Dying Declarations and the Confrontation Clause

Article published in the Michigan State University School of Law Student Scholarship Collection

Use of Cellular Automata Modelling Approaches to Understand Potential Impacts of GM Grasses on Grassland Communities

In order to predict the potential unintended ecological impacts of genetically modified (GM) grasses, we must understand how the engineered traits, in this case herbicide resistance, are expressed in an ecological context. It would be a daunting task to experimentally evaluate the full multiplicity of potential pair-wise interactions between GM plants and native plants under a broad variety of actual environmental conditions. We have employed the modelling methodology of cellular automata (CA), where a plant\u27s distribution within a two-dimensional environmental grid is determined by rules relating to phenomena such as seed dispersal, clonal expansion and interactions with adjacent plants. We have used CA simulation to model interactions between GM grasses and the natural environment by describing the plants and the effect of the GM trait in terms of plant functional types. This approach takes the external factors which limit the amount of plant material present in any habitat and classifies them into two categories: (1) stress, defined with regard to the availability of nutrients and (2) disturbance, which refers to the destruction of plant material. The ecological characteristics of all the plants can be described based on three functional types C (competitor), S (stress-tolerator) and R (ruderal) as determined by their quantifiable physiological relationships to stress and disturbance. By ascribing the large number of plant ecological characteristics to a smaller number of functional types the problem, of describing how the engineered trait of herbicide resistance is expressed in an ecological context, becomes tractable

Epithelial cell specific Raptor is required for initiation of type 2 mucosal immunity in small intestine

AbstractIntestinal tuft cells are one of 4 secretory cell linages in the small intestine and the source of IL-25, a critical initiator of the type 2 immune response to parasite infection. When Raptor, a critical scaffold protein for mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), was acutely deleted in intestinal epithelium via Tamoxifen injection in Tritrichomonas muris (Tm) infected mice, tuft cells, IL-25 in epithelium and IL-13 in the mesenchyme were significantly reduced, but Tm burden was not affected. When Tm infected mice were treated with rapamycin, DCLK1 and IL-25 expression in enterocytes and IL-13 expression in mesenchyme were diminished. After massive small bowel resection, tuft cells and Tm were diminished due to the diet used postoperatively. The elimination of Tm and subsequent re-infection of mice with Tm led to type 2 immune response only in WT, but Tm colonization in both WT and Raptor deficient mice. When intestinal organoids were stimulated with IL-4, tuft cells and IL-25 were induced in both WT and Raptor deficient organoids. In summary, our study reveals that enterocyte specific Raptor is required for initiating a type 2 immune response which appears to function through the regulation of mTORC1 activity.</jats:p

Dying Declarations and the Confrontation Clause

Article published in the Michigan State University School of Law Student Scholarship Collection

Management of Obstructive Hydrocephalus Associated with Pineal Region Cysts and Tumors and Its Implication in Long-Term Outcome

BACKGROUND: Different treatment options have been proposed for obstructive hydrocephalus associated with pineal lesions. We discuss the obstructive hydrocephalus management associated with pineal region tumors and cysts in Helsinki Neurosurgery. METHODS: In this article, hydrocephalus treatment by tumor-cyst removal (n = 40), shunt surgery (n = 25), and endoscopic ventriculostomies (n = 3) is evaluated in 68 patients with obstructive hydrocephalus among 136 patients with pineal region tumor and cyst. Multivariate statistical analysis was followed by univariate and multivariate regression models of last functional status, last tumor-free imaging, and disease-specific mortality of the study population. RESULTS: Preoperative hydrocephalus was linked to higher World Health Organization tumor grades, poor functional status, higher mortality, and incomplete resection of pineal region cysts and tumors. Preoperative hydrocephalus remained a predictor of poor last functional status after multivariate regression. Pineal lesion removal with the posterior third ventricle opening as primary hydrocephalus treatment resulted in better last functional status, fewer postoperative shunts, fewer hydrocephalus related procedures, and fewer postoperative infections than in the shunt-treatment group. Multivariate regression analysis linked higher World Health Organization tumor & nbsp;grade, poor immediate functional status, postoperative complications, and incomplete surgical resection as independent predictors of disease mortality in patients with hydrocephalus. Same variables (except immediate modified Rankin Scale score) and higher number of shunt surgeries became independent predictors of poor last functional status at multivariate analysis. Incomplete resection was the only independent predictor of tumor-free magnetic resonance imaging at the last evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: Direct removal of pineal lesions with the opening of the posterior third ventricle could represent effective and reliable management of the associated obstructive hydrocephalus. Further research is required to generalize our inferences.Peer reviewe

Short-Burst Bipolar Coagulation for Repairing Partially Damaged Brain Arteries Preserving Their Flow : Technical Note

Peer reviewe

Bridging and downstaging to transplantation in HCC

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Venous air embolisms and sitting position in Helsinki pineal region surgery

Peer reviewe