Average demands and most demanding passages of national-level female soccer matches: do small- and large-sided games replicate match demands?

Introduction

This study aims to (1) determine the average and most demanding passage (MDP) load of national-level female soccer matches and (2) evaluate the relationship between average and MDP load during small-sided games (SSGs), large-sided games (LSGs), and matches.

Methods

A total of 37 national-level female soccer players from a single club senior team and the U18 team participated. The average and 1-, 3-, and 5-min MDP external (total, high-speed, and very-high-speed running distances, acceleration and deceleration distances, average metabolic power, and high-metabolic load distance) and internal loads (average heart rate, rate of perceived exertion) of the 29 league matches, ten 4 vs. 4 + goalkeepers SSGs, and six 8 vs. 8 + goalkeepers LSGs were analyzed by the Polar Team Pro player tracking system.

Results

In matches, the external load variables during 1-, 3-, and 5-min MDPs were 167%-1,165%, 135%-504%, and 126%-359%, of match average values, respectively. In LSGs, all external load variables reached higher average values compared with those during matches, except for the very-high-speed running distance; however, no variable reached higher values of 1-min MDP compared with those during the matches. In SSGs, the average acceleration and deceleration distances were higher compared with those during the matches.

Discussion

The findings from the present study suggest that LSGs and SSGs can be used to overload the average values of the selected external load variables compared with those during the matches; however, other training options must be explored to overload 1-min match MDPs.

What is the role of puberty in the development of islet autoimmunity and progression to type 1 diabetes?

In many populations, the peak period of incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been observed to be around 10-14 years of age, coinciding with puberty, but direct evidence of the role of puberty in the development of T1D is limited. We therefore aimed to investigate whether puberty and the timing of its onset are associated with the development of islet autoimmunity (IA) and subsequent progression to T1D. A Finnish population-based cohort of children with HLA-DQB1-conferred susceptibility to T1D was followed from 7 years of age until 15 years of age or until a diagnosis of T1D (n = 6920). T1D-associated autoantibodies and growth were measured at 3- to 12-month intervals, and pubertal onset timing was assessed based on growth. The analyses used a three-state survival model. IA was defined as being either positive for islet cell antibodies plus at least one biochemical autoantibody (ICA + 1) or as being repeatedly positive for at least one biochemical autoantibody (BC1). Depending on the IA definition, either 303 (4.4%, ICA + 1) or 435 (6.3%, BC1) children tested positive for IA by the age of 7 years, and 211 (3.2%, ICA + 1)) or 198 (5.3%, BC1) developed IA during follow-up. A total of 172 (2.5%) individuals developed T1D during follow-up, of whom 169 were positive for IA prior to the clinical diagnosis. Puberty was associated with an increase in the risk of progression to T1D, but only from ICA + 1-defined IA (hazard ratio 1.57; 95% confidence interval 1.14, 2.16), and the timing of pubertal onset did not affect the association. No association between puberty and the risk of IA was detected. In conclusion, puberty may affect the risk of progression but is not a risk factor for IA.

The Flow of Trust: A Visualization Framework to Externalize, Explore, and Explain Trust in ML Applications

We present a conceptual framework for the development of visual interactive techniques to formalize and externalize trust in machine learning (ML) workflows. Currently, trust in ML applications is an implicit process that takes place in the user's mind. As such, there is no method of feedback or communication of trust that can be acted upon. Our framework will be instrumental in developing interactive visualization approaches that will help users to efficiently and effectively build and communicate trust in ways that fit each of the ML process stages. We formulate several research questions and directions that include: 1) a typology/taxonomy of trust objects, trust issues, and possible reasons for (mis)trust; 2) formalisms to represent trust in machine-readable form; 3) means by which users can express their state of trust by interacting with a computer system (e.g., text, drawing, marking); 4) ways in which a system can facilitate users' expression and communication of the state of trust; and 5) creation of visual interactive techniques for representation and exploration of trust over all stages of an ML pipeline.

