Full-field stimulus threshold testing:a scoping review of current practice

The full-field stimulus threshold (FST) is a psychophysical measure of whole-field retinal light sensitivity. It can assess residual visual function in patients with severe retinal disease and is increasingly being adopted as an endpoint in clinical trials. FST applications in routine ophthalmology clinics are also growing, but as yet there is no formalised standard guidance for measuring FST. This scoping review explored current variability in FST conduct and reporting, with an aim to inform further evidence synthesis and consensus guidance. A comprehensive electronic search and review of the literature was carried out according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. Key source, participant, methodology and outcomes data from 85 included sources were qualitatively and quantitatively compared and summarised. Data from 85 sources highlight how the variability and insufficient reporting of FST methodology, including parameters such as units of flash luminance, colour, duration, test strategy and dark adaptation, can hinder comparison and interpretation of clinical significance across centres. The review also highlights an unmet need for paediatric-specific considerations for test optimisation. Further evidence synthesis, empirical research or structured panel consultation may be required to establish coherent standardised guidance on FST methodology and context or condition dependent modifications. Consistent reporting of core elements, most crucially the flash luminance equivalence to 0 dB reference level is a first step. The development of criteria for quality assurance, calibration and age-appropriate reference data generation may further strengthen rigour of measurement

Factors influencing implementation of team-based learning in health sciences education

Abstract Background Limited studies have looked at factors that lead to successful implementation of team-based learning (TBL). The purpose of this study was to identify contextual factors associated with implementation of TBL with a larger pool of individuals

Measuring retention within the adolescent brain cognitive development (ABCD)SM study

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD

A transcription map of the pea chloroplast genome

A set of 53 cloned pea chloroplast DNA fragments representing approximately 90% of the chloroplast genome was used to probe Northern blots of total pea RNA, resulting in a nearly complete chloroplast transcription map. Similar analyses were performed for RNAs extracted from pea seedlings grown under several different light regimes. We have found that at least 85 kb of the 120 by pea chloroplast genome is represented as detectable transcripts. For many regions of the genome, we have detected multiple overlapping transcripts including both small, gene-sized RNAs and large transcripts covering entire gene clusters. All transcripts detected were more abundant (as a fraction of total cellular RNA) in light grown plants than in plants entirely in the dark. However, larger transcripts were generally more abundant in plants that had been exposed to only 24 h of white light (after germination in the dark) than in plants grown in continuous light. This study indicates that chloroplast genes are often grouped into multigene transcriptional units which can be cotranscribed, and that light-stimulated plastid development involves changes in the relative abundance of the overlapping RNAs of different length that result from transcription of these genes or gene clusters.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46966/1/294_2004_Article_BF00405857.pd

Crucial Role for Ecto-5′-Nucleotidase (CD73) in Vascular Leakage during Hypoxia

Extracellular adenosine has been widely implicated in adaptive responses to hypoxia. The generation of extracellular adenosine involves phosphohydrolysis of adenine nucleotide intermediates, and is regulated by the terminal enzymatic step catalyzed by ecto-5′-nucleotidase (CD73). Guided by previous work indicating that hypoxia-induced vascular leakage is, at least in part, controlled by adenosine, we generated mice with a targeted disruption of the third coding exon of Cd73 to test the hypothesis that CD73-generated extracellular adenosine functions in an innate protective pathway for hypoxia-induced vascular leakage. Cd73 (−/−) mice bred and gained weight normally, and appeared to have an intact immune system. However, vascular leakage was significantly increased in multiple organs, and after subjection to normobaric hypoxia (8% O(2)), Cd73 (−/−) mice manifested fulminant vascular leakage, particularly prevalent in the lung. Histological examination of lungs from hypoxic Cd73 (−/−) mice revealed perivascular interstitial edema associated with inflammatory infiltrates surrounding larger pulmonary vessels. Vascular leakage secondary to hypoxia was reversed in part by adenosine receptor agonists or reconstitution with soluble 5′-nucleotidase. Together, our studies identify CD73 as a critical mediator of vascular leakage in vivo

CD73-generated adenosine restricts lymphocyte migration into draining lymph nodes.

