The geographies of food banks in the meantime

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support given by the British Academy for this research (grant no. SG131950). The ‘Emergency Food Provision in the UK’ research includes: over eighteen months of ethnographic research in a Trussell Trust Foodbank; a national survey of the Trussell Trust Network and Independent food banks (and other food aid providers); and in-depth interviews with food bank managers, volunteers and service-users in London, Bristol, Leicestershire, South Wales, Devon, and Cornwall

A Robust Approach to Identifying Tissue-Specific Gene Expression Regulatory Variants Using Personalized Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Normal variation in gene expression due to regulatory polymorphisms is often masked by biological and experimental noise. In addition, some regulatory polymorphisms may become apparent only in specific tissues. We derived human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from adult skin primary fibroblasts and attempted to detect tissue-specific cis-regulatory variants using in vitro cell differentiation. We used padlock probes and high-throughput sequencing for digital RNA allelotyping and measured allele-specific gene expression in primary fibroblasts, lymphoblastoid cells, iPS cells, and their differentiated derivatives. We show that allele-specific expression is both cell type and genotype-dependent, but the majority of detectable allele-specific expression loci remains consistent despite large changes in the cell type or the experimental condition following iPS reprogramming, except on the X-chromosome. We show that our approach to mapping cis-regulatory variants reduces in vitro experimental noise and reveals additional tissue-specific variants using skin-derived human iPS cells

Review article: Use of ultrasound in the developing world

As portability and durability improve, bedside, clinician-performed ultrasound is seeing increasing use in rural, underdeveloped parts of the world. Physicians, nurses and medical officers have demonstrated the ability to perform and interpret a large variety of ultrasound exams, and a growing body of literature supports the use of point-of-care ultrasound in developing nations. We review, by region, the existing literature in support of ultrasound use in the developing world and training guidelines currently in use, and highlight indications for emergency ultrasound in the developing world. We suggest future directions for bedside ultrasound use and research to improve diagnostic capacity and patient care in the most remote areas of the globe

Bacterial Surface Appendages Strongly Impact Nanomechanical and Electrokinetic Properties of Escherichia coli Cells Subjected to Osmotic Stress

The physicochemical properties and dynamics of bacterial envelope, play a major role in bacterial activity. In this study, the morphological, nanomechanical and electrohydrodynamic properties of Escherichia coli K-12 mutant cells were thoroughly investigated as a function of bulk medium ionic strength using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrokinetics (electrophoresis). Bacteria were differing according to genetic alterations controlling the production of different surface appendages (short and rigid Ag43 adhesins, longer and more flexible type 1 fimbriae and F pilus). From the analysis of the spatially resolved force curves, it is shown that cells elasticity and turgor pressure are not only depending on bulk salt concentration but also on the presence/absence and nature of surface appendage. In 1 mM KNO3, cells without appendages or cells surrounded by Ag43 exhibit large Young moduli and turgor pressures (∼700–900 kPa and ∼100–300 kPa respectively). Under similar ionic strength condition, a dramatic ∼50% to ∼70% decrease of these nanomechanical parameters was evidenced for cells with appendages. Qualitatively, such dependence of nanomechanical behavior on surface organization remains when increasing medium salt content to 100 mM, even though, quantitatively, differences are marked to a much smaller extent. Additionally, for a given surface appendage, the magnitude of the nanomechanical parameters decreases significantly when increasing bulk salt concentration. This effect is ascribed to a bacterial exoosmotic water loss resulting in a combined contraction of bacterial cytoplasm together with an electrostatically-driven shrinkage of the surface appendages. The former process is demonstrated upon AFM analysis, while the latter, inaccessible upon AFM imaging, is inferred from electrophoretic data interpreted according to advanced soft particle electrokinetic theory. Altogether, AFM and electrokinetic results clearly demonstrate the intimate relationship between structure/flexibility and charge of bacterial envelope and propensity of bacterium and surface appendages to contract under hypertonic conditions

Echocardiography practice, training and accreditation in the intensive care: document for the World Interactive Network Focused on Critical Ultrasound (WINFOCUS)

Echocardiography is increasingly used in the management of the critically ill patient as a non-invasive diagnostic and monitoring tool. Whilst in few countries specialized national training schemes for intensive care unit (ICU) echocardiography have been developed, specific guidelines for ICU physicians wishing to incorporate echocardiography into their clinical practice are lacking. Further, existing echocardiography accreditation does not reflect the requirements of the ICU practitioner. The WINFOCUS (World Interactive Network Focused On Critical UltraSound) ECHO-ICU Group drew up a document aimed at providing guidance to individual physicians, trainers and the relevant societies of the requirements for the development of skills in echocardiography in the ICU setting. The document is based on recommendations published by the Royal College of Radiologists, British Society of Echocardiography, European Association of Echocardiography and American Society of Echocardiography, together with international input from established practitioners of ICU echocardiography. The recommendations contained in this document are concerned with theoretical basis of ultrasonography, the practical aspects of building an ICU-based echocardiography service as well as the key components of standard adult TTE and TEE studies to be performed on the ICU. Specific issues regarding echocardiography in different ICU clinical scenarios are then described

Integrative literature review of the reported uses of serological tests in leprosy management

Abstract: An integrative literature review was conducted to synthesize available publications regarding the potential use of serological tests in leprosy programs. We searched the databases Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde, Índice Bibliográfico Espanhol em Ciências da Saúde, Acervo da Biblioteca da Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, Hanseníase, National Library of Medicine, Scopus, Ovid, Cinahl, and Web of Science for articles investigating the use of serological tests for antibodies against phenolic glycolipid-I (PGL-I), ML0405, ML2331, leprosy IDRI diagnostic-1 (LID-1), and natural disaccharide octyl-leprosy IDRI diagnostic-1 (NDO-LID). From an initial pool of 3.514 articles, 40 full-length articles fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Based on these papers, we concluded that these antibodies can be used to assist in diagnosing leprosy, detecting neuritis, monitoring therapeutic efficacy, and monitoring household contacts or at-risk populations in leprosy-endemic areas. Thus, available data suggest that serological tests could contribute substantially to leprosy management

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]