Mesenteric Visceral Lipectomy (MVL) Improves Glucose Tolerance in Type 2 Diabetes Patients: A Pilot Study.

Context: Increased mesenteric visceral fat is associated with the metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Using Targeted Cell Separation and Extraction Technology (TC-SET), we examined the effect of removal of intra-abdominal fat, specifically small bowel mesenteric fat, on glycemic control and insulin sensitivity in 7 obese, poorly controlled type 2 diabetic individuals (HbA1c = 8.9±0.

Electron circular dichroism in hot electron emission from metallic nanohelix arrays.

We investigate the electron emission from 3D chiral silver alloy nanohelices initiated by femtosecond laser pulses with a central photon energy of hν = 1.65 eV, well below the work function of the material. We find hot but thermally distributed electron spectra and a strong anisotropy in the electron yield with left- and right-circularly polarized light excitations, which invert in sign between left- and right-handed helices.

Review of CT-guided trans-osseous biopsies.

Percutaneous image-guided biopsy is an invaluable technique in the management of a myriad of different conditions; however, percutaneous access to some targets remains challenging. Trans-osseous biopsy provides safe, high-yield access to many challenging lesions in the chest, abdomen, and pelvis which might otherwise require more invasive procedures, such as mediastinoscopy or surgery to establish a histological diagnosis. Additionally, trans-osseous biopsy is well tolerated and may reduce the risk of injury to intervening vital structures as compared to other percutaneous techniques.

Chiroptical spectroscopy of a freely diffusing single nanoparticle.

Chiral plasmonic nanoparticles can exhibit strong chiroptical signals compared to the corresponding molecular response. Observations are, however, generally restricted to measurements on stationary single particles with a fixed orientation, which complicates the spectral analysis. Here, we report the spectroscopic observation of a freely diffusing single chiral nanoparticle in solution.

Arrays of Plasmonic Nanoparticle Dimers with Defined Nanogap Spacers.

Plasmonic molecules are building blocks of metallic nanostructures that give rise to intriguing optical phenomena with similarities to those seen in molecular systems. The ability to design plasmonic hybrid structures and molecules with nanometric resolution would enable applications in optical metamaterials and sensing that presently cannot be demonstrated, because of a lack of suitable fabrication methods allowing the structural control of the plasmonic atoms on a large scale. Here we demonstrate a wafer-scale "lithography-free" parallel fabrication scheme to realize nanogap plasmonic meta-molecules with precise control over their size, shape, material, and orientation.

What's missing? An analysis of pediatric radiology fellowship website utility and recruitment potential.

Background: Pediatric radiology fellowship web pages convey practical information and provide an opportunity to impress upon visitors the mission and principles that are core to the program.

Objective: The goal of the study was to assess pediatric radiology fellowship program websites and identify potential areas for improvement because applications and enrollment have been steadily declining since 2013.

Materials And Methods: We evaluated 41 websites of pediatric radiology fellowship programs for 17 criteria.

Stretchable Tattoo-Like Heater with On-Site Temperature Feedback Control.

Wearable tissue heaters can play many important roles in the medical field. They may be used for heat therapy, perioperative warming and controlled transdermal drug delivery, among other applications. State-of-the-art heaters are too bulky, rigid, or difficult to control to be able to maintain long-term wearability and safety.

Imaging of cortical oxygen tension and blood flow following targeted photothrombotic stroke.

We present a dual-modality imaging system combining laser speckle contrast imaging and oxygen-dependent quenching of phosphorescence to simultaneously map cortical blood flow and oxygen tension ( ) in mice. Phosphorescence signal localization is achieved through the use of a digital micromirror device (DMD) that allows for selective excitation of arbitrary regions of interest. By targeting both excitation maxima of the oxygen-sensitive Oxyphor PtG4, we are able to examine the effects of excitation wavelength on the measured phosphorescence lifetime.

Uphill production of dihydrogen by enzymatic oxidation of glucose without an external energy source.

Chemical systems do not allow the coupling of energy from several simple reactions to drive a subsequent reaction, which takes place in the same medium and leads to a product with a higher energy than the one released during the first reaction. Gibbs energy considerations thus are not favorable to drive e.g.

Second-Harmonic Generation Optical Rotation Solely Attributable to Chirality in Plasmonic Metasurfaces.

Chiral plasmonic nanostructures, those lacking mirror symmetry, can be designed to manipulate the polarization of incident light resulting in chiroptical (chiral optical) effects such as circular dichroism (CD) and optical rotation (OR). Due to high symmetry sensitivity, corresponding effects in second-harmonic generation (SHG-CD and SHG-OR) are typically much stronger in comparison. These nonlinear effects have long been used for chiral molecular analysis and characterization; however both linear and nonlinear optical rotation can occur even in achiral structures, if the structure is birefringent due to anisotropy.

Mesenteric visceral lipectomy using tissue liquefaction technology reverses insulin resistance and causes weight loss in baboons.

Background: Visceral obesity is associated with diabetogenic and atherogenic abnormalities, including insulin resistance and increased risk for cardiometabolic diseases and mortality. Rodent lipectomy studies have demonstrated a causal link between visceral fat and insulin resistance, yet human omentectomy studies have failed to replicate this metabolic benefit, perhaps owing to the inability to target the mesentery.

Objectives: We aimed to demonstrate that safe and effective removal of mesenteric fat could be achieved in obese insulin-resistant baboons using tissue liquefaction technology.

A Multicenter, Prospective, Randomized, Contralateral Study of Tissue Liquefaction Liposuction vs Suction-Assisted Liposuction.

