The menagerie of neurology

PubMed Central

Beh, Shin C.; Frohman, Teresa; Frohman, Elliot M.

2014-01-01

Summary Neurology is a field known for “eponymophilia.” While eponym use has been a controversial issue in medicine, animal-related metaphoric descriptions continue to flourish in neurologic practice, particularly with the advent of neuroimaging. To provide practicing and trainee neurologists with a useful reference for all these colorful eponyms, we performed a literature review and summarized the various animal eponyms in the practice of neurology (and their etiologic implications) to date. We believe that the ability to recognize animal-like attributes in clinical neurology and neuroradiology may be attributed to a visual phenomenon known as pareidolia. We propose that animal eponyms are a useful method of recognizing clinical and radiologic patterns that aid in the diagnostic process and therefore are effective aidesmémoire and communicative tools that enliven and improve the practice of neurology. PMID:29473555

Kallmann Syndrome: Eugenics and the Man behind the Eponym

PubMed Central

Benbassat, Carlos A.

2016-01-01

Kallmann syndrome is named after Franz Joseph Kallmann, a German-born psychiatrist who described in 1944 twelve subjects from three families who presented with a syndrome of missed puberty, anosmia, and color blindness. Yet, several other eponyms for the same syndrome can be found in the literature. Despite the fact that Kallmann syndrome is the most recognized eponym, very little is known about the man for whom the syndrome is named. A biographical note on Franz Joseph Kallmann and his historical context is presented. PMID:27101217

The menagerie of neurology: Animal signs and the refinement of clinical acumen.

PubMed

Beh, Shin C; Frohman, Teresa; Frohman, Elliot M

2014-06-01

Neurology is a field known for "eponymophilia." While eponym use has been a controversial issue in medicine, animal-related metaphoric descriptions continue to flourish in neurologic practice, particularly with the advent of neuroimaging. To provide practicing and trainee neurologists with a useful reference for all these colorful eponyms, we performed a literature review and summarized the various animal eponyms in the practice of neurology (and their etiologic implications) to date. We believe that the ability to recognize animal-like attributes in clinical neurology and neuroradiology may be attributed to a visual phenomenon known as pareidolia. We propose that animal eponyms are a useful method of recognizing clinical and radiologic patterns that aid in the diagnostic process and therefore are effective aidesmémoire and communicative tools that enliven and improve the practice of neurology.

Anatomical eponyms - unloved names in medical terminology.

PubMed

Burdan, F; Dworzański, W; Cendrowska-Pinkosz, M; Burdan, M; Dworzańska, A

2016-01-01

Uniform international terminology is a fundamental issue of medicine. Names of various organs or structures have developed since early human history. The first proper anatomical books were written by Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen. For this reason the modern terms originated from Latin or Greek. In a modern time the terminology was improved in particular by Vasalius, Fabricius and Harvey. Presently each known structure has internationally approved term that is explained in anatomical or histological terminology. However, some elements received eponyms, terms that incorporate the surname of the people that usually describe them for the first time or studied them (e.g., circle of Willis, follicle of Graff, fossa of Sylvious, foramen of Monro, Adamkiewicz artery). Literature and historical hero also influenced medical vocabulary (e.g. Achilles tendon and Atlas). According to various scientists, all the eponyms bring colour to medicine, embed medical traditions and culture to our history but lack accuracy, lead of confusion, and hamper scientific discussion. The current article presents a wide list of the anatomical eponyms with their proper anatomical term or description according to international anatomical terminology. However, since different eponyms are used in various countries, the list could be expanded.

Origins of eponymous orthopaedic equipment.

PubMed

Meals, Clifton; Wang, Jeffrey

2010-06-01

Orthopaedists make great use of eponymous equipment, however the origins of these tools are unknown to many users. This history enriches, enlightens, and enhances surgical education, and may inspire modern innovation. We explored the origins of common and eponymous orthopaedic equipment. We selected pieces of equipment named for their inventors and in the broadest use by modern orthopaedists. We do not describe specialized orthopaedic implants and instruments owing to the overwhelming number of these devices. The history of this equipment reflects the coevolution of orthopaedics and battlefield medicine. Additionally, these stories evidence the primacy of elegant design and suggest that innovation is often a process of revision and refinement rather than sudden inspiration. Their history exposes surgical innovators as brilliant, lucky, hardworking, and sometimes odd. These stories amuse, enlighten, and may inspire modern orthopaedists to develop creative solutions of their own. The rich history of the field's eponymous instruments informs an ongoing tradition of innovation in orthopaedics.

Eponymous Psychiatric Syndromes Revisited.

PubMed

Naguy, Ahmed

2018-02-22

This report provides an anthology of psychiatric eponyms. Clinically, many of these described syndromes represent valid diagnostic constructs and may accommodate the atypical cases that defy the official diagnostic designation in the current classificatory systems in psychiatry. © Copyright 2018 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

[Eponyms of distal radius fractures. Colles-Pouteau, Smith-Goyrand and Barton fractures and their importance in the trauma surgery patient sample].

PubMed

Ebert, B; Müller, J E

1993-10-01

Fractures at the distal end of the radius are quite common. So, these fractures are well known to represent consequences of industrial accidents leading to temporary unfitness for work, too. Eponym descriptions of fractures may mislead authors and readers as well if used in a non-uniform way in medical literature. Using the original articles of the first describing authors a clear distinction of eponyms concerning fractures near to the wrist joint is given. The authors of this feature report of the clinical experience in treatment and results of distal radius fractures in combination with aspects of expert opinions on these fractures.

[The surname of Adamkiewicz in the medical terminology in the last three decades of the 20th century].

PubMed

Cech, P

2001-01-01

Nearly eighty years after his death, Albert Adamkiewicz (1850-1921) has still been persisting in both the history of medicine owing to his work and in the medical terminology owing to eponymy: since his flourishing period toward the end of the XIXth century, the surname Adamkiewicz has entered the language of science as a proper-name constituent of anatomical, pathological, neurological, surgical as well as orthopaedic terms, combing with the appellatives stain, corpuscle or demilune, reaction or test, serum, syndrome as well as artery. Estimation of the actual vitality of particular eponymous terms compared with non-eponymous synonyms had to be the aim of the presented search in the scientific literature a century after. In contrast with the inert non-periodical (encyclopaedic) literature, periodicals have revealed all the eponymous terms fallen in oblivion except the 'Adamkiewicz artery' that has only recently been introduced in encyclopaedias although constantly preferred in periodicals of the period under investigation (appearing in 75% articles) over the most frequent non-eponymous synonym 'arteria radicularis magna / great(er) radicular artery' (scarcely 11% articles). Thanks to the 'artery' - joining furthermore several synonyms to appear nearly in 86% articles altogether - the surname Adamkiewicz persists in the living language of science; that is why its bearer ought to be remembered and mentioned even on the threshold of the XXIst century.

Clauberg's eponym and crimes against humanity.

PubMed

Sweet, Frederick; Csapó-Sweet, Rita M

2012-12-01

Scientific journals are ethically bound to cite Professor Dr. Carl Clauberg's Nazi medical crimes against humanity whenever the eponym Clauberg is used. Modern articles still publish the eponym citing only the rabbit bioassy used in developing progesterone agonists or antagonists for birth control. Clauberg's Nazi career is traced to his having subjected thousands of Jewish women at the Ravensbruck and Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps to cruel, murderous sterilization experiments that are enthusiastically described by incriminating letters (reproduced here) between him and the notorious Nazi Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. The experiments were carried out in women's block 10 in Auschwitz-Birkenau where Clauberg's colleague Dr. Josef Mengele worked alongside. After Germany lost World War II in 1945 Mengele fled to South America, where he lived to an old age. Clauberg was caught by Russian soldiers, put on trial in the Soviet Union for his crimes against humanity, and imprisoned in 1948. In 1955 he was repatriated to Germany, once again imprisoned for his crimes, and belatedly expelled from the German Medical Association. To estimate the contemporary usage of the names Mengele and Clauberg, Internet hits were recorded for Clauberg C or Mengele J (with and without adding the term Auschwitz) with the Google and Scirus search engines. The ratios of hits for combinations of these terms reveal that relative to Mengele, Clauberg's name is barely known. We propose that journals and books printing the eponym Clauberg cite its derivation and reference to the convicted Nazi criminal. The present article can serve for such citations.

Sixty-year anniversary of the Apgar scoring system and 100-year anniversary of the "Moro" reflex.

PubMed

Brucknerova, Ingrid; Holomanova, Anna; Ujhazy, Eduard; Mach, Mojmir

2012-01-01

It is well known that the names of discoverers are commonly used in medical terminology, especially in everyday use. The advantage of an eponym is that a complex description of a certain syndrome, surgical procedure, manifestations of a particular disease, or its details, can be expressed in a single word (Holomáňová & Brucknerová 2003). Current official anatomical nomenclatures do not use eponyms. Some exceptions do however exist. In pediatrics, we frequently use the names of two famous persons: Virginia Apgar and Ernst Moro.

Eponymous Instruments in Orthopaedic Surgery

PubMed Central

Buraimoh, M. Ayodele; Liu, Jane Z.; Sundberg, Stephen B.; Mott, Michael P.

2017-01-01

Abstract Every day surgeons call for instruments devised by surgeon trailblazers. This article aims to give an account of commonly used eponymous instruments in orthopaedic surgery, focusing on the original intent of their designers in order to inform how we use them today. We searched PubMed, the archives of longstanding medical journals, Google, the Internet Archive, and the HathiTrust Digital Library for information regarding the inventors and the developments of 7 instruments: the Steinmann pin, Bovie electrocautery, Metzenbaum scissors, Freer elevator, Cobb periosteal elevator, Kocher clamp, and Verbrugge bone holding forceps. A combination of ingenuity, necessity, circumstance and collaboration produced the inventions of the surgical tools numbered in our review. In some cases, surgical instruments were improvements of already existing technologies. The indications and applications of the orthopaedic devices have changed little. Meanwhile, instruments originally developed for other specialties have been adapted for our use. Although some argue for a transition from eponymous to descriptive terms in medicine, there is value in recognizing those who revolutionized surgical techniques and instrumentation. Through history, we have an opportunity to be inspired and to better understand our tools. PMID:28852360

Nose: Applied Aspects in Dermatology.

PubMed

Lakshmi, Dammaningala Venkataramaiah; Shilpa, Kanathur; Nataraja, Holavanahally Veerabhadrappa; Divya, Kallapa Gorur

2016-01-01

Nose is the most prominent part of the mid-face and has important physiological, aesthetic and psychological functions. Skin diseases on the nose are commonly seen by dermatologists, otorhinolaryngologists, and plastic surgeons. Because of its exposed, highly visible localization, lesions on the skin of the nose are often noticed by patients themselves, typically very early in the course of the disease. Similarly, the dermatological lexicon is well known with descriptive terminologies, synonyms, acronyms, eponyms, toponyms, misnomers. We have tried to compile the anatomical applications of nose in cosmetology and dermatosurgery subspecialities with nasal eponyms and signs encountered in clinical dermatology that would be helpful for residents.

Genetic drift. Overview of German, Nazi, and Holocaust medicine.

PubMed

Cohen, M Michael

2010-03-01

An overview of German, Nazi, and Holocaust medicine brings together a group of subjects discussed separately elsewhere. Topics considered include German medicine before and during the Nazi era, such as advanced concepts in epidemiology, preventive medicine, public health policy, screening programs, occupational health laws, compensation for certain medical conditions, and two remarkable guidelines for informed consent for medical procedures; also considered are the Nuremberg Code; American models for early Nazi programs, including compulsory sterilization, abusive medical experiments on prison inmates, and discrimination against black people; two ironies in US and Nazi laws; social Darwinism and racial hygiene; complicity of Nazi physicians, including the acts of sterilization, human experimentation, and genocide; Nazi persecution of Jewish physicians; eponyms of unethical German physicians with particular emphasis on Reiter, Hallervorden, and Pernkopf; eponyms of famous physicians who were Nazi victims, including Pick and van Creveld; and finally, a recommendation for convening an international committee of physicians and ethicists to deal with five issues: (a) to propose alternative names for eponyms of physicians who exhibited complicity during the Nazi era; (b) to honor the eponyms and stories of physicians who were victims of Nazi atrocities and genocide; (c) to apply vigorous pressure to those German and Austrian Institutes that have not yet undertaken investigations to determine if the bodies of Nazi victims remain in their collections; (d) to recommend holding annual commemorations in medical schools and research institutes worldwide to remember and to reflect on the victims of compromised medical practice, particularly, but not exclusively, during the Nazi era because atrocities and acts of genocide have occurred elsewhere; and (e) to examine the influence of any political ideology that compromises the practice of medicine. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Nose: Applied Aspects in Dermatology

PubMed Central

Lakshmi, Dammaningala Venkataramaiah; Shilpa, Kanathur; Nataraja, Holavanahally Veerabhadrappa; Divya, Kallapa Gorur

2016-01-01

Nose is the most prominent part of the mid-face and has important physiological, aesthetic and psychological functions. Skin diseases on the nose are commonly seen by dermatologists, otorhinolaryngologists, and plastic surgeons. Because of its exposed, highly visible localization, lesions on the skin of the nose are often noticed by patients themselves, typically very early in the course of the disease. Similarly, the dermatological lexicon is well known with descriptive terminologies, synonyms, acronyms, eponyms, toponyms, misnomers. We have tried to compile the anatomical applications of nose in cosmetology and dermatosurgery subspecialities with nasal eponyms and signs encountered in clinical dermatology that would be helpful for residents. PMID:27057038

Achilles tendon: the 305th anniversary of the French priority on the introduction of the famous anatomical eponym.

PubMed

Musil, V; Stingl, J; Bacova, T; Baca, V; Kachlik, D

2011-07-01

This article presents a detailed chronology regarding the development of terminology relating to the calcaneal tendon, from ancient times to modern day nomenclature. The notable contributions of Flemish anatomist Philip Verheyen, French surgeon Jean-Louis Petit, German anatomist and surgeon Lorenz Heister, along with the actual origin of the famous anatomical eponym "Achilles tendon" are analysed. During the study of the aforementioned authors, it was revealed that the term was first adopted, in its original French form, by J.-L. Petit in 1705 and later in 1717, in its Latin form, by L. Heister.

Fruit and food eponyms in dermatology.

PubMed

Jindal, Nidhi; Jindal, Pooja; Kumar, Jeevan; Gupta, Sanjeev; Jain, V K

2015-01-01

Dermatology world is brimming with myriad of interesting clinical conditions, signs and syndromes. It is infinite, which has systemic clinical connotations too. Complicated pronunciations of diagnosis have always placed residents in an intricate state. Each one is trying his best to make this cumbersome subject comparatively more acceptable and convenient. The present paper is an attempt to further simplify the subject by correlating difficult conditions with commonly used and seen things such as fruit and food. A total of 45 dermatological conditions were found to be based on fruit and food eponyms. For example, strawberries can remind us of strawberry gums of Wegener's granulomatosis and strawberry nevus.

Parkinson's disease - the story of an eponym.

PubMed

Goedert, Michel; Compston, Alastair

2018-01-01

One of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases worldwide is still referred to as 'Parkinson's disease'. The condition is named after James Parkinson who, in 1817, described the shaking palsy (paralysis agitans). In the bicentennial year of this publication, we trace when and why the shaking palsy became Parkinson's disease. The term was coined by William Rutherford Sanders of Edinburgh in 1865 and later entered general usage through the influence of Jean-Martin Charcot and the school that he nurtured at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. Despite a move towards more mechanism-based nosology for many medical conditions in recent years, the Parkinson's disease eponym remains in place, celebrating the life and work of this doctor, palaeontologist and political activist.

The du Bois sign.

PubMed

Voelpel, James H; Muehlberger, Thomas

2011-03-01

According to the current literature, the term "du Bois sign" characterizes the condition of a shortened fifth finger as a symptom of congenital syphilis, Down syndrome, dyscrania, and encephalic malformation. Modern medical dictionaries and text books attribute the eponym to the French gynecologist Paul Dubois (1795-1871). Yet, a literature analysis revealed incorrect references to the person and unclear definitions of the term. Our findings showed that the origin of the term is based on observations made by the Swiss dermatologist Charles du Bois (1874-1947) in connection with congenital syphilis. In addition, a further eponymical fifth finger sign is closely associated with the du Bois sign. In conclusion, the du Bois sign has only limited diagnostic value and is frequently occurring in the normal healthy population.

Glaser Fissure, Huguier Canal, and Civinini Canal: A Confused Eponymical Imbroglio.

PubMed

Mudry, Albert

2015-07-01

Huguier canal or Civinini canal is a canaliculus in the Glaser fissure allowing the exit of the chorda tympani from the tympanic cavity. The aim of this study is to try to put some order in the origins and relations of these different eponyms, and to evaluate their pertinence in the actual anatomical terminology. This study demonstrates that Huguier and Civinini are not the first to describe this canal in the 1830s. Furthermore, it confirms that Glaser does not describe the related fissure in 1680. In conclusion, Glaser, Civinini, and Huguier no longer have a place in the actual anatomical nomenclature of the fine details of the temporal bone. To avoid confusion and errors, they must be replaced by anterior canaliculus for the chorda tympani and petrotympanic fissure.

[Czech eponyms in pathology].

PubMed

Steiner, Ivo

2013-01-01

The 24th European Congress of Pathology taking place in Prague is an opportunity to remind our society of the Czech names appearing as eponyms in pathological terminology: Karel Rokitanský - R. protuberance in dermoid cyst; R. thrombogenic theory of atherosclerosis; Mayer - R. - Küster - Hauser - Winckel syndrome (congenital malformation of the vagina and uterus); Václav Treitz - T. duodenal ligament; T. retroperitoneal hernia; T. uremic colitis; Vilém Dušan Lambl - L. excrescences of heart valves; Lamblia (Giardia) intestinalis, and also the foundation of urological cytology; Stanislav Provázek - Prowazek - Halberstädter bodies (trachoma), Rickettsia Prowazeki (typhus fever); Josef Vaněk - V. tumor (gastric inflammatory fibroid polyp), and also discovery of the etiology of pneumocystic pneumonia; Otto Jírovec - Pneumocystis Jiroveci; Blahoslav Bednář - B. tumor (pigmented dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans).

Galen and his anatomic eponym: vein of Galen.

PubMed

Ustun, Cagatay

2004-09-01

Galen or Galenus was born at Pergamum (now Bergama in Turkey) in 129 A.D., and died in the year 200 A.D. He was a 2nd century Greek philosopher-physician who switched to the medical profession after his father dreamt of this calling for his son. Galen's training and experiences brought him to Alexandria and Rome and he rose quickly to fame with public demonstrations of anatomical and surgical skills. He became physician to emperor Marcus Aurelius and the emperor's ambitious son, Commodus. He wrote prodigiously and was able to preserve his medical research in 22 volumes of printed text, representing half of all Greek medical literature that is available to us today. The structures, the great cerebral vein and the communicating branch of the internal laryngeal nerve, bear his eponym.

The eponymous Dr James Marion Sims MD, LLD (1813-1883).

PubMed

West, M J; Irvine, L M

2015-02-01

Dr James Marion Sims was born in 1813 in Lancaster County, South Carolina. It was while pioneering numerous surgical procedures in Alabama that in 1849 he achieved the outstanding landmark in medical history of successfully, and consistently, repairing vesicovaginal fistulae. Sims soon developed a reputation as a fine surgeon, with new operations and techniques, using novel surgical instruments and his innovative approaches frequently published. Moving to New York City in 1853, he further established hospitals devoted entirely to women's health. Sims was controversial, with flamboyant descriptions of self-confident success, yet they were tempered with sober reflection of failure and loss. Today we remain with the Sims speculum and Sims position, eponymous tributes to his accomplishments as the 'Father of Gynaecology'. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Meige Syndrome: What’s in a Name?

PubMed Central

LeDoux, Mark S.

2009-01-01

Frequently, blepharospasm is associated with involuntary movements of the platysma, lower face and masticatory muscles. Similarly, masticatory dystonia may occur in isolation or in combination with dystonia of other cranial and cervical muscles. The non-possessive and possessive forms of Meige and Brueghel syndromes have been variably and imprecisely ascribed to various anatomical variations of craniocervical dystonia. Herein, the origin of eponymic terms as applied to craniocervical dystonia is reviewed as support for proposed elimination of these eponyms from clinical usage. Although the term “segmental craniocervical dystonia” more accurately captures the combination of blepharospasm and dystonia of other head and neck muscles, delineation of craniocervical subphenotypes is essential for etiological/genetic and treatment studies. To conclude, the clinical features, epidemiology, pathophysiology and therapeutic management of segmental craniocervical dystonia are examined with a particular focus on “blepharospasm-plus” subphenotypes. PMID:19457699

Learning from eponyms: George F. Odland and Odland bodies

PubMed Central

Joshi, Rajiv

2014-01-01

Odland bodies (lamellar) bodies are small sub-cellular structures of size 200-300 nm that are present in the upper spinous and granular cell layers of the epidermis. These act as processing and repository areas for lipids that contribute to the epidermal permeability barrier. They also contain proteases, cathepsin D, kallikrein and other proteins including corneo-desmosins. Recent information also credits them with a role in the local innate immune response as they contain beta 2 defensins, which are anti-microbial peptides with potent activity against Gram-negative bacteria and candida. Odland bodies are important for maintaining homeostasis of the epidermis and are involved in epidermal permeability barrier function, desquamation of keratinocytes, formation of the cornified envelope and in local anti-microbial immunity. This article reviews the structure and functions of these bodies with a brief biography of George F. Odland who first described these bodies in 1960 and whose name is eponymically associated with them. PMID:25165659

Clarification of Eponymous Anatomical Terminology: Structures Named After Dr Geoffrey V. Osborne That Compress the Ulnar Nerve at the Elbow.

PubMed

Wali, Arvin R; Gabel, Brandon; Mitwalli, Madhawi; Tubbs, R Shane; Brown, Justin M

2017-05-01

In 1957, Dr Geoffrey Osborne described a structure between the medial epicondyle and the olecranon that placed excessive pressure on the ulnar nerve. Three terms associated with such structures have emerged: Osborne's band, Osborne's ligament, and Osborne's fascia. As anatomical language moves away from eponymous terminology for descriptive, consistent nomenclature, we find discrepancies in the use of anatomic terms. This review clarifies the definitions of the above 3 terms. We conducted an extensive electronic search via PubMed and Google Scholar to identify key anatomical and surgical texts that describe ulnar nerve compression at the elbow. We searched the following terms separately and in combination: "Osborne's band," "Osborne's ligament," and "Osborne's fascia." A total of 36 papers were included from 1957 to 2016. Osborne's band, Osborne's ligament, and Osborne's fascia were found to inconsistently describe the etiology of ulnar neuritis, referring either to the connective tissue between the 2 heads of the flexor carpi ulnaris muscle as described by Dr Osborne or to the anatomically distinct fibrous tissue between the olecranon process of the ulna and the medial epicondyle of the humerus. The use of eponymous terms to describe ulnar pathology of the elbow remains common, and although these terms allude to the rich history of surgical anatomy, these nonspecific descriptions lead to inconsistencies. As Osborne's band, Osborne's ligament, and Osborne's fascia are not used consistently across the literature, this research demonstrates the need for improved terminology to provide reliable interpretation of these terms among surgeons.

"Only a Wall--But What a Wall!"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Bill

2009-01-01

Alison Wolf's article on Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure" ("Adults Learning," January 2009) rightly sees the links between the barriers facing the eponymous hero of the novel and his modern-day counterpart seeking education rather than vocational training, and prompts a revisiting of this novel, which has, more than once, been…

Information Retrieval Diary of an Expert Technical Translator.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cremmins, Edward T.

1984-01-01

Recommends use of entries from the information retrieval diary of Ted Crump, expert technical translator at the National Institute of Health, in the construction of computer models showing how expert translators solve problems of ambiguity in language. Expert and inexpert translation systems, eponyms, abbreviations, and alphabetic solutions are…

Benign Occipital Epilepsies of Childhood: Clinical Features and Genetics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Isabella; Berkovic, Samuel F.; Kivity, Sara; Scheffer, Ingrid E.

2008-01-01

The early and late benign occipital epilepsies of childhood (BOEC) are described as two discrete electro-clinical syndromes, eponymously known as Panayiotopoulos and Gastaut syndromes. Our aim was to explore the clinical features, classification and clinical genetics of these syndromes using twin and multiplex family studies to determine whether…

The Scientific Legacy of Charles Wheatstone

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenslade, Thomas B., Jr.

2017-01-01

Charles Wheatstone's name was once familiar to students because they used his eponymous bridge to measure resistances. That usage seems to be disappearing--we all have access to digital ohmmeters--but the techniques that he developed for making electrical measurements can still be used with profit. Also, his work with measuring very short time…

Apparatus Named After Our Academic Ancestors — II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenslade, Thomas B.

2011-01-01

In my previous article on apparatus named after physicists and physics teachers, I discussed five relatively common pieces of apparatus from the 1875-1910 era. Now I will go back to the 18th and early-19th centuries to discuss eponymous2 apparatus that we are still using in lecture demonstrations.

Thermodynamics of Highly Concentrated Aqueous Electrolytes: Based on Boltzmann's eponymous equation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ally, Moonis Raza

This sharply focused book invites the reader to explore the chemical thermodynamics of highly concentrated aqueous electrolytes from a different vantage point than traditional methods. The book's foundation is deeply rooted in Ludwig Boltzmann's eponymous equation. The pathway from micro to macro thermodynamics is explained heuristically, in a step-by-step approach. Concepts and mathematical formalism are explained in detail to captivate and maintain interest as the algebra twists and turns. Every significant result is derived in a lucid and piecemeal fashion. Application of the theory is exemplified with examples. It is amazing to realize that Boltamann's simple equation contains sufficient informationmore » from which such an elaborate theory can emerge. This book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate level classes in chemical engineering, chemistry, geochemistry, environmental sciences, and those studying aerosol particles in the troposphere. Students interested in understanding how thermodynamic theories may be developed would be inspired by the methodology. The author wishes that readers get as much excitement reading this book as he did writing it.« less

Sensor-Data Fusion for Multi-Person Indoor Location Estimation

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

We consider the problem of estimating the location of people as they move and work in indoor environments. More specifically, we focus on the scenario where one of the persons of interest is unable or unwilling to carry a smartphone, or any other “wearable” device, which frequently arises in caregiver/cared-for situations. We consider the case of indoor spaces populated with anonymous binary sensors (Passive Infrared motion sensors) and eponymous wearable sensors (smartphones interacting with Estimote beacons), and we propose a solution to the resulting sensor-fusion problem. Using a data set with sensor readings collected from one-person and two-person sessions engaged in a variety of activities of daily living, we investigate the relative merits of relying solely on anonymous sensors, solely on eponymous sensors, or on their combination. We examine how the lack of synchronization across different sensing sources impacts the quality of location estimates, and discuss how it could be mitigated without resorting to device-level mechanisms. Finally, we examine the trade-off between the sensors’ coverage of the monitored space and the quality of the location estimates. PMID:29057812

Sensor-Data Fusion for Multi-Person Indoor Location Estimation.

PubMed

Mohebbi, Parisa; Stroulia, Eleni; Nikolaidis, Ioanis

2017-10-18

We consider the problem of estimating the location of people as they move and work in indoor environments. More specifically, we focus on the scenario where one of the persons of interest is unable or unwilling to carry a smartphone, or any other "wearable" device, which frequently arises in caregiver/cared-for situations. We consider the case of indoor spaces populated with anonymous binary sensors (Passive Infrared motion sensors) and eponymous wearable sensors (smartphones interacting with Estimote beacons), and we propose a solution to the resulting sensor-fusion problem. Using a data set with sensor readings collected from one-person and two-person sessions engaged in a variety of activities of daily living, we investigate the relative merits of relying solely on anonymous sensors, solely on eponymous sensors, or on their combination. We examine how the lack of synchronization across different sensing sources impacts the quality of location estimates, and discuss how it could be mitigated without resorting to device-level mechanisms. Finally, we examine the trade-off between the sensors' coverage of the monitored space and the quality of the location estimates.

Medical Image Analysis - past, present, and future.

PubMed

Wells, William M

2016-10-01

In this editorial I summarize, against the backdrop of the research disciplines, meetings and journals of the time, the emergence in the early 1990s of the field that is eponymous with the present journal. I briefly summarize the current status of the field, and outline some possible future directions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-12

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reardon, Sean F.

