Wound 'dechronification' with negatively-charged polystyrene microspheres: a double-blind RCT.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of negatively-charged polystyrene microspheres (NCM)with controls (saline soaks) in the treatment of hard-to-heal wounds of various aetiologies. METHOD: Patients with one or more hard-to-heal wounds, defined as refractory to healing for at least 4 weeks, or those with exposed bone, tendon or ligament, were eligible for inclusion and were randomised to either NCM (PolyHeal; MediWound Ltd.) or controls, both applied twice daily for 4 weeks. Patients were monitored bi-weekly for an additional 8 weeks, while treated by standard wound care, at the investigators' discretion, and were re-evaluated 2 years after inclusion. The primary endpoint was defined as coverage of> 75% of the wound area by light-red granulation tissue after 4 weeks of treatment. RESULTS: Fifty-eight patients completed the study, 32 in the NCM group and 26 in the control group. The two most common wound types were those with primary etiologies of venous insufficiency and postoperative/post trauma. In the NCM group 47% of patients achieved > 75% light red granulation tissue after 4 weeks compared with 15% of patients in the control group (p=O.O I). The mean wound surface area in the NCM group was reduced by 39.0% after 4 weeks compared with 14.9% in the control group (p=0.02).The achievement of> 75% light red granulation tissue and reduction of mean wound surface area was also observed in the two main sub-groups (venous insufficiency and postoperative/post trauma), although it was not statistically significant, possibly due to the small sample size in each sub-group. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that compared to control treatment, NCM treatment of hard to-heal and chronic wounds improves formation of healthy granulation tissue and reduces wound size thus in fact 'kick-starting' the healing process and 'dechronifying' chronic wounds.

Initial progress of the magnetic diagnostics of the MAST-U tokamak.

MAST Upgrade has just begun its third physics campaign in April of 2023. The set of magnetic probes used to diagnose the magnetic field and currents on MAST Upgrade are described, and their calibration procedures are outlined including calculation of uncertainties. The median uncertainty in the calibration factors of the flux loops and pickup coils are calculated as 1.7% and 6.3%. The arrays of installed instability diagnostics are described, and the detection and diagnosis of a specimen MHD mode are demonstrated. Plans for the improvement of the magnetics arrays are outlined.

Statistical precursors of a strong earthquake on April 6, 2009 on the Apennine Peninsula.

The article discusses the possibility of formulating a conclusion about the transition in early April 2009 to an exceptional state of the geophysical system in an area with a radius of about several hundred kilometers from Rome. This fact preceded the tragic earthquake on April 6, 2009, which led to large casualties in the Italian city of L'Aquila. This conclusion was obtained based on an analysis of the statistics of the critical frequency of the ionosphere. In the course of calculations, in particular, phenomena with a high degree of determinism that preceded the specified seismic event were detected. The fact of their existence with a high probability indicates the occurrence of an exclusive state of the regional geophysical system in the period of about several days before this event. It was depicted that the identified phenomena precede a significant number of seismic events. Based on the analysis of variations in the statistics of the critical frequency of the ionosphere in the Apennine region in 2007-2011, including those preceding the earthquake near the city of L'Aquila on April 6, 2009, an algorithm was formulated to detect a significant probability of transition to an exclusive state of the corresponding local segment of the geophysical system. The approach proposed in the article can be used to compile a short-term that is, calculated for the coming days, forecast of the existence of a significant probability of the occurrence of seismic events of large magnitude in various regions of the world.

Determination of Venus Winds by Ground-Based Radio Tracking of the VEGA Balloons.

A global array of 20 radio observatories was used to measure the three-dimensional position and velocity of the two meteorological balloons that were injected into the equatorial region of the Venus atmosphere near Venus midnight by the VEGA spacecraft on 11 and 15 June 1985. Initial analysis of only radial velocities indicates that each balloon was blown westward about 11,500 kilometers (8,000 kilometers on the night side) by zonal winds with a mean speed of about 70 meters per second. Excursions of the data from a model of constant zonal velocity were generally less than 3 meters per second; however, a much larger variation was evident near the end of the flight of the second balloon. Consistent systematic trends in the residuals for both balloons indicate the possibility of a solar-fixed atmospheric feature. Rapid variations in balloon velocity were often detected within a single transmission (330 seconds); however, they may represent not only atmospheric motions but also self-induced aerodynamic motions of the balloon.

