
To show the experience of one surgeon who has been using mini‐invasive technique to treat pseudotumours of limbs in PWH with and without inhibitors at one centre for 28 years.
Materials and Methods
Thirty‐three patients with 39 HP were treated. All patients had haemophilia A. Twenty‐four patients had no inhibitors (72.8%), and 9 had inhibitors (27.2%). The mean follow‐up was 16 years (1‐25). All patients had x‐rays and MRIs. All of them received Buenos Aires protocol as conservative treatment for 6 weeks. MRIs were repeated after 6 weeks’ treatment to assess response to treatment.
Surgery was performed in patients who did not respond to conservative treatment.
Results
After Buenos Aires protocol, four pseudotumours did not shrink (10.24%), 33 (84.61%) shrank, and two (5.12%) healed. Thirty‐seven pseudotumours had surgery, 35 pseudotumours (94.59%) healed with minimally invasive treatment, and two did not heal (5.41%).
No infection was observed with this treatment. The mortality rate for the series was 0%.
Conclusion
The minimally invasive treatment of pseudotumours was effective in 95% of the cases and resulted in no mortality in this series after 28 years.
Introduction and Aim
Haemarthroses cause major morbidity in haemophilia resulting in chronic haemophilic synovitis (CHS) and arthropathy. Oxidation of haemoglobin‐coupled iron released in synovium ...after haemolysis induces chondrocytes death and cartilage damage, allowing postulate using iron‐chelating drugs as potential therapeutic tool for haemophilic joint damage. Considering that albumin, the most abundant plasma protein, is a physiologic iron chelator, we aim to demonstrate that impediment of haemoglobin oxidation is exerted by plasma as a mechanism involved in the therapeutic effect of intra‐articular injection of platelet‐rich plasma in CHS.
Methods
Oxidation of haemoglobin (Hb) to methaemoglobin (MeHb) through Fenton reaction was induced in vitro by addition of potassium ferricyanide in the presence or absence of peripheral blood‐derived platelets‐rich or platelets‐poor plasma (PRP/PPP) or albumin. The relevance of in vitro findings was analysed in synovial fluid (SF) samples from one patient with CHS obtained before and after 6 months of PRP intra‐articular injection.
Results
MeHb formation was completely impaired either by of PPP, PRP or albumin indicating that PRP exerts an anti‐oxidative effect, probably due by plasma albumin. Analysis of SF samples revealed the presence of MeHb levels and haemosiderin‐laden macrophages in SF obtained before PRP treatment. Reduction of synovial MeHb, normalization of cellular composition and improvement of health joint haemophilic score, pain and bleeding episodes were registered after 6 months of PRP intra‐articular injection.
Conclusion
Inhibition of Fenton reaction and the consequent normalization of joint cellular composition is a noncanonical mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of PRP intra‐articular injection in CHS.
Companion dogs are a valuable model for aging research, including studies of cognitive decline and dementia. With advanced age, some dogs spontaneously develop cognitive impairments and ...neuropathology resembling features of Alzheimer's disease. These processes have been studied extensively in laboratory beagles, but the cognitive assays used in that context-which rely on time-consuming operant procedures-are not easily scalable to large samples of community-dwelling companion dogs. We developed a battery of five short-form tasks targeting three aspects of cognition that are impaired in Alzheimer's disease: spatial memory, executive functions, and social cognition. In Experiment 1, we tested a cross-sectional sample of dogs (N = 123) and estimated associations between age and task performance. Older dogs scored lower on measures of spatial learning, memory, and response flexibility, and spent less time near, but more time gazing at, the experimenter. We found no differences in associations between age and performance across dogs of different body masses, a proxy for expected lifespan. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated the feasibility of these measures in clinical settings (N = 35). Dogs meeting clinical criteria for moderate or severe cognitive impairment scored lower, on average, than dogs characterized as mildly impaired and healthy agers, although these distributions overlapped. However, few dogs in our study cohort met the criteria for moderate or severe impairment. The measures presented here show promise for deployment in large-scale longitudinal studies of companion dogs, such as the Dog Aging Project.Companion dogs are a valuable model for aging research, including studies of cognitive decline and dementia. With advanced age, some dogs spontaneously develop cognitive impairments and neuropathology resembling features of Alzheimer's disease. These processes have been studied extensively in laboratory beagles, but the cognitive assays used in that context-which rely on time-consuming operant procedures-are not easily scalable to large samples of community-dwelling companion dogs. We developed a battery of five short-form tasks targeting three aspects of cognition that are impaired in Alzheimer's disease: spatial memory, executive functions, and social cognition. In Experiment 1, we tested a cross-sectional sample of dogs (N = 123) and estimated associations between age and task performance. Older dogs scored lower on measures of spatial learning, memory, and response flexibility, and spent less time near, but more time gazing at, the experimenter. We found no differences in associations between age and performance across dogs of different body masses, a proxy for expected lifespan. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated the feasibility of these measures in clinical settings (N = 35). Dogs meeting clinical criteria for moderate or severe cognitive impairment scored lower, on average, than dogs characterized as mildly impaired and healthy agers, although these distributions overlapped. However, few dogs in our study cohort met the criteria for moderate or severe impairment. The measures presented here show promise for deployment in large-scale longitudinal studies of companion dogs, such as the Dog Aging Project.
We explore the effects of alcohols on fluid lipid bilayers using a molecular theory with a coarse-grained model. We show that the trends predicted from the theory in the changes in area per lipid, ...alcohol concentration in the bilayer, and area compressibility modulus, as a function of alcohol chain length and of the alcohol concentration in the solvent far from the bilayer, follow those found experimentally. We then use the theory to study the effect of added alcohol on the lateral pressure profile across the membrane, and find that added alcohol reduces the surface tensions at both the headgroup/solvent and headgroup/tailgroup interfaces, as well as the lateral pressures in the headgroup and tailgroup regions. These changes in lateral pressures could affect the conformations of membrane proteins, providing a nonspecific mechanism for the biological effects of alcohols on cells.
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