2015-01-01

Although it is clear that racial segregation is linked to academic achievement gaps, the mechanisms underlying this link have been debated since Coleman published his eponymous 1966 report. In this paper, I examine 16 distinct measures of segregation to determine which is most strongly associated with academic achievement gaps. I find very clear…

White Fear: Analyzing Public Objection to Toronto's Africentric School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine-Rasky, Cynthia

2014-01-01

In September 2009, the Toronto District School Board opened a publicly funded Africentric alternative school that today serves a population of about 135 students. While the founding of the eponymous school was the result of successful advocacy on the part of African-Canadian communities in the city, it was met with controversy. Readily observed in…

Navigating the Alphabet Soup of Labroligamentous Pathology of the Shoulder.

PubMed

Fitzpatrick, Darren; Grubin, Jeremy

2016-02-01

Because of the widespread use of eponyms and acronyms to describe labroligamentous findings in the shoulder, interpreting shoulder magnetic resonance imaging reports can be challenging. A summary of the appearance of these lesions on shoulder magnetic resonance images can help the orthopedic surgeon to understand these entities as imaging findings and to determine the appropriate treatment for patients with shoulder injuries.

[The worlds of gods in medicine].

PubMed

Karenberg, A

2017-09-01

A number of designations for diseases, medicines and human body structures derive from classical mythology. To date, these eponyms have not been systematically investigated. This paper provides an overview of this fringe component of medical vocabulary, looks at the history of several terms and formulates hypotheses as to why such creative etymologies have come into being. In addition to relevant texts on ancient mythology, a variety of medical textbooks from the early modern period were analyzed. Between the 16th and the 20th centuries some 30 figures from Greek and Roman literature made their way into the terminology of medical sciences. A few of these expressions can be encountered in clinical use (e. g., Caput Medusae, Proteus, Oedipus complex) and remain official anatomical (atlas, Achilles tendon) or pharmaceutical nomenclature (atropine, morphine). The choice of these designations has often been similarity of form or analogies in function. Classical eponyms have gained acceptance on account of their succinctness, conciseness and scholarly veneer. Finally, this vocabulary shares its origin with other relevant terminology. In clinical classes, mythological designations can serve as a point of departure for digressions into literary, art and medical history in order to provide an understanding of cultural traditions and enhance education.

The Roman Empire legacy of Galen (129-200 AD).

PubMed

Shoja, Mohammadali M; Tubbs, R Shane; Ghabili, Kamyar; Griessenauer, Christoph J; Balch, Margaret Wood; Cuceu, Mariana

2015-01-01

Galen of Pergamum was the physician of Roman Emperors and contributed to our early understanding of medicine and anatomy. Herein, we present a short biography of Galen and review his multiple contributions to medicine and anatomy. Although it has been almost 2,000 years since Galen walked the streets of the Roman Empire, his legacy continues via multiple eponyms that bare his name.

The Gerda experiment for the search of 0νββ decay in 76Ge

DOE PAGES

Ackermann, K. -H.; Agostini, M.; Allardt, M.; ...

2013-03-01

The Gerda collaboration is performing a search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 76 Ge with the eponymous detector. The experiment has been installed and commissioned at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and has started operation in November 2011. The design, construction and first operational results are described, along with detailed information from the R & D phase.

Umbilical-spinous line: a morphological term that should be included in the anatomical terminology

PubMed Central

Ríos, John

2013-01-01

We argue the need to include in the International Anatomical Terminology the term "Umbilical-spinous line" for its importance as a morphological referent in bioscopic and surface anatomy. Also, in order to avoid using eponyms, it is suggested that the traditional term "McBurney point" be replaced by "supra spinous point" as being more descriptive of location. PMID:24892620

Terminologia anatomica: new terminology for the new anatomist.

PubMed

Whitmore, I

1999-04-15

Over many years, anatomical terminology has been the subject of much controversy and disagreement. Previously, the International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee has been responsible for the production of six editions of Nomina Anatomica. In 1989 a new committee, the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT), was created by its parent body, the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA). FCAT has worked for 9 years and published Terminologia Anatomica (TA) in 1998. FCAT's aim has been to democratize the terminology and make it the internationally accepted, living language of anatomy. The worldwide adoption of the same terminology would eliminate national differences, which were causing extreme confusion in instances where the same structure was known by several names. The new terminology is thus the result of worldwide consultation and contains Latin and equivalent English terms. It is indexed in Latin and English and contains an index of eponyms in order to find the correct non-eponymous term. The future goal of FCAT is to continue to improve the terminology-new structures are described, different terms come into use, and the terminology needs to be expanded to include terms used by clinicians for structures that currently do not appear in the list. Future versions of the terminology must accommodate the needs of all who use it, both in the clinical and scientific worlds.

The Scientific Legacy of Charles Wheatstone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenslade, Thomas B.

2017-02-01

Charles Wheatstone's name was once familiar to students because they used his eponymous bridge to measure resistances. That usage seems to be disappearing—we all have access to digital ohmmeters—but the techniques that he developed for making electrical measurements can still be used with profit. Also, his work with measuring very short time intervals and his work with musical acoustics are still with us, if in modified forms. Here are a few examples of his work.

FormScanner: Open-Source Solution for Grading Multiple-Choice Exams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Chadwick; Lo, Glenn; Young, Kaisa; Borsetta, Alberto

2016-01-01

The multiple-choice exam remains a staple for many introductory physics courses. In the past, people have graded these by hand or even flaming needles. Today, one usually grades the exams with a form scanner that utilizes optical mark recognition (OMR). Several companies provide these scanners and particular forms, such as the eponymous "Scantron." OMR scanners combine hardware and software—a scanner and OMR program—to read and grade student-filled forms.

Jarcho-Levin syndrome presenting with diaphragmatic hernia.

PubMed

Onay, O S; Kinik, S T; Otgün, Y; Arda, I S; Varan, B

2008-08-01

Jarcho-Levin syndrome (spondylothoracic or spondylocostal dysostosis) is an eponym that is used to define individuals with a short neck, short trunk, and short stature and multiple vertebral anomalies. The prognosis is directly related to respiratory complications. Reported findings associated with Jarcho-Levin syndrome include congenital heart defects, abdominal wall malformations, genitourinary malformations, upper limb anomalies, and neural tube defects. We report on a 6-day-old girl who presented with an incomplete form of Jarcho-Levin syndrome with late-presenting congenital diaphragmatic hernia and congenital heart disease.

Eponymous signs in dermatology

PubMed Central

Madke, Bhushan; Nayak, Chitra

2012-01-01

Clinical signs reflect the sheer and close observatory quality of an astute physician. Many new dermatological signs both in clinical and diagnostic aspects of various dermatoses are being reported and no single book on dermatology literature gives a comprehensive list of these “signs” and postgraduate students in dermatology finds it difficult to have access to the description, as most of these resident doctor do not have access to the said journal articles. “Signs” commonly found in dermatologic literature with a brief discussion and explanation is reviewed in this paper. PMID:23189246

Signatures of DNA target selectivity by ETS transcription factors

PubMed Central

Kim, Hye Mi

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT The ETS family of transcription factors is a functionally heterogeneous group of gene regulators that share a structurally conserved, eponymous DNA-binding domain. DNA target specificity derives from combinatorial interactions with other proteins as well as intrinsic heterogeneity among ETS domains. Emerging evidence suggests molecular hydration as a fundamental feature that defines the intrinsic heterogeneity in DNA target selection and susceptibility to epigenetic DNA modification. This perspective invokes novel hypotheses in the regulation of ETS proteins in physiologic osmotic stress, their pioneering potential in heterochromatin, and the effects of passive and pharmacologic DNA demethylation on ETS regulation. PMID:28301293

Signatures of DNA target selectivity by ETS transcription factors.

PubMed

Poon, Gregory M K; Kim, Hye Mi

2017-05-27

The ETS family of transcription factors is a functionally heterogeneous group of gene regulators that share a structurally conserved, eponymous DNA-binding domain. DNA target specificity derives from combinatorial interactions with other proteins as well as intrinsic heterogeneity among ETS domains. Emerging evidence suggests molecular hydration as a fundamental feature that defines the intrinsic heterogeneity in DNA target selection and susceptibility to epigenetic DNA modification. This perspective invokes novel hypotheses in the regulation of ETS proteins in physiologic osmotic stress, their pioneering potential in heterochromatin, and the effects of passive and pharmacologic DNA demethylation on ETS regulation.

Hyphenated history: the Böhler-Braun frame.

PubMed

Sop, Aaron L; Mehlman, Charles T; Meiss, Ludwig

2003-03-01

Throughout the history of medicine, many great physicians have originated or popularized ideas that have resulted in their names being attached to a device, procedure, or disease process. Hyphenated eponyms are especially interesting, for there are always underlying stories that explicate how people became associates in history. This paper will describe a bit of hyphenated history regarding orthopaedic trauma, specifically, the development of the Böhler-Braun frame. The lives of two great surgeons associated with this device, Lorenz Böhler, the "father of traumatology," and Heinrich Braun, the "father of local anesthesia," will also be reviewed.

The life and work of the Birmingham radiologist Dr James Brailsford (1888-1961).

PubMed

Kapadia, H M; Banerjee, A K; Arnott, R G

2004-08-01

James Brailsford went from humble beginnings to become an eminent radiologist through his ability, determination and immense diligence. He made a late start in medicine but became one of the world's leading authorities on skeletal diseases; he wrote the classic textbook The Radiology of Bones and Joints and described the eponymous Morquio-Brailsford syndrome. In 1934 he was elected first President of the British Association of Radiologists, of which he was founder. This later became the Faculty of Radiologists at the Royal College of Surgeons and is now the Royal College of Radiologists.

Alzheimer and his disease: a brief history.

PubMed

Cipriani, Gabriele; Dolciotti, Cristina; Picchi, Lucia; Bonuccelli, Ubaldo

2011-04-01

More than 100 years ago, Alois Alzheimer first described the clinical and pathological features of an unusual brain disease during the meeting of the Society of Southwest German Psychiatrists in Tübingen: the patient, Auguste Deter, suffered memory loss, disorientation, hallucinations and delusions and died at the age of 55. In 1910, Emil Kraepelin named the condition with the eponym of "Alzheimer's disease" (AD) that is, now, the most common neurodegenerative disease with more than 25 million cases worldwide and a major medical problem nearing catastrophic levels. The present article discusses Alzheimer's work in the context of his life and time.

Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) inoceramid bivalves of the genus Mytiloides from the Sredna Gora Mountains, north-western Bulgaria

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dochev, Docho

2015-03-01

The inoceramid bivalves of the genus Mytiloides, from the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Sredna Gora Mts (north-western Bulgaria), are studied. The material comes from three sections: Izvor, Filipovtsi, and Vrabchov dol. Eight species are described taxonomically, with one left in open nomenclature: M. cf. mytiloides (Mantell, 1822), M. mytiloidiformis (Tröger, 1967), M. incertus (Jimbo, 1894), M. scupini (Heinz, 1930), M. herbichi (Atabekian, 1969), M. striatoconcentricus (Gümbel, 1868), M. labiatoidiformis (Tröger, 1967) and M. carpathicus (Simionescu, 1899). Mytiloides incertus and Mytiloides scupini are index species for the eponymous Upper Turonian inoceramid biozones.

Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov (1810-1881): A pioneering Russian surgeon and medical scientist.

PubMed

Hendriks, Inge F; Bovill, James G; van Luijt, Peter A; Hogendoorn, Pancras Cw

2018-02-01

Nikolay Pirogov qualified as a physician from Moscow University in 1828 and then studied surgery and anatomy at University of Dorpat. He developed new surgical techniques, including the eponymous osteoplastic foot amputation. His application of scientifically based techniques extended surgery from a craft to a science. During the Crimean War he initiated the deployment of women as nurses and used triage for dealing with mass casualties. His textbook on field surgery became the standard reference on the subject and his principles remained virtually unchanged until the Second World War. Pirogov died on 5 December 1881 at his estate in Vishnya.

Mrs. Squandertime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anstey, Josephine; Pape, Dave

2013-03-01

In this paper we discuss Mrs. Squandertime, a real-time, persistent simulation of a virtual character, her living room, and the view from her window, designed to be a wall-size, projected art installation. Through her large picture window, the eponymous Mrs. Squandertime watches the sea: boats, clouds, gulls, the tide going in and out, people on the sea wall. The hundreds of images that compose the view are drawn from historical printed sources. The program that assembles and animates these images is driven by weather, time, and tide data constantly updated from a real physical location. The character herself is rendered photographically in a series of slowly dissolving stills which correspond to the character's current behavior.

The intriguing history of vertebral fusion anomalies: the Klippel-Feil syndrome.

PubMed

Saker, Erfanul; Loukas, Marios; Oskouian, Rod J; Tubbs, R Shane

2016-09-01

Our knowledge and understanding of vertebral fusion, defined and eponymously known as Klippel-Feil syndrome in the early 1900s, have a long history. This uncommon finding has been identified as early as 500 B.C. in an Egyptian mummy. Many more examples of spinal vertebra fusion have been described by Greek historians and recovered by archeologists demonstrating this entity's rich history. Klippel-Feil syndrome is a rare skeletal anomaly characterized by abnormal fusion of two or more vertebrae. With the advent of newer molecular technology and genetic discoveries, we now have a better understanding of the etiology and possible pathogenesis of this disease.

Cannonical [sic] confusions, an illusory allusion, and more: a critique of Haggbloom, et al.'s list of eminent psychologists (2002).

PubMed

Black, Stephen L

2003-06-01

The analysis by Haggbloom, et al. (2002) establishing a list of the most eminent psychologists of the 20th century contains significant errors. In one case the achievements of Walter B. Cannon are misattributed to W. Gary Cannon. Other errors are eponyms misattributed to Margaret F. Washburn, Morton Deutsch, Wolfgang Köhler, and G. Stanley Hall. A further mistake is to miscalculate the statistic for introductory psychology textbook citations for Hans J. Eysenck. These errors have consequences for the ranking of individuals on this list. Care must be taken to guard against such mistakes.

Robert Lawson (?1846-1896).

PubMed

Larner, A J; Gardner-Thorpe, C

2012-04-01

Various descriptions of what would now be called Korsakoff Syndrome may be found in the medical literature predating the eponymous reports of Sergei Korsakoff (1854-1900) that date from 1887 onwards. Of these, it has been stated that the "most promising account" (Draaisma in Disturbances of the mind 163-164, 2009) may be that of Dr. Robert Lawson, published in 1878 in the journal Brain in its inaugural year of publication (Lawson in Brain 1:182-194, 1878). As Lawson is likely to be an unfamiliar name to most neurologists, and does not appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, we offer this brief account of his life and work.

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells in the tumor microenvironment: expect the unexpected.

PubMed

Marvel, Douglas; Gabrilovich, Dmitry I

2015-09-01

Our understanding of the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in cancer is becoming increasingly complex. In addition to their eponymous role in suppressing immune responses, they directly support tumor growth, differentiation, and metastasis in a number of ways that are only now beginning to be appreciated. It is because of this increasingly complex role that these cells may become an important factor in the treatment of human cancer. In this Review, we discuss the most pertinent and controversial issues of MDSC biology and their role in promoting cancer progression and highlight how these cells may be used in the clinic, both as prognostic factors and as therapeutic targets.

The origin of Woltman's sign of myxoedema.

PubMed

Burkholder, David B; Klaas, James P; Kumar, Neeraj; Boes, Christopher J

2013-09-01

Woltman's sign of myxoedema, named after Henry Woltman in 1956, is the delayed relaxation phase of the muscle stretch reflex in patients with myxoedema. Although a change in these reflexes was mentioned as being clinically evident possibly as early as the 1870s, no formal description was published until 1924 when William Calvert Chaney objectively quantified the change. Woltman was involved in training Chaney, and it has been proposed that he guided Chaney's study of these reflexes. Despite the attachment of Woltman's name to the eponym, little evidence exists that directly links him to the first objective study of the muscle stretch reflex in myxoedema performed by Chaney. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Human bartonellosis: before and after Daniel Alcides Carrion].

PubMed

Takano Morón, Juan

2014-04-01

This is a review of bibliographic aspects associated to the knowledge about human bartonelosis before and after the death of Daniel Alcides Carrion. Emphasis is placed on stimulus in the development of medical research in Peru by the self-inoculation and subsequent death of Carrion especially in relation to human bartonellosis, conducted by Peruvian researchers and others around the world. The review includes the basic area of knowledge about the bacteria that causes the illness, the host response to infection as well as the biphasic behavior of the disease. The revised bibliography includes contributions to the knowledge of the disease in the last 100 years, now known with the eponym "Carrion's disease".

Cotard's Syndrome in a Patient with Schizophrenia: Case Report and Review of the Literature

PubMed Central

Ledesma-Gastañadui, Mario

2016-01-01

Jules Cotard described, in 1880, the case of a patient characterized by delusions of negation, immortality, and guilt as well as melancholic anxiety among other clinical features. Later this constellation of symptoms was given the eponym Cotard's syndrome, going through a series of theoretical vicissitudes, considering itself currently as just the presence of nihilistic delusions. The presentation of the complete clinical features described by Cotard is a rare occurrence, especially in the context of schizophrenia. Here we present the case of a 50-year-old male patient with schizophrenia who developed Cotard's syndrome. The patient was treated with aripiprazole, showing improvement after two weeks of treatment. A review of the literature is performed about this case. PMID:28053798

Cotard's Syndrome in a Patient with Schizophrenia: Case Report and Review of the Literature.

PubMed

Huarcaya-Victoria, Jeff; Ledesma-Gastañadui, Mario; Huete-Cordova, Maria

2016-01-01

Jules Cotard described, in 1880, the case of a patient characterized by delusions of negation, immortality, and guilt as well as melancholic anxiety among other clinical features. Later this constellation of symptoms was given the eponym Cotard's syndrome, going through a series of theoretical vicissitudes, considering itself currently as just the presence of nihilistic delusions. The presentation of the complete clinical features described by Cotard is a rare occurrence, especially in the context of schizophrenia. Here we present the case of a 50-year-old male patient with schizophrenia who developed Cotard's syndrome. The patient was treated with aripiprazole, showing improvement after two weeks of treatment. A review of the literature is performed about this case.

An unusual cause of headache: Pott's puffy tumour.

PubMed

McDermott, Cian; O'Sullivan, Ronan; McMahon, Geraldine

2007-06-01

Osteomyelitis of the frontal bone (eponymously known as Pott's puffy tumour) is an extremely rare and potentially life-threatening complication of frontal sinusitis. The entity was first described by Sir Percival Pott, an 18th century neurosurgeon. It is today considered a historical vignette with the introduction of modern antimicrobial agents. Early diagnosis and immediate active treatment are necessary to prevent severe neurologic sequelae. We report on a case of Pott's puffy tumour in a previously healthy young man with a progressively worsening headache and swelling of the frontal bone. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed features characteristic of this condition. Following emergency sinus trephination and 6 weeks of parenteral and enteral antibiotic therapy, the patient achieved a complete recovery.

[Posthumous nomination for Medicine Nobel Prizes II. The positivism era (1849-1899)].

PubMed

Cruz-Coke, R

1997-06-01

The author proposes the nomination of great physicians of the second half of the XIX century for a posthumous Medicine Nobel Prize. The valorization given by medical historians Garrison, Lavastine, Castiglioni, Lain Entralgo and Guerra, is used to select the better candidates. One to three names are assigned by year from 1849 to 1899. Four categories of Nobel prizes are assigned: a) Basic biological disciplines, b) Clinical and surgical medicine, pathology and specialties, c) Discoverers of transcendental diseases that are eponyms and d) New medical technologies. A total of 84 nominees for the Nobel Prize are presented. These lists are presented as preliminary and tentative to allow an extensive debate about the history of medicine during the nineteenth century.

Hermaphroditus in Greco-Roman myth: lessons and hypotheses for intersex today.

PubMed

Jospe, Nicholas; Florence, Monica

2004-11-01

This discussion reviews the Greco-Roman mythic origins of the eponymic Hermaphroditus. It reviews the two major tales, one Greek, the other from Ovid, regarding the origins of the sexual and gender predicament of Hermaphroditus. It explains the genealogy of Hermaphroditus in Greek mythology, and includes a discussion of Ovid's text on Hermaphroditus. A comparison of the two renditions offers the opportunity to reflect on who Hermaphroditus may have been, and to reflect on the implications of his nature. The discussion also attends to some of the ethical and emotional conflicts for the intersexed today. Finally, the discussion explores whether lessons from, and hypotheses regarding a mythic figure, such as Hermaphroditus, may provide guidance for intersexed individuals and their parents.

Controversies surrounding Jarcho-Levin syndrome.

PubMed

Cornier, Alberto S; Ramirez, Norman; Carlo, Simón; Reiss, Abilio

2003-12-01

Jarcho-Levin syndrome is an eponym that has been used to describe a variety of clinical phenotypes consisting of short-trunk dwarfism associated with rib and vertebral anomalies. This admixture of phenotypes under Jarcho-Levin syndrome has allowed some confusion in terms of phenotype, prognosis, and mortality. In the past 2 years, few papers have provided more insight into the clinical diagnosis, prognosis, and management of patient with these phenotypes. Recently molecular, clinical, and radiologic data have allowed further characterization of these phenotypes. Based on these findings, we have divided these phenotypes into spondylothoracic dysplasia and spondylocostal dysostosis. A better understanding of the distinct phenotypes under Jarcho-Levin syndrome will help clinicians to understand the pathological factors of the disease, establish mode of inheritance, provide adequate genetic counseling, prognosis, molecular diagnosis, and clinical management recommendations.

Deciphering the BAR code of membrane modulators.

PubMed

Salzer, Ulrich; Kostan, Julius; Djinović-Carugo, Kristina

2017-07-01

The BAR domain is the eponymous domain of the "BAR-domain protein superfamily", a large and diverse set of mostly multi-domain proteins that play eminent roles at the membrane cytoskeleton interface. BAR domain homodimers are the functional units that peripherally associate with lipid membranes and are involved in membrane sculpting activities. Differences in their intrinsic curvatures and lipid-binding properties account for a large variety in membrane modulating properties. Membrane activities of BAR domains are further modified and regulated by intramolecular or inter-subunit domains, by intermolecular protein interactions, and by posttranslational modifications. Rather than providing detailed cell biological information on single members of this superfamily, this review focuses on biochemical, biophysical, and structural aspects and on recent findings that paradigmatically promote our understanding of processes driven and modulated by BAR domains.

Musculoskeletal colloquialisms based on weapons.

PubMed

Agrawal, Anuj

2017-01-01

Eponyms and colloquialisms are commonly used in orthopaedic literature and convey a great deal of information in a concise fashion. Several orthopaedic conditions have characteristic clinical or radiologic appearances, mimicking the appearance of certain arms or weapons. Most of these are easy to memorise and recognise, provided the orthopaedic surgeon is aware of the colloquialism and familiar with the appearance of the weapon on which it is based. Unfortunately, many such colloquialisms are based on traditional weapons no longer in current use, and their appearances are not familiar to most orthopaedists, creating confusion and difficulty in understanding them. In this paper, we have reviewed the musculoskeletal colloquialisms based on weapons, including a brief description of the weapon with illustrations, highlighting the importance of the colloquialism in diagnosis or treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.

Guyon Canal: The Evolution of Clinical Anatomy

PubMed Central

Maroukis, Brianna L.; Ogawa, Takeshi; Rehim, Shady A.; Chung, Kevin C.

2016-01-01

The eponym “Guyon canal” refers to the ulnar tunnel at the wrist that was named after the French surgeon Jean Casimir Félix Guyon who first described this space in 1861. After Guyon’s discovery, clinicians have focused their interest on symptoms caused by compression of structures occupying this canal (later named ulnar tunnel syndrome, or Guyon syndrome). However disagreement and confusion persisted over the correct anatomical boundaries and terminology used to describe the ulnar tunnel. Through anatomical investigation and evolving clinical case studies, the current understanding of the anatomy of the ulnar tunnel was established. This article examines the evolution of the anatomical description of the ulnar tunnel and its relevant clinical associations, and casts light on the life and contributions of Jean Casimir Félix Guyon. PMID:25446410

Majorana Fermions in Particle Physics, Solid State and Quantum Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borsten, L.; Duff, M. J.

This review is based on lectures given by M. J. Duff summarising the far reaching contributions of Ettore Majorana to fundamental physics, with special focus on Majorana fermions in all their guises. The theoretical discovery of the eponymous fcrmion in 1937 has since had profound implications for particlc physics, solid state and quantum computation. The breadth of these disciplines is testimony to Majorana's genius, which continues to permeate physics today. These lectures offer a whistle-stop tour through some limited subset of the key ideas. In addition to touching on these various applications, we will draw out some fascinating relations connecting the normed division algebras R, ℂ, H, O to spinors, trialities. K-theory and the classification of stable topological states of symmetry-protected gapped free-fermion systems.

Transatlantic Irritability: Brunonian sociology, America and mass culture in the nineteenth century.

PubMed

Budge, Gavin

2014-01-01

The widespread influence exerted by the medical theories of Scottish doctor, John Brown, whose eponymously named Brunonianism radically simplified the ideas of his mentor, William Cullen, has not been generally recognised. However, the very simplicity of the Brunonian medical model played a key role in ensuring the dissemination of medical ideas about nervous irritability and the harmful effects of overstimulation in the literary culture of the nineteenth century and shaped early sociological thinking. This chapter suggests the centrality of these medical ideas, as mediated by Brunonianism, to the understanding of Romanticism in the nineteenth century, and argues that Brunonian ideas shaped nineteenth-century thinking about the effects of mass print culture in ways which continue to influence contemporary thinking about the effects of media.

MicroRNAs and cancer: a meeting summary of the eponymous Keystone Conference.

PubMed

Godshalk, Sirie E; Melnik-Martinez, Katya V; Pasquinelli, Amy E; Slack, Frank J

2010-02-16

This report summarizes the information presented at the 2009 Keystone Conference on MicroRNAs and Cancer, held in Keystone, Colorado, USA, June 10th to 15th 2009. Soon after microRNAs (miRNAs) emerged as an abundant new class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), evidence started to mount supporting important roles for these regulatory RNAs in human health and disease. Mis-regulation of specific miRNA pathways has been linked to diverse cancers. The recent Keystone meeting highlighted progress in understanding the role of miRNAs in normal development and oncogenesis. Recurring themes included the complexities associated with miRNA biogenesis, target recognition, elucidation of genetic networks where miRNAs play pivotal roles often within feedback loops, and the promise of small RNAs as diagnostics and therapeutics in combating cancer.

Virchow's triad: Kussmaul, Quincke and von Recklinghausen.

PubMed

Stanifer, John W

2016-02-01

For most of the 19th century, Germany was the centre of the medical world. From there the most innovating research came and many of the physicians of that era are known to nearly every medical student and physician of today. Virchow, Kussmaul, Quincke, von Recklinghausen, Müller and Schönlein are familiar names in today's medicine but insofar as they are merely eponyms associated with signs, symptoms, disease and anatomy. The story of their lives, their research and their influence on each other has been little examined. This is an essay about Virchow's relationship with his mentors Müller and Schönlein and how these relationships shaped the development of Kussmaul, Quincke and von Recklinghausen as students of Virchow and their work in medicine and clinical observation after leaving Virchow's laboratory. © The Author(s) 2014.

Author Response to LTE CLC 22970 of John Madias: Brain-heart pathway to injury in takotsubo syndrome.

PubMed

Marafioti, Vincenzo; Turri, Giulia; Carbone, Vincenzo; Monaco, Salvatore

2018-05-26

We would like to thank John Madias for his interest in our review about the mystery of the pathogenesis of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC) . 1 We agree with his semantic restraint of the eponym Wellens electrocardiographic (ECG) pattern, which needs a contextual disambiguation. Indeed, as stressed by Dr. Madias in a previous letter to the editor, this term is often used incorrectly in the literature 2,3 . In this respect, through the words of Cato: "Nos vera vocabula rerum amisimus "4 (we have lost the real names of things), we would like to emphasize how the scientific world suffers from a sort of daily linguistic Babel, where words seem to have lost their capacity to communicate. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Staphylococcus aureus golden pigment impairs neutrophil killing and promotes virulence through its antioxidant activity.

PubMed

Liu, George Y; Essex, Anthony; Buchanan, John T; Datta, Vivekanand; Hoffman, Hal M; Bastian, John F; Fierer, Joshua; Nizet, Victor

2005-07-18

Golden color imparted by carotenoid pigments is the eponymous feature of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. Here we demonstrate a role of this hallmark phenotype in virulence. Compared with the wild-type (WT) bacterium, a S. aureus mutant with disrupted carotenoid biosynthesis is more susceptible to oxidant killing, has impaired neutrophil survival, and is less pathogenic in a mouse subcutaneous abscess model. The survival advantage of WT S. aureus over the carotenoid-deficient mutant is lost upon inhibition of neutrophil oxidative burst or in human or murine nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase-deficient hosts. Conversely, heterologous expression of the S. aureus carotenoid in the nonpigmented Streptococcus pyogenes confers enhanced oxidant and neutrophil resistance and increased animal virulence. Blocking S. aureus carotenogenesis increases oxidant sensitivity and decreases whole-blood survival, suggesting a novel target for antibiotic therapy.

