Noninvasive Monitoring of Elevated Intramuscular Pressure in a Model Compartment Syndrome via Quantitative Fascial Motion

Compartment syndromes, conditions of elevated intramuscular pressure (IMP) resulting from trauma or chronic overuse, frequently require invasive IMP monitoring for accurate diagnosis. Our objective was to test a noninvasive ultrasound technique For estimating IMP based on fascial displacement waveforms from arterial blood pressure pulses. IMP was increased in the legs of 23 healthy adult subjects LIP to 80 mmHg Using two blood pressure cuffs covering the region from the knee to the ankle. Receiver operator characteristic curves and recursive partitioning were used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of diagnosing elevated IMP using fascial displacement, For one curve. in which several ultrasonic measurement parameters were used along with subject body mass index and blood pressure, the sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing normal IMP (below 30 mmHg) from elevated IMP (30 mm Hg and up) was 0.61 and 0.94, respectively. Recursive partitioning, in which IMP was divided into three ranges (normal \u3c30 \u3emmHg, midrange of 30-40 mmHg, and elevated \u3e= 50 mmHg), resulted in improved diagnostic sensitivity (0.77) with almost no change in specificity (0.93). (C) 2008 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 27:489-494 200

GUCY2C maintains intestinal LGR5+ stem cells by opposing ER stress

Long-lived multipotent stem cells (ISCs) at the base of intestinal crypts adjust their phenotypes to accommodate normal maintenance and post-injury regeneration of the epithelium. Their long life, lineage plasticity, and proliferative potential underlie the necessity for tight homeostatic regulation of the ISC compartment. In that context, the guanylate cyclase C (GUCY2C) receptor and its paracrine ligands regulate intestinal epithelial homeostasis, including proliferation, lineage commitment, and DNA damage repair. However, a role for this axis in maintaining ISCs remains unknown. Transgenic mice enabling analysis of ISCs (Lgr5-GFP) in the context of GUCY2C elimination (Gucy2c-/-) were combined with immunodetection techniques and pharmacological treatments to define the role of the GUCY2C signaling axis in supporting ISCs. ISCs were reduced in Gucy2c-/- mice, associated with loss of active Lgr5+ cells but a reciprocal increase in reserve Bmi1+ cells. GUCY2C was expressed in crypt base Lgr5+ cells in which it mediates canonical cyclic (c) GMPdependent signaling. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, typically absent from ISCs, was elevated throughout the crypt base in Gucy2c-/- mice. The chemical chaperone tauroursodeoxycholic acid resolved this ER stress and restored the balance of ISCs, an effect mimicked by the GUCY2C effector 8Br-cGMP. Reduced ISCs in Gucy2c-/-mice was associated with greater epithelial injury and impaired regeneration following sub-lethal doses of irradiation. These observations suggest that GUCY2C provides homeostatic signals that modulate ER stress and cell vulnerability as part of the machinery contributing to the integrity of ISCs. © Kraft et al

Distribution and Natural History of Amphibians and Reptiles in Western Nebraska with Ecological Notes on the Herpetiles of Arapaho Prairie

Introduction: The distribution and natural history of amphibians and reptiles have been little studied in the northern states of the great plains. Relative to other vertebrate groups, the herpetofauna of grasslands is depauperate particularly at higher latitudes where temperature becomes a limiting factor to poikilotherms. Nevertheless, certain species of amphibians and reptiles are common in specific habitats and thus form a conspicuous component of the prairie fauna. The purposes of the present study were to document the distributions of herpetiles in a specified region of western Nebraska and to describe general aspects of their natural history. We hope such information will stimulate additiona} work as well as provide a baseline reference for future studies on the herpetofauna of the northern great plains. Previous work on herpetiles in western Nebraska are either in need of updating (e.g. Hudson, 1942) or are anecdotal or not comprehensive (Heyl and Smith, 1957; Gehlbach and Collette, 1959; Iverson, 1975; Lynch, 1978). Summary: The herpetofauna of the seven county study area in western Nebraska may be characterized in general by a preponderance of organisms exhibiting both wide geographical and wide ecological distributions and tolerances. Species exhibiting little microhabitat specificity and which are found widely throughout the region include the tiger salamander, spadefoot toad, rocky mountain toad, striped chorus frog, lesser earless lizard, fence lizard, racerunner, common racer, bullsnake, red-sided garter snake, plains garter snake, snapping turtle and painted turtle. Those ecologically restricted species that enter the area include the plains leopard frog, common water snake, black-headed snake, yellow mud turtle, Blanding\u27s turtle, and spiny soft-shelled turtle

