Intravenous Penicillin for Antenatal Syphilotherapy

A 21 year old woman (G2 P0101) of 24 weeks gestation presented with syphilis of unknown duration. Sonography revealed fetal hydrops and placental thickening. Weekly intramuscular injections of 2.4 million U Bicillin for 3 weeks was initiated as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Repeat sonogram 1 week after starting treatment revealed increased ascites and a new pericardial effusion. Due to the worsening fetal condition, therapy was altered and the patient was admitted for IV penicillin. She received a continuous infusion of 18 million U penicillin G daily for 10 days. Serial sonograms showed improvement offetal ascites and pericardial effusion with 10 days of IV therapy, and complete resolution of hydrops was noted within 3 weeks. The fetus was born at term with no stigmata of congenital syphilis on newborn exam, and laboratory tests suggested adequate treatment in utero

English and the politics of knowledge

Drawing on observational evidence of two classes working on Romeo and Juliet, one in England and the other in Palestine, this essay explores the nature of knowledge in relation to English as a school subject. It asserts the importance of paying attention to the resources that students, situated in culture and history, bring with them to the reading of a text. It seeks to contest a set of assumptions about ‘powerful’ knowledge as universal and transcendent, insisting that classrooms are places where meanings are made, not merely transmitted

A novel technique for post-pyloric feeding tube placement in critically ill patients: A pilot study

Publisher's copy made available with the permission of the publisher © Australian Society of AnaesthetistsDelivery of enteral nutrition in critically ill patients is often hampered by gastric stasis necessitating direct feeding into the small intestine. Current techniques for placement of post-pyloric feeding catheters are complex, time consuming or both, and improvements in feeding tube placement techniques are required. The Cathlocator™ is a novel device that permits real time localisation of the end of feeding tubes via detection of a magnetic field generated by a small electric current in a coil incorporated in the tip of the tube. We performed a pilot study evaluating the feasibility of the Cathlocator™ system to guide and evaluate the placement of (1) nasoduodenal feeding tubes, and (2) nasogastric drainage tubes in critically ill patients with feed intolerance due to slow gastric emptying. A prospective study of eight critically ill patients was undertaken in the intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital. The Cathlocator™ was used to (1) guide the positioning of the tubes post-pylorically and (2) determine whether nasogastric and nasoduodenal tubes were placed correctly. Tube tip position was compared with data obtained by radiology. Data are expressed as median (range). Duodenal tube placement was successful in 7 of 8 patients (insertion time 12.6 min (5.3-34.4)). All nasogastric tube placements were successful (insertion time 3.4 min (0.6-10.0)). The Cathlocator™ accurately determined the position of both tubes without complication in all cases. The Cathlocator™ allows placement and location of an enteral feeding tube in real time in critically ill patients with slow gastric emptying. These findings warrant further studies into the application of this technique for placement of post-pyloric feeding tubes.R. J. Young, M. J. Chapman, R. Fraser, R. Vozzo, D. P. Chorley, S. Creedhttp://www.aaic.net.au/Article.asp?D=200430

The Sequence Ontology: a tool for the unification of genome annotations

The Sequence Ontology ( SO) is a structured controlled vocabulary for the parts of a genomic annotation. SO provides a common set of terms and definitions that will facilitate the exchange, analysis and management of genomic data. Because SO treats part-whole relationships rigorously, data described with it can become substrates for automated reasoning, and instances of sequence features described by the SO can be subjected to a group of logical operations termed extensional mereology operators

Venom insulins of cone snails diversify rapidly and track prey taxa

A specialized insulin was recently found in the venom of a fish-hunting cone snail, Conus geographus. Here we show that many worm-hunting and snail-hunting cones also express venom insulins, and that this novel gene family has diversified explosively. Cone snails express a highly conserved insulin in their nerve ring; presumably this conventional signaling insulin is finely tuned to the Conus insulin receptor, which also evolves very slowly. By contrast, the venom insulins diverge rapidly, apparently in response to biotic interactions with prey and also possibly the cones’ own predators and competitors. Thus, the inwardly directed signaling insulins appear to experience predominantly purifying sele\ction to target an internal receptor that seldom changes, while the outwardly directed venom insulins frequently experience directional selection to target heterospecific insulin receptors in a changing mix of prey, predators and competitors. Prey insulin receptors may often be constrained in ways that prevent their evolutionary escape from targeted venom insulins, if amino-acid substitutions that result in escape also degrade the receptor’s signaling functions

The Douglas-Fir Genome Sequence Reveals Specialization of the Photosynthetic Apparatus in Pinaceae.

