Protecting wound edges from infection using an Alexis wound retractor

Wstęp. Zakażenia ran operacyjnych towarzyszą ludzkości od zarania dziejów. Przez wieki były jedną z głównych przyczyn zgonów. Pomimo rozwoju wielu dziedzin życia, postęp w ich leczeniu nastąpił faktycznie w ciągu ostatnich stu siedemdziesięciu lat. Niemniej jednak problem zakażeń ran operacyjnych jest nadal aktualny pomimo szerokiego zastosowania działań profilaktycznych. Uważa się, że ilość tego rodzaju zakażeń jest jednym z najistotniej-szych wyznaczników rozwoju medycyny. Autorzy założyli, że zastosowanie jednorazowego retraktora ran Alexis zmniejszy ilość zakażeń ran operacyjnych, w szczególności u chorych wysokiego ryzyka. Materiał i metoda. W celu rozwiązania problemu badawczego zastosowano metodę badań reprezentacyjnych, a jako narzędzie badawcze posłużył arkusz analizy dokumentów. Autorzy przyjęli, że badanie będzie wiarygodne, gdy ryzyko zakażenia rany operacyjnej będzie odpowiednio duże. Chorzy, spełniający założone kryteria, zostali zakwalifikowani do dwóch losowo z kompletowanych grup. Obie grupy liczyły po 15 osób, przy czym wiek grupy badanej wahał się pomiędzy 54-83 lat, zaś grupy kontrolnej 57-86 lat. W grupie badanej stosowano retraktor, w grupie kontrolnej nie. Rana operacyjna była oceniana w trakcie hospitalizacji pacjenta codziennie, a po wy-pisaniu z oddziału okresowo do 30-ego dnia po operacji. W przypadku pojawienia się infekcji w ranie, została ona potwierdzona bada-niem mikrobiologicznym. Wyniki i wnioski. W oparciu o analizę wyników badań można stwierdzić, że u chorych z grupy podwyższonego ryzyka zastosowanie retraktora ran operacyjnych Alexis zmniejsza prawdopodobieństwo zakażenia rany operacyjnej, a skuteczna mechaniczna protekcja rany operacyjnej powinna stać się stałym elementem działań profilaktycznych zmierzających do ograniczenia ilości zakażeń ran operacyjny.Introduction. The infections of surgical wounds have been very much around since the beginnings of mankind. For ages they have been one of the predominant causes of death. Despite the fact that many aspects of life have undergone rapid developments, the progress in surgical wound treatment emerged during the last 170 years. Nevertheless, the problem of surgical wound infection is still a threat even despite many preventive actions. It is widely acknowledged that the number of those infections is one of the most crucial indicator of the development of medicine. The author has assumed that the use of a disposable Alexis wound retractor is going to decrease the number of surgical infections, especially among high-risk patients. The material and the method. In order to solve the research problem, the sampling procedure method was used. The research instrument was document analysis worksheet. The authors assumed that the re-search would be more credible if the risk of surgical wound infection is high enough. The patients who met the criteria were divided randomly into two groups. Both groups had 15 people; their ages varied from 54 to 83 in the sample group and from 57 to 86 in the control group. The retractor was used in the sample group and not in the control group. The surgical wounds were assessed each day while the patient stayed at the hospital, and after that periodically until 30 days after the operation. If the wound started showing indications of an infection, a microbiological test was run to confirm it. The results and conclusions. Judging by the analysis of the research results, one can conclude that the use of an Alexis surgical wound retractor on high-risk patients decreases the probability of a wound infection and the effective mechanical protection of surgical wounds should become a constant element of preventive actions aimed at limiting the number of surgical wound infections

Senior Programmers: Characteristics of Elderly Users from Stack Overflow

In this paper we presents results of research about elderly users of Stack Overflow (Question and Answer portal for programmers). They have different roles, different main activities and different habits. They are an important part of the community, as they tend to have higher reputation and they like to share their knowledge. This is a great example of possible way of keeping elderly people active and helpful for society

71 Zasady leczenia napromienianiem chorych na czerniaka złośliwego na przykładzie chorych leczonych w Wielkopolskim Centrum Onkologii

WstępCzerniak złośliwy był uważany przez wiele lat na nowotwór promieniooporny. Liczne badania nad radiobiologią czerniaka oraz stwierdzona różnorodność morfologiczna tego nowotworu spowodowały zmianę tej opinii. Przedstawiono wybrane wyniki leczenia czerniaka napromienianiem uzyskiwane przez różnych autorów oraz wyniki własne. Omówiono zasady leczenia czerniaka napromienianiem.Materiał i metodyPrzedstawiono wyniki leczenia napromienianiem 57 chorych z czerniakiem złośliwym skóry leczonych w Wielkopolskim Centrum Onkologii w latach 1970–1003. Omówiono dane kliniczne histopatologiczne i wyniki przeżyć 5 letnich.Wyniki: Pomimo dużego zaawansowania i leczenia często z założeniem paliatywnym uzyskano 40,4% 5-letnich przeżyć. Uzyskanie remisji całkowitej zmian leczonych napromienianiem pozwoliło na wzrost odsetka przeżyć 5 letnich.Wnioski1.Paliatywna radioterapia umożliwia przeżycie 5-letnie części chorych.2.Nie ma wskazań do uznania czerniaka złośliwego jako nowotwór promieniooporny

