Long term potentiation

There is a compelling need for quality tools that enable effective control of the extra-analytical phase. In this regard, Six Sigma seems to offer a valid methodological and conceptual opportunity, and in recent times, the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine has adopted it for indicating the performance requirements for non-analytical laboratory processes. However, the Six Sigma implies a distinction between short-term and long-term quality that is based on the dynamics of the processes...

The potential catastrophic event of a landslide bringing contaminants to surface waters has been highlighted in public media, but there are still few scientific studies analyzing the risk of landslides with contaminated soil. The aim of this study is to present a method to estimate the risk of potential long-term ecological effects on water bodies due to contaminated soil released into a river through a landslide. The study constitutes further development of previous work focusing on the instantaneous (short-term) release of contaminants and associated effects...

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Studying postoperative in-hospital mortality is crucial to the understanding of the perioperative process failures and to the implementation of strategies to improve patient outcomes. We intend to classify the causes of perioperative deaths up to 30 days after procedures requiring anesthesia and to evaluate the risk factors for early (48 h) or late (30 day) mortality. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: A quaternary University Hospital from South Brazil...

INTRODUCTION: Newborns with classic bladder exstrophy (CBE) may present with a bladder template that is inadequate for closure in the neonatal period (figure). In these cases, a delayed primary closure (DPC) is conducted to permit growth of the bladder template. This study reports the surgical and long-term urinary continence outcomes of poor template CBE patients undergoing DPC and compares them to patients who underwent DPC for reasons unrelated to bladder quality (i.e., prematurity, comorbidities, or a late referral)...

In frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the behavioral variant (bv-FTD) and nonfluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfv-PPA) reflect a prominent neurodegenerative involvement of the frontal lobe networks, which may include the premotor and motor areas and thus cause heterogeneous clinical symptoms including parkinsonism. With the technique of transcranial magnetic stimulation, we investigated long-term potentiation- and long-term depression-like plasticity in the primary motor cortex of bv-FTD and nfv-PPA patients, with and without parkinsonism, by using the theta-burst stimulation (TBS) protocol...

BACKGROUND: Long-term exposure to radiation can lead to gene mutations and increase the risk of cancer. Low rate fluoroscopy has the potential to reduce the radiation exposure for both the examiner and the patient during various fluoroscopic procedures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of low rate fluoroscopy on reducing an examiner's radiation dose during nerve root block. METHODS: A total of 101 lumbar nerve root block examinations were performed at our institute during a 6-month period...

OBJECTIVES:  (1) To develop an evaluation grid to provide a systematic interpretation of calves' articular radiographs, (2) to describe radiographic lesions of septic arthritis in dairy calves less than 6 months of age, (3) to investigate potential associations between demographic data or synovial bacteriological culture results and radiographic lesions (4) to determine whether an association is present between radiographic lesions, their severity and the long-term outcome. METHODS:  Medical records of 54 calves less than 180 days old treated for septic arthritis between 2009 and 2014 with radiographic images performed in the first 2 days after admission were reviewed...

Forced abstinence from chronic two bottle-choice ethanol drinking produces the development of negative affective states in female C57BL/6J mice. We previously reported that this disrupted behavior is acutely reversed by administration of ketamine 30 min-prior to testing. Here we assessed whether ketamine can be used as an inoculant against the development of abstinence- dependent affective disturbances. In parallel, we examined the impact of ketamine administration on long-term potentiation (LTP) in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a region implicated in affective disturbances...

An extensive body of theory addresses the topic of pathogen virulence evolution, yet few studies have empirically demonstrated the presence of fitness trade-offs that would select for intermediate virulence. Here we show the presence of transmission-clearance trade-offs in dengue virus using viremia measurements. By fitting a within-host model to these data, we further find that the interaction between dengue and the host immune response can account for the observed trade-offs. Finally, we consider dengue virulence evolution when selection acts on the virus's production rate...

Disorganization of nodes of Ranvier is associated with motor and sensory dysfunctions. Mechanisms that allow nodal recovery during pathological processes remain poorly understood. A highly enriched nodal cytoskeletal protein βIV Spectrin anchors and stabilizes the nodal complex to actin cytoskeleton. Loss of murine βIV Spectrin allows the initial nodal organization, but causes gradual nodal destabilization. Mutations in human βIV SPECTRIN cause auditory neuropathy and impairment in motor coordination and similar phenotypes are caused by nodal disruption due to demyelination...

BACKGROUND: Physical activity has long been considered as an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Although many efforts have been made to promote physical activity, there is no effective global intervention for physical activity promotion. Some researchers have suggested that Pokémon GO, a location-based augmented reality game, was associated with a short-term increase in players' physical activity on a global scale, but the details are far from clear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to study the relationship between Pokémon GO use and players' physical activity and how the relationship varies across players with different physical activity levels...

