Hypothesis / aims of study Slow gastrointestinal (GI) transport can be attributed to peripheral myenteric plexus pathology in Parkinson’s disease (PD), where altered balance of cholinergic/ 5-HT4 serotonergic excitation and D2 dopaminergic inhibition might occur. This is further affected by ghrelin and other hormonal changes. It is recently reported that in PD patients, levodopa does not worsen...

G6PD deficiency mutational profile and haplotype diversity using 6 RFLPs (FokI/PvuII/BspHI/PstI/BclI/NlaIII) and a (CTT)(n) microsatellite, were investigated in 70 G6PD-deficient Portuguese individuals. All but one G6PD A-(376G/202A) variants (44/45) have a single haplotype (+/+/-/+/-/+/195). G6PD Betica(376G/968C) alleles (n=10) have a single RFLP haplotype (+/-/-/+/-/+) and 4 different (CTT)(...

Polycystin-1, which is encoded by a gene that is mutated in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), is involved in cell-matrix interactions as well as in ciliary signaling. The precise mechanisms by which it functions, however, remain unclear. Here we find that polycystin-1 undergoes a proteolytic cleavage that releases its C-terminal tail (CTT), which enters the nucleus and initi...

Investigations of the effects clouds on Earth’s radiation budget demand accurate representations cloud top parameters, which can be efficiently obtained by large-scale satellite remote sensing approaches. However, insufficient utilization multiband information is one major sources uncertainty in products derived from geostationary satellites. In this study, we developed a new algorithm to estim...

The objective of this research was to determine the variation of milk stability evaluated with ethanol, boiling, and coagulation time tests (CTT) to identify milk components related with stability and verify the correlation between the three methods. Bulk raw milk was collected monthly at 50 dairy farms from January 2007 to October 2009 and physicochemical attributes, somatic cell (SCC), and to...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the usefulness of plain abdominal radiography as an evaluation method for bowel dysfunction in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). METHODS Forty-four patients with SCI were recruited. Patients were interviewed about their clinical symptoms, and the constipation score and Bristol stool form scale were assessed. The colon transit time (CTT) was measured by using radio-...

It has been reported that abnormalities of functional brain asymmetry was detected in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, little is known about their clinical implication. The aim of this study was to examine the differences in asymmetry indexes (AIs) of hippocampus between MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs) and their relationship with cognitive functions. Forty-one pat...

In e-commerce environments, the trustworthiness of a seller is very important to potential buyers, especially when the seller is not known to them. Most existing trust evaluation models compute a single value to reflect the general trustworthiness of a seller without taking any transaction context information into account. With such a result as the indication of reputation, a buyer may be easil...

It has been reported that abnormalities of functional brain asymmetry was detected in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, little is known about their clinical implication. The aim of this study was to examine the differences in asymmetry indexes (AIs) of hippocampus between MDD patients and healthy controls (HCs) and their relationship with cognitive functions. Forty-one pat...

This paper provides an introduction to two commonly used item response theory (IRT) models (the two-parameter logistic model and the graded response model). Throughout the paper, the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS) is used to help illustrate different features of the IRT model. After introducing the IRT models, I explore the assumptions these models make as well as ways to assess the extent to w...