A ketogenic diet rich in fish oil is superior to other fats in preventing NNK-induced lung cancer in A/J mice.

Given that ketogenic diets (KDs) are extremely high in dietary fat, we compared different fats in KDs to determine which was the best for cancer prevention. Specifically, we compared a Western and a 15% carbohydrate diet to seven different KDs, containing either Western fats or fats enriched in medium chain fatty acids (MCTs), milk fat (MF), palm oil (PO), olive oil (OO), corn oil (CO) or fish oil (FO) for their ability to reduce nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone (NNK)-induced lung cancer in mice. While all the KDs tested were more effective at reducing lung nodules than the Western or 15% carbohydrate diet, the FO-KD was most effective at reducing lung nodules. Correlating with this, mice on the FO-KD had low blood glucose and the highest ß-hydroxybutyrate level, lowest liver fatty acid synthase/carnitine palmitoyl-1a ratio and a dramatic increase in fecal Akkermansia. We found no liver damage induced by the FO-KD, while the ratio of total cholesterol/HDL was unchanged on the different diets. We conclude that a FO-KD is superior to KDs enriched in other fats in reducing NNK-induced lung cancer, perhaps by being the most effective at skewing whole-body metabolism from a dependence on glucose to fats as an energy source.

Effects of practice variability on learning of relaxed phonation in vocally hyperfunctional speakers.

The present study investigated the effects of practice variability on the learning of relaxed phonation using a motor learning perspective. Twenty-one individuals with hyperfunctional voice problems were evenly and randomly assigned to three groups of practice conditions: constant, blocked, and random practice conditions. During training, participants in the constant practice condition were asked to read aloud sentence stimuli with four Chinese characters. Participants in the blocked practice condition were asked to read aloud sentence stimuli with increasing sentence length, starting from sets of two characters to five characters. Participants in the random practice condition were asked to practice reading sentence stimuli of variable length from two to five characters presented in a random fashion. Surface electromyographic feedback (sEMG) from the thyrohyoid muscle site was given to each participant after reading every two sentence stimuli. Results demonstrated that for all the participants, voice motor learning was evidenced by the decreased sEMG levels in delayed retention test. Generalization to untrained passage was shown as well. However, results did not reveal any difference in the learning among the three practice conditions. The findings from the present study did not support the hypothesis of contextual interference, which states that practice using variable items presented in a random mode is more beneficial to learning than practice using constant items.

The bioceramic implant: evaluation of implant exposures in 419 implants.

PURPOSE: To compare the rate of exposure in the immediate 3-month postoperative follow-up period with the rate of exposure after the immediate postoperative period in 419 anophthalmic patients with a bioceramic (aluminum oxide) orbital implant. METHODS: This is a retrospective, clinical case series of 419 patients who received a bioceramic orbital implant. All patients who presented to five oculofacial surgeons (D.J., S.G., J.D., S.K., L.M.) from January 1, 2000, to June 1, 2007, who received a bioceramic orbital implant and had a minimum of 3 months of follow-up were included in this study. The authors analyzed age, gender, type of surgery, implant size, peg system, follow-up duration, time of pegging, and problems encountered. The data from the patients with greater than 3 months of follow-up with exposure of the bioceramic implant are detailed in this report. RESULTS: There were 353 patients followed for 3 to 96 months with an average of 30 months of follow-up (median 23 months). Implant exposure occurred in 32/353 bioceramic implants (9.1%). Six of the 32 (19%) exposures occurred during the 90-day postoperative period (average 2.1 months). Twenty-six (81%) exposures occurred outside of the 90-day postoperative period (average 27.5 months, range 4-82 months). CONCLUSIONS: Implant exposures can occur anytime postimplant placement. This review discovered an implant exposure rate of 9.1%, with the majority of the exposures occurring after the postoperative follow-up period. Patients with porous orbital implants should be followed on a long-term basis to detect this complication.

A cyclic AMP receptor protein-regulated cell-cell communication system mediates expression of a FecA homologue in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia WR-C possesses an rpf/diffusible signal factor (DSF) cell-cell communication system. It produces cis-Delta2-11-methyl-dodecenoic acid, a DSF, and seven structural derivatives, which require rpfF and rpfB for synthesis. Acquisition of iron from the environment is important for bacterial growth as well as the expression of virulence genes. We identified a gene homologous to fecA, which encodes a ferric citrate receptor that transports exogenous siderophore ferric citrate from the environment into the bacterial periplasm. Western blot analysis with anti-FecA-His(6) antibody showed that the FecA homologue was induced in the iron-depleted medium supplemented with a low concentration of ferric citrate. Deletion of rpfF or rpfB resulted in reduced FecA expression compared to the wild type. Synthetic DSF restored FecA expression by the DeltarpfF mutant to the wild-type level. Reverse transcription-PCR showed that the fecA transcript was decreased in the DeltarpfF mutant compared to the wild type. These data suggest that DSF affected the level of fecA mRNA. Transposon inactivation of crp, which encodes cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor protein (CRP) resulted in reduced FecA expression and rpfF transcript level. Putative CRP binding sites were located upstream of the rpfF promoter, indicating that the effect of CRP on FecA is through the rpf/DSF pathway and by directly controlling rpfF. We propose that CRP may serve as a checkpoint for iron uptake, protease activity, and hemolysis in response to environmental changes such as changes in concentrations of glucose, cAMP, iron, or DSF.