Microstructural alterations of major thalamic nuclei in the chronic pediatric spinal cord injured population.

Background: The brain undergoes reorganization following spinal cord injury (SCI), but little is known about how the thalamus is affected in pediatric SCIs. Purpose: To characterize microstructural alterations in the thalamus after SCI with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics. Methods: 18 pediatric participants with chronic SCI (8-20 years) were stratified using the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) into groups: A, B, and C/D. DTI of the brain used a 3 T Siemens Verio MRI using the parameters: 20 directions, number of averages = 3, b = 1000 s/mm2, voxel size = 1.8 mm × 1.8 mm, slice thickness = 5 mm, TE = 95 ms, TR = 4300 ms, 30 slices, FOV = 230 × 230 mm2, matrix = 128 × 128, acquisition time = 4:45 min. Diffusion data was processed to generate DTI metrics FA, MD, AD, and RD. Data analysis: DTI metrics were acquired by superimposing the AAL3 thalamic atlas onto participant diffusion images registered to MNI152 space. We utilized a multiple Mann-Whitney U-test to compare between AIS groups, considering values of p ≤ 0.05 as significant. Results: FA, AD, RD, and MD significantly differed in thalamic nuclei between AIS groups A vs B and B vs C/D. Significant nuclei include the right ventral anterior, left intralaminar, bilateral lateral pulvinar, and right lateral geniculate. Conclusion: Our findings suggest the presence of microstructural alterations based on SCI severity in pediatric patients. These results are encouraging and warrant further study.

Factors influencing social prescribing initiatives: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.

AIMS: Social prescribing is a growing health policy agenda to improve the quality and effectiveness of health systems. However, systematically collected knowledge on factors influencing the effective implementation of SP is scarce. A systematic review was conducted to identify and categorize factors influencing social prescribing initiatives. METHODS: A search of three electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and ISI Web of Knowledge) was carried out to retrieve studies from inception to May 2022, supplemented by grey literature searching and snowballing of the relevant references. The inclusion criteria were original empirical research, qualitative data collection, and a description of factors affecting social prescribing initiatives. Study quality was evaluated using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. We categorized the results of individual studies using a narrative approach. RESULTS: A total of 23 studies were included for analysis. Along with patient-related factors (patient-centeredness, clinical complexity, perception, knowledge), three main settings of social prescribing initiatives (including healthcare providers, link workers, and voluntary and community sectors) are affected by (1) individual characteristics (knowledge, perception, skill mix); (2) interpersonal relations (collaboration, trust, feedback, supportive climate, follow-up, sustained connection, peer support within and across sectors); (3) organizational contingencies (resource adequacy, staffing, training, role description, continuity of support, caseload management, monitoring, affordability, accessibility, referral criteria, and tailored support); and (4) political context (national policy and guidance, stewardship, planning, cocreation, bureaucracy, economic condition, and the number of support organizations). CONCLUSION: Many factors influencing social prescribing initiatives were identified. The results of this review can be applied by different stakeholders of social prescribing to guide development, implementation, description, and evaluation.

Atlas-Based Quantification of DTI Measures in a Typically Developing Pediatric Spinal Cord.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Multi-parametric MRI, provides a variety of biomarkers sensitive to white matter integrity, However, spinal cord MRI data in pediatrics is rare compared to adults. The purpose of this work was 3-fold: 1) to develop a processing pipeline for atlas-based generation of the typically developing pediatric spinal cord WM tracts, 2) to derive atlas-based normative values of the DTI indices for various WM pathways, and 3) to investigate age-related changes in the obtained normative DTI indices along the extracted tracts. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DTI scans of 30 typically developing subjects (age range, 6-16 years) were acquired on a 3T MR imaging scanner. The data were registered to the PAM50 template in the Spinal Cord Toolbox. Next, the DTI indices for various WM regions were extracted at a single section centered at the C3 vertebral body in all the 30 subjects. Finally, an ANOVA test was performed to examine the effects of the following: 1) laterality, 2) functionality, and 3) age, with DTI-derived indices in 34 extracted WM regions. RESULTS: A postprocessing pipeline was developed and validated to delineate pediatric spinal cord WM tracts. The results of ANOVA on fractional anisotropy values showed no effect for laterality (P = .72) but an effect for functionality (P < .001) when comparing the 30 primary WM labels. There was a significant (P < .05) effect of age and maturity of the left spinothalamic tract on mean diffusivity, radial diffusivity, and axial diffusivity values. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed automated pipeline in this study incorporates unique postprocessing steps followed by template registration and quantification of DTI metrics using atlas-based regions. This method eliminates the need for manual ROI analysis of WM tracts and, therefore, increases the accuracy and speed of the measurements.

