Severe head injuries in children

The aim of this dissertation is to review the current literature on severe head injuries in children, with particular respect to epidemiology, clinical features and investigation, pathophysiology, management and outcome. In addition a retrospective study was carried out on severe head injuries at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital. Finally, the findings of this study are discussed in the light of the experience of other neurosurgical and trauma centres. In this way similarities as well as features peculiar to our setting can be identified with the aim of improving the understanding and management of severe head injuries in children in the Western Cape

Pituitary apoplexy : can histopathology, radiological imaging and predisposing factors be used in predicting outcome?

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-112).Pituitary apoplexy is an uncommon, yet potentially fatal illness, usually the result of infarction, hemorrhage or a combination of both in a pituitary tumor. The management of pituitary apoplexy consists of replacement therapy and in the majority of patients, surgical decompression, although some cases may be treated conservatively. Up to now no study has attempted to separate the two histopathological types of pituitary apoplexy or to analyze their clinical and radiological significance on presentation and outcome

Examining the Bacterial Methionine Transporter Utilizing Soluble Lipid Bilayer Systems

The phospholipid bilayer present in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes regulates the cell’s acquisition of nutrients and excretion of waste. Studies on the complex components of the lipid bilayer have paved the way for learning about the selective permeability of the membrane. It is of great interest to understand how materials are being transported through transmembrane proteins in relation to the electrochemical gradient. Investigation into the mechanistic properties of these transport proteins, particularly ATP-binding cassettes (ABC) transporters, can clarify how substrates are being transported via the binding and hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The study of ABC transporters is significant in human disease treatment; for example, the alteration of the ATP transport protein domain has been found to lead to multidrug-resistance (Boumendjel, A., 2009) and cystic fibrosis (Mendoza, J., 2007). The overall goal of this project is to compare the activity of the MetNI transporter, a methionine importer, solubilized in detergent to the activity in nanodiscs, a self-contained lipidic environment (Sligar, 2008). First, the membrane-scaffolding protein (MSP) component of nanodiscs MSP3 was successfully bacterially expressed in E. coli cells on a large-scale and then purified by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC). Preliminary ATPase assays were conducted on detergent-solubilized MetNI. We calculated that the MetNI transporter isolated in detergent has an average Km of 619 µM and kcat of 4.3 min-1. The comparison of the MetNI ATPase rate in lipidic versus detergent environments will be carried out once MetNI is successfully reconstituted into nanodiscs

Concert recording 2013-05-29

[Track 01]. String quartet no. 14 in D minor D. 810. Allegro ; [Track 02]. Andante ; [Track 03]. Scherzo ; [Track 04]. Presto / Franz Schubert -- [Track 05]. String quartet in G minor op. 10. Anime et tres decide ; [Track 06]. Assez vif et bien rythme ; [Track 07]. Andantino, doucement expressif ; [Track 08]. Tres modere, En animant peu a peu, Tres mouvemente et avec passion / Claude Debussy

Social Physique Anxiety and Exercise Motivation

The benefits of exercise are clear; they include better overall health, better mood, and less stress (Schultchen et. al., 2019). However, exercise motivations vary (Pate, 1995). Some of these motivations include: health and fitness benefits, social/emotional benefits, weight management, stress management, enjoyment, and appearance (Dacey, 2008). When exercising, many are exposed to an environment of comparison, which has been shown to foster social physique anxiety (Chen, Ku, & Wang, 2012), defined as the “feeling of distress associated with the perceived evaluation of one\u27s physical self” (Frederick & Morrison, 1996). Exercise behavior has been found to change in people with higher levels of social physique anxiety, which may indicate that it affects exercise motivation (Lantz & Hardy. 1997). This study sought to analyze the correlation between social physique anxiety and exercise motivation, measured by the Amended Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 and the Social Physique Anxiety Scale. It was hypothesized that social physique anxiety would be negatively correlated with the exercise motivations of enjoyment, health and fitness, social/emotional benefits, and stress management; and positively correlated with the exercise motivations of appearance and weight management. It is anticipated that results will show that those with lower social physique anxiety will have intrinsic exercise motivation and will exercise more frequently, and those with higher levels of social physique anxiety will have extrinsic exercise motivations and exercise less frequently. The results of this study have key implications for public health and exercise, and the prevention of social physique anxiety by integrating healthy exercise motivations

Human iPSC disease modelling reveals functional and structural defects in retinal pigment epithelial cells harbouring the m.3243A > G mitochondrial DNA mutation.

