Search

The purpose of this study was to develop an efficient way to synthesize 99mTc-O-[3-(1,4,8,11-tetraazabicyclohexadecane)-propyl]- tyrosine ( 99mTc-N4-Tyrosine), a novel amino acid-based radiotracer, and evaluate its potential in breast cancer gamma imaging. Precursor N4-Tyrosine was synthesized using a 5-step procedure, and its total synthesis yield was 38%. It was successfully labeled with 99mTc with high radiochemical purity (>95%). Cellular uptake of 99mTc-N4-Tyrosine was much higher than that of 99mTc- N4 and the clinical gold standard 18F-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-glucose (18F-FDG) in rat breast tumor cells in vitro. Tissue uptake and dosimetry estimation in normal rats revealed that 99mTc-N4-Tyrosine could be safely administered to humans. Evaluation in breast tumor-bearing rats showed that although 99mTc-N4-Tyrosine appeared to be inferior to 18F-FDG in distinguishing breast tumor tissue from chemical-induced inflammatory tissue, it had high tumor-to-muscle uptake ratios and could detect breast tumors clearly by planar scintigraphic imaging. 99mTc-N4-Tyrosine could thus be a useful radiotracer for use in breast tumor diagnostic imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong property tax growth and proactive policies--including having a substantial surplus of $5.3 billion (9% of revenues) at the beginning of the Great Recession--offset a severe contraction in income tax receipts and protected the city's budget so that it never contracted in absolute terms during or immediately following the Great Recession. Policymakers increased property and sales tax rates, utilized fund balances, cut agency budgets repeatedly, and reappropriated retiree health benefits in response to the fiscal challenges brought about by the Great Recession. Whether one attributes the city's position to compliance with a strong, state-mandated, balanced-budget rule or adept leadership, New York City certainly appears to be dealing effectively with the Great Recession's impact on its budget. However, city leaders have asked lower income residents to bear a substantial portion of the burden by favoring more regressive tax policies and by cutting the social service agency's budget substantially. With forecast budget gaps of $3 billion and $4 billion in FY2012 and FY2013, the long-term impact of the Great Recession on New York City's budget remains an open question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the fiscal implication of informal norms that govern budgetary balance and the outcome of formal rules to the government financial operations. It says that Balanced budget requirements (BBRs) are formal rules that are implemented through a mediator of informal norms that regulates the budgetary balance. It mentions that policy maker have their own interpretation of BBRs, an examination of how the BBRs interlocked with the state policies in achieving budgetary balance. Furthermore, state budget officials ensure observance of the rule of law to bridge financial operations between informal rules and formal rules which to make the law more practicable and operable within the scope of acceptance and its limits.

Aims: How growth of wild and crop species responds to global environmental perturbations has both ecological and agricultural significance in a changing world. The primary aim of this synthesis was to quantitatively assess the interactive effects of intraspecific competition and elevated CO2 on biomass production in herbaceous species. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives: This research sought to identify the perceptions of individuals with disabilities regarding employment, how prepared they felt for the workforce, and what the limiting factors that affected employment were. Methods: Students from a local center for independent living's College for Living classes completed 60 surveys containing yes-no and Likert scale questions during their regularly scheduled class time. Results: Sixty-seven percent of individuals would like to attend a course to improve their skills. 82% of individuals who had participated in employment programs felt they had the necessary skills to work while 35.3% of those who did not attend employment programs felt they had the necessary skills. Transportation and disability status were the mostly frequently mentioned limiting factors to employment. Conclusions: Generally, individuals who had either participated in an employment program were less likely to report barriers to their participation in employment than those who had never attended an employment program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the differences in glucose metabolism among women with paraplegic, and tetraplegic spinal cord injury (SCI) in comparison to their able-bodied (AB) counterparts after adjusting for differences in body composition. Cross-sectional study. After an overnight fast, each participant consumed a 75-g glucose solution for oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Blood glucose, insulin, and C-peptide concentrations were analyzed before and 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes after ingesting glucose solution. Insulin sensitivity index (ISI) was estimated using the Matsuda index. Percentage fat mass (%FM) and total body lean mass (TBLM) were estimated using data from dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Visceral fat (VF) was quantified using computed tomography. Outcome measures were compared among groups using analysis of covariance with %FM (or VF) and TBLM as covariates. Research university. Women (N=42) with SCI (tetraplegia: n=8; paraplegia: n=14) and their race-, body mass index-, and age-matched AB counterparts (n=20). Not applicable. At fasting, there was no difference in glucose homeostasis (glucose, insulin, C-peptide concentrations) among 3 groups of women. In contrast, glucose, insulin, and C-peptide concentrations at minute 120 during OGTT were higher in women with tetraplegia versus women with paraplegia and AB women (P <.05, adjusted for TBLM and %FM). In addition, women with tetraplegia had lower ISI (P <.05, adjusted for TBLM and %FM) versus AB women. These differences remained after adjusting for VF and TBLM. Our study confirms that impaired glucose metabolism among women with tetraplegia may not be fully explained by changes in their body composition. Future studies exploring additional factors involved in glucose metabolism are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractObjective: This study aimed to measure the potential relationships between sociodemographic characteristics, academic factors, body mass index (BMI), financial challenges, individual health behaviors, impact of COVID-19, and psychological well-being (PWB) among students. Participants: Undergraduate college students. Methods: Data from the National College Health Assessment III (American College Health Association [ACHA]) were used (n = 1,439). Differences in absolute values among PWB groups were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). To measure the influence of all factors combined on PWB, multiple regression analyses were performed. Results: Significant differences were observed in age, GPA, financial challenges, and individual health behaviors by PWB groups (p < .05). Being older, being female, having a higher GPA, being a full-time student, having a higher intake of vegetables, taking less time to fall asleep, and having lower stress levels were significantly positively associated with higher PWB scores (p < .05). Conclusions: Multiple considerations related to the academic environment and individual behaviors seem to influence PWB among college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the significance of financial resource management to public organizations. It offers public financial management (PFM) research on several concerns including auditing and fiscal policymaking to inform public administration and management (PAM) scholars of the importance of public financial management. It states that the adaptability of PAM and PFM to environment conditions like changing policies, governance and legal standards motivate them in handling financial responsibilities. It also mentions the significance of planning-programming-budgeting (PBB) system for government reforms and actions to help the organization. Moreover, the advantages of shared management in PFM functions on financial control, decision making and scholarship were also discussed.

