Electroconvulsive therapy for depression in a patient with a programmable ventriculoperitoneal shunt in situ for congenital hydrocephalus.

Background: Shunt surgery remains the gold standard of treatment for hydrocephalus. Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt systems represent the most commonly used technique, and the increasing use of programmable valves allows the neurosurgical team to easily and non-invasively adjust shunt settings where indicated. However, their safety in specific clinical scenarios can be a common source of uncertainty due to potential interactions between parametric shunt components and external electromagnetic fields.

The inclusion of habits in the stage model of self-regulated behavior change: an investigation of life events and red meat consumption in the UK.

A shift to a diet with low or no red meat is considered necessary to end the environmental and health impacts caused by the current overconsumption of red meat. The self-regulated behavior change stage model (SSBC) proposes that people who intend to change their behavior progress through a series of discrete cognitive stages until, ultimately, they engage in the new behavior. However, what the consequences of habitual behaviors are for the initiation and progression through the stages of change have not yet been fully elucidated or investigated.

Establishment of CRISPR/Cas9-based knock-in in a hemimetabolous insect: targeted gene tagging in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus.

Studies of traditional model organisms such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster have contributed immensely to our understanding of the genetic basis of developmental processes. However, the generalizability of these findings cannot be confirmed without functional genetic analyses in additional organisms. Direct genome editing using targeted nucleases has the potential to transform hitherto poorly understood organisms into viable laboratory organisms for functional genetic study.

Squeezing the quantum noise of a gravitational-wave detector below the standard quantum limit.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle dictates that the position and momentum of an object cannot be simultaneously measured with arbitrary precision, giving rise to an apparent limitation known as the standard quantum limit (SQL). Gravitational-wave detectors use photons to continuously measure the positions of freely falling mirrors and so are affected by the SQL. We investigated the performance of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) after the experimental realization of frequency-dependent squeezing designed to surpass the SQL.

Gene Protein Sequence Evolution Can Predict the Rapid Divergence of Ovariole Numbers in the Drosophila melanogaster Subgroup.

Ovaries play key roles in fitness and evolution: they are essential female reproductive structures that develop and house the eggs in sexually reproducing animals. In Drosophila, the mature ovary contains multiple tubular egg-producing structures known as ovarioles. Ovarioles arise from somatic cellular structures in the larval ovary called terminal filaments (TFs), formed by TF cells and subsequently enclosed by sheath (SH) cells.