Laparoscopic resection of a torted ovarian dermoid cyst

Torsion or rupture of an ovarian cyst may present as an acute abdomen. A case is presented where the diagnosis was made at laparoscopy and laparoscopic resection was done. Controlled aspiration of the cyst contents allowed the cyst to be easily removed from the abdomen

Laparoscopic resection of a torted ovarian dermoid cyst

Torsion or rupture of an ovarian cyst may present as an acute abdomen. A case is presented where the diagnosis was made at laparoscopy and laparoscopic resection was done. Controlled aspiration of the cyst contents allowed the cyst to be easily removed from the abdomen

Acute effects of elevated NEFA on vascular function: a comparison of SFA and MUFA

There is emerging evidence to show that high levels of NEFA contribute to endothelial dysfunction and impaired insulin sensitivity. However, the impact of NEFA composition remains unclear. A total of ten healthy men consumed test drinks containing 50 g of palm stearin (rich in SFA) or high-oleic sunflower oil (rich in MUFA) on separate occasions; a third day included no fat as a control. The fats were emulsified into chocolate drinks and given as a bolus (approximately 10 g fat) at baseline followed by smaller amounts (approximately 3 g fat) every 30 min throughout the 6 h study day. An intravenous heparin infusion was initiated 2 h after the bolus, which resulted in a three- to fourfold increase in circulating NEFA level from baseline. Mean arterial stiffness as measured by digital volume pulse was higher during the consumption of SFA (P,0·001) but not MUFA (P¼0·089) compared with the control. Overall insulin and gastric inhibitory peptide response was greater during the consumption of both fats compared with the control (P,0·001); there was a second insulin peak in response to MUFA unlike SFA. Consumption of SFA resulted in higher levels of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sI-CAM) at 330 min than that of MUFA or control (P#0·048). There was no effect of the test drinks on glucose, total nitrite, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 or endothelin-1 concentrations. The present study indicates a potential negative impact of elevated NEFA derived from the consumption of SFA on arterial stiffness and sI-CAM levels. More studies are needed to fully investigate the impact of NEFA composition on risk factors for CVD

A meta-analysis and critical review of metacognitive accuracy in autism

The ability to make accurate judgements about our own and others' mental states has been widely researched; however, it is unclear how these two abilities relate to each other. This is important given that there is evidence that autistic individuals can have difficulty with accurately judging others' mental states. Recent evidence suggests that some autistic individuals may also have difficulty accurately judging their own mental states. This may have an impact on various aspects of everyday life but particularly academic success, and therefore it is important that this skill is not overlooked when exploring areas of individual support. The aim of this article is to bring together the research examining autistic individual's ability of making accurate judgements about their own mental states and to establish whether this is an area that warrants further investigation. The results from this article show that autistic individuals may have difficulty making accurate judgements about their own mental states, although this depends on the type of judgement being made. It also highlighted that while autistic children may have difficulties in some areas, these may improve by adulthood. Overall, this article shows that more research is needed to fully understand where specific difficulties lie and how they may be overcome

The effects of acute wild blueberry supplementation on the cognition of 7-10 year old schoolchildren

