University of Kentucky

About: University of Kentucky is a education organization based out in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 43933 authors who have published 92195 publications receiving 3256087 citations. The organization is also known as: UK.

Oral pilocarpine for post-irradiation xerostomia in patients with head and neck cancer.

Abstract: Background and Methods We evaluated pilocarpine hydrochloride for the treatment of radiation-induced xerostomia, a common complication of irradiation of the head and neck. A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was undertaken to test the safety and efficacy of pilocarpine, particularly in reversing the decrease in the production of saliva and other manifestations of xerostomia. Patients received either placebo or pilocarpine (5 mg or 10 mg orally three times a day) for 12 weeks and were evaluated at base line and every 4 weeks. Results We studied 207 patients who had each received ≥ 4000 cGy of radiation to the head and neck. In the patients receiving the 5-mg dose of pilocarpine, oral dryness improved in 44 percent, as compared with 25 percent of the patients receiving placebo (P = 0.027). There was overall improvement in 54 percent of the 5-mg group as compared with 25 percent of the placebo group (P = 0.003), and 31 percent of the 5-mg group had improved comfort of the mouth ...

Self-regulatory failure and intimate partner violence perpetration.

Abstract: Five studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory failure is an important predictor of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Study 1 participants were far more likely to experience a violent impulse during conflictual interaction with their romantic partner than they were to enact a violent behavior, suggesting that self-regulatory processes help individuals refrain from perpetrating IPV when they experience a violent impulse. Study 2 participants high in dispositional self-control were less likely to perpetrate IPV, in both cross-sectional and residualized-lagged analyses, than were participants low in dispositional self-control. Study 3 participants verbalized more IPV-related cognitions if they responded immediately to partner provocations than if they responded after a 10-s delay. Study 4 participants whose self-regulatory resources were experimentally depleted were more violent in response to partner provocation (but not when unprovoked) than were nondepleted participants. Finally, Study 5 participants whose self-regulatory resources were experimentally bolstered via a 2-week training regimen exhibited less violent inclinations than did participants whose self-regulatory resources had not been bolstered. These findings hint at the power of incorporating self-regulation dynamics into predictive models of IPV perpetration.

Energy Dependence of Moments of Net-Proton Multiplicity Distributions at RHIC

Abstract: We report the beam energy (root S-NN = 7.7-200 GeV) and collision centrality dependence of the mean (M), standard deviation (sigma), skewness (S), and kurtosis (kappa) of the net-proton multiplicity distributions in Au + Au collisions. The measurements are carried out by the STAR experiment at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.5) and within the transverse momentum range 0.4 < p(T) < 0.8 GeV/c in the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These measurements are important for understanding the quantum chromodynamic phase diagram. The products of the moments, S sigma and K sigma(2), are sensitive to the correlation length of the hot and dense medium created in the collisions and are related to the ratios of baryon number susceptibilities of corresponding orders. The products of moments are found to have values significantly below the Skellam expectation and close to expectations based on independent proton and antiproton production. The measurements are compared to a transport model calculation to understand the effect of acceptance and baryon number conservation and also to a hadron resonance gas model.

Activation of the caspase-3 apoptotic cascade in traumatic spinal cord injury.

Abstract: Traumatic spinal cord injury often results in complete loss of voluntary motor and sensory function below the site of injury. The long-term neurological deficits after spinal cord trauma may be due in part to widespread apoptosis of neurons and oligodendroglia in regions distant from and relatively unaffected by the initial injury. The caspase family of cysteine proteases regulates the execution of the mammalian apoptotic cell death program. Caspase-3 cleaves several essential downstream substrates involved in the expression of the apoptotic phenotype in vitro, including gelsolin, PAK2, fodrin, nuclear lamins and the inhibitory subunit of DNA fragmentation factor. Caspase-3 activation in vitro can be triggered by upstream events, leading to the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria and the subsequent transactivation of procaspase-9 by Apaf-1. We report here that these upstream and downstream components of the caspase-3 apoptotic pathway are activated after traumatic spinal cord injury in rats, and occur early in neurons in the injury site and hours to days later in oligodendroglia adjacent to and distant from the injury site. Given these findings, targeting the upstream events of the caspase-3 cascade has therapeutic potential in the treatment of acute traumatic injury to the spinal cord.