Natural Orifice Surgery (NOS) Using StomaphyX™ for Repair of Gastric Leaks after Bariatric Revisions

Gastric leaks represent serious complications of bariatric surgery. With the increasing popularity and performance of bariatric procedures, the incidence of leaks and associated complications are expected to increase. Minimally invasive natural orifice surgery represents a novel and promising approach to gastric leak management, especially for morbidly obese patients who are at much higher risk from open or laparoscopic surgical procedures. The present article reports two cases of the safe and successful use of the EndoGastric Solutions StomaphyX™ device to alter the flow of gastric contents and repair gastric leaks resulting from bariatric revision surgery. Both patients were at a high risk and could not undergo another open or laparoscopic surgery to correct the leaks that were not healing. The StomaphyX procedures lasted approximately 30 min, were performed without any complications, and resulted in the resolution of the gastric leaks in both patients

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have proven efficacy in the treatment of panic disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety disorder. Accumulating data shows that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment can also be efficacious in patients with generalized anxiety disorder. This review summarizes the findings of randomized controlled trials of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor treatment for generalized anxiety disorder, examines the strengths and weaknesses of other therapeutic approaches and considers potential new treatments for patients with this chronic and disabling anxiety disorder

The Distances of the Magellanic Clouds

The present status of our knowledge of the distances to the Magellanic Clouds is evaluated from a post-Hipparcos perspective. After a brief summary of the effects of structure, reddening, age and metallicity, the primary distance indicators for the Large Magellanic Cloud are reviewed: The SN 1987A ring, Cepheids, RR Lyraes, Mira variables, and Eclipsing Binaries. Distances derived via these methods are weighted and combined to produce final "best" estimates for the Magellanic Clouds distance moduli.Comment: Invited review article to appear in ``Post Hipparcos Cosmic Candles'', F. Caputo & A. Heck (Eds.), Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, in pres

Characterisation of GLUT4 trafficking in HeLa cells: Comparable kinetics and orthologous trafficking mechanisms to 3T3-L1 adipocytes

Insulin-stimulated glucose transport is a characteristic property of adipocytes and muscle cells and involves the regulated delivery of glucose transporter (GLUT4)- containing vesicles from intracellular stores to the cell surface. Fusion of these vesicles results in increased numbers of GLUT4 molecules at the cell surface. In an attempt to overcome some of the limitations associated with both primary and cultured adipocytes, we expressed an epitope- and GFP-tagged version of GLUT4 (HA–GLUT4–GFP) in HeLa cells. Here we report the characterisation of this system compared to 3T3-L1 adipocytes. We show that insulin promotes translocation of HA–GLUT4–GFP to the surface of both cell types with similar kinetics using orthologous trafficking machinery. While the magnitude of the insulin-stimulated translocation of GLUT4 is smaller than mouse 3T3-L1 adipocytes, HeLa cells offer a useful, experimentally tractable, human model system. Here, we exemplify their utility through a small-scale siRNA screen to identify GOSR1 and YKT6 as potential novel regulators of GLUT4 trafficking in human cells

Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earth's Magnetic Field

While the role of magnetic cues for compass orientation has been confirmed in numerous animals, the mechanism of detection is still debated. Two hypotheses have been proposed, one based on a light dependent mechanism, apparently used by birds and another based on a “compass organelle” containing the iron oxide particles magnetite (Fe3O4). Bats have recently been shown to use magnetic cues for compass orientation but the method by which they detect the Earth's magnetic field remains unknown. Here we use the classic “Kalmijn-Blakemore” pulse re-magnetization experiment, whereby the polarity of cellular magnetite is reversed. The results demonstrate that the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus uses single domain magnetite to detect the Earths magnetic field and the response indicates a polarity based receptor. Polarity detection is a prerequisite for the use of magnetite as a compass and suggests that big brown bats use magnetite to detect the magnetic field as a compass. Our results indicate the possibility that sensory cells in bats contain freely rotating magnetite particles, which appears not to be the case in birds. It is crucial that the ultrastructure of the magnetite containing magnetoreceptors is described for our understanding of magnetoreception in animals

Robot life: simulation and participation in the study of evolution and social behavior.

This paper explores the case of using robots to simulate evolution, in particular the case of Hamilton's Law. The uses of robots raises several questions that this paper seeks to address. The first concerns the role of the robots in biological research: do they simulate something (life, evolution, sociality) or do they participate in something? The second question concerns the physicality of the robots: what difference does embodiment make to the role of the robot in these experiments. Thirdly, how do life, embodiment and social behavior relate in contemporary biology and why is it possible for robots to illuminate this relation? These questions are provoked by a strange similarity that has not been noted before: between the problem of simulation in philosophy of science, and Deleuze's reading of Plato on the relationship of ideas, copies and simulacra

Encouraging good antimicrobial prescribing practice: A review of antibiotic prescribing policies used in the South East Region of England

