Indirect reduction techniques, fluoroscopy, and restoration of radial length, rotation and alignment, are necessary to achieve these outcomes.

IV.

IV.

Cognitive impairment is an important predictor of quality of life at all stages of MS. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) markers have been used to associate tissue damage with cognitive dysfunction.

The aim of the study was to designate the MRI marker that predicts cognitive decline and explore its effect on every day activities and employment status.

50 RRMS patients and 31 healthy participants underwent neuropsychological assessment using the Trail Making Test (TMT) parts A and B, semantic and phonological verbal fluency task and a computerized cognitive screening battery (Central Nervous System Vital Signs). Everyday activities were evaluated with the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scale and employment status. Brain MRI was performed in all participants. We measured total lesion volume, third ventricle width, corpus callosum and thalamic atrophy.

The frequency of cognitive dysfunction for our RRMS patients was 38%. RRMS patients differed significantly from controls on the TMTA, TMTB, phonological verbal fluency task, memory, psychomotor speed, reaction time and cognitive flexibility. Neuropsychological measures had a strong correlation with all MRI atrophy measures and a weak or moderate correlation with lesion volume. Psychomotor speed was the most sensitive marker for IADL, while memory and TMTB for employment status. Thalamic area was the most sensitive MRI marker for memory, psychomotor speed and TMTB..

Thalamic atrophy predicts the clinically meaningful cognitive decline in our RRMS patients.

Thalamic atrophy predicts the clinically meaningful cognitive decline in our RRMS patients.A new method is developed to investigate functions of venom components, using venom gene RNA interference knockdown in the venomous animal coupled with RNA sequencing in the envenomated host animal. The vRNAi/eRNA-Seq approach is applied to the venom calreticulin component (v-crc) of the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis. Parasitoids are common, venomous animals that inject venom proteins into host insects, where they modulate physiology and metabolism to produce a better food resource for the parasitoid larvae. vRNAi/eRNA-Seq indicates that v-crc acts to suppress expression of innate immune cell response, enhance expression of clotting genes in the host, and up-regulate cuticle genes. V-crc KD also results in an increased melanization reaction immediately following envenomation. We propose that v-crc inhibits innate immune response to parasitoid venom and reduces host bleeding during adult and larval parasitoid feeding. Experiments do not support the hypothesis that v-crc is required for the developmental arrest phenotype observed in envenomated hosts. We propose that an important role for some venom components is to reduce (modulate) the exaggerated effects of other venom components on target host gene expression, physiology, and survival, and term this venom mitigation. A model is developed that uses vRNAi/eRNA-Seq to quantify the contribution of individual venom components to total venom phenotypes, and to define different categories of mitigation by individual venoms on host gene expression. Mitigating functions likely contribute to the diversity of venom proteins in parasitoids and other venomous organisms.Studies of multi-gene protein families, including many toxins, are crucial for understanding the role of gene duplication in generating protein diversity in general. However, many evolutionary analyses of gene families are based on coding sequences, and do not take into account many potentially confounding evolutionary factors, such as recombination and convergence due to selection. We illustrate this using snake venom gene sequences from the Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) subfamily. Novel gene sequences from 20 species of understudied Asian pitvipers were analyzed alongside available genomic PLA2 sequences from another four crotaline and several viperine species. In contrast to previous analyses of this toxin family based on cDNA sequences, we find that duplication events are concentrated at the tips of the tree, suggesting that major functions such as presynaptic neurotoxicity have evolved convergently multiple times in pitvipers. We provide evidence that this discrepancy is due to differing evolutionary patterns between introns and exons. The effects of several well-known sources of bias on the phylogeny were small, compared to the effect of analyses based on different partitions of the gene (whole gene sequence, non-coding regions, cDNA sequence). Switches of function were found to be largely associated with strong selection, and with duplication events. Use of coding sequences for phylogeny estimation potentially produces incorrect inferences about the action of selection on individual lineages and sites. Our results have major implications for phylogenomic methods of functional inference as well as for our understanding of the evolution of multigene families.This study was designed to describe and compare basic semen characteristics and sperm motility parameters obtained via computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) in feline semen collected from the urethra and epididymis, on the basis of large, unselected population of domestic cats. The semen collected from 214 males was subjected for routine semen assessment and CASA evaluation. Semen collected by urethral catheterization (CT) and by epididymal slicing (EP) has comparable characteristics according to total sperm count (47.7 ± 42.1 and 52.9 ± 45.0), subjective motility (71.1 ± 17.0 and 69.3 ± 13.9), viability (74.9 ± 13.4 and 76.7 ± 10.6), and morphology (52.6 ± 19.0 and 47.2 ± 17.4). The study of a large feline population confirmed a high incidence of teratospermy in cats, which negatively affects sperm motility parameters assessed by CASA. A lack of a correlation between CT and EP semen for total sperm count and viability, as well as occasional gross differences between the morphology of CT and EP semen of the same cat suggests that many factors may affect sperm cells, and the fertility and/or infertility of patients should not be assessed after examining only one sample. Additionally, technical problems with assessment of EP samples (understated results) suggest that CT semen is more appropriate for an analysis by CASA than EP.Alpha-fetoprotein has proved to be a good indicator of fetal well-being in human medicine for decades. Although this molecule is present in most of the mammalian species including horses, reference values in healthy and high-risk pregnant mares have not yet been published. The aim of the present study was to determine whether equine alpha-fetoprotein (eqAFP) is a good indicator of complicated pregnancies in Lipizzaner mares. A total of 111 serum samples from 30 mares have been analyzed for eqAFP levels throughout gestation (Days 60-325). After the pregnancy was confirmed, 23 mares had normal pregnancies with viable foals, six had late embryonic loss, and one of the mares aborted in the ninth gestational month. Equine alpha-fetoprotein concentrations significantly differed in the normal group (72.93 ± 49.25 pg/mL; mean ± standard deviation) and in the complicated pregnancy loss group (152 ± 36.48 pg/mL; mean ± standard deviation). The mares’ age, gestational age, and the conception rate significantly affected the alpha-fetoprotein concentrations in the normal group. Furthermore, notable individual differences occurred in eqAFP concentrations between mares. Equine alpha-fetoprotein seems to be an important indicator of fetal well-being in horses, but there are still some unanswered questions (levels in foals of different age, ponies, and draft horses) regarding this serum protein. Large-scale studies are needed to assess the specificity, sensitivity, and reliability of this test as a possible future diagnostic tool for fetal well-being in horses.

