BACKGROUND Cap analysis of gene expression (CAGE) is a 5' sequence tag technology to globally determine transcriptional starting sites in the genome and their expression levels and has most recently been adapted to the HeliScope single molecule sequencer. Despite significant simplifications in the CAGE protocol, it has until now been a labour intensive protocol. METHODOLOGY In this study we s...

Introduction: Current cage devices considerably exceed the stiffness of the spinal segment, which may lead to stress-shielding, migration of the cage, and pseudarthrosis. In order to avoid these material related complications, a poly (L-lactic acid) cage device (PLLA cage) has been designed with limited stiffness compared to current cage devices and which will be absorbed on the long term. Biom...

BACKGROUND Abnormal thoraco-abdominal motion may contribute to exercise limitation in patients with COPD. The current study aimed to assess how the thoraco-abdominal asynchrony in COPD patients correlates with exercise performance during the 6-minute walk test (6MWT). METHODS Eighty-eight COPD subjects (40 moderate and 48 severe) and 14 healthy controls were evaluated at rest and during the 6...

Objectives Cage design and material properties play a crucial role in the long-term results, since interbody fusions using intervertebral cages have become one of the basic procedures in spinal surgery. Our aim is to design a novel Apatite-Wollastonite interbody fusion cage and evaluate its biomechanical behavior in silico in a segmental spinal model. Materials and Methods Mechanical properti...

We develop a coarse-grained protein model with a simplified amino acid interaction potential. We perform discrete molecular dynamics folding simulations of a small 20 residue protein – Trp-cage – from a fully extended conformation. We demonstrate the ability of the Trp-cage model to consistently reach conformations within 2Å backbone root-mean-square distance (RMSD) from the corresponding NMR s...

Study design: An in vitro biomechanical flexibility and fatigue test comparing two different lumbar interbody fusion cages using mono segmental lumbar spine specimens. Objective: To investigate and compare the stabilizing effect of a transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) cage against an expandable posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) cage. Method: Six intact human lumbar spine segme...

In tetraplegia there is often paradoxical inward motion of the rib cage during inspiration. The volume of this negative contribution is difficult to estimate but can be obtained by optical mapping. The partitioning of ventilation between the rib cage and abdomen in six normal subjects, 10 stable tetraplegic patients, and one tetraplegic patient at intervals during rehabilitation has been studie...

This report is a rare case of a lumbar interbody fusion cage dislocation in the procedure of Minimal Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion surgery (MI-TLIF) for spondylolisthesis of segment L5/S1. A 65-year-old lady underwent MI-TLIF surgery, and the interbody fusion cage was dislocated forward into retroperitoneal space. The cage was extraction with lateral approach and replaced by l...

Selective breeding experiments for increased wheel running and open field behavior have identified genetic and neurobiological factors associated with increased voluntary physical activity in mice, but no previous study has directly selected for increased distance traveled in the home cage. Therefore, within-family selection was applied to increase home cage activity as measured by continuous v...

Unprecedented regioselectivity to the branched aldehyde product in the hydroformylation of propene was attained on embedding a rhodium complex in supramolecular assembly L2, formed by coordination-driven self-assembly of tris(meta-pyridyl)phosphine and zinc(II) porpholactone. The design of cage L2 is based on the ligand-template approach, in which the ligand acts as a template for cage formatio...