BACKGROUND: Good prescribing practice has an important part to play in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Whilst it was perceived that most hospitals and Health Authorities possessed an antibiotic policy, a review of antibiotic policies was conducted to gain an understanding of the extent, quality and usefulness of these policies. METHODS: Letters were sent to pharmacists in hospitals and health authorities in across the South East region of the National Health Service Executive (NHSE) requesting antibiotic policies. data were extracted from the policies to assess four areas; antibiotic specific, condition specific, patient specific issues and underpinning evidence. RESULTS: Of a possible 41 hospital trusts and 14 health authorities, 33 trusts and 9 health authorities (HAs) provided policies. Both trust and HA policies had a median publication date of 1998 (trust range 1993-99, HA 1994-99). Eleven policies were undated. The majority of policies had no supporting references for the statements made. All policies provided some details on specific antibiotics. Gentamicin and ciprofloxacin were the preferred aminoglycoside and quinolone respectively with cephalosporins being represented by cefuroxime or cefotaxime in trusts and cephradine or cephalexin in HAs. 26 trusts provided advice on surgical prophylaxis, 17 had meningococcal prophylaxis policies and 11 covered methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). There was little information for certain groups such as neonates or children, the pregnant or the elderly. CONCLUSION: There was considerable variation in content and quality across policies, a clear lack of an evidence base and a need to revise policies in line with current recommendations

Wind-Powered Wheel Locomotion, Initiated by Leaping Somersaults, in Larvae of the Southeastern Beach Tiger Beetle (Cicindela dorsalis media)

Rapid movement is challenging for elongate, soft-bodied animals with short or no legs. Leaping is known for only a few animals with this “worm-like” morphology. Wheel locomotion, in which the animal's entire body rolls forward along a central axis, has been reported for only a handful of animals worldwide. Here we present the first documented case of wind-powered wheel locomotion, in larvae of the coastal tiger beetle Cicindela dorsalis media. When removed from their shallow burrows, larvae easily can be induced to enter a behavioral sequence that starts with leaping; while airborne, larvae loop their body into a rotating wheel and usually either “hit the ground rolling” or leap again. The direction larvae wheel is closely related to the direction in which winds are blowing; thus, all our larvae wheeled up-slope, as winds at our study site consistently blew from sea to land. Stronger winds increased both the proportion of larvae wheeling, and the distance traveled, exceeding 60 m in some cases. In addition, the proportion of larvae that wheel and the distance traveled by wheeling larvae are significantly greater on smooth sandy beaches than on beach surfaces made rough and irregular by pedestrian, equestrian, and vehicular traffic. Like other coastal species of tiger beetles, C. dorsalis media has suffered major declines in recent years that are clearly correlated with increased human impacts. The present study suggests that the negative effects of beach traffic may be indirect, preventing larvae from escaping from predators using wheel locomotion by disrupting the flat, hard surface necessary for efficient wheeling

Distances and ages of globular clusters using Hipparcos parallaxes of local subdwarfs

We discuss the impact of Population II and Globular Cluster (GCs) stars on the derivation of the age of the Universe, and on the study of the formation and early evolution of galaxies, our own in particular. The long-standing problem of the actual distance scale to Population II stars and GCs is addressed, and a variety of different methods commonly used to derive distances to Population II stars are briefly reviewed. Emphasis is given to the discussion of distances and ages for GCs derived using Hipparcos parallaxes of local subdwarfs. Results obtained by different authors are slightly different, depending on different assumptions about metallicity scale, reddenings, and corrections for undetected binaries. These and other uncertainties present in the method are discussed. Finally, we outline progress expected in the near future.Comment: Invited review article to appear in: `Post-Hipparcos Cosmic Candles', A. Heck & F. Caputo (Eds), Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, in press. 22 pages including 3 tables and 2 postscript figures, uses Kluwer's crckapb.sty LaTeX style file, enclose

Partitioning of Minimotifs Based on Function with Improved Prediction Accuracy

Background: Minimotifs are short contiguous peptide sequences in proteins that are known to have a function in at least one other protein. One of the principal limitations in minimotif prediction is that false positives limit the usefulness of this approach. As a step toward resolving this problem we have built, implemented, and tested a new data-driven algorithm that reduces false-positive predictions. Methodology/Principal Findings: Certain domains and minimotifs are known to be strongly associated with a known cellular process or molecular function. Therefore, we hypothesized that by restricting minimotif predictions to those where the minimotif containing protein and target protein have a related cellular or molecular function, the prediction is more likely to be accurate. This filter was implemented in Minimotif Miner using function annotations from the Gene Ontology. We have also combined two filters that are based on entirely different principles and this combined filter has a better predictability than the individual components. Conclusions/Significance: Testing these functional filters on known and random minimotifs has revealed that they are capable of separating true motifs from false positives. In particular, for the cellular function filter, the percentage of known minimotifs that are not removed by the filter is,4.6 times that of random minimotifs. For the molecular function filter this ratio is,2.9. These results, together with the comparison with the published frequency score filter, strongly suggest tha