Multicriteria Optimization for Dynamic Demers Cartograms

Cartograms are popular for visualizing numerical data for administrative regions in thematic maps. When there are multiple data values per region (over time or from different datasets) shown as animated or juxtaposed cartograms, preserving the viewer's mental map in terms of stability between multiple cartograms is another important criterion alongside traditional cartogram criteria such as maintaining adjacencies. We present a method to compute stable stable Demers cartograms, where each region is shown as a square scaled proportionally to the given numerical data and similar data yield similar cartograms. We enforce orthogonal separation constraints using linear programming, and measure quality in terms of keeping adjacent regions close (cartogram quality) and using similar positions for a region between the different data values (stability). Our method guarantees the ability to connect most lost adjacencies with minimal-length planar orthogonal polylines. Experiments show that our method yields good quality and stability on multiple quality criteria.

Forecasting daily emergency department arrivals using high-dimensional multivariate data: a feature selection approach

Background and objective

Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding is a chronic international issue that is associated with adverse treatment outcomes. Accurate forecasts of future service demand would enable intelligent resource allocation that could alleviate the problem. There has been continued academic interest in ED forecasting but the number of used explanatory variables has been low, limited mainly to calendar and weather variables. In this study we investigate whether predictive accuracy of next day arrivals could be enhanced using high number of potentially relevant explanatory variables and document two feature selection processes that aim to identify which subset of variables is associated with number of next day arrivals. Performance of such predictions over longer horizons is also shown.

Methods

We extracted numbers of total daily arrivals from Tampere University Hospital ED between the time period of June 1, 2015 and June 19, 2019. 158 potential explanatory variables were collected from multiple data sources consisting not only of weather and calendar variables but also an extensive list of local public events, numbers of website visits to two hospital domains, numbers of available hospital beds in 33 local hospitals or health centres and Google trends searches for the ED. We used two feature selection processes: Simulated Annealing (SA) and Floating Search (FS) with Recursive Least Squares (RLS) and Least Mean Squares (LMS). Performance of these approaches was compared against autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), regression with ARIMA errors (ARIMAX) and Random Forest (RF). Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) was used as the main error metric.

Results

Calendar variables, load of secondary care facilities and local public events were dominant in the identified predictive features. RLS-SA and RLS-FA provided slightly better accuracy compared ARIMA. ARIMAX was the most accurate model but the difference between RLS-SA and RLS-FA was not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Our study provides new insight into potential underlying factors associated with number of next day presentations. It also suggests that predictive accuracy of next day arrivals can be increased using high-dimensional feature selection approach when compared to both univariate and nonfiltered high-dimensional approach. Performance over multiple horizons was similar with a gradual decline for longer horizons. However, outperforming ARIMAX remains a challenge when working with daily data. Future work should focus on enhancing the feature selection mechanism, investigating its applicability to other domains and in identifying other potentially relevant explanatory variables.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12911-022-01878-7.

Edge-Path Bundling: A Less Ambiguous Edge Bundling Approach

Edge bundling techniques cluster edges with similar attributes (i.e. similarity in direction and proximity) together to reduce the visual clutter. All edge bundling techniques to date implicitly or explicitly cluster groups of individual edges, or parts of them, together based on these attributes. These clusters can result in ambiguous connections that do not exist in the data. Confluent drawings of networks do not have these ambiguities, but require the layout to be computed as part of the bundling process. We devise a new bundling method, Edge-Path bundling, to simplify edge clutter while greatly reducing ambiguities compared to previous bundling techniques. Edge-Path bundling takes a layout as input and clusters each edge along a weighted, shortest path to limit its deviation from a straight line. Edge-Path bundling does not incur independent edge ambiguities typically seen in all edge bundling methods, and the level of bundling can be tuned through shortest path distances, Euclidean distances, and combinations of the two. Also, directed edge bundling naturally emerges from the model. Through metric evaluations, we demonstrate the advantages of Edge-Path bundling over other techniques.

The Role of Interactive Visualization in Fostering Trust in AI

The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies across application domains has prompted our society to pay closer attention to AI's trustworthiness, fairness, interpretability, and accountability. In order to foster trust in AI, it is important to consider the potential of interactive visualization, and how such visualizations help build trust in AI systems. This manifesto discusses the relevance of interactive visualizations and makes the following four claims: i) trust is not a technical problem, ii) trust is dynamic, iii) visualization cannot address all aspects of trust, and iv) visualization is crucial for human agency in AI.

MRI safety wih abandoned or functional epicardial pacing leads

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): HUS Medical Imaging Center research grant

Background

The Heart and Rhythm Society’s consensus statement 2017 approves magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED), but excludes patients with epicardial and abandoned leads. Potential safety hazards of an MRI with epicardial pacing leads include heating of the tip of the lead and induction of current in the pacing lead resulting in inappropriate cardiac stimulation. Only a few small studies of MRI safety with epicardial pacing leads have been published and adverse events have been rare. The clinical dilemma remains, whether performing an MRI on a patient with CIED and epicardial pacing leads is safe.

