CT as a first-line modality in elderly patients with stable blunt chest trauma.

Purpose: Blunt thoracic injuries are common among elderly patients and may be a common cause of morbidity and death from blunt trauma injuries. We aimed to examine the impact of chest CT on the diagnosis and change of management plan in elderly patients with stable blunt chest trauma. We hypothesized that chest CT may play an important role in providing optimal management to this subgroup of trauma patients.

The emergency department length of stay: Is the time running out?

Purpose: To examine the relationships between emergency department length of stay (EDLOS) with hospital length of stay (HLOS) and clinical outcome in hemodynamically stable trauma patients.

Methods: Prospective data collected for 2 years from consecutive trauma patients admitted to the trauma resuscitation bay. Only stable blunt trauma patients with appropriate trauma triage criteria requiring trauma team activation were included in the study.

Effect of the reflectional symmetry on the coherent hole transport across DNA hairpins.

The coherent hole transfer in three types of DNA hairpins containing strands with adenine (A) and guanine (G) nucleobases has been studied. The investigated hairpins involve AGGAn, AGAGA, or (AG)A strands that connect the hole donor and hole acceptor located on opposite ends of hairpins. The positive charge transfer from the photo-excited donor to the acceptor is shown to be slower for AGGAn in comparison with AGAGA and (AG)A sequences.

Deep-hole transfer leads to ultrafast charge migration in DNA hairpins.

Charge transport through the DNA double helix is of fundamental interest in chemistry and biochemistry, but also has potential technological applications such as for DNA-based nanoelectronics. For the latter, it is of considerable interest to explore ways to influence or enhance charge transfer. In this Article we demonstrate a new mechanism for DNA charge transport, namely 'deep-hole transfer', which involves long-range migration of a hole through low-lying electronic states of the nucleobases.

Conformationally Gated Charge Transfer in DNA Three-Way Junctions.

Molecular structures that direct charge transport in two or three dimensions possess some of the essential functionality of electrical switches and gates. We use theory, modeling, and simulation to explore the conformational dynamics of DNA three-way junctions (TWJs) that may control the flow of charge through these structures. Molecular dynamics simulations and quantum calculations indicate that DNA TWJs undergo dynamic interconversion among "well stacked" conformations on the time scale of nanoseconds, a feature that makes the junctions very different from linear DNA duplexes.