The m.3243A > G mitochondrial DNA mutation was originally described in patients with mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes. The phenotypic spectrum of the m.3243A > G mutation has since expanded to include a spectrum of neuromuscular and ocular manifestations, including reduced vision with retinal degeneration, the underlying mechanism of which remains unclear. We used dermal fibroblasts, from patients with retinal pathology secondary to the m.3243A > G mutation to generate heteroplasmic induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) clones. RPE cells differentiated from these hiPSCs contained morphologically abnormal mitochondria and melanosomes, and exhibited marked functional defects in phagocytosis of photoreceptor outer segments. These findings have striking similarities to the pathological abnormalities reported in RPE cells studied from post-mortem tissues of affected m.3243A > G mutation carriers. Overall, our results indicate that RPE cells carrying the m.3243A > G mutation have a reduced ability to perform the critical physiological function of phagocytosis. Aberrant melanosomal morphology may potentially have consequences on the ability of the cells to perform another important protective function, namely absorption of stray light. Our in vitro cell model could prove a powerful tool to further dissect the complex pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie the tissue specificity of the m.3243A > G mutation, and importantly, allow the future testing of novel therapeutic agents

Dynamic upper respiratory abnormalities in thoroughbred racehorses in South Africa

Upper airway endoscopy at rest has been the diagnostic method of choice for equine upper respiratory tract (URT) conditions. Development of high-speed treadmill endoscopy improved the sensitivity of URT endoscopy by allowing observation of the horse’s nasopharynx and larynx during exercise. However, treadmill exercise may not always accurately represent the horse’s normal exercise as track surface, rider, tack and environmental variables are altered. Recently, the development of dynamic overground endoscopy (DOE) has addressed some of these shortcomings. A retrospective study was undertaken to describe the URT abnormalities detected during DOE in racehorses presenting with poor performance and/ or abnormal respiratory noise. Patient records of Thoroughbred racehorses undergoing DOE from November 2011 to August 2012 were reviewed. Data collected included signalment, primary complaint, distance exercised, maximum speed and dynamic airway abnormalities detected. Fifty-two horses underwent DOE for investigation of poor performance and/or abnormal respiratory noise. The main abnormalities detected included axial deviation of the aryepiglottic folds (40%), vocal cord collapse (35%), abnormal arytenoid function (33%) and dorsal displacement of the soft palate (25%). A total of 40 horses were diagnosed with one or more abnormalities of the URT (77%). Fifteen horses (29%) had a single abnormality and 25 horses (48%) had multiple abnormalities. This study showed that DOE is a useful technique for investigating dynamic disorders of the URT in racehorses in South Africa. The total number and type of dynamic pathological conditions were comparable with those identified in similar populations in other geographical locations.http://www.jsava.co.zatm201

Hydra: A mixture modeling framework for subtyping pediatric cancer cohorts using multimodal gene expression signatures.

Precision oncology has primarily relied on coding mutations as biomarkers of response to therapies. While transcriptome analysis can provide valuable information, incorporation into workflows has been difficult. For example, the relative rather than absolute gene expression level needs to be considered, requiring differential expression analysis across samples. However, expression programs related to the cell-of-origin and tumor microenvironment effects confound the search for cancer-specific expression changes. To address these challenges, we developed an unsupervised clustering approach for discovering differential pathway expression within cancer cohorts using gene expression measurements. The hydra approach uses a Dirichlet process mixture model to automatically detect multimodally distributed genes and expression signatures without the need for matched normal tissue. We demonstrate that the hydra approach is more sensitive than widely-used gene set enrichment approaches for detecting multimodal expression signatures. Application of the hydra analysis framework to small blue round cell tumors (including rhabdomyosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, neuroblastoma, Ewing sarcoma, and osteosarcoma) identified expression signatures associated with changes in the tumor microenvironment. The hydra approach also identified an association between ATRX deletions and elevated immune marker expression in high-risk neuroblastoma. Notably, hydra analysis of all small blue round cell tumors revealed similar subtypes, characterized by changes to infiltrating immune and stromal expression signatures

Linguistic analysis of empathy in medical school admission essays.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine whether words used in medical school admissions essays can predict physician empathy. Methods: A computational form of linguistic analysis was used for the content analysis of medical school admissions essays. Words in medical school admissions essays were computationally grouped into 20 \u27topics\u27 which were then correlated with scores on the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. The study sample included 1,805 matriculants (between 2008-2015) at a single medical college in the North East of the United States who wrote an admissions essay and completed the Jefferson Scale of Empathy at matriculation. Results: After correcting for multiple comparisons and controlling for gender, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy scores significantly correlated with a linguistic topic (r = .074, p \u3c .05). This topic was comprised of specific words used in essays such as understanding, compassion, empathy, feeling, and trust. These words are related to themes emphasized in both theoretical writing and empirical studies on physician empathy. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that physician empathy can be predicted from medical school admission essays. The implications of this methodological capability, i.e. to quantitatively associate linguistic features or words with psychometric outcomes, bears on the future of medical education research and admissions. In particular, these findings suggest that those responsible for medical school admissions could identify more empathetic applicants based on the language of their application essays