BACKGROUND Emerging evidence suggests that near-roadway air pollution (NRP) exposure causes childhood asthma. The associated costs are not well documented. OBJECTIVE We estimated the cost of childhood asthma attributable to residential NRP exposure and regional ozone (O3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in Los Angeles County. We developed a novel approach to apportion the costs between thes...

We have shown that electroacupuncture (EA) inhibits sympathoexcitatory rostral ventrolateral medulla (rVLM) neurons and reflex responses following activation of a long-loop pathway in the arcuate nucleus and ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG). Additionally, EA at P 5-6 acupoints (overlying the median nerve) activates serotonin-containing neurons in the nucleus raphé pallidus (NRP), which...

BACKGROUND Narrative Reflective Practice (NRP) is a process that helps medical students become better listeners and physicians. We hypothesized that NRP would enhance students' performance on multiple-choice question exams (MCQs), on objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), and on subjective clinical evaluations (SCEs). METHODS The MCQs, OSCEs and SCEs test scores from 139 third ye...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently come to be viewed as critical players that modulate a number of cellular features in various biological systems including the mature CNS by exerting regulatory control over the stability and translation of mRNAs. Despite considerable evidence for the regulatory functions of miRNAs, the identities of the miRNA species that are involved in the regulation of synapt...

OBJECTIVE To investigate soluble neuropilin-1 (sNRP-1) in circulating and NRP-1 protein in cervical tissues from patients with cervical cancer or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). METHODS sNRP-1 was measured in 64 preoperative patients and 20 controls. NRP-1 protein in cervical tissue was detected in 56 patients and 20 controls. RESULTS Both sNRP-1 and NRP-1 proteins were correlated...

A new conceptual cache, NRP (Non-Referenced Prefetch) cache, is proposed to improve the performance of instruction prefetch mechanisms which try to prefetch both the sequential and non-sequential blocks under the limited memory bandwidth. The NRP cache is used in storing prefetched blocks which were not referenced by the CPU, while these blocks were discarded in other previous prefetch mechanis...

Helios transcription factor and semaphorin receptor Nrp-1 were originally described as constitutively expressed at high levels on CD4+Foxp3+ T regulatory cells of intrathymic origin (tTregs). On the other hand, CD4+Foxp3+ Tregs generated in the periphery (pTregs) or induced ex vivo (iTregs) were reported to express low levels of Helios and Nrp-1. Soon afterwards the reliability of Nrp-1 and Hel...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of noise reduction procedure (NRP), a function in the new image processing for chest radiography. METHODS A CXDI-50G Portable Digital Radiography System (Canon) was used for X-ray detection. Image noise was analyzed with a noise power spectrum (NPS) and a burger phantom was used for evaluation of density resolution. The usefulnes...

Metastasis, the leading cause of cancer death, requires tumor cell intravasation, migration through the bloodstream, arrest within capillaries, and extravasation to invade distant tissues. Few mechanistic details have been reported thus far regarding the extravasation process or re-entry of circulating tumor cells at metastatic sites. Here, we show that neuropilin-2 (NRP-2), a multifunctional n...

European regional policy has increasingly been focused on innovation and knowledge during the last three decades. Yet, its INTERREG funding regime is still supporting a wide range of different cross-border topics, more concentrated on integration efforts than on pure innovation policy. In four of the 52 cross-border programs also Swiss regions are participating. Since 2008, cross-border coopera...