Pituitary body in its relation to the skeleton

The pituitary body in its relation to the skeleton: a review of the literature, with a preliminary report on personal experiments, and notes on experimental surgery.This research is not presented as a completed scientific investigation. It may be worth while, however, to give an account of the objects in view and the methods employed, together with a preliminary communication of the results obtained up to the present time.The object of this research is primarily to further the elucidation of the problems which concern diseases of bones. It is recognized that a thorough knowledge of the physiological conditions which influence bone growth, bone maintenance and bone repair is essential before pathological states are fully comprehensible and their rational treatment possible. The subject of normal bone growth and maintenance has therefore been taken up first; and the investigation resolves itself into an inquiry into the factors which exercise an important influenc on this.Before proceeding to apply the scheme of investigation ... it is necessary to review any previous investigations bearing on the subject. This must include the effects of pituitary disturbances on the other endocrine organs, and the influence of any such disturbance of another organ on bone. The importance of this general review is obvious when we consider the interdependence of the members of the endocrine group, the complex derangements which may thus follow a lesion of any one of them, and the consequent difficulty in interpreting the results of such a lesion. This subject is dealt with in Section I.The available methods of investigation then fall to be considered. In Section II the more general points are set forth; and in Section III the operative methods used are given in detail. The general results of operations and pituitary feeding are dealt with in Section IV. Section V contains summaries of individual experiments; and Section VI gives my own results in relation to bone growth

The Implementation of the Feedback Principle in Science and Technics

In this study positive and negative influence of the feedback have been examined. A feedback principle in the alternating current amplifier and in the speed regulator of the turbine rotation was described. The main conclusion of the positive and negative effect was obtained. Negative feedback worsens the properties of an object, reducing a strengthening factor, delaying regulatory action. Positive feedback considerably raises device work stability. This research will enable to identify the importance and effectiveness of the feedback principle in science and technics

The development of post-processing algorithm for the ultrasonic evaluation by the application of automated robotic testing systems

The implementation of automated testing systems based on six degrees of freedom (DOF) robotic manipulators is the actual trend in ultrasonic testing equipment development. Such systems are able to provide a fast ultrasonic evaluation with the respect of the surface of the testing object. In this work, the post-processing algorithm based on Synthetic Aperture Focusing Technique (SAFT) is suggested. Such algorithm allows presenting the results in the form of high-resolution imagery of the internal structure of testing objects. The suggested algorithm is applicable in the case of the utilization of automated testing systems based on six DOF robotic manipulators and takes into account all the features conditioned by such equipment application. Performance of the suggested algorithm was tested experimentally

How do women prepare for pregnancy? Preconception experiences of women attending antenatal services and views of health professionals

Copyright: © 2014 Stephenson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Main objective - To determine the extent to which women plan and prepare for pregnancy. Methods - Cross-sectional questionnaire survey of pregnant women attending three maternity services in London about knowledge and uptake of preconception care; including a robust measure of pregnancy planning, and phone interviews with a range of health care professionals. Main results - We recruited 1173/1288 (90%) women, median age of 32 years. 73% had clearly planned their pregnancy, 24% were ambivalent and only 3% of pregnancies were unplanned. 51% of all women and 63% of those with a planned pregnancy took folic acid before pregnancy. 21% of all women reported smoking and 61% reported drinking alcohol in the 3 months before pregnancy; 48% of smokers and 41% of drinkers reduced or stopped before pregnancy. The 51% of all women who reported advice from a health professional before becoming pregnant were more likely to adopt healthier behaviours before pregnancy [adjusted odds ratios for greatest health professional input compared with none were 2.34 (95% confidence interval 1.54–3.54) for taking folic acid and 2.18 (95% CI 1.42–3.36) for adopting a healthier diet before pregnancy]. Interviews with 20 health professionals indicated low awareness of preconception health issues, missed opportunities and confusion about responsibility for delivery of preconception care. Significance of the findings - Despite a high level of pregnancy planning, awareness of preconception health among women and health professionals is low, and responsibility for providing preconception care is unclear. However, many women are motivated to adopt healthier behaviours in the preconception period, as indicated by halving of reported smoking rates in this study. The link between health professional input and healthy behaviour change before pregnancy is a new finding that should invigorate strategies to improve awareness and uptake of pre-pregnancy health care, and bring wider benefits for public health.Department of Healt

Provenance and geochemistry of exotic clasts in conglomerates of the Oligocene Torehina Formation, Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand

