Patient attitudes to sternotomy and thoracotomy scars

Young adults with congenital heart defects expressed dissatisfaction with their surgical scar. The impact extended to their social life and ability to form close relationships, and has implications for holistic practice. Presented at Association for European Paediatric Cardiology conference in Munich

Direct oral anticoagulants versus warfarin: is new always better than the old?

About 1.4 British million people are at risk of strokes due to non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) necessitating long-term anticoagulation. The vitamin K antagonist, warfarin, has a long half-life and narrow therapeutic range necessitating regular monitoring and is a common cause of iatrogenic hospital admission. Direct-acting oral anticoagulants (DOACs), dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban and edoxaban are not required to have monitoring but are sensitive to changes in renal function and are associated with poorer adherence. There are good grounds to believe that DOACs are not always superior to warfarin in routine practice particularly with an older population. Much higher levels of therapeutic effectiveness can be achieved using a simple genotype guidance to identify those who are highly sensitive and by adoption of home monitoring. These adjustments could make warfarin the preferred drug for most people and would reduce the dramatic rise in health service expenditure

EASI—enrichment of alternatively spliced isoforms

Alternative splicing produces more than one protein from the majority of genes and the rarer forms can have dominant functions. Instability of alternative transcripts can also hinder the study of regulation of gene expression by alternative splicing. To investigate the true extent of alternative splicing we have developed a simple method of enriching alternatively spliced isoforms (EASI) from PCRs using beads charged with Thermus aquaticus single-stranded DNA-binding protein (T.Aq ssb). This directly purifies the single-stranded regions of heteroduplexes between alternative splices formed in the PCR, enabling direct sequencing of all the rare alternative splice forms of any gene. As a proof of principle the alternative transcripts of three tumour suppressor genes, TP53, MLH1 and MSH2, were isolated from testis cDNA. These contain missing exons, cryptic splice sites or include completely novel exons. EASI beads are stable for months in the fridge and can be easily combined with standard protocols to speed the cloning of novel transcripts

Toponymy of Herschel Island (Qikiqtaryuk), Western Arctic Coast, Canada

The official names for several of the features on Herschel Island are derived from the visit to the island by USS Thetis, Lt. Cdr. Charles Stockton commanding, on 15 – 16 August 1889. In 24 hours, Stockton and his crew surveyed the coast sufficiently to compile and publish a map, which included the bathymetry of Pauline Cove and the strait between the island and the mainland, now called Workboat Passage. Stockton named features after two whaling ships that were in the vicinity when he arrived (Orca and Thrasher), his own Thetis, his wife (Pauline Lethilhon King), three ensigns to whom he assigned bathymetric surveys (Robert Lopez, Edward Simpson, and Rogers Wells, Jr.), two of his other officers (Lt. Arthur Osborn and Ensign John Bell), and an officer of the Royal Navy (Capt. Sir Richard Collinson). Only one feature, Avadlek Spit, has an Inuvialuktun official name.Le nom officiel de plusieurs des accidents géographiques de l’île Herschel découle de la visite de l’île par le capitaine de corvette Charles Stockton en tête du USS Thetis, les 15 et 16 août 1889. En 24 heures, Charles Stockton et les membres de son équipage ont fait des levés de la côte suffisamment approfondis pour pouvoir compiler et publier une carte, qui comprenait notamment la bathymétrie de l’anse Pauline et le détroit séparant l’île de la terre ferme, qui porte maintenant le nom de Workboat Passage. Charles Stockton a nommé les accidents géographiques d’après deux baleiniers qui se trouvaient dans les environs à leur arrivée (Orca et Thrasher), ainsi que d’après son propre bateau, soit le Thetis, sa femme (Pauline Lethilhon King), trois porte-étendards auxquels les levés bathymétriques avaient été confiés (Robert Lopez, Edward Simpson et Rogers Wells, fils), deux de ses autres officiers (le lieutenant Arthur Osborn et le porte-étendard John Bell) et un officier de la Marine royale (le capitaine Sir Richard Collinson). Un seul accident géographique, soit l’Avadlek Spit, porte un nom inuvialuktun officiel

