Intrathecal glutamate release during hindlimb tourniquet inflation and femoral artery occlusion in rats

Background/PurposeA tourniquet is commonly used in limb surgery. Tourniquet inflation after a period of time may produce painful sensation. While the mechanisms of tourniquet-induced pain are still unknown, two components, pressure and ischemia, have been proposed. In this study, in vivo microdialysis was used to detect changes in intrathecal glutamate, an excitatory amino acid highly relevant to pain transmission, following hindlimb tourniquet application and femoral artery occlusion in the rat.MethodsMale Wistar rats were used. For the tourniquet study, 6 rats of the study group received 30 minutes right hindlimb tourniquet inflation and another 6 rats as the control group received only tourniquet application without inflation. In the femoral artery occlusion study, 6 rats of the study group received 30 minutes right femoral artery occlusion and another 6 rats as the control group received only sham operation without femoral artery occlusion. Cerebrospinal fluid dialysates were collected prior to, during, and after tourniquet application or femoral artery occlusion. Glutamate was measured by HPLC.ResultsA significant increase in intrathecal glutamate release was found during the tourniquet inflation period, and it returned to baseline after tourniquet deflation. No change of glutamate release was noted during femoral artery occlusion or after femoral artery reperfusion.ConclusionThe intrathecal glutamate release was increased by the hindlimb tourniquet inflation, but not influenced by femoral artery occlusion in the rat

Positive Effect of Severe Nakagami- m

This paper investigates the positive effect of severe Nakagami-m fading on the performance of multiuser transmit antenna selection/maximal-ratio combining (TAS/MRC) systems with high selection gain. Both amount of fading (AF) and symbol error rate (SER) of M-QAM are derived as closed-form expressions for integer m. For arbitrary m, the AF and the SER are expressible as a single infinite series of Gamma function and Gauss hypergeometric function, respectively. The analytical results lead to the following observations. First, the SER performance can demonstrate the positive effect of severe Nakagami-m fading on multiuser TAS/MRC systems with high selection gain. Second, the AF performance only exhibits the negative impact of severe fading regardless of high selection gain. Last, the benefit of severe fading to the system performance diminishes at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

From Your Preferences to Niche Tourism: A New “To-Do” List in Hong Kong

There are a lot of services and mobile applications that allow simplifying a search, proactively providing information about famous attractions and user feedback; but travelers may have difficulty in choosing based on their real needs. Smart tourism, under the rapid growth of Internet of Things and machine learning techniques is developed for enhancing travellers’ experience and satisfaction. In recent years, it is essential for most tourism industrialists to strengthen their competitive edge and to improve industrial sustainability through the adoption of smart tourism. In this chapter, the proposed model generates travel recommendations and related useful information to end users through an online platform, namely Niche-E-Travel (NET). This distinctive tourism solution aims to collect all the obscure attractions, to align them with visitors’ interests, and to provide them with a new to-do list in Hong Kong. NET collects basic information from end users and uses the proposed travel analytic model with K-modes and K-means clustering methods to finish a clustering process, and provide some potential activity plans to fit the end user’s interests and requirements. Recommendations made for each user are supported by collaborative filtering to compare different users’ personal interests

Hot Cracking Susceptibility of 800H and 825 Nickel-Base Superalloys during Welding via Spot Varestraint Test

Hot cracking susceptibility of fillers 52 and 82 in 800H and 825 nickel-base superalloys was discussed using the Spot Varestraint test. The fillers of 52 and 82 were added into nickel-base superalloys via a gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW).Experimental results showed that the hot cracking sensitivity of the nickel-base superalloys with filler at high temperature was lower than that without filler. The hot cracking sensitivity had a slight effect when the filler 82 was added. The total length of crack was increased, the liquid-solid (L-S) two-phase range is higher so that the hot cracking susceptibility will be raised. The morphologies of cracks included the intergranular crack in the molten pool, molten pool of solidification cracking, heat-affected zone of intergranular cracks, and transgranular crack in the heat-affected zone