Yeast cell wall polysaccharides enhanced expression of T helper type 1 and 2 cytokines profile in chicken B lymphocytes exposed to LPS challenge and enzyme treatment.

1. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential immunomodulatory effects of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and yeast-derived products treated with a cell wall lytic enzyme mixture on the gene expression of toll-like receptors and cytokines of chicken B cell line (DT 40) stimulated with lipopolysaccharide. 2. The effect of brewer's yeast (Y), yeast cell wall (YCW), distilled dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and a processed yeast + nucleotide-rich product (PY/N) treated with a yeast cell wall lytic enzyme (E) was assessed using a chicken B cells and LPS challenge model. 3. Relative gene expression of toll-like receptors (TLRs) and cytokines was investigated. Treatment of cells with Y, YCW, YCW + E and PY/N upregulated the expression of TLR2b following LPS challenge. Gene expression of TLR4 was downregulated in E, YCW and YCW + E treatments compared to control, while adding DDGS and PY/N upregulated the expression of TLR4 either before or after enzyme treatment. Following LPS challenge, expression of IL-4 and IL-10 was upregulated in cells treated with YCW and PY/N, both pre and post enzyme incubation. Adding YCW and PY/N to the cells challenged with LPS upregulated the expression of IFN-γ and IL-12 before and after enzyme treatment. Treatment of cells with YCW, DDGS and PY/N increased the expression of IL-6 prior to LPS challenge. 4. In conclusion, the results suggested that yeast-derived products affected immunomodulatory activities by changing the expression of cytokines involved in the innate immune response.

A new set of reagents and related software used for NGS based classical and non-classical HLA typing showing evidence for a greater HLA haplotype diversity.

To evaluate the HLA typing performance of a new Long-Range PCR NGS set of reagents and its dedicated software, a panel of 41 reference homozygous cell lines from the International Histocompatibility Working Group (IHWG) and a panel of 376 volunteer bone marrow donors were analyzed for classical and non-classical HLA class I and class II genes. All results, except HLA-DPB1, were obtained without any ambiguities at the 3rd field level. Based on the high resolution performance of the reagents, a number of new alleles have been described not only for classical but also for non-classical HLA class I genes, leading to a more accurate haplotype definition. Linkage disequilibrium between HLA-A and HLA-G genes has been defined at 4th field level of resolution. Moreover, for the first time, HLA-DQA2 and DQB2 polymorphisms and their linkage disequilibrium with DQB1 were described.

