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Despite different lifestyles, humankind has suffered from osteoporosis for thousands of years. A literature review concerning the history of osteoporosis in the following databases: Index Medicus, Medline, PubMed, and PMC Citations was done. In the final analysis, 18 review articles and 31 original papers were included. The works were published during the period 1705-2020. Although there is evidence of the existence of osteoporosis for many centuries, it was first described as a disease at the beginning of the 18th century. It was first perceived as an unavoidable course of aging with no possibility to cure. This approach changed only in the 20th century thanks to sudden diagnostic and therapeutic progress. This paper presents the milestones and most important researchers in osteoporosis history. Rapid progress in diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities sheds new light on osteoporosis’ nature. A comprehensive outlook on its history may help find answers for the still unsolved problems of this disease.

Objectives: To assess the conformity between heel ultrasound and densitometry, and the clinical application of densitometry T-score "gold standard" in quantitative ultrasound as a method of osteoporosis diagnosis in postmenopausal women., Methods: The study is a systematic review of studies published in the last 17 years in PubMed, NLM Gateway, Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Library. Calcaneal quantitative ultrasound sensitivity and specificity were analyzed with regard to densitometry measurements in postmenopausal women. In addition, we summarized the values of ultrasound T-scores, for which their accuracy in osteoporosis diagnosis is the highest., Results: The inclusion criteria met 15 research studies conducted on postmenopausal women. In 11 of them, the authors concluded that clinical conformity between heel ultrasound and densitometry is good. The recommended quantitative ultrasound T-score for osteoporosis diagnosis ranged between -1 and -3.65., Conclusions: Heel ultrasound should be considered to be as accurate as densitometry in diagnosing osteoporosis. Nevertheless, it needs to have separate T-score ranges determined, because those used in densitometry are not adequate., (© 2017 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.)

The study evaluates the influence of steatosis on hepatocytes proliferative potential, reflected by proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients both in steatotic and non-steatotic areas of lobules. The liver histology was evaluated according to Kleiner's score. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) was also defined as the presence of lobular inflammation, hepatocyte ballooning and steatosis. Expression of PCNA was significantly in patients with definite NASH compared to those with simple steatosis, but not to those with borderline NASH. Advanced steatosis negatively influenced PCNA expression. NASH not only affects PCNA expression in staetotic, but also in non-steatotic lobule areas. Expression of PCNA could be an independent indicator of changes in hepatocyte metabolism in CHC patients. High NAS values and low PCNA expression may be a negative prognostic factor in predicting the further course of the disease.

Forest conservation and REDD+ projects invest millions of dollars each year to reduce local communities' dependence on forests and prevent forest loss and degradation. However, to date, there is limited evidence on whether these investments are effective at delivering conservation outcomes. We explored the relationships between 600+ small-scale conservation and development investments that occurred from 2007 to 2014 and conservation outcomes (deforestation rates and fire detections) within Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor in Madagascar using linear fixed effects panel regressions. We derived annual changes in forest cover and fires from satellite remote sensing. We found a statistically significant correlation between presence of any investment and reduced deforestation rates in 2010 and 2011 -years with accelerated deforestation elsewhere in the study area. This result indicated investments abated deforestation rates during times of political instability and lack of governance following a 2009 coup in Madagascar. We also found a statistically significant relationship between presence of any investment and reduced fire detections in the study area, suggesting investments had an impact on reducing burning of forest for agriculture. For both outcomes (i.e., deforestation rates and fire detections), we found that more dollars invested led to greater conservation outcomes (i.e. fewer fires or less deforestation), particularly when funding was sustained for one to two years. Our findings suggest that conservation and development investments can reduce deforestation and fire incidence, but also highlight the many challenges and complexities in assessing relationships between investments and conservation outcomes in a dynamic landscape and a volatile political context.

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals were to increase conservation practitioners' use of remote sensing to support their work, increase collaboration between the conservation science and remote sensing communities, identify and develop new and innovative uses of remote sensing for advancing conservation science, provide guidance to space agencies on how future satellite missions can support conservation science, and generate support from the public and private sector in the use of remote sensing data to address the 10 conservation questions. We identified a broad initial list of questions on the basis of an email chain-referral survey. We then used a workshop-based iterative and collaborative approach to whittle the list down to these final questions (which represent 10 major themes in conservation): How can global Earth observation data be used to model species distributions and abundances? How can remote sensing improve the understanding of animal movements? How can remotely sensed ecosystem variables be used to understand, monitor, and predict ecosystem response and resilience to multiple stressors? How can remote sensing be used to monitor the effects of climate on ecosystems? How can near real-time ecosystem monitoring catalyze threat reduction, governance and regulation compliance, and resource management decisions? How can remote sensing inform configuration of protected area networks at spatial extents relevant to populations of target species and ecosystem services? How can remote sensing-derived products be used to value and monitor changes in ecosystem services? How can remote sensing be used to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts? How does the expansion and intensification of agriculture and aquaculture alter ecosystems and the services they provide? How can remote sensing be used to determine the degree to which ecosystems are being disturbed or degraded and the effects of these changes on species and ecosystem functions?, (© 2014 Society for Conservation Biology.)