Background: Tissue liquefaction liposuction (TLL) deploys a novel energy source utilizing a stream of warmed, low-pressurized, and pulsed saline to extract fat tissue.

Objectives: Compare TLL to suction-assisted liposuction (SAL) to determine which device is more efficient for surgeons and provides better recovery for patients.

Methods: Thirty-one adult female patients were followed prospectively in a contralateral study design comparing differences in bruising, swelling, tenderness, and incision appearance ratings between TLL and SAL procedures.

Corrosion-Protected Hybrid Nanoparticles.

Nanoparticles composed of functional materials hold great promise for applications due to their unique electronic, optical, magnetic, and catalytic properties. However, a number of functional materials are not only difficult to fabricate at the nanoscale, but are also chemically unstable in solution. Hence, protecting nanoparticles from corrosion is a major challenge for those applications that require stability in aqueous solutions and biological fluids.

Wireless Acoustic-Surface Actuators for Miniaturized Endoscopes.

Endoscopy enables minimally invasive procedures in many medical fields, such as urology. However, current endoscopes are normally cable-driven, which limits their dexterity and makes them hard to miniaturize. Indeed, current urological endoscopes have an outer diameter of about 3 mm and still only possess one bending degree-of-freedom.

Non-Equilibrium Assembly of Light-Activated Colloidal Mixtures.

The collective phenomena exhibited by artificial active matter systems present novel routes to fabricating out-of-equilibrium microscale assemblies. Here, the crystallization of passive silica colloids into well-controlled 2D assemblies is shown, which is directed by a small number of self-propelled active colloids. The active colloids are titania-silica Janus particles that are propelled when illuminated by UV light.

Nontraumatic urinary bladder rupture presenting as renal pseudo-failure and ascites.

A 24-year-old man, with past medical history significant only for nocturnal enuresis until the age of 12 years, presented to the emergency department with acute abdominal pain after an episode of difficulty with micturition in the middle of the night. On presentation, physical examination was suggestive of ascites and laboratories revealed an elevated serum creatinine of 1.88 mg/dL.

On-chip enzymatic microbiofuel cell-powered integrated circuits.

A variety of diagnostic and therapeutic medical technologies rely on long term implantation of an electronic device to monitor or regulate a patient's condition. One proposed approach to powering these devices is to use a biofuel cell to convert the chemical energy from blood nutrients into electrical current to supply the electronics. We present here an enzymatic microbiofuel cell whose electrodes are directly integrated into a digital electronic circuit.

Strong Rotational Anisotropies Affect Nonlinear Chiral Metamaterials.

Masked by rotational anisotropies, xthe nonlinear chiroptical response of a metamaterial is initially completely inaccessible. Upon rotating the sample the chiral information emerges. These results highlight the need for a general method to extract the true chiral contributions to the nonlinear optical signal, which would be hugely valuable in the present context of increasingly complex chiral meta/nanomaterials.

Soft 3D-Printed Phantom of the Human Kidney with Collecting System.

Organ models are used for planning and simulation of operations, developing new surgical instruments, and training purposes. There is a substantial demand for in vitro organ phantoms, especially in urological surgery. Animal models and existing simulator systems poorly mimic the detailed morphology and the physical properties of human organs.

Magnesium plasmonics for UV applications and chiral sensing.

We demonstrate that chiral magnesium nanoparticles show remarkable plasmonic extinction- and chiroptical-effects in the ultraviolet region. The Mg nanohelices possess an enhanced local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensitivity due to the strong dispersion of most substances in the UV region.

Holograms for acoustics.

Holographic techniques are fundamental to applications such as volumetric displays, high-density data storage and optical tweezers that require spatial control of intricate optical or acoustic fields within a three-dimensional volume. The basis of holography is spatial storage of the phase and/or amplitude profile of the desired wavefront in a manner that allows that wavefront to be reconstructed by interference when the hologram is illuminated with a suitable coherent source. Modern computer-generated holography skips the process of recording a hologram from a physical scene, and instead calculates the required phase profile before rendering it for reconstruction.

Effects of a Pedometer-Based Telephone Coaching Intervention on Physical Activity Among People with Cardiac Disease in Urban, Rural and Semi-Rural Settings: A Replication Study.

Background: This study aimed to determine the replicability of a pedometer-based telephone coaching intervention by comparing the outcomes of a study conducted in rural and urban settings to a study that previously found the same intervention effective in a semi-rural setting.

Methods: Replication studies are conducted to assess whether an efficacious intervention is effective in multiple different settings. This study compared the outcomes of a pedometer-based coaching intervention implemented in urban and rural settings (replication study) with the same intervention implemented in a semi-rural setting (reference study) on physical activity levels.

Active Nanorheology with Plasmonics.

Nanoplasmonic systems are valued for their strong optical response and their small size. Most plasmonic sensors and systems to date have been rigid and passive. However, rendering these structures dynamic opens new possibilities for applications.

Chirality Detection Using Nematic Liquid Crystal Droplets on Anisotropic Surfaces.

Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) form helical macroscopic structures through chiral induction when doped with chiral species. We describe a very simple, though highly sensitive method for determination of handedness and pitch of the induced twist in the case of very weak twisting powers of such chiral dopants. A tiny drop-typically less than 10 nL-of the chiral doped NLC is placed on a plate promoting a uniform planar surface anchoring of the liquid crystal director.

Dispersion and shape engineered plasmonic nanosensors.

Biosensors based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of individual metallic nanoparticles promise to deliver modular, low-cost sensing with high-detection thresholds. However, they continue to suffer from relatively low sensitivity and figures of merit (FOMs). Herein we introduce the idea of sensitivity enhancement of LSPR sensors through engineering of the material dispersion function.