Cerebral hemorrhagic infarction following cranioplasty in a shunted patient with tension pneumocephalus resulting from depressed skull and craniodural defect

SummaryA 34-year-old female sustained a severe traumatic brain injury that was treated with decompressive craniectomy and subsequent cranioplasty, then with ventriculoperitoneal shunt about 10 years previously. However, the skull flap was found to be depressed ever since. She was admitted to our hospital for a headache and left hemiparesis with sudden onset. The computed tomography scan displayed tension pneumocephalus in the right frontoparietal region. First, she underwent emergency burr hole drainage and placement of a subdural drain with external ventricular drainage tube. Then her symptoms improved considerably. Unfortunately, 6 months later she was admitted again to our hospital because of headache and left hemiparesis with sudden onset, and the brain computed tomography showed tension pneumocephalus in the right frontoparietal region. She underwent craniectomy to remove the previous depressed skull and simultaneous cranioplasty with Ti-Mesh. On the day of her operation, generalized seizure occurred and her consciousness deteriorated. The magnetic resonance imaging showed hemorrhagic infarction on both sides of the thalamus and the right parieto-occipital region. We think it probable that a sudden increase of cerebral blood flow in the cerebral hemisphere where the cranioplasty had been performed caused reperfusion injury and resulted in hemorrhagic infarction

The Study on Antecedents of Consumer Buying Impulsiveness in an Online Context

The global recession caused by the financial tsunami has seriously impacted numerous industries. Although the market scale of global e-commerce market has declined, global online shopping continues to grow. Many previous researches focused on the effect of website design characteristics on online impulsive buying behavior, and few have explored such behavior from consumer individual internal factor perspectives. This paper aims to explore and integrate individual internal factors influencing consumer online buying impulsiveness, and further to recognize the relationships among these factors. The results showed as follows: (1) hedonic consumption needs, impulsive buying tendency, positive affect and normative evaluations positively influence buying impulsiveness, respectively; (2) hedonic consumption needs positively influence positive affect; (3) impulsive buying tendency positively influences normative evaluations; (4) normative evaluations positively influence positive affect

Serial increase of IL-12 response and human leukocyte antigen-DR expression in severe sepsis survivors

Introduction: Sepsis-induced immunosuppression may result in death. The mechanisms of immune suppression include loss of macrophage and monocyte expression of the major histocompatibility complex, increased anti-inflammatory cytokine expression and decreased expression of proinflammatory cytokines. In this study, we sought to determine the mechanisms of immune suppression in severe sepsis by repeated detection. Methods: We designed this prospective observational study to measure monocyte human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR expression, plasma cytokine levels and cytokine responses on days 1 and 7 in stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of healthy controls and patients with severe sepsis. Results: Of the 35 enrolled patients, 23 survived for 28 days and 12 died, 6 of whom died within 7 days. Plasma levels of IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta 1 and TNF-alpha were higher, but plasma IL-12 level was lower in septic patients than those in controls. Day 1 plasma levels of IL-1 beta, IL-6, IL-10 and TGF-beta 1 in nonsurvivors were higher than those in survivors. Day 7 plasma IL-10 levels in nonsurvivors were higher than in survivors. IL-1 beta response was higher, but IL-12 and TNF-alpha responses were lower in septic patients than in controls. Day 1 IL-6 response was lower, but day 1 TGF-beta 1 response was higher in nonsurvivors than in survivors. Plasma IL-6 and IL-10 levels were decreased in survivors after 6 days. IL-6 response was decreased in survivors after 6 days, but IL-12 response was increased. Monocyte percentage was higher, but positive HLA-DR percentage in monocytes and mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of HLA-DR were lower in septic patients than in controls. MFI of HLA-DR was increased in survivors after 6 days. Conclusions: Monocyte HLA-DR expression and IL-12 response from PBMCs are restored in patients who survive severe sepsis