Pilot study of Australian veterinarians and their perceptions and experiences related to online pet health information.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate Australian veterinarians' perceptions of clients' use of the internet to find pet health information. METHODS: An anonymous online survey was distributed using social media, e-newsletters and veterinary magazines. RESULTS: A total of 85 complete responses were obtained from Australian veterinarians. Most (80%) reported believing that > 80% of their clients have access to the internet at home or work, but 68% thought that the majority of their clients do not understand what they read online. Attitudes regarding the impact of online pet health information on the veterinarian-client relationship were mixed (56% reported negative impact and 33% a positive impact), as well as for clients' use of the internet for information on companion animal health (47% reported negative impact and 38% a positive impact). When asked how often they suggest specific websites to their clients ('information prescriptions'), the majority of veterinarians reported that this is done infrequently. CONCLUSION: This pilot study highlighted the perception of Australian veterinarians of their clients' use of the internet to find pet health information. It also highlighted the need for a large-scale, detailed survey of Australian veterinarians and their views in relation to pet owners and their use of online information. This should include evaluation of information prescriptions and their potential benefits for clients and patients.

A pilot study of Australian pet owners who engage in social media and their use, experience and views of online pet health information.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of Australian pet owners' use of the internet for pet health; how trustworthy they rate various pet health information sources and the use of online information in subsequent veterinary consultations. METHOD: An anonymous questionnaire was developed, consisting of 30 questions, and distributed between March 2018 and May 2018 using convenience sampling through social media venues including Facebook and Twitter. All respondents were over the age of 18, lived in Australia and owned a pet animal. RESULTS: A total of 228 responses were received. The most common sources of pet health information were veterinarians (88.2%) and internet websites (81.1%). Most respondents reported using the internet 'many times per day' at either home or work. The majority of respondents used the internet to seek pet health information either 'not weekly but at least once a month' or 'less than once a month'. Nearly half of the respondents stated that they only 'sometimes' discuss their online findings with their veterinarian. Approximately one half of respondents agreed with the statement that online pet health information had affected their decision about whether to take their pet to the veterinarian. CONCLUSION: This study assesses how pet owners use the internet for pet health information and the role veterinarians can play in helping to facilitate these searches with tools such as information prescriptions. Further large-scale research is needed to help further understand this increasingly important aspect of pet health.

Filament identification in wide-angle high speed imaging of the mega amp spherical tokamak.

A new tomographic inversion technique is presented for the identification of plasma filaments in wide-angle visible camera data. The technique works on the assumption that background subtracted images of filaments can be represented as a superposition of uniformly emitting magnetic equilibrium field lines. A large collection of equilibrium magnetic field lines is traced and projected onto the camera field of view and combined to form a geometry matrix describing the coordinate transformation from magnetic field aligned coordinates to image pixel coordinates. Inverting this matrix enables the reprojection of the emission in the camera images onto a field aligned basis, from which filaments are readily identifiable. The inversion is a poorly conditioned problem which is overcome using a least-squares approach with Laplacian regularization. Blobs are identified using the "watershed" algorithm and 2D Gaussians are fitted to get the positions, widths, and amplitudes of the filaments. A synthetic camera diagnostic generating images containing experimentally representative filaments is utilized to rigorously benchmark the accuracy and reliability of the technique. 74% of synthetic filaments above the detection amplitude threshold are successfully detected, with 98.8% of detected filaments being true positives. The accuracy with which filament properties and their probability density functions are recovered is discussed, along with sources of error and methods to minimize them.

Absence of cardiotoxicity with prolonged treatment and large accumulating doses of pegylated liposomal doxorubicin.

BACKGROUND: Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is used as a second-line therapy for gynecologic cancers, with a better short-term toxicity profile compared to doxorubicin or other anthracyclines. METHODS: We screened 14 patients with recurrent gynecologic cancers, who underwent prolonged treatment with large cumulative doses of PLD for overt or subtle signs of cardiotoxicity (CTX) using standard and advanced echocardiography techniques [3D volumetric method for left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular/right ventricular global longitudinal strain]. Half the patients had previous echocardiographic studies available for comparison. RESULTS: The average PLD treatment duration was 23.6 ± 10.8 months (range 13-57), accumulating dose of 1387 ± 483 mg (range 780-2538 mg). The study group had a normal LVEF both by 2D-echo (60 ± 5%, range 50-67) and 3D echo (58 ± 5%, range 46-63). Two patients (14%) were found to have minimally reduced ejection fraction by 2D and 3D echo (50%/46% and 51%/49%, respectively) that did not meet the current definition of CTX. For the seven patients who had consecutive echocardiography studies, the average LVEF remained stable between studies (59 ± 7, 60 ± 9 and 58 ± 10.5% for the latest study, previous, p < 0.79, and most remote study p < 0.9); No change was found in average left ventricular/right ventricular global longitudinal strain as well: -20.8 ± 4.6% at the latest study and -19.3 ± 2.6% for the previous (p < 0.51). CONCLUSION: No prevalent or incident cases of cardiotoxicity were found despite prolonged treatment with large cumulative doses of PLD, adding to previous reports on shorter treatment duration.

