Cervical pneumatocoele following total thyroidectomy.

Cervical pneumatocoele following thyroidectomy is rare. Urgent surgical intervention is necessary in the setting of widespread tissue emphysema and respiratory embarrassment. We describe a patient with a large pneumatocoele presenting six weeks after a total thyroidectomy who was managed successfully without surgical re-exploration. We also discuss the aetiology of cervical pneumatocoele as well as the potential indications for operative versus conservative management.

Higher education and the economic and social empowerment of women -- the Asian experience.

PIP: This paper examined the degree of socioeconomic empowerment of Asian women due to higher education (HE). Examples illustrate different cultural contexts and stages in development. Colonial administrations established the first modern educational institutions. These schools trained Western-oriented elites in Western and gender values. Uneven development led to increased socioeconomic differences and disparities by region, ethnicity, religion, and gender. The international focus on women's rights has helped with promotion of education for gender equity. But, the international economic climate has led to adverse outcomes for education. Educational mobility is restricted by exclusion or lack of access to HE. Most of the 15 countries with strong educational systems have minimal gender disparities in primary and secondary education, but even Japan has gender disparities in HE. In 9 South Asian countries, most girls are disadvantaged from birth through the school years. Women are not a homogenous group. Socioeconomic factors affect access to HE. Women are channeled into gender appropriate jobs. Gender division of labor and gender tracking in education limit course and occupational choices. Changes in labor market structures further affect the economic empowerment of female graduates. Demand for female labor migrants siphons off females. Access of women to positions of authority is limited. Women who do reach the top are viewed as role models. Gender based division of labor in the household has changed little. Only India and the Philippines have explicit, conscious policies to promote gender equity.^ieng

Expanded transition state analogues.

Stable analogues of transition states are used as haptens to elicit antibodies that will catalyse the reaction under investigation. The present failure of such antibodies to equal the catalytic efficiency of enzymes has prompted a more detailed analysis of the structure of transition states. Calculations suggest that for many types of reaction, including the Diels-Alder reaction and addition-elimination reactions, interatomic distances in the transition state are longer than those in analogues hitherto used to elicit catalytic antibodies. Three possible solutions are proposed for the design and synthesis of stable analogues that match the longer interatomic distances of transition states: atom substitution, atom insertion and double atom insertion. Some applications of these ideas to specific reactions are described. The concept of expanded transition states is also valuable for associative processes as a way of avoiding product inhibition of the catalytic antibody; this is being explored for a phenylalanine transcarbamylase antibody.