Aim of the Study: The evaluation of quality of life during image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) in patients with prostate cancer., Materials and Methods: The study consisted of 180 prostate cancer patients treated with radical radiotherapy (IGRT). The patients were irradiated using conformal or dynamic techniques with 2 Gy fractionation doses to a total dose of 76 Gy. Patients in the high-risk group (41%) were also irradiated to the pelvic lymph nodes. Quality of life was assessed with EORTC questionnaires: general QLQ-C30 and prostate-specific module QLQ-PR25, which were filled in by patients before and upon completion of radiotherapy. A change of ≥ 10 points in a linearised scale (0-100) was considered clinically significant., Results: Global quality of life decreased slightly during radiotherapy (from 61 to 57 points), but from the clinical point of view, likewise most of the other quality of life parameters remained stable. In the general module (QLQ-C30) only diarrhoea changed in a clinically relevant way, i.e. by 10 points (from 10 to 20 points), which was mainly observed in patients with elective pelvic irradiation (increase of 18 points, from 10 to 28 points). In the prostate-specific module (QLQ-PR25) only urinary symptoms changed significantly, i.e. by 13 points (from 24 to 37 points)., Conclusions: The quality of life in patients with prostate cancer does not change in a clinically significant way during radiotherapy, which corroborates good treatment tolerance. Increased urinary symptoms and, in the case of pelvic irradiation, also increased diarrhoea have a negative impact on symptom-related quality of life.

We describe a model of forest flammability, based on daily satellite observations, for national to regional applications. The model defines forest flammability as the percent moisture content of fuel, in the form of litter of varying sizes on the forest floor. The model uses formulas from the US Forest Service that describe moisture exchange between fuel and the surrounding air and precipitation. The model is driven by estimates of temperature, humidity, and precipitation from the moderate resolution imaging spectrometer and tropical rainfall measuring mission multi-satellite precipitation analysis. We provide model results for the southern Amazon and northern Chaco regions. We evaluate the model in a tropical forest-to-woodland gradient in lowland Bolivia. Results from the model are significantly correlated with those from the same model driven by field climate measurements. This model can be run in a near real-time mode, can be applied to other regions, and can be a cost-effective input to national fire management programs.

As psychological instruments are converted for administration on computers, differences in luminance and contrast of these displays may affect performance. Specifically, high-luminance assessments may mask age-group differences that are apparent under lower luminance conditions. We examined the effects of luminance and contrast on object detection using computerized and naturalistic assessments. Younger and older adults displayed more differences in performance across differing contrast levels in conditions that were matched for luminance, despite the conditions appearing perceptually different. These findings indicate that computerized assessments should be created with luminance levels that are similar to those of the tasks they purport to simulate in order to enhance their validity., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Assessing the potential impacts of 21st-century climate change on species distributions and ecological processes requires climate scenarios with sufficient spatial resolution to represent the varying effects of climate change across heterogeneous physical, biological, and cultural landscapes. Unfortunately, the native resolutions of global climate models (usually approximately 2 degrees x 2 degrees or coarser) are inadequate for modeling future changes in, e.g., biodiversity, species distributions, crop yields, and water resources. Also, 21st-century climate projections must be debiased prior to use, i.e., corrected for systematic offsets between modeled representations and observations of present climates. We have downscaled future temperature and precipitation projections from the World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP's) CMIP3 multi-model data set to 10-minute resolution and debiased these simulations using the change-factor approach and observational data from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). These downscaled data sets are available online and include monthly mean temperatures and precipitation for 2041-2060 and 2081-2100, for 24 climate models and the A1B, A2, and B1 emission scenarios. This paper describes the downscaling method and compares the downscaled and native-resolution simulations. Sharp differences between the original and downscaled data sets are apparent at regional to continental scales, particularly for temperature in mountainous areas and in areas with substantial differences between observed and simulated 20th-century climatologies. Although these data sets in principle could be downscaled further, a key practical limitation is the density of observational networks, particularly for precipitation-related variables in tropical mountainous regions. These downscaled data sets can be used for a variety of climate-impact assessments, including assessments of 21st-century climate-change impacts on biodiversity and species distributions.

A patient on disopyramide developed disopyramide toxicity when treated concurrently with azithromycin. Evidence of toxicity included an elevated serum disopyramide level and ventricular tachycardia requiring cardioversion. The azalide antibiotic presumably inhibited dealkylation of disopyramide to its major metabolite, mono-N-dealkyldisopyramide. Physicians should avoid using azithromycin in patients on disopyramide. If this drug combination is unavoidable, disopyramide levels must be closely monitored.

