Case Report: The Clinical Toxicity of Dimethylamine Borane

Context: Dimethylamine borane (DMAB) is a reducing agent used in nonelectric plating of semiconductors. Exposures are usually through occupational contact. We report here four cases of people who suffered from work-related exposure to DMAB. Case presentation: Three patients exposed to DMAB decontaminated immediately by drinking a lot of water; they reported dizziness, nausea, diarrhea 6–8 hr later. The other patient did not decontaminate at once, and he suffered from more severe symptoms, including dizziness, nausea, limb numbness, slurred speech, irritable mood, and ataxia 13 hr later. Magnetic resonance imaging showed symmetric lesions with hyperintensity on T2WI and FLAIR in bilateral cerebellar dantate nuclei. This patient was readmitted to the hospital due to difficulty in walking and climbing 18 days after exposure. Lower leg weakness and drop foot were found bilaterally. A nerve conduction study revealed polyneuropathy with motor-predominant axonal degeneration. This patient receives regular outpatient followups and still walks with a clumsy gait and has difficulty with hand-grasping activity. Discussion: This case study demonstrates that DMAB is highly toxic to humans through any route of exposure, and dermal absorption is the major route of neurotoxicity. DMAB induces acute cortical and cerebellar injuries and delayed peripheral neuropathy. Relevance: Further investigation of the toxic mechanism of DMAB is warranted. Early decontamination with copious water is the best current treatment for exposure to DMAB

Lars Hætta’s miniature world: Sámi prison op-art autoethnography

This article examines a collection of miniature objects, now held in museum collections, which were originally made by a Sámi political prisoner in Norway during the mid-19th century as part of an educational programme. The author draws on recent developments in the theory of miniaturization to consider these miniatures as examples of prison op-art autoethnography: communicative devices which seek to address broad and complex social issues through the process of the creation and distribution of semiophorically functionless mimetic objects of reduced scale and complexity, and which reflect the restrictions of incarcerated artistic expression and the questions this raises regarding authenticity and hybridity

The risk of angiosarcoma following primary breast cancer

Lymphangiosarcoma of the upper extremity is a rare and aggressive tumour reported to occur following post-mastectomy lymphoedema (Stewart–Treves syndrome). Haemangiosarcoma, a related rare tumour, has occasionally been reported to occur in the breast following irradiation. We conducted a case-control study using the University of Southern California-Cancer Surveillance Program, the population-based cancer registry for Los Angeles County, to evaluate the relationship between invasive female breast cancer and subsequent upper extremity or chest lymphangiosarcoma and haemangiosarcoma together referred to as angiosarcoma. Cases were females diagnosed between 1972 and 1995 with angiosarcoma of the upper extremity (n = 20) or chest (n = 48) who were 25 years of age or older and residing in Los Angeles County when diagnosed. Other sarcomas at the same anatomic sites were also studied. Controls were females diagnosed with cancers other than sarcoma during the same time period (n = 266 444). Cases and controls were then compared with respect to history of a prior invasive epithelial breast cancer. A history of breast cancer increased the risk of upper extremity angiosarcoma by more than 59-fold (odds ratio [OR] = 59.3, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 21.9–152.8). A strong increase in risk after breast cancer was also observed for angiosarcoma of the chest and breast (OR = 11.6, 95% CI = 4.3–26.1) and for other sarcomas of the chest and breast (OR = 3.3, 95% CI = 1.1–1.7). © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

d+idd+id Holographic Superconductors

A holographic model of $d+id$ superconductors based on the action proposed by Benini, Herzog, and Yarom [arXiv:1006.0731] is studied. This model has a charged spin two field in an AdS black hole spacetime. Working in the probe limit, the normalizable solution of the spin two field in the bulk gives rise to a $d+id$ superconducting order parameter at the boundary of the AdS. We calculate the fermion spectral function in this\ superconducting background and confirm the existence of fermi arcs for non-vanishing Majorana couplings. By changing the relative strength $\gamma$ of the $d$ and $id$ condensations, the position and the size of the fermi arcs are changed. When $\gamma =1$, the spectrum becomes isotropic and the spectral function is s-wave like. By changing the fermion mass, the fermi momentum is changed. We also calculate the conductivity for these holographic $d+id$ superconductors where time reversal symmetry has been broken spontaneously. A non-vanishing Hall conductivity is obtained even without an external magnetic field.Comment: 24 pages,17 figures, Add more discussions on hall conductivity, two new figures, Matched with published versio

A prospective multi-center cohort study of acute non-displaced fractures of the scaphoid: operative versus non-operative treatment [NCT00205985]

