Management of incidentally detected heart murmurs in dogs and cats

A dog or a cat has an incidentally detected heart murmur if the murmur is an unexpected discovery during a veterinary consultation that was not initially focused on the cardiovascular system. This document presents approaches for managing dogs and cats that have incidentally-detected heart murmurs, with an emphasis on murmur characteristics, signalment profiling, and multifactorial decision-making to choose an optimal course for a given patient

Cognition and Brain Function in Schizotypy: A Selective Review

Schizotypy refers to a set of personality traits thought to reflect the subclinical expression of the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia. Here, we review the cognitive and brain functional profile associated with high questionnaire scores in schizotypy. We discuss empirical evidence from the domains of perception, attention, memory, imagery and representation, language, and motor control. Perceptual deficits occur early and across various modalities. While the neural mechanisms underlying visual impairments may be linked to magnocellular dysfunction, further effects may be seen downstream in higher cognitive functions. Cognitive deficits are observed in inhibitory control, selective and sustained attention, incidental learning, and memory. In concordance with the cognitive nature of many of the aberrations of schizotypy, higher levels of schizotypy are associated with enhanced vividness and better performance on tasks of mental rotation. Language deficits seem most pronounced in higher-level processes. Finally, higher levels of schizotypy are associated with reduced performance on oculomotor tasks, resembling the impairments seen in schizophrenia. Some of these deficits are accompanied by reduced brain activation, akin to the pattern of hypoactivations in schizophrenia spectrum individuals. We conclude that schizotypy is a construct with apparent phenomenological overlap with schizophrenia and stable interindividual differences that covary with performance on a wide range of perceptual, cognitive, and motor tasks known to be impaired in schizophrenia. The importance of these findings lies not only in providing a fine-grained neurocognitive characterization of a personality constellation known to be associated with real-life impairments, but also in generating hypotheses concerning the aetiology of schizophrenia

Improved joint line and posterior offset restoration in primary total knee replacement using a robotic-assisted surgical technique: An international multi-centre retrospective analysis of matched cohorts

BACKGROUND: Accurate restoration of joint line height and posterior offset in primary Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) have been shown to be important factors in post-operative range of movement and function. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of joint line and posterior offset restoration in a group of patients that underwent robotic-assisted TKA (raTKA). A matched cohort of patients that underwent a TKA using a conventional jig-based technique was assessed for comparison. The null hypothesis was that there would be no difference between groups. METHODS: This study was a retrospective analysis of a cohort of 120 patients with end-stage knee osteoarthritis that received a TKA using the Navio Surgical System (n = 60), or Conventional manual TKA (n = 60). Procedures were performed between 1 January 2019 and 1 October 2019 at six different centres. Joint line height and posterior offset was measured pre-operatively and post-operatively on calibrated weight bearing plain radiographs of the knee. Two observers performed measurements using validated measuring tools. A BMI and age-matched cohort of patients that underwent TKA using a conventional technique in the same six centres were assessed for comparison. Mean values, standard deviations and confidence intervals are presented for change and absolute change in joint line height and posterior offset. Student's t-test was used to compare the changes between techniques. RESULTS: Patients that underwent robotic-assisted TKA had joint line height and posterior offset restored more accurately than patients undergoing TKA using a conventional technique. Average change from pre-operative measurement in joint line height using raTKA was -0.38mm [95% CI: -0.79 to 0.03] vs 0.91 [0.14 to 1.68] with the conventional technique. Average absolute change in joint line height using raTKA was 1.96mm [1.74 to 2.18] vs 4.00mm [3.68 to 4.32] with the conventional technique. Average change in posterior offset using raTKA was 0.08mm [-0.40 to 0.56] vs 1.64mm [2.47 to 0.81] with the conventional technique. Average absolute change in posterior offset with raTKA was 2.19mm [1.92 to 2.46] vs 4.24mm [3.79 to 4.69] with the conventional technique. There was a significant difference when comparing absolute change in joint line height and posterior offset between groups (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Robotic-assisted primary TKA restores the joint line height and posterior offset more accurately than conventional jig-based techniques

Thromboembolic Events Associated with Thalidomide and Multimodality Therapy for Soft Tissue Sarcomas: Results of RTOG 0330

Introduction. RTOG 0330 was developed to address the toxicity of RTOG 9514 and to add thalidomide (THAL) to MAID chemoradiation for intermediate/high grade soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) and to preoperative radiation (XRT) for low-grade STS. Methods. Primary/locally recurrent extremity/trunk STS: ≥8 cm, intermediate/high grade (cohort A): >5 cm, low grade (cohort B). Cohort A: 3 cycles of neoadjuvant MAID, 2 cycles of interdigitated THAL (200 mg/day)/concurrent 22 Gy XRT, resection, 12 months of adjuvant THAL. Cohort B: neoadjuvant THAL/concurrent 50 Gy XRT, resection, 6 months of adjuvant THAL. Planned accrual 44 patients. Results. 22 primary STS patients (cohort A/B 15/7). Cohort A/B: median age of 49/47 years; median tumor size 12.8/10 cm. 100% preoperative THAL/XRT and surgical resection. Three cycles of MAID were delivered in 93% cohort A. Positive margins: 27% cohort A/29% cohort B. Adjuvant THAL: 60% cohort A/57% cohort B. Grade 3/4 venous thromboembolic (VTE) events: 40% cohort A (1 catheter thrombus and 5 DVT or PE) versus 0% cohort B. RTOG 0330 closed early due to cohort A VTE risk and cohort B poor accrual. Conclusion. Neoadjuvant MAID with THAL/XRT was associated with increased VTE events not seen with THAL/XRT alone or in RTOG 9514 with neoadjuvant MAID/XRT