Interventions for animal lifespan extension like caloric restriction (CR) have identified physiologic and biochemical pathways related to hunger and energy‐sensing status as possible contributors, but mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. Prior studies using ghrelin agonists show greater food intake but no effect on lifespan in rodent models. This experiment in male C57BL/6J mice tested the influence of ghrelin agonism for perceived hunger, in the absence of CR, on longevity. Mice aged 4 weeks were allowed to acclimate for 2 weeks prior to being assigned (N = 60/group). Prior to lights off daily (12:12 cycle), animals were fed a ghrelin agonist pill (LY444711; Eli Lilly) or a placebo control (Ctrl) until death. Treatment (GhrAg) animals were pair‐fed daily based on the group mean food intake consumed by Ctrl (ad libitum feeding) the prior week. Results indicate an increased lifespan effect (log‐rank p = 0.0032) for GhrAg versus placebo Ctrl, which weighed significantly more than GhrAg (adjusted for baseline weight). Further studies are needed to determine the full scope of effects of this ghrelin agonist, either directly via increased ghrelin receptor signaling or indirectly via other hypothalamic, systemic, or tissue‐specific mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burning has been employed as an oil spill remediation technique in coastal marshes, even though the combined and interactive effects of oil and burning on vegetation are poorly understood. Variation among clones of perennial marsh grasses in response to these perturbations is not known. We performed a greenhouse experiment designed to assess the effects of Venezuelan crude oil alone and of oil followed by burning on three clonal genets of Spartina alterniflora. The fully-crossed 6-mo experiment involved five dosages of oil (0 l m-2, 4l m-2, 8 l m-2, 16 l m-2, and 24 l m-2) and two burn treatments (burned or unburned) applied to ramets from three clones. All oil-only dosages reduced survival, but burning after oiling (oil + burn treatments) increased survival relative to oil-only groups in all except the highest two oil dosages. Higher oil-only treatments also reduced ramet densities and inhibiteddensity increases over 6 mo. Burning after treatment with the 16 l m-2 oil concentration allowed increased production of new ramets, but burning exacerbated the negative impacts on ramet density at the oil concentration of 24 l m-2. At some intermediateoil dosages, burning remediated the negative effects of oil on aboveground biomass production and growth in height. There was a significant effect of oil-only treatments on numbers of flowering ramets produced, in which two clones responded with decreased flower production and one exhibited increased flowering. There was no main effect of oil+ burn on flowering. There were significant among-clones differencesin all response variables to one or both treatments. Our experiment demonstrates that burning of oiled S. alterniflora marshes may have little measurable effect at low levels of Venezuelan crude oil, can remediate the effects of oil at intermediate oil concentrations, but can increase the negative impacts at high concentrations of oil. These resul [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose was to compare T2* relaxation times and proton density fat-fraction (PDFF) values between brown (BAT) and white (WAT) adipose tissue in lean and ob/ob mice. Materials and Methods: A group of lean male mice (n=6) and two groups of ob/ob male mice placed on similar 4-week (n=6) and 8-week (n=8) ad libitum diets were utilized. The animals were imaged at 3 T using a T2*-corrected chemical-shift-based water–fat magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method that provides simultaneous estimation of T2* and PDFF on a voxel-wise basis. Regions of interest were drawn within the interscapular BAT and gonadal WAT depots on co-registered T2* and PDFF maps. Measurements were assessed using analysis of variance, Bonferroni-adjusted t test for multigroup comparisons and the Tukey post hoc test. Results: Significant differences (P<.01) in BAT T2* and PDFF were observed between the lean and ob/ob groups. The ob/ob animals exhibited longer BAT T2* and greater PDFF than lean animals. However, only BAT PDFF was significantly different (P<.01) between the two ob/ob groups. When comparing BAT to WAT within each group, T2* and PDFF values were consistently lower in BAT than WAT (P<.01). The difference was most prominent in the lean animals. In both ob/ob groups, BAT exhibited very WAT-like appearances and properties on the MRI images. Conclusion: T2* and PDFF are lower in BAT than WAT. This is likely due to variations in tissue composition. The values were consistently lower in lean mice than in ob/ob mice, suggestive of the former''s greater demand for BAT thermogenesis and reflective of leptin hormone deficiencies and diminished BAT metabolic activity in the latter. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]