Teaching medical students ultrasound to measure liver size: comparison with experienced clinicians using physical examination alone.

Background: Ultrasound is increasingly recognized as a valuable addition to medical school curriculum.

Purpose: In this study, we tested the ability of rising second year students to learn and conduct an ultrasound examination of vertical liver span at the point of care.

Methods: Six patients from a GI clinic volunteered to have their liver size measured.

Smoking as a risk factor for prostate cancer: a meta-analysis of 24 prospective cohort studies.

Objectives: We evaluated the relationship between smoking and adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

Methods: We pooled data from 24 cohort studies enrolling 21 579 prostate cancer case participants for a general variance-based meta-analysis. Summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated separately for mortality and incidence studies.

Tetra[2,3-thienylene]: a building block for single-molecule electromechanical actuators.

Tetra(2,3-thienylene) is a thiophene-fused [8]annulene capable of undergoing redox-induced dimensional changes. The feasibility of efficiently translating this intrinsic function into a single polymeric electromechanical actuator is investigated by both experiment and density functional theory (B3LYP 6-31G[d,p]). A study of tetra(2,3-thienylene) and its homodimer reveal that redox-induced conformational change is conserved upon dimerization, a result that implicates similar behavior in the corresponding polymer.