We have performed MRIs on patients with CIED and epicardial pacing leads when benefits have been considered to outweigh the risks after careful case-by-case evaluation following our institutional MRI with CIED safety protocol. 

Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety of performing an MRI scan on patients with CIED and abandoned or functional epicardial pacing leads. 

Methods

All the clinically indicated MRI examinations conducted on adult patients with CIED and functional or abandoned epicardial leads (n = 24) performed in our hospital between November 2011 and October 2019 were included in this observational retrospective study. The data were retrospectively collected from electronic medical records. 

Results

Altogether 24 MRIs were performed to 16 patients with functional or abandoned epicardial pacing leads (Table). 93.8% (15/16) patients had congenital heart disease. Cardiac MRI was the most frequent examination (21/24, 91.7%). 66.7% of the MRI scans (16/24) were conducted on patients with functional epicardial pacing leads. In 5/24 (20.8%) MRIs, the patient was pacemaker-dependent.

A clinically significant event occurred in one MRI scan. This was transient elevation of the pacing lead threshold in a patient with functional epicardial ventricular pacing lead, that was implanted 29 years prior to the MRI. In another patient with 30-year-old functional epicardial pacing leads, clinically significant irreversible elevation in atrial pacing lead impedance was detected 6 months after the MRI and unlikely related to previous MRI examination.

None of the patients experienced sensations leading to cessation of the MRI scans. No clinically significant pacing lead parameter changes were detected after MRIs performed on patients with modern (implanted year 2000 or later) functional epicardial pacing leads or functional endocardial leads and abandoned epicardial leads. 

Conclusions

MRI examinations in patients with CIED and modern functional epicardial pacing leads were performed without detectable adverse events. Performing an MRI with old functional epicardial pacing leads may involve more risks.

Regression plane concept for analysing continuous cellular processes with machine learning

Biological processes are inherently continuous, and the chance of phenotypic discovery is significantly restricted by discretising them. Using multi-parametric active regression we introduce the Regression Plane (RP), a user-friendly discovery tool enabling class-free phenotypic supervised machine learning, to describe and explore biological data in a continuous manner. First, we compare traditional classification with regression in a simulated experimental setup. Second, we use our framework to identify genes involved in regulating triglyceride levels in human cells. Subsequently, we analyse a time-lapse dataset on mitosis to demonstrate that the proposed methodology is capable of modelling complex processes at infinite resolution. Finally, we show that hemocyte differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster has continuous characteristics.

Phantom based quality assurance for long-term stability and inter-scanner compatibility in T1, T2 and T2* measurements

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: None.

Background

The quantitative measurement of T1, T2 and T2* relaxation parameters is prone to numerous physical variables related to scanner performance and installation environment. These variables include the presence of eddy currents, main magnetic field inhomogeneity and gradient field performance. Thus, it is important to verify that the measured relaxation parameters are inter-scanner compatible and there are no drift in the measured values over time.

Purpose

In this study, we produced a phantom for the relaxation parameter measurements. With the phantom, long-time stability and inter-scanner comparison of parameters were studied with preliminary quality assurance protocol.

Methods

A cylindrical quality assurance phantom with 16 inserts filled with ammonium iron(II) ((NH4)2Fe(SO4)2 · 6H2O) doped gel was produced. The (NH4)2Fe(SO4)2 concentrations were from 0,0119 mmol/g to 0,5498 mmol/g, corresponding to approximate T1 values of 10–1030 ms, T2 values of 16–78 ms and T2* values of 5–61 ms. The phantom was measured quarterly for a one-year period with three scanners from two different vendors to follow the scanner stability and inter-scanner compatibility. The used imaging sequences included T1 MOLLI -based sequence, T2 prep -based sequence, and multi-echo gradient echo sequence for T2* calculation. Simulated ECG signal with 60 beats per minute was used in the scanning to mimic a typical rest heart rate of an adult patient.

Results

The range of variation between scanners from average relaxation coefficient in T1 was -2% to 4% and in T2 and T2* measurements -7% to 5% and -32% to 18%, respectively. In long-term stability test, the range of variation from average relaxation coefficient in T1 was -1% to 2% and in T2 and T2* measurements -1% to 1% and -15% to 16%, respectively.