A reference genome sequence for Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii (Mirb.) Franco (Coastal Douglas-fir) is reported, thus providing a reference sequence for a third genus of the family Pinaceae. The contiguity and quality of the genome assembly far exceeds that of other conifer reference genome sequences (contig N50 = 44,136 bp and scaffold N50 = 340,704 bp). Incremental improvements in sequencing and assembly technologies are in part responsible for the higher quality reference genome, but it may also be due to a slightly lower exact repeat content in Douglas-fir vs. pine and spruce. Comparative genome annotation with angiosperm species reveals gene-family expansion and contraction in Douglas-fir and other conifers which may account for some of the major morphological and physiological differences between the two major plant groups. Notable differences in the size of the NDH-complex gene family and genes underlying the functional basis of shade tolerance/intolerance were observed. This reference genome sequence not only provides an important resource for Douglas-fir breeders and geneticists but also sheds additional light on the evolutionary processes that have led to the divergence of modern angiosperms from the more ancient gymnosperms

R/qtl2: Software for Mapping Quantitative Trait Loci with High-Dimensional Data and Multiparent Populations.

R/qtl2 is an interactive software environment for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) in experimental populations. The R/qtl2 software expands the scope of the widely used R/qtl software package to include multiparent populations derived from more than two founder strains, such as the Collaborative Cross and Diversity Outbred mice, heterogeneous stocks, and MAGIC plant populations. R/qtl2 is designed to handle modern high-density genotyping data and high-dimensional molecular phenotypes, including gene expression and proteomics. R/qtl2 includes the ability to perform genome scans using a linear mixed model to account for population structure, and also includes features to impute SNPs based on founder strain genomes and to carry out association mapping. The R/qtl2 software provides all of the basic features needed for QTL mapping, including graphical displays and summary reports, and it can be extended through the creation of add-on packages. R/qtl2, which is free and open source software written in the R and C++ programming languages, comes with a test framework

Transcriptomic profiling reveals extraordinary diversity of venom peptides in unexplored predatory gastropods of the genus Clavus

Predatory gastropods of the superfamily Conoidea number over 12,000 living species. The evolutionary success of this lineage can be explained by the ability of conoideans to produce complex venoms for hunting, defense and competitive interactions. Whereas venoms of cone snails (family Conidae) have become increasingly well studied, the venoms of most other conoidean lineages remain largely uncharacterized. In the present study we present the venom gland transcriptomes of two species of the genus Clavus that belong to the family Drilliidae. Venom gland transcriptomes of two specimens of Clavus canalicularis, and two specimens of Cv. davidgilmouri were analyzed, leading to the identification of a total of 1,176 putative venom peptide toxins ( drillipeptides ). Based on the combined evidence of secretion signal sequence identity, entire precursor similarity search (BLAST), and the orthology inference, putative Clavus toxins were assigned to 158 different gene families. The majority of identified transcripts comprise signal, pro-, mature peptide, and post- regions, with a typically short ( \u3c 50 amino acids) and cysteine-rich mature peptide region. Thus drillipeptides are structurally similar to conotoxins. However, convincing homology with known groups of Conus toxins was only detected for very few toxin families. Among these are Clavus counterparts of Conus venom insulins (drillinsulins), porins (drilliporins), highly diversified lectins (drillilectins). The short size of most drillipeptpides and structural similarity to conotoxins was unexpected, given that most related conoidean gastropod families (Terebridae and Turridae) possess longer mature peptide regions. Our findings indicate that, similar to conotoxins, drillipeptides may represent a valuable resource for future pharmacological exploration