Environmental enrichment upregulates micro‐RNA‐183 and alters acetylcholinesterase splice variants to reduce anxiety‐like behavior in the little Indian field mouse (Mus booduga)

Environmental enrichment (EE) has an influential role in reducing behavioral reactivity to stress. We previously observed that EE reduces the anxiety‐like behavior in the field mouse Mus booduga accompanied by a reduction in the expression of molecules involved in the stress pathway. In this study, we demonstrate the effect of different housing condition on regulation of micro‐RNA‐183‐SC35‐mediated splicing of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Adult male M. booduga were captured from an agricultural field and housed under nonenriched standard conditions (SC) for 7 days and considered as directly from the wild (DW). On day 8, individuals were randomly assigned to three groups; DW, SC, and EE. The DW group's anxiety‐like behavior was assessed in the elevated plus maze (EPM) and open field test (OFT). The SC and EE groups were transferred to their respective conditions and housed for another 30 days. The mice housed in EE showed less anxiety‐like behavior on EPM and in OFT compared with DW and SC mice. Interestingly, miR‐183 expression was increased following exposure to EPM in EE mice but not in SC mice. Subsequently, the upregulated miR‐183 expression suppresses the SC35 expression and shifting of splicing from AChE‐S (synaptic) to AChE‐R (read‐through) form, whereas standard housing condition downregulate miR‐183 and induces the splicing of AChE. The upregulated AChE‐R form possibly terminates ACh transmission, which is reflected in the level of anxiety‐like behavior. Overall, the present study suggests that EE effectively regulates the miR‐183 pathway to reduce anxiety‐like behavior. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Comparison of Continuous and Interrupted Suturing in Laparoscopic Pyeloplasty

Background:

Laparoscopic pyeloplasty is one of the most common reconstructive procedures performed by urologists. Both continuous and interrupted sutures are being practiced for ureteropelvic anastomosis. The success rate and the complications associated with the suturing technique needs evaluation. We analyzed the results from of our patients who underwent laparoscopic pyeloplasty using both techniques.

Objective:

To review the outcome differences among patients undergoing laparoscopic pyeloplasty regarding suturing technique.

Materials and Methods:

All patients who underwent laparoscopic, transperitoneal dismembered pyeloplasty of the primary pelviureteric obstruction were analyzed. The primary outcome was successful pyeloplasty, as assessed by the resolution of symptoms and T½ <10 minutes. The secondary outcomes were the complication rate and the operative parameters. The difference in the parameters was assessed by Student t test analysis.

Results:

Of the 107 patients we studied, 65 had interrupted suturing and 42 had continuous suturing. The success rate was not significantly different among the 2 groups. The mean suturing time, postoperative drainage volume, postoperative hospital stay, and total cost of the procedure were significantly less in the continuous suturing group.

Conclusion:

The continuous suturing technique is preferred over the interrupted suturing technique for laparoscopic pyeloplasty because the success rates are equal and the postoperative stay, suturing time, drain output, and cost of the procedure are better.     

Molecular typing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from hospital and community isolates by restriction fragment length polymorphism

Strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae are generally characterized by auxotyping, serotyping, plasmid profile, antibiotic sensitivity and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amplification fingerprinting. The aim of this study was to analyse the generation of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns by BgIII digestion of total genomic DNA of N. gonorrhoeae isolated from the community (n =30) and the hospital (n =15) and to establish an association with serogrouping and antibiogram. The RFLP patterns produced by BgIII restriction digestion showed 7 different patterns among 30 community isolates and 9 different patterns among 15 hospital isolates. 66.7% of isolates belonged to serogroup WI. Penicillin resistance was observed in 46.7% of community isolates and 66.7% hospital isolates. However, penicillinase producing N. gonorrhoeae (PPNG) were lower in the community (6.6%) than in the hospital isolates (53.3%). PPNG strains were more often seen in serogroup WI. This is the first Indian report on RFLP genotype pattern in N. gonorrhoeae. We noted differences in RFLP genotypes of the community (RFLP types 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7) and hospital strains (RFLP types 6 and 8), while no differences in the serogroup were observed. Ciprofloxacin resistance was 20.0% and 26.6% in the community and hospital isolates, respectively. Ceftriaxone emerges as the current drug of choice for an effective policy of antibiotic treatment of gonorrhoea through syndromic management in developing countries.     

