bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Blood–brain barrier and its function during inflammation and autoimmunity
Authors: Sonar Sandip Ashok , Lal Girdhari 
Published: February 2018

AbstractThe blood–brain barrier (BBB) is an important physiologic barrier that separates CNS from soluble inflammatory mediators and effector immune cells from peripheral circulation. The optimum function of the BBB is necessary for the homeostasis, maintenance, and proper neuronal function. The clinical and experimental findings have shown that BBB dysfunction is an early hallmark of various neurologic disorders ranging from inflammatory autoimmune, neurodegenerative, and traumatic diseases to neuroinvasive infections. Significant progress has been made in the understanding of the regulation of BBB function under homeostatic and neuroinflammatory conditions. Several neurologic disease-modifying drugs have shown to improve the BBB function. However, they have a broad-acting immunomodulatory function and can increase the risk of life-threatening infections. The recent development of in vitro multicomponent 3-dimensional BBB models coupled with fluidics chamber as well as a cell-type specific reporter and knockout mice gave a new boost to our understanding of the dynamics of the BBB. In the review, we discuss the current understanding of BBB composition and recent findings that illustrate the critical regulatory elements of the BBB function under physiologic and inflammatory conditions, and also suggested the strategies to control BBB structure and function.
Negative regulators that mediate ocular immune privilege
Authors: Taylor Andrew W , Ng Tat Fong 
Published: February 2018

Abstract
The ocular microenvironment has adapted several negative regulators of inflammation to maintain immune privilege and health of the visual axis. Several constitutively produced negative regulators within the eye TGF-β2, α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH), Fas ligand (FasL), and PD-L1 standout because of their capacity to influence multiple pathways of inflammation, and that they are part of promoting immune tolerance. These regulators demonstrate the capacity of immune privilege to prevent the activation of inflammation, and to suppress activation of effector immune cells even under conditions of ocular inflammation induced by endotoxin and autoimmune disease. In addition, these negative regulators promote and expand immune cells that mediate regulatory and tolerogenic immunity. This in turn makes the immune cells themselves negative regulators of inflammation. This provides for a greater understanding of immune privilege in that it includes both molecular and cellular negative regulators of inflammation. This would mean that potentially new approaches to the treatment of autoimmune disease can be developed through the use of molecules and cells as negative regulators of inflammation.
“NOTA‐PRGD2 and NODAGA‐PRGD2: Bioconjugation, characterization, radiolabelling, and design space”
Authors: Salvé Mallory , Avohou Hermane T. , Monbaliu Jean‐Christophe M. , Lebrun Pierre , Lemaire Christian , Damblon Christian , de Tullio Pascal , Hubert Philippe , Hustinx Roland , Luxen André 
Published: February 2018

This work reports on the development of amide bond bioconjugation for the production of ‐NOTA and ‐NODAGA PRGD2 using batch strategy and microfluidic reactor technology. The final radiolabelling step was fully optimized using Design of Experiments and Design Space approaches, hence targeting robust labelling yields in routine. Optimal labelling conditions were defined in sodium acetate buffer as 168 μg/mL peptide concentration, 4.9 pH, 47.5°C temperature, and 12.5‐minute reaction time. Upon optimization, the Gallium‐68 radiolabelling was fully automated. All the work was designed to be compliant to the GMP environment and to support the pharmaceutical scale‐up.
Radioiodination and bioevaluation of rolipram as a tracer for brain imaging: In silico study, molecular modeling and gamma scintigraphy
Authors: Sanad M.H. , Farag A.B. , Salama Dina H. 
Published: February 2018

Brain imaging is considered one of the most fruitful applications of radioisotope scanning. Rolipram, a selective phospodiesterase‐4 inhibitor, has been labeled using [125I] with chloramine‐T (Ch‐T) as an oxidizing agent. Factors, such as the amount of substrate, pH, the amount of oxidizing agent, temperature, and the reaction time, have been systematically studied to optimize the iodination process. In addition, bio‐distribution studies have indicated that the brain uptake of [125I]iodorolipram is 7.6 ± 0.33 injected dose/g organ at 10 minutes post‐injection, which cleared from the brain with time until it reaches 1.30 ± 0.17% at 1 hour post‐injection. Therefore, iodorolipram could be considered as a potential, new selective radiotracer for brain imaging.
Long‐term evaluation (20 years) of the outcomes of coronally advanced flap in the treatment of single recession‐type defects
Authors: Pini Prato Giovan Paolo , Magnani Cristina , Chambrone Leandro 
Published: February 2018