Feasibility of diffusion and probabilistic white matter analysis in patients implanted with a deep brain stimulator.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) is an established advanced therapy that produces therapeutic effects through high frequency stimulation. Although this therapeutic option leads to improved clinical outcomes, the mechanisms of the underlying efficacy of this treatment are not well understood. Therefore, investigation of DBS and its postoperative effects on brain architecture is of great interest. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is an advanced imaging technique, which has the ability to estimate the structure of white matter fibers; however, clinical application of DWI after DBS implantation is challenging due to the strong susceptibility artifacts caused by implanted devices. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of generating meaningful white matter reconstructions after DBS implantation; and to subsequently quantify the degree to which these tracts are affected by post-operative device-related artifacts. DWI was safely performed before and after implanting electrodes for DBS in 9 PD patients. Differences within each subject between pre- and post-implantation FA, MD, and RD values for 123 regions of interest (ROIs) were calculated. While differences were noted globally, they were larger in regions directly affected by the artifact. White matter tracts were generated from each ROI with probabilistic tractography, revealing significant differences in the reconstruction of several white matter structures after DBS. Tracts pertinent to PD, such as regions of the substantia nigra and nigrostriatal tracts, were largely unaffected. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility and clinical applicability of acquiring and processing DWI post-operatively in PD patients after DBS implantation. The presence of global differences provides an impetus for acquiring DWI shortly after implantation to establish a new baseline against which longitudinal changes in brain connectivity in DBS patients can be compared. Understanding that post-operative fiber tracking in patients is feasible on a clinically-relevant scale has significant implications for increasing our current understanding of the pathophysiology of movement disorders, and may provide insights into better defining the pathophysiology and therapeutic effects of DBS.

High expression level of human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) using a well-designed fusion protein-tagged construct in E. coli.

AIM: The study was aimed at design a good fusion construct that would successfully express the recombinant proteins and produce peptides in Escherichia coli. Two different constructs including human epidermal growth factor (hEGF) gene were designed to obtain an efficient expression level of hEGF. The hEGF sequence was inserted in pET32a vector containing thioredoxin (Trx) sequence and modified pET15b vector containing intein and elastin-like polypeptide (ELP). METHODS: The vectors were transformed into E. coli TOP10F' for multiplication and further into E. coli BL21 (DE3) to express protein. The hEGF expression was induced by isopropyl ß-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) while the expression levels were evaluated by SDS-PAGE and western blotting and compared by ImageJ analysis, BCA and Elisa assays. RESULTS: The expression level after 2 hours of IPTG induction was significantly higher than after other induction times. ImageJ, BCA and Elisa analyses demonstrated that the Trx presence enhanced protein expression significantly when compared to ELP-intein-based construct. CONCLUSION: The pET32a-Trx-hEGF construct had a higher expression than pET15b-ELP-intein-hEGF. Overall, considering Trx, the fusion protein in construct design can make it suitable to significantly express hEGF compared to ELP-intein while its combination with ELP-intein may improve the expression of the ELP-intein construct (Tab. 2, Fig. 7, Ref. 34).

Identifying crossing collagen fibers in human corneal tissues using pSHG images.

Polarization sensitive second harmonic generation (pSHG) microscopy has been used previously to characterize the structure of collagen fibers in corneal samples. Due to the typical organization of the corneal stroma, the information that pSHG provides may be misleading in points where two different collagen fiber bundles orient along different direction crossings. Here, a simulation that illustrates the problem is presented, along with a novel method that is capable of identifying these crossing points. These results can be used to improve the evaluation of corneal collagen structure, and it has been applied to analyze pSHG data acquired from healthy and keratoconic human corneal samples.

Isolation of probiotic bacteria from raw camel's milk and their antagonistic effects on two bacteria causing food poisoning.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is one of the main classes of acid-producing organisms in the food industry, and they play a vital part in many food and feed fermentations. We isolated and performed molecular identification of LAB from raw camel's milk and assessed their protective effects against pathogenicity induced by Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Fourteen samples of camel's milk were obtained from several districts under aseptic conditions. Bacteria isolation was performed by plating the samples on selective media. Isolates were identified by amplification of the 16S ribosomal RNA by PCR and sequencing. A total of 32 isolates were randomly picked, eight of which were analysed in this study. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic methods, isolated LAB was included Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus plantarum, Weissella paramesenteroides and Weissella confuse. Antagonistic activity of isolated LAB against two pathogenic bacteria showed that they had more inhibitory activity against S. aureus subsp. aureus PTCC 1431 than E. coli ATCC 25922. This study discovered that raw camel's milk obtained from three districts of Kerman province contain LAB bacteria that have antagonistic properties on S. aureus.

