Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis is a lateral curvature of the spine greater than 10 degrees, with an unknown cause, affecting primarily adolescents. Previous mouse model studies showed that partial inactivation of Pitx1 gene resulted in the development of severe spinal deformities in Pitx1 +/mice, which is strikingly similar to the AIS phenotype. Based on this observation, we postulated that lo...

STUDY DESIGN Microarray approach and integrated gene network analysis. OBJECTIVE To explore the differential genetic expression profile, gene ontology terms, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) of idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and non-AIS controls. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The pathogenesis of adolescent AIS and the accompanying...

Arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) is a rare disorder in children. Research suggests that risk factors, outcomes, and presentation are different from those of adult stroke. In particular, prothrombotic abnormalities and large vessel arteriopathies that are nonatherosclerotic seem to play a large role in the pathogenesis of childhood AIS. This review examines the epidemiology and etiologies of neona...

Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) have a proven role in the treatment of early and metastatic breast cancer. The success of tamoxifen in reducing the relative risk of developing hormone-sensitive breast cancer in chemoprevention trials has been hampered by their long-term toxicity profile. AIs have the potential to further reduce rates of breast cancer in high-risk postmenopausal women. This article r...

Objective Leptin has been postulated as one of the etiologic factors of AIS because of its important physiological functions in neuro-osseous development affecting skeletal growth, the onset of puberty, energy expenditure and body composition. Previous studies on the relationship between leptin and HR-pQCT derived bone quality parameters had found abnormal correlations in AIS girls, and suggest...

Three years ago, my most recent predecessor as the President from Region One, Gordon Davis, published the first of these President’s reports in Communications of the AIS. Two years later, Michael Vitale, the most recent AIS President from Region Three, provided another. Gordon and Mike set a difficult precedent, not only by the quality of their report but, more importantly, by the many accompli...

The Biological Immune System is a remarkable information processing and self-learning system that offers stimulation to build Artificial Immune System (AIS).During the last two decades, the field of AIS is progressing slowly and steadily as a branch of Computational Intelligence (CI). At present the AIS algorithms such as Negative Selection Theory, Clonal Selection Theory, Immune Networks Theor...

This paper empirically examines various incentives facing managers of Australian life insurers to voluntarily use actuarial-based income smoothing techniques (AIS). AIS were subsequently incorporated into jointly-developed Australian and New Zealand life insurance accounting standards (LIAS) issued in 1997. The propensity of managers to voluntarily use AIS is predicted to be related to the firm...

Neuronal polarization underlies the ability of neurons to integrate and transmit information. This process begins early in development with axon outgrowth, followed by dendritic growth and subsequent maturation. In between these two steps, the axon initial segment (AIS), a subcellular domain crucial for generating action potentials (APs) and maintaining the morphological and functional polariza...

The main neonatal stroke syndromes discussed in this article are: arterial ischemic stroke (AIS), including perinatal AIS, and "presumed" perinatal AIS; cerebral venous thrombosis, including cortical vein and venous sinus thrombosis and germinal matrix hemorrhage/periventricular hemorrhagic infarction; and intraparenchymal hemorrhage. This review discusses general pathophysiological mechanisms ...