Critical Care Management of Surgical Patients with Heart Failure or Left Ventricular Assist Devices: A Brief Overview.

Patients with heart failure, including those with implanted left ventricular assist devices, continue to increase in number. When they require noncardiac surgery, cardiac critical care expertise may not be immediately available to assist. This review serves to provide surgeons and surgical intensivists with a brief overview of the management of this patient population and common clinical scenarios and complications.

Investigating Triticeae anther gene promoter activity in transgenic Brachypodium distachyon.

MAIN CONCLUSION: In this report, we demonstrate that Brachypodium distachyon could serve as a relatively high throughput in planta functional assay system for Triticeae anther-specific gene promoters. There remains a vast gap in our knowledge of the promoter cis-acting elements responsible for the transcriptional regulation of Triticeae anther-specific genes. In an attempt to identify conserved cis-elements, 14 pollen-specific and 8 tapetum-specific Triticeae putative promoter sequences were analyzed using different promoter sequence analysis tools. Several cis-elements were found to be enriched in these sequences and their possible role in gene expression regulation in the anther is discussed. Despite the fact that potential cis-acting elements can be identified within putative promoter sequence datasets, determining whether particular promoter sequences can in fact direct proper tissue-specific and developmental gene expression still needs to be confirmed via functional assays preferably performed in closely related plants. Transgenic functional assays with Triticeae species remain challenging and Brachypodium distachyon may represent a suitable alternative. The promoters of the triticale pollen-specific genes group 3 pollen allergen (PAL3) and group 4 pollen allergen (PAL4), as well as the tapetum-specific genes chalcone synthase-like 1 (CHSL1), from wheat and cysteine-rich protein 1 (CRP1) from triticale were fused to the green fluorescent protein gene (GFP) and analyzed in transgenic Brachypodium. This report demonstrates that this model species could serve to accelerate the functional analysis of Triticeae anther-specific gene promoters.

Paraphyletic genus Ditylenchus Filipjev (Nematoda, Tylenchida), corresponding to the D. triformis-group and the D. dipsaci-group scheme.

The genus Ditylenchus has been divided into 2 groups: the Ditylenchus triformis-group, and the Ditylenchus dipsaci-group based on morphological and biological characters. A total of 18 populations belong to 5 species of Ditylenchus was studied: Ditylenchus africanus, Ditylenchus destructor, Ditylenchus myceliophagus and dipsaci, Ditylenchus weischeri, the first 3 belong to the Ditylenchus triformis-group, the last 2 the Ditylenchus dipsaci-group. The species of Ditylenchus triformis-group were cultured on fungi, while the species from Ditylenchus dispaci-group cultured on excised roots of plant hosts in petri dish. DNA sequences of regions of the nuclear ribosomal first internal transcribed spacer (ITS1) and the small subunit 18S were PCR amplified, sequenced and the phylogenetic analyses also including the sequences of the closely related species from the GenBank. The randomly amplified polymorphisms of genomic DNA (RAPD) were also generated. Two clusters or clades corresponding to the 2 groups were consistently observed with significant statistical support from the 3 datasets. The phylogenetic analysis also revealed that the genus is paraphyletic, separating the 2 groups by species of Anguina and Subanguina.

Impact of Post-visit Contact on Emergency Department Utilization for Adolescent Women with a Sexually Transmitted Infection.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To understand Emergency Department (ED) utilization patterns for women who received sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and explore the impact of post-visit telephone contact on future ED visits. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: We performed a secondary analysis on a prospectively collected dataset of ED patients ages 14-21 years at a children's hospital. INTERVENTIONS AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The dataset documented initial and return visits, STI results, race, age and post-visit contact success (telephone contact ≤7 days of visit). Logistic regression was performed identifying variables that predicted a return visit to the ED, a return visit with STI testing, and subsequent positive STI results. RESULTS: Of 922 women with STI testing at their initial ED visit, 216 (23%) were STI positive. One-third (315/922) returned to the ED, 15% (141/922) returned and had STI testing, and 4% (38/922) had a subsequent STI. Of 216 STI-positive women, 59% were successfully contacted. Of those who returned to the ED, age ≥ 18 and Black race were associated with increased STI testing at a subsequent visit. Successful contact reduced the likelihood of STI testing at a subsequent ED visit (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.01-0.8), and ED empiric antibiotic treatment had no effect on subsequent STI testing. CONCLUSION: Contacting women with STI results and counseling them regarding safe sex behaviors may reduce the number of ED patients who return with symptoms or a new exposure necessitating STI testing. The high STI prevalence and frequent return rate suggest that ED interventions are needed.

Elimination of bioweapons agents from forensic samples during extraction of human DNA.

Collection of DNA for genetic profiling is a powerful means for the identification of individuals responsible for crimes and terrorist acts. Biologic hazards, such as bacteria, endospores, toxins, and viruses, could contaminate sites of terrorist activities and thus could be present in samples collected for profiling. The fate of these hazards during DNA isolation has not been thoroughly examined. Our goals were to determine whether the DNA extraction process used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police eliminates or neutralizes these agents and if not, to establish methods that render samples safe without compromising the human DNA. Our results show that bacteria, viruses, and toxins were reduced to undetectable levels during DNA extraction, but endospores remained viable. Filtration of samples after DNA isolation eliminated viable spores from the samples but left DNA intact. We also demonstrated that contamination of samples with some bacteria, endospores, and toxins for longer than 1 h compromised the ability to complete genetic profiling.

A molecular and proteomic investigation of proteins rapidly released from triticale pollen upon hydration.

Analysis of Triticale (×Triticosecale Wittmack cv. AC Alta) mature pollen proteins quickly released upon hydration was performed using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometry. A total of 17 distinct protein families were identified and these included expansins, profilins, and various enzymes, many of which are pollen allergens. The corresponding genes were obtained and expression studies revealed that the majority of these genes were only expressed in developing anthers and pollen. Some genes including glucanase, glutathione peroxidase, glutaredoxin, and a profilin were found to be widely expressed in different reproductive and vegetative tissues. Group 11 pollen allergens, polygalacturonase, and actin depolymerizing factor were characterized for the first time in the Triticeae. This study represents a distinctive combination of proteomic and molecular analyses of the major cereal pollen proteins released upon hydration and therefore at the forefront of pollen-stigma interactions.