Computational Indistinguishability between Quantum States and Its Cryptographic Application

We introduce a computational problem of distinguishing between two specific quantum states as a new cryptographic problem to design a quantum cryptographic scheme that is "secure" against any polynomial-time quantum adversary. Our problem, QSCDff, is to distinguish between two types of random coset states with a hidden permutation over the symmetric group of finite degree. This naturally generalizes the commonly-used distinction problem between two probability distributions in computational cryptography. As our major contribution, we show that QSCDff has three properties of cryptographic interest: (i) QSCDff has a trapdoor; (ii) the average-case hardness of QSCDff coincides with its worst-case hardness; and (iii) QSCDff is computationally at least as hard as the graph automorphism problem in the worst case. These cryptographic properties enable us to construct a quantum public-key cryptosystem, which is likely to withstand any chosen plaintext attack of a polynomial-time quantum adversary. We further discuss a generalization of QSCDff, called QSCDcyc, and introduce a multi-bit encryption scheme that relies on similar cryptographic properties of QSCDcyc.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. We improved presentation, and added more detail proofs and follow-up of recent wor

An examination of sex differences in associations between cord blood adipokines and childhood adiposity

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154308/1/ijpo12587.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154308/2/ijpo12587_am.pd

Bodily relations and reciprocity in the art of Sonia Khurana

This article explores the significance of the ‘somatic’ and ‘ontological turn’ in locating the radical politics articulated in the contemporary performance, installation, video and digital art practices of New Delhi-based artist, Sonia Khurana (b. 1968). Since the late 1990s Khurana has fashioned a range of artworks that require new sorts of reciprocal and embodied relations with their viewers. While this line of art practice suggests the need for a primarily philosophical mode of inquiry into an art of the body, such affective relations need to be historicised also in relation to a discursive field of ‘difference’ and public expectations about the artist’s ethnic, gendered and national identity. Thus, this intimate, visceral and emotional field of inter- and intra-action is a novel contribution to recent transdisciplinary perspectives on the gendered, social and sentient body, that in turn prompts a wider debate on the ethics of cultural commentary and art historiography

The antisaccade task as an index of sustained goal activation in working memory: modulation by nicotine

The antisaccade task provides a laboratory analogue of situations in which execution of the correct behavioural response requires the suppression of a more prepotent or habitual response. Errors (failures to inhibit a reflexive prosaccade towards a sudden onset target) are significantly increased in patients with damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and patients with schizophrenia. Recent models of antisaccade performance suggest that errors are more likely to occur when the intention to initiate an antisaccade is insufficiently activated within working memory. Nicotine has been shown to enhance specific working memory processes in healthy adults. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We explored the effect of nicotine on antisaccade performance in a large sample (N = 44) of young adult smokers. Minimally abstinent participants attended two test sessions and were asked to smoke one of their own cigarettes between baseline and retest during one session only. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Nicotine reduced antisaccade errors and correct antisaccade latencies if delivered before optimum performance levels are achieved, suggesting that nicotine supports the activation of intentions in working memory during task performance. The implications of this research for current theoretical accounts of antisaccade performance, and for interpreting the increased rate of antisaccade errors found in some psychiatric patient groups are discussed

Clinical characteristics and outcome of dogs with presumed primary renal lymphoma

Objectives: To characterise the presentation, clinicopathologic data and outcome of 29 dogs with presumed primary renal lymphoma. Materials and methods: Retrospective analysis of medical records of dogs with suspected primary renal lymphoma from 11 institutions. Results: All dogs were substage b, and lethargy and gastrointestinal signs were common presenting complaints, as were azotaemia (n=25; 86%) and erythrocytosis (n=15; 51%) on biochemical testing. Ultrasonography typically revealed bilateral renal lesions (n=23; 79%), renomegaly (n=22; 76%) and abdominal lymphadenopathy (n=14; 48%). Chemotherapy was the only treatment in 23 dogs, of which 11 responded, all considered partial responses. For all dogs the median progression-free survival and median overall survival times were 10 days (range: 1 to 126) and 12 days (range: 1 to 212), respectively, and for dogs that responded to chemotherapy 41 days (range: 10 to 126) and 47 days (range: 10 to 212), respectively. Clinical significance: Primary renal lymphoma in dogs appears to be associated with a poor prognosis and short-lived response to chemotherapy