We revisit a classical problem of theoretical electrochemistry: the response of an electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) subject to a small, suddenly applied external potential. We solve the Debye-Falkenhagen equation to obtain exact expressions for key EDLC quantities: the ionic charge density, the ionic current density, and the electric field. In contrast to earlier works, our results are not restricted to the long-time asymptotics of those quantities. The solutions take the form of infinite sums whose successive terms all decay exponentially with increasingly short relaxation times...

We consider condensation in a capillary groove of width L and depth D, formed by walls that are completely wet (contact angle θ=0), which is in a contact with a gas reservoir of the chemical potential μ. On a mesoscopic level, the condensation process can be described in terms of the midpoint height ℓ of a meniscus formed at the liquid-gas interface. For macroscopically deep grooves (D→∞), and in the presence of long-range (dispersion) forces, the condensation corresponds to a second-order phase transition, such that ℓ∼(μ_{cc}-μ)^{-1/4} as μ→μ_{cc}^{-} where μ_{cc} is the chemical potential pertinent to capillary condensation in a slit pore of width L...

Although soil contamination must be remediated by the polluters under current legal frameworks in numerous countries, the allocation of responsibilities for soil clean-up is still challenging in the case of multiple potentially responsible parties (PRPs). This study evaluated the individual contributions of two PRPs (Owners A & B) to heavy metal contamination in the soil environment near an abandoned smelter and compared the results with those from the conventional Gore Factor (GF) method. The soil in the study area was widely contaminated by various heavy metals...

BACKGROUND: Many patients require discontinuation of benzodiazepines due to a reduction in drug efficacy over time, the development of a sedative use disorder, or unwanted side effects. Benzodiazepine discontinuation can pose a significant challenge for prescribing clinicians due to potential withdrawal symptoms and a recurrence of psychiatric complaints. METHODS: A PubMed literature search was conducted using the medical subject heading of benzodiazepines in combination with the following key words: discontinuation, withdrawal, detoxification, cessation, dependence, addiction, substance use disorders, or long term...

Xanthine oxidoreductase plays an important role in formation of uric acid and its regulation during purine catabolism. Uncontrolled expression of this enzyme is responsible for overproduction and deposition of uric acid in blood that is potentially injurious because it can breakdown DNA and protein molecules, triggering many diseases. Human Xanthine oxidoreductase (HsXOR) is considered to be a pharmacological target for the treatment of hyperuricemia. Many of the HsXOR-inhibitor drugs such as Febuxostat and Allopurinol are known to have significant adverse effects...

Stem cells are adherent cells whose multipotency and differentiation can be regulated by numerous microenvironmental signals including soluble growth factors and surface topography. This study describes a simple method for creating distinct micropatterns via microphase separation resulting from polymer demixing of poly(desaminotyrosyl-tyrosine carbonate) (PDTEC) and polystyrene (PS). Substrates with co-continuous (ribbons) or discontinuous (islands and pits) PDTEC regions were obtained by varying the ratio of PDTEC and sacrificial PS...

OBJECTIVE: Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is a progressive infection that destroys lung tissue in non-immunocompromised patients. First line therapies for CPA (itraconazole and/or voriconazole) are often curtailed due to toxicity or the development of drug resistance. Posaconazole is a potential alternative for these patients. METHODS: Use of posaconazole was funded by the NHS Highly Specialised National Commissioners on an individual basis for patients who failed or did not tolerate first line therapy; those who met predefined criteria for improvement at 4 and 6 months (weight gain and/or improvement in St George's Respiratory Questionnaire) continued posaconazole long-term...

PACAP1-38, a ubiquitous and multifunctional regulator has been in the focus of neurotoxicity research due to its impressive neuroprotective potential. Although the literature extensively demonstrated its repressive effect on the apoptotic machinery in neurodegenerative models, there is a striking absence of analysis on its role in normal development. We performed quantitative analyses on caspase activity in developing retina upon 100, 50, 25 or 1 pmol intravitreal PACAP1-38 injection from postnatal day 1 (P1) through P7 in Wistar rats...

Conspecific populations of plants in their native range are expected to show considerable variation due to long-term ecological and evolutionary factors. We investigated the levels of secondary metabolites in Heracleum including H. persicum a valuable medicinal plant to depict the magnitude of cryptic variation and the potential significance of novel chemical traits. The essential oil volatiles from fruits of 34 populations from different species of Heracleum in Iranian distribution range and a native and invasive population of H...