Purpose: Previous evidence suggests consumption of flavonoids, a sub-class of polyphenols, is associated with improved cognitive function across the lifespan. In particular, acute intervention of a flavonoid-rich wild blueberry (WBB) drink has been shown to boost executive function (EF), short-term memory and mood 2-6 h post-consumption in 7-10 yr old children. However, confirmation of the aspects of EF and memory susceptible to WBB ingestion is required, particularly during childhood, a critical period of neurological development. In addition, the child literature on berry-flavonoid supplementation and cognition highlights the potential for such interventions to elicit positive benefits to real world educational scenarios, such as reading; a complex ability which relies upon aspects of cognition already known to improve following WBB. Methods: Here we examined which aspects of EF and memory are susceptible to acute WBB, as well as investigating whether acute WBB could further benefit reading ability. Fifty-four healthy children, aged 7-10 yrs, consumed a 200ml WBB drink (253mg anthocyanins) or a matched placebo according to a randomised, single-blind, parallel groups design. Verbal memory (Auditory Verbal Learning Task; AVLT), EF (Modified Attention Network Task; MANT), and reading efficiency (Test of Word Reading Efficiency-2; TOWRE-2) were assessed at baseline and 2 h post consumption. Results: For the MANT, significantly quicker RTs were observed for WBB participants when compared to placebo participants on 120 ms trials, without cost to accuracy. Furthermore, WBB participants showed enhanced verbal memory performance on the AVLT, recalling more words than placebo participants on short delay and memory acquisition measures post-consumption. Despite these significant improvements in cognitive performance, no significant effects were observed for reading measures. Conclusion: Consumption of WBB was found to significantly improve memory and attentional aspects of EF. This indicates that a flavonoid-rich blueberry product, equivalent to 240 g or 1½ cups of fresh blueberries can provide acute cognitive benefits in children. These findings support accumulating evidence that flavonoid-rich products are beneficial for healthy brain function, particularly during critical developmental periods. However, the lack of findings relating to reading ability suggested acute WBB may not be sufficient to elicit benefits to reading. Chronic supplementation and other more sensitive reading measures should be considered for examining the effects of WBB on such a complex skill in the future

Evidence That Pupil Size and Reactivity Are Determined More by Your Parents Than by Your Environment

Purpose: A classic twin study to evaluate the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to resting pupil size and reactivity. Methods: Pupillometry was performed on 326 female twins (mean age 64 years) from the TwinsUK Adult Twin Registry, assessing resting pupil diameter in darkness and increasing levels of ambient light, alongside dynamic pupillary characteristics. Maximum-likelihood structural equation models estimated the proportion of trait variance attributable to genetic factors. Results: Mean (SD) pupil diameter in darkness was 5.29 mm (0.81), decreasing to 3.24 mm (0.57) in bright light. Pupil light reaction (PLR) had a mean (SD) amplitude of 1.38 mm (0.27) and latency of 250.34 milliseconds (28.58). Pupil size and PLR were not associated with iris colour, intraocular pressure or refractive error, but were associated with age (diameter beta = -0.02, p = 0.016, constriction amplitude beta = -0.01, p < 0.001, velocity beta = 0.03, p < 0.001, and latency beta = 0.98, p < 0.001). In darkness the resting pupil size showed a MZ intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.85, almost double that of DZ (0.44), suggesting strong additive genetic effects, with the most parsimonious model estimating a heritability of 86% [95% confidence interval (CI) 79-90%] with 14% (95% CI 10-21%) explained by unique environmental factors. PLR amplitude, latency and constriction velocity had estimated heritabilities of 69% (95% CI 54-79%), 40% (95% CI 21-56%), and 64% (95% CI 48-75%), respectively. Conclusion: Genetic effects are key determinants of resting pupil size and reactivity. Future studies to identify these genetic factors could improve our understanding of variation in pupil size and pupillary reactions in health and disease

DNA Cleaving "Tandem-Array" Metallopeptides Activated With KHSO5: Towards the Development of Multi-Metallated Bioactive Conjugates and Compounds

Amino terminal peptides of the general form Gly-Gly-His have been used to introduce single sites of metal binding and redox activity into a wide range of biomolecules to create bioactive compounds and conjugates capable of substrate oxidation. We report here that Gly-Gly-His-like peptides linked in a tandem fashion can also be generated leading to multi-metal binding arrays. While metal binding by the native Gly-Gly-His motif (typically to Cu(2+), Ni(2+), or Co(2+)) requires a terminal peptide amine ligand, previous work has demonstrated that an ornithine (Orn) residue can be substituted for the terminal Gly residue to allow solid-phase peptide synthesis to continue via the side chain N-δ. This strategy thus frees the Orn residue N-α for metal binding and permits placement of a Gly-Gly-His-like metal binding domain at any location within a linear, synthetic peptide chain. As we show here, this strategy also permits the assembly of tandem arrays of metal binding units in linear peptides of the form: NH2-Gly-Gly-His-[(δ)-Orn-Gly-His]n-(δ)-Orn-Gly-His-CONH2 (where n = 0, 1, and 2). Metal binding titrations of these tandem arrays monitored by UV-vis and ESI-MS indicated that they bind Cu(2+), Ni(2+), or Co(2+) at each available metal binding site. Further, it was found that these systems retained their ability to modify DNA oxidatively and to an extent greater than their parent M(II)•Gly-Gly-His. These findings suggest that the tandem array metallopeptides described here may function with increased efficiency as "next generation" appendages in the design of bioactive compounds and conjugates