70 Wyniki leczenia chorych na raka sutka w stadium rozsiewu w materiale Wielkopolskiego Centrum Onkologii

WstępLeczenie chorych na raka sutka w stadium rozsiewu (M1) ma charakter paliatywny. Metody leczenia obejmują radioterapię, chemioterapię, hormonoterapię w monoterapii lub jako leczenie skojarzone. Wyniki leczenia są najczęściej złe. Przedstawiamy wyniki leczenia chorych na raka sutka w stadium rozsiewu leczonych w Wielkopolskim Centrum Onkologii.Materiał i metody95 chorych na raka sutka w stadium M1 leczono w latach 1983–1987 w Wielkopolskim Centrum Onkologii. Wiek chorych wahał się od 29 do 74 lat, średnio 51,5 lat. W grupie 65 chorych pierwszym umiejscowieniem przerzutów był kościec, w dalszej kolejności płuca i wątroba. Większość chorych leczona była cytostatykami lub hormonami, u części zastosowano paliatywną radioterapię. Wyniki leczenia opracowano na podstawie historii chorób i przeprowadzonej katamnezie. Grupę badaną poddano 5-letniej obserwacji.Wyniki8 chorych (8,4%) przeżyło 5 lat od momentu rozpoczęcia leczenia zmian przerzutowych. Średni okres przeżycia w całej grupie wyniósł 13,5 miesiąca.WnioskiPomimo złego rokowania leczeniem systemowym udaje się przedłużyć życie części chorych na raka sutka, u których wystąpiły przerzuty odległe

Loss of chloroplast protease SPPA function alters high light acclimation processes in Arabidopsis thaliana L. (Heynh.)

SPPA1 is a protease in the plastids of plants, located in non-appressed thylakoid regions. In this study, T-DNA insertion mutants of the single-copy SPPA1 gene in Arabidopsis thaliana (At1g73990) were examined. Mutation of SPPA1 had no effect on the growth and development of plants under moderate, non-stressful conditions. It also did not affect the quantum efficiency of photosynthesis as measured by dark-adapted Fv/Fm and light-adapted ΦPSII. Chloroplasts from sppA mutants were indistinguishable from the wild type. Loss of SPPA appears to affect photoprotective mechanisms during high light acclimation: mutant plants maintained a higher level of non-photochemical quenching of Photosystem II chlorophyll (NPQ) than the wild type, while wild-type plants accumulated more anthocyanin than the mutants. The quantum efficiency of Photosystem II was the same in all genotypes grown under low light, but was higher in wild type than mutants during high light acclimation. Further, the mutants retained the stress-related Early Light Inducible Protein (ELIP) longer than wild-type leaves during the early recovery period after acute high light plus cold treatment. These results suggest that SPPA1 may function during high light acclimation in the plastid, but is non-essential for growth and development under non-stress conditions

Gene Classification Based on Amino Acid Motifs and Residues: The DLX (distal-less) Test Case

BACKGROUND:Comparative studies using hundreds of sequences can give a detailed picture of the evolution of a given gene family. Nevertheless, retrieving only the sequences of interest from public databases can be difficult, in particular, when working with highly divergent sequences. The difficulty increases substantially when one wants to include in the study sequences from many (or less well studied) species whose genomes are non-annotated or incompletely annotated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:In this work we evaluate the usefulness of different approaches of gene retrieval and classification, using the distal-less (DLX) gene family as a test case. Furthermore, we evaluate whether the use of a large number of gene sequences from a wide range of animal species, the use of multiple alternative alignments, and the use of amino acids aligned with high confidence only, is enough to recover the accepted DLX evolutionary history. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:The canonical DLX homeobox gene sequence here derived, together with the characteristic amino acid variants here identified in the DLX homeodomain region, can be used to retrieve and classify DLX genes in a simple and efficient way. A program is made available that allows the easy retrieval of synteny information that can be used to classify gene sequences. Maximum likelihood trees using hundreds of sequences can be used for gene identification. Nevertheless, for the DLX case, the proposed DLX evolutionary is not recovered even when multiple alignment algorithms are used

Diverse tick-borne microorganisms identified in free-living ungulates in Slovakia