[Female genital surgery, G-spot amplification techniques--state of the science].

PubMed

Bachelet, J-T; Mojallal, A; Boucher, F

2014-10-01

The G-spot amplification is a process of "functional" intimate surgery consisting of a temporary physical increase of the size and sensitivity of the G-spot with a filler injected into the septum between the bladder and the vagina's anterior wall, in order to increase the frequency and importance of female orgasm during vaginal penetration. This surgical technique is based on the existence of an eponymous anatomical area described by Dr Gräfenberg in 1950, responsible upon stimulation of systematic orgasm different from the clitoral orgasm, referring to the vaginal orgasm as described by Freud in 1905. The purpose of this article is to review the scientific basis of the G-spot, whose very existence is currently a debated topic, and to discuss the role of G-spot amplification surgery. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

[Bell and his palsy].

PubMed

van Gijn, Jan; Gijselhart, Joost P

2011-01-01

Unlike his eponymous fame suggests, Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842) was an anatomist, draughtsman and surgeon rather than purely a physiologist. He was born and educated in Edinburgh but spent most of his working life in London (1804 to 1836). It was there he started a School of Anatomy, alongside a fledgling surgical practice, just as his elder brother John had done in Edinburgh. In 1814 he joined the surgical staff at the Middlesex Hospital. In 1810 he surmised from occasional animal experiments that the anterior and posterior spinal roots differed in function. Yet it was left to the Frenchman Magendie to identify that these functions were motor and sensory: a discovery that induced Bell into an ungentlemanly feud. Bell also slightly erred on the functions of the trigeminal and facial nerve, but his description of the features of idiopathic facial palsy is unrivalled.

Dementia and the biopolitics of the biopic: from Iris to The iron lady.

PubMed

Wearing, Sadie

2013-05-01

This article considers the question of embodiment through a comparative analysis of two 'biopics', Iris (2001) and The Iron Lady (2011), which both feature eponymous characters that have, or had, dementia. Embodiment draws our attention to the representation of the body in the films themselves, and to the socially significant 'feelings' or affects that circulate within and are reproduced around them. Shame, disgust and aversion are socially devastating affects conventionally associated with stigmatised bodies including those of the cognitively impaired but attention to the 'feeling tone' (Ngai, 2005) in these films demonstrates that a more varied range of affects and embodied social knowledge is produced. Embodiment is thus a starting point to explore what is at stake in these films both in their authorisation of particular versions of public lives and for their significance for the cultural politics of representation in the context of explorations of personhood and dementia.

Optical character recognition: an illustrated guide to the frontier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nagy, George; Nartker, Thomas A.; Rice, Stephen V.

1999-12-01

We offer a perspective on the performance of current OCR systems by illustrating and explaining actual OCR errors made by three commercial devices. After discussing briefly the character recognition abilities of humans and computers, we present illustrated examples of recognition errors. The top level of our taxonomy of the causes of errors consists of Imaging Defects, Similar Symbols, Punctuation, and Typography. The analysis of a series of 'snippets' from this perspective provides insight into the strengths and weaknesses of current systems, and perhaps a road map to future progress. The examples were drawn from the large-scale tests conducted by the authors at the Information Science Research Institute of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. By way of conclusion, we point to possible approaches for improving the accuracy of today's systems. The talk is based on our eponymous monograph, recently published in The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999.

Friedrich Berthold Reinke (1862-1919): brilliant yet troubled anatomist of the vocal fold.

PubMed

Senior, A

2015-11-01

Reinke's space is a critical laryngeal structure, and the eponym remains in current use in both clinical and research settings. However, little is known about the life of the German anatomist Friedrich Berthold Reinke. His name is missing from the otolaryngological histories, despite his work on the structure he described being responsible for a fundamental advance in our understanding of the larynx. Although brilliant, Reinke was described as impetuous and coarse by his colleagues, resulting in his academic career being cut short. Reinke's relative anonymity is thought to derive from the fact that he never defined himself as a laryngologist. Without question, Reinke's observations of the human vocal fold are substantive contributions, without which modern laryngology could not have evolved. This article aimed to summarise this brilliant yet troubled man's life and achievements, allowing appreciation for his singular genius and fundamental contribution to laryngology.

Vincenc Alexandr Bohdálek (1801-1883): Czech anatomist and neuroscientist of the nineteenth century.

PubMed

Chvátal, Alexandr; Kachlík, David

2017-01-01

Vincenc Alexandr Bohdálek (Vincenz Alexander Bochdalek) was a well-known anatomist and pathologist in the nineteenth century. Today, however, his name is all but forgotten. Bohdálek described a number of anatomical structures; some of them became eponyms. Unfortunately, his findings concerning the innervation of the eye, upper jaw, hard palate, auditory system, and meninges are little known today. This current overview is based on available archival sources and provides an insight into his results in the field of nervous system research, which account for almost half his work. Bohdálek can clearly be considered a pioneer in the field we now call functional anatomy, as he tried to find a physiological explanation for the anatomical and pathological findings he observed. The work and results of this truly outstanding neuroscientist of his time are thus again available to current and future generations of neuroscientists and neuroanatomists.

Christian Andreas Doppler: A legendary man inspired by the dazzling light of the stars

PubMed Central

Katsi, V; Felekos, I; Kallikazaros, I

2013-01-01

Christian Andreas Doppler is renowned primarily for his revolutionary theory of the Doppler effect, which has deeply influenced many areas of modern science and technology, including medicine. His work has laid the foundations for modern ultrasonography and his ideas are still inspiring discoveries more than a hundred years after his death. Doppler may well earn the title of Homo Universalis for his broad knowledge of physics, mathematics and astronomy and most of all for his indefatigable investigations for new ideas and his ingenious mind. According to Bolzano: “It is hard to believe how fruitful a genius Austria has in this man”. His legacy of scientific achievement have seen Doppler honoured in the later years on coinage and money, names of streets, educational institutions, rock groups, even of a lunar crater; while the ultimate tribute to his work is the countless references to the homonymous medical eponym. PMID:24376313

Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and "race hygiene" in Nazi-era Vienna.

PubMed

Czech, Herwig

2018-01-01

Hans Asperger (1906-1980) first designated a group of children with distinct psychological characteristics as 'autistic psychopaths' in 1938, several years before Leo Kanner's famous 1943 paper on autism. In 1944, Asperger published a comprehensive study on the topic (submitted to Vienna University in 1942 as his postdoctoral thesis), which would only find international acknowledgement in the 1980s. From then on, the eponym 'Asperger's syndrome' increasingly gained currency in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the conceptualization of the condition. At the time, the fact that Asperger had spent pivotal years of his career in Nazi Vienna caused some controversy regarding his potential ties to National Socialism and its race hygiene policies. Documentary evidence was scarce, however, and over time a narrative of Asperger as an active opponent of National Socialism took hold. The main goal of this paper is to re-evaluate this narrative, which is based to a large extent on statements made by Asperger himself and on a small segment of his published work. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary publications and previously unexplored archival documents (including Asperger's personnel files and the clinical assessments he wrote on his patients), this paper offers a critical examination of Asperger's life, politics, and career before and during the Nazi period in Austria. Asperger managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities. He joined several organizations affiliated with the NSDAP (although not the Nazi party itself), publicly legitimized race hygiene policies including forced sterilizations and, on several occasions, actively cooperated with the child 'euthanasia' program. The language he employed to diagnose his patients was often remarkably harsh (even in comparison with assessments written by the staff at Vienna's notorious Spiegelgrund 'euthanasia' institution), belying the notion that he tried to protect the children under his care by embellishing their diagnoses. The narrative of Asperger as a principled opponent of National Socialism and a courageous defender of his patients against Nazi 'euthanasia' and other race hygiene measures does not hold up in the face of the historical evidence. What emerges is a much more problematic role played by this pioneer of autism research. Future use of the eponym should reflect the troubling context of its origins in Nazi-era Vienna.

[Eponyms and epilepsy (history of Eastern civilizations)].

PubMed

Janković, S M; Sokić, D V; Lević, Z M; Susić, V; Drulović, J; Stojsavljević, N; Veskov, R; Ivanus, J

1996-01-01

The history of eponyms for epilepsy in the lands of the Eastern globe present the portrait of the attitudes of both the laymen and skilled people towards the disease and patient, as well as to the Nature itself. As opposed to the West which during the Middle ages changed its concepts of epilepsy as the organic brain disease for the sublime 'alchemic' position, the people of the East were more prone to consider from the beginning of their civilization till the XIX century that epilepsy is the consequence of the evanescent spiritual and extracorporal forces which by themselves were out of their reach. As compared to the western civilization, the historical resources are, often as a consequence of a linguistic barriers, more scarce-as consequently is the number of eponyms, but are nevertheless picturesque. The medical science from Babylonian period presumed that epileptic manifestations are the consequence of the demonic or ill spiritual actions. There existed an attitude that at the beginning of an epileptic attack the patient was possessed by a demon (the Akkadic, i.e., Babylonian verb "sibtu" denoting epilepsy, had the meaning "to seize" or "to be obsessed"); at the end of the clonic phase the demon departed from the body. Different demons were responsible for different forms of epilepsy such as nocturnal and children epilepsy, absence epilepsy and pure convulsions, simple and complex automatisms, and gelastic epilepsy. Thus, the doctors from the period of Babylon aside from making primordial classification of epilepsies, knew about their clinical picture (prodromal symptoms and aura, Jackson's epilepsy. Todd's paralysis), postictal phenomena and intericatl emotional instability; provocative factors were also known (sleep deprivation, emotions, as well as alcohol, albeit in a negative sense-as a cure for epilepsy). There is no doubt than in the period of Babylon the clinical picture of serial fits and its progress to status epilepticus were clearly recognized and considered as life threatening events. Persian history of epilepsy, except from the 6th century Zoroastrian "Avesta" document, lacks the written or spoken medical heritage untill the 7th century A.D. and the Arabic conquest of the entire Moslem world. On the other hand, Islamic medicine should be freed from the simple prejudice that the Moslem authors were only the translators of Greek medicine; contrary to such a view, their work contains a high degree of individuality. Although Mohammed introduced a lot of novelty into medicine, Khoran and the Sayings do not explicitly refer to epilepsy. Of importance is to notice that Moslem medicine did not have demons in the "repertoire" of direct causes of epilepsy. The causes and the cures of epilepsy were more magic-mystical and occult in nature, which is reminiscent of the European, as well as Serbian Middle age attitudes. Avicenna recognized difference between children and adult epilepsy. He considered insomnia and afternoon siesta as well as intensive sounds and light to be a provocative factors, whereby we see that at least empirically he knew of sleep (deprivation), startle and reflex epilepsy. The XIII century invasion of Mongols brought about the recession in Moslem Medicine; it recovered only in the XVIII century under the strong influence of European medicine handed over to us through Jewish doctors of various nationalities. The story of the China history of epilepsy has its debut approximately in the 8th century B. C. Medical texts from this period name epilepsy "Dian" and "Xian" which meant "the falling sickness" and "convulsions", respectively. Chinese medical terminology often interchangeably used the words "mania", "madness" and "psychosis" for "epilepsy" which, aside from a prominent language barrier, brings additional confusion. Although Chinese documents gave the first description of the grand mal epileptic attack already in the 8th century B. C. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

Coherence-limited solar power conversion: the fundamental thermodynamic bounds and the consequences for solar rectennas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mashaal, Heylal; Gordon, Jeffrey M.

2014-10-01

Solar rectifying antennas constitute a distinct solar power conversion paradigm where sunlight's spatial coherence is a basic constraining factor. In this presentation, we derive the fundamental thermodynamic limit for coherence-limited blackbody (principally solar) power conversion. Our results represent a natural extension of the eponymous Landsberg limit, originally derived for converters that are not constrained by the radiation's coherence, and are irradiated at maximum concentration (i.e., with a view factor of unity to the solar disk). We proceed by first expanding Landsberg's results to arbitrary solar view factor (i.e., arbitrary concentration and/or angular confinement), and then demonstrate how the results are modified when the converter can only process coherent radiation. The results are independent of the specific power conversion mechanism, and hence are valid for diffraction-limited as well as quantum converters (and not just classical heat engines or in the geometric optics regime). The derived upper bounds bode favorably for the potential of rectifying antennas as potentially high-efficiency solar converters.

Multicentric Castleman Disease: Where are we now?

PubMed Central

Wang, Hao-Wei; Pittaluga, Stefania; Jaffe, Elaine S.

2016-01-01

Multicentric Castleman disease (MCD) encompasses a spectrum of conditions that give rise to overlapping clinicopathological manifestations. The fundamental pathogenetic mechanism involves dysregulated cytokine activity, which causes systemic inflammatory symptoms as well as lymphadenopathy. The histological changes in lymph nodes resemble in part the findings originally described in the unicentric forms Castleman disease, both hyaline vascular and plasma cell variants. In MCD caused by Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus/human herpesvirus-8 (KSHV/HHV8), the cytokine over activity is caused by viral products, which can also lead to atypical lymphoproliferations and potential progression to lymphoma. In cases negative for KSHV/HHV8, so-called idiopathic MCD, the hypercytokinemia can result from various mechanisms, which ultimately lead to different constellations of clinical presentations and varied pathology in lymphoid tissues. In this article, we review the evolving concepts and definitions of the various conditions under the eponym of Castleman disease, and summarize current knowledge regarding the histopathology and pathogenesis of lesions within the MCD spectrum. PMID:27296355

Langerhans cell histiocytosis manifesting as recurrent simultaneous bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax in early infancy.

PubMed

Alavi, Samin; Ashena, Zahra; Paydar, Afshin; Hemmati, Nadereh

2007-12-01

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disorder characterized by infiltration of either single or multiple organs by a distinct cell type that is S-100 and CD1a positive and contains ultrastructural Birbeck granules on electron microscopy. Historically, LCH included four main clinical forms: Letter-Siwe disease, Hand-Schuller-Christian disease, eosinophilic granuloma (together grouped as histiocytosis) and Hashimoto-Pritzker disease. The writing group of the Histiocytotic Society in 1987 proposed the uniform term of 'Langerhans cell histiocytosis' to encompass all the aforementioned eponymous forms. Lung involvement occurs in up to half of all children with multisystem disease and usually parallels overall disease activity. Spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) occurs in approximately 10% of children with pulmonary disease and may be a fatal complication. Patients with pulmonary LCH are likely predisposed to the development of pneumothorax based on destructive changes in the lung parenchyma. Here, we report a case of multisystem LCH in which the patient presented at 2 months of age because of simultaneous bilateral pneumothorax.

[Ten years after the latest revision International Anatomical Terminology].

PubMed

Kachlík, D; Bozdechová, I; Cech, P; Musil, V; Báca, V

2008-01-01

Ten years ago, the latest revision of the Latin anatomical nomenclature was approved and published as Terminologia Anatomica (International Anatomical Terminology), and is acknowledged by the organization uniting national anatomical societies--International Federation of Associations of Anatomists. The authors concentrate on new terms included in the nomenclature and on the linguistic changes of terminology. The most frequent errors done by medical specialists in the usage of the Latin anatomical terminology are emphasized and the situation of eponyms in contemporary anatomy is discussed in detail as well. The last version of the nomenclature makes its way very slowly in the professional community and it is necessary to refer to positive changes and advantages it has brought. The usage of this Latin anatomical nomenclature version is suggested by the International Federation to follow in theoretical and clinical fields of medicine. The authors of the article strongly recommend using the recent revision of the Latin anatomical nomenclature both in the oral and written forms, when educating and publishing.

Syntheses of precursors and reference compounds of the melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 (MCHR1) tracers [¹¹C]SNAP-7941 and [¹⁸F]FE@SNAP for positron emission tomography.

PubMed

Schirmer, Eva; Shanab, Karem; Datterl, Barbara; Neudorfer, Catharina; Mitterhauser, Markus; Wadsak, Wolfgang; Philippe, Cécile; Spreitzer, Helmut

2013-09-30

The MCH receptor has been revealed as a target of great interest in positron emission tomography imaging. The receptor's eponymous substrate melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) is a cyclic peptide hormone, which is located predominantly in the hypothalamus with a major influence on energy and weight regulation as well as water balance and memory. Therefore, it is thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of adiposity, which is nowadays a big issue worldwide. Based on the selective and high-affinity MCH receptor 1 antagonist SNAP-7941, a series of novel SNAP derivatives has been developed to provide different precursors and reference compounds for the radiosyntheses of the novel PET radiotracers [(11)C]SNAP-7941 and [(18)F]FE@SNAP. Positron emission tomography promotes a better understanding of physiologic parameters on a molecular level, thus giving a deeper insight into MCHR1 related processes as adiposity.

[Joseph Babinski: a complex personality].

PubMed

Poirier, Jacques

2007-10-01

Joseph Babinski (1857-1932), a Paris hospital neurologist known for the discovery of his eponymous sign, was a highly complex personality. He was known as a handsome but silent "blue-eyed giant". His parents left Poland for Paris after the insurrection of 1848. Joseph and his elder brother Henri (1855-1931) were born in Paris and were therefore French, but they remained devoted to Poland. Joseph suffered from excruciating self-doubt and was meticulous. He was a reasoner and a righter of wrongs. Henri, who trained as a civil engineer at the French National School of Mines, prospected mineral, gold and diamond deposits in various countries. On his return to France at the end of the century, he wrote, under the pseudonym Ali-Bab, a monumental cookbook called "Gastronomie pratique", which was widely acclaimed Joseph and Henri, both unmarried, lived together and formed an inseparable couple. Joseph Babinski had no religious, political or ideological commitments. Some areas of his private life still remain rather shadowy.

Neuropsychiatry of complex visual hallucinations.

PubMed

Mocellin, Ramon; Walterfang, Mark; Velakoulis, Dennis

2006-09-01

To describe the phenomenology and pathophysiology of complex visual hallucinations (CVH) in various organic states, in particular Charles Bonnet syndrome and peduncular hallucinosis. Three cases of CVH in the setting of pontine infarction, thalamic infarction and temporoparietal epileptiform activity are presented and the available psychiatric, neurological and biological literature on the structures of the central nervous system involved in producing hallucinatory states is reviewed. Complex visual hallucinations can arise from a variety of processes involving the retinogeniculocalcarine tract, or ascending brainstem modulatory structures. The cortical activity responsible for hallucinations results from altered or reduced input into these regions, or a loss of ascending inhibition of their afferent pathways. A significant degree of overlaps exists between the concepts of Charles Bonnet syndrome and peduncular hallucinosis. The fluidity of these eponymous syndromes reduces their validity and meaning, and may result in an inappropriate attribution of the underlying pathology. An understanding of how differing pathologies may produce CVH allows for the appropriate tailoring of treatment, depending on the site and nature of the lesion and content of perceptual disturbance.

Publications on Peripheral Nerve Injuries during World War I: A Dramatic Increase in Knowledge.

PubMed

Koehler, Peter J

2016-01-01

Publications from French (Jules Tinel and Chiriachitza Athanassio-Bénisty), English (James Purves-Stewart, Arthur Henry Evans and Hartley Sidney Carter), German (Otfrid Foerster and Hermann Oppenheim) and American (Charles Harrison Frazier and Byron Stookey) physicians from both sides of the front during World War I (WWI) contributed to a dramatic increase in knowledge about peripheral nerve injuries. Silas Weir Mitchell's original experience with respect to these injuries, and particularly causalgia, during the American Civil War was further expanded in Europe during WWI. Following the translation of one of his books, he was referred to mainly by French physicians. During WWI, several French books were in turn translated into English, which influenced American physicians, as was observed in the case of Byron Stookey. The establishment of neurological centres played an important role in the concentration of experience and knowledge. Several eponyms originated during this period (including the Hoffmann-Tinel sign and the Froment sign). Electrodiagnostic tools were increasingly used. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Moore’s Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley’s Quiet Revolutionary Arnold Thackray, David C. Brock, and Rachel Jones

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Devanathan, Ram

Five decades ago, Gordon Moore, who would go on to co-found Intel Corporation, made a prescient observation about the exponential advance of semiconductor technology with a corresponding decrease in device cost. His prediction about the pace of doubling of the number of transistors in an integrated circuit came to be known eponymously as Moore’s law and has held true for 50 years. He also foresaw, way back in 1965, the development of home computers, electronic controls in automobiles, portable communications systems, and electronic wrist watches. Moore’s fascinating life, characterized by relentless innovation, charity and breathtaking humility, is the subject ofmore » this comprehensive authorized biography. The enthralling narrative is the product of collaboration between an academic (Thackray), a technology historian (Brock) and a journalist (Jones), and draws its material from numerous interviews, Moore’s meticulously maintained notes and professional records, personal papers, industry data, published volumes, and news accounts.« less

1985 VGP Awards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carmichael, I. S. E.; Hildreth, Wes; Peterson, Donald W.; Fisher, Richard; Schmincke, Hans-Ulrich

We are here to acknowledge Wes Hildreth's researches on silicic magmatism. His celebrated account of the Bishop Tuff, now eponymous, is the most extensively analyzed and influential rock mass since the Skaergaard intrusion and, for its detail and significance, has become the yardstick of silicic petrology; yet his study is less than 7 years old.Edward Wesley Hildreth III was born in 1938, and as the English would say, attended Harvard College in 1956. In 1961, he graduated cum laude with a major in geology, a minor in government, and a travelling scholarship to see the world. For the next 10 years he did so and became a naturalist in the U.S. National Park Service, with periods in Death Valley and in the Olympics. His “Death Valley Days” were to return, forthrough his love of the Panamint Ranges he met Mitch Reynolds, then an assistant professor at [the University of California] Berkeley, and in 1971 he arrived in Berkeley as a new graduate student, anxious and impatient to unravel the structure of the Panamints.

Accumulating the hydride state in the catalytic cycle of [FeFe]-hydrogenases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winkler, Martin; Senger, Moritz; Duan, Jifu; Esselborn, Julian; Wittkamp, Florian; Hofmann, Eckhard; Apfel, Ulf-Peter; Stripp, Sven Timo; Happe, Thomas

2017-07-01

H2 turnover at the [FeFe]-hydrogenase cofactor (H-cluster) is assumed to follow a reversible heterolytic mechanism, first yielding a proton and a hydrido-species which again is double-oxidized to release another proton. Three of the four presumed catalytic intermediates (Hox, Hred/Hred and Hsred) were characterized, using various spectroscopic techniques. However, in catalytically active enzyme, the state containing the hydrido-species, which is eponymous for the proposed heterolytic mechanism, has yet only been speculated about. We use different strategies to trap and spectroscopically characterize this transient hydride state (Hhyd) for three wild-type [FeFe]-hydrogenases. Applying a novel set-up for real-time attenuated total-reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, we monitor compositional changes in the state-specific infrared signatures of [FeFe]-hydrogenases, varying buffer pH and gas composition. We selectively enrich the equilibrium concentration of Hhyd, applying Le Chatelier's principle by simultaneously increasing substrate and product concentrations (H2/H+). Site-directed manipulation, targeting either the proton-transfer pathway or the adt ligand, significantly enhances Hhyd accumulation independent of pH.

Types A and B Niemann-Pick Disease.

PubMed

Schuchman, Edward H; Wasserstein, Melissa P

2016-06-01

Two distinct metabolic abnormalities are included under the eponym Niemann-Pick disease (NPD). The first is due to the deficient activity of the enzyme acid sphingomyelinase (ASM). Patients with ASM deficiency are classified as having types A and B Niemann-Pick disease (NPD). Type A NPD patients exhibit hepatosplenomegaly, frequent pulmonary infections, and profound central nervous system involvement in infancy. They rarely survive beyond two years of age. Type B patients also have hepatosplenomegaly and progressive alterations of their lungs, but there are usually no central nervous system signs. The age of onset and rate of disease progression varies greatly among type B patients, and they frequently live into adulthood. Recently, patients with phenotypes intermediate between types A and B NPD also have been identified. These individuals represent the expected continuum caused by inheriting different mutations in the ASM gene (SMPD1). Patients in the second category are designated as having type C NPD. Impaired intracellular trafficking of cholesterol causes type C NPD, and two distinct gene defects have been found. In this chapter only types A and B NPD will be discussed.

Bell's palsy before Bell: Evert Jan Thomassen à Thuessink and idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis.

PubMed

van de Graaf, R C; IJpma, F F A; Nicolai, J-P A; Werker, P M N

2009-11-01

Bell's palsy is the eponym for idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis. It is named after Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842), who, in the first half of the nineteenth century, discovered the function of the facial nerve and attracted the attention of the medical world to facial paralysis. Our knowledge of this condition before Bell's landmark publications is very limited and is based on just a few documents. In 1804 and 1805, Evert Jan Thomassen à Thuessink (1762-1832) published what appears to be the first known extensive study on idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis. His description of this condition was quite accurate. He located several other early descriptions and concluded from this literature that, previously, the condition had usually been confused with other afflictions (such as 'spasmus cynicus', central facial paralysis and trigeminal neuralgia). According to Thomassen à Thuessink, idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis and trigeminal neuralgia were related, being different expressions of the same condition. Thomassen à Thuessink believed that idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis was caused by 'rheumatism' or exposure to cold. Many aetiological theories have since been proposed. Despite this, the cold hypothesis persists even today.

Slow-Speed Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory: Two Channels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Christopher J.; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Nugent, Peter E.; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Howell, D. Andrew; Sullivan, Mark; Goobar, Ariel; Piro, Anthony L.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R.; Bloom, Joshua S.;

Embodied ideas and divided selves: revisiting Laing via Bakhtin.

PubMed

Burkitt, Ian; Sullivan, Paul

2009-09-01

In this article, we apply Mikhail Bakhtin's model of a 'divided self' to R.D. Laing's eponymous work on the lived experience of divided selves in 'psychosis'. Both of these authors offer intriguing insights into the fracturing of self through its social relationships (including the 'micro-dialogues' staged for oneself) but from uniquely different perspectives. Bakhtin (1984) uses Dostoevsky's novels as his material for a theory of self, centrally concerned with moments of split identity, crisis, and personal transformation, while Laing relies on his patient's accounts of 'psychosis'. We will outline how two key Bakhtinian divisions of the self (spirit/soul and authoritative/internally persuasive discourse) help to make sense of Laing's descriptions of his patient's experiences and micro-dialogues. Conversely, when refracted through Laing's phenomenology Bakhtin's account of the self becomes richer and somewhat darkened in terms of a double-edged ontology, which describes a maximally open self but one that is consumed by ideas, unable to manage their contradictions. The implications of this for managing the dilemmas of self-identity will be drawn out.

Slow-speed Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory: Two Channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Christopher J.; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Nugent, Peter E.; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Howell, D. Andrew; Sullivan, Mark; Goobar, Ariel; Piro, Anthony L.; Bloom, Joshua S.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R.; Laher, Russ R.; Masci, Frank; Ofek, Eran O.; Surace, Jason; Ben-Ami, Sagi; Cao, Yi; Cenko, S. Bradley; Hook, Isobel M.; Jönsson, Jakob; Matheson, Thomas; Sternberg, Assaf; Quimby, Robert M.; Yaron, Ofer

2015-01-01

Since the discovery of the unusual prototype SN 2002cx, the eponymous class of Type I (hydrogen-poor) supernovae with low ejecta speeds has grown to include approximately two dozen members identified from several heterogeneous surveys, in some cases ambiguously. Here we present the results of a systematic study of 1077 Type I supernovae discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory, leading to nine new members of this peculiar class. Moreover, we find there are two distinct subclasses based on their spectroscopic, photometric, and host galaxy properties: "SN 2002cx-like" supernovae tend to be in later-type or more irregular hosts, have more varied and generally dimmer luminosities, have longer rise times, and lack a Ti II trough when compared to "SN 2002es-like" supernovae. None of our objects show helium, and we counter a previous claim of two such events. We also find that the occurrence rate of these transients relative to Type Ia supernovae is 5.6-3.8+22% (90% confidence), lower compared to earlier estimates. Combining our objects with the literature sample, we propose that these subclasses have two distinct physical origins.

Niels Stensen (1638-1686): scientist, neuroanatomist, and saint.