Conclusion(s)

There were significant differences in the measured T1, T2, and T2* relaxation coefficients in both inter-scanner and long-term stability. However, the detected variations were acceptable compared to the typical physiological uncertainties of the measured parameters but have to be taken into account when the reliability of the study is assessed.

Abstract Figure. Results and phantom image

CMR 4D flow underestimates peak systolic flow measurements in patients with severe aortic stenosis

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): Helsinki University Hospital, Finland

Background

Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most prevalent valvular disease in the developed countries. 4D flow is an emerging cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging technique, which has been suggested to improve the evaluation of AS severity. The accuracy of peak flow measurement by 4D flow CMR in patients with severe AS has, however, remained unvalidated.

Purpose

We investigated the reliability of the novel 4D flow CMR technique in measuring transvalvular peak systolic flow in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis.

Methods

The study included 63 patients clinically evaluated for valve replacement due to severe symptomatic AS. All the patients underwent echocardiography, 2D phase-contrast and 4D flow CMR. CMR was performed on consecutive patients according to international guidelines. Mean age of the patients was 73.8 ± 11.5 years, mean aortic valve area 0.7 ± 0.2 cm², and 40 of the valves were tricuspid and 23 bicuspid. QFlow and QFlow 4D software were used for flow analyses. Bland-Altman analyses and Wilcoxon signed rank sum tests were performed using SPSS software.

Results

CMR 4D flow analyses underestimated peak flow values when compared with echocardiography (bias -1.1 m/s, limits of agreement ± 1.5 m/s) and with 2D flow analyses (bias -1.2 m/s, limits of agreement ± 1.7 m/s). The difference between values obtained by 4D flow (median 3.1 m/s, range 1.5 – 4.9 m/s) and echocardiography (median 4.3 m/s, range 2.1 – 6.1 m/s) as well as by 2D flow (median 4.3 m/s, range 2.0 – 8.4 m/s) were statistically significant (p < 0,001). The difference between 2D flow analyses and echocardiography remained statistically insignificant (bias 0.05 m/s, limits of agreement ± 1.6 m/s).

Conclusions

We found that 4D flow analysis significantly underestimates systolic peak flow values in patients with severe AS. This may be due to intra-voxel averaging of the narrow jets. In contrast to previous assumptions, traditional 2D flow technique may therefore outperform 4D flow in measuring valvular peak flow by CMR in patients with severe AS. This should be taken into consideration when assessing disease severity by CMR.

Abstract Figure. Peak systolic flow in AS patients (n = 63)

A low-cost paper-based platform for fast and reliable screening of cellular interactions with materials

A paper-based platform was developed and tested for studies on basic cell culture, material biocompatibility, and activity of pharmaceuticals in order to provide a reliable, robust and low-cost cell study platform. It is based upon a paper or paperboard support, with a nanostructured latex coating to provide an enhanced cell growth and sufficient barrier properties. Wetting is limited to regions of interest using a flexographically printed hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane layer with circular non-print areas. The nanostructured coating can be substituted for another coating of interest, or the regions of interest functionalized with a material to be studied. The platform is fully up-scalable, being produced with roll-to-roll rod coating, flexographic and inkjet printing methods. Results show that the platform efficiency is comparable to multi-well plates in colorimetric assays in three separate studies: a cell culture study, a biocompatibility study, and a drug screening study. The color intensity is quantified by using a common office scanner or an imaging device and the data is analyzed by a custom computer software without the need for expensive screening or analysis equipment.

Tumour-cell-derived complement components C1r and C1s promote growth of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Background

The incidence of epidermal keratinocyte‐derived cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is increasing worldwide.

Objectives

To study the role of the complement classical pathway components C1q, C1r and C1s in the progression of cSCC.

Methods

The mRNA levels of C1Q subunits and C1R and C1S in cSCC cell lines, normal human epidermal keratinocytes, cSCC tumours in vivo and normal skin were analysed with quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction. The production of C1r and C1s was determined with Western blotting. The expression of C1r and C1s in tissue samples in vivo was analysed with immunohistochemistry and further investigated in human cSCC xenografts by knocking down C1r and C1s.

