Case Report Subclavian Artery Pseudoaneurysm Formation 3 Months after a Game of Rugby Union

Pseudoaneurysms of the subclavian artery remain a rare complication after fracture of the clavicle. We report a case of delayed diagnosis of a subclavian artery pseudoaneurysm after a closed fracture of the clavicle in a 15-year-old patient, 3 months after the original injury while playing rugby union. Despite several attendances to the Emergency Department with vague symptoms, the final diagnosis was confirmed by duplex ultrasound and Computed Tomography of the thorax. Surgical repair was indicated due to acute limb ischaemia from distal embolisation from a large pseudoaneurysm, with the patient making a full recovery. This case highlights the need for clinical vigilance when assessing patients, particularly on repeated occasions when their recovery appears to be impaired. A thorough history and clinical examination can raise suspicion of even rare occurrences and aid prompt management. Case Report A 15-year-old boy attended the Emergency Department (ED) with a short history of a pale left arm. He denied pain but complained of some altered sensation throughout his left hand. He had a significant recent medical history, having suffered a fractured midshaft of his left clavicle (see Physical examination on his final visit revealed a warm but pale arm with no radial, ulnar, or brachial pulses palpable, but a normal capillary refill time of 2 seconds, and a reduced power in his intrinsic muscles of his left hand, but normal peripheral neurovascular examinations in remaining limbs and an electrocardiograph showing sinus rhythm. Chest Xray confirmed no cervical ribs. A duplex ultrasound scan showed a loss of flow in the brachial artery below the left elbow, with thrombus partially occluding the artery. Also noted was a 3 cm abnormality in the left subclavian artery that was thought to be a subclavian aneurysm that contained thrombus. Subsequent Computed Tomography (CT) of the thorax Transfer was arranged that day to the local acute vascular surgeon on call, where he underwent a subclavian-axillary bypass and brachial embolectomy. After 4 days of recovery as an inpatient including a heparin infusion he was discharged, symptom-free. Discussion The annual incidence rate of clavicular fractures is estimated to be between 30 and 60 cases per 100,000 peopl

Cooperative virulence can emerge via horizontal gene transfer but is stabilized by transmission

Intestinal inflammation fuels Salmonella Typhimurium ( S .Tm) transmission despite a fitness cost associated with the expression of virulence. Cheater mutants can emerge that profit from inflammation without enduring this cost. Intestinal virulence in S .Tm is therefore a cooperative trait, and its evolution a conundrum. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of cooperative alleles may facilitate the emergence of cooperative virulence, despite its instability. To test this hypothesis, we cloned hilD , coding for a master regulator of virulence, into a conjugative plasmid that is highly transferrable during intestinal colonization. We demonstrate that virulence can emerge by hilD transfer between avirulent strains in vivo . However, this was indeed unstable and hilD mutant cheaters arose within a few days. The timing of cheater emergence depended on the cost. We further show that stabilization of cooperative virulence in S .Tm is dependent on transmission dynamics, strengthened by population bottlenecks, leading cheaters to extinction and allowing cooperators to thrive

Software Transactional Memory, OpenMP and Pthread implementations of the Conjugate Gradients Method - a Preliminary Evaluation

This paper shows the runtime and cache-efficiency of parallel implementations of the Conjugate Gradients Method based on the three paradigms Software Transactional Memory (STM), OpenMP and Pthreads. While the two last named concepts are used to manage parallelization as well as synchronization, STM was designed to handle only the latter. In our work we disclose that an improved cache efficiency does not necessarily lead to a better execution time because the execution time is dominated by the thread wait time at the barriers

Towards achieving circularity and sustainability in feeds for farmed blue foods

acceptedVersio

In situ measurement of bovine serum albumin interaction with gold nanospheres

Here we present in situ observations of adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on citratestabilized gold nanospheres. We implemented scattering correlation spectroscopy as a tool to quantify changes in the nanoparticle Brownian motion resulting from BSA adsorption onto the nanoparticle surface. Protein binding was observed as an increase in the nanoparticle hydrodynamic radius. Our results indicate the formation of a protein monolayer at similar albumin concentrations as those found in human blood. Additionally, by monitoring the frequency and intensity of individual scattering events caused by single gold nanoparticles passing the observation volume, we found that BSA did not induce colloidal aggregation, a relevant result from the toxicological viewpoint. Moreover, to elucidate the thermodynamics of the gold nanoparticle-BSA association, we measured an adsorption isotherm which was best described by an anti-cooperative binding model. The number of binding sites based on this model was consistent with a BSA monolayer in its native state. In contrast, experiments using poly-ethylene glycol capped gold nanoparticles revealed no evidence for adsorption of BSA

Application of isothermal titration calorimetry in evaluation of protein–nanoparticle interactions

Nanoparticles (NPs) offer a number of advantages over small organic molecules for controlling protein behaviour inside the cell. Protein binding to the surface of NPs depends on their surface characteristics, composition and method of preparation (Mandal et al. in J Hazard Mater 248–249:238–245, 2013). It is important to understand the binding affinities, stoichiometries and thermodynamical parameters of NP–protein interactions in order to see which interaction will have toxic and hazardous consequences and thus to prevent it. On the other side, because proteins are on the brink of stability, they may experience interactions with some types of NPs that are strong enough to cause denaturation or significantly change their conformations with concomitant loss of their biological function. Structural changes in the protein may cause exposure of new antigenic sites, “cryptic” peptide epitopes, potentially triggering an immune response which can promote autoimmune disease (Treuel et al. in ACS Nano 8(1):503–513, 2014). Mechanistic details of protein structural changes at NP surface have still remained elusive. Understanding the formation and persistence of the protein corona is critical issue; however, there are no many analytical methods which could provide detailed information about the NP–protein interaction characteristics and about protein structural changes caused by interactions with nanoparticles. The article reviews recent studies in NP–protein interactions research and application of isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) in this research. The study of protein structural changes upon adsorption on nanoparticle surface and application of ITC in these studies is emphasized. The data illustrate that ITC is a versatile tool for evaluation of interactions between NPs and proteins. When coupled with other analytical methods, it is important analytical tool for monitoring conformational changes in proteins