PubMed

Perrini, Paolo; Lanzino, Giuseppe; Parenti, Giuliano Francesco

2010-07-01

Niels Stensen (1638-1686) was a prominent Danish scientist who laid the foundations of paleontology, geology, and crystallography. He undertook a personal search for the truth, rejecting many assumptions of his time, and he struggled to acquire a firm foundation of knowledge based on close observation and rigorous experimentation. Niels Stensen is known eponymously for the discovery of the duct of the parotid gland (ductus stenonianus) but most clinicians are not familiar with his contributions to anatomy beyond his studies on the glands. In 1665, he delivered a lecture in Paris on the anatomy of the brain, the Discours sur l'anatomie du cerveau ("A Dissertation on the Anatomy of the Brain"), which is a seminal investigation on methods in neuroscience. His scientific letter on a hydrocephalic calf represents an early pathophysiological investigation on hydrocephalus. In 1667 Stensen converted to Catholicism and in 1677 he was consecrated titular bishop of Titiopolis. He spent the last years of his life in poverty and traveled continuously trying to bring back northern Europe to Catholicism. This essay highlights the life and the scientific contributions of Niels Stensen, with emphasis on his contributions to neuroscience.

A model of polarized-beam AGS in the ray-tracing code Zgoubi

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meot, F.; Ahrens, L.; Brown, K.

A model of the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, based on the AGS snapramps, has been developed in the stepwise ray-tracing code Zgoubi. It has been used over the past 5 years in a number of accelerator studies aimed at enhancing RHIC proton beam polarization. It is also used to study and optimize proton and Helion beam polarization in view of future RHIC and eRHIC programs. The AGS model in Zgoubi is operational on-line via three different applications, ’ZgoubiFromSnaprampCmd’, ’AgsZgoubiModel’ and ’AgsModelViewer’, with the latter two essentially interfaces to the former which is the actual model ’engine’. All three commands are availablemore » from the controls system application launcher in the AGS ’StartUp’ menu, or from eponymous commands on shell terminals. Main aspects of the model and of its operation are presented in this technical note, brief excerpts from various studies performed so far are given for illustration, means and methods entering in ZgoubiFromSnaprampCmd are developed further in appendix.« less

Huschke's anterior external auditory canal foramen: art before medicine?

PubMed

Pirsig, Wolfgang; Mudry, Albert

2015-03-01

During the Renaissance, several anatomic details were described with a degree of exactness, which would stand the test of time. One example is the foramen in the anteroinferior wall of the external auditory canal, eponymously named after the German anatomist, Emil Huschke, who described it in 1844. However, the first clearly medical observation of this foramen was published by the French physician Jean Riolan the Younger in 1648. After a short excursion into some paleopathologic findings of this foramen in skulls of the Early Bronze Age and of pre-Columbian Peruvian populations, this article follows the traces of the early medical descriptions and depictions of the foramen up until the 19th century. They are connected with the names of Duverney (1683), Cassebohm (1734), Lincke (1837), Huschke (1844); Humphry (1858), von Troeltsch (1860), and especially Buerkner (1878). Surprisingly, the earliest exact depiction of the foramen in the auditory canal of a skull was found in the oil painting Saint Jerome in his study by the Flemish artist Marinus Claeszon van Reymerswaele. He depicted the foramen in the period between 1521 and 1541, a hundred years before Riolan the Younger.

High strain rate characterization of soft materials: past, present and possible futures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siviour, Clive

2015-06-01

The high strain rate properties of low impedance materials have long been of interest to the community: the very first paper by Kolsky on his eponymous bars included data from man-made polymers and natural rubber. However, it has also long been recognized that characterizing soft or low impedance specimens under dynamic loading presents a number of challenges, mainly owing to the low sound speed in, and low stresses supported by, these materials. Over the past 20 years, significant progress has been made in high rate testing techniques, including better experimental design, more sensitive data acquisition and better understanding of specimen behavior. Further, a new generation of techniques, in which materials are characterized using travelling waves, rather than in a state of static equilibrium, promise to turn those properties that were previously a drawback into an advantage. This paper will give an overview of the history of high rate characterization, the current state of the art after an exciting couple of decades and some of the techniques currently being developed that have the potential to offer increased quality data in the future.

[«A most strange instance of illness in several siblings»--first description of a rare neurological disease in 1830?].

PubMed

Nylenna, Magne; Breivik, Noralv; Heiberg, Arvid; Larsen, Øivind

2016-03-15

Was district medical officer Jensen the first doctor to describe patients with Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration (PKAN) in Volda in 1830? A case series of four siblings with the same disease written by district medical officer Peter Jensen (1799-1832) in Aalesund in 1830, was published in the Norwegian medical journal Eyr in 1832. The children, who were healthy almost up to school age, developed dystonic involuntary movements and deformities in all extremities, lost their ability to speak and were emaciated before they died at around the age of nine years. Further information about the family and a fifth affected child has been found in the parish records. The clinical picture is consistent with Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration (PKAN), a rare condition with basal ganglia iron deposition, described in 1922 by the German neuropathologists Julius Hallervorden (1882-1965) and Hugo Spatz (1888-1969). The disease was formerly called Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome, but because of the medical activities undertaken by these two researchers before and during the Second World War, this eponym is no longer recommended.

Inhibition of staphyloxanthin biosynthesis in Staphylococcus aureus by rhodomyrtone, a novel antibiotic candidate.

PubMed

Leejae, Sukanlaya; Hasap, Laila; Voravuthikunchai, Supayang Piyawan

2013-03-01

Staphyloxanthin is the eponymous feature of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, and the pigment promotes resistance to reactive oxygen species and host neutrophil-based killing. To probe the possible use of rhodomyrtone isolated from Rhodomyrtus tomentosa (Aiton) Hassk. leaves to inhibit pigment production in S. aureus, experiments were carried out to compare pigment production and the susceptibility of rhodomyrtone-treated S. aureus and untreated cells to oxidants in vitro. In addition, we observed the innate immune clearance of S. aureus after incubation with rhodomyrtone using an ex vivo assay system - human whole-blood survival. The results indicated that rhodomyrtone-treated S. aureus exhibited reduced pigmentation, and that rhodomyrtone treatment led to a dose-dependent increase in the susceptibility of the pathogen to H(2)O(2) and singlet oxygen killing. Consequently, the survival ability of the treated organisms decreased in freshly isolated human whole blood due to less carotenoid pigment to act as an antioxidant scavenger. Rhodomyrtone may be acting via effects on DnaK and/or σ(B), resulting in many additional effects on bacterial virulence.

Royal naval physician Sir John Jamison (1776-1844), Scurvy and Sweden's medico-surgical institute.

PubMed

Rocca, Julius; Stolt, Carl-Magnus

2002-01-01

As a direct consequence of Sweden's devastating losses in its war with Russia in 1808-9, an institute for the training of military surgeons was established in Stockholm in December 1810. This establishment soon became known as the Karolinska Institute and is the forerunner of today's eponymous institution. This paper records the nature of the British assistance that led indirectly to the founding of this institute. This aid took the form of a report into the high morbidity and mortality rates due to scurvy which were sustained by the Swedish Fleet in Carlscrona in the summer of 1808. This report, written by John Jamison, Fleet Physician to the Baltic Command of Sir James Saumarez, was used by the Stockholm medical authorities as part of their campaign for improved training of military medical personnel. Whilst Jamison's report did not in itself lead to the establishment of the Stockholm medico-surgical institute, it was undoubtedly important, and serves both as an example of Anglo-Swedish relations during the Napoleonic era and a reminder of the ravages of scurvy.

Types A and B Niemann-Pick disease.

PubMed

Schuchman, Edward H; Wasserstein, Melissa P

2015-03-01

Two distinct metabolic abnormalities are encompassed under the eponym Niemann-Pick disease (NPD). The first is due to the deficient activity of the enzyme acid sphingomyelinase (ASM). Patients with ASM deficiency are classified as having types A and B Niemann-Pick disease (NPD). Type A NPD patients exhibit hepatosplenomegaly in infancy and profound central nervous system involvement. They rarely survive beyond two years of age. Type B patients also have hepatosplenomegaly and pathologic alterations of their lungs, but there are usually no central nervous system signs. The age of onset and rate of disease progression varies greatly among type B patients, and they frequently live into adulthood. Recently, patients with phenotypes intermediate between types A and B NPD also have been identified. These individuals represent the expected continuum caused by inheriting different mutations in the ASM gene (SMPD1). Patients in the second NPD category are designated as having types C and D NPD. These patients may have mild hepatosplenomegaly, but the central nervous system is profoundly affected. Impaired intracellular trafficking of cholesterol causes types C and D NPD, and two distinct gene defects have been found. In this chapter only types A and B NPD will be discussed. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The biology of DHX9 and its potential as a therapeutic target

PubMed Central

Lee, Teresa; Pelletier, Jerry

2016-01-01

DHX9 is member of the DExD/H-box family of helicases with a “DEIH” sequence at its eponymous DExH-box motif. Initially purified from human and bovine cells and identified as a homologue of the Drosophila Maleless (MLE) protein, it is an NTP-dependent helicase consisting of a conserved helicase core domain, two double-stranded RNA-binding domains at the N-terminus, and a nuclear transport domain and a single-stranded DNA-binding RGG-box at the C-terminus. With an ability to unwind DNA and RNA duplexes, as well as more complex nucleic acid structures, DHX9 appears to play a central role in many cellular processes. Its functions include regulation of DNA replication, transcription, translation, microRNA biogenesis, RNA processing and transport, and maintenance of genomic stability. Because of its central role in gene regulation and RNA metabolism, there are growing implications for DHX9 in human diseases and their treatment. This review will provide an overview of the structure, biochemistry, and biology of DHX9, its role in cancer and other human diseases, and the possibility of targeting DHX9 in chemotherapy. PMID:27034008

[Development of skill scale for communication skill measurement of pharmacist].

PubMed

Teramachi, Hitomi; Komada, Natsuki; Tanizawa, Katsuya; Kuzuya, Yumi; Tsuchiya, Teruo

2011-04-01

To purpose of this study was to develop a pharmacist communication skill scale. A 38 items scale was made and 283 pharmacists responded. The original questionnaire consisted of 38 items, with 1-5 graded Likert scale. Completed responses of 228 pharmacists data were used for testing the reliability and the validity of this scale. The first group of items from the original questionnaire were 38, and finally 38 original items were chosen for investigation of content validity, correlation coefficient and commonality. From factor analysis, four factors were chosen among the 31 items as follows: patient respect reception skill, problem discovery and solution skill, positive approach skill, feelings processing skill. The correlation coefficient between this original scale and the KiSS-18 (Social Skill) received high score (r=0.694). The reliability of this scale showed high internal consistency (Cronbach α coefficient=0.951), so the result of test for the validity of this scale supports high content validity. Thus we propose adoption of pharmacist communication skill scale to carry a brief eponymous name as TePSS-31. The above findings indicate that this developed scale possess adequate validity and reliability for practical use.

Discovery and development of x-ray diffraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeong, Yeuncheol; Yin, Ming; Datta, Timir

2013-03-01

In 1912 Max Laue at University of Munich reasoned x-rays to be short wavelength electromagnetic waves and figured interference would occur when scattered off crystals. Arnold Sommerfeld, W. Wien, Ewald and others, raised objections to Laue's idea, but soon Walter Friedrich succeeded in recording x-ray interference patterns off copper sulfate crystals. But the Laue-Ewald's 3-dimensional formula predicted excess spots. Fewer spots were observed. William Lawrence Bragg then 22 year old studying at Cambridge University heard the Munich results from father William Henry Brag, physics professor at Univ of Leeds. Lawrence figured the spots are 2-d interference of x-ray wavelets reflecting off successive atomic planes and derived a simple eponymous equation, the Bragg equation d*sin(theta) = n*lamda. 1913 onward the Braggs dominated the crystallography. Max Laue was awarded the physics Nobel in 1914 and the Braggs shared the same in 1915. Starting with Rontgen's first ever prize in 1901, the importance of x-ray techniques is evident from the four out of a total 16 physics Nobels between 1901-1917. We will outline the historical back ground and importance of x-ray diffraction giving rise to techniques that even in 2013, remain work horses in laboratories all over the globe.

Topical Therapy for non-invasive penile cancer (Tis)-updated results and toxicity.

PubMed

Manjunath, Aditya; Brenton, Thomas; Wylie, Sarah; Corbishley, Catherine M; Watkin, Nick A

2017-10-01

Penile cancer is a rare malignancy estimated to affect 26,000 men globally each year. The association with penile cancer, in particular non-invasive disease, and human papilloma virus (HPV) is well known. Ninety-five percent of cases of penile cancer are squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which are staged using the TNM staging system. Terminology describing the histological appearance of non-invasive penile cancer has changed with all cases grouped under the umbrella term of penile intraepithelial neoplasia (PeIN); either undifferentiated or differentiated. This replaces previous terms such as carcinoma in situ (CIS) and eponymous names such as Bowen's disease. This change is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The topical treatments most commonly used for PeIN are 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and imiquimod (IQ). Other treatments such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) are used but to a lesser degree. The evidence for all of these treatments is heterogenous with no randomised data available. Overall up to 57% complete response has been reported with a low number of serious adverse events. In this article, we aim to review the available evidence for the topical treatment of non-invasive penile cancer specifically regarding its efficacy and toxicity.

Topical Therapy for non-invasive penile cancer (Tis)—updated results and toxicity

PubMed Central

Brenton, Thomas; Wylie, Sarah; Corbishley, Catherine M.; Watkin, Nick A.

2017-01-01

Penile cancer is a rare malignancy estimated to affect 26,000 men globally each year. The association with penile cancer, in particular non-invasive disease, and human papilloma virus (HPV) is well known. Ninety-five percent of cases of penile cancer are squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which are staged using the TNM staging system. Terminology describing the histological appearance of non-invasive penile cancer has changed with all cases grouped under the umbrella term of penile intraepithelial neoplasia (PeIN); either undifferentiated or differentiated. This replaces previous terms such as carcinoma in situ (CIS) and eponymous names such as Bowen’s disease. This change is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The topical treatments most commonly used for PeIN are 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and imiquimod (IQ). Other treatments such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) are used but to a lesser degree. The evidence for all of these treatments is heterogenous with no randomised data available. Overall up to 57% complete response has been reported with a low number of serious adverse events. In this article, we aim to review the available evidence for the topical treatment of non-invasive penile cancer specifically regarding its efficacy and toxicity. PMID:29184776

E. Graeme Robertson--dynamics in fluid and light.

PubMed

Kempster, P A; Gerraty, R P; Bower, S P C

2013-02-01

An eponymous lecture at the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists Annual Scientific Meeting commemorates E. Graeme Robertson (1903-75), and some neurologists will know that particular Australian practices in clinical neurology, so far as they exist, have origins in his career. This is a historical article on the literary record of a man who had his own sense of history--an affinity with the past as well as an awareness of future generations of readers. He wrote authoritative texts on pneumoencephalography before new technology made it obsolete, and he produced a series of books on decorative architectural cast iron in Australian cities. A talent for visual interpretation seems to have drawn him to both of these topics; a common theme is contrast between light and dark, which is expatiated in images and in clear, well-written prose in his publications. We review his medical writings, including some largely forgotten principles of cerebrospinal fluid physics that he discovered when researching pneumoencephalography. We also explore his obsession with cast iron--its architectural historical significance, his techniques for photographing it, and some of the ways that it related to his life's work as a clinical neurologist. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bengt Liliequist: life and accomplishments of a true renaissance man.

PubMed

Connor, David E; Nanda, Anil

2017-02-01

In the 1970s, the membrane of Liliequist became the accepted name for a small band of arachnoid membrane separating the interpeduncular and chiasmatic cisterns, making it one of the most recent of the universally accepted medical eponyms. The story of its discovery, however, cannot be told without a thorough understanding of the man responsible and his contribution to the growth of a specialty. Bengt Liliequist lived during what many would consider the Golden Age of neuroradiology. With his colleagues at the Serafimer Hospital in Stockholm, he helped set the standard for appropriate imaging of the CNS and contributed to more accurate localization of intracerebral as well as spinal lesions. The pneumoencephalographic discovery of the membrane that was to bear his name serves merely as a starting point for a career that spanned five decades and included the defense of two separate doctoral theses, the last of which occurred after his 80th birthday. Although the recognition of neuroradiology as a subspecialty did not occur in his home country of Sweden until after his retirement, and technological progress saw the obsolescence of the procedure that he had mastered, Dr. Liliequist's accomplishments and his contributions to the current understanding of neuroanatomy merit our continued praise.

Retracing "Ondine's curse".

PubMed

Nannapaneni, Ravindra; Behari, Sanjay; Todd, Nicholas V; Mendelow, A David

2005-08-01

"Ondine's curse" is a term used to denote a rare neurological condition causing failure of automatic respiration. The patients are no longer capable of breathing spontaneously-they must consciously and voluntarily force themselves to do so. Ondine (also known as "Undine"), a mythological figure of European tradition, was a water nymph or sprite who could become human only when she fell in love with a mortal man. However, if the mortal was unfaithful to her, he was destined to forfeit his life. In the 16th century, Paracelsus coined the term "Undine" to describe the spirit that inhabited the element of water. Baron de la Motte-Fouque wrote the story of Undine in the late 18th century. It has since become a popular subject for theater productions. Jean Giraudoux, the French playwright, introduced the concept of the loss of automaticity of all functions as the "curse of Ondine." The legend was popularized in the form of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen and as an animated motion picture by Walt Disney Productions. In this study, we look at the origins of this eponymous term, the personalities intertwined with its popularity, and its misrepresentations in the medical literature.

Famous people with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome?

PubMed

Monaco, Francesco; Servo, Serena; Cavanna, Andrea Eugenio

2009-12-01

Virtually no neurologist nor psychiatrist today can be unaware of the diagnosis of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS). Although the eponymous description by Dr. Georges Gilles de la Tourette was published in 1885, familiarity with this syndrome has been achieved only recently. In this article, the two most renown accounts of exceptional individuals retrospectively diagnosed with GTS are critically analyzed: British lexicographer Samuel Johnson and Austrian musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In both cases, clinical descriptions have been retrieved from written documents predating Gilles de la Tourette's original publication. The case for Samuel Johnson having GTS is strong, mainly based on Boswell's extensive biographical account. Johnson was reported to have a great range of tics and compulsions, including involuntary utterances, repetitive ejaculations, and echo-phenomena. On the other hand, there is circumstantial evidence that Mozart may have had hyperactivity, restlessness, sudden impulses, odd motor behaviors, echo/palilalia, love of nonsense words, and scatology, the latter being documented in autograph letters ("coprographia"). However, the evidence supporting the core features of GTS, i.e., motor and vocal tics, is rather inconsistent. Thus, GTS seems to be an implausible diagnosis in Mozart's medical history and completely unrelated to his undisputed musical genius.

An inconspicuous, conspicuous new species of Asian pipesnake, genus Cylindrophis (Reptilia: Squamata: Cylindrophiidae), from the south coast of Jawa Tengah, Java, Indonesia, and an overview of the tangled taxonomic history of C. ruffus (Laurenti, 1768).

PubMed

Kieckbusch, Max; Mecke, Sven; Hartmann, Lukas; Ehrmantraut, Lisa; O'shea, Mark; Kaiser, Hinrich

2016-03-20

We describe a new species of Cylindrophis currently known only from Grabag, Purworejo Regency, Jawa Tengah Pro-vince (Central Java), Java, Indonesia. Cylindrophis subocularis sp. nov. can be distinguished from all congeners by the presence of a single, eponymous subocular scale between the 3^rd and 4^th or 4^th and 5^th supralabial, preventing contact between the 4^th or 5^th supralabial and the orbit, and by having the prefrontal in narrow contact with or separated from the orbit. We preface our description with a detailed account of the tangled taxonomic history of the similar and putatively wide-ranging species C. ruffus, which leads us to (1) remove the name Scytale scheuchzeri from the synonymy of C. ruffus, (2) list the taxon C. rufa var. javanica as species inquirenda, and (3) synonymize C. mirzae with C. ruffus. We provide additional evidence to confirm that the type locality of C. ruffus is Java. Cylindrophis subocularis sp. nov. is the second species of Asian pipesnake from Java.

Radioactive Phosphorylation of Alcohols to Monitor Biocatalytic Diels-Alder Reactions

PubMed Central

Nierth, Alexander; Jäschke, Andres

2011-01-01

Nature has efficiently adopted phosphorylation for numerous biological key processes, spanning from cell signaling to energy storage and transmission. For the bioorganic chemist the number of possible ways to attach a single phosphate for radioactive labeling is surprisingly small. Here we describe a very simple and fast one-pot synthesis to phosphorylate an alcohol with phosphoric acid using trichloroacetonitrile as activating agent. Using this procedure, we efficiently attached the radioactive phosphorus isotope 32P to an anthracene diene, which is a substrate for the Diels-Alderase ribozyme—an RNA sequence that catalyzes the eponymous reaction. We used the 32P-substrate for the measurement of RNA-catalyzed reaction kinetics of several dye-labeled ribozyme variants for which precise optical activity determination (UV/vis, fluorescence) failed due to interference of the attached dyes. The reaction kinetics were analyzed by thin-layer chromatographic separation of the 32P-labeled reaction components and densitometric analysis of the substrate and product radioactivities, thereby allowing iterative optimization of the dye positions for future single-molecule studies. The phosphorylation strategy with trichloroacetonitrile may be applicable for labeling numerous other compounds that contain alcoholic hydroxyl groups. PMID:21731729

Giovanni Domenico Santorini (1681-1737): a prominent physician and meticulous anatomist.

PubMed

Kleinerman, Rachel; John, Alana; Etienne, Denzil; Turner, Benjamin; Shoja, Mohammadali M; Tubbs, R Shane; Loukas, Marios

2014-05-01

Venetian physician Giovanni Domenico Santorini is revered as one of the most industrious and thorough anatomists of the eighteenth century. After receiving his medical degree in Pisa, Santorini worked as a physician and professor of anatomy and obstetrics in Venice. Of interest, he was a student of Malpighi while in Pisa. He quickly established himself as a dynamic lecturer and meticulous dissector. Santorini's anatomical observations include the prostatic venous plexus, accessory pancreatic duct, corniculate cartilage, parietal emissary veins, the risorius muscle, and many other structures. In addition to the detailed descriptions of these structures, he also produced copper plates and illustrations that are revered as "masterpieces" of that era. Santorini published Observationes anatomicae (Anatomical observations) in 1724, however his primary work, which included the description and anatomical drawings of the accessory pancreatic duct, was not published until thirty-eight years after his death. This posthumous release of Jo. Dominici Santorini anatomici summi septedecim tabulae [Giovanni Domenici Santorini, the excellent anatomist's seventeen drawings] was accomplished by Giambattista Morgagni and his disciple, Michael Girardi in 1775. Giovanni Santorini's assiduous dissections have significantly enhanced our knowledge of human anatomy and his work has been immortalized with several anatomical eponyms. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Human La binds mRNAs through contacts to the poly(A) tail.

PubMed

Vinayak, Jyotsna; Marrella, Stefano A; Hussain, Rawaa H; Rozenfeld, Leonid; Solomon, Karine; Bayfield, Mark A

2018-05-04

In addition to a role in the processing of nascent RNA polymerase III transcripts, La proteins are also associated with promoting cap-independent translation from the internal ribosome entry sites of numerous cellular and viral coding RNAs. La binding to RNA polymerase III transcripts via their common UUU-3'OH motif is well characterized, but the mechanism of La binding to coding RNAs is poorly understood. Using electromobility shift assays and cross-linking immunoprecipitation, we show that in addition to a sequence specific UUU-3'OH binding mode, human La exhibits a sequence specific and length dependent poly(A) binding mode. We demonstrate that this poly(A) binding mode uses the canonical nucleic acid interaction winged helix face of the eponymous La motif, previously shown to be vacant during uridylate binding. We also show that cytoplasmic, but not nuclear La, engages poly(A) RNA in human cells, that La entry into polysomes utilizes the poly(A) binding mode, and that La promotion of translation from the cyclin D1 internal ribosome entry site occurs in competition with cytoplasmic poly(A) binding protein (PABP). Our data are consistent with human La functioning in translation through contacts to the poly(A) tail.

Allosteric modulation of Ras and the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway: emerging therapeutic opportunities

PubMed Central

Hubbard, Paul A.; Moody, Colleen L.; Murali, Ramachandran

2014-01-01

GTPases and kinases are two predominant signaling modules that regulate cell fate. Dysregulation of Ras, a GTPase, and the three eponymous kinases that form key nodes of the associated phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR pathway have been implicated in many cancers, including pancreatic cancer, a disease noted for its current lack of effective therapeutics. The K-Ras isoform of Ras is mutated in over 90% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and there is growing evidence linking aberrant PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway activity to PDAC. Although these observations suggest that targeting one of these nodes might lead to more effective treatment options for patients with pancreatic and other cancers, the complex regulatory mechanisms and the number of sequence-conserved isoforms of these proteins have been viewed as significant barriers in drug development. Emerging insights into the allosteric regulatory mechanisms of these proteins suggest novel opportunities for development of selective allosteric inhibitors with fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) helping make significant inroads. The fact that allosteric inhibitors of Ras and AKT are currently in pre-clinical development lends support to this approach. In this article, we will focus on the recent advances and merits of developing allosteric drugs targeting these two inter-related signaling pathways. PMID:25566081

Evolutionary cell biology: two origins, one objective.

PubMed

Lynch, Michael; Field, Mark C; Goodson, Holly V; Malik, Harmit S; Pereira-Leal, José B; Roos, David S; Turkewitz, Aaron P; Sazer, Shelley

2014-12-02

All aspects of biological diversification ultimately trace to evolutionary modifications at the cellular level. This central role of cells frames the basic questions as to how cells work and how cells come to be the way they are. Although these two lines of inquiry lie respectively within the traditional provenance of cell biology and evolutionary biology, a comprehensive synthesis of evolutionary and cell-biological thinking is lacking. We define evolutionary cell biology as the fusion of these two eponymous fields with the theoretical and quantitative branches of biochemistry, biophysics, and population genetics. The key goals are to develop a mechanistic understanding of general evolutionary processes, while specifically infusing cell biology with an evolutionary perspective. The full development of this interdisciplinary field has the potential to solve numerous problems in diverse areas of biology, including the degree to which selection, effectively neutral processes, historical contingencies, and/or constraints at the chemical and biophysical levels dictate patterns of variation for intracellular features. These problems can now be examined at both the within- and among-species levels, with single-cell methodologies even allowing quantification of variation within genotypes. Some results from this emerging field have already had a substantial impact on cell biology, and future findings will significantly influence applications in agriculture, medicine, environmental science, and synthetic biology.

Anatomical terminology, then and now.

PubMed

O'Rahilly, R

1989-01-01

Anatomical terminology, which had become chaotic by the nineteenth century, was codified in the BNA of 1895, when some 5,000 terms were carefully selected from among approximately 50,000 names. The BNA and its three major revisions (BR, INA, PNA) are here reviewed and placed in historical perspective. It is emphasized that many anatomical terms are very ancient and that the various nomenclatures are not 'new terminologies' but rather, for the most part, selections of already existing names. This can be seen clearly in the naming of the cranial nerves. Another example, the carpal and tarsal bones, is analysed in detail. Of the 8 carpal bones, for instance, the current names for 7 of them are those proposed by Henle in 1855. All the nomenclatures are, as they should be, in Latin, but it is understood that translations of many terms into other languages are necessary. Although views pro and con have been expressed, current usage favours the erect posture and the anatomical position as a basis, as well as the elimination of eponyms. In both teaching and research, the Nomina has been of great benefit in reducing drastically the number of unnecessary synonyms and in providing a coherent, internationally accepted system that is now the standard in anatomical textbooks. Hence, further use of the Nomina should be encouraged.

Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome: an X-linked encephalo-tropho-schisis syndrome. 1988.

PubMed

Neri, G; Marini, R; Cappa, M; Borrelli, P; Opitz, J M

2013-11-01

The following paper by Professor GiovanniNeri and colleagues was originally published in 1988, American Journal of Medical Genetics 30:287–299. This paper represented a seminal work at the time of publication as it not only reported a new family with a disorder that had been called the “gigantism-dysplasia syndrome”, but also suggested naming the condition the Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome. This eponym has clearly stood “the test of time”, and that designation is now widely accepted. This paper is graciously republished by Wiley-Blackwell in the Special Festschrift issue honoring Professor Neri. We report on another family with the so-called "gigantism-dysplasia syndrome", an X-linked condition characterized by pre-and postnatal overgrowth, characteristic face with apparent coarseness, dysplastic changes in several tissues, and mild intellectual impairment. This condition has been called the Golabi-Rosen syndrome; however, we agree that is the same entity as that described, in a milder form, by Simpson et al. in 1975 and by Behmel et al. in 1984. Therefore, we suggest that this entity be designated the Simpson-Golabi-Behmel syndrome. The manifestations in affected individuals suggest that this condition represents an X-linked encephalo-tropho-schisis syndrome. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Evaluation of a deidentification (De-Id) software engine to share pathology reports and clinical documents for research.

