How to Select Patient Candidates for Antioxidant Treatment?

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Aortic coarctation in the elderly: how many errors lie behind an unexpected diagnosis?

A65-year-old woman was admitted to our department because of chest pain and untreated hypertension. She had been well until 6 years previously when a diagnosis of hypertension was made. She reported poor control of blood pressure associated with leg weakness in coincidence with tentatively aggressive anti-hypertensive therapy. Aclinical diagnosis of aortic coarctation was made [1], and a spiral TC study revealed a stenosis of the aorta 2 cm below the origin of the subclavia; a 2 cm aneurysm was present in the proximity of the stenosis (Fig. 1, white arrow) and epiaortic arteries were dilated

Proactive risk assessment through failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) for perioperative management model of oral anticoagulant therapy. A pilot project

Introduction: Correct perioperative management of anticoagulant therapy is essential to prevent thromboembolic events and reduce the risk of bleeding. The lack of universally accepted guidelines makes perioperative anticoagulant therapy management difficult. The present study aims to identify the perioperative risks of oral anticoagulant therapy and to reduce adverse events through Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA). Materials and Methods: A multidisciplinary working group was set up, and four main phases of the process were identified. Each of these phases was divided into micro-activities to identify the related possible failure modes and their potential consequences. The Risk Priority Number was calculated for each failure mode. Results and Discussion: Seventeen failure modes were identified in the entire perioperative period; those with a higher priority of intervention concern the incorrect timing between therapy suspension and surgery, and the incorrect assessment of the bleeding risk related to the invasive procedure. Conclusion: The FMEA method can help identify anticoagulant therapy perioperative failures and implement the management and patient safety of surgical procedures

Gaze following in an asocial reptile (Eublepharis macularius)

Gaze following is the ability to utilise information from another's gaze. It is most often seen in a social context or as a reflexive response to interesting external stimuli. Social species can potentially reveal utilisable knowledge about another's future intentions by attending to the target of their gaze. However, in even more fundamental situations, being sensitive to another's gaze can also be useful such as when it can facilitate greater foraging efficiency or lead to earlier predator detection. While gaze sensitivity has been shown to be prevalent in a number of social species, little is currently known about the potential for gaze following in asocial species. The current study investigated whether an asocial reptile, the leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius), could reliably use the visual indicators of attention to follow the gaze of a conspecific around a barrier. We operated three trial conditions and found subjects (N = 6) responded significantly more to the conspecific demonstrator looking up at a laser stimulus projected onto an occluder during the experimental condition compared to either of two control conditions. The study's findings point toward growing evidence for gaze-following ability in reptiles, who are typically categorised as asocial. Furthermore, our findings support developing comparative social cognition research showing the origins of gaze following and other cognitive behaviours that may be more widely distributed across taxonomic groups than hitherto thought

Utilising Drone Technology in Primatology for 3D Mapping

Emergent Unmanned Aerial System (or drone) technology allows the 3-dimensional mapping of forest landscapes, allowing a new perspective of arboreal primate habitat use. Utilising UASs in primatological studies enables the assessment of habitat quality for different arboreal primate species, the identification of discreet forms of anthropogenic disturbance (such as historical selective logging), and detailed investigation of canopy use by arboreal primate species. Combining 3D canopy structure with microclimate measurements, we can see how canopy structure buffers solar radiation and how arboreal species may be affected by future climate change. We present data on a study of the arboreal primate community in a lowland section of the Gunung Leuser Ecosystem in northern Sumatra, focusing on how 3D canopy structure effects ranging (siamang, Symphalangus syndactylus), different primate species’ population densities (lar gibbon, Hylobates lar, siamang and Thomas langur, Presbytis thomasi) and habitat selection (orang-utan, Pongo abelii and siamang) and how UAS technology can be utilised in other future studies; the potential opportunities, challenges and pitfalls

Stress behaviours buffer macaques from aggression

Primates (including humans) scratch when stressed. So far, such scratching has been seen as a by-product of physiological processes associated with stress, and attributed proximate, regulatory function. However, it is possible that others could use this relationship between scratching and stress as an indication of the animal’s stress state, and thus scratching could potentially have social function. As a test of this theory, we measured the production of, and social responses to scratching in a group of free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). Firstly, we found that the likelihood of scratching was greater around periods of heightened social stress, such as being in proximity to high-ranking individuals, or non-friends. Secondly, when macaques scratched, subsequent interactions were less likely to be aggressive and more likely to be affiliative. Potential attackers may avoid attacking stressed individuals as stressed individuals could behave unpredictably or be weakened by their state of stress (rendering aggression risky and/or unnecessary). Observable stress behaviour could therefore have additional adaptive value by reducing the potential for escalated aggression, benefiting both senders and receivers by facilitating social cohesion. This basic ability to recognise stress in others could also be an important component in the evolution of social cognition such as empathy

The importance of the altricial – precocial spectrum for social complexity in mammals and birds:A review

Various types of long-term stable relationships that individuals uphold, including cooperation and competition between group members, define social complexity in vertebrates. Numerous life history, physiological and cognitive traits have been shown to affect, or to be affected by, such social relationships. As such, differences in developmental modes, i.e. the ‘altricial-precocial’ spectrum, may play an important role in understanding the interspecific variation in occurrence of social interactions, but to what extent this is the case is unclear because the role of the developmental mode has not been studied directly in across-species studies of sociality. In other words, although there are studies on the effects of developmental mode on brain size, on the effects of brain size on cognition, and on the effects of cognition on social complexity, there are no studies directly investigating the link between developmental mode and social complexity. This is surprising because developmental differences play a significant role in the evolution of, for example, brain size, which is in turn considered an essential building block with respect to social complexity. Here, we compiled an overview of studies on various aspects of the complexity of social systems in altricial and precocial mammals and birds. Although systematic studies are scarce and do not allow for a quantitative comparison, we show that several forms of social relationships and cognitive abilities occur in species along the entire developmental spectrum. Based on the existing evidence it seems that differences in developmental modes play a minor role in whether or not individuals or species are able to meet the cognitive capabilities and requirements for maintaining complex social relationships. Given the scarcity of comparative studies and potential subtle differences, however, we suggest that future studies should consider developmental differences to determine whether our finding is general or whether some of the vast variation in social complexity across species can be explained by developmental mode. This would allow a more detailed assessment of the relative importance of developmental mode in the evolution of vertebrate social systems

Giulio Andreotti e l'Europa

Il volume è dedicato allo studio della politica estera di Giulio Andreotti, ministro degli Esteri (1983-1989) e Presidente del Consiglio (1989-1992), verso le Comunità europee e al suo contributo alla nascita dell'Unione Europea

Vitamin E supplementation.

Sir—In their report, Mona Boaz and colleagues1 conclude that, in haemodialysis patients who have increased oxidative stress and are at high risk of atherosclerotic complications, 800 IU vitamin E daily reduces the risk of vascular accidents, including myocardial infarction. The results are consistent with our study, in which we show that vitamin E interferes with one of the most important mechanisms in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis— cholesterol accumulation in the vessel wall.2 We have shown that autologous radiolabelled LDL injected in patients, who underwent carotid endarterectomy, localised in the macrophages of atherosclerotic plaque and that 900 mg vitamin E daily almost completely prevented this effect.