BACKGROUND While some evidence supports the beneficial effects of integrating neglected tropical disease (NTD) programs to optimize coverage and reduce costs, there is minimal information regarding when or how to effectively operationalize program integration. The lack of systematic analyses of integration experiences and of integration processes may act as an impediment to achieving more effec...

BACKGROUND Open neural tube defects are among the most common malformations of the fetus. Secondary prevention by early diagnosis during pregnancy and abortion of affected fetuses result in a marked reduction of NTD incidence at birth. The dramatic effect of folic acid for primary prevention of these defects led to recommendations for folic acid supplementation in women of reproductive age. O...

BACKGROUND Environmental exposure may play an important role in the incidences of neural tube defects (NTD) of birth defects. Their influence on NTD may likely be non-linear; few studies have considered spatial autocorrelation of residuals in the estimation of NTD risk. We aimed to develop a spatial model based on generalized additive model (GAM) plus cokriging to examine and model the expected...

Neural tube defects (NTD) are one of the most important malformations of newborns. The aim of this research is to determine the rates of NTD, anencephaly and spina bifida cystica and the relations of these abnormalities to the factors including sex, race, ethnicity, maternal age and familial marriage in the south-east of the Caspian Sea border. A three-year descriptive-analytic and cross-s...

The Chilean Ministry of Health legislated to add folic acid (2.2 mg/100 g) to wheat flour to reduce the risk of neural tube defects (NTD), beginning in January 2000. This policy resulted in a significant increase in serum and red blood cell folate in women of childbearing age 1 year after fortification. The frequency of NTD was studied in all births, both live and stillbirths, in a prospective ...

OBJECTIVE In 1991, the Medical Research Council (MRC) Vitamin Study demonstrated that folic acid taken before pregnancy and in early pregnancy reduced the risk of a neural tube defect (NTD). We aimed to estimate the number of NTD pregnancies that would have been prevented if flour had been fortified with folic acid in the UK from 1998 as it had been in the USA. DESIGN Estimates of NTD prevale...

We evaluated folate status of child-bearing age women diagnosed with abnormal pap smear in the US post-folic acid (FA) fortification era and assessed the determinants of NTD-protective and supra-physiologic (SP) concentrations of folate. The distribution of 843 women according to NTD-protective concentrations of RBC folate, plasma folate and SP concentrations of plasma folate were tested in rel...

BACKGROUND Periconceptional folic acid reduces neural tube defect (NTD) risk. Red blood cell folate concentration is inversely associated with NTD risk. In many countries there is a lack of information on NTD rates. Red cell folate status in women of childbearing age may be a surrogate for NTD rates and may be helpful in identifying countries or regions most likely to benefit from improved fola...

SCaMC is an ATP-Mg/Pi carrier protein located at the mitochondrial inner membrane. SCaMC has an unusual N-terminal Ca(2+)-binding domain (NTD) in addition to its characteristic six-helix transmembrane bundle. The NTD of human SCaMC1 (residues 1-193) was expressed and purified in order to study its role in Ca(2+)-regulated ATP-Mg/Pi transport mediated by its transmembrane domain. While Ca(2+)-bo...

Unlike canonical pre-mRNAs, animal replication-dependent histone pre-mRNAs lack introns and are processed at the 3'-end by a mechanism distinct from cleavage and polyadenylation. They have a 3' stem loop and histone downstream element (HDE) that are recognized by stem-loop binding protein (SLBP) and U7 snRNP, respectively. The N-terminal domain (NTD) of Lsm11, a component of U7 snRNP, interacts...