PubMed

Gupta, Dilip; Saul, Melissa; Gilbertson, John

2004-02-01

We evaluated a comprehensive deidentification engine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, PA, that uses a complex set of rules, dictionaries, pattern-matching algorithms, and the Unified Medical Language System to identify and replace identifying text in clinical reports while preserving medical information for sharing in research. In our initial data set of 967 surgical pathology reports, the software did not suppress outside (103), UPMC (47), and non-UPMC (56) accession numbers; dates (7); names (9) or initials (25) of case pathologists; or hospital or laboratory names (46). In 150 reports, some clinical information was suppressed inadvertently (overmarking). The engine retained eponymic patient names, eg, Barrett and Gleason. In the second evaluation (1,000 reports), the software did not suppress outside (90) or UPMC (6) accession numbers or names (4) or initials (2) of case pathologists. In the third evaluation, the software removed names of patients, hospitals (297/300), pathologists (297/300), transcriptionists, residents and physicians, dates of procedures, and accession numbers (298/300). By the end of the evaluation, the system was reliably and specifically removing safe-harbor identifiers and producing highly readable deidentified text without removing important clinical information. Collaboration between pathology domain experts and system developers and continuous quality assurance are needed to optimize ongoing deidentification processes.

The Performance of the Robo-AO Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics System at the Kitt Peak 2.1 m Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Duev, Dmitry A.; Riddle, Reed; Salama, Maïssa; Baranec, Christoph; Law, Nicholas M.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Ramprakash, A. N.

2018-01-01

Robo-AO is an autonomous laser guide star adaptive optics (AO) system recently commissioned at the Kitt Peak 2.1 m telescope. With the ability to observe every clear night, Robo-AO at the 2.1 m telescope is the first dedicated AO observatory. This paper presents the imaging performance of the AO system in its first 18 months of operations. For a median seeing value of 1.″44, the average Strehl ratio is 4% in the i\\prime band. After post processing, the contrast ratio under sub-arcsecond seeing for a 2≤slant i\\prime ≤slant 16 primary star is five and seven magnitudes at radial offsets of 0.″5 and 1.″0, respectively. The data processing and archiving pipelines run automatically at the end of each night. The first stage of the processing pipeline shifts and adds the rapid frame rate data using techniques optimized for different signal-to-noise ratios. The second “high-contrast” stage of the pipeline is eponymously well suited to finding faint stellar companions. Currently, a range of scientific programs, including the synthetic tracking of near-Earth asteroids, the binarity of stars in young clusters, and weather on solar system planets are being undertaken with Robo-AO.

The "Ulysses syndrome": An eponym identifies a psychosomatic disorder in modern migrants.

PubMed

Bianucci, Raffaella; Charlier, Philippe; Perciaccante, Antonio; Lippi, Donatella; Appenzeller, Otto

2017-06-01

Due to civil wars, violence and persecutions, between 2015 and 2016, more than 1.4 million people, from the Middle East and Africa, fled their counties and migrated to Europe. The vast majority of migrants, who have already experienced enormous level of stressors, are faced with dangerous, often lethal, migratory journeys. Those who survive are exposed to adaptation stressors such as different languages, isolation, lack of work opportunities, diminished social status and a sense of failure in the new countries of residence. These are stressors that go far beyond the usual adaptation stresses to new cultures and migrants experience permanent crises with an imminent risk of developing the "Ulysses syndrome". As a consequence, many individuals often develop symptoms such as irritability, nervousness, migraine, tension headache, insomnia, tiredness, fear, loss of appetite and generalized ill-defined discomfort. If left untreated these symptoms, originally described by Hofer in the 17th century, may degenerate into a severe psychosomatic disorder leading to reactive depression. Here we expand the concept of Ulysses' syndrome and illustrate new initiatives aimed at reducing the level of stressors in migrants and at promoting their successful integration in their new countries. Copyright © 2017 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evolutionary cell biology: Two origins, one objective

PubMed Central

Lynch, Michael; Field, Mark C.; Goodson, Holly V.; Malik, Harmit S.; Pereira-Leal, José B.; Roos, David S.; Turkewitz, Aaron P.; Sazer, Shelley

2014-01-01

All aspects of biological diversification ultimately trace to evolutionary modifications at the cellular level. This central role of cells frames the basic questions as to how cells work and how cells come to be the way they are. Although these two lines of inquiry lie respectively within the traditional provenance of cell biology and evolutionary biology, a comprehensive synthesis of evolutionary and cell-biological thinking is lacking. We define evolutionary cell biology as the fusion of these two eponymous fields with the theoretical and quantitative branches of biochemistry, biophysics, and population genetics. The key goals are to develop a mechanistic understanding of general evolutionary processes, while specifically infusing cell biology with an evolutionary perspective. The full development of this interdisciplinary field has the potential to solve numerous problems in diverse areas of biology, including the degree to which selection, effectively neutral processes, historical contingencies, and/or constraints at the chemical and biophysical levels dictate patterns of variation for intracellular features. These problems can now be examined at both the within- and among-species levels, with single-cell methodologies even allowing quantification of variation within genotypes. Some results from this emerging field have already had a substantial impact on cell biology, and future findings will significantly influence applications in agriculture, medicine, environmental science, and synthetic biology. PMID:25404324

Human La binds mRNAs through contacts to the poly(A) tail

PubMed Central

Vinayak, Jyotsna; Marrella, Stefano A; Hussain, Rawaa H; Rozenfeld, Leonid; Solomon, Karine; Bayfield, Mark A

2018-01-01

Abstract In addition to a role in the processing of nascent RNA polymerase III transcripts, La proteins are also associated with promoting cap-independent translation from the internal ribosome entry sites of numerous cellular and viral coding RNAs. La binding to RNA polymerase III transcripts via their common UUU-3’OH motif is well characterized, but the mechanism of La binding to coding RNAs is poorly understood. Using electromobility shift assays and cross-linking immunoprecipitation, we show that in addition to a sequence specific UUU-3’OH binding mode, human La exhibits a sequence specific and length dependent poly(A) binding mode. We demonstrate that this poly(A) binding mode uses the canonical nucleic acid interaction winged helix face of the eponymous La motif, previously shown to be vacant during uridylate binding. We also show that cytoplasmic, but not nuclear La, engages poly(A) RNA in human cells, that La entry into polysomes utilizes the poly(A) binding mode, and that La promotion of translation from the cyclin D1 internal ribosome entry site occurs in competition with cytoplasmic poly(A) binding protein (PABP). Our data are consistent with human La functioning in translation through contacts to the poly(A) tail. PMID:29447394

Eosinophils.

PubMed

Radonjic-Hösli, Susanne; Simon, Hans-Uwe

2014-01-01

In 1846, T. Wharton-Jones described a coarsely granular stage in the development of granulocytic cells in animal and human blood. Shortly thereafter, Max Schultze redefined the coarsely granular cells as a type distinct from finely granular cells, rather than just a developmental stage. It was, however, not until 1879, when Paul Ehrlich introduced a method to distinguish granular cells by the staining properties of their granules, that a classification became possible. An intensive staining for eosin, among other aniline dyes, was eponymous for the coarsely granular cell type, which thereupon became referred to as eosinophil granulocyte. Eosinophilia had already been described in many diseases by the late 19th century. The role of these cells, however, today remains a matter of continuing speculation and investigation. Many functions have been attributed to the eosinophil over the years, often linked to increasing knowledge about the granular and cytoplasmatic contents. A better understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of eosinopoiesis has led to the development of knock-out mice strains as well as therapeutic strategies for reducing the eosinophil load in patients. The effect of these therapeutics and the characterization of the knock-out phenotypes have led to a great increase in the knowledge of the role of the eosinophil in disease. Today we think of the eosinophil as a multifunctional cell involved in host defense, tissue damage and remodeling, as well as immunomodulation. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The enlightenment kidney-nephrology in and about the eighteenth century.

PubMed

Eknoyan, Garabed; De Santo, Natale G

2012-01-01

The intellectual movement of inquiry by direct observation and inductive reasoning to acquire new knowledge matured in the Enlightenment. In medicine, personal observation as the prime mover of investigation began in anatomy, and gradually extended into studies of function, site of disease, and composition of body fluids. This led to the generation of new information on renal structure, function, and urine composition in health and to some extent in disease. Studies on the dissected, injected, and teased kidneys have left us with many of the eponymous renal structures described by Eustachio, Bellini, Malpighi, and Ferrein. Subsequent studies by Haller of the renal circulation and scrutiny of the separation of serous fluid from blood in the renal cortical glandular components established the beginnings of renal physiology. The movement to integrate chemistry into medicine championed by Boerhaave, which launched studies of urine composition in diabetes, urolithiasis, and gout led to the exploration of a chemical basis of other diseases. Albuminous precipitate in the urine of a dropsical case was described by Cotugno, but its association with kidney disease went unappreciated. Most of the new information on the kidney was communicated to and discussed in the increasing number of new scientific societies that were being formed, and transmitted to the eager members of the learned bourgeoisie of the period in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Antonino D'Antona (1842-1913) was the first in describing the crush syndrome with renal failure following the Messina earthquake of December 28, 1908.

PubMed

Bisaccia, Carmela; De Santo, Natale Gaspare; De Santo, Luca S

2016-02-01

There is confusion about the first description of the association between crush syndrome and renal failure. It has been traditionally attributed to Bywaters and Beall. The present study aims to analyze the problem by analyzing medical reports on the Messina-Reggio Calabria earth-quake of December 28, 1908 by using documents heretofore unknown. It demonstrates that first description of rabdomyolysis with renal failure is attributed to Antonino DAntona (1842- 1913). DAntona, professor of surgery at the University of Naples, coordinated the health net organized in Naples to assist persons wounded during the quake. Many of them in shock were transferred to Naples by ships. Franz von Colmers (1875-1960) was the chief surgeon of the German Mission of the Red Cross after the quake. Because his late arrival, he did not treat patients with shock. He described rabdomyolysis. The third medical report is that of Rocco Caminiti (1868-1946), collaborator of DAntona at the University of Naples, and chief of surgery at the Loreto Hospital. He directed a rescue group in Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria. In 1910, he reported on rabdomyolysis in patients treated in the place of the disaster. Therefore the present study indicates that Antonino DAntona holds the priority for description of rabdomyolysis and kidney injury. There is no longer a place for the eponym Bywaters syndrome.

Giuseppe Gradenigo: Much more than a syndrome! Historical vignette.

PubMed

Matis, Georgios K; de A Silva, Danilo O; Chrysou, Olga I; Karanikas, Michail A; Birbilis, Theodossios A

2012-01-01

Giuseppe Gradenigo (1859-1926), a legendary figure of Otology, was born in Venice, Italy. He soon became a pupil to Adam Politzer and Samuel Leopold Schenk in Vienna, demonstrating genuine interest in the embryology, morphology, physiopathology, as well as the clinical manifestations of ear diseases. In this paper, the authors attempt to highlight the major landmarks during Gradenigo's career and outline his contributions to neurosciences, which have been viewed as looking forward to the 20(th) century rather than awkward missteps at the end of the 19(th). Several rare photographs along with many non-English, more than a century old articles have been meticulously selected to enrich this historical journey in time. It was after Gradenigo that the well-known syndrome consisting of diplopia and facial pain due to a middle ear infection was named. However, Gradenigo was much more than a syndrome. Surprisingly, despite the fact that he is considered a pioneer of the Italian Otology of the late 19(th) and early 20(th) century, little is written of his life and his notable achievements in the English literature. Even though his name lives on nowadays only in the eponym "Gradenigo's syndrome," his accomplishments are much wider and cast him among the emblematic figures of science. His inherent tendency for discovering the underlying mechanisms of diseases and his vision of guaranteeing quality of services, professional proficiency, respect, and dedication toward the patients is in fact what constitutes his true legacy to the next generations.

Highly affine and selective aptamers against cholera toxin as capture elements in magnetic bead-based sandwich ELAA.

PubMed

Frohnmeyer, Esther; Frisch, Farina; Falke, Sven; Betzel, Christian; Fischer, Markus

2018-03-10

Aptamers are single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides, which have been emerging as recognition elements in disease diagnostics and food control, including the detection of bacterial toxins. In this study, we employed the semi-automated just in time-selection to identify aptamers that bind to cholera toxin (CT) with high affinity and specificity. CT is the main virulence factor of Vibrio cholerae and the causative agent of the eponymous disease. For the selected aptamers, dissociation constants in the low nanomolar range (23-56 nM) were determined by fluorescence-based affinity chromatography and cross-reactivity against related proteins was evaluated by direct enzyme-linked aptamer assay (ELAA). Aptamer CT916 has a dissociation constant of 48.5 ± 0.5 nM and shows negligible binding to Shiga-like toxin 1B, protein A and BSA. This aptamer was chosen to develop a sandwich ELAA for the detection of CT from binding buffer and local tap water. Amine-C6- or biotin-modified CT916 was coupled to magnetic beads to serve as the capture element. Using an anti-CT polyclonal antibody as the reporter, detection limits of 2.1 ng/ml in buffer and 2.4 ng/ml in tap water, with a wide log-linear dynamic range from 1 ng/ml to 1000 ng/ml and 500 ng/ml, respectively, were achieved. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Demons syndrome revisited: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Brun, Jean-Luc

2007-06-01

To report various descriptions of the combination of a benign genital tumour with pleural and/or abdominal effusion throughout the years and to determine the paternity of this syndrome, commonly known as Meigs' syndrome. A systematic review of the literature from 1728 to 2004. Before 1880, publications were rare and limited to clinical and anatomical descriptions drawing no conclusions between the cause and effect of this condition and even less about its management. Demons described the syndrome between 1887 and 1902. He was the first to specify that removal of the tumour (benign ovarian cyst, solid ovarian tumour, fibroma of the broad ligament) was essential for the patient to be cured of the effusions and that it was wrong to postpone surgery. In 1937, Meigs arrived at the same findings concerning ovarian fibromas and granulosa cell tumours, hence the name of Demons-Meigs which was given to this syndrome with the agreement of Meigs. Current literature reports on pseudosyndromes of Demons-Meigs including genital malignancies with negative cytology. These entities should not be called Demons or Meigs pseudosyndromes. Inversely, all benign tumours of the genital tract should be included in Demons syndrome, even if Demons did not actually encounter any during his years of practice, but it was in the spirit of his observations. Demons' syndrome includes all benign genital tumours, the Demons-Meigs eponym is reserved for the description of ovarian fibromas and granulosa cell tumours, and the Demons' pseudosyndrome includes all other entities.

Courvoisier's gallbladder: law or sign?

PubMed

Fitzgerald, J Edward F; White, Matthew J; Lobo, Dileep N

2009-04-01

Variously described as Courvoisier's law, sign, or even gallbladder, this eponymous "law" has been taught to medical students since the publication of Courvoisier's treatise in 1890. We reviewed Courvoisier's original "law," the modern misconceptions surrounding it, and the contemporary evidence supporting and explaining his observations. Courvoisier never stated a "law" in the context of a jaundiced patient with a palpable gallbladder. He described 187 cases of common bile duct obstruction, observing that gallbladder dilatation seldom occurred with stone obstruction of the bile duct. The classic explanation for Courvoisier's finding is based on the underlying pathologic process. With the presence of gallstones come repeated episodes of infection and subsequent fibrosis of the gallbladder. In the event that a gallstone causes the obstruction, the gallbladder is shrunken owing to fibrosis and is unlikely to be distensible and, hence, palpable. With other causes of obstruction, the gallbladder distends as a result of the back-pressure from obstructed bile flow. However, recent experiments show that gallbladders are equally distensible in vitro, irrespective of the pathology, suggesting that chronicity of the obstruction is the key. Chronically elevated intraductal pressures are more likely to develop with malignant obstruction owing to the progressive nature of the disease. Gallstones cause obstruction in an intermittent fashion, which is generally not consistent enough to produce such a chronic rise in pressure. We hope that reminding clinicians of Courvoisier's actual observations will reestablish the usefulness of this clinical sign in the way he intended.

THE EDINGER-WESTPHAL NUCLEUS: A HISTORICAL, STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON A DICHOTOMOUS TERMINOLOGY

PubMed Central

Kozicz, Tamás; Bittencourt, Jackson C.; May, Paul J.; Reiner, Anton; Gamlin, Paul D. R.; Palkovits, Miklós; Horn, Anja K.E.; Toledo, Claudio A. B.; Ryabinin, Andrey E.

2013-01-01

The eponymous term nucleus of Edinger-Westphal (EW) has come to be used to describe two juxtaposed and somewhat intermingled cell groups of the midbrain that differ dramatically in their connectivity and neurochemistry. On one hand, the classically defined EW is the part of the oculomotor complex that is the source of the parasympathetic preganglionic motoneuron input to the ciliary ganglion (CG), through which it controls pupil constriction and lens accommodation. On the other hand, EW is applied to a population of centrally projecting neurons involved in sympathetic, consumptive and stress-related functions. This terminology problem arose because the name EW has historically been applied to the most prominent cell collection above or between the somatic oculomotor nuclei (III), an assumption based on the known location of the preganglionic motoneurons in monkeys. However, in many mammals, the nucleus designated as EW is not made up of cholinergic, preganglionic motoneurons supplying the CG, and instead contains neurons using peptides, such as urocortin 1, with diverse central projections. As a result, the literature has become increasingly confusing. To resolve this problem, we suggest that the term EW be supplemented with terminology based on connectivity. Specifically, we recommend that: 1. The cholinergic, preganglionic neurons supplying the CG be termed the Edinger-Westphal preganglionic (EWpg) population, and 2. The centrally projecting, peptidergic neurons be termed the Edinger-Westphal centrally projecting (EWcp) population. The history of this nomenclature problem and the rationale for our solutions are discussed in this review. PMID:21452224

[Pharmacy, one of the emerging sources of new science of technology].

PubMed

Charlot, Colette

2015-01-01

Linking pharmacy and oenology seems to be paradox. The school of Medicine and Pharmacy owe their fame to the historical context of the Languedocian Universities. The role of their naturalist professors is less known. Dr Chaptal's thesis discusses the wine chemical constituents. In 1801 he published a book entitled "the Art of making, managing and perfecting wine", inventor of a distillation machine, his name become an eponym "the chaptalisation", which is specific process, for regions less exposed to sunlight, showing that sugar in the must is needed to obtain alcohol. Jules Emile Planchon, professor of botanic science at the Superior School of Pharmacy will discoverer the parasite disease of the phylloxera, a parasite that destroy vineyards. The cure will be the American grafting. The list of professors who worked on vineyards related frauds and diseases is long. Once Analytical chemistry has become part of the curriculum universities, pharmacists, started investigating wine analysis. It will be part of Bromatology, the science of food ingredients. Pharmacists were then able to carry out the first wine analyses sin their laboratory. It is at that time that Paul Jaulmes, professor of Analytical Chemistry who became Director of the international office of vineyards and Wine (OIV) proposed alongside Prof Nègre, director of the National School of Agronomy, the initiation in 1955 of a new diploma oenology. As a renowned toxicologist, Prof. Jaulmes will lead the committee in charge of the oenology Standards.

ERRATIC FLARING OF BL LAC IN 2012–2013: MULTIWAVELENGTH OBSERVATIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wehrle, Ann E.; Grupe, Dirk; Jorstad, Svetlana G.

2016-01-10

BL Lac, the eponymous blazar, flared to historically high levels at millimeter, infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths in 2012. We present observations made with Herschel, Swift, NuSTAR, Fermi, the Submillimeter Array, CARMA, and the VLBA in 2012–2013, including three months with nearly daily sampling at several wavebands. We have also conducted an intensive campaign of 30 hr with every-orbit observations by Swift and NuSTAR, accompanied by Herschel, and Fermi observations. The source was highly variable at all bands. Time lags, correlations between bands, and the changing shapes of the spectral energy distributions can be explained by synchrotron radiation and inversemore » Compton emission from nonthermal seed photons originating from within the jet. The passage of four new superluminal very long baseline interferometry knots through the core and two stationary knots about 4 pc downstream accompanied the high flaring in 2012–2013. The seed photons for inverse Compton scattering may arise from the stationary knots and from a Mach disk near the core where relatively slow-moving plasma generates intense nonthermal radiation. The 95 spectral energy distributions obtained on consecutive days form the most densely sampled, broad wavelength coverage for any blazar. The observed spectral energy distributions and multi-waveband light curves are similar to simulated spectral energy distributions and light curves generated with a model in which turbulent plasma crosses a conical shock with a Mach disk.« less

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea in Europe: In-Detail Analyses of Disease Dynamics and Molecular Epidemiology.

PubMed

Hanke, Dennis; Pohlmann, Anne; Sauter-Louis, Carola; Höper, Dirk; Stadler, Julia; Ritzmann, Mathias; Steinrigl, Adi; Schwarz, Bernd-Andreas; Akimkin, Valerij; Fux, Robert; Blome, Sandra; Beer, Martin

2017-07-06

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) is an acute and highly contagious enteric disease of swine caused by the eponymous virus (PEDV) which belongs to the genus Alphacoronavirus within the Coronaviridae virus family. Following the disastrous outbreaks in Asia and the United States, PEDV has been detected also in Europe. In order to better understand the overall situation, the molecular epidemiology, and factors that might influence the most variable disease impact; 40 samples from swine feces were collected from different PED outbreaks in Germany and other European countries and sequenced by shot-gun next-generation sequencing. A total of 38 new PEDV complete coding sequences were generated. When compared on a global scale, all investigated sequences from Central and South-Eastern Europe formed a rather homogeneous PEDV S INDEL cluster, suggesting a recent re-introduction. However, in-detail analyses revealed two new clusters and putative ancestor strains. Based on the available background data, correlations between clusters and location, farm type or clinical presentation could not be established. Additionally, the impact of secondary infections was explored using the metagenomic data sets. While several coinfections were observed, no correlation was found with disease courses. However, in addition to the PEDV genomes, ten complete viral coding sequences from nine different data sets were reconstructed each representing new virus strains. In detail, three pasivirus A strains, two astroviruses, a porcine sapelovirus, a kobuvirus, a porcine torovirus, a posavirus, and an enterobacteria phage were almost fully sequenced.

Wilhelm Fabry's 1614 report on a giant condyloma of the penis.

PubMed

Marx, F J; Karenberg, A

2012-02-01

For many years it has been the work of Buschke and Löwenstein that has justified calling the exophytic, locally destructive tumour of the anogenital mucosal surface 'giant condyloma of Buschke and Löwenstein' or GCBL. In order to investigate the early history of this rare disease we examined the writings of the barber-surgeon Wilhelm Fabry (1560-1634) who had a serious interest in dermatological disorders and their treatment. We analysed Fabry's 600 Latin case reports and identified the case of a 'monstrous penile tumour'. We then translated this text into English and compared it point by point with later publications. This was followed by a cursory review of surgical treatises from the 16th to the 18th centuries. In 1614 Fabry described and depicted a tumour of the penis; the clinical characteristics (gradual formation of a warty lesion, considerable size, invasive growth, absence of metastases) indicated it was a giant condyloma. His mention of the urethral fistulization enables discrimination from 'common' condylomata acuminata, and the survival period of 10 years after amputation allows exclusion of a 'true' carcinoma. This report is singular among 17th-century case histories. The neoplasias described 300 years later are most probably biologically identical. Thus, Fabry's is the first clinical report; the histological classification, however, belongs to Buschke and Löwenstein. From now on the disease should be designated with the eponym giant condyloma of Fabry-Buschke-Löwenstein or GCFBL. © 2011 The Authors. BJD © 2011 British Association of Dermatologists.

Evolution of Trust in Economic Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossomaier, Terry; Harré, Michael; Thompson, James

When ET in the eponymous Spielberg movie follows a trail of Smarties to meet his new human friends, we find this entirely plausible — that a baby alien will quickly form a bond with human kids and for each to quickly learn to trust the other. This surely reflects the way trust is such a fundamental part of human nature that its absence would be more remarkable than its presence, even where one of the protagonists is a not overly attractive alien species! Another, less plausible, fictional character which has often been employed in economic settings is Homo Economicus. The character played by this economic actor is that of the perfectly informed, perfectly rational, self interested individual trying to maximise their personal utility. This view of the economic actor, particularly as it is used in decision theory, inspired Herbert Simon in his Nobel Prize award speech to criticise models of economic microphenomena [29]: "Thus economists who are zealous in insisting that economic actors maximize turn around and become satisficers when the evaluation of their own theories is concerned. They believe that businessmen maximize, but they know that economic theorists satisfice." However, in the three decades since Simon's speech there has been a large body of evidence accumulating which demonstrates the lack of universality of the assumptions of economic man [6] and has contributed to the advancement of more reasonable models, as described by Daniel Kahneman [14], another Nobel Laureate: "... proposed that an automatic affective valuation — the emotional core of an attitude — is the main determinant of many judgements and behaviours."

Fibrinogen-Related Proteins in Tissue Repair: How a Unique Domain with a Common Structure Controls Diverse Aspects of Wound Healing.

PubMed

Zuliani-Alvarez, Lorena; Midwood, Kim S

2015-05-01

Significance: Fibrinogen-related proteins (FRePs) comprise an intriguing collection of extracellular molecules, each containing a conserved fibrinogen-like globe (FBG). This group includes the eponymous fibrinogen as well as the tenascin, angiopoietin, and ficolin families. Many of these proteins are upregulated during tissue repair and exhibit diverse roles during wound healing. Recent Advances: An increasing body of evidence highlights the specific expression of a number of FRePs following tissue injury and infection. Upon induction, each FReP uses its FBG domain to mediate quite distinct effects that contribute to different stages of tissue repair, such as driving coagulation, pathogen detection, inflammation, angiogenesis, and tissue remodeling. Critical Issues: Despite a high degree of homology among FRePs, each contains unique sequences that enable their diversification of function. Comparative analysis of the structure and function of FRePs and precise mapping of regions that interact with a variety of ligands has started to reveal the underlying molecular mechanisms by which these proteins play very different roles using their common domain. Future Directions: Fibrinogen has long been used in the clinic as a synthetic matrix serving as a scaffold or a delivery system to aid tissue repair. Novel therapeutic strategies are now emerging that harness the use of other FRePs to improve wound healing outcomes. As we learn more about the underlying mechanisms by which each FReP contributes to the repair response, specific blockade, or indeed potentiation, of their function offers real potential to enable regulation of distinct processes during pathological wound healing.

Giuseppe Gradenigo: Much more than a syndrome! Historical vignette

PubMed Central

Matis, Georgios K.; de A. Silva, Danilo O.; Chrysou, Olga I.; Karanikas, Michail A.; Birbilis, Theodossios A.

2012-01-01

Background: Giuseppe Gradenigo (1859–1926), a legendary figure of Otology, was born in Venice, Italy. He soon became a pupil to Adam Politzer and Samuel Leopold Schenk in Vienna, demonstrating genuine interest in the embryology, morphology, physiopathology, as well as the clinical manifestations of ear diseases. In this paper, the authors attempt to highlight the major landmarks during Gradenigo's career and outline his contributions to neurosciences, which have been viewed as looking forward to the 20th century rather than awkward missteps at the end of the 19th. Methods: Several rare photographs along with many non-English, more than a century old articles have been meticulously selected to enrich this historical journey in time. Results: It was after Gradenigo that the well-known syndrome consisting of diplopia and facial pain due to a middle ear infection was named. However, Gradenigo was much more than a syndrome. Surprisingly, despite the fact that he is considered a pioneer of the Italian Otology of the late 19th and early 20th century, little is written of his life and his notable achievements in the English literature. Conclusions: Even though his name lives on nowadays only in the eponym “Gradenigo's syndrome,” his accomplishments are much wider and cast him among the emblematic figures of science. His inherent tendency for discovering the underlying mechanisms of diseases and his vision of guaranteeing quality of services, professional proficiency, respect, and dedication toward the patients is in fact what constitutes his true legacy to the next generations. PMID:23226608

Vital endowments: Sir Charles Bell and the history of some congenital abnormalities of the upper limb.

PubMed

Thurston, Alan

2011-12-01

Born in Edinburgh in 1774 Sir Charles Bell, as a young man, studied anatomy and surgery in his hometown. There followed a distinguished career that culminated in his becoming the first professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the College of Surgeons in London. Renowned as a brilliant neuroanatomist he was invited, on the advice of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, to contribute one of eight volumes of a work on the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God as manifested in the Creation - known as the Bridgewater Treatises. 'The Hand its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design' was published in 1833 and it is an account of his considering the hand as a machine that has been engineered to exacting standards to interact with the environment in which we live. In it he expressed a deep understanding of the similarity of the structure of the upper limbs of the higher orders of animals. The similarity of the paddle of a turtle and a human hand with acrosymbrachydactyly is unmistakable. This congenital abnormality, given the eponymous title of Apert's syndrome, is one of a number of congenital abnormalities that have parallels in the animal kingdom. Others who have had similar syndromes named after them include Poland, Marfan, Streeter and a number of others. The life and times of these men and their contributions to medicine will be presented in this paper. © 2011 The Author. ANZ Journal of Surgery © 2011 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Types A and B Niemann-Pick disease.