AbstractBackgroundCoronally advanced flap (CAF) has been considered as one of the most predictable and versatile root coverage procedures. Thus, the aims of this study are two‐fold: 1) to evaluate the long‐term outcomes following CAF in the treatment of gingival recession (GR); and 2) to explore the influence of several tooth/patient‐related factors on the stability of gingival margin at 5, 10, and 20 years after surgery.MethodsNinety‐four patients with 97 GR (73 Miller`s Class I and 24 Miller's Class III) were treated with CAF in a private practice between 1984 and 1996. Recession depth (RD), probing depth (PD), keratinized tissue (KT) width and patient/tooth‐associated variables were recorded for each GR at baseline, 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and 20 years after surgery. Parametric, non‐parametric, and logistic regression statistics were used throughout the studyResultsA total of 72 patients with 72 GR were available for analysis at the 20‐year follow‐up examination (final patients’ dropout rate = 23.4%). Statistically significant improvements were found for RD in all evaluations (P < 0.05). Little more than a half (56%) of the sites treated with CAF did not display RD changes between the short‐term (i.e., 1 year) and long‐term (i.e., 20 years) examinations. Overall, mean root coverage (MRC) decreased from 68.59% to 56.11%. The achievement of complete root coverage (CRC) 1 year after treatment was associated to GR not presenting interdental tissue loss (P = 0.001), the root condition (i.e., lack of non‐carious cervical lesion [step] – P < 0.001), an attached KT band ≥ 2 mm (P = 0.019), and baseline RD (P = 0.020). GR recurrence seemed to be influenced by age, RD at 1‐year follow‐up, sites displaying an attached KT < 2 mm and interdental tissue loss.ConclusionsThe aging process, the condition of the interdental periodontal tissue, and the presence of an attached KT band < 2 mm seem to be negative factors influencing the stability of the gingival margin during the 20‐year observation period.
Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Properties of Bisquaternary Ammonium Bromides of Different Spacer Length
Authors: Łudzik Katarzyna , Kustrzepa Kinga , Kowalewicz‐Kulbat Magdalena , Kontek Renata , Kontek Bogdan , Wróblewska Aneta , Jóźwiak Małgorzata , Lulo Daria 
Published: February 2018

AbstractA group of cationic gemini surfactants (bisquaternary ammonium bromides) with different spacer chain lengths (8–6–8, 8–7–8, 8–8–8, 8–9–8) was investigated, paying special attention to antimicrobial and the cytotoxic properties as well as their antimicrobial activity during long‐term storage. It was shown that the compounds investigated exhibit excellent antimicrobial activity against Gram‐positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram‐negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) as well as antifungal properties (Candida albicans). The gemini surfactants tested had the differential level of cytotoxicity against normal lymphocytes. It was shown that the spacer chain length plays an important role in antibacterial activity and influences the cytotoxicity. The gemini surfactants with shorter spacer chain length, that had higher critical micelle concentration, showed generally weaker antibacterial properties, but on the other hand, these exhibited lower level of cytotoxicity. Furthermore, the aqueous solution of gemini surfactants exhibited the same antimicrobial activity even after 3 months.
Effect of castration and carcass suspension method on the quality and fatty acid profile of beef from male dairy cattle
Authors: Nian Yingqun , Allen Paul , Harrison Sabine M , Kerry Joseph P 
Published: February 2018

