Emphysematous Pyelonephritis with Renal Artery Pseudoaneurysm

Emphysematous pyelonephritis is an acute infection of the renal parenchyma and perinephric tissues caused by gas-forming microorganisms, resulting in the radiographic presence of gas in the kidney, collecting system, and surrounding spaces. Here we present a case of severe emphysematous pyelonephritis in the setting of Klebsiella urosepsis. Surgical exploration of the flank revealed infectious disintegration of the renal parenchyma into a large phlegmon. The post-operative course was complicated by renal artery pseudoaneurysm and cutaneous fistualization of a perinephric fluid collection. Despite the high rate of mortality associated with this condition, the patient survived and has remained clinically well

Directing cell migration and organization via nanocrater-patterned cell-repellent interfaces.

Although adhesive interactions between cells and nanostructured interfaces have been studied extensively, there is a paucity of data on how nanostructured interfaces repel cells by directing cell migration and cell-colony organization. Here, by using multiphoton ablation lithography to pattern surfaces with nanoscale craters of various aspect ratios and pitches, we show that the surfaces altered the cells focal-adhesion size and distribution, thus affecting cell morphology, migration and ultimately localization. We also show that nanocrater pitch can disrupt the formation of mature focal adhesions to favour the migration of cells towards higher-pitched regions, which present increased planar area for the formation of stable focal adhesions. Moreover, by designing surfaces with variable pitch but constant nanocrater dimensions, we were able to create circular and striped cellular patterns. Our surface-patterning approach, which does not involve chemical treatments and can be applied to various materials, represents a simple method to control cell behaviour on surfaces

Neurosyphilis in a Non-HIV Patient: More than a Psychiatric Concern

Neurosyphilis is a form of tertiary syphilis infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum. Patients suffering from this illness can present with neurological manifestations such as headaches, seizures, hearing loss, and ataxia. However, the typical presentation of neurosyphilis is the insidious onset of psychiatric symptoms including personality changes. A good history and clinical work-up is essential in the diagnostic process. There has been a recent increase in the incidence of infectious syphilis in Canada (1). However, in other parts of the world including China, infectious syphilis rates have remained high due to limited access to primary care and affordable treatments (2 Here, we present a case of neurosyphilis in a 40 year old Chinese male residing in China who presents with an 18 month history of personality changes as well as neurological and physical manifestations of the infection

Variational Quantum Approximate Spectral Clustering for Binary Clustering Problems

In quantum machine learning, algorithms with parameterized quantum circuits (PQC) based on a hardware-efficient ansatz (HEA) offer the potential for speed-ups over traditional classical algorithms. While much attention has been devoted to supervised learning tasks, unsupervised learning using PQC remains relatively unexplored. One promising approach within quantum machine learning involves optimizing fewer parameters in PQC than in its classical counterparts, under the assumption that a sub-optimal solution exists within the Hilbert space. In this paper, we introduce the Variational Quantum Approximate Spectral Clustering (VQASC) algorithm - a NISQ-compatible method that requires optimization of fewer parameters than the system size, N, traditionally required in classical problems. We present numerical results from both synthetic and real-world datasets. Furthermore, we propose a descriptor, complemented by numerical analysis, to identify an appropriate ansatz circuit tailored for VQASC.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Contractile deficits in engineered cardiac microtissues as a result of MYBPC3 deficiency and mechanical overload.

The integration of in vitro cardiac tissue models, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and genome-editing tools allows for the enhanced interrogation of physiological phenotypes and recapitulation of disease pathologies. Here, using a cardiac tissue model consisting of filamentous three-dimensional matrices populated with cardiomyocytes derived from healthy wild-type (WT) hiPSCs (WT hiPSC-CMs) or isogenic hiPSCs deficient in the sarcomere protein cardiac myosin-binding protein C (MYBPC3-/- hiPSC-CMs), we show that the WT microtissues adapted to the mechanical environment with increased contraction force commensurate to matrix stiffness, whereas the MYBPC3-/- microtissues exhibited impaired force development kinetics regardless of matrix stiffness and deficient contraction force only when grown on matrices with high fibre stiffness. Under mechanical overload, the MYBPC3-/- microtissues had a higher degree of calcium transient abnormalities, and exhibited an accelerated decay of calcium dynamics as well as calcium desensitization, which accelerated when contracting against stiffer fibres. Our findings suggest that MYBPC3 deficiency and the presence of environmental stresses synergistically lead to contractile deficits in cardiac tissues