Results

Significantly elevated C1R and C1S mRNA levels and production of C1r and C1s were detected in cSCC cells, compared with normal human epidermal keratinocytes. The mRNA levels of C1R and C1S were markedly elevated in cSCC tumours in vivo compared with normal skin. Abundant expression of C1r and C1s by tumour cells was detected in invasive sporadic cSCCs and recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa‐associated cSCCs, whereas the expression of C1r and C1s was lower in cSCC in situ, actinic keratosis and normal skin. Knockdown of C1r and C1s expression in cSCC cells inhibited activation of extracellular signal‐related kinase 1/2 and Akt, promoted apoptosis of cSCC cells and significantly suppressed growth and vascularization of human cSCC xenograft tumours in vivo.

Conclusions

These results provide evidence for the role of tumour‐cell‐derived C1r and C1s in the progression of cSCC and identify them as biomarkers and putative therapeutic targets in cSCC.

What's already known about this topic?

The incidences of actinic keratosis, cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) in situ and invasive cSCC are increasing globally.

Few specific biomarkers for progression of cSCC have been identified, and no biological markers are in clinical use to predict the aggressiveness of actinic keratosis, cSCC in situ and invasive cSCC.

What does this study add?

Our results provide novel evidence for the role of complement classical pathway components C1r and C1s in the progression of cSCC.

What is the translational message?

Our results identify complement classical pathway components C1r and C1s as biomarkers and putative therapeutic targets in cSCC.

Linked Comment: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18419.

https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.18821 available online

Grit blasted aggregates of hydroxyl apatite functionalized calcium carbonate in occluding dentinal tubules

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the effects of using hydroxyl apatite functionalized calcium carbonate (FCC) particles on occluding dentinal tubules.

Methods

Dentine specimens extracted from eighteen human molars with exposed dentinal tubules were divided into three groups (n = 6/group): a) Cut surface with smear layer; b) EDTA (smear layer removed with 17% EDTA for 1 min); and c) Grit blasted functionalized calcium carbonate (FCC) with and air pressure of 280 kPa. Microscopic dentinal tubule occlusion, tubule diameter and tubule area were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after grit blasting. Biomineralization of specimens was carried out in a simulated body fluid (SBF). Elemental analysis of occluding materials was carried out using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was performed to demonstrate the crystal structure of the biomineralized layer on dentine.

Results

FCC particles showed penetration into the dentinal tubules by breakage of their original particle shape and size. EDTA treated surface had higher number and larger size tubules than those with smear layer or grit blasted (p < 0.005). SEM-EDX analysis revealed mineral precipitation of calcium phosphate on the SBF immersed dentin specimens. XRD analysis showed typical crystal structure of hydroxyl apatite for the biomineralized surface layer on dentine.

Conclusions

Grit blasted FCC particles initially occluded effectively the opened dentinal tubules and biomineralization occurred in tubules primarily occluded by the FCC particles. However, in the optimal in vitro conditions in SBF, no difference between biomineralization was found between the grit blasted surface and the control surface.

Clinical significance

Several materials and methods have been established for treatment of dentinal hypersensitivity although a golden standard treatment has not been discovered. Grit blasted functionalized calcium carbonate has a potential to occlude and remineralize exposed dentinal tubules. This could offer a more biological approach on treatment of dentin hypersensitivity.

Interactive Intent Modeling for Exploratory Search

Exploratory search requires the system to assist the user in comprehending the information space and expressing evolving search intents for iterative exploration and retrieval of information. We introduce interactive intent modeling, a technique that models a user’s evolving search intents and visualizes them as keywords for interaction. The user can provide feedback on the keywords, from which the system learns and visualizes an improved intent estimate and retrieves information. We report experiments comparing variants of a system implementing interactive intent modeling to a control system. Data comprising search logs, interaction logs, essay answers, and questionnaires indicate significant improvements in task performance, information retrieval performance over the session, information comprehension performance, and user experience. The improvements in retrieval effectiveness can be attributed to the intent modeling and the effect on users’ task performance, breadth of information comprehension, and user experience are shown to be dependent on a richer visualization. Our results demonstrate the utility of combining interactive modeling of search intentions with interactive visualization of the models that can benefit both directing the exploratory search process and making sense of the information space. Our findings can help design personalized systems that support exploratory information seeking and discovery of novel information.

