Ultrasound-Guided Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Cryoneurolysis for Analgesia in Patients With Burns.

Autologous skin grafting from the thigh is frequently required for treatment of burns and is associated with intense pain at the donor site. Local anesthetic-based (LA) nerve blocks of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) have been demonstrated to provide analgesia when the graft is taken from the lateral thigh. However, the duration of these single injection blocks has been reported to average only 9 hours, whereas the pain from the procedure lasts days or weeks. Continuous LA nerve blocks can also be used to provide analgesia during serial debridement of burns, although this requires placement of a perineural catheter which may increase infection risk in a population with an increased susceptibility to infection. Cryoneurolysis of the LFCN can potentially provide analgesia of the lateral thigh for skin graft harvesting or serial burn debridement that lasts far longer than conventional LA nerve blocks. Here, we present a series of three patients who received a combination of a LA nerve block and cryoneurolysis nerve block of the LFCN for analgesia of the lateral thigh. Two of these patients had the blocks placed before harvesting a split thickness skin graft. The third received the blocks for outpatient wound care of a burn to the lateral thigh. In all cases, the resulting analgesia lasted more than 1 week. A single cryoneurolysis block of the LFCN successfully provided extended duration analgesia of the lateral thigh for autologous skin graft donor site or wound care of a burn in three patients

The Hippo signal transduction network for exercise physiologists

The ubiquitous transcriptional co-activators Yap (gene symbol Yap1) and Taz (gene symbol Wwtr1) regulate gene expression mainly by co-activating the Tead transcription factors. Yap and Taz lie at the centre of the Hippo signalling network and are not only regulated by the Hippo kinase cassette itself but also by a plethora of exercise-associated signals and signalling modules. These include mechanotransduction, the AKT-mTORC1 network, SMAD transcription factors, hypoxia, glucose, AMPK, adrenaline/epinephrine and angiotensin II through G protein-coupled receptors, and interleukin 6 (Il-6). Consequently exercise should alter Hippo signalling in several organs to mediate at least some aspects of organ-specific adaptations to exercise. Consistent with this idea Tead1 over expression in muscle fibres has been shown to promote a fast-to-slow fibre type switch whereas Yap in muscle fibres and cardiomyocytes promotes skeletal muscle and cardiac hypertrophy, respectively. Finally TEAD1, YAP1, VGLL2, VGLL3 and VGLL4 have all been linked in genome wide-association studies to body height, a key factor in sports

Rifting along the northern Gondwana margin and the evolution of the Rheic Ocean: A Devonian age for the El Castillo volcanic rocks (Salamanca, Central Iberian Zone)

Exposures of volcanic rocks (El Castillo) in the Central Iberian Zone near Salamanca, Spain, are representative of Paleozoic volcanic activity along the northern Gondwanan passive margin. Alkaline basalts and mafic volcaniclastic rocks of this sequence are structurally preserved in the core of the Variscan–Tamames Syncline. On the basis of the occurrence of graptolite fossils in immediately underlying strata, the El Castillo volcanics traditionally have been regarded as Lower Silurian in age. In contrast, most Paleozoic volcanic units in western Iberia are rift- elated mafic to felsic rocks emplaced during the Late Cambrian–Early Ordovician, and are attributed to the opening of the Rheic Ocean. We present new zircon U–Pb TIMS data from a mafic volcaniclastic rock within the El Castillo unit. These data yield a near-concordant, upper intercept age of 394.7±1.4 Ma that is interpreted to reflect a Middle Devonian (Emsian–Eifelian) age for the magmatism, demonstrating that the El Castillo volcanic rocks are separated from underlying lower Silurian strata by an unconformity. TheU–Pb age is coeval with a widespread extensional event in Iberia preserved in the form of a generalized paraconformity surface described in most of the Iberian Variscan realm. However, in the inner part of the Gondwanan platform, the Cantabrian Zone underwent a major, coeval increase in subsidence and the generation of sedimentary troughs. From this perspective, the eruption age reported here probably represents a discrete phase of incipient rifting along the southern flank of the Rheic Ocean. Paleogeographic reconstructions indicate that this rifting event was coeval with widespread orogeny and ridge subduction along the conjugate northern flank of the Rheic Ocean, the so called Acadian “orogeny”. We speculate that ridge subduction resulted in geodynamic coupling of the northern and southern flanks of the Rheic Ocean, and that the extension along the southern flank of the Rheic Ocean is a manifestation of slab pull along the northern flank. This scenario provides a uniform explanation for many features that form at ca. 395 Ma along the Gondwanan margin and has implications for the origin of the coeval oceanic Devonian mafic rocks currently exposed in the Variscan suture of NW Iberia

Modelo de trator agrícola considerando modelo biodinâmico, filtro para o pneu e Método de Newmark Quadrático

Nos últimos anos houve um enorme desenvolvimento das técnicas e equipamentos na agricultura. Isso possibilita, desde que efeitos climáticos o permitam, ganhos de produção e safras cada vez maiores, apontando um ganho de eficiência e tornando a commodity de grãos um valioso ativo para o Brasil. Neste contexto os equipamentos agrícolas, além deterem um papel fundamental para a produção em si, geram impactos àqueles que os operam. Entender e estudar seu comportamento para propor equipamentos mais eficientes e robustos, mais ergonômicos e confortáveis para o trabalho diário é fundamental para o avanço e aumento de produção, portanto, consequentemente, aumento da eficiência como um todo. Neste trabalho é feito o modelamento de uma suspensão de trator agrícola, implementando um modelo biodinâmico representando o motorista. Também é incorporado um novo algoritmo de integração não-linear incondicionalmente estável, que é mais preciso e rápido que o método de Newmark. Outro aspecto avaliado foi a implementação de um filtro para o pneu de forma que o seu diâmetro seja considerado ao trafegar sobre pistas irregulares.In recent years, there has been an enormous development of techniques and equipment in agriculture. This makes it possible, as long as climatic effects allow production gains and increasing harvests, pointing to a gain in efficiency making the grain commodity a valuable asset for Brazil. In this context, agricultural equipment, in addition to playing a fundamental role in production itself, generate impacts to those who operate them. Understanding and studying their behavior to propose more efficient and robust, more ergonomic and comfortable equipment for daily work is fundamental for the advancement and increase of production, therefore, consequently, an increase of efficiency as a whole. In the work, the model of an agricultural tractor suspension is proposed, implementing a biodynamic model representing the driver. A new unconditionally stable nonlinear integration algorithm is implemented, which is more accurate and faster than the Newmark method. Another aspect considered is the implementation of a filter for the tire so that its diameter is considered when traveling on irregular tracks