A Comparison of Serum Lead Status among Elderly Osteopaenic Patients, Elderly Osteoporotic Patients and Healthy Controls / Comparación del estado de plomo sérico entre los pacientes osteopénicos mayores de edad, los pacientes osteoporóticos mayores de edad, y los controles sanos

ABSTRACT Objective: It is proposed that in some conditions such as pregnancy and osteoporosis where the bone turnover rate is high, there is mobilization of various minerals including lead (Pb) from bone to blood. This study aimed to determine if there were any differences in serum Pb levels among elderly osteopaenic patients, elderly osteoporotic persons and healthy controls. Methods: Fifty-four elderly persons (26 men and 28 women) from the Amirkola Health and Ageing Project, Iran, were included in this study. The diagnosis of osteopaenia and osteoporosis was based on spine and femur bone mineral density (BMD) measurements. After blood sampling, serum Pb levels were analysed by the method of atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Results: According to the BMD measurements, 19 persons had normal BMD, while 16 had osteopaenia and 19 suffered from osteoporosis. The differences in body mass index in these three groups were statistically significant (p < 0.001). The patients with osteoporosis had the highest levels of alkaline phosphatase and the highest rate of bone turnover. The mean ± standard deviation of the serum Pb levels in these groups were 236.8 ± 98.0, 270.0 ± 81.5 and 258.3 ± 57.5 μg/L, respectively, and the differences were not statistically significant (p = 0.467). Conclusion: No statistically significant differences in serum Pb levels were observed in healthy controls compared with osteopaenic persons and osteoporotic persons. This suggests that mobilization of Pb from bone to blood in this population of elderly osteopaenic patients and elderly osteoporotic patients was similar to that in the healthy controls.

RESUMEN Objetivo: Se postula que en algunas condiciones como el embarazo y la osteoporosis donde el índice de recambio óseo es alto, hay movilización de varios minerales - incluyendo plomo (Pb) - de los huesos a la sangre. Este estudio tuvo como objetivo determinar si hubo diferencias en los niveles de plomo sérico entre los pacientes osteopénicos mayores de edad, los pacientes osteoporóticos mayores de edad, y los controles sanos. Métodos: Se incluyeron en este estudio 54 personas de edad avanzada (26 hombres y 28 mujeres) del Proyecto Amirkola de Salud y Envejecimiento, Irán. La diagnosis de la osteopenia y la osteoporosis se basó en mediciones de la densidad mineral ósea (DMO) de la espina dorsal y del fémur (DMO). Después del muestreo de sangre, los niveles séricos de Pb fueron analizados por el método de espectrofotometría de absorción atómica. Resultados: Según las mediciones de la DMO, 19 personas tenían DMO normal, mientras que 16 tenían osteopenia y 19 padecían osteoporosis. Las diferencias en el índice de masa corporal en estos tres grupos fueron estadísticamente significativas (p < 0.001). Los pacientes con osteoporosis tenían los niveles más altos de fosfatasa alcalina y el índice más alto de recambio óseo. La media ± desviación estándar de los niveles séricos de Pb en estos grupos fue de 236.8 ± 98.0, 270.0 ± 81.5 y 258.3 ± 57.5 μg/L, respectivamente, y las diferencias no fueron estadísticamente significativas (p = 0.467). Conclusión: No se observaron diferencias estadísticamente significativas en los niveles séricos de Pb en los controles sanos en comparación con las personas osteopénicas y las osteoporóticas. Esto sugiere que la movilización de Pb del hueso a la sangre en esta población de pacientes osteopénicos mayores de edad y pacientes osteoporóticos mayores de edad, era similar a la encontrada en los controles sanos.