PubMed

Schuchman, Edward H; Desnick, Robert J

The eponym Niemann-Pick disease (NPD) refers to a group of patients who present with varying degrees of lipid storage and foam cell infiltration in tissues, as well as overlapping clinical features including hepatosplenomegaly, pulmonary insufficiency and/or central nervous system (CNS) involvement. Due to the pioneering work of Roscoe Brady and co-workers, we now know that there are two distinct metabolic abnormalities that account for NPD. The first is due to the deficient activity of the enzyme acid sphingomyelinase (ASM; "types A & B" NPD), and the second is due to defective function in cholesterol transport ("type C" NPD). Herein only types A and B NPD will be discussed. Type A NPD patients exhibit hepatosplenomegaly in infancy and profound CNS involvement. They rarely survive beyond 2-3years of age. Type B patients also have hepatosplenomegaly and pathologic alterations of their lungs, but there are usually no CNS signs. The age of onset and rate of disease progression varies greatly among type B patients, and they frequently live into adulthood. Intermediate patients also have been reported with mild to moderate neurological findings. All patients with types A and B NPD have mutations in the gene encoding ASM (SMPD1), and thus the disease is more accurately referred to as ASM deficiency (ASMD). Herein we will review the clinical, pathological, biochemical, and genetic findings in types A and B NPD, and emphasize the seminal contributions of Dr. Brady to this disease. We will also discuss the current status of therapy for this disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The South East Asian Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP): Its history and role in the ASEAN countries.

PubMed

Ng, Kh; Wong, Jhd

2008-04-01

Informal discussion started in 1996 and the South East Asian Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP) was officially accepted as a regional chapter of the IOMP at the Chicago World Congress in 2000 with five member countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Professor Kwan-Hoong Ng served as the founding president until 2006. Brunei (2002) and Vietnam (2005) joined subsequently. We are very grateful to the founding members of SEAFOMP: Anchali Krisanachinda, Kwan-Hoong Ng, Agnette Peralta, Ratana Pirabul, Djarwani S Soejoko and Toh-Jui Wong.The objectives of SEAFOMP are to promote (i) co-operation and communication between medical physics organizations in the region; (ii) medical physics and related activities in the region; (iii) the advancement in status and standard of practice of the medical physics profession; (iv) to organize and/or sponsor international and regional conferences, meetings or courses; (v) to collaborate or affiliate with other scientific organizations.SEAFOMP has been organizing a series of congresses to promote scientific exchange and mutual support. The South East Asian Congress of Medical Physics (SEACOMP) series was held respectively in Kuala Lumpur (2001), Bangkok (2003), Kuala Lumpur (2004) and Jakarta (2006). The respective congress themes indicated the emphasis and status of development. The number of participants (countries in parentheses) was encouraging: 110 (17), 150 (16), 220 (23) and 126 (7).In honour of the late Professor John Cameron, an eponymous lecture was established. The inaugural John Cameron Lecture was delivered by Professor Willi Kalender in 2004. His lecture was titled "Recent Developments in Volume CT Scanning".

Erythema multiforme, Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis: a comparative review.

PubMed

Yager, Julie A

2014-10-01

Human erythema multiforme (EM) and Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN) are separate conditions. There is no consensus on classification criteria for the eponymous diseases in animals. Animal EM is very different from 90% of human EM, which is herpes virus associated (HAEM). Animals lack acrally distributed, typical raised targets. Unlike canine parvovirus 'EM', HAEM is not an active infection. Animal EM is often attributed to drugs, but this is rarely proved. Conversely, human and animal SJS/TEN are almost identical, life-threatening disorders of epidermal necrosis and detachment, typically triggered by drugs (occasionally by infectious agents). Both EM and SJS/TEN are mediated by cytotoxic lymphocyte responses against altered keratinocytes (infectious agents or drugs). Apoptosis results from direct cytotoxicity or through soluble mediators, namely Fas ligand, granzymes, perforin and granulysin. Diagnosis in humans is clinicopathological, with emphasis on clinical lesions; histopathology confirms the pathological process as interface (cytotoxic) dermatitis. Human EM is self-limiting; only recurrent and rare persistent cases require antiviral/immunosuppressive therapies. Drug-induced EM responds to drug withdrawal. Idiopathic canine EM (>40%) is usually chronic, refractory to treatment and may represent heterogeneous conditions. Early identification and removal of the causative drug and high-quality supportive care are critical in SJS/TEN. Mortality rate is nevertheless high. (1) Histopathological lesions do not reliably differentiate EM, SJS and TEN. (2) A multicentre study to develop a consensus set of clinical criteria for EM and SJS/TEN in animals is overdue. (3) No adjunctive therapies, including intravenous immunoglobulin and ciclosporin, have met evidence-based standards. © 2014 ESVD and ACVD.

Phase 1 Studies of Sirolimus Alone or in Combination with Pharmacokinetic Modulators in Advanced Cancer Patients

PubMed Central

Cohen, Ezra EW; Wu, Kehua; Hartford, Christine; Kocherginsky, Masha; Eaton, Kimberly Napoli; Zha, Yuanyuan; Nallari, Anitha; Maitland, Michael L; Fox-Kay, Kammi; Moshier, Kristin; House, Larry; Ramirez, Jacqueline; Undevia, Samir D; Fleming, Gini F; Gajewski, Thomas F; Ratain, Mark J

2014-01-01

Purpose Sirolimus is the eponymous inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR); however, only its analogues have been approved as cancer therapies. Nevertheless, sirolimus is readily available, has been well-studied in organ transplant patients, and demonstrates efficacy in several preclinical cancer models. Experimental Design Three simultaneously conducted phase I studies in advanced cancer patients utilized an adaptive escalation design to find the dose of oral, weekly sirolimus alone or in combination with either ketoconazole or grapefruit juice that achieves similar blood concentrations as its intravenously administered and approved prodrug, temsirolimus. Additionally, the effect of sirolimus on inhibition of p70S6 kinase phosphorylation in peripheral T cells was determined. Results Collectively, the three studies enrolled 138 subjects. The most commonly observed toxicities were hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and lymphopenia in 52%, 43%, and 41% of subjects, respectively. The target sirolimus area under the concentration curve (AUC) of 3810 ng-hr/ml was achieved at sirolimus doses of 90 mg, 16 mg, and 25 mg in the sirolimus alone, sirolimus plus ketoconazole, and sirolimus plus grapefruit juice studies, respectively. Ketoconazole and grapefruit juice increased sirolimus AUC approximately 500% and 350%, respectively. Inhibition of p70 S6 kinase phosphorylation was observed at all doses of sirolimus and correlated with blood concentrations. One partial response was observed in a patient with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma. Conclusion Sirolimus can be feasibly administered orally, once weekly with a similar toxicity and pharmacokinetic profile compared to other mTOR inhibitors and warrants further evaluation in studies of its comparative effectiveness relative to recently approved sirolimus analogues. PMID:22872575

Syndrome disintegration: Exome sequencing reveals that Fitzsimmons syndrome is a co-occurrence of multiple events.

PubMed

Armour, Christine M; Smith, Amanda; Hartley, Taila; Chardon, Jodi Warman; Sawyer, Sarah; Schwartzentruber, Jeremy; Hennekam, Raoul; Majewski, Jacek; Bulman, Dennis E; Suri, Mohnish; Boycott, Kym M

2016-07-01

In 1987 Fitzsimmons and Guilbert described identical male twins with progressive spastic paraplegia, brachydactyly with cone shaped epiphyses, short stature, dysarthria, and "low-normal" intelligence. In subsequent years, four other patients, including one set of female identical twins, a single female child, and a single male individual were described with the same features, and the eponym Fitzsimmons syndrome was adopted (OMIM #270710). We performed exome analysis of the patient described in 2009, and one of the original twins from 1987, the only patients available from the literature. No single genetic etiology exists that explains Fitzsimmons syndrome; however, multiple different genetic causes were identified. Specifically, the twins described by Fitzsimmons had heterozygous mutations in the SACS gene, the gene responsible for autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix Saguenay (ARSACS), as well as a heterozygous mutation in the TRPS1, the gene responsible in Trichorhinophalangeal syndrome type 1 (TRPS1 type 1) which includes brachydactyly as a feature. A TBL1XR1 mutation was identified in the patient described in 2009 as contributing to his cognitive impairment and autistic features with no genetic cause identified for his spasticity or brachydactyly. The findings show that these individuals have multiple different etiologies giving rise to a similar phenotype, and that "Fitzsimmons syndrome" is in fact not one single syndrome. Over time, we anticipate that continued careful phenotyping with concomitant genome-wide analysis will continue to identify the causes of many rare syndromes, but it will also highlight that previously delineated clinical entities are, in fact, not syndromes at all. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

AnatomicalTerms.info: heading for an online solution to the anatomical synonym problem hurdles in data-reuse from the Terminologia Anatomica and the foundational model of anatomy and potentials for future development.

PubMed

Gobée, O Paul; Jansma, Daniël; DeRuiter, Marco C

2011-10-01

The many synonyms for anatomical structures confuse medical students and complicate medical communication. Easily accessible translations would alleviate this problem. None of the presently available resources-Terminologia Anatomica (TA), digital terminologies such as the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA), and websites-are fully satisfactory to this aim. Internet technologies offer new possibilities to solve the problem. Several authors have called for an online TA. An online translation resource should be easily accessible, user-friendly, comprehensive, expandable, and its quality determinable. As first step towards this goal, we built a translation website that we named www.AnatomicalTerms.info, based on the database of the FMA. It translates between English, Latin, eponyms, and to a lesser extent other languages, and presently contains over 31,000 terms for 7,250 structures, covering 95% of TA. In addition, it automatically presents searches for images, documents and anatomical variations regarding the sought structure. Several terminological and conceptual issues were encountered in transferring data from TA and FMA into AnatomicalTerms.info, resultant from these resources' different set-ups (paper versus digital) and targets (machine versus human-user). To the best of our knowledge, AnatomicalTerms.info is unique in its combination of user-friendliness and comprehensiveness. As next step, wiki-like expandability will be added to enable open contribution of clinical synonyms and terms in different languages. Specific quality measures will be taken to strike a balance between open contribution and quality assurance. AnatomicalTerms.info's mechanism that "translates" terms to structures furthermore may enhance targeted searching by linking images, descriptions, and other anatomical resources to the structures. Copyright © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Surface and basal ice shelf mass balance processes of the Southern McMurdo Ice Shelf determined through radar statistical reconnaissance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grima, C.; Koch, I.; Greenbaum, J. S.; Soderlund, K. M.; Blankenship, D. D.; Young, D. A.; Fitzsimons, S.

2017-12-01

The McMurdo ice shelves (northern and southern MIS), adjacent to the eponymous station and the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, are known for large gradients in surface snow accumulation and snow/ice impurities. Marine ice accretion and melting are important contributors to MIS's mass balance. Due to erosive winds, the southern MIS (SMIS) shows a locally negative surface mass balance. Thus, marine ice once accreted at the ice shelf base crops out at the surface. However, the exact processes that exert primary control on SMIS mass balance have remained elusive. Radar statistical reconnaissance (RSR) is a recent technique that has been used to characterize the surface properties of the Earth's cryosphere, Mars, and Titan from the stochastic character of energy scattered by the surface. Here, we apply RSR to map the surface density and roughness of the SMIS and extend the technique to derive the basal reflectance and scattering coefficients of the ice-ocean interface. We use an airborne radar survey grid acquired over the SMIS in the 2014-2015 austral summer by the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics with the High Capability Radar Sounder (HiCARS2; 60-MHz center frequency and 15-MHz bandwidth). The RSR-derived snow density values and patterns agree with directly -measured ice shelf surface accumulation rates. We also compare the composition of SMIS ice surface samples to test the ability of RSR to discriminate ices with varying dielectric properties (e.g., marine versus meteoric ice) and hypothesize relationships between the RSR-derived basal reflectance/scattered coefficients and accretion or melting at the ice-ocean interface. This improved knowledge of air-ice and ice-ocean boundaries provides a new perspective on the processes governing SMIS surface and basal mass balance.

The South East Asian Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP): Its history and role in the ASEAN countries

PubMed Central

Ng, KH; Wong, JHD

2008-01-01

Informal discussion started in 1996 and the South East Asian Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (SEAFOMP) was officially accepted as a regional chapter of the IOMP at the Chicago World Congress in 2000 with five member countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Professor Kwan-Hoong Ng served as the founding president until 2006. Brunei (2002) and Vietnam (2005) joined subsequently. We are very grateful to the founding members of SEAFOMP: Anchali Krisanachinda, Kwan-Hoong Ng, Agnette Peralta, Ratana Pirabul, Djarwani S Soejoko and Toh-Jui Wong. The objectives of SEAFOMP are to promote (i) co-operation and communication between medical physics organizations in the region; (ii) medical physics and related activities in the region; (iii) the advancement in status and standard of practice of the medical physics profession; (iv) to organize and/or sponsor international and regional conferences, meetings or courses; (v) to collaborate or affiliate with other scientific organizations. SEAFOMP has been organizing a series of congresses to promote scientific exchange and mutual support. The South East Asian Congress of Medical Physics (SEACOMP) series was held respectively in Kuala Lumpur (2001), Bangkok (2003), Kuala Lumpur (2004) and Jakarta (2006). The respective congress themes indicated the emphasis and status of development. The number of participants (countries in parentheses) was encouraging: 110 (17), 150 (16), 220 (23) and 126 (7). In honour of the late Professor John Cameron, an eponymous lecture was established. The inaugural John Cameron Lecture was delivered by Professor Willi Kalender in 2004. His lecture was titled “Recent Developments in Volume CT Scanning”. PMID:21614324

Humphrey Ridley (1653-1708): 17th century evolution in neuroanatomy and selective cerebrovascular injections for cadaver dissection.

PubMed

Thakur, Jai Deep; Sonig, Ashish; Chittiboina, Prashant; Khan, Imad Saeed; Wadhwa, Rishi; Nanda, Anil

2012-08-01

Humphrey Ridley, M.D. (1653-1708), is a relatively unknown historical figure, belonging to the postmedieval era of neuroanatomical discovery. He was born in the market town of Mansfield, 14 miles from the county of Nottinghamshire, England. After studying at Merton College, Oxford, he pursued medicine at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In 1688, he was incorporated as an M.D. at Cambridge. Ridley authored the first original treatise in English language on neuroanatomy, The Anatomy of the Brain Containing its Mechanisms and Physiology: Together with Some New Discoveries and Corrections of Ancient and Modern Authors upon that Subject. Ridley described the venous anatomy of the eponymous circular sinus in connection with the parasellar compartment. His methods were novel, unique, and effective. To appreciate the venous anatomy, he preferred to perform his anatomical dissections on recently executed criminals who had been hanged. These cadavers had considerable venous engorgement, which made the skull base venous anatomy clearer. To enhance the appearance of the cerebral vasculature further, he used tinged wax and quicksilver in the injections. He set up experimental models to answer questions definitively, in proving that the arachnoid mater is a separate meningeal layer. The first description of the subarachnoid cisterns, blood-brain barrier, and the fifth cranial nerve ganglion with its branches are also attributed to Ridley. This historical vignette revisits Ridley's life and academic work that influenced neuroscience and neurosurgical understanding in its infancy. It is unfortunate that most of his novel contributions have gone unnoticed and uncited. The authors hope that this article will inform the neurosurgical community of Ridley's contributions to the field of neurosurgery.

Repeat-mediated genetic and epigenetic changes at the FMR1 locus in the Fragile X-related disorders

PubMed Central

Usdin, Karen; Hayward, Bruce E.; Kumari, Daman; Lokanga, Rachel A.; Sciascia, Nicholas; Zhao, Xiao-Nan

2014-01-01

The Fragile X-related disorders are a group of genetic conditions that include the neurodegenerative disorder, Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), the fertility disorder, Fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI) and the intellectual disability, Fragile X syndrome (FXS). The pathology in all these diseases is related to the number of CGG/CCG-repeats in the 5′ UTR of the Fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. The repeats are prone to continuous expansion and the increase in repeat number has paradoxical effects on gene expression increasing transcription on mid-sized alleles and decreasing it on longer ones. In some cases the repeats can simultaneously both increase FMR1 mRNA production and decrease the levels of the FMR1 gene product, Fragile X mental retardation 1 protein (FMRP). Since FXTAS and FXPOI result from the deleterious consequences of the expression of elevated levels of FMR1 mRNA and FXS is caused by an FMRP deficiency, the clinical picture is turning out to be more complex than once appreciated. Added complications result from the fact that increasing repeat numbers make the alleles somatically unstable. Thus many individuals have a complex mixture of different sized alleles in different cells. Furthermore, it has become apparent that the eponymous fragile site, once thought to be no more than a useful diagnostic criterion, may have clinical consequences for females who inherit chromosomes that express this site. This review will cover what is currently known about the mechanisms responsible for repeat instability, for the repeat-mediated epigenetic changes that affect expression of the FMR1 gene, and for chromosome fragility. It will also touch on what current and future options are for ameliorating some of these effects. PMID:25101111

Novel mutation detection of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) gene, FGFR2IIIa, FGFR2IIIb, FGFR2IIIc, FGFR3, FGFR4 gene for craniosynostosis: A prospective study in Asian Indian patient.

PubMed

Barik, Mayadhar; Bajpai, Minu; Malhotra, Arun; Samantaray, Jyotish Chandra; Dwivedi, Sadananda; Das, Sambhunath

2015-01-01

Craniosynostosis (CS) syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition classically combining craniosynostosis and non-syndromic craniosynostosis with digital anomalies of the hands and feet. The majority of cases are caused by heterozygous mutations in the third immunoglobulin-like domain (IgIII) of FGFR2, whilst a larger number of cases can be attributed to mutations outside this region of the protein. To find out the FGFR1, FGFR2, FGFR3 and FGFR4 gene in craniosynostosis syndrome. A hospital based prospective study. Prospective analysis of clinical records of patients registered in CS clinic from December 2007 to January 2015 was done in patients between 4 months to 13 years of age. We have performed genetic findings in a three generation Indian family with Craniosynostosis syndrome. We report for the first time the clinical and genetic findings in a three generation Indian family with Craniosynostosis syndrome caused by a heterozygous missense mutation, Thr 392 Thr and ser 311 try, located in the IgII domain of FGFR2. FGFR 3 and 4 gene basis syndrome was eponymously named. Genetic analysis demonstrated that 51/56 families to be unrelated. In FGFR3 gene 10/TM location of 1172 the nucleotide changes C>A, Ala 391 Glu 19/56 and Exon-19, 5q35.2 at conserved linker region the changes occurred pro 246 Arg in 25/56 families. Independent genetic origins, but phenotypic similarities in the 51 families add to the evidence supporting the theory of selfish spermatogonial selective advantage for this rare gain-of-function FGFR2 mutation.

Novel mutation detection of fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) gene, FGFR2IIIa, FGFR2IIIb, FGFR2IIIc, FGFR3, FGFR4 gene for craniosynostosis: A prospective study in Asian Indian patient

PubMed Central

Barik, Mayadhar; Bajpai, Minu; Malhotra, Arun; Samantaray, Jyotish Chandra; Dwivedi, Sadananda; Das, Sambhunath

2015-01-01

Background: Craniosynostosis (CS) syndrome is an autosomal dominant condition classically combining craniosynostosis and non-syndromic craniosynostosis with digital anomalies of the hands and feet. The majority of cases are caused by heterozygous mutations in the third immunoglobulin-like domain (IgIII) of FGFR2, whilst a larger number of cases can be attributed to mutations outside this region of the protein. Aims: To find out the FGFR1, FGFR2, FGFR3 and FGFR4 gene in craniosynostosis syndrome. Settings and Design: A hospital based prospective study. Materials and Methods: Prospective analysis of clinical records of patients registered in CS clinic from December 2007 to January 2015 was done in patients between 4 months to 13 years of age. We have performed genetic findings in a three generation Indian family with Craniosynostosis syndrome. Results: We report for the first time the clinical and genetic findings in a three generation Indian family with Craniosynostosis syndrome caused by a heterozygous missense mutation, Thr 392 Thr and ser 311 try, located in the IgII domain of FGFR2. FGFR 3 and 4 gene basis syndrome was eponymously named. Genetic analysis demonstrated that 51/56 families to be unrelated. In FGFR3 gene 10/TM location of 1172 the nucleotide changes C>A, Ala 391 Glu 19/56 and Exon-19, 5q35.2 at conserved linker region the changes occurred pro 246 Arg in 25/56 families. Conclusions: Independent genetic origins, but phenotypic similarities in the 51 families add to the evidence supporting the theory of selfish spermatogonial selective advantage for this rare gain-of-function FGFR2 mutation. PMID:26557159

The weather and climate: emergent laws and multifractal cascades

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lovejoy, Shaun; Schertzer, Daniel

2013-04-01

Science in general and physics and geophysics in particular are hierarchies of interlocking theories and models with low level, fundamental laws such as quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics providing the underpinnings for the emergence of the qualitatively new, higher level laws of thermodynamics and continuum mechanics that provide the current bases for modelling the weather and climate. Yest it was the belief of generations of turbulence pioneers (notably Richardson, Kolmogorov, Obhukhov, Corrsin, Bolgiano) that at sufficiently high levels of nonlinearity (quantified by the Reynold's number, of the order 10**12 in the atmosphere) that new even higher level laws would emerge describing "fully developed turbulence". However for atmospheric applications, the pioneers' eponymous laws suffered from two basic restrictions - isotropy and homogeneity - that prevented them from being valid over wide ranges of scale. Over the last thirty years both of these restrictions have been overcome - the former with the generalization from isotropic to strongly anisotropic notions of scale (to account notably for stratification), and from homogeneity to strong heterogeneity (intermittency) via multifractal cascades. In this presentation we give an overview of recent developments and analyses covering huge ranges of space-time scales (including weather, macroweather and climate time scales). We show how the combination of strong anisotropy and strong intermittency commonly leads to the "phenomenological fallacy" in which morphology is confounded with mechanism. With the help of stochastic models, we show how processes with vastly different large and small scale morphologies can arise from a unique multifractal dynamical mechanisms [Lovejoy and Schertzer, 2013]. References: Lovejoy, S., and D. Schertzer (2013), The Weather and Climate: Emergent Laws and Multifractal Cascades, 480 pp., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Azañón's disease. A 19th century epidemic of neurolathyrism in Spain.

PubMed

Giménez-Roldán, S; Spencer, P S

2016-12-01

The cultivation and consumption of grasspea (Lathyrus sativus) in Spain probably dates back centuries, especially during times of famine when the neurotoxic potential of this legume was expressed in the form of a spastic paraparesis known as neurolathyrism. Little known outside the country, the epidemic of neurolathyrism in the years following the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) came to affect more than a thousand people. In late 1872, during the Six Years Revolutionary Term, young Alejandro San Martín Satrústegui (1847-1908), then editor of the popular weekly El Siglo Médico, travelled to Azañón, a remote village in the province of Guadalajara, to clarify a so-far unknown disease. We analysed the original article published in 1873 by San Martin, as well as communications sent by El Siglo Médico readers reporting similar cases in many other Castilian provinces. San Martín's neurological findings in seven personally examined cases were astonishingly accurate; he concluded the subjects' neurological deficits resulted from injury to the lateral columns in the lower portion of the spinal cord. Description of the clinical findings provided both by San Martín, and by the readers of El Siglo Médico, leave no doubt as to the diagnosis of neurolathyrism. However, none suspected the patient's staple food was the determinant cause of the disease. San Martín proposed the eponym Azañón's disease for lack of a better name the same year (1873) in which Cantani in Italy introduced the term lathyrism. The epidemic of neurolathyrism that affected many Castilian towns represents one of the best-documented in Europe during the last third of the 19th century. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Squirmers with swirl: a model for Volvox swimming.

PubMed

Pedley, T J; Brumley, D R; Goldstein, R E

2016-07-10

Colonies of the green alga Volvox are spheres that swim through the beating of pairs of flagella on their surface somatic cells. The somatic cells themselves are mounted rigidly in a polymeric extracellular matrix, fixing the orientation of the flagella so that they beat approximately in a meridional plane, with axis of symmetry in the swimming direction, but with a roughly [Formula: see text] azimuthal offset which results in the eponymous rotation of the colonies about a body-fixed axis. Experiments on colonies of Volvox carteri held stationary on a micropipette show that the beating pattern takes the form of a symplectic metachronal wave (Brumley  et al.   Phys. Rev. Lett. , vol. 109, 2012, 268102). Here we extend the Lighthill/Blake axisymmetric, Stokes-flow model of a free-swimming spherical squirmer (Lighthill  Commun. Pure Appl. Maths , vol. 5, 1952, pp. 109-118; Blake  J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 46, 1971 b , pp. 199-208) to include azimuthal swirl. The measured kinematics of the metachronal wave for 60 different colonies are used to calculate the coefficients in the eigenfunction expansions and hence predict the mean swimming speeds and rotation rates, proportional to the square of the beating amplitude, as functions of colony radius. As a test of the squirmer model, the results are compared with measurements (Drescher  et al.   Phys. Rev. Lett. , vol. 102, 2009, 168101) of the mean swimming speeds and angular velocities of a different set of 220 colonies, also given as functions of colony radius. The predicted variation with radius is qualitatively correct, but the model underestimates both the mean swimming speed and the mean angular velocity unless the amplitude of the flagellar beat is taken to be larger than previously thought. The reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.

Active Coupled Oscillators in the Inner Ear

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strimbu, Clark Elliott

Auditory and vestibular systems are endowed with an active process that enables them to detect signals as small as a few Angstroms; they also exhibit frequency selectivity; show strong nonlinearities; and can exhibit as spontaneous activity. Much of this active process comes from the sensory hair cells at the periphery of the auditory and vestibular systems. Each hair cell is capped by an eponymous hair bundle, a specialized structure that transduces mechanical forces into electrical signals. Experiments on mechanically decoupled cells from the frog sacculus have shown that individual hair bundles behave in an active manner analogous to an intact organ suggesting a common cellular basis for the active processes seen in many species. In particular, mechanically decoupled hair bundles show rapid active movements in response to transient stimuli and exhibit spontaneous oscillations. However, a single mechanosensitive hair cell is unable to match the performance of an entire organ. In vivo, hair bundles are often coupled to overlying membranes, gelatinous extracellular matrices. We used an in vitro preparation of the frog sacculus in which the otolithic membrane has been left intact. Under natural coupling conditions, there is a strong degree of correlation across the saccular epithelium, suggesting that the collective response of many cells contributes to the extreme sensitivity of this organ. When the membrane is left intact, the hair bundles do not oscillate spontaneously, showing that the natural coupling and loading tunes them into a quiescent regime. However, when stimulated by a pulse, the bundles show a rapid biphasic response that is abolished when the transduction channels are blocked. The active forces generated by the bundles are sufficient to move the overlying membrane.

The Hoopla Over the Higgs Boson: A Window into the State of Science Journalism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cho, Adrian

2012-10-01

On July 4, experimenters at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, held a special seminar in which they reported that they had at last discovered something resembling the Higgs boson, the last missing piece in particle physicists' standard model. The event drew more than 100 journalists, including myself, and the days leading up to the seminar evolved in almost a caricature of a media circus. Rumors coursed across the internet, bloggers prognosticated about what would be reported, anonymous sources whispered confidence levels to eager reporters, and on the very eve of the seminar CERN's own press office inadvertently leaked a video explaining many of the details. At a post-seminar press conference, dozens of photographers and videographers swarmed Peter Higgs, the eponymous theorist from the University of Edinburgh. Higgs even had his own handler to help him fend off the press onslaught. It was all great fun, but for a traditional journalist the event highlighted the many open questions we journalists now face. In the age of blogs and Twitter, does anybody really care that journalists try to put together fair, balanced, and accessible accounts of events? Or are people just as happy to get their information directly from researchers through their blogs or the lab through its press office? Is being first out with the story the only measure of success these days, or is there still a market for deeper analysis? I'll use the Higgs hoopla as a lens to lay out the questions as I see them. I am hoping to get the answers of the members of the audience in a discussion.

Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard's departure from the Medical College of Virginia: incompatible science or incompatible social views in pre-Civil War southern United States.

