Hemopericardium and Cardiac Tamponade After Blunt Thoracic Trauma: A Case Series and the Essential Role of Cardiac Ultrasound.

Background: Severe cardiac injury caused by penetrating rib or sternal fractures after blunt chest trauma is a rare clinical entity that has been described in only a few case reports over the last half-century. As a result, questions have arisen about the utility of the cardiac component in the Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (cFAST) examination in evaluating blunt trauma patients.

Case Report: We present a series of 3 patients who sustained blunt trauma and were discovered on cFAST examination to have developed pericardial tamponade from overlying rib or sternal fractures in the emergency departments of two academic level I trauma hospitals in the United States.

Comparison and optimization of nanoscale extracellular vesicle imaging by scanning electron microscopy for accurate size-based profiling and morphological analysis.

Nanosized extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been found to play a key role in intercellular communication, offering opportunities for both disease diagnostics and therapeutics. However, lying below the diffraction limit and also being highly heterogeneous in their size, morphology and abundance, these vesicles pose significant challenges for physical characterization. Here, we present a direct visual approach for their accurate morphological and size-based profiling by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Designing laser-modified surface structures on titanium alloy custom medical implants using a hybrid manufacturing technology.

The hybrid technology combines an efficient material-removal process and implant surface treatment by the laser reducing time of manufacture process compared to currently used machining technologies. It also permits precise structuring of the implant material surface. Six structures of the Ti6Al4V ELI surface were designed and studied how the structure topography prepared with the hybrid technology affected the Escherichia coli adhesion to the surface and viability, as well as the growth, adhesion, and viability of human osteogenic Saos-2 cells cultured on the investigated surfaces.

Evolutionary history and biogeography of Mandragora L. (Solanaceae).

Mandragora L. (Solanaceae) is the only genus of the tribe Mandragoreae, one of the two tribes of the cosmopolitan nightshade family, which occur exclusively in Eurasia and northern Africa. The genus occurs discontinuously in the Mediterranean region, Turanian region, and on the Tibetan Plateau, representing a classical disjunction pattern in the biogeography of the Old World flora.

Go-along interviewing with LGBTQ youth in Canada and the United States.

Go-along interviews, which are interviews conducted whilst being in and moving within participant selected spaces, were conducted with 66 LGBTQ adolescents (14-19 years old) in their self-identified communities to explore perceived community attributes, including safe spaces, resources, and supports; this paper highlights methodological lessons learned. Successful recruitment in two countries and varied community settings required partnership with local LGBTQ supporting agencies, including school-based Gay Straight Alliances. Youth chose to walk, use public transportation, and drive to community locations, identifying numerous formal and informal resources in their communities.

Layer-resolved graphene transfer via engineered strain layers.

The performance of optimized graphene devices is ultimately determined by the quality of the graphene itself. Graphene grown on copper foils is often wrinkled, and the orientation of the graphene cannot be controlled. Graphene grown on SiC(0001) via the decomposition of the surface has a single orientation, but its thickness cannot be easily limited to one layer.

The role of high work-function metallic nanodots on the performance of a-Si:H solar cells: offering ohmic contact to light trapping.

Addition of carbon into p-type "window" layers in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells enhances short circuit currents and open circuit voltages by a great deal. However, a-Si:H solar cells with high carbon-doped "window" layers exhibit poor fill factors due to a Schottky barrier-like impedance at the interface between a-SiC:H windows and transparent conducting oxides (TCO), although they show maximized short circuit currents and open circuit voltages. The impedance is caused by an increasing mismatch between the work function of TCO and that of p-type a-SiC:H.

[Laparoscopic pyeloplasty in adults--mid-term results in 32 laparoscopic pyeloplasties during 2003-2008].

Pyeloureteric iunction obstruction is the most common inborn error of the upper urinary pathways. In the time of routine prenatal ultrasound examination, this disease is discovered in the child's age, when it is treated most frequently. Publication summarizes the results of modern laparoscopic management in the adults, who had not been diagnosed previously and symptoms occurred many years after their birthdate.

Sustained CTL activation by murine pulmonary epithelial cells promotes the development of COPD-like disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lethal progressive lung disease culminating in permanent airway obstruction and alveolar enlargement. Previous studies suggest CTL involvement in COPD progression; however, their precise role remains unknown. Here, we investigated whether the CTL activation receptor NK cell group 2D (NKG2D) contributes to the development of COPD.