Zonally Magnified Oblique Multislice and Non-Zonally Magnified Oblique Multislice DWI of the Cervical Spinal Cord.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The zonally magnified oblique multislice EPI (ZOOM-EPI) diffusion-weighted sequence has been visually shown to provide superior MR diffusion image quality compared with the full-FOV single-shot EPI sequence (non-ZOOM-EPI) in the adult cervical spinal cord. The purpose of this study was to examine the diffusion tensor imaging indices in the normal human cervical spinal cord between ZOOMED and non-ZOOMED DTI acquisitions and determine whether DTI values are comparable between direct and indirect age-matched groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty-four subjects 23-58 years of age (9 direct age-matched and 45 indirect age-matched) were scanned using a 1.5T scanner. Diffusion tensor indices including fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were generated from the DTI dataset. These DTI values were calculated for both ZOOM and non-ZOOM acquisitions and compared at each intervertebral disc level. The variability of the DTI values for ZOOM and non-ZOOM sequences was measured using a coefficient of variation within direct and indirect age-matched controls. RESULTS: The mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity values obtained along the cervical spinal cord in the age-matched controls showed a significant decrease using the ZOOM sequence (P = .05, P = .002, and P < .001). Mean fractional anisotropy showed a significant increase (P = .04) using the ZOOM sequence. The indirect age-matched controls showed a statistically significant increase in fractional anisotropy (P = .03) and a decrease in mean diffusivity (P = .002), axial diffusivity (P < .001), and radial diffusivity (P = .002) using the ZOOM sequence. Less variability has been shown in DTI using the ZOOM sequence compared with the non-ZOOM sequence in both direct and indirect age groups. The ZOOM sequence exhibited higher SNR (SNRZOOM = 22.84 ± 7.59) compared with the non-ZOOM sequence (SNRnon-ZOOM = 19.7 ± 7.05). However, when we used a 2-tailed t test assuming unequal variances, the ZOOM sequence did not demonstrate a statistically significant increase. CONCLUSIONS: ZOOM DTI acquisition methods provide superior image quality and precision over non-ZOOM techniques and are recommended over conventional full-FOV single-shot EPI DTI for clinical applications in cervical spinal cord imaging.

Highly efficient and broadband optical polarizers based on dielectric nanowires.

The development of optical materials and devices that mimic the functionalities of conventional bulky optical components but on a much smaller footprint remains an important priority in nanophotonics. One prominent class of such optical elements are polarizers that change the polarization state of incident light. Recently, advances in plasmonic and photonic metasurfaces have given rise to different classes of subwavelength polarizers. Low efficiency and narrow band of operation remain, however, significant challenges. Here, we propose a device based on high refractive index dielectric nanowire dimers and analyze its working mechanism as efficient and broadband circular polarizers in the optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Our analysis predicts that a polarization conversion of roughly 97% with a transmission efficiency of more than 93% in a broad range of the visible spectrum is possible with nanowire dimers.

Plasmonic Enhancement of Selective Photonic Virus Inactivation.

Femtosecond (fs) pulsed laser irradiation techniques have attracted interest as a photonic approach for the selective inactivation of virus contaminations in biological samples. Conventional pulsed laser approaches require, however, relatively long irradiation times to achieve a significant inactivation of virus. In this study, we investigate the enhancement of the photonic inactivation of Murine Leukemia Virus (MLV) via 805 nm femtosecond pulses through gold nanorods whose localized surface plasmon resonance overlaps with the excitation laser. We report a plasmonically enhanced virus inactivation, with greater than 3.7-log reduction measured by virus infectivity assays. Reliable virus inactivation was obtained for 10 s laser exposure with incident laser powers ≥0.3 W. Importantly, the fs-pulse induced inactivation was selective to the virus and did not induce any measurable damage to co-incubated antibodies. The loss in viral infection was associated with reduced viral fusion, linking the loss in infectivity with a perturbation of the viral envelope. Based on the observations that physical contact between nanorods and virus particles was not required for viral inactivation and that reactive oxygen species (ROS) did not participate in the detected viral inactivation, a model of virus inactivation based on plasmon enhanced shockwave generation is proposed.

Evidence for a higher resolution of HLA genotyping by a new NGS-based approach.