Background: Free-living ungulates are hosts of ixodid ticks and reservoirs of tick-borne microorganisms in central Europe and many regions around the world. Tissue samples and engorged ticks were obtained from roe deer, red deer, fallow deer, mouflon, and wild boar hunted in deciduous forests of south-western Slovakia. DNA isolated from these samples was screened for the presence of tick-borne microorganisms by PCR-based methods. Results: Ticks were found to infest all examined ungulate species. The principal infesting tick was Ixodes ricinus, identified on 90.4% of wildlife, and included all developmental stages. Larvae and nymphs of Haemaphysalis concinna were feeding on 9.6% of wildlife. Two specimens of Dermacentor reticulatus were also identified. Ungulates were positive for A. phagocytophilum and Theileria spp. Anaplasma phagocytophilum was found to infect 96.1% of cervids, 88.9% of mouflon, and 28.2% of wild boar, whereas Theileria spp. was detected only in cervids (94.6%). Importantly, a high rate of cervids (89%) showed mixed infections with both these microorganisms. In addition to A. phagocytophilum and Theileria spp., Rickettsia helvetica, R. monacensis, unidentified Rickettsia sp., Coxiella burnetii, "Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis", Borrelia burgdorferi (s.l.) and Babesia venatorum were identified in engorged I. ricinus. Furthermore, A. phagocytophilum, Babesia spp. and Theileria spp. were detected in engorged H. concinna. Analysis of 16S rRNA and groEL gene sequences revealed the presence of five and two A. phagocytophilum variants, respectively, among which sequences identified in wild boar showed identity to the sequence of the causative agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA). Phylogenetic analysis of Theileria 18S rRNA gene sequences amplified from cervids and engorged I. ricinus ticks segregated jointly with sequences of T. capreoli isolates into a moderately supported monophyletic clade. Conclusions: The findings indicate that free-living ungulates are reservoirs for A. phagocytophilum and Theileria spp. and engorged ixodid ticks attached to ungulates are good sentinels for the presence of agents of public and veterinary concern. Further analyses of the A. phagocytophilum genetic variants and Theileria species and their associations with vector ticks and free-living ungulates are required.Fil: Kazimírová, Mária. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Zoology; EslovaquiaFil: Hamšíková, Zuzana. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Zoology; EslovaquiaFil: Spitalská, Eva. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Virology. Biomedical Research Center,; EslovaquiaFil: Minichová, Lenka. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Virology. Biomedical Research Center,; EslovaquiaFil: Mahríková, Lenka. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Zoology; EslovaquiaFil: Caban, Radoslav. Široká ; EslovaquiaFil: Sprong, Hein. National Institute for Public Health and Environment.Laboratory for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology; Países BajosFil: Fonville, Manoj. National Institute for Public Health and Environment.Laboratory for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology; Países BajosFil: Schnittger, Leonhard. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Patobiología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Kocianová, Elena. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Virology. Biomedical Research Center,; Eslovaqui

Taxonomic distribution and origins of the extended LHC (light-harvesting complex) antenna protein superfamily

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The extended light-harvesting complex (LHC) protein superfamily is a centerpiece of eukaryotic photosynthesis, comprising the LHC family and several families involved in photoprotection, like the LHC-like and the photosystem II subunit S (PSBS). The evolution of this complex superfamily has long remained elusive, partially due to previously missing families.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study we present a meticulous search for LHC-like sequences in public genome and expressed sequence tag databases covering twelve representative photosynthetic eukaryotes from the three primary lineages of plants (Plantae): glaucophytes, red algae and green plants (Viridiplantae). By introducing a coherent classification of the different protein families based on both, hidden Markov model analyses and structural predictions, numerous new LHC-like sequences were identified and several new families were described, including the red lineage chlorophyll <it>a/b</it>-binding-like protein (RedCAP) family from red algae and diatoms. The test of alternative topologies of sequences of the highly conserved chlorophyll-binding core structure of LHC and PSBS proteins significantly supports the independent origins of LHC and PSBS families via two unrelated internal gene duplication events. This result was confirmed by the application of cluster likelihood mapping.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The independent evolution of LHC and PSBS families is supported by strong phylogenetic evidence. In addition, a possible origin of LHC and PSBS families from different homologous members of the stress-enhanced protein subfamily, a diverse and anciently paralogous group of two-helix proteins, seems likely. The new hypothesis for the evolution of the extended LHC protein superfamily proposed here is in agreement with the character evolution analysis that incorporates the distribution of families and subfamilies across taxonomic lineages. Intriguingly, stress-enhanced proteins, which are universally found in the genomes of green plants, red algae, glaucophytes and in diatoms with complex plastids, could represent an important and previously missing link in the evolution of the extended LHC protein superfamily.</p