ERP C250 shows the elderly (cognitively normal, Alzheimer's disease) store more stimuli in short-term memory than Young Adults do.

Objective: To determine how aging and dementia affect the brain's initial storing of task-relevant and irrelevant information in short-term memory.

Methods: We used brain Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to measure short-term memory storage (ERP component C250) in 36 Young Adults, 36 Normal Elderly, and 36 early-stage AD subjects. Participants performed the Number-Letter task, a cognitive paradigm requiring memory storage of a first relevant stimulus to compare it with a second stimulus.

Memory timeline: Brain ERP C250 (not P300) is an early biomarker of short-term storage.

Brain event-related potentials (ERPs) offer a quantitative link between neurophysiological activity and cognitive performance. ERPs were measured while young adults performed a task that required storing a relevant stimulus in short-term memory. Using principal components analysis, ERP component C250 (maximum at 250 ms post-stimulus) was extracted from a set of ERPs that were separately averaged for various task conditions, including stimulus relevancy and stimulus sequence within a trial.

[Hand port-assisted laparoscopic surgery].

The dramatic benefits of laparoscopic cholecystectomy or appendectomy for patients encouraged surgeons to use minimal access operative technique in the treatment of other more complex surgical procedures [2, 3]. The authors report on their experiences with 14 patients operated by hand-port assisted laparoscopic technique for benign colorectal diseases. The mortality rate was zero.

Fiberoptic bronchoscopy of intubated patients with life-threatening hemoptysis.

Bleeding in the tracheobronchial tree in intubated patients on an intensive care unit is a potentially life-threatening incident. The antecedent state of disease and frequent respiratory failure require immediate and effective therapeutic measures to avoid further respiratory and cardiocirculatory depression. We present our bronchoscopic management of endobronchial bleeding.

Distribution of chlorpyrifos in air and on surfaces following crack and crevice application to rooms.

Measureable levels of chlorpyrifos were seen in air and on horizontal and vertical surfaces over an 84-day sampling period following application by two different methods. Pressurized aerosol applications had the highest airborne levels over the 84-day sampling period, and movement into adjacent, nontreated rooms was seen 7 days after application. Highest surface residues found were located at floor/wall interfaces and were due probably as a result of splash or overspray around treated areas.