"No, just an alien": disability, sexuality, and the extraterrestrial in Gloria Anzaldúa's "Interface".

In this article, we read the poem, "Interface," about a relationship between the speaker and an extraterrestrial being named Leyla. For Gloria Anzaldúa, the extraterrestrial foregrounds the spiritual, linguistic, gender, racial, and ethnic otherness that are key features of her works. Through an embrace of the alien, Leyla, Anzaldúa refuses to treat such categories as neatly separated or truly knowable.

Prospective study of colorectal enhanced recovery after surgery in a community hospital.

Importance: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) colorectal programs have shown to be successful at reducing length of stay in many international and academic centers; however, their efficacy in a community hospital setting remains unclear.

Objective: To determine if favorable results could be reproduced in a community hospital setting using our ERAS program, which was developed using core ERAS guidelines with the goal of accelerated recovery while also addressing other important outcomes affecting patient experience and safety.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Prospective study of ERAS program, a multidisciplinary effort involving anesthesia, preadmission staff, nursing, and surgery staff at a community hospital.

PPI therapy and albumin are better predictors of recurrent Clostridium difficile colitis than choice of antibiotics.

Background: Recurrent Clostridium difficile colitis (RCDC) is common, but data regarding recurrence rates and predisposing factors are sparse.

Methods: A retrospective case-control study was performed, identifying all inpatients and outpatients ≥18 years of age with C. difficile colitis (CDC) confirmed by a positive stool sample collected at our institution from January 2008 to August 2011.

Improvement in the health-related quality-of-life symptoms of hyperparathyroidism is durable on long-term follow-up.

Background: Subjective symptoms such as decreased energy, chronic fatigue, and depression are associated with hyperparathyroidism. Studies have shown that these symptoms are improved during short-term follow-up after parathyroidectomy. This study evaluates the durability of this subjective improvement in quality-of-life symptoms in a large population of patients with follow-up greater than 1 year after operation.

Interferon regulatory factor-1 down-regulates cytokine-induced IP-10 expression in pancreatic islets.

Background: Interferon (IFN)-gamma acts synergistically with interleukin (IL)-1beta and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha to activate isoform of nitric oxide synthetase (iNOS) gene expression, induce apoptosis, and impair glucose-stimulated insulin release (GSIR) in pancreatic islets. This effect is an important mechanism of islet dysfunction in models of pancreatitis, type I diabetes, and islet allograft rejection. We tested the hypothesis that transcription factor interferon regulatory factor (IRF)-1 plays a regulatory role in both this cytokine-induced islet injury and cytokine-induced gene expression for chemotactic chemokines.