Visual Interaction with Dimensionality Reduction: A Structured Literature Analysis

Dimensionality Reduction (DR) is a core building block in visualizing multidimensional data. For DR techniques to be useful in exploratory data analysis, they need to be adapted to human needs and domain-specific problems, ideally, interactively, and on-the-fly. Many visual analytics systems have already demonstrated the benefits of tightly integrating DR with interactive visualizations. Nevertheless, a general, structured understanding of this integration is missing. To address this, we systematically studied the visual analytics and visualization literature to investigate how analysts interact with automatic DR techniques. The results reveal seven common interaction scenarios that are amenable to interactive control such as specifying algorithmic constraints, selecting relevant features, or choosing among several DR algorithms. We investigate specific implementations of visual analysis systems integrating DR, and analyze ways that other machine learning methods have been combined with DR. Summarizing the results in a "human in the loop" process model provides a general lens for the evaluation of visual interactive DR systems. We apply the proposed model to study and classify several systems previously described in the literature, and to derive future research opportunities.

Sub-ppm electrical detection of hydrogen sulfide gas at room temperature based on printed copper acetate–gold nanoparticle composite films

This paper presents the sub-ppm level electrical detection of H₂S gas at room temperature using printed copper acetate–gold nanoparticle composite films either on (A) silver or (B) gold/AuNP electrodes.

Synthesis and in vitro phantom NMR and MRI studies of fully organic free radicals, TEEPO-glucose and TEMPO-glucose, potential contrast agents for MRI

Two organic radical contrast agents, TEMPO-Glc and TEEPO-Glc, were synthesized and their stabilities and contrast enhancing properties were tested with in vitro NMR and MRI experiments.

Toward computational cumulative biology by combining models of biological datasets

A main challenge of data-driven sciences is how to make maximal use of the progressively expanding databases of experimental datasets in order to keep research cumulative. We introduce the idea of a modeling-based dataset retrieval engine designed for relating a researcher's experimental dataset to earlier work in the field. The search is (i) data-driven to enable new findings, going beyond the state of the art of keyword searches in annotations, (ii) modeling-driven, to include both biological knowledge and insights learned from data, and (iii) scalable, as it is accomplished without building one unified grand model of all data. Assuming each dataset has been modeled beforehand, by the researchers or automatically by database managers, we apply a rapidly computable and optimizable combination model to decompose a new dataset into contributions from earlier relevant models. By using the data-driven decomposition, we identify a network of interrelated datasets from a large annotated human gene expression atlas. While tissue type and disease were major driving forces for determining relevant datasets, the found relationships were richer, and the model-based search was more accurate than the keyword search; moreover, it recovered biologically meaningful relationships that are not straightforwardly visible from annotations—for instance, between cells in different developmental stages such as thymocytes and T-cells. Data-driven links and citations matched to a large extent; the data-driven links even uncovered corrections to the publication data, as two of the most linked datasets were not highly cited and turned out to have wrong publication entries in the database.

PKCalpha/beta I inhibitor Go6976 induces dephosphorylation of constitutively hyperphosphorylated Rb and G1 arrest in T24 cells

BACKGROUND

Rb functions as a key controller of the G(1)-S transition of the cell cycle, and its inactivation leads to a defective G(1) checkpoint. Bladder cancer frequently displays alterations in Rb such as constitutive hyperphosphorylation which results in inactive Rb and progression of cells to the S-phase. Several protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors are currently undergoing clinical trials as anticancer drugs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

T24 urinary bladder carcinoma cells, known to express hyperphosphorylated Rb, were treated with PKCα/βI inhibitor Go6976. The treated cells were subjected to cell cycle analysis, cell growth assay and Western blots for Rb and cdc2 phosphorylation.

RESULTS

The treatment resulted in Rb dephosphorylation at Ser 795 and Ser 807/811, and cdc2 dephosphorylation at Tyr15. Subsequent G(0/1) arrest and reduced proliferation rates were observed.

CONCLUSION

The results show that Go6976 can be used to restore constantly hyperphosphorylated and therefore constantly inactive Rb function in cancer cells.

The function of the hand after operations for obstetric injuries to the brachial plexus

Hand function was evaluated in 105 patients who had been operated on in early infancy for brachial plexus birth palsy. The mean follow-up after surgery was for 13.4 years (5.0 to 31.5). Fine sensation, stereognosis, grip and pinch strength and the Raimondi scale were recorded.