Concurrent 43 and 86 GHz Very Long Baseline Polarimetry of 3C273

We present sub-milliarcsecond resolution total intensity and linear polarization VLBI images of 3C273, using concurrent 43 and 86 GHz data taken with the Very Long Baseline Array in May 2002. The structure seen in the innermost jet suggest that we have fortuitously caught the jet in the act of changing direction. The polarization images confirm that the core is unpolarized (fractional polarization m < 1 %) at 86 GHz, but also show well ordered magnetic fields (m ~ 15 %) in the inner jet, at a projected distance of 2.3 pc from the core. In this strongly polarized region, the rotation measure changes across the jet by 4.2 x 10^{4} rad m^{-2} over an angular width of about 0.3 milliarcseconds. If the lack of polarization in the core is also attributed to a Faraday screen, then a rotation measure dispersion > 5.2 x 10^{4} rad m^{-2} must be present in or in front of that region. These are among the highest rotation measures reported so far in the nucleus of any active galaxy or quasar, and must occur outside (but probably close to) the radio emitting region. The transverse rotation measure gradient is in the same sense as that observed by Asada et al and by Zavala and Taylor at greater core distances. The magnitude of the transverse gradient decreases rapidly with distance down the jet, and appears to be variable.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 3 postscript figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letter

How visual perceptual grouping influences foot placement

Everybody would agree that vision guides locomotion; but how does vision influence choice when there are different solutions for possible foot placement? We addressed this question by investigating the impact of perceptual grouping on foot placement in humans. Participants performed a stepping stone task in which pathways consisted of target stones in a spatially regular path of foot falls and visual distractor stones in their proximity. Target and distractor stones differed in shape and colour so that each subset of stones could be easily grouped perceptually. In half of the trials, one target stone swapped shape and colour with a distractor in its close proximity. We show that in these ‘swapped’ conditions, participants chose the perceptually groupable, instead of the spatially regular, stepping location in over 40% of trials, even if the distance between perceptually groupable steps was substantially larger than normal step width/length. This reveals that the existence of a pathway that could be traversed without spatial disruption to periodic stepping is not sufficient to guarantee participants will select it and suggests competition between different types of visual input when choosing foot placement. We propose that a bias in foot placement choice in favour of visual grouping exists as, in nature, sudden changes in visual characteristics of the ground increase the uncertainty for stability

Superpixels, Occlusion and Stereo

Graph-based energy minimization is now the state of the art in stereo matching methods. In spite of its outstanding performance, few efforts have been made to enhance its capability of occlusion handling. We propose an occlusion constraint, an iterative optimization strategy and a mechanism that proceeds on both the digital pixel level and the super pixel level. Our method explicitly handles occlusion in the framework of graph-based energy minimization. It is fast and outperforms previous methods especially in the matching accuracy of boundary areas

Three decades of the Human Genome Organization.

The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) was initially established in 1988 to help integrate international scientific genomic activity and to accelerate the diffusion of knowledge from the efforts of the human genome project. Its founding President was Victor McKusick. During the late 1980s and 1990s, HUGO organized lively gene mapping meetings to accurately place genes on the genome as chromosomes were being sequenced. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, HUGO went through some transitions and self-reflection. In 2020, HUGO (which hosts a large annual scientific meeting and comprises the renowned HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee [HGNC], responsible for naming genes, and an outstanding Ethics Committee) was merged with the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS; which defines the correct nomenclature for variation description) and the Human Variome Project (HVP; championed by the late Richard Cotton) into a single organization that is committed to assembling human genomic variation from all over the world. This consolidated effort, under a new Executive Board and seven focused committees, will facilitate efficient and effective communication and action to bring the benefits of increasing knowledge of genome diversity and biology to people all over the world

Coping with cognitive impairment in people with Parkinson’s disease and their carers: a qualitative study

Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the psychosocial impact of living and coping with PD and cognitive impairment in people with PD and their carers have not been explored. This paper draws on a qualitative study that explores the subjective impact of cognitive impairment on people with PD and their carers. Thirty-six one-to-one interviews were completed; people with PD were from three groups: normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Data collection and analysis were iterative and verbatim transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Themes were interpreted in consultation with coping and adaptation theory. The analysis revealed four main themes: threats to identity and role, pre-death grief and feelings of loss in carers, success and challenges to coping in people with PD, and problem focused coping and finding meaning in caring. Our data highlights how cognitive impairment can threaten an individual’s self-perception and their perceived role; the ostensible effects depended on the impact individual’s perceived cognitive impairment on their daily lives. For carers, cognitive impairment had a greater emotional impact compared to the physical symptoms of PD. The discussion that developed around protective factors provides possible opportunities for future interventions, such as psychological therapies to improve successful adjustment