Small Bowel Obstruction: Facilitating Diagnosis and Optimizing Resuscitation and Management

Objective Standardize practice patterns and improve consistency in procedure documentation in ED management of Small Bowel Obstruction (SBO) Significant practice variability exists among ED providers for SBO management, specifically in regard to utilization of diagnostic imaging as well as rates of NG tube (NGT) placement and subsequent documentation Data review performed by our group demonstrated that of all NG tubes placed, only 61% were documented Wide range of practice patterns for diagnostic imaging (see graphics in Results

The 'Lindholme Advance' and the extent of the Last Glacial Maximum in the Vale of York

The limits of the glacier that occupied the southwest part of the southern Vale of York at the Last Glacial Maximum are defined in relation to recent temporary exposures at Lindholme and previous regional mapping by Geoff Gaunt. Erratic content of associated diamicts indicates sources in the Yorkshire Dales, over Stainmore and along the Permo-Triassic outcrops on the west side of the Vale of York. The advance is dated to an episode associated with a high level of pro-glacial Lake Humber within the Last Glacial Maximum. Lidar imagery suggests that the northeastern ice limit is concealed beneath later alluvium of the rivers Ouse and Trent

Timing and dynamics of Late Wolstonian Substage 'Moreton Stadial' (MIS 6) glaciation in the English West Midlands, UK

Glaciation during the late Middle Pleistocene is widely recognized across continental northwest Europe, but its extent and palaeoenvironmental significance in the British Isles are disputed. Although glaciogenic sediments at Wolston, Warwickshire, in the English West Midlands, have been used to define the stratotype of the Wolstonian Stage, their age has been variably assigned between marine isotope stages (MIS) 12 and 6. Here we present sedimentological and stratigraphical observations from five sites across the English West Midlands whose chronology is constrained by new luminescence ages from glaciofluvial sediments, supplemented by cosmogenic 36 Cl exposure dating of erratic boulders. The ages suggest that between 199 ± 5 and 147 ± 2.5 ka the British Ice Sheet advanced into the English West Midlands as far south as Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. This advance is assigned to the Moreton Stadial of the Late Wolstonian Substage. Dating of the glaciation to this substage allows correlation of the Moreton Stadial glacial deposits in the English West Midlands with those of the Drenthe Stadial during the Late Saalian Substage across continental northwest Europe

New age constraints for the limit of the British–Irish Ice Sheet on the Isles of Scilly

This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The southernmost terrestrial extent of the Irish Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), which drained a large proportion of the last British–Irish Ice Sheet, impinged on to the Isles of Scilly during Marine Isotope Stage 2. However, the age of this ice limit has been contested and the interpretation that this occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains controversial. This study reports new ages using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of outwash sediments at Battery, Tresco (25.5 ± 1.5 ka), and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating of boulders overlying till on Scilly Rock (25.9 ± 1.6 ka), which confirm that the ISIS reached the Isles of Scilly during the LGM. The ages demonstrate this ice advance on to the northern Isles of Scilly occurred at ∼26 ka around the time of increased ice-rafted debris in the adjacent marine record from the continental margin, which coincided with Heinrich Event 2 at ∼24 ka. OSL dating (19.6 ± 1.5 ka) of the post-glacial Hell Bay Gravel at Battery suggests there was then an ∼5-ka delay between primary deposition and aeolian reworking of the glacigenic sediment, during a time when the ISIS ice front was oscillating on and around the Llŷn Peninsula, ∼390 km to the north.This paper was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council consortium grant (BRITICE-CHRONO NE/J008672/1). H. Wynne is thanked for etching the quartz grains for OSL dating. A. Palmer and S. Carr are also acknowledged for preparing the thin sections and running the tomograph analyses, respectively. Thanks to the Tresco Estate for allowing us access to the Battery and Gunhill sites and facilitating sampling there, to Dave Mawer and Julie Love of the IOS Wildlife Trust for facilitating access to Shipman Head and Scilly Rock, and for supplying the photograph (Fig. 4b). We would like to thank Jeremy Phillips of the St Mary's Boatmen's Association for logistical support

EST-PAC a web package for EST annotation and protein sequence prediction

With the decreasing cost of DNA sequencing technology and the vast diversity of biological resources, researchers increasingly face the basic challenge of annotating a larger number of expressed sequences tags (EST) from a variety of species. This typically consists of a series of repetitive tasks, which should be automated and easy to use. The results of these annotation tasks need to be stored and organized in a consistent way. All these operations should be self-installing, platform independent, easy to customize and amenable to using distributed bioinformatics resources available on the Internet. In order to address these issues, we present EST-PAC a web oriented multi-platform software package for expressed sequences tag (EST) annotation. EST-PAC provides a solution for the administration of EST and protein sequence annotations accessible through a web interface. Three aspects of EST annotation are automated: 1) searching local or remote biological databases for sequence similarities using Blast services, 2) predicting protein coding sequence from EST data and, 3) annotating predicted protein sequences with functional domain predictions. In practice, EST-PAC integrates the BLASTALL suite, EST-Scan2 and HMMER in a relational database system accessible through a simple web interface. EST-PAC also takes advantage of the relational database to allow consistent storage, powerful queries of results and, management of the annotation process. The system allows users to customize annotation strategies and provides an open-source data-management environment for research and education in bioinformatics

Disposition of Federally Owned Surpluses

PDZ domains are scaffolding modules in protein-protein interactions that mediate numerous physiological functions by interacting canonically with the C-terminus or non-canonically with an internal motif of protein ligands. A conserved carboxylate-binding site in the PDZ domain facilitates binding via backbone hydrogen bonds; however, little is known about the role of these hydrogen bonds due to experimental challenges with backbone mutations. Here we address this interaction by generating semisynthetic PDZ domains containing backbone amide-to-ester mutations and evaluating the importance of individual hydrogen bonds for ligand binding. We observe substantial and differential effects upon amide-to-ester mutation in PDZ2 of postsynaptic density protein 95 and other PDZ domains, suggesting that hydrogen bonding at the carboxylate-binding site contributes to both affinity and selectivity. In particular, the hydrogen-bonding pattern is surprisingly different between the non-canonical and canonical interaction. Our data provide a detailed understanding of the role of hydrogen bonds in protein-protein interactions

No Detectable Fertility Benefit from a Single Additional Mating in Wild Stalk-Eyed Flies

Background: Multiple mating by female insects is widespread, and the explanation(s) for repeated mating by females has been the subject of much discussion. Females may profit from mating multiply through direct material benefits that increase their own reproductive output, or indirect genetic benefits that increase offspring fitness. One particular direct benefit that has attracted significant attention is that of fertility assurance, as females often need to mate multiply to achieve high fertility. This hypothesis has never been tested in a wild insect population.Methodology/Principal Findings: Female Malaysian stalk-eyed flies (Teleopsis dalmanni) mate repeatedly during their lifetime, and have been shown to be sperm limited under both laboratory and field conditions. Here we ask whether receiving an additional mating alleviates sperm limitation in wild females. In our experiment one group of females received a single additional mating, while a control group received an interrupted, and therefore unsuccessful, mating. Females that received an additional mating did not lay more fertilised eggs in total, nor did they lay proportionately more fertilised eggs. Female fertility declined significantly through time, demonstrating that females were sperm limited. However, receipt of an additional mating did not significantly alter the rate of this decline.Conclusions/Significance: Our data suggest that the fertility consequences of a single additional mating were small. We discuss this effect (or lack thereof), and suggest that it is likely to be attributed to small ejaculate size, a high proportion of failed copulations, and the presence of X-linked meiotic drive in this species