The purpose of this study was to determine long-term risk factors for substance-induced and primary psychosis after release from prison.

We used a longitudinal register-based cohort study combining European version of Addiction Severity Index (Europ-ASI) interviews and the Swedish inpatient register. The study included 6217 individuals who were in the Swedish criminal justice system from 2001 to 2006.

The outcomes were substance-induced and primary psychosis as defined by the International Classification of Disease – 10th version. All variables for estimating baseline risk were drawn from the Europ-ASI interview, and included information on substance use, demographics and health. The interview database and the inpatient register were coupled, and groups were compared by using tests of significance and logistic regression.

Polydrug use was the strongest predictor for substance induced psychosis (OR=9.55, 95% CI 3.42-26.67), but all substances imposed an increased risk. Previous psychiatric hospitalization and non-drug related hallucinations were significant, but weaker, risk factors. The only substance variable that predicted primary psychosis was cannabis (OR=2.62, 95% CI 1.39-4.96), but previous psychiatric hospitalization (OR=3.22, 95% CI 2.27-4.54) and non-drug related hallucinations (OR=4.00, 95% CI 2.82-5.67) were even stronger predictors.

Cannabis use was a risk factor for primary psychosis, but other health related individual risk factors were even more important. Polydrug use was the strongest risk factor for substance-induced psychosis.

Cannabis use was a risk factor for primary psychosis, but other health related individual risk factors were even more important. Polydrug use was the strongest risk factor for substance-induced psychosis.The uranium isotope (233)U is not usually observed in alpha spectra from environmental samples due to its low natural and fallout abundance. It may be present in samples from sites in the vicinity of nuclear operations such as reactors or fuel reprocessing facilities, radioactive waste disposal sites or sites affected by clandestine nuclear operations. On an alpha spectrum, the two most abundant alpha emissions of (233)U (4.784 MeV, 13.2%; and 4.824 MeV, 84.3%) will overlap with the (234)U doublet peak (4.722 MeV, 28.4%; and 4.775 MeV, 71.4%), if present, resulting in a combined (233+234)U multiplet. A technique for quantifying both (233)U and (234)U from alpha spectra was investigated. A series of groundwater samples were measured both by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to determine (233)U/(234)U atom and activity ratios and by alpha spectrometry in order to establish a reliable (233)U estimation technique using alpha spectra. The Genie™ 2000 Alpha Analysis and Interactive Peak Fitting (IPF) software packages were used and it was found that IPF with identification of three peaks ((234)U minor, combined (234)U major and (233)U minor, and (233)U major) followed by interference correction on the combined peak and a weighted average activity calculation gave satisfactory agreement with the AMS data across the (233)U/(234)U activity ratio range (0.1-20) and (233)U activity range (2-300 mBq) investigated. Correlation between the AMS (233)U and alpha spectrometry (233)U was r(2) = 0.996 (n = 10).