With more than 16,000 alleles identified, the human leucocyte antigen (HLA) system is one of the most polymorphic regions of the human genome. Regarding the crucial role of HLA compatibility in transplantation and especially in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, identification of HLA polymorphisms at a high-resolution level is of major interest. Recently, NGS technology has been proposed which appears to be simpler and more informative than the classical molecular methods such as SSP, SSOr and SBT. In the present report, a new set of NGS reagents and the appropriate associated software for sequence analysis are described. Through different studies, the performances of the system are illustrated and demonstrate that the method herein described overcomes current limitations in performing high-resolution HLA typing in clinical laboratories.

An EMG-driven biomechanical model of the canine cervical spine.

Due to the frequency of cervical spine injuries in canines, the purpose of this effort was to develop an EMG-driven dynamic model of the canine cervical spine to assess a biomechanical understanding that enables one to investigate the risk of neck disorders. A canine subject was recruited in this investigation in order to collect subject specific data. Reflective markers and a motion capture system were used for kinematic measurement; surface electrodes were used to record electromyography signals, and with the aid of force plate kinetics were recorded. A 3D model of the canine subject was reconstructed from an MRI dataset. Muscles lines of action were defined through a new technique with the aid of 3D white light scanner. The model performed well with a 0.73 weighted R2 value in all three planes. The weighted average absolute error of the predicted moment was less than 10% of the external moment. The proposed model is a canine specific forward-dynamics model that precisely tracks the canine subject head and neck motion, calculates the muscle force generated from the twelve major moment producing muscles, and estimates resulting loads on specific spinal tissues.

Clove bud (Syzygium aromaticum) improved blood and hepatic antioxidant indices in laying hens receiving low n-6 to n-3 ratios.

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of different levels of clove bud (Syzygium aromaticum) powder and vitamin E on serum lipid profile, enzyme activities and antioxidant indices, as well as hepatic biochemical and histological alterations in laying hens receiving different n-6 to n-3 ratios. A total of 160 laying hens, 43 weeks of age, were allotted to 8 experimental diets with 5 cages of 4 birds each. Dietary treatments consisted of two ratios of n-6 to n-3 (16.71 and 2.35), three levels of clove bud (0.0, 2.0 and 4.0 g/kg) and a high vitamin E level (200 mg/kg, as a positive control in each level of n-6 to n-3 ratio) in a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement during 70 days of the experiment. Results showed that a decline in the n-6 to n-3 ratio led to a reduction in serum cholesterol concentration (p < 0.05) and an increase in serum HDL content (p < 0.05). Additionally, decreasing n-6 to n-3 ratio and increasing clove bud level caused a remarkable decline in serum aspartate aminotransferase (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001) and alanine aminotransferase (p < 0.05 and p < 0.05) enzyme activities. Furthermore, total antioxidant capacity (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001) as well as serum vitamin E concentration (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001) was decreased and enhanced by low n-6 to n-3 ratio diets (LRD) and clove bud powder respectively. Decreasing the n-6 to n-3 ratio lowered hepatic lipid (p < 0.05) and glycogen contents (p < 0.01) as well as tissue integrity (p < 0.05), and raised liver MDA concentration (p < 0.001), markedly. Nevertheless, increments in clove bud content led to a reduction (p < 0.01) in liver relative weight (p < 0.05) and hepatic fat vacuole numbers. In general, the best synergistic responses on modulating of blood lipids and serum enzyme activities were observed when the highest level of clove bud was supplemented in the diets with low n-6 to n-3 ratio. Likewise, antioxidant indices were improved by administration of dietary clove bud powder although feeding fish oil was observed to elevate the susceptibility of blood and hepatocytes to lipid peroxidation.

Reduced FOV diffusion tensor MR imaging and fiber tractography of pediatric cervical spinal cord injury.