BACKGROUND: Acute scaphoid fractures are common in active adults and do lead to reasonable time lost to work. One important goal of treatment is early return to work or sport. On this background, the adequate treatment of non-displaced acute scaphoid fractures is still under discussion. The aim of this study is to compare time to return to previous activity level comparing surgical versus non-surgical treatment of non-displaced acute scaphoid fractures. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is designed as a non-randomized multiple center cohort study including 12 sites in Germany and Austria. The inclusion period is planned to be 12 months with a follow up of 6 months. Allocation to operative or non-operative treatment is choosen by the patient together with his treating surgeon. The primary outcome is time to return to previous activity level adapted for loading of the wrist in daily life as measured by a newly developed questionnaire (PLDL-wrist). Factors identified a priori to be associated with the outcome, e.g., poverty status, age, education, smoking status, gender, and occupation, are measured to ensure adequate control for their potential confounding effects. DISCUSSION: The rationale and the design of a multiple center cohort study are presented. As it is not considered feasible to randomize patients in this study, potential confounding effects need to be controlled adequately

PADB : Published Association Database

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although molecular pathway information and the International HapMap Project data can help biomedical researchers to investigate the aetiology of complex diseases more effectively, such information is missing or insufficient in current genetic association databases. In addition, only a few of the environmental risk factors are included as gene-environment interactions, and the risk measures of associations are not indexed in any association databases.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>We have developed a published association database (PADB; <url>http://www.medclue.com/padb</url>) that includes both the genetic associations and the environmental risk factors available in PubMed database. Each genetic risk factor is linked to a molecular pathway database and the HapMap database through human gene symbols identified in the abstracts. And the risk measures such as odds ratios or hazard ratios are extracted automatically from the abstracts when available. Thus, users can review the association data sorted by the risk measures, and genetic associations can be grouped by human genes or molecular pathways. The search results can also be saved to tab-delimited text files for further sorting or analysis. Currently, PADB indexes more than 1,500,000 PubMed abstracts that include 3442 human genes, 461 molecular pathways and about 190,000 risk measures ranging from 0.00001 to 4878.9.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>PADB is a unique online database of published associations that will serve as a novel and powerful resource for reviewing and interpreting huge association data of complex human diseases.</p

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Spectrum of centrosome autoantibodies in childhood varicella and post-varicella acute cerebellar ataxia

BACKGROUND: Sera from children with post-varicella infections have autoantibodies that react with centrosomes in brain and tissue culture cells. We investigated the sera of children with infections and post-varicella ataxia and related conditions for reactivity to five recombinant centrosome proteins: γγ-enolase, pericentrin, ninein, PCM-1, and Mob1. METHODS: Sera from 12 patients with acute post-varicella ataxia, 1 with post-Epstein Barr virus (EBV) ataxia, 5 with uncomplicated varicella infections, and other conditions were tested for reactivity to cryopreserved cerebellum tissue and recombinant centrosome proteins. The distribution of pericentrin in the cerebellum was studied by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) using rabbit antibodies to the recombinant protein. Antibodies to phospholipids (APL) were detected by ELISA. RESULTS: Eleven of 12 children with post-varicella ataxia, 4/5 children with uncomplicated varicella infections, 1/1 with post-EBV ataxia, 2/2 with ADEM, 1/2 with neuroblastoma and ataxia, and 2/2 with cerebellitis had antibodies directed against 1 or more recombinant centrosome antigens. Antibodies to pericentrin were seen in 5/12 children with post-varicella ataxia but not in any of the other sera tested. IIF demonstrated that pericentrin is located in axons and centrosomes of cerebellar cells. APL were detected in 75% of the sera from children with post-varicella ataxia and 50% of children with varicella without ataxia and in none of the controls. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to show the antigen specificity of anti-centrosome antibodies in children with varicella. Our data suggest that children with post-varicella ataxia have unique autoantibody reactivity to pericentrin

Facilitation and Competition among Invasive Plants: A Field Experiment with Alligatorweed and Water Hyacinth

Ecosystems that are heavily invaded by an exotic species often contain abundant populations of other invasive species. This may reflect shared responses to a common factor, but may also reflect positive interactions among these exotic species. Armand Bayou (Pasadena, TX) is one such ecosystem where multiple species of invasive aquatic plants are common. We used this system to investigate whether presence of one exotic species made subsequent invasions by other exotic species more likely, less likely, or if it had no effect. We performed an experiment in which we selectively removed exotic rooted and/or floating aquatic plant species and tracked subsequent colonization and growth of native and invasive species. This allowed us to quantify how presence or absence of one plant functional group influenced the likelihood of successful invasion by members of the other functional group. We found that presence of alligatorweed (rooted plant) decreased establishment of new water hyacinth (free-floating plant) patches but increased growth of hyacinth in established patches, with an overall net positive effect on success of water hyacinth. Water hyacinth presence had no effect on establishment of alligatorweed but decreased growth of existing alligatorweed patches, with an overall net negative effect on success of alligatorweed. Moreover, observational data showed positive correlations between hyacinth and alligatorweed with hyacinth, on average, more abundant. The negative effect of hyacinth on alligatorweed growth implies competition, not strong mutual facilitation (invasional meltdown), is occurring in this system. Removal of hyacinth may increase alligatorweed invasion through release from competition. However, removal of alligatorweed may have more complex effects on hyacinth patch dynamics because there were strong opposing effects on establishment versus growth. The mix of positive and negative interactions between floating and rooted aquatic plants may influence local population dynamics of each group and thus overall invasion pressure in this watershed