Arterial pressure changes monitoring with a new precordial noninvasive sensor

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recently, a cutaneous force-frequency relation recording system based on first heart sound amplitude vibrations has been validated. A further application is the assessment of Second Heart Sound (S2) amplitude variations at increasing heart rates. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between second heart sound amplitude variations at increasing heart rates and hemodynamic changes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The transcutaneous force sensor was positioned in the precordial region in 146 consecutive patients referred for exercise (n = 99), dipyridamole (n = 41), or pacing stress (n = 6). The curve of S2 peak amplitude variation as a function of heart rate was computed as the increment with respect to the resting value.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A consistent S2 signal was obtained in all patients. Baseline S2 was 7.2 ± 3.3 m<it>g</it>, increasing to 12.7 ± 7.7 m<it>g </it>at peak stress. S2 percentage increase was + 133 ± 104% in the 99 exercise, + 2 ± 22% in the 41 dipyridamole, and + 31 ± 27% in the 6 pacing patients (p < 0.05). Significant determinants of S2 amplitude were blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac index with best correlation (R = .57) for mean pressure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>S2 recording quantitatively documents systemic pressure changes.</p

The Early Royal Society and Visual Culture

Recent studies have fruitfully examined the intersection between early modern science and visual culture by elucidating the functions of images in shaping and disseminating scientific knowledge. Given its rich archival sources, it is possible to extend this line of research in the case of the Royal Society to an examination of attitudes towards images as artefacts –manufactured objects worth commissioning, collecting and studying. Drawing on existing scholarship and material from the Royal Society Archives, I discuss Fellows’ interests in prints, drawings, varnishes, colorants, images made out of unusual materials, and methods of identifying the painter from a painting. Knowledge of production processes of images was important to members of the Royal Society, not only as connoisseurs and collectors, but also as those interested in a Baconian mastery of material processes, including a “history of trades”. Their antiquarian interests led to discussion of painters’ styles, and they gradually developed a visual memorial to an institution through portraits and other visual records.AH/M001938/1 (AHRC

Highly efficient catalysis of the Kemp elimination in the cavity of a cubic coordination cage.

The hollow cavities of coordination cages can provide an environment for enzyme-like catalytic reactions of small-molecule guests. Here, we report a new example (catalysis of the Kemp elimination reaction of benzisoxazole with hydroxide to form 2-cyanophenolate) in the cavity of a water-soluble M8L12 coordination cage, with two features of particular interest. First, the rate enhancement is among the largest observed to date: at pD 8.5, the value of kcat/kuncat is 2 × 10(5), due to the accumulation of a high concentration of partially desolvated hydroxide ions around the bound guest arising from ion-pairing with the 16+ cage. Second, the catalysis is based on two orthogonal interactions: (1) hydrophobic binding of benzisoxazole in the cavity and (2) polar binding of hydroxide ions to sites on the cage surface, both of which were established by competition experiments

Exciting new advances in oral cancer diagnosis: avenues to early detection

The prognosis for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma remains poor in spite of advances in therapy of many other malignancies. Early diagnosis and treatment remains the key to improved patient survival. Because the scalpel biopsy for diagnosis is invasive and has potential morbidity, it is reserved for evaluating highly suspicious lesions and not for the majority of oral lesions which are clinically not suspicious. Furthermore, scalpel biopsy has significant interobserver and intraobserver variability in the histologic diagnosis of dysplasia. There is an urgent need to devise critical diagnostic tools for early detection of oral dysplasia and malignancy that are practical, noninvasive and can be easily performed in an out-patient set-up. Diagnostic tests for early detection include brush biopsy, toluidine blue staining, autofluorescence, salivary proteomics, DNA analysis, biomarkers and spectroscopy. This state of the art review critically examines these tests and assesses their value in identifying oral squamous cell carcinoma and its precursor lesions

Monsters, Laws of Nature, and Teleology in Late Scholastic Textbooks

In the period of emergence of early modern science, ‘monsters’ or individuals with physical congenital anomalies were considered as rare events which required special explanations entailing assumptions about the laws of nature. This concern with monsters was shared by representatives of the new science and Late Scholastic authors of university textbooks. This paper will reconstruct the main theses of the treatment of monsters in Late Scholastic textbooks, by focusing on the question as to how their accounts conceived nature’s regularity and teleology. It shows that they developed a naturalistic teratology in which, in contrast to the naturalistic explanations usually offered by the new science, finality was at central stage. This general point does not impede our noticing that some authors were closer to the views emerging in the Scientific Revolution insofar as they conceived nature as relatively autonomous from God and gave a relevant place to efficient secondary causation. In this connection, this paper suggests that the concept of the laws of nature developed by the new science –as exception-less regularities—transferred to nature’s regularity the ‘strong’ character that Late Scholasticism attributed to finality and that the decline of the Late Scholastic view of finality played as an important concomitant factor permitting the transformation of the concept of laws of nature

Efficient Targeting of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Systemic Administration of a Dual uPA and MMP-Activated Engineered Anthrax Toxin

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide. Although considerable progress has been made in elucidating the etiology of the disease, the prognosis for individuals diagnosed with HNSCC remains poor, underscoring the need for development of additional treatment modalities. HNSCC is characterized by the upregulation of a large number of proteolytic enzymes, including urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and an assortment of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) that may be expressed by tumor cells, by tumor-supporting stromal cells or by both. Here we explored the use of an intercomplementing anthrax toxin that requires combined cell surface uPA and MMP activities for cellular intoxication and specifically targets the ERK/MAPK pathway for the treatment of HNSCC. We found that this toxin displayed strong systemic anti-tumor activity towards a variety of xenografted human HNSCC cell lines by inducing apoptotic and necrotic tumor cell death, and by impairing tumor cell proliferation and angiogenesis. Interestingly, the human HNSCC cell lines were insensitive to the intercomplementing toxin when cultured ex vivo, suggesting that either the toxin targets the tumor-supporting stromal cell compartment or that the tumor cell requirement for ERK/MAPK signaling differs in vivo and ex vivo. This intercomplementing toxin warrants further investigation as an anti-HNSCC agent