STUDY DESIGN: Quantitative study. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of pediatric spinal cord diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) generated from reduced field of view diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data and investigate whether there are differences in these values between typically developing (TD) subjects and patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). SETTING: Temple University Hospital and Shriners Hospitals for Children-Philadelphia, USA. METHODS: A total of 20 pediatric subjects including 10 healthy subjects (age 15.13±3.51 years (mean±s.d.) and age range 11-21 years) and 10 subjects with SCI in the cervical area (age 13.8±3.26 years and age range 8-20 years) were recruited, and scanned using a 3.0T MR scanner. Quantitative parameters of DTI and fiber tracking, such as mean fractional anisotropy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), mean length of fiber tracts and tract density, were calculated for each subject. RESULTS: Subjects with SCI showed reduced FA and tract density, and increased ADC values and length of fiber tracts, compared with controls. Statistically significant differences were seen in FA (P=0.0238) and tract density (P=0.0005) between controls and subjects with SCI, whereas there were no significant differences in ADC values and length of fiber tracts. The tractography visually showed that the white matter tracts (blue color) of the SCI patients were overall less abundant and less organized compared with control cases. CONCLUSION: The results show that DTI and DTT could be used as surrogate markers for quantification and visualization of the injured spinal cord.

Maternal antibody decay and antibody-mediated immune responses in chicken pullets fed prebiotics and synbiotics.

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of yeast-derived carbohydrates (YDC), and a blend of probiotics and YDC (synbiotic, SNB) on serum IgG concentration, maternal-derived antibody (MDA) decay, and specific antibody-mediated immune response in chick pullets following immunization with T-cell dependent antigens. A total of 300 day-old pullet chicks were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments including: a basal diet (Control), and diets containing YDC, and SNB (Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. casei, Streptococcus faecium, and Bacillus subtilis, and YDC). In experiment one, on d 1 and wk 3, 4, 5, and 6, blood samples were collected and serum were analyzed by ELISA for total IgG (Y), and MDA against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). The second experiment examined the specific antibody against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in pullet chicks following vaccination against IBV at d 1. Finally, in experiment 3, on d 21 and 28 posthatch, 10 birds per treatment were immunized intramuscularly with both sheep red blood cells (SRBC) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), and 11 after immunization serum samples were analyzed by hemagglutination assay for antibody response to SRBC, and by ELISA for serum IgM and IgG response to BSA. The results demonstrated that diet containing SNB increased serum IgG at wk 3 posthatch. However, the decay rate of MDA against NDV and IBDV were not affected by dietary treatments. Birds fed YDC showed higher specific antibody response against IBV in wk 4, while both diets containing YDC and SNB decreased antibody response to IBV in wk 6. In addition, specific antibody response against SRBC and BSA was not affected by diets. In conclusion, supplementation of diet with SNB improved humoral immunity by increasing IgG concentration in serum, and modulated the adaptive antibody-mediated immune response against IBV.

Predictor factors for lower extremity malalignment and non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries in male athletes.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the predictor factors concerning the lower extremity alignment in non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among male athletes. METHODS: In a retrospective study, the unilateral navicular drop, the ankle dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM), internal tibia torsion, knee genu recurvatum, quadriceps angle, hip internal and external rotation ROM and hip anteversion were measured in 53 subjects with complete ACL injury and compared with these accepted standard values. To identify predictor factors for lower extremity alignment and non-contact ACL injuries in male athletes, a multiple logistic regression analysis method was performed. All the subjects were primarily assessed with activity modification and without an ACL reconstruction. RESULTS: The results of this study showed significant predictor correlations between the independent variables, ankle dorsiflexion, hip internal rotation and hip anteversion (p < 0.05). However, the differences in navicular drop, internal tibia torsion, knee hyperextension, Q angle and hip external rotation were non-significant. CONCLUSION: According to these findings, a decreased ROM in ankle dorsiflexion, hip internal rotation and increased hip anteversion appeared to be statistically significant predictors for developing non-contact ACL ligament injuries in male athletes. Based on the results of this study, significant predictor factors between lower extremity alignment and ACL injuries are clinically relevant as it confirms the existence of increased injury risk with certain patterns of skeletal alignment. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.