Non-marine pebble to cobble conglomerates of the lower Torehina Formation (Oligocene) crop out along western Coromandel Peninsula and overlie, with strong angular discordance, continental-margin metasedimentary rocks (Manaia Hill Group) of Mesozoic (Late Jurassic to ?Early Cretaceous) age. The conglomerates contain provenance information that identifies a pre-Oligocene depositional history obscured by the unconformable juxtaposition of these Tertiary and Mesozoic strata. Most clasts in the lower Torehina Formation are visually similar to local bedrock lithologies, including metamorphosed sandstones and argillites, but are kaolinitic and contain more detrital and authigenic chert, quartz, and potash feldspar. Local derivation of these clasts seems unlikely. By comparing geochemical ratios with those defined for continental margin sandstones, and well characterised New Zealand tectonic terranes, we interpret the majority of clasts in the lower Torehina Formation to have been derived from a dissected orogen, with mixtures of felsic and volcanogenic-derived sediment. The most likely sources are the Waipapa and Torlesse Terranes. The remaining 20–30% of the clasts in the lower Torehina Formation were originally friable, are coarse grained, and appear to be lithologically exotic relative to known metamorphosed sandstones in basement terrane sources on North Island. Some clasts contain coal laminae and particles, and all contain detrital kaolinite as lithic fragments and matrix. Such characteristics imply a non-marine to marginal-marine source containing sediment derived from strongly weathered granite or granodiorite. Mechanical fragility implies a likely proximal, easily erodible source. We propose that this group of clasts was derived from an Upper Cretaceous sedimentary cover, either part of a locally developed basin fill or part of a once regionally extensive cover on North Island. Either case defines a more widely distributed Cretaceous source than found today

Strain analysis of a seismically imaged mass‐transport complex, offshore Uruguay

Strain style, magnitude and distribution within mass‐transport complexes (MTCs) are important for understanding the process evolution of submarine mass flows and for estimating their runout distances. Structural restoration and quantification of strain in gravitationally driven passive margins have been shown to approximately balance between updip extensional and downdip contractional domains; such an exercise has not yet been attempted for MTCs. We here interpret and structurally restore a shallowly buried (c. 1,500 mbsf) and well‐imaged MTC, offshore Uruguay using a high‐resolution (12.5 m vertical and 15 × 12.5 m horizontal resolution) three‐dimensional seismic‐reflection survey. This allows us to characterise and quantify vertical and lateral strain distribution within the deposit. Detailed seismic mapping and attribute analysis shows that the MTC is characterised by a complicated array of kinematic indicators, which vary spatially in style and concentration. Seismic‐attribute extractions reveal several previously undocumented fabrics preserved in the MTC, including internal shearing in the form of sub‐orthogonal shear zones, and fold‐thrust systems within the basal shear zone beneath rafted‐blocks. These features suggest multiple transport directions and phases of flow during emplacement. The MTC is characterised by a broadly tripartite strain distribution, with extensional (e.g. normal faults), translational and contractional (e.g. folds and thrusts) domains, along with a radial frontally emergent zone. We also show how strain is preferentially concentrated around intra‐MTC rafted‐blocks due to their kinematic interactions with the underlying basal shear zone. Overall, and even when volume loss within the frontally emergent zone is included, a strain deficit between the extensional and contractional domains (c. 3%–14%) is calculated. We attribute this to a combination of distributed, sub‐seismic, ‘cryptic’ strain, likely related to de‐watering, grain‐scale deformation and related changes in bulk sediment volume. This work has implications for assessing MTCs strain distribution and provides a practical approach for evaluating structural interpretations within such deposits

Intravenous sildenafil citrate and post-cardiac surgery acute kidney injury: a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Clinical trial registration ISRCTN18386427. open access articleBackground This study assessed whether i.v. sildenafil citrate prevented acute kidney injury in at-risk patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. Methods In a double-blind RCT, adults at increased risk of acute kidney injury undergoing cardiac surgery in a single UK tertiary centre were randomised to receive sildenafil citrate 12.5 mg kg−1 i.v. over 150 min or dextrose 5% at the commencement of surgery. The primary outcome was serum creatinine measured at six post-randomisation time points. The primary analysis used a linear mixed-effects model adjusted for the stratification variables, baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate, and surgical procedure. Secondary outcomes considered clinical events and potential disease mechanisms. Effect estimates were expressed as mean differences (MDs) or odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals. Results The analysis population comprised eligible randomised patients that underwent valve surgery or combined coronary artery bypass graft and valve surgery, with cardiopulmonary bypass, between May 2015 and June 2018. There were 60 subjects in the sildenafil group and 69 in the placebo control group. The difference between groups in creatinine concentration was not statistically significant (MD: 0.88 μmol L−1 [–5.82, 7.59]). There was a statistically significant increase in multiple organ dysfunction scores in the sildenafil group (MD: 0.54 [0.02, 1.07]; P=0.044). Secondary outcomes, and biomarkers of kidney injury, endothelial function, and inflammatory cell activation, were not significantly different between the groups. Conclusions These results do not support the use of i.v. sildenafil citrate for kidney protection in adult cardiac surgery