PubMed

Watson, Joseph C; Ho, Stephen V

2011-01-01

Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard was one of the most colorful characters in modern physiology. His scientific methods of self-experimentation and animal vivisection led to many great observations, including the eponymous syndrome of hemisection of the spinal cord. Despite his renown, he stayed but one year in his first major academic post. Details of his sojourn at the Medical College of Virginia (now part of Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond were divined from perusal of archival material, letters, and from the available literature. His notoriety in the field of physiology landed him a post at the Medical College of Virginia in 1854 as the chair of physiology. During a brief time here, he was able to publish his landmark monograph of 1855 on the pathways of the spinal cord "Experimental and Clinical Researches on the Physiology and Pathology of the Spinal Cord." He had a near-death experience while experimenting on himself to determine the function of the skin. It was rumored that his English was poor, his lectures unintelligible, and his scientific methods disturbing to the neighbors and that for those reasons he was asked to vacate his post. Personal communications and other accounts indicate a different view: his mixed-blood heritage and his views on slavery were unpopular in the pre-Civil War southern United States. These disparate viewpoints lend an insight into the life and career of this pioneer in modern medicine and experimental design and to the clash of science and social views. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The first Fermi multifrequency campaign on BL Lacertae: Characterizing the low-activity state of the eponymous blazar

DOE PAGES

Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

2011-03-10

Here, we report on observations of BL Lacertae during the first 18 months of Fermi LAT science operations and present results from a 48 day multifrequency coordinated campaign from 2008 August 19 to 2008 October 7. The radio to gamma-ray behavior of BL Lac is unveiled during a low-activity state thanks to the coordinated observations of radio-band (Metsähovi and VLBA), near-IR/optical (Tuorla, Steward, OAGH, and MDM), and X-ray ( RXTE and Swift) observatories. No variability was resolved in gamma rays during the campaign, and the brightness level was 15 times lower than the level of the 1997 EGRET outburst. Moderatemore » and uncorrelated variability has been detected in UV and X-rays. The X-ray spectrum is found to be concave, indicating the transition region between the low- and high-energy components of the spectral energy distribution (SED). VLBA observation detected a synchrotron spectrum self-absorption turnover in the innermost part of the radio jet appearing to be elongated and inhomogeneous, and constrained the average magnetic field there to be less than 3 G. Over the following months, BL Lac appeared variable in gamma rays, showing flares (in 2009 April and 2010 January). There is no evidence for the correlation of gamma rays with the optical flux monitored from the ground in 18 months. The SED may be described by a single-zone or a two-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, but a hybrid SSC plus external radiation Compton model seems to be preferred based on the observed variability and the fact that it provides a fit closest to equipartition.« less

Physician-anatomists of Italy in Şānīzāde Mehmed Atāullah Efendi's work Mir'āt al-abdān (Mirror of bodies).

PubMed

Aciduman, Ahmet; Arda, Berna

2014-09-01

Şānīzāde Mehmed Atāullah Efendi was a pioneer in the history of Turkish medical education with his work Ḫamse-i Şānīzāde (Five Works of Şānīzāde). The first of these works, Mir'āt al-abdān fī taşrīh-i a'ḍāi'l-insān (Mirror of the bodies in the dissection of the members of the human body), concerns anatomy and was written in 1816. Şānīzāde's Mir'āt al-abdān is an important milestone in the teaching of anatomy in the Ottoman Empire and was also the first book on anatomy both written in a modern manner and printed in the Ottoman Empire. This paper is based on investigation of a printed copy of Mir'āt al-Abdān in the library of the History of Medicine and Ethics Department, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine. The main text and explanations were transliterated into the contemporary Turkish alphabet. The names of European physicians and their eponyms in the main text and in the explanations of illustrations were identified and evaluated. The names of European masters of anatomy in Şānīzāde are mentioned either in the text or in plate explanations. These names and plates indicate well-known physicians and masters of anatomy whose works were examined and quoted by Şānīzāde. The references in Şānīzāde's book and presented in this study relate to Italian physician-anatomists such as Bartolomeo Eustachi, Gabriele Fallopio, Costanzo Varolio and to others, such as Andreas Vesalius and Adriaan van den Spiegel, who were also Padua-educated but not Italian. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We Know More Than We Can Tell About Diabetes and Vascular Disease: The 2016 Edwin Bierman Award Lecture.

PubMed

Semenkovich, Clay F

2017-07-01

The Edwin Bierman Award Lecture is presented in honor of the memory of Edwin L. Bierman, MD, an exemplary scientist, mentor, and leader in the field of diabetes, obesity, hyperlipidemia, and atherosclerosis. The award and lecture recognizes a leading scientist in the field of macrovascular complications and contributing risk factors in diabetes. Clay F. Semenkovich, MD, the Irene E. and Michael M. Karl Professor and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipid Research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, received the prestigious award at the American Diabetes Association's 76th Scientific Sessions, 10-14 June 2016, in New Orleans, LA. He presented the Edwin Bierman Award Lecture, "We Know More Than We Can Tell About Diabetes and Vascular Disease," on Sunday, 12 June 2016. Diabetes is a disorder of abnormal lipid metabolism, a notion strongly supported by the work of Edwin Bierman, for whom this eponymous lecture is named. This abnormal lipid environment continues to be associated with devastating vascular complications in diabetes despite current therapies, suggesting that our understanding of the pathophysiology of blood vessel disease in diabetes is limited. In this review, potential new insights into the nature of diabetic vasculopathy will be discussed. Recent observations suggest that while the concept of distinct macrovascular and microvascular complications of diabetes has been useful, vascular diseases in diabetes may be more interrelated than previously appreciated. Moreover, the intermediary metabolic pathway of de novo lipogenesis, which synthesizes lipids from simple precursors, is robustly sensitive to insulin and may contribute to these complications. De novo lipogenesis requires fatty acid synthase, and recent studies of this enzyme suggest that endogenously produced lipids are channeled to specific intracellular sites to affect physiology. These findings raise the possibility that novel approaches to treating diabetes and its complications could be based on altering the intracellular lipid milieu. © 2017 by the American Diabetes Association.

Mineral types of hydrothermal alteration zones in the Dukat ore field and their relationships to leucogranite and epithermal gold-silver ore, northeastern Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filimonova, L. G.; Trubkin, N. V.; Chugaev, A. V.

2014-05-01

The paper considers the localization of potassic and propylitic hydrothermal alteration zones in the domal volcanic-plutonic structure controlling the position of the Dukat ore field with the eponymous unique epithermal Au-Ag deposit. Comprehensive mineralogical and geochemical data on rocks and minerals in hydrothermal alteration zones and associated intrusions have shown that quartz-jarosite-sericite, quartz-pyrite-sericite, and quartz-adularia-chlorite alterations were formed with the participation of fluid flows related to a fingerlike projection of a high-K leucogranite porphyry intrusion with large phenocrysts. These hydrothermal alterations developed in the rifted graben under conditions of divergent plate boundaries, whereas quartz-clinozoisite-calcite, epidote-chlorite, and garnet-calcite-chlorite alterations were linked to K-Na leucogranite intrusive bodies and developed under conditions of convergent plate boundaries reactivated as a result of formation of the marginal Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt. Phase separation and coagulation of specific portions of ascending fluids resulted in the formation and stabilization of small-sized particles of native silver and other ore components, which enabled involvement in flows of secondary geothermal solutions and ore-forming fluids. The Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic compositions of rocks and minerals from the hydrothermal alteration zones, associated intrusions, and economic orebodies at the Dukat deposit indicate that their components have been derived from the juvenile continental crust, which was altered in pre-Cretaceous periods of endogenic activity. The components of gangue minerals of potassic and propylitic hydrothertmal alterations and associated intrusions have been taken from deep sources differing in 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd at similar U/Pb and Th/Pb ratios. Chalcophile lead in products of hydrothermal activity and melanocratic inclusions in leucogranite has been taken from regions with elevated U/Pb and Th/Pb ratios.

Proteolysis of mature HIV-1 p6 Gag protein by the insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) regulates virus replication in an Env-dependent manner.

PubMed

Hahn, Friedrich; Schmalen, Adrian; Setz, Christian; Friedrich, Melanie; Schlößer, Stefan; Kölle, Julia; Spranger, Robert; Rauch, Pia; Fraedrich, Kirsten; Reif, Tatjana; Karius-Fischer, Julia; Balasubramanyam, Ashok; Henklein, Petra; Fossen, Torgils; Schubert, Ulrich

2017-01-01

There is a significantly higher risk for type II diabetes in HIV-1 carriers, albeit the molecular mechanism for this HIV-related pathology remains enigmatic. The 52 amino acid HIV-1 p6 Gag protein is synthesized as the C-terminal part of the Gag polyprotein Pr55. In this context, p6 promotes virus release by its two late (L-) domains, and facilitates the incorporation of the viral accessory protein Vpr. However, the function of p6 in its mature form, after proteolytic release from Gag, has not been investigated yet. We found that the mature p6 represents the first known viral substrate of the ubiquitously expressed cytosolic metalloendopeptidase insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE). IDE is sufficient and required for degradation of p6, and p6 is approximately 100-fold more efficiently degraded by IDE than its eponymous substrate insulin. This observation appears to be specific for HIV-1, as p6 proteins from HIV-2 and simian immunodeficiency virus, as well as the 51 amino acid p9 from equine infectious anaemia virus were insensitive to IDE degradation. The amount of virus-associated p6, as well as the efficiency of release and maturation of progeny viruses does not depend on the presence of IDE in the host cells, as it was shown by CRISPR/Cas9 edited IDE KO cells. However, HIV-1 mutants harboring IDE-insensitive p6 variants exhibit reduced virus replication capacity, a phenomenon that seems to depend on the presence of an X4-tropic Env. Furthermore, competing for IDE by exogenous insulin or inhibiting IDE by the highly specific inhibitor 6bK, also reduced virus replication. This effect could be specifically attributed to IDE since replication of HIV-1 variants coding for an IDE-insensitive p6 were inert towards IDE-inhibition. Our cumulative data support a model in which removal of p6 during viral entry is important for virus replication, at least in the case of X4 tropic HIV-1.

Subdivision of arthropod cap-n-collar expression domains is restricted to Mandibulata

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The monophyly of Mandibulata - the division of arthropods uniting pancrustaceans and myriapods - is consistent with several morphological characters, such as the presence of sensory appendages called antennae and the eponymous biting appendage, the mandible. Functional studies have demonstrated that the patterning of the mandible requires the activity of the Hox gene Deformed and the transcription factor cap-n-collar (cnc) in at least two holometabolous insects: the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the beetle Tribolium castaneum. Expression patterns of cnc from two non-holometabolous insects and a millipede have suggested conservation of the labral and mandibular domains within Mandibulata. However, the activity of cnc is unknown in crustaceans and chelicerates, precluding understanding of a complete scenario for the evolution of patterning of this appendage within arthropods. To redress these lacunae, here we investigate the gene expression of the ortholog of cnc in Parhyale hawaiensis, a malacostracan crustacean, and two chelicerates: the harvestman Phalangium opilio, and the scorpion Centruroides sculpturatus. Results In the crustacean P. hawaiensis, the segmental expression of Ph-cnc is the same as that reported previously in hexapods and myriapods, with two distinct head domains in the labrum and the mandibular segment. In contrast, Po-cnc and Cs-cnc expression is not enriched in the labrum of either chelicerate, but instead is expressed at comparable levels in all appendages. In further contrast to mandibulate orthologs, the expression domain of Po-cnc posterior to the labrum is not confined within the expression domain of Po-Dfd. Conclusions Expression data from two chelicerate outgroup taxa suggest that the signature two-domain head expression pattern of cnc evolved at the base of Mandibulata. The observation of the archetypal labral and mandibular segment domains in a crustacean exemplar supports the synapomorphic nature of mandibulate cnc expression. The broader expression of Po-cnc with respect to Po-Dfd in chelicerates further suggests that the regulation of cnc by Dfd was also acquired at the base of Mandibulata. To test this hypothesis, future studies examining panarthropod cnc evolution should investigate expression of the cnc ortholog in arthropod outgroups, such as Onychophora and Tardigrada. PMID:24405788

Integrated geochronology of Acheulian sites from the southern Latium (central Italy): Insights on human-environment interaction and the technological innovations during the MIS 11-MIS 10 period

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereira, Alison; Nomade, Sébastien; Moncel, Marie-Hélène; Voinchet, Pierre; Bahain, Jean-Jacques; Biddittu, Italo; Falguères, Christophe; Giaccio, Biagio; Manzi, Giorgio; Parenti, Fabio; Scardia, Giancarlo; Scao, Vincent; Sottili, Gianluca; Vietti, Amina

2018-05-01

We have explored the multimethod approach combining 40Ar/39Ar on single crystal, ESR on bleached quartz, and ESR/U-series on teeth to improve the age of four neighbours "Acheulian" sites of the Frosinone Province (Latium, Italy): Fontana Ranuccio, Cava Pompi (Pofi), Isoletta, and Lademagne. Ages obtained by the three methods are in mutual agreement and confirm the potential of dating with confidence Middle Pleistocene sites of Italy using these methods. At Fontana Ranuccio, the 40Ar/39Ar age (408 ± 10 ka, full external error at 2σ) obtained for the archaeological level (unit FR4) and geochemical analyses of glass shards performed on the Unit FR2a layer allow us to attribute the studied volcanic material to the Pozzolane Nere volcanic series, a well-known caldera-forming event originated from the Colli Albani volcanic district. These new data ascribe the Fontana Ranuccio site, as well as the eponym faunal unit, to the climatic optimum of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11. Ages obtained for the Cava Pompi, Isoletta, and Lademagne sites cover a relatively short period of time between 408 ka and 375 ka, spanning MIS 11 climatic optimum to the MIS 11-10 transition. Analysis of small collections of lithic industries, bifacial tools, and small cores technologies from Isoletta, Lademagne, and the neighbour site of Ceprano-Campogrande shows common technical strategies for the period comprised between MIS 11 and MIS 9 (410-325 ka), such as the elaboration of flaked elephant bone industries found over the whole Latium region. However, some features found only in the Frosinone province area, like large-sized bifaces, suggest particular regional behaviours. The presence of one Levallois core in the oldest layer of Lademagne (i.e. > 405 ± 9 ka) suggests a punctual practice of this technology, also proposed as early as MIS 10/11 in the neighbour site of Guado San Nicola (Molise) in central Italy.

James Homer Wright: a biography of the enigmatic creator of the Wright stain on the occasion of its centennial.

PubMed

Lee, Robert E; Young, Robert H; Castleman, Benjamin

2002-01-01

James Homer Wright (1869-1928), the eldest son of a Pittsburgh glass merchant, was educated in Baltimore and practiced pathology in Boston from 1893 until his death in 1928. In 1896, when not quite 27 years old, he assumed directorship of the newly founded Pathology Laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital, a post he held for the next 30 years. He is remembered eponymously by the blood cell stain that bears his name and the Homer Wright pseudorosettes of neuroblastoma, but he made many additional contributions to pathology. These include the following: determination of the cellular lineage of multiple myeloma, identification of the megakaryocyte as the cell of origin of blood platelets, recognition of the cell of origin of the neuroblastoma, demonstration of spirochetes in syphilitic aneurysms of the aorta, and clarification of misconceptions about actinomycosis. Additionally, Wright coauthored, with Dr. Frank B. Mallory, the book Pathological Technique, which was a staple of laboratories for >40 years and exemplifies Wright's wide-ranging interests in, and contributions to, practical aspects of pathology including staining, culture and frozen section techniques, photography, and development of the rotary microtome. He received Honorary Doctor of Science Degrees from Harvard University, the University of Maryland (his alma mater), and the University of Missouri. He was the recipient of the Gross prize in 1905 for his publication on actinomycosis and the Boylston Medical Prize in 1908 for his discovery of the origin of platelets, and he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1915. Although shy and somewhat austere in the workplace, a different side was shown by his anonymously sending flowers to a young Norwegian opera singer whom he subsequently married. The pathology laboratories of the Massachusetts General Hospital were named the "James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories" in 1956. Today James Homer Wright is remembered and honored 100 years after his description of the stain that, along with the pseudorosettes of neuroblastoma, carry his name into eternity and ensure his great contributions will never be forgotten.

Blue Mountain and The Gas Rocks: Rear-Arc Dome Clusters on the Alaska Peninsula

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hildreth, Wes; Fierstein, Judy; Calvert, Andrew T.

2007-01-01

Behind the single-file chain of stratovolcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula, independent rear-arc vents for mafic magmas are uncommon, and for silicic magmas rarer still. We report here the characteristics, compositions, and ages of two andesite-dacite dome clusters and of several nearby basaltic units, all near Becharof Lake and 15 to 20 km behind the volcanic front. Blue Mountain consists of 13 domes (58-68 weight percent SiO2) and The Gas Rocks of three domes (62-64.5 weight percent SiO2) and a mafic cone (52 weight percent SiO2). All 16 domes are amphibole-biotite-plagioclase felsite, and nearly all are phenocryst rich and quartz bearing. Although the two dome clusters are lithologically and chemically similar and only 25 km apart, they differ strikingly in age. The main central dome of Blue Mountain yields an 40Ar/39Ar age of 632?7 ka, and two of the Gas Rocks domes ages of 25.7?1.4 and 23.3?1.2 ka. Both clusters were severely eroded by glaciation; surviving volumes of Blue Mountain domes total ~1 km3, and of the Gas Rocks domes 0.035 km3. Three basaltic vents lie close to The Gas Rocks, another lies just south of Blue Mountain, and a fifth is near the north shore of Becharof Lake. A basaltic andesite vent 6 km southeast of The Gas Rocks appears to be a flank vent of the arc-front center Mount Peulik. The basalt of Ukinrek Maars has been called transitionally alkalic, but all the other basaltic rocks are subalkaline. CO2-rich gas emissions near the eponymous Gas Rocks domes are not related to the 25-ka dacite dome cluster but, rather, to intracrustal degassing of intrusive basalt, one batch of which erupted 3 km away in 1977. The felsic and mafic vents all lie along or near the Bruin Bay Fault where it intersects a broad transverse structural zone marked by topographic, volcanologic, and geophysical discontinuities.

Human impacts on fluvial systems - A small-catchment case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pöppl, Ronald E.; Glade, Thomas; Keiler, Margreth

2010-05-01

Regulations of nearly two-thirds of the rivers worldwide have considerable influences on fluvial systems. In Austria, nearly any river (or) catchment is affected by humans, e.g. due to changing land-use conditions and river engineering structures. Recent studies of human impacts on rivers show that morphologic channel changes play a major role regarding channelization and leveeing, land-use conversions, dams, mining, urbanization and alterations of natural habitats (ecomorphology). Thus 'natural (fluvial) systems' are scarce and humans are almost always inseparably interwoven with them playing a major role in altering them coincidentally. The main objective of this study is to identify human effects (i.e. different land use conditions and river engineering structures) on river bed sediment composition and to delineate its possible implications for limnic habitats. The study area watersheds of the 'Fugnitz' River (~ 140km²) and the 'Kaja' River (~ 20km²) are located in the Eastern part of the Bohemian Massif in Austria (Europe) and drain into the 'Thaya' River which is the border river to the Czech Republic in the north of Lower Austria. Furthermore the 'Thaya' River is eponymous for the local National Park 'Nationalpark Thayatal'. In order to survey river bed sediment composition and river engineering structures facies mapping techniques, i.e. river bed surface mapping and ecomorphological mapping have been applied. Additionally aerial photograph and airborne laserscan interpretation has been used to create land use maps. These maps have been integrated to a numerical DEM-based spatial model in order to get an impression of the variability of sediment input rates to the river system. It is hypothesized that this variability is primarily caused by different land use conditions. Finally river bed sites affected by river engineering structures have been probed and grain size distributions have been analyzed. With these data sedimentological and ecological/ecomorphological effects of various river engineering structures (i.e. dams, weirs, river bank- and river bed protection works) on river bed sediment composition and on limnic habitats are evaluated. First results reveal that 'land use' is a dominant factor concerning river bed sediment composition and limnic habitat conditions. Further outcomes will be presented on European Geosciences Union General Assembly, 2010.

Text de-identification for privacy protection: a study of its impact on clinical text information content.

PubMed

Meystre, Stéphane M; Ferrández, Óscar; Friedlin, F Jeffrey; South, Brett R; Shen, Shuying; Samore, Matthew H

2014-08-01

As more and more electronic clinical information is becoming easier to access for secondary uses such as clinical research, approaches that enable faster and more collaborative research while protecting patient privacy and confidentiality are becoming more important. Clinical text de-identification offers such advantages but is typically a tedious manual process. Automated Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods can alleviate this process, but their impact on subsequent uses of the automatically de-identified clinical narratives has only barely been investigated. In the context of a larger project to develop and investigate automated text de-identification for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) clinical notes, we studied the impact of automated text de-identification on clinical information in a stepwise manner. Our approach started with a high-level assessment of clinical notes informativeness and formatting, and ended with a detailed study of the overlap of select clinical information types and Protected Health Information (PHI). To investigate the informativeness (i.e., document type information, select clinical data types, and interpretation or conclusion) of VHA clinical notes, we used five different existing text de-identification systems. The informativeness was only minimally altered by these systems while formatting was only modified by one system. To examine the impact of de-identification on clinical information extraction, we compared counts of SNOMED-CT concepts found by an open source information extraction application in the original (i.e., not de-identified) version of a corpus of VHA clinical notes, and in the same corpus after de-identification. Only about 1.2-3% less SNOMED-CT concepts were found in de-identified versions of our corpus, and many of these concepts were PHI that was erroneously identified as clinical information. To study this impact in more details and assess how generalizable our findings were, we examined the overlap between select clinical information annotated in the 2010 i2b2 NLP challenge corpus and automatic PHI annotations from our best-of-breed VHA clinical text de-identification system (nicknamed 'BoB'). Overall, only 0.81% of the clinical information exactly overlapped with PHI, and 1.78% partly overlapped. We conclude that automated text de-identification's impact on clinical information is small, but not negligible, and that improved clinical acronyms and eponyms disambiguation could significantly reduce this impact. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigation of the Sultan Alp Arslan tomb with geophysical methods, in the historical Merv city (Turkestan)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kadioglu, Selma; Kagan Kadioglu, Yusuf

2016-04-01

Sultan Alp Arslan (1029-1072) was the second Sultan of the Seljuq Empire and great-grandson of Seljuq the eponymous founder of the dynasty. Sultan Alp Arslan's victories changed the balance in near Asia completely in favour of the Seljuq Turks and Sunni Muslims. His victory at Manzikert (26 August 1071) is often cited as the beginning of the end of Byzantine power in Anatolia, and the beginning of Turkish identity in Anatolia. Sultan Alp Arslan eliminated theobstacles to the conquest of Anatolia and played a major role in making this territory a homeland for the Seljuqs. By taking the Emperor captive, Sultan Alp Arslan gained great fame but in 1072, on an expedition to Western Turkestan, he met with death in an unexpected way and at a relatively early age, in his 42nd year. There have been found different stories of the death of this great Turkish Sultan in certain sources. Unfortunately, there has not been found The Sultan's resting place until now. This paper is concerned with the investigation of the Sultan Alp Arslan Tomb in the historical Merv (Marv) city in Turkestan, by using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and gradiometer methods. The GPR and gradiometer surveys have been realized in Gavur Fortress, Sultan Fortress, Er Fortress districts and between two big Fortresses in old Merv city in selected nine study areas. We also gathered data in and around Sultan Sancar Tomb. GPR surveys were performed during January 2014 employing Ramac CU-II system equipped with a 250 MHz shielded antenna, on one meter spaced profiles. Similarly a Geoscan system was used to take magnetic data. The results of all these investigation revealed that there were possible traces for the buried tomb of the Sultan Alparslan in Gavur Kale around Cuma Mosque and around Sultan Sancar Tomb in the study region. However, the project team was changed after our study, and the new team did not excavated our determined areas. Acknowledgement This project has been supported by Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA). This study is a contribution to the EU funded COST action TU1208 "Civil Engineering Applications of Ground penetrating Radar" (www.GPRadar.eu, www.cost.eu).

Pyrexia of unknown origin 90 years on: a paradigm of modern clinical medicine.

PubMed

Brown, Michael

2015-12-01

In 1925, Sir Thomas Horder, a leading physician of his day, gave a lecture, published in this journal, entitled 'Some cases of pyrexia without physical signs'. The paper highlighted what was already a familiar clinical presentation "which taxes our resources to the utmost". Fast-forward through 90 years of careful clinical description, technological innovation in diagnosis and treatment, emergent infections, novel diagnoses, demographic shifts, and radical changes in the health economy. Sir Thomas would find certain aspects familiar, and others revolutionary, in the differential diagnosis and management of the 21st century patient with pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO). Within high-income settings, the proportion of cases due to infection has declined, albeit unevenly. The era of untreated HIV, and the consequences of iatrogenic intervention and immunosuppression, led to Durack and Street's subclassification of the condition in the early 1990 s into classic, nosocomial, neutropenic and HIV-associated PUO. Shifts towards ambulatory care have driven a change in the definition of many diseases. An era of observant clinicians, who lent their names to eponymous syndromes, followed by meticulous serological, genetic and clinicopathological correlation, generated a battery of diagnoses that, along with malignancy, form a large proportion of diagnoses in more recent clinical care. In the current era, universal access to cross-sectional imaging and an infinite array of laboratory tests has undermined the attention paid to history and examination. In some areas of the clinical assessment, such as assessing the fever pattern, this shift is supported by research evidence. The issues that need to be addressed in the next 90 years of technological innovation, information sharing and health service transformation are likely to include: transcriptomic approaches to diagnosis; the place of positron emission tomography (PET) in the diagnostic pathway; the optimal management of high ferritin states; and the most cost-effective diagnostic environment, in the face of this era of specialisation and fragmentation of care. In the meantime, this review covers some important early 21st century lessons to be shared in avoiding diagnostic pitfalls and choosing empirical therapy. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Reinvestigating an interval of the English Wealden (non-marine Lower Cretaceous): Integrated analysis for palaeoenvironmental and climate cyclicities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sames, Benjamin

2017-04-01

Although increasing over the last years, relatively few studies on changing palaeoenvironments and climate cycles in non-marine archives of the Cretaceous greenhouse Earth do exist. This is primarily a result of the nature of non-marine or terrestrial deposits - strong lateral facies change on local scales and the strong local to regional control of deposition - as well as the lack of high-resolution stratigraphy and correlations to the marine record. On the other hand, major advances in the refinements of the Cretaceous timescale now facilitate the correlation and dating of short-term sea-level records and their supposable relation to climate and/or tectonic events with appropriate resolution, i.e. on Milankovitch scales. Innovations and progress in non-marine bio-, magneto- and chemostratigraphy as well as growing data on Lower and Upper Cretaceous non-marine successions are promising towards approaches for supraregional correlation of these deposits and their appropriate correlation to the Cretaceous marine standard sections. However, convincing evidence for orbitally (climate) driven cyclicity in non-marine Lower Cretaceous deposits is thus far sparse. The non-marine Wealden deposits of England have been used eponymous for widely distributed similar Lower Cretaceous non-marine facies, and they are a 'classical' example for a Mesozoic non-marine succession for which depositional cycles have been suggested since the 1970s, including the famous ostracod 'faunicycles' by F.W. Anderson, but so far lack convincing analyses and remain to be tested. The project 'Lower Cretaceous Climate and Non-marine Stratigraphy (LCCNS)' funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) analyses a chosen interval of the English Wealden at the Clock House Brickworks pit (near Capel, Surrey, England, UK) for orbitally/climate driven cyclicities with an interdisciplinary methodology: micropalaeontology, sedimentology, and geochemistry. Ostracod (aquatic microcrustaceans with calcified shell) faunal composition changes are correlated with the variation of geochemical and sedimentological parameters through time to draw conclusions regarding the controlling (palaeoenvironmental) factors and their regulating mechanisms ('climate changes', orbital cycles?), while magnetostratigraphy is used for chronological control. First results will be presented here. The crucial point of the approach is that the fluctuating evolution of a Wealden ecosystem over time is presumed to be climatically (and thus, orbitally) controlled and that the cyclic changes deducible from multiple proxies in its geologic record can be tested and used for cyclostratigraphy.