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe use of bulls rather than steers for beef production offers some considerable advantages; however, the eating quality of bull beef is an issue of marketing concern. This study assessed the physicochemical characteristics of young Holstein–Friesian (HF) bull and steer beef. Steer carcasses were suspended by the Achilles tendon (AS) and by pelvic suspension (PS).RESULTSHF steer beef had higher redness, yellowness and chroma values, whereas bulls had higher ultimate pH and darker muscle. Warner–Bratzler shear force, cook loss at different ageing times, moisture, and insoluble and total collagen were higher for HF bull beef, whereas intramuscular fat, soluble collagen and collagen solubility were higher for steer beef. HF steer beef had a higher proportion of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), whereas bull beef had higher proportions of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), PUFA/SFA and n‐6/n‐3 PUFA ratios. In comparison to AS, PS increased redness and chroma after 24 h blooming; PS improved tenderness up to 7 days of ageing and accelerated the ageing process.CONCLUSIONFor young dairy cattle, steer beef would likely have superior eating quality but a relatively less favourable nutritional fatty acid profile to bull beef. Suspension method affected the tenderness and colour intensity of dairy steer beef at different ageing times. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry
Classification of tongue cancer resection and treatment algorithm
Authors: Mannelli Giuditta , Arcuri Francesco , Agostini Tommaso , Innocenti Marco , Raffaini Mirco , Spinelli Giuseppe 
Published: February 2018

Background and ObjectivesReconstruction of tongue cancer defects is challenging due to the complex anatomy and physiology of the tongue. Here, we classify patterns of tongue tissue loss and describe a treatment algorithm for achieving good functional and oncologic outcomes.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 50 tongue squamous‐cell carcinomas surgically treated between January 2010‐June 2015. Cancer resection and tongue reconstruction were stratified according to the missing anatomical subunits.ResultsA type 1 defect is a unilateral and marginal defect, not crossing the midline, and not extending to the posterior‐third of the tongue. Type 2 involves the two‐anterior‐thirds of the mobile body, not crossing the midline, without posterior‐third evolvement. Type 3 involves the two‐anterior‐thirds of the mobile body of the tongue with contralateral extension. Type 4 extends to the tongue base. Type 5 defect comprises any of the previous defects along with involvement of the floor of the mouth. Type 2 and 3 defects were the most common. Microvascular reconstruction was performed in 23 out of 50 patients. Complications included infection, partial necrosis, dehiscence, and microvascular thrombosis.ConclusionsOur classification system and treatment algorithm represent a reliable method of addressing management of tongue defects.
The science of connected ecosystems: What is the role of catchment‐scale connectivity for healthy river ecology?
Authors: Fuller Ian C. , Death Russell G. 
Published: February 2018

AbstractRiverine biological communities are highly resilient to extreme flood and/or drying disturbance regimes that would otherwise be destructive because these organisms can recolonise from upstream, floodplain, or hyporheic refugia when suitable conditions return. Healthy rivers require a high degree of connectivity to support complex life cycles of many lotic organisms and associated ecosystem functioning. Similarly, connectivity is required for appropriate geophysical functioning; permitting flux of water and sediment that drives channel‐forming and ecological processes. Ecological and geophysical processes have operated in this temporal and spatial patchwork of disturbance and recovery pre‐Anthropocene. Human impacts are increasing constraints on river and floodplain connectivity, severing many natural pathways, and degrading river ecosystem functioning. River restoration seeks to re‐establish some of those biological and physical connections to enhance some level of system health. However, increasing sediment connectivity may be detrimental to river health in some instances. Strongly connected catchments can transmit excessive quantities of sediment from inappropriate land management, detrimental invasive species can spread more widely, and many ecosystem processes can exceed positive feedback control. Simply restoring connectivity will not necessarily lead to healthy river ecosystems. River management requires a greater understanding of how and when connectivity can and should be restored. Although current thinking is often that greater connectivity is better, we illustrate with examples from New Zealand rivers that this is not always the case. The benefits and costs of maintaining or restoring river connectivity need to be given as much attention as the restoration and maintenance of river systems per se.
On the feasibility of automatically selecting similar patients in highly individualized radiotherapy dose reconstruction for historic data of pediatric cancer survivors
Authors: Virgolin Marco , van Dijk Irma W. E. M. , Wiersma Jan , Ronckers Cécile M. , Witteveen Cees , Bel Arjan , Alderliesten Tanja , Bosman Peter A. N. 
Published: February 2018