Fine sensation was normal in 34 of 49 patients (69%) with C5–6 injury, 15 of 31 (48%) with C5–7 and in 8 of 25 (32%) with total injury. Loss of protective sensation or absent sensation was noted in some palmar areas of the hand in 12 of 105 patients (11%). Normal stereognosis was recorded in 88 of the 105 patients (84%), whereas only 9 of the 105 (9%) had normal grip strength. The mean Raimondi scale scores were 4.57 (3 to 5) (C5–6), 4.26 (1 to 5) (C5–7) and 2.16 (0 to 5) in patients with total injury.

The location of impaired sensation was related to the distribution of the root injury. Avulsion type of injury correlated with poor recovery of hand function.

Tight junction components occludin, ZO-1, and claudin-1, -4 and -5 in active and healing psoriasis

BACKGROUND

Cells of the granular layer are interconnected by tight junctions (TJs) in normal epidermis. The structural proteins of epidermal TJs include occludin, ZO-1, and claudin-1 and -4.

OBJECTIVES

Our aim was to correlate the expression of TJ components with keratinocyte differentiation using psoriasis as a model of premature keratinization.

METHODS

The distribution of TJ proteins was evaluated in the skin of nine patients with psoriasis. Punch biopsies were taken from perilesional skin, from active psoriasis plaques, and from healed, previously lesional locations. The punch biopsies were analysed using indirect immunolabelling for ZO-1, occludin and claudin-1, -4 and -5. In addition, epidermal samples were analysed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for claudin-1, -4 and -5 mRNAs.

RESULTS

Claudin-5 was localized to the granular cell layers of normal control skin as well as perilesional and lesional psoriatic epidermis. This was unexpected, as previous studies have not detected claudin-5 in the epidermis. Occludin and ZO-1 were expressed in the granular cell layer in psoriatic perilesional epidermis. In the psoriasis plaques, ZO-1 and occludin were detected in a wider zone extending from the granular layer to the middle spinous cell layers. In healed psoriasis plaques, the expression of occludin and ZO-1 resumed a normal-looking profile, being restricted to the upper epidermis only. Claudin-1 and -4 did not show marked changes in psoriasis compared with normal skin.

CONCLUSIONS

The results demonstrate claudin-5 in normal epidermis and psoriatic skin, and abnormal distribution of occludin and ZO-1 in psoriasis plaques. Clinical healing of aberrant keratinization is associated with restoration of the normal distribution of occludin, ZO-1 and also involucrin.

Methods for estimating human endogenous retrovirus activities from EST databases

Background

Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are surviving traces of ancient retrovirus infections and now reside within the human DNA. Recently HERV expression has been detected in both normal tissues and diseased patients. However, the activities (expression levels) of individual HERV sequences are mostly unknown.

Results

We introduce a generative mixture model, based on Hidden Markov Models, for estimating the activities of the individual HERV sequences from EST (expressed sequence tag) databases. We use the model to estimate the relative activities of 181 HERVs. We also empirically justify a faster heuristic method for HERV activity estimation and use it to estimate the activities of 2450 HERVs. The majority of the HERV activities were previously unknown.

Conclusion

(i) Our methods estimate activity accurately based on experiments on simulated data. (ii) Our estimate on real data shows that 7% of the HERVs are active. The active ones are spread unevenly into HERV groups and relatively uniformly in terms of estimated age. HERVs with the retroviral env gene are more often active than HERVs without env. Few of the active HERVs have open reading frames for retroviral proteins.

Is there a role for PCR-SSCP among the methods for missense mutation detection of TP53 gene?

Mutation analysis methods have increased in variety during the past years. High-throughput microarray methods have especially increased in popularity. However, new methods require reference points, and not all of the methods are equal in sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, the detection of unknown missense mutations, such as unknown TP53 mutations in human tumors, for clinical purposes requires great accuracy, which may be difficult to acquire with the current high-throughput methods. For these reasons, the classical methods, such as PCR-manual sequencing and PCR-SSCP, are still valuable and necessary.

p38α and p38δ mitogen-activated protein kinase isoforms regulate invasion and growth of head and neck squamous carcinoma cells

