An overview of the American trauma system.

The American trauma system is designed to provide an organized response to injury. It draws its foundations from lessons learned from America's involvement in the wars of the 20th century as well as principles developed in urban community hospitals. Although run at the local and state government level, it is guided by national societies and has become a world class example.

The role of nitric oxide in stroke.

Stroke is considered to be an acute cerebrovascular disease, including ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. The high incidence and poor prognosis of stroke suggest that it is a highly disabling and highly lethal disease which can pose a serious threat to human health. Nitric oxide (NO), a common gas in nature, which is often thought as a toxic gas, because of its intimate relationship with the pathological processes of many diseases, especially in the regulation of blood flow and cell inflammation.

Effect of contact angle and contact angle hysteresis on the floatability of spheres at the air-water interface.

The floatability of solid particles on the water surface governs many natural phenomena and industrial processes including film flotation and froth flotation separation of coal and valuable minerals. For many years, the contact angle (CA) has been postulated as the key factor in determining the particle floatability. Indeed, the maximum force (tenacity) supporting the flotation of fine spheres was conjectured to occur when the apical angle of the contact circle is equal to the contact angle.

Advances in molecular mechanism of cardioprotection induced by helium.

Helium has been classified as a kind of inert gas that is not effortless to spark chemical reactions with other substances in the past decades. Nevertheless, the cognition of scientists has gradually changed accompanied with a variety of studies revealing the potential molecular mechanism underlying organ-protection induced by helium. Especially, as a non-anesthetic gas which is deficient of relevant cardiopulmonary side effects, helium conditioning is recognized as an emerging and promising approach to exert favorable effects by mimicking the cardioprotection of anesthetic gases or xenon.

Roles of autophagy and endoplasmic reticulum stress in intracerebral hemorrhage-induced secondary brain injury in rats.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the roles of autophagy and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH)-induced secondary brain injury (SBI) in rats.

Methods: Autophagy inducer (rapamycin) and inhibitor (3-methyladenine), as well as ER stress activator (tunicamycin, TM) and inhibitor (tauroursodeoxycholic acid, TUDCA), were used. Bafilomycin A1, an inhibitor of autophagosome-lysosome fusion, was used to assess autophagic flux.

Neuroprotection provided by isoflurane pre-conditioning and post-conditioning.

Isoflurane, a volatile and inhalational anesthetic, has been extensively used in perioperative period for several decades. A large amount of experimental studies have indicated that isoflurane exhibits neuroprotective properties when it is administrated before or after (pre-conditioning and post-conditioning) neurodegenerative diseases (., hypoxic ischemia, stroke and trauma).

The Floatability of Single Spheres versus Their Pairs on the Water Surface.

Particle floatability at the water surface encountered in nature and industrial systems often occurs in the presence of many particles, but the available theoretical developments are based on the flotation of single particles. Here experiments were conducted to compare the floatabilities of single and multiple spheres on the air-water interfaces. Specifically, the forces on floating single spheres and their pairs versus the depth of deformed interface were measured using a force sensor combined with high-speed video microscopy and modeled based on the 3D Young-Laplace equation which was numerically solved.

How Does the Gibbs Inequality Condition Affect the Stability and Detachment of Floating Spheres from the Free Surface of Water?

Floating objects on the air-water interfaces are central to a number of everyday activities, from walking on water by insects to flotation separation of valuable minerals using air bubbles. The available theories show that a fine sphere can float if the force of surface tension and buoyancies can support the sphere at the interface with an apical angle subtended by the circle of contact being larger than the contact angle. Here we show that the pinning of the contact line at the sharp edge, known as the Gibbs inequality condition, also plays a significant role in controlling the stability and detachment of floating spheres.

Anatomical study of endoscope-assisted far lateral keyhole approach to the ventral craniocervical region with neuronavigational guidance.

Background: Image-guided neurosurgery, endoscopic-assisted neurosurgery and the keyhole approach are three important parts of minimally invasive neurosurgery and have played a significant role in treating skull base lesions. This study aimed to investigate the potential usefulness of coupling of the endoscope with the far lateral keyhole approach and image guidance at the ventral craniocervical junction in a cadaver model.

Methods: We simulated far lateral keyhole approach bilaterally in five cadaveric head specimens (10 cranial hemispheres).