The effect of Pt surface orientation on the oscillatory electro-oxidation of glycerol

In the present paper, we have studied the influence of (bi)sulfate anion (0.1 and 0.5 M) on the electro-oxidation of glycerol on basal Pt(hkl) and stepped surfaces belonging to the series of Pt(S)[n(1 1 1) × (1 1 1)]. Cyclic voltammograms and derivative voltammetry pointed out that the catalytic activity decreases for Pt(1 1 1) and Pt(1 1 0) and, to a minor extent, for stepped surfaces in 0.5 mol/L H2SO4. Chronoamperometric curves demonstrated that above 0.60 V (vs RHE), for both concentrations (0.1 and 0.5 mol/L H2SO4), stepped surfaces and Pt(1 1 0) showed greater ability to catalyze the glycerol electro-oxidation in comparison with Pt(1 1 1). Potential oscillations were mapped along with slow galvanodynamic sweeps and studied at constant current. For Pt(1 1 1), no oscillations were found in the galvanodynamic regime, however, under the galvanostatic regime, period 1 oscillations were observed after a long induction period. The oscillations showed a very similar profile for stepped surfaces, even for the Pt(3 3 2) surface, which has a high density of (1 1 0) steps. Pattern changes were observed only for Pt(1 1 0) compared to other surfaces. Therefore, we conclude that (1 1 0) step sites influence the oscillatory behavior, thus the insertion of the steps favors the path of formation of inactive species, which compete for the same catalytic sites in a given potential region. The extinction of the mechanism oscillatory occurs differently due to the intrinsic characteristics of each surface electrode for the formation of (hydro)oxides.The authors acknowledge FAPESP (Grants No. 2013/16930-7 and 2019/22183-6), FAPEAL (process 60030-001076/2016), CAPES - Brasil (CAPES, Grant No. 0001, and for the scholarship, GBM, 88887.341974/2019-00). HV (Grant No. 306060/2017-5) and GTF (Grant No. 313455/2021-0) acknowledge CNPq for financial support. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the RCGI – Research Centre for Gas Innovation, hosted by the University of São Paulo (USP) and sponsored by FAPESP (2014/50279-4 and 2020/15230-5) and Shell Brazil, and the strategic importance of the support given by ANP (Brazil’s National Oil, Natural Gas, and Biofuels Agency) through the R&D levy regulation

Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories

Background: There is a dearth of assessments of sign language development in young deaf children. This study gathered age-related scores from a sample of deaf native signing children using an adapted version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI (Fenson et al., 1994). Method: Parental reports on children’s receptive and expressive signing were collected longitudinally on 29 deaf native British Sign Language (BSL) users, aged 8–36 months, yielding 146 datasets. Results: A smooth upward growth curve was obtained for early vocabulary development and percentile scores were derived. In the main, receptive scores were in advance of expressive scores. No gender bias was observed. Correlational analysis identified factors associated with vocabulary development, including parental education and mothers’ training in BSL. Individual children’s profiles showed a range of development and some evidence of a growth spurt. Clinical and research issues relating to the measure are discussed. Conclusions: The study has developed a valid, reliable measure of vocabulary development in BSL. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between vocabulary acquisition in native and non-native signers

Individual participant data meta-analysis provides no evidence of individual response variation in individuals supplementing with beta-alanine.

Currently, little is known about the extent of inter-individual variability in response to beta-alanine (BA) supplementation, nor what proportion of said variability can be attributed to external factors, or to the intervention itself (intervention response). To investigate this, individual participant data on the effect of BA supplementation on a high intensity cycling capacity test (CCT110%) were meta-analysed. Changes in time to exhaustion (TTE) and muscle carnosine (MCarn) were the primary and secondary outcomes. Multi-level distributional Bayesian models were used to estimate the mean and standard deviation of BA and placebo (PLA) group change scores. The relative sizes of group standard deviations were used to infer whether observed variation in change scores were due to intervention or non-intervention related effects. Six eligible studies were identified, and individual data were obtained from four of these. Analyses showed a group effect of BA supplementation on TTE (7.7[95%CrI:1.3 to 14.3 s]) and MCarn (18.1[95%CrI:14.5 to 21.9 mmol·kgDM-1]). A large intervention response variation was identified for MCarn (σ_IR= 5.8 [95%CrI: 4.2 to 7.4 mmol·kgDM-1]); however, equivalent change score standard deviations were shown for PLA (16.1[95%CrI:13.0 to 21.3 s]) and BA (15.9[95%CrI:13.0 to 20.0 s] conditions, with the probability that standard deviation was greater in PLA being 0.64. In conclusion, the similarity in observed change score standard deviations between groups for TTE indicates the source of variation is common and therefore unrelated to BA supplementation, likely originating instead from external factors, which may include, for example, nutritional intake, sleep patterns or training status