Recent studies indicate that the specificity of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)-mediated cellular stress responses is determined by the expression pattern of the distinct p38 isoforms. Here, we have analysed the function of distinct p38 isoforms in the growth and invasion of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). Activation of p38 MAPK by arsenite resulted in inactivation of the ERK1,2 signaling pathway by dephosphorylation of MEK1,2 in primary human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs), whereas in HNSCC cells this p38-mediated inhibition of the ERK1,2 pathway was absent. Quantitation of p38 pathway component mRNA expression in HNSCC cell lines (n=42) compared to HEKs (n=8) revealed that p38alpha and p38delta isoforms are predominantly expressed in both cell types and that MKK3 is the primary upstream activator expressed. Inhibition of endogenous p38alpha or p38delta activity by adenoviral delivery of corresponding dominant-negative p38 isoforms potently reduced MMP-13 and MMP-1 expressions, and suppressed the invasion of HNSCC cells through collagen. Dominant-negative p38alpha and p38delta inhibited squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cell proliferation and inhibition of p38alpha activity also compromised survival of SCC cells. p38alpha and p38delta were predominantly expressed in HNSCCs (n=24) and nonneoplastic epithelium in vivo (n=6), with MKK3 being the primary upstream activator. Activation and expression of p38alpha and p38delta by tumor cells was detected in HNSCCs in vivo (n=16). Adenoviral expression of dominant-negative p38alpha or p38delta in cutaneous SCC cells potently inhibited their implantation in skin of severe combined immunodeficiency mice and growth of xenografts in vivo. Our results indicate that p38alpha and p38delta specifically promote the malignant phenotype of SCC cells by regulating cell survival, proliferation and invasion, suggesting these p38 MAPK isoforms as potential therapeutic targets in HNSCCs.

Activation of Smad signaling enhances collagenase-3 (MMP-13) expression and invasion of head and neck squamous carcinoma cells

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cells of the head and neck specifically express collagenase-3 (matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13)), the expression of which correlates with their invasion capacity. Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) enhances MMP-13 and collagenase-1 (MMP-1) expression and invasion of SCC cells via p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase. Here, we have examined the role of Smad signaling in regulating MMP-13 expression and in invasion of head and neck SCC cells. Treatment with TGF-beta resulted in activation of Smad2 and Smad3 in SCC cells, but had no effect on their proliferation or viability. Basal activation of Smad3 and p38 was noted in SCC cells without exogenous TGF-beta stimulation, and adenoviral delivery of Smad7 and dominant-negative Smad3 inhibited p38 activation in these cells. Adenoviral overexpression of Smad3 augmented the upregulatory effect of TGF-beta on MMP-13 expression by SCC cells. Disruption of Smad signaling by adenoviral expression of kinase-defective TGF-beta type I receptor (activin-receptor-like kinase-5), Smad7, and dominant-negative Smad3 potently suppressed the basal and TGF-beta-induced expression of MMP-13 and MMP-1 in SCC cells, and inhibited their basal and TGF-beta-induced invasion through Matrigel and type I collagen. Adenoviral overexpression of Smad7 in cutaneous and oral SCC cells significantly inhibited their implantation in skin of SCID mice and growth of xenografts in vivo, as compared to LacZ adenovirus-transduced control cells. Together, these results show that Smad signaling plays an important role in promoting the invasive phenotype of human head and neck SCC cells by upregulating their collagenase expression.

Scoliosis after solid organ transplantation in children and adolescents

The occurrence of scoliosis in children after solid organ transplantation is not known. A total of 196 children, which is 93% of patients surviving kidney, liver and heart transplantation in our country, participated in a cross-sectional survey. All children were screened for rib hump, and those with clinically significant hump (over 6 degrees ) underwent radiographs of the spine. The occurrence of scoliosis was compared to data obtained from a previously published comparison group. Forty-three (21.9%) of the patients had scoliosis greater than 10 degrees , and 21 (10.7%) of them had curves greater than 20 degrees . The RR (95% CI) for scoliosis needing treatment (over 20 degrees ) was 17.0 (6.75-42.7) in the patients as compared with control population. The occurrence of scoliosis was 17.9% of the kidney, 13.6% of the liver and 51.7% of the heart transplant patients (p < 0.001). In a logistic regression model, heart transplantation (OR (95% CI) 7.27 (2.62-20.2)) and growth hormone treatment (3.98 (1.77-8.94)) were most significant risk factors for scoliosis. The risk of scoliosis is increased in patients with solid organ transplantation. Pediatricians treating these patients should be aware of this increased risk to diagnose early curves and to refer these patients to an orthopedic surgeon.