Dynamical facilitation governs glassy dynamics in suspensions of colloidal ellipsoids

One of the greatest challenges in contemporary condensed matter physics is to ascertain whether the formation of glasses from liquids is fundamentally thermodynamic or dynamic in origin. Although the thermodynamic paradigm has dominated theoretical research for decades, the purely kinetic perspective of the dynamical facilitation (DF) theory has attained prominence in recent times. In particular, recent experiments and simulations have highlighted the importance of facilitation using simple model systems composed of spherical particles. However, an overwhelming majority of liquids possess anisotropy in particle shape and interactions, and it is therefore imperative to examine facilitation in complex glass formers. Here, we apply the DF theory to systems with orientational degrees of freedom as well as anisotropic attractive interactions. By analyzing data from experiments on colloidal ellipsoids, we show that facilitation plays a pivotal role in translational as well as orientational relaxation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the introduction of attractive interactions leads to spatial decoupling of translational and rotational facilitation, which subsequently results in the decoupling of dynamical heterogeneities. Most strikingly, the DF theory can predict the existence of reentrant glass transitions based on the statistics of localized dynamical events, called excitations, whose duration is substantially smaller than the structural relaxation time. Our findings pave the way for systematically testing the DF approach in complex glass formers and also establish the significance of facilitation in governing structural relaxation in supercooled liquids.The transformation of liquids into glasses is as ubiquitous as it is enigmatic. From the formation of obsidian during volcanic eruptions (1) and fabrication of superstrong metallic glasses (2) to exotic forms of slow dynamics in crystals of colloidal dimers (3) and Janus particles (4), glass formation pervades nature, industry, and academia. A vast majority of molecular glass-forming materials exhibit anisotropy in shape and interparticle interactions, which often has a profound influence on their glassy dynamics. The rapidly expanding repertoire of chemists has made it possible to design colloidal particles of desired shape and interactions that can serve as realistic experimental analogs of these molecular liquids (5). By contrast, prominent theories like the Adam–Gibbs (6) theory, random first-order transition (RFOT) theory (7, 8), and the dynamical facilitation (DF) theory (9, 10) have been tested predominantly on spherical glass formers with isotropic interactions, which exhibit gross features of glassy dynamics, but fail to capture the nuances of vitrification in complex systems.The discovery of growing static (11–16) and dynamic (17–21) length scales appears to support the thermodynamic perspective of the Adam–Gibbs and RFOT theories. However, the growth in static length scales over the dynamical range accessible to numerical simulations is often minuscule and much smaller than the corresponding growth in dynamic length scales (21, 22). This renders any causal connection between growing static length scales and growing timescales doubtful (22). Moreover, recent simulations (23) and colloid experiments (24) have shown that growing dynamical correlations in the form of string-like cooperative motion emerge naturally within the purely kinetic approach of the DF theory. To compound matters further, facilitation is present even within the RFOT framework, albeit as a consequence of slow dynamics rather than a cause (25). Thus, although DF has been shown to exist (23, 24, 26–29), its relative importance as a mechanism of structural relaxation is still debated (30–32). The application of the DF approach to complex glass formers will therefore not only enhance our understanding of glass transitions in these systems, but also help ascertain the relevance of facilitation in governing structural relaxation.Here, we apply the DF theory to elucidate glass formation in suspensions of colloidal ellipsoids with repulsive as well as attractive interactions. The DF theory claims that structural relaxation in glass-forming liquids proceeds via a process known as dynamical facilitation, whereby localized mobile regions, termed excitations, mediate motion in neighboring regions in a manner that conserves mobility (9, 10). We first show that the notions of localized excitations and facilitated dynamics can be extended even to orientational relaxation. Next, we demonstrate that the spatial decoupling of dynamical heterogeneities (DHs) observed in colloid experiments stems from the spatial decoupling of rotational and translational facilitation. Most importantly, the DF theory can predict the existence of recently observed reentrant glass transitions (33) from the density dependence of the concentration of excitations. Our findings not only highlight the importance of facilitated dynamics in anisotropic glass formers but also reinforce the claim that, in the broader context of the glass transition, facilitation dominates structural relaxation.     

