We aimed to evaluate whether the use of a speculum blade modifies the evaluation of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) as assessed by dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Twenty-seven women with POP Quantification (POPQ) stage II or greater, scheduled for POP surgery, were evaluated using MRI. The procedure was repeated using the posterior blade of a standard plastic Grave's speculum to successiv...

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a common, debilitating disorder affecting millions of women. Uterosacral ligaments (USLs) are the main supportive structures of the uterus and vagina and are often attenuated in women with POP. Although the mechanical strength of USLs is known to be dependent on collagen synthesis and catabolism and the degradation protein MMP2 has been implicated in POP, the mole...

BACKGROUND Evidence is emerging that exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POP) is a risk factor for atherosclerosis-related diseases and for diabetes mellitus (DM). We hypothesized that residential proximity to sources of POP will be associated with an increase in hospitalization rates for ischemic stroke (IS) with comorbid DM (IS-DM). METHODS We examined IS-DM hospitalization rates in ...

We review recent 3D cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of primordial star formation from cosmological initial conditions (Pop III.1) and from initial conditions that have been altered by radiative feedback from stellar sources (Pop III.2). We concentrate on simulations that resolve the formation of the gravitationally unstable cloud cores in mini-halos over the mass range 105 < M/M⊙ < 107 an...

Canonical Wnt signaling converts the TCF/LEF transcription factor from repressor to activator by increasing nuclear levels of its coactivator, beta-catenin. A striking exception had been reported for Wnt-induced endoderm formation during C. elegans embryogenesis. It has long been believed that transcriptional activation of Wnt target genes in the endoderm precursor occurred due to a lowering of...

Visual pop-out occurs when a unique visual target (e.g., a feature singleton) is present in a set of homogeneous distractors. However, the role of visual awareness in this process remains unclear. In the experiments reported here, we showed that even though subjects were not aware of a suppressed pop-out display, their subsequent performance on an orientationdiscrimination task was significantl...

We introduce positive-only projection (PoP), a new algorithm for constructing semantic spaces and word embeddings. The PoP method employs random projections. Hence, it is highly scalable and computationally efficient. In contrast to previous methods that use random projection matrices R with the expected value of 0 (i.e., E(R) = 0), the proposed method uses R with E(R) > 0. We use Kendall’s τb ...

The study of inter-trial effects in visual search has generated an increasing amount of research in recent years. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are still a matter of debate. Two rival accounts have been suggested. One view stipulates that inter-trial effects facilitate early perceptual/attentional processes, whereas the other proposes that it affects post-perceptual response-...

Physiotherapists have treated women with pelvic organ prolapse (POP) for many years. The basis for this treatment is the logical application of research evidence for the conservative management of urinary incontinence and anecdotal evidence. However, the past few years have seen an increase in research specific to POP. This paper outlines the journey involved in adding a large randomized contro...

OBJECTIVE We describe a new parameter based on magnetic resonance 3-dimensional (3D) reconstructions proposed to evaluate levator ani muscle (LAM) laxity in women with pelvic organ prolapse (POP). STUDY DESIGN This is an institutional review board-approved, retrospective chart review of 35 women with POP, stages I-IV. The 3D Slicer software package was used to perform 2-dimensional and 3D mea...