PurposeThe aim of this study is to establish the first step toward a novel and highly individualized three‐dimensional (3D) dose distribution reconstruction method, based on CT scans and organ delineations of recently treated patients. Specifically, the feasibility of automatically selecting the CT scan of a recently treated childhood cancer patient who is similar to a given historically treated child who suffered from Wilms’ tumor is assessed.MethodsA cohort of 37 recently treated children between 2‐ and 6‐yr old are considered. Five potential notions of ground‐truth similarity are proposed, each focusing on different anatomical aspects. These notions are automatically computed from CT scans of the abdomen and 3D organ delineations (liver, spleen, spinal cord, external body contour). The first is based on deformable image registration, the second on the Dice similarity coefficient, the third on the Hausdorff distance, the fourth on pairwise organ distances, and the last is computed by means of the overlap volume histogram. The relationship between typically available features of historically treated patients and the proposed ground‐truth notions of similarity is studied by adopting state‐of‐the‐art machine learning techniques, including random forest. Also, the feasibility of automatically selecting the most similar patient is assessed by comparing ground‐truth rankings of similarity with predicted rankings.ResultsSimilarities (mainly) based on the external abdomen shape and on the pairwise organ distances are highly correlated (Pearson rp ≥ 0.70) and are successfully modeled with random forests based on historically recorded features (pseudo‐R2 ≥ 0.69). In contrast, similarities based on the shape of internal organs cannot be modeled. For the similarities that random forest can reliably model, an estimation of feature relevance indicates that abdominal diameters and weight are the most important. Experiments on automatically selecting similar patients lead to coarse, yet quite robust results: the most similar patient is retrieved only 22% of the times, however, the error in worst‐case scenarios is limited, with the fourth most similar patient being retrieved.ConclusionsResults demonstrate that automatically selecting similar patients is feasible when focusing on the shape of the external abdomen and on the position of internal organs. Moreover, whereas the common practice in phantom‐based dose reconstruction is to select a representative phantom using age, height, and weight as discriminant factors for any treatment scenario, our analysis on abdominal tumor treatment for children shows that the most relevant features are weight and the anterior–posterior and left–right abdominal diameters.
Comprehensive evaluation of broad‐beam transmission of patient supports from three fluoroscopy‐guided interventional systems
Authors: DeLorenzo Matthew C. , Yang Kai , Li Xinhua , Liu Bob 
Published: February 2018

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to measure, evaluate, and model the broad‐beam x‐ray transmission of the patient supports from representative modern fluoroscopy‐guided interventional systems, for patient skin dose calculation.MethodsBroad‐beam transmission was evaluated by varying incident angle, kVp, added copper (Cu) filter, and x‐ray field size for three fluoroscopy systems: General Electric (GE) Innova 4100 with Omega V table and pad, Siemens Axiom Artis with Siemens tabletop “narrow” (CARD) table and pad, and Siemens Zeego with Trumpf TruSystem 7500 table and pad. Field size was measured on the table using a lead ruler for all setups in this study. Exposure rates were measured in service mode using a calibrated Radcal 10 × 6–60 ion chamber above the patient support at the assumed skin location. Broad‐beam transmission factors were calculated by the ratio of air kerma rates measured with and without a patient support in the beam path. First, angle dependency was investigated on the GE system, with the chamber at isocenter, for angles of 0°, 15°, 30°, and 40°, for a variety of kVp, added Cu filters, and for two field sizes (small and large). Second, the broad‐beam transmission factor at normal incidence was evaluated for all three fluoroscopes by varying kVp, added Cu filter, and field size (small, medium, and large). An analytical equation was created to fit the data as to maximize R2 and minimize maximum percentage difference across all measurements for each system.ResultsFor all patient supports, broad‐beam transmission factor increased with field size, kVp, and added Cu filtration and decreased with incident angle. Oblique incidence measurements show that the transmission decreased by about 1%, 3%, and 6% for incident angles of 15°, 30°, and 40°, respectively. The broad‐beam transmission factors at 0° for the table and table plus pad ranged from 0.73 to 0.96 and from 0.59 to 0.89, respectively. The GE and Siemens transmission factors were comparable, while the Trumpf transmission factors were the lowest. The data were successfully fitted to a function of angle, field size, kVp, and added Cu filtration using nine parameters, with an average R2 value of 0.977 and maximum percentage difference of 4.08%.ConclusionsThis study evaluated the broad‐beam transmission for three representative fluoroscopy systems and their dependency on angle, kVp, added Cu filter, and field size. The comprehensive data provided for patient support transmission will facilitate accurate calculation of peak skin dose (PSD) and may potentially be integrated into real‐time and retrospective dose monitoring with access to Radiation Dose Structured Reports (RDSR) and radiation event data.
Improvement of off‐axis SABR plan verification results by using adapted dose reconstruction algorithms for the Octavius 4D system
Authors: Jeevanandam Prakash , Agnew Christina E. , Irvine Denise M. , McGarry Conor K. 
Published: February 2018

PurposeStereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) for lung patients can be performed with volumetric‐modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans using off‐axis target geometry to allow treatment in their CBCT verified position. For patient‐specific quality assurance measurements using the PTW Octavius 4D phantom (PTW, Freiburg, Germany) (OCT4D) in conjunction with an Octavius 1000SRS array (OCT1000) (PTW, Freiburg, Germany), repositioning the phantom off‐axis is required to ensure the measurement area coincides with the tumor. The aim of this work is to quantify delivery errors using an array repositioned off‐axis and evaluate new software which incorporates corrections for off‐axis phantom measurements.MethodsDynamic conformal arcs and 25 lung SABR plans were created with the isocenter at the patient midline and the target volume off‐axis. Measurements were acquired with an OCT4D phantom in conjunction with a 729 array (PTW, Freiburg, Germany) (OCT729) placed at isocenter. These plans were recalculated and delivered to both the OCT729 and OCT1000 arrays repositioned so that the high‐dose region was at the center of the phantom. Comparisons were made using VeriSoft v7.0 (PTW, Freiburg, Germany) and the newly implemented version 7.1 with 2%/2 mm gamma criterion (10% threshold) and results correlated with off‐axis distance to the tumor.ResultsAverage pass rates for VeriSoft v7.0 significantly reduced from 92.7 ± 2.4% to 84.9 ± 4.1% when the phantom was repositioned compared to the isocenter setup for the OCT729. The gamma pass rates significantly decreased the further the phantom was moved off‐axis. Significantly higher pass rates were observed for the OCT1000 of 95.7 ± 3.6% and a significant decrease in gamma pass rate with off‐axis phantom distance was again observed. In contrast, even with phantom repositioning, the pass rates for analysis with VeriSoft v7.1 were 93.7 ± 2.1% and 99.4 ± 1.1% for OCT729 and OCT1000, respectively. No significant difference in gamma pass rate was observed with off‐axis phantom position irrespective of array type with the new software.ConclusionThe errors in QA phantom measurements due to dose reconstruction at off‐axis target geometry have been demonstrated for conformal arcs and clinical VMAT SABR plans. A novel software solution implemented by the vendor to allow accurate pass rates has been tested. This solution enables high‐resolution arrays with small active detection areas to be used for quality assurance of SABR treatment plans in the off‐axis treatment position.
A new computer‐aided detection approach based on analysis of local and global mammographic feature asymmetry
Authors: Kelder Adam , Lederman Dror , Zheng Bin , Zigel Yaniv 
Published: February 2018

PurposeThis study aims to develop and test a new computer‐aided detection (CAD) approach and scheme, assessing the likelihood of a subject harboring breast abnormalities.MethodsThe proposed scheme is based on the analysis of both local and global bilateral mammographic feature asymmetries. The level of local or global asymmetry is assessed by analyzing mammographic features extracted from the bilaterally matched regions of interest (ROIs), or from the entire breast, respectively. The selected local and global feature vectors are combined and classified using a maximum likelihood obtained from a naïve Bayes classifier. This scheme was evaluated using a leave‐one‐case‐out cross‐validation method that was applied to 243 subjects from mini‐MIAS and INbreast databases. In addition, the result is compared with a conventional unilateral (or single) image‐based CAD scheme.ResultsUsing a case‐based evaluation approach and an area under curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) as a performance index, the new scheme yielded AUC = 0.79 ± 0.07, an 8.2% increase compared with AUC = 0.73 ± 0.08 obtained using the unilateral image‐based CAD scheme.ConclusionsThis work demonstrates that applying bilateral asymmetry analysis increases the discriminatory power of CAD schemes while optimizing the likelihood assessment of breast abnormalities presence. Therefore, the proposed CAD approach provides the radiologist with beneficial supplementary information and can indicate high‐risk cases.