After an inflammatory stimulus, lymphocyte migration into draining lymph nodes increases dramatically to facilitate the encounter of naive T cells with Ag-loaded dendritic cells. In this study, we show that CD73 (ecto-5\u27-nucleotidase) plays an important role in regulating this process. CD73 produces adenosine from AMP and is expressed on high endothelial venules (HEV) and subsets of lymphocytes. Cd73(-/-) mice have normal sized lymphoid organs in the steady state, but approximately 1.5-fold larger draining lymph nodes and 2.5-fold increased rates of L-selectin-dependent lymphocyte migration from the blood through HEV compared with wild-type mice 24 h after LPS administration. Migration rates of cd73(+/+) and cd73(-/-) lymphocytes into lymph nodes of wild-type mice are equal, suggesting that it is CD73 on HEV that regulates lymphocyte migration into draining lymph nodes. The A(2B) receptor is a likely target of CD73-generated adenosine, because it is the only adenosine receptor expressed on the HEV-like cell line KOP2.16 and it is up-regulated by TNF-alpha. Furthermore, increased lymphocyte migration into draining lymph nodes of cd73(-/-) mice is largely normalized by pretreatment with the selective A(2B) receptor agonist BAY 60-6583. Adenosine receptor signaling to restrict lymphocyte migration across HEV may be an important mechanism to control the magnitude of an inflammatory response

Alginate inhibits iron absorption from ferrous gluconate in a randomized controlled trial and reduces iron uptake into Caco-2 cells

Previous in vitro results indicated that alginate beads might be a useful vehicle for food iron fortification. A human study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that alginate enhances iron absorption. A randomised, single blinded, cross-over trial was carried out in which iron absorption was measured from serum iron appearance after a test meal. Overnight-fasted volunteers (n=15) were given a test meal of 200g cola-flavoured jelly plus 21 mg iron as ferrous gluconate, either in alginate beads mixed into the jelly or in a capsule. Iron absorption was lower from the alginate beads than from ferrous gluconate (8.5% and 12.6% respectively, p=0.003). Sub-group B (n=9) consumed the test meals together with 600 mg calcium to determine whether alginate modified the inhibitory effect of calcium. Calcium reduced iron absorption from ferrous gluconate by 51%, from 11.5% to 5.6% (p=0.014), and from alginate beads by 37%, from 8.3% to 5.2% (p=0.009). In vitro studies using Caco-2 cells were designed to explore the reasons for the difference between the previous in vitro findings and the human study; confirmed the inhibitory effect of alginate. Beads similar to those used in the human study were subjected to simulated gastrointestinal digestion, with and without cola jelly, and the digestate applied to Caco-2 cells. Both alginate and cola jelly significantly reduced iron uptake into the cells, by 34% (p=0.009) and 35% (p=0.003) respectively. The combination of cola jelly and calcium produced a very low ferritin response, 16.5% (p<0.001) of that observed with ferrous gluconate alone. The results of these studies demonstrate that alginate beads are not a useful delivery system for soluble salts of iron for the purpose of food fortification

NPAL04 OBS data analysis part 1 : kinematics of deep seafloor arrivals

These notes provide supporting information for a JASA (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America) LttE (Letter to the Editor) manuscript, "Deep seafloor arrivals: A new class of arrivals in long-range ocean acoustic propagation" (Stephen et al., submitted). It addresses five issues raised by the co-authors: 1) incorrect processing for the time-compressed traces at T2300 and T3200 that appeared in an early version of the LttE (T2300, T3200 … refer to transmissions at 2300, 3200km etc from the DVLA (Deep Vertical Line Array)), 2) processing issues, including the trade-offs between coherent and incoherent stacking and corrections for the effects of moving sources and receivers and tidal currents (Doppler), 4) the distinction between "deep shadow zone arrivals", which occur below the turning points in Parabolic Equation (PE) models, and "deep seafloor arrivals", which appear dominantly on the Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) but are either very weak or absent on the deepest element in the DVLA and do not coincide with turning points in the PE model (some of these OBS late arrivals occur after the finale region), 4) the role of surface-reflected bottomreflected (SRBR) paths in explaining the late arriving energy, and 5) generally reconciling the OBS analysis with work by other North Pacific Acoustic Laboratory (NPAL) investigators and Dushaw et al (1999).Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research through Contract No. N00014-06-1-0222

An observational study of end-tidal carbon dioxide trends in general anesthesia

PURPOSE: Despite growing evidence supporting the potential benefits of higher end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO METHODS: This retrospective, observational, multicentre study included 317,445 adult patients who received general anesthesia for non-cardiothoracic procedures between January 2008 and September 2016. The primary outcome was a time-weighted average area-under-the-curve (TWA-AUC) for four ETCO RESULTS: Both TWA-AUC and median ETCO CONCLUSIONS: Between 2008 and 2016, intraoperative ETC