Size and depth of residual tumor after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer - implications for the development of new imaging modalities for response assessment.

With the shift towards organ preserving treatment strategies in rectal cancer it has become increasingly important to accurately discriminate between a complete and good clinical response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Standard of care imaging techniques such as CT and MRI are well equipped for initial staging of rectal tumors, but discrimination between a good clinical and complete response remains difficult due to their limited ability to detect small residual vital tumor fragments. To identify new promising imaging techniques that could fill this gap, it is crucial to know the size and invasion depth of residual vital tumor tissue since this determines the requirements with regard to the resolution and imaging depth of potential new optical imaging techniques.

Diffuse reflection spectroscopy at the fingertip: design and performance of a compact side-firing probe for tissue discrimination during colorectal cancer surgery.

Optical technologies are widely used for tissue sensing purposes. However, maneuvering conventional probe designs with flat-tipped fibers in narrow spaces can be challenging, for instance during pelvic colorectal cancer surgery. In this study, a compact side-firing fiber probe was developed for tissue discrimination during colorectal cancer surgery using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.

Imaging Photoplethysmography for Noninvasive Anastomotic Perfusion Assessment in Intestinal Surgery.

Introduction: Anastomotic leakage after gastrointestinal surgery has a high impact on patient's quality of life and its origin is associated with inadequate perfusion. Imaging photoplethysmography (iPPG) is a noninvasive imaging technique that measures blood-volume changes in the microvascular tissue bed and detects changes in tissue perfusion.

Materials And Methods: Intraoperative iPPG imaging was performed in 29 patients undergoing an open segment resection of the small intestine or colon.

Comparison of preprocessing techniques to reduce nontissue-related variations in hyperspectral reflectance imaging.

Significance: Hyperspectral reflectance imaging can be used in medicine to identify tissue types, such as tumor tissue. Tissue classification algorithms are developed based on, e.g.

Confidence intervals and sample size for estimating the prevalence of plastic debris in seabird nests.

Evidence is accumulating about the impacts of plastics on marine life. The prevalence of plastics in seabird nests has been used as an indicator of levels of this pollutant in the ocean. However, the lack of a framework for defining sample sizes and errors associated with estimating the prevalence of plastic in nests prevents researchers from optimising time and reducing impacts of fieldwork.

Odontogenic keratocysts located in the buccal mucosa: A description of two cases and review of the literature.

Odontogenic keratocysts make up 4%-12% of all odontogenic cysts. Most cysts are sporadic but sometimes they arise in the context of basal cell nevus syndrome (Gorlin syndrome). Most odontogenic keratocysts arise in the posterior region of the mandible, but they can occur anywhere in the jaw.

Seabirds (Laridae) as a source of Campylobacter spp., Salmonella spp. and antimicrobial resistance in South Africa.

Zoonotic thermophilic Campylobacter and nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica are a major cause of foodborne human gastroenteritis worldwide. There is little information about reservoirs of these zoonotic agents in Africa. Thus, chicks of kelp gulls (Larus dominicanus, n = 129) and greater crested terns (Thalasseus bergii, n = 100) were studied at five colonies on the Western Cape coast (South Africa) during summer 2013/2014.

Anthropogenic debris in the nests of kelp gulls in South Africa.

Anthropogenic debris results in detrimental interactions with many marine species. Several seabirds include debris items in their nests, which can lead to entanglement of chicks and adults, resulting in injury or death. Anthropogenic debris was found in 4-67% of kelp gull Larus dominicanus nests in seven colonies in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Early thyroxine treatment in Down syndrome and thyroid function later in life.

Objective: The hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis set point develops during the fetal period and first two years of life. We hypothesized that thyroxine treatment during these first two years, in the context of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in children with Down syndrome, may have influenced the HPT axis set point and may also have influenced the development of Down syndrome-associated autoimmune thyroiditis.

Methods: We included 123 children with Down syndrome 8.

Direct observation of DNA knots using a solid-state nanopore.

Long DNA molecules can self-entangle into knots. Experimental techniques for observing such DNA knots (primarily gel electrophoresis) are limited to bulk methods and circular molecules below 10 kilobase pairs in length. Here, we show that solid-state nanopores can be used to directly observe individual knots in both linear and circular single DNA molecules of arbitrary length.

Patient and provider experience with a new model of care for primary hip and knee arthroplasties.

Background: The orthopaedic program at a large academic teaching hospital introduced a quality initiative for the primary hip and knee arthroplasty population with the goal to reduce the overall length of stay (LOS) to less than 3 days while ensuring an efficient and exceptional patient experience. This article focuses on the process used to evaluate patient and provider satisfaction with the changes made to achieve a reduction in length of stay.

Method: The initiative involved current and future process mapping, patient and staff education, a comprehensive mobility strategy, pain management pathways and an evaluation of the patient and provider experience.

In silico phenotyping via co-training for improved phenotype prediction from genotype.

Motivation: Predicting disease phenotypes from genotypes is a key challenge in medical applications in the postgenomic era. Large training datasets of patients that have been both genotyped and phenotyped are the key requisite when aiming for high prediction accuracy. With current genotyping projects producing genetic data for hundreds of thousands of patients, large-scale phenotyping has become the bottleneck in disease phenotype prediction.

Detection of Individual Proteins Bound along DNA Using Solid-State Nanopores.

DNA in cells is heavily covered with all types of proteins that regulate its genetic activity. Detection of DNA-bound proteins is a challenge that is well suited to solid-state nanopores as they provide a linear readout of the DNA and DNA-protein volume in the pore constriction along the entire length of a molecule. Here, we demonstrate that we can realize the detection of even individual DNA-bound proteins at the single-DNA-molecule level using solid-state nanopores.

[A woman with an abdominal mass].

A 46-year-old woman presenting with gastroesophageal reflux complaints, unresponsive to treatment, was found to have a large lower abdominal mass during physical examination. CT-scanning revealed multiple fatty deposits under the right hemidiaphragm, besides the heterogenic lower abdominal mass. The mass and most of the deposits were removed surgically.

Effects of early thyroxine treatment on development and growth at age 10.7 years: follow-up of a randomized placebo-controlled trial in children with Down's syndrome.

Context: In 2-year-old children with Down's syndrome (DS), early T4 treatment was found to result in slightly better motor development and growth.

Objectives: This study sought to determine long-term effects of early T4 treatment on development and growth in children with DS with either an elevated or normal neonatal TSH concentration.

Design: Patients received a single follow-up visit 8.

Does sugar content matter? Blood plasma glucose levels in an occasional and a specialist avian nectarivore.

Nectar composition within a plant pollinator group can be variable, and bird pollinated plants can be segregated into two groups based on their adaptations to either a specialist or an occasional bird pollination system. Specialist nectarivores rely primarily on nectar for their energy requirements, while occasional nectarivores meet their energy requirements from nectar as well as from seeds, fruit and insects. Avian blood plasma glucose concentration (PGlu) is generally high compared with mammals.