Neutron Scattering in Normal and Deuterated Polyethylene

The one‐ and two‐phonon amplitude‐weighted directional frequency functions are calculated for normal and deuterated crystalline polyethylene. These results are compared to previously measured frequency spectra for stretch‐oriented normal polyethylene and to new measurements on deuterated polyethylene. In addition, the Debye‐Waller factors are calculated for oriented polyethylene and compared with elastic‐scattering data.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70915/2/JCPSA6-48-2-912-1.pd

Corporate volunteering climate: mobilizing employee passion for societal causes and inspiring future charitable action

As a society, we grapple with a host of national and global social issues — ranging from hunger and poverty to education to financial stability. Today’s corporations are playing an increasing role in efforts to address such concerns, predominantly through corporate volunteering. Yet, because research on corporate volunteering has been primarily focused on the individual volunteer experience, we still know relatively little about how corporate volunteering can help address grand challenges. In this study, we introduce the concept of corporate volunteering climate in order to examine the broader, more system-level functioning of corporate volunteering in workplaces. Drawing on the sensemaking process, we theorize about how a corporate volunteering climate develops — to what extent is it driven by company-level policies versus employee convictions for a cause? We also explore the potential influence of corporate volunteering climate for volunteers and non-volunteers, both in terms of the workplace (through employee affective commitment) and in terms of the broader community (through employee intentions to volunteer, both in corporate opportunities and on personal time). The results of a study conducted with United Way Worldwide suggest that corporate volunteering climate not only arises through either employees’ belief in the cause or corporate policies, but also that these forces act as substitutes for one another. Moreover, by fostering a sense of collective pride among employees, this climate is related to affective commitment, as well as both corporate and personal volunteering intentions

Peptide-directed assembly of functional supramolecular polymers for biomedical applications: electroactive molecular tongue-twisters (oligoalanine-oligoaniline-oligoalanine) for electrochemically enhanced drug delivery

We report the preparation and characterization of films of electroactive supramolecular polymers based on non-electroactive oligoalanines and electroactive oligoanilines. Fibroblasts adhered to and proliferated on the films, and the delivery of the clinically relevant anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone phosphate could be enhanced upon the application of an electrical stimulus

Missing channels in two-colour microarray experiments: combining single-channel and two-channel data.

BACKGROUND: There are mechanisms, notably ozone degradation, that can damage a single channel of two-channel microarray experiments. Resulting analyses therefore often choose between the unacceptable inclusion of poor quality data or the unpalatable exclusion of some (possibly a lot of) good quality data along with the bad. Two such approaches would be a single channel analysis using some of the data from all of the arrays, and an analysis of all of the data, but only from unaffected arrays. In this paper we examine a 'combined' approach to the analysis of such affected experiments that uses all of the unaffected data. RESULTS: A simulation experiment shows that while a single channel analysis performs relatively well when the majority of arrays are affected, and excluding affected arrays performs relatively well when few arrays are affected (as would be expected in both cases), the combined approach out-performs both. There are benefits to actively estimating the key-parameter of the approach, but whether these compensate for the increased computational cost and complexity over just setting that parameter to take a fixed value is not clear. Inclusion of ozone-affected data results in poor performance, with a clear spatial effect in the damage being apparent. CONCLUSION: There is no need to exclude unaffected data in order to remove those which are damaged. The combined approach discussed here is shown to out-perform more usual approaches, although it seems that if the damage is limited to very few arrays, or extends to very nearly all, then the benefits will be limited. In other circumstances though, large improvements in performance can be achieved by adopting such an approach.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are