Perceptions of veterinary admissions committee members of undergraduate credits earned from community colleges or online compared to traditional 4-year institutions.

Veterinary admission committees are asked to create and implement a fair, reliable, and valid system to select the candidates most likely to succeed in veterinary school from a large pool of applicants. Although numerous studies have explored grade point average (GPA) as a predictive value of later academic success, there has been little attention paid to how and where an applicant acquires his/her undergraduate coursework. Quality of academic program is an important component of applicant files, and it is suggested that the source of a candidate's coursework might influence admissions committee decisions, perhaps even outside of the committee's immediate awareness. Options for undergraduate education include taking classes at a traditional four-year institution, a community college, or online. This study provides an overview of the current state of online courses and community colleges in the US as a foundation to explore the views of veterinary admissions committee members pertaining to coursework completed at traditional residential 4-year schools or at community colleges and whether they are delivered on campus or online (at either type of institution). Survey participants reported a pattern of preference for traditional four-year residential coursework compared to online or community college courses. These results are interesting given the exponential growth of students taking online courses and data showing community colleges are providing a successful gateway to obtaining a four-year degree. This also points to the need for admission committees to discuss potential biases since the information about type of school and/or course may not be consistently available for all applicants. Finally, at a time when admitting a diverse class of students is a goal of many programs, it is of special concern that there are potential biases against courses taken online or from community colleges - venues that tend to draw a more diverse population than traditional 4-year universities.

Hypnotizability of psychiatric inpatients according to two different scales.

Data on the hypnotizability of 113 psychiatric inpatients and 58 normal control subjects were compared. The patients' mean score on the Hypnotic Induction Profile was significantly lower than that of the control subjects, but on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C, these patients and control subjects did not differ significantly. On both scales rank-ordered scores of different diagnostic groups of the patients supported the theory that hypnotizability varies according to type of psychopathology. Some results, such as the hypnotizability of the schizophrenic patients, depended on which scale was used. This finding may explain the conflicting literature on the hypnotic potential of schizophrenic patients.

Temperature monitoring during photodynamic therapy of skin tumors with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid application.

Temperature monitoring during photodynamic therapy (PDT) with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) cream application was performed on 22 patients with solar keratoses (SK) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The lesions were located on the forehead, nose, ear and cheek. Temperature measurements during photoirradiation, with a power density of 100 mW/cm2 from an incoherent light source (light delivery system for PDT), were carried out by noncontact (infrared thermal imaging radiometer) and contact (thermocouple) methods. Thermal imaging analysis revealed nonuniform temperature distribution in the irradiated areas. The temperature gradually increased from the peripheral to the central zone of the area. The results showed that photoirradiation induced heating of the skin tumors to 39.5-42.5 degrees C during the PDT procedure. The temperature of normal skin areas disposed symmetrically to the lesions on the contralateral side at the same conditions of irradiation (without prior ALA application) was about 42-43.5 degrees C. The surface temperature differences (delta T) between the normal and tumor tissues after 10 min of irradiation were 3.3 +/- 0.5 degrees C in the forehead areas, 2.5 +/- 0.4 degrees C in the nose areas and 0.8 +/- 0.3 degrees C in the ear areas.

pH-metric determination of the acid value of vegetable oils without titration.

The acid value (AV) of vegetable oils is determined without titration by using a new reagent consisting of triethanolamine in a solution of water and isopropyl alcohol. When the oil sample is mixed with the reagent in the pH-metric cell, free fatty acids from the sample are extracted into the reagent (3-4 min). The initial pH, called conditional pH'1, is measured, a standard acid (HCl) is added, and the final pH, pH'2, is measured. AV is calculated from the difference between pH'1 and pH'2. The method is applicable for quality control of vegetable oils during their production, trade, and use.

Circumcision using the Mogen clamp.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the results of 313 circumcisions using the Mogen clamp. This procedure was done between 1 day and 2 years of age in all but four patients. The complication rate was low (1.6%). Two patients had local infection, one mild hemorrhage, one concealed penis, and one postcircumcision phimosis. Circumcision using the Mogen clamp is a simple, quick, and safe procedure.