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth is: Examining Metacognition in ASD Using Post-decision Wagering

It has been argued that metacognition and mindreading rely on the same cognitive processes (Carruthers in The opacity of mind: an integrative theory of self-knowledge, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011). It is widely accepted that mindreading is diminished among individuals diagnosed with autism (Brunsdon and Happé in Autism 18(1):17–30, 2014), however, little is known about metacognition. This study examined metacognition in relation to mindreading and autism using post-decision wagering. Results from a student sample showed negative associations between autism traits and metacognitive accuracy, and metacognitive reaction times and mindreading. These findings were replicated in a general population sample, providing evidence of a reliable association between metacognition, mindreading and autism traits. However, adults diagnosed with autism showed equivalent levels of metacognitive accuracy to age- and IQ-matched comparison participants, albeit only with an overall increase in meta-level processing time

Dancing to the Partisan Beat: A First Analysis of Political Communication on TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service, whose popularity is increasing rapidly. It was the world's second-most downloaded app in 2019. Although the platform is known for having users posting videos of themselves dancing, lip-syncing, or showcasing other talents, user-videos expressing political views have seen a recent spurt. This study aims to perform a primary evaluation of political communication on TikTok. We collect a set of US partisan Republican and Democratic videos to investigate how users communicated with each other about political issues. With the help of computer vision, natural language processing, and statistical tools, we illustrate that political communication on TikTok is much more interactive in comparison to other social media platforms, with users combining multiple information channels to spread their messages. We show that political communication takes place in the form of communication trees since users generate branches of responses to existing content. In terms of user demographics, we find that users belonging to both the US parties are young and behave similarly on the platform. However, Republican users generated more political content and their videos received more responses; on the other hand, Democratic users engaged significantly more in cross-partisan discussions.Comment: Accepted as a full paper at the 12th International ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci 2020). Please cite the WebSci version; Second version includes corrected typo

Sunshine, Sea, and Season of Birth: MS Incidence in Wales

Maternal sun exposure in gestation and throughout the lifetime is necessary for vitamin D synthesis, and living near the sea is a population level index of seafood consumption. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence rate of multiple sclerosis (MS) in Wales and examine its association with sun exposure, coastal living, and latitude. The study used a database of MS hospital visits and admissions in Wales between 2002 and 2013. For the 1,909 lower layer super output areas (LSOAs) in Wales, coastal status, population, longitude/latitude, and average sunshine hours per day were obtained. Age-specific and age-standardised MS incidence were calculated and modelled using Poisson regression. The distribution of births by month was compared between MS cases and the combined England and Wales population. There were 3,557 new MS cases between 2002 and 2013, with an average annual incidence of 8.14 (95% CI: 7.69-8.59) among males and 12.97 (95% CI: 12.44-13.50) among females per 100,000 population. The female-to-male ratio was 1.86:1. For both sexes combined, the average annual incidence rate was 9.10 (95% CI: 8.80-9.40). All figures are age-standardized to the 1976 European standard population. Compared to the combined England and Wales population, more people with MS were born in April, observed-to-expected ratio: 1.21 (95% CI: 1.08-1.36). MS incidence varied directly with latitude and inversely with sunshine hours. Proximity to the coast was associated with lower MS incidence only in easterly areas. This study shows that MS incidence rate in Wales is comparable to the rate in Scotland and is associated with environmental factors that probably represent levels of vitamin D