Congenital stenosis of the posterior urethra with resultant congenital bilateral hydronephrosis with dilation of the ureters and dilation and hypertrophy of the urinary bladde abdnd posterior urethra

1. The point at which the obstruction occurs is at the junction of the Pars prostatica and the Pars membranacea.2. No folds have been demonstrated at this point.3. A thickening of the muscular wall of the urethra exists from this point backwards towards the bladder.4. The folds or what may be taken as valve -like structures when present, have developed from the normally existing folds in the prostatic urethra and in the drawing of the cases in literature can be traced to their origin in the verumontanum. They arise from the verumontanum either from its anterior or posterior edge or from its middle.5. In some cases no folds exist and where they do, they occur in those cases that have survived for some time after birth. Only in one case have valves been reported in a full time foetus.6. The folds are the result of mechanical pressure exerted by the urine on the normal structures. In this respect it is noted that mucous folds are produced in the pylorus even where no folds originally exist.7. The muscle hypertrophy is due to the over -action caused by a want of harmony between the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems of the autonomic fibres either by direct action on the muscle itself or on the vessels.8. In some cases other deformities are present as in this case a deficiency and scarring of the anterior abdominal wall above the pubis, probably due to some action on the bloodvessels.9. Cure of the retention may be effected in early cases by the passage of instruments causing dilatation of the narrowed urethra similar to Lorenze's operations for Congenital stricture of the pylorus. But in later cases in which the verumontanum flaps have developed, cutting of the folds may be necessary.10. Analogous sites for a similar condition are found in the (1) Lower end of oesophagus. (2) Pylorus. (3) Lower end of Ileum. (4) Rectum

Evidence of Deep Water Penetration in Silica during Stress Corrosion Fracture

We measure the thickness of the heavy water layer trapped under the stress corrosion fracture surface of silica using neutron reflectivity experiments. We show that the penetration depth is 65–85 Å, suggesting the presence of a damaged zone of ~100 Å extending ahead of the crack tip during its propagation. This estimate of the size of the damaged zone is compatible with other recent results

Retrospective study of anaesthetic management of pregnancy patients with mechanical heart valve prosthesis and anticoagulants

Pregnancies among patients with a mechanical prosthetic valve and receiving anticoagulant medication are rare. Informations about their anesthetic management is poor. The objective of this study was to investigate the anaesthetic management of these patients in a reference medical centre as well as to identify possible ways for improvement. To this aim, the medical records of patients with a mechanical heart valve prosthesis having given birth at our center were analysed. In particular, the characteristics of patients and deliveries, the management of anticoagulation, as well as the type of anaesthesia performed, were collected and analysed. Eighteen cases were studied and compared to 36 controls. All studied cases were being administered anticoagulants. Five of these 8 patients delivered vaginally, one with epidural analgesia. Three of them have had a caesarean during labor, all under general anaesthesia. During the anticoagulation window, the teams had to perform an epidural in 3 (37%) of these 8 patients. Ten cases (55%) had a planned caesarean delivery, all performed under general anaesthesia. The anticoagulation interruption allowed spinal anaesthesia for 4 out of 10 caesarean delivery. The reoperation rate for secondary haemorrhage was significantly higher (P=0.0032) and the duration of the hospitalisation was extended (P<0.001). A context of anticoagulant overdose was identified in 60% of the bleeding cases. Progress can be made in the anaesthetic management of those patients by optimising the use of neuraxial anaesthesia and by improving the management of bleeding risk after delivery

Oxytocin is an age-specific circulating hormone that is necessary for muscle maintenance and regeneration.

The regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle declines with age. Previous studies suggest that this process can be reversed by exposure to young circulation; however, systemic age-specific factors responsible for this phenomenon are largely unknown. Here we report that oxytocin--a hormone best known for its role in lactation, parturition and social behaviours--is required for proper muscle tissue regeneration and homeostasis, and that plasma levels of oxytocin decline with age. Inhibition of oxytocin signalling in young animals reduces muscle regeneration, whereas systemic administration of oxytocin rapidly improves muscle regeneration by enhancing aged muscle stem cell activation/proliferation through activation of the MAPK/ERK signalling pathway. We further show that the genetic lack of oxytocin does not cause a developmental defect in muscle but instead leads to premature sarcopenia. Considering that oxytocin is an FDA-approved drug, this work reveals a potential novel and safe way to combat or prevent skeletal muscle ageing

Universal scattering behavior of co-assembled nanoparticle-polymer clusters

Water-soluble clusters made from 7 nm inorganic nanoparticles have been investigated by small-angle neutron scattering. The internal structure factor of the clusters was derived and exhibited a universal behavior as evidenced by a correlation hole at intermediate wave-vectors. Reverse Monte-Carlo calculations were performed to adjust the data and provided an accurate description of the clusters in terms of interparticle distance and volume fraction. Additional parameters influencing the microstructure were also investigated, including the nature and thickness of the nanoparticle adlayer.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, paper published in Physical Review

Attosecond dispersive soft X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy in graphite

Phase transitions of solids and structural transformations of molecules are canonical examples of important photo-induced processes, whose underlying mechanisms largely elude our comprehension due to our inability to correlate electronic excitation with atomic position in real time. Here, we present a decisive step towards such new methodology based on water-window-covering (284 eV to 543 eV) attosecond soft X-ray pulses that can simultaneously access electronic and lattice parameters via dispersive X-ray absorption fine-structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. We validate attoXAFS with an identification of the {\sigma}* and {\pi}* orbital contributions to the density of states in graphite simultaneously with its lattice's four characteristic bonding distances. This work demonstrates the concept of attoXAFS as a powerful real-time investigative tool which is equally applicable to gas-, liquid- and condensed phase