Reliability generalization: exploring reliability variations on MMPI/MMPI-2 validity scale scores.

The study utilized the measurement meta-analytic method called "reliability generalization" to examine (a) the typical reliability, (b) the variability of score reliability, and (c) the factors predicting variability of score reliability on the three MMPI validity scales. Across studies the reliability coefficients on the three validity scales ranged from .16 to .93, with the F scale having the most variability, as might be expected. Regression analyses suggested that the age of participant best predicted the variation of reliability coefficients.

Gaining acceptance into veterinary school: a review of medical and veterinary admissions policies.

Veterinary and medical school admissions policies and committees form the gateway for individuals to become doctors. Thus the process of admissions becomes pivotal in directing the future of these professions. This article is a review of the literature pertaining to veterinary and medical admissions.

Subjective criteria as the sole method of selecting veterinary candidates at a US veterinary medical school.

For the past four years, Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences' veterinary Admissions Committee has used a completely subjective process to select veterinary students. The basic premise of the subjective admissions process is to evaluate applicants holistically, with equal emphasis on cognitive and non-cognitive attributes. The system allows the Committee the flexibility to weigh factors deemed by the school and profession to be important without the necessity of creating complex mathematical models to fit the confines of a point system. The subjective system, endorsed by the school's faculty and legal counsel, is summarized in this article.

[Ubiquinone-9 and ergosterol from Candida paralipolytica yeasts]. / Ubikhinon-9 i érgosterin iz drozhzhei Candida paralipolytica.

Ubiquinone-9 and ergosterol were extracted with hexane from the yeast Candida paralipolytica after hydrolysis with KOH in EtOH with the yield 0.026 and 0.14%, respectively. Ubiquinone-9 was purified by chromatography and recrystallization from absolute alcohol.

[Ubiquinone-9 of the flagellates Crithidia oncopelti and Astasia longa]. / Ubikhinon-9 flagelliat Crithidia oncopelti i Astasia longa.

The content of ubiquinones (Co Q) of the Astasia longa and Crithidia oncopelti protozoa was studied. The protozoa were grown on an artificial nutrient broth. The cells were separated, washed, freeze-dried, and refluxed with KOH and pyrogallol in ethanol media. The hydrolyzate was concentrated. The residue was stored at -20 degrees and filtered. An ubiquinone fraction was isolated from the filtrate by TLC on silica gel. Identification of the ubiquinone homologues was carried out by reverse phase TLC and mass spectrometry. Ubiquinones were quantitated with respect to the difference in the density between the oxidized and reduced forms of Co Q at 275 nm. The A. longa and C. oncopelti flagellates were shown to contain ubiquinone-9 (Co Q9) at a concentration of 0.48 and 1.14 mumole/g dry cells, respectively. The higher Co Q level in zooflagellates as compared to that in phytoflagellates is discussed.

[Prostaglandins and cyclic nucleotides in the gastrointestinal form of yersiniosis]. / Prostaglandiny i tsiklicheskie nukleotidy pri gastrointestinal'noi forme iersinioza.

In spite of the resemblance of the clinical picture of gastrointestinal yersiniosis and acute dysentery, material differences underlie the pathogenesis of these diseases. Yersiniosis is marked by the predominance of an increase in the content of PGF2 alpha, whereas acute dysentery by an increase in the content of PGE, which may be accounted for by greater intensity of the allergic manifestations in yersiniosis patients as compared with dysentery. Shigellosis runs its course in the presence of the prevailing influence of the guanylate cyclase system, whereas yersiniosis in that of the adenylate cyclase. This is likely to be related to graver destructive lesions in the colonic mucosa in acute dysentery.

[Clinico-endoscopic and morphologic characteristics of patients with Campylobacter infection]. / Kliniko-éndoskopicheskaia i morfologicheskaia kharakteristika bol'nykh kampilobakteriozom.

Bacteriological examination of feces of 120 patients with signs of acute gastroenterocolitis revealed C. jejuni infection in 19 (7 per cent) of them. There was a certain difference between the clinical course of C. jejuni infection and acute dysentery. The endoscopic examination of the large intestine in jejuni infection demonstrated acute hemorrhagic or catarrhal colitis and phenomena of acute exudative inflammation were found during histomorphological study. C. jejuni infection can be diagnosed on the basis of the clinico-epidemiological findings and the results of bacteriological examination of the patients' feces.