We generated monoclonal antibodies against the human Flt3 receptor and used them to study the characteristics of normal human bone marrow cells resolved based on Flt3 expression. Human CD34+ or CD34+lin- marrow cells were sorted into two populations: cells expressing high levels of Flt3 receptor (Flt3high) and cells with little or no expression of Flt3 receptor (Flt3low). Flt3 receptor was detected on a subset of CD34+CD38- marrow cells, as well as on CD34+CD19+ B lymphoid progenitors and CD34+CD14+CD64+ monocytic precursors. Flt3 receptor was also present on more mature CD34-CD14+ monocytes. In colony-forming assays, Flt3high cells gave rise mainly to colony-forming unit-granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) colonies, whereas Flt3low cells produced mostly burst-forming unit-erythroid colonies. There was no difference in the number of multilineage CFU-Mix colonies between the two cell fractions. Cell cycle analysis showed that a large number of the Flt3low cells were in the G0 phase of the cell cycle, whereas Flt3high cells were predominantly in G1. Cell numbers in the suspension cultures initiated with Flt3high cells were maintained in the presence of Flt3 ligand (FL) alone, and increased in response to FL plus kit ligand (KL). In contrast, cell numbers in the suspension cultures started with Flt3low cells did not increase in the presence of FL, or FL plus KL. Upregulation of Flt3 receptor on Flt3low cells was not detected during suspension culture. CD14+ monocytes were the major cell type generated from CD34+lin-Flt3high cells in liquid suspension culture, whereas cells generated from CD34+lin-Flt3low cells were mainly CD71+GlycA+ erythroid cells. These results show clear functional differences between CD34+Flt3high and CD34+Flt3low cells and may have implications concerning the in vitro expansion of human hematopoietic progenitor cells.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize the expression of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and HGF receptor proteins in lacrimal gland, tears, and cornea., Methods: The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction method was used to detect HGF and HGF receptor messenger RNA in human lacrimal gland tissue. HGF and HGF (c-met) receptor monoclonal antibody specificity was demonstrated with fluorescent antibody sorting of cells engineered to express HGF or HGF receptor compared with control cell lines, enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA), immunoprecipitation, and immunohistology with preabsorption. Immunohistochemistry was applied to study the distribution of HGF and HGF receptor expression in rabbit lacrimal gland tissue and in wounded and unwounded rabbit cornea. An ELISA was used to detect HGF in pooled samples of human tears and individual aliquots of tears collected from patients 1 day after anterior segment surgery., Results: Amplification products of the expected size for HGF and HGF receptor mRNAs were detected in lacrimal tissue and were confirmed to be specific by hot blotting and nucleic acid sequencing. Hepatocyte growth factor protein was detected in interalveolar and interlobular connective tissue cells adjacent to glandular alveolar (acinar) cells and associated with the cells lining the interlobular ducts. Hepatocyte growth factor receptor protein was expressed in the glandular alveolar and interlobular ductal cells in the lacrimal gland and all three cell types of the cornea. It was detected in keratocyte and endothelial cells, and expression was increased in keratocytes after epithelial wounding. Hepatocyte growth factor was not present in corneal epithelial cells, but in the unwounded cornea a strong signal was associated with the epithelial cell surface. It was detected by ELISA in pooled normal tears at levels 186 to 290 pg/ml and in individual postoperative tear samples at 453 to 619 pg/ml. In some tear samples, HGF levels were below the sensitivity of the assay (97.5 pg/ml)., Conclusions: The distribution of HGF receptor protein expression in the lacrimal gland suggests that HGF secreted by interalveolar connective tissue cells traverses the acinar cells and modulates functions in acinar and ductal epithelial cells. Hepatocyte growth factor likely collects within the interlobular ducts and becomes a component in normal tears. Thus, lacrimal gland HGF probably modulates corneal epithelial cell proliferation, motility, and differentiation. Its expression in keratocytes is upregulated after corneal epithelial wounding and probably contributes to the epithelial wound healing process.

The percentage of theophylline bound to protein in sera obtained from patients with obstructive airways disease was determined by ultrafiltration. The bound theophylline fraction in 71 serum specimens collected from 51 patients was 60.7 +/- 10.0% (mean +/- SD) and from 30.8% to 83.2%. The correlation between unbound serum theophylline concentration and total concentration (range 0.8 to 90 mg/l) was linear (r = 0.97, p less than 0.001). Theophylline binding correlated poorly with serum albumin (r = 0.39) and total serum protein (r = 0.35), although the correlations were statistically significant (p less than 0.05), Theophylline binding in women did not differ from that in men. The extent of theophylline binding in younger patients was greater than in patients over 55 yr (64.3 +/- 8.5% and 57.0 +/- 10.4%, p less than 0.005). Variation in theophylline binding in 12 patients from whom two or more serum samples were collected was relatively small. Analysis of variance showed interpatient variation in theophylline binding (p less than 0.01) but not between sampling occasions in the same patient. The demonstrated variability in serum protein binding of theophylline should influence theophylline distribution and elimination kinetics and may be another determinant of clinical response. Patients with lower binding levels should have higher plasma levels of unbound drug after a loading dose and will need more frequent dosing.