[Analysis of results of percutaneous nephrolithotomies].

Background: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is an effective less invasive method for the treatment of nephrolithiasis. Authors retrospectively analysed results of this procedure performed in a single centre (Department of Urology, General University Hospital, Prague) from January 2005 till June 2007.

Methods And Results: Patients were acquired by an analysis of operating reports performed over a period January 2005 till June 2007 and subsequently a retrospective analysis of electronic and paper patient's records was carried out.

Crosstalk between Gi and Gq/Gs pathways in airway smooth muscle regulates bronchial contractility and relaxation.

Receptor-mediated airway smooth muscle (ASM) contraction via G(alphaq), and relaxation via G(alphas), underlie the bronchospastic features of asthma and its treatment. Asthma models show increased ASM G(alphai) expression, considered the basis for the proasthmatic phenotypes of enhanced bronchial hyperreactivity to contraction mediated by M(3)-muscarinic receptors and diminished relaxation mediated by beta(2)-adrenergic receptors (beta(2)ARs). A causal effect between G(i) expression and phenotype has not been established, nor have mechanisms whereby G(i) modulates G(q)/G(s) signaling.

Transcriptional response to persistent beta2-adrenergic receptor signaling reveals regulation of phospholamban, which alters airway contractility.

Beta(2)-Adrenergic receptors (beta(2)AR) are expressed on airway smooth muscle cells and act to relax the airway on activation by beta-agonists. These agents are utilized for treating asthma but are associated with adverse outcomes. To ascertain the effects of persistent beta(2)AR activation on gene expression, cultured airway smooth muscle cells derived from wild-type (WT) and transgenic mice overexpressing beta(2)AR were subjected to DNA microarray analysis; 319 genes were increased and 164 were decreased.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide does not colocalize with vasoactive intestinal polypeptide in the hypothalamic magnocellular nuclei and posterior pituitary of cats and rats.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) immunoreactive cells were demonstrated in the hypothalamic magnocellular nuclei in cats and rats. In cats these immunoreactive cells were stained without any treatment or intervention; however, in rats we had to use the pituitary stalk section to enhance the amount of PACAP and VIP for successful immunostaining. In both species the regions occupied by PACAP and VIP immunoreactive cells partially overlap each other in the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei.

PACAP and VIP in the photoneuroendocrine system (PNES).

The presence of PACAP and VIP was demonstrated in all the four levels of the photoneuroendocrine system (PNES) with the use of immunohistochemistry (IHC), radioimmunoassay (RIA), anterograde and retrograde tracing techniques, and cell immunoblot assay (CIBA). Both peptides play a physiological role in the PNES. According to our results both PACAP and VIP are involved in the regulation of the gonadotrop hormone secretion and their inhibitory role may be mediated through the neuronal chain of the PNES.

Effect of the lack of light impulses on the hypothalamic PACAP and C-fos immunoreactivities in rats.

Pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a member of the secretin family. It is widely distributed in the central and peripheral nervous systems. The highest concentration of PACAP was found in the hypothalamus.

VIP fibers in rat optic chiasm and optic nerve arising from the hypothalamus.

This is the first report showing VIP fibers in the optic chiasm and the optic nerves of intact rats. These fibers form a fan-shaped dorso-medial bundle in the optic nerves. After colchicine injection into the vitreous body VIP fibers could be followed farther in the optic nerve toward the eye when compared to intact rats.

The Ribosomal Database Project.

The Ribosomal Database Project (RDP) is a curated database that offers ribosome-related data, analysis services, and associated computer programs. The offerings include phylogenetically ordered alignments of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences, derived phylogenetic trees, rRNA secondary structure diagrams, and various software for handling, analyzing and displaying alignments and trees. The data are available via anonymous ftp (rdp.

Voluntarily informing others of positive HIV test results: patterns of notification by infected gay men.

Forty gay men who had recently learned that they were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were interviewed to determine the frequency with which they voluntarily informed physicians, dentists, friends, family members, and current and past sexual partners of their positive test results. Ninety percent of the subjects informed a personal physician, and 48 percent of the subjects who sought dental care informed the dentist. Sixty-six percent of subjects with at least one current sexual partner notified every current sexual partner, although notification was not associated with a greater likelihood of safer sex practices.