Cephalometric evaluation of the pharyngeal airway space after orthognathic surgery and distraction osteogenesis of the jaw bones

Objective:

Orthognathic surgeries and distraction osteogenesis (DO) of the jaw bones cause a change in the pharyngeal airway space (PAS). The aim of our study was to evaluate the magnitude of changes occurring in the pharyngeal airway after mandibular set-back surgeries and DO of maxilla/mandible.

Materials and Methods:

The study undertaken was a retrospective cephalometric study. Subjects included in our study had undergone mandibular set-back surgery or DO of maxilla/mandible. Lateral cephalograms of the subjects taken pre-operatively (T0), immediate post-operatively (T1) and after a minimum follow-up period of 6 months (T2) were studied. The cephalograms were traced manually and the following parameters were evaluated: Surface area of the PAS, pharyngeal airway width at the level of the base of the tongue, position of the hyoid bone and the tongue. Repeated measure ANOVA test was done to assess the presence of any significant changes in the proposed parameters at T0, T1 and T2. A correlation analysis was made between the mandibular/maxillary movements and the corresponding changes in the PAS.

Results:

Surgical movements of maxilla and mandible do have an effect on the pharyngeal airway.

Conclusion:

It was clearly evident that the effects of mandibular movements on the PAS and the hyoid bone is more significant than the maxillary movements.KEY WORDS: Distraction osteogenesis, orthognathic surgery, pharyngeal airway space     

Singapore Paediatric Resuscitation Guidelines 2021

We present the 2021 Singapore Paediatric Resuscitation Guidelines. The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation’s Pediatric Taskforce Consensus Statements on Science and Treatment Recommendations, which was published in October 2020, and the updated resuscitation guidelines from the American Heart Association and European Resuscitation Council, were reviewed and discussed by the committee. These recommendations were derived after deliberation of peer-reviewed evidence updates on paediatric resuscitation and took into consideration the local setting and clinical practice.     

Norchloro-fluoro-homoepibatidine (NCFHEB) - a promising radioligand for neuroimaging nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with PET.

Cholinergic neurotransmission depends on the integrity of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), and impairment of both is characteristic for various neurodegenerative diseases. Visualization of specific receptor subtypes by positron emission tomography (PET) has potential to assist with diagnosis of such neurodegenerative diseases and with design of suitable therapeutic approaches. The goal of our study was to evaluate in vivo the potential of (18)F-labelled (+)- and (-)-norchloro-fluoro-homoepibatidine ([(18)F]NCFHEB) in comparison to 2-[(18)F]F-A-85380 as PET tracers. In the brains of NMRI mice, highest levels of radioactivity were detected at 20 min post-injection of (+)-[(18)F]NCFHEB, (-)-[(18)F]NCFHEB, and 2-F-[(18)F]-A-85380 (7.45, 5.60, and 3.2% ID/g tissue, respectively). No marked pharmacological adverse effects were observed at 25 mug NCFHEB/kg. Uptake studies in RBE4 cells and in situ perfusion studies suggest an interaction of epibatidine and NCFHEB with the carrier-mediated choline transport at the blood-brain barrier. The data indicate that (+)- and (-)-[(18)F]NCFHEB have potential for further development as PET tracers.     

Curcumin sensitizes TRAIL-resistant xenografts: molecular mechanisms of apoptosis,metastasis and angiogenesis

Background  

We have recently shown that curcumin (a diferuloylmethane, the yellow pigment in turmeric) enhances apoptosis-inducing potential of TRAIL in prostate cancer PC-3 cells, and sensitizes TRAIL-resistant LNCaP cells in vitro through multiple mechanisms. The objectives of this study were to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which curcumin sensitized TRAIL-resistant LNCaP xenografts in vivo.