Historic mass movements recorded in the sediments of Hallstätter See (Upper Austria) - natural hazards at a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lauterbach, Stefan; Strasser, Michael; Tjallingii, Rik; Spötl, Christoph; Brauer, Achim

2017-04-01

Human activity associated with salt mining in Hallstatt (Upper Austria) can be traced back to the Neolithic and underground salt mining in the area is documented since the Middle Bronze Age. The cultural importance of this salt mining and the wealth of archaeological artefacts - particularly from the epoch of the Early Iron Age, for which Hallstatt became the eponym - has been recognized already 20 years ago by assigning the status of a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site to the Hallstatt area. Mining activity is well documented for prehistoric times and known to have been repeatedly affected by large mass movements, destroying mining facilities, for example, at the end of the Bronze Age and during the Late Iron Age. In contrast, evidence of mining activity in the Common Era until the late 13th century AD is scarce, which could be related to socio-economic changes as well as mass movement activity, possibly biasing the archaeological record. Within a project aiming at reconstructing past flood activity of the Traun River, a major tributary of the Danube, a ca. 16-m-long sediment core has been recovered from Hallstätter See. The sediments are continuously cm- to sub-mm-scale laminated, reflecting seasonally variable detrital input by the Traun River and the smaller tributaries. However, an outstanding feature of the sediment record are two meter-scale event layers. The upper one is characterized by a basal mass-transport deposit of 2.50 m thickness, containing folded laminated sediments, homogeneous sediments with liquefaction structures and large stones of up to 4 cm in diameter, which is overlain by a co-genetic turbidite of 1.50 m thickness. From the lower event layer only the topmost part of the turbiditic sequence was recovered, revealing a (minimum) thickness of 1.50 m. Based on their sedimentological characteristics, both event layers are interpreted as the subaqueous continuation of large-scale mass movements, which occurred during the last 2000 years and likely originated from the Plassen Massif where the Hallstatt salt mining area is located. This indicates that past mass movement activity not only threatened prehistoric salt mining, but repeatedly occurred during the Common Era, which could possibly explain the lack of archaeological evidence for mining activity between the Late Iron Age and the late 13th century AD.

Social structure is where the hearth is: a "woman's place" in Beti society.

PubMed

Houseman, M

1988-01-01

Among the patrilineal, virilocal Beti, a people of the Southern Cameroon, the 3 stones of the cooking hearth symbolize the 3 kinship identities which define a woman's place in Beti society: her mother-in-law ("senior co-wife"), her daughter-in-law ("junior co-wife"), and her son-in-law ("daughter's husband"). Among her own descent group she is always a daughter; among her marital relations she is an adult, but a foreigner; but her real place in society is defined in terms of her position among her "co-affines," i.e., those with whom she is linked by common marital ties. A Beti village is the material manifestation of the "house of people," which is composed of a headman, his same-womb brothers, his mother's house's junior co-wives' sons, and his unmarried same-womb sisters and daughters. The house of people's women's children are classified as "of same father." Within the "same father house of people" are a series of matrifocal houses, which form the basis of new domestic units when the headman dies and the mens' house is dismantled. A new house of people is formed with son as headman and mother as "hindwoman." Thus, although the Beti are patrilineal, a man's house of people proceeds from his mother's house, but whether or not a woman becomes a "hindwoman" depends on her sons-in-law's bridewealth payments, which enable her to have daughters-in-law. A woman's becoming a "hindwoman" and originator of a new domestic unit depends on both her mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relation and her mother-in-law/son-in-law relation. Thus in the domestic organization of the village, the making of a woman's place determines the making of a man's. On the level of the lineage system, an analogous process takes place. The Beti are divided into about 100 exogamous, patrilineal, patrilocal clans, each consisting of up to 4 levels of patrilineages, designated by the names of their eponymous female ancestors. Descent is determined by recruitment and alignment. Recruitment proceeds from the matrimonial ties to the mother's husband's group or (in the absence of bridewealth) to her father's group. Alignment is founded on ritual food distribution and operates through co-affinal links between women. On the level of lineage organization a woman's place is determined by a succession of mother-in-law/daughter-in-law ties. The woman's place in Beti society is thus defined by both the static domestic structure and by the dynamic supra-domestic lineage syste.

Genetics, biomarkers, hereditary cancer syndrome diagnosis, heterogeneity and treatment: a review.

PubMed

Lynch, Henry T; Drescher, Kristen; Knezetic, Joseph; Lanspa, Stephen

2014-09-01

Molecular genetic pathways that drive the phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity of hereditary colorectal cancer also can affect response to chemotherapy and chemoprevention. These mutations also can alter patients' response to therapy. Environmental differences can affect this highly complex conundrum. We will use Lynch syndrome as a model to explore this issue. However, to begin with, after more than a century of documentation, we must ask what is meant by the eponym "Lynch syndrome". Germline mutations may act as drivers of chemoprevention and chemotherapy and therein may act positively or conversely they may have a negative effect in terms of inhibiting the inactivation of cancer-causing germline mutations. A relatively new field of hereditary cancer therapeutics has significantly impacted cancer care, from the standpoint of the sensitivity or resistance to a particular form of chemotherapy and/or chemoprevention. The question for the diagnostician and therapist must always concern what is the best possible management approach for the patient, particularly when he or she harbors a cancer-causing germline mutation, which, in this case, causes Lynch syndrome. Continued molecular genetic research might yield a more tailored effective treatment for Lynch syndrome. The ultimate goal of such hereditary oncologic research is to better understand the mutation's therapeutic task, namely, its potential to benefit the patient in terms of its treatment goal, thereby fulfilling the essence of personalized medicine. However, this goal may be exceedingly complicated. For example, in the natural clinical and molecular genetic history of hereditary forms of cancer, there will be a predominance of early-onset cancers of multiple anatomic sites. In our Lynch syndrome model, these will be most commonly colorectal, endometrial, and ovarian cancer. Attention must initially be focused upon cancer's early age of onset coupled with the tendency to multiple primary cancers so that, in the case of CRC, colonoscopic screening must be initiated by age 20-25 years and repeated every other year until age 40 years and then annually thereafter. However, screening will be of limited efficacy in the gynecologic cancers (endometrial and ovarian) so that once the family is completed, particularly by age 35-40 years, careful attention must be given to the option of prophylactic hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. Given issues of tumor heterogeneity, selected Lynch syndrome families may show an excess of urologic cancers or cancers of the small bowel, and highly targeted screening should be given serious consideration for these as well as cancers of other anatomic sites in such high-risk, cancer-prone patients.

A comparison between probability and information measures of uncertainty in a simulated soil map and the economic value of imperfect soil information.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lark, R. Murray

2014-05-01

Conventionally the uncertainty of a conventional soil map has been expressed in terms of the mean purity of its map units: the probability that the soil profile class examined at a site would be found to correspond to the eponymous class of the simple map unit that is delineated there (Burrough et al, 1971). This measure of uncertainty has an intuitive meaning and is used for quality control in soil survey contracts (Western, 1978). However, it may be of limited value to the manager or policy maker who wants to decide whether the map provides a basis for decision making, and whether the cost of producing a better map would be justified. In this study I extend a published analysis of the economic implications of uncertainty in a soil map (Giasson et al., 2000). A decision analysis was developed to assess the economic value of imperfect soil map information for agricultural land use planning. Random error matrices for the soil map units were then generated, subject to constraints which ensure consistency with fixed frequencies of the different soil classes. For each error matrix the mean map unit purity was computed, and the value of the implied imperfect soil information was computed by the decision analysis. An alternative measure of the uncertainty in a soil map was considered. This is the mean soil map information which is the difference between the information content of a soil observation, at a random location in the region, and the information content of a soil observation given that the map unit is known. I examined the relationship between the value of imperfect soil information and the purity and information measures of map uncertainty. In both cases there was considerable variation in the economic value of possible maps with fixed values of the uncertainty measure. However, the correlation was somewhat stronger with the information measure, and there was a clear upper bound on the value of an imperfect soil map when the mean information takes some particular value. This suggests that the information measure may be a useful one for general communication of the value of soil and similar thematic data. Burrough, P.A., Beckett, P.H.T., Jarvis, M.G., 1971. The relation between cost and utility in soil survey. J. Soil Sci. 22, 359-394. Giasson, E., van Es, C, van Wambeke, A., Bryant, R.B. 2000. Assessing the economic value of soil information using decision analysis techniques. Soil Science 165, 971-978 Western, S., 1978. Soil survey contracts and quality control. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.

Geologic map of Three Sisters volcanic cluster, Cascade Range, Oregon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hildreth, Wes; Fierstein, Judy; Calvert, Andrew T.

2012-01-01

The cluster of glaciated stratovolcanoes called the Three Sisters—South Sister, Middle Sister, and North Sister—forms a spectacular 20-km-long reach along the crest of the Cascade Range in Oregon. The three eponymous stratocones, though contiguous and conventionally lumped sororally, could hardly display less family resemblance. North Sister (10,085 ft), a monotonously mafic edifice at least as old as 120 ka, is a glacially ravaged stratocone that consists of hundreds of thin rubbly lava flows and intercalated falls that dip radially and steeply; remnants of two thick lava flows cap its summit. Middle Sister (10,047 ft), an andesite-basalt-dacite cone built between 48 and 14 ka, is capped by a thick stack of radially dipping, dark-gray, thin mafic lava flows; asymmetrically glaciated, its nearly intact west flank contrasts sharply with its steep east face. Snow and ice-filled South Sister is a bimodal rhyolitic-intermediate edifice that was constructed between 50 ka and 2 ka; its crater (rim at 10,358 ft) was created between 30 and 22 ka, during the most recent of several explosive summit eruptions; the thin oxidized agglutinate that mantles its current crater rim protects a 150-m-thick pyroclastic sequence that helped fill a much larger crater. For each of the three, the eruptive volume is likely to have been in the range of 15 to 25 km³, but such estimates are fairly uncertain, owing to glacial erosion. The map area consists exclusively of Quaternary volcanic rocks and derivative surficial deposits. Although most of the area has been modified by glaciation, the volcanoes are young enough that the landforms remain largely constructional. Furthermore, twelve of the 145 eruptive units on the map are postglacial, younger than the deglaciation that was underway by about 17 ka. The most recent eruptions were of rhyolite near South Sister, about 2,000 years ago, and of mafic magma near McKenzie Pass, about 1,500 years ago. As observed by trailblazing volcanologist, Howel Williams, "For magnificence of glacial scenery, for wealth of recent lavas, and for graphic examples of dissected volcanoes, no part of this range surpasses the area embracing the Sisters and McKenzie Pass." Scientific and journalistic interest in the Three Sisters volcanic cluster was aroused a few years ago when ongoing uplift centered about 5 km west of South Sister was identified, first recognized by satellite imagery in 2001. Subsequent geodetic measurements and continuing satellite imagery analysis confirmed 3 to 4 cm/yr uplift during the interval from 1997 to 2004; the uplift has been modelled as inflation thought to be caused by an intracrustal intrusion, largely aseismic and plausibly involving mafic magma.

Geodiversity Hotspots: A Proposed Conceptual and Methodological Framework for Defining Geoconservation Priorities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bétard, François

2016-04-01

For two decades, geoconservation has been driven by the need to conserve geodiversity considering its values or most valuable elements (i.e. geoheritage) facing the internal or external threats to it, mainly associated with human activities causing damages or irreversible destruction of sites. One main difficulty arises in how geoconservation priorities can objectively be identified at larger scales (e.g., state or region levels). Inspired by experiences in biological conservation, I propose a new conceptual and methodological framework for the identification of geoconservation priorities by theorizing and applying the concept of "geodiversity hotspot". Drawing an obvious parallel with the "biodiversity hotspot" concept first introduced in 1988 by the British ecologist Norman Myers, geodiversity hotspots are here defined as geographic areas that harbour very high levels of geodiversity while being threatened by human activities. From a methodological viewpoint, a basic analytical procedure is proposed to map geodiversity hotspots at a national or regional scale, that can be used as a tool to support decision-making and land-use planning. The method is based on the numerical processing and mapping of two indices: geodiversity index and degree of potential threat. The geodiversity index is calculated using a GIS environment as the sum of four sub-indexes representing the main components of geodiversity, i.e. geological diversity (rocks, minerals, fossils), geomorphodiversity (topography and landforms), pedodiversity (soils and palaeosoils) and hydrodiversity (rivers, lakes, springs…). The degree of potential threat is a graduated scale inversely proportional to the level of protection, from high degree of potential threat in areas without any protection status to low degree of potential threat in areas with high protection level (e.g., national parks, nature reserves). The mapping and delineation of geodiversity hotspots can automatically be obtained from a combination of the two main criteria, i.e. in areas where high geodiversity indexes meet with high degree of potential threat. This area-based approach is discussed along with the risk of neglecting some areas such as "geodiversity coldspots" which may have other types of conservation value. Selected examples from Northeastern Brazil, with a special focus on the Araripe Basin geodiversity hotspot including the eponymous UNESCO Geopark, concretely showcase the conceptual and methodological framework proposed above. Such an example also illustrates the spatial congruence that often exists between geodiversity hotspots and biodiversity hotspots, in a region where very high levels of geodiversity overlap exceptional concentrations of endemic species and present-day biodiversity (Atlantic Forest and savanna-like Cerrado biomes). These observations reinforce the need to assess geodiversity not only for itself, but also to support biodiversity research and actions programs, and should encourage researchers and practitioners to develop more integrated approaches to nature conservation and sustainable land management.

Mixed vascular nevus syndrome: a report of four new cases and a literature review.

PubMed

Ruggieri, Martino; Polizzi, Agata; Strano, Serena; Schepis, Carmelo; Morano, Massimiliano; Belfiore, Giuseppe; Palmucci, Stefano; Foti, Pietro Valerio; Pirrone, Concetta; Sofia, Vito; David, Emanuele; Salpietro, Vincenzo; Mankad, Kshitij; Milone, Pietro

2016-10-01

Mixed vascular nevus (or nevus vascularis mixtus) represents an admixture of cutaneous vascular malformations of the telangiectatic type and angiospastic spots of nevus anemicus. It can occur as an purely cutaneous trait or as a hallmark of a neurocutaneous phenotype (mixed vascular nevus syndrome) characterised by the combination of: (I) paired vascular (telangiectatic and anemic) twin nevi and brain abnormalities of the Dyke-Davidoff-Masson type (i.e., crossed cerebral/cerebellar hemiatrophy with hypoplasia of the ipsilateral cerebral vessels and homolateral hypertrophy of the skull and sinuses (hyperpneumatisation) with contralateral hemispheric hypertrophy); or (II) paired vascular twin nevi and brain malformations of the Dyke-Davidoff-Masson type in association with systemic abnormalities consisting in facial asymmetry, skeletal anomalies (i.e., Legg-Calvé-Perthes-like disease) and disorders of autoimmunity (i.e., diabetes, thyroiditis). In 2014, Happle proposed to name the syndrome with the eponym Ruggieri-Leech syndrome. Review of the existing literature on nevus vascularis mixtus and information on our personal experience on new cases and follow-up of previously reported cases by some of us. The existing literature revealed 4 previous studies including 33 cases with an inferred purely cutaneous trait and 3 cases with a combination of paired vascular twin nevi and brain malformation of the Dyke-Davidoff-Masson type. Our personal experience includes 4 unpublished patients (1 female and 3 males; currently aged 2 to 34 years) seen and followed-up at our Institutions in Italy who had: paired vascular nevi involving either the face (n=2) or the face and parts of the body (n=2); facial asymmetry (n=4); mild to moderate facial dysmorphic features (n=2); developmental delay (n=3); seizures/stroke-like episodes and associated hemiplegia (n=4); muscular hypotrophy (n=2); mild to moderate hemispheric atrophy (n=4); skull osseous hypertrophy (n=4); hyperpneumatisation of the sinuses (n=2); hypoplastic brain vessels (n=4); colpocephaly and malformation of cortical development (n=2). Follow-up data on our previous 2 cases revealed that the vascular abnormalities in the skin and nervous system were stable over years without neurological progression or deterioration. Pathogenically, this complex phenotype suggests that embryonic pairing and somatic recombination of recessive (didymotic) alleles controlling the balance between constriction (i.e., nevus anemicus) and dilatation (i.e., nevus telangiectaticus) of blood vessels could be the primary event causing the phenomena of cutaneous and brain vascular twin spotting and the paired phenomena of skull hyperpneumatisation vs . hypertrophy and brain megalencephaly/colpocephaly vs . cortical dysplasia. This association is likely more frequent than previously thought and should be investigated by means of: (I) brain and spinal cord imaging (combination of CT and MRI studies); (II) skeletal X-ray studies (when dictated by clinical findings); (III) systemic ultrasound studies; (IV) neurophysiologic studies (EEG); (V) psychomotor testing; (VI) and laboratory investigation (including immune-mediated dysfunction).

Ozymandias in the Anthropocene: A conceptual framework for the city as an emerging landform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dixon, Simon; Viles, Heather; Garrett, Bradley

2017-04-01

The Anthropocene is a topic receiving much attention in the geomorphological community, as well as in wider scientific and public spheres. The application of the Anthropocene as a theoretical framework within geomorphology has so far had a clear anthropogenic focus; considering how human activities are affecting geomorphological processes and shaping the natural environment. An area which has so far not received attention is how fundamental geomorphological processes interact to alter, shape and potentially destroy anthropogenic infrastructure and urban landscapes. In some cases these processes can lead to emergent urban geohazards (e.g. "sinkholes"), and damage to urban infrastructure; additionally, they may also lead to the development of unique Anthropocene geomorphological forms. There is therefore a need to develop a conceptual framework for how earth science principles can be integrated with a broad spectrum of research areas, including archaeology, social science and geology, to underpin future field studies. The number of people living in cities already outnumbers those who do not and the urban population and urban extent is expected to continue to grow. Within this landscape there is a theoretical justification for identifying the formation of pseudokarst within the urban fabric, including the formation of urban stalactites and urban sinkholes. Additionally, both the chronic and acute degradation of urban buildings can form rubble and dust which if left in situ will be shaped by fluvial and aeolian processes. For many of these urban geomorphological processes the neglect or abandonment of parts of the urban network will facilitate or accelerate their influence. If there are economic, climatic or social reasons for abandonment or neglect these processes are likely to reshape parts of the urban fabric into unique landforms at a range of scales. We consider examples of; urban stalactite formation on bridges and within subterranean tunnels, the formation of urban regolith deposits as a result of building collapse, and the formation of sinkholes in made-earth underlying asphalt as potential case studies of unique Anthropocene urban geomorphologies. We make links with previous abandoned structures and civilisations and suggest that by understanding how geomorphological processes act upon the built environment in the present day important insights can be gained for archaeological studies. We suggest abandoned or neglected areas which may be ripe for case study work such as Chernobyl, the tunnels beneath London, and the US "rust belt". To fully investigate Anthropocene urban geomorphologies will require a flexible and broad conceptual framework encompassing true interdisciplinary work including: geomorphologists, geologists, karst scientists, civil engineers, archaeologists and social scientists. We suggest that without explicitly considering these phenomena in the urban environment there is a risk of making the mistakes of Shelley's "Ozymandias", in which the eponymous king failed to account for the impact of geomorphology on the fabric of his (now long fallen) empire.

Mixed vascular nevus syndrome: a report of four new cases and a literature review

PubMed Central

Polizzi, Agata; Strano, Serena; Schepis, Carmelo; Morano, Massimiliano; Belfiore, Giuseppe; Palmucci, Stefano; Foti, Pietro Valerio; Pirrone, Concetta; Sofia, Vito; David, Emanuele; Salpietro, Vincenzo; Mankad, Kshitij; Milone, Pietro

2016-01-01

Background Mixed vascular nevus (or nevus vascularis mixtus) represents an admixture of cutaneous vascular malformations of the telangiectatic type and angiospastic spots of nevus anemicus. It can occur as an purely cutaneous trait or as a hallmark of a neurocutaneous phenotype (mixed vascular nevus syndrome) characterised by the combination of: (I) paired vascular (telangiectatic and anemic) twin nevi and brain abnormalities of the Dyke-Davidoff-Masson type (i.e., crossed cerebral/cerebellar hemiatrophy with hypoplasia of the ipsilateral cerebral vessels and homolateral hypertrophy of the skull and sinuses (hyperpneumatisation) with contralateral hemispheric hypertrophy); or (II) paired vascular twin nevi and brain malformations of the Dyke-Davidoff-Masson type in association with systemic abnormalities consisting in facial asymmetry, skeletal anomalies (i.e., Legg-Calvé-Perthes-like disease) and disorders of autoimmunity (i.e., diabetes, thyroiditis). In 2014, Happle proposed to name the syndrome with the eponym Ruggieri-Leech syndrome. Methods Review of the existing literature on nevus vascularis mixtus and information on our personal experience on new cases and follow-up of previously reported cases by some of us. Results The existing literature revealed 4 previous studies including 33 cases with an inferred purely cutaneous trait and 3 cases with a combination of paired vascular twin nevi and brain malformation of the Dyke-Davidoff-Masson type. Our personal experience includes 4 unpublished patients (1 female and 3 males; currently aged 2 to 34 years) seen and followed-up at our Institutions in Italy who had: paired vascular nevi involving either the face (n=2) or the face and parts of the body (n=2); facial asymmetry (n=4); mild to moderate facial dysmorphic features (n=2); developmental delay (n=3); seizures/stroke-like episodes and associated hemiplegia (n=4); muscular hypotrophy (n=2); mild to moderate hemispheric atrophy (n=4); skull osseous hypertrophy (n=4); hyperpneumatisation of the sinuses (n=2); hypoplastic brain vessels (n=4); colpocephaly and malformation of cortical development (n=2). Follow-up data on our previous 2 cases revealed that the vascular abnormalities in the skin and nervous system were stable over years without neurological progression or deterioration. Conclusions Pathogenically, this complex phenotype suggests that embryonic pairing and somatic recombination of recessive (didymotic) alleles controlling the balance between constriction (i.e., nevus anemicus) and dilatation (i.e., nevus telangiectaticus) of blood vessels could be the primary event causing the phenomena of cutaneous and brain vascular twin spotting and the paired phenomena of skull hyperpneumatisation vs. hypertrophy and brain megalencephaly/colpocephaly vs. cortical dysplasia. This association is likely more frequent than previously thought and should be investigated by means of: (I) brain and spinal cord imaging (combination of CT and MRI studies); (II) skeletal X-ray studies (when dictated by clinical findings); (III) systemic ultrasound studies; (IV) neurophysiologic studies (EEG); (V) psychomotor testing; (VI) and laboratory investigation (including immune-mediated dysfunction). PMID:27942471

Million-year melt-presence in monotonous intermediate magma for a volcanic-plutonic assemblage in the Central Andes: Contrasting histories of crystal-rich and crystal-poor super-sized silicic magmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaiser, Jason F.; de Silva, Shanaka; Schmitt, Axel K.; Economos, Rita; Sunagua, Mayel

2017-01-01

The melt-present lifetime of super-sized monotonous intermediate magmas that feed supereruptions and end life as granodioritic plutons is investigated using zircon chronochemistry. These data add to the ongoing discussion on magma assembly rates and have implications for how continental batholiths are built. Herein, we estimate ∼1.1 Ma of continuous melt presence before and after the climactic caldera-forming 2.89 ± 0.01 Ma (2σ error) Pastos Grandes Ignimbrite (PGI) supereruption (∼1500 km3 of magma) in the Andes of southwest Bolivia. Zircon crystallization in PGI pumice and lava from the faulted Southern Postcaldera Dome span ∼0.7 Ma prior to the climactic eruption and formation of the eponymous caldera, whereas younger, unfaulted Postcaldera Dome lavas (termed Northern and Middle) and a granodioritic plutonic clast within the products of a Pleistocene eruption indicate a further ∼0.4 Ma of post-climactic zircon crystallization. Bulk-rock compositions as well as zircon thermometry and geochemistry indicate the presence of homogeneous dacitic magma before and after the climactic eruption, but a trend to zircon crystallization at higher temperatures and from less evolved melts is seen for post-climactic zircon. We propose a model in which a large volume of crystal-rich dacite magma was maintained above solidus temperatures by periodic andesitic recharge that is chemically invisible in the erupted components. The climactic caldera-forming eruption vented the upper portions of the magma system zircon was saturated. Zircon in postcaldera lavas indicate that residual magma from this system remained locally viable for eruption at least for some time after the caldera-forming event. Subsequently, deeper "remnant" dacite magma previously outside the zone of zircon saturation rose to shallower levels to re-establish hydraulic and isostatic equilibrium where zircon crystallization commenced anew, and drove more resurgent volcanism and uplift. The same magma crystallized as a granodiorite pluton which was sampled as xenoliths in much later volcanic events. Over the ∼1.1 Ma zircon crystallization history for the PGI, postcaldera lavas and xenoliths, the melt remained in an ∼100-150 °C temperature window as indicated by Ti-in-zircon thermometry. Although chemical trends are consistent with zircon crystallization at variable temperatures, there is no secular cooling, but rather a thermal rejuvenation following the 2.89 Ma PGI eruption. As such these data provide a "low and slow" temporal constraint for models for the pre-eruptive lifetimes of mushy magma in contrast to the "rapid" mobilization of crystal-poor silicic magmas, consistent with a model where the latter are incubated within the former and extracted rapidly prior to eruption. The thermal and chemical monotony of crystal-rich dacites throughout a caldera cycle connotes conditions where near-eutectic melt can be maintained in near-surface magma reservoirs for an extended period of time if the subvolcanic magma reservoir is sufficiently large so that hotter and initially zircon-undersaturated magma can replenish shallow magma vented in a supereruption.

Integrating geophysical and archaeological data for knowledge and management of the Historical Heritage. The case of the medieval church at Vereto (Apulia, Italy)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Congedo, F.; Pepe, P.; Sammarco, M.; Parise, M.

2009-04-01

The native settlement of Vereto lies at the top of a small calcareous hill near the Adriatic coast, in the southernmost part of the Salento Peninsula of Apulia region (southern Italy). Recent topographical and aero-topographical surveys carried out in the ‘urban' area and in a wide sector of the surrounding territory, integrated by a thorough research of the literary and archival sources, allowed to define the long human occupation of the site between Bronze Age and the late Middle Age, and to focus the important role it played for many centuries, due to both vicinity to a commercial port and a coastal sanctuary, and its connection with the ancient road network. Within the framework of a research project by the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Salento University, the regional Archaeological Superintendence and the local Administration, detailed analyses of the ancient settlement and of its most significant structures (city-walls, cisterns, private buildings) have been started. The attention was focused particularly on the 500th century religious building located at the hilltop and dedicated to the eponymous Holy Virgin. Here two different methods of investigation have been used. The first level of knowledge consists in geophysical surveys, that included georadar (GPR) and geoelectrical prospections. Georadar data were acquired using GSSI SIR 20 with 2 antenna simultaneously mounted on the same cart. The choice of array was determined to get a very good resolution (up to 1 meter) using an high frequency antenna (900Mhz) and to increase the investigation depth (up to 3 meters) with the medium frequency antenna (400Mhz). Data were acquired both inside and outside the religious building along two orthogonal direction (lines spaced 0.5 m), processed using Radan 6.5 software, and eventually were represented as georadar profiles and 3D time-slices and 3D volumes in order to show the distribution of anomalies with depth. To get information at higher depth, to identify possible presence of conductive body and to compare radar data with another geophysical method, 2D geoelectrical survey were conducted outside the religious building. Data were acquired with dipole-dipole array, using Syscal Pro R10 georesistivimeter by means of 24 electrodes. The survey has been very effective in determining a semicircular anomaly outside the religious building, and some linear structures, correlated to buried walls, inside and outside of it. The processed geophysical data were very useful in guiding the second methodology of study, based on archaeological excavation of the most interesting sites of the ancient site of Vereto. These were carried out in 2005, aimed at looking for new data about the organization of the ancient town, and at creating a touristic archaeological route among the best preserved remains. Two of these tests were carried out in the surroundings of the Holy Virgin church. Results from these excavations include the findings of many well preserved structures, at depth of a few centimetres below the ground level. These walls are likely related to two buildings, older (at least 11th century) than the still standing church. As for their size, the oldest building is the largest. They had a well preserved big apse behind the rear wall of the church. Some traces of a fresco paintings were also found on some blocks still in situ.

WE-G-213-02: The AAPM Award Eponyms: William D. Coolidge, Edith H. Quimby, and Marvin M.D. Williams - Who Were They and What Did They Do?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rothenberg, L.

Roentgen and the Birth of Modern Medical Physics – Perry Sprawls Wilhelm Roentgen is well known for his discovery of x-radiation. What is less known and appreciated is his intensive research following the discovery to determine the characteristics of the “new kind of radiation” and demonstrate its great value for medical purposes. In this presentation we will imagine ourselves in Roentgen’s mind and follow his thinking, including questions and doubts, as he designs and conducts a series of innovative experiments that provided the foundation for the rapid growth of medical physics. Learning Objectives: Become familiar with the personal characteristics andmore » work of Prof. Roentgen that establishes him as an inspiring model for the medical physics profession. Observe the thought process and experiments that determined and demonstrated the comprehensive characteristics of x-radiation. The AAPM Award Eponyms: William D. Coolidge, Edith H. Quimby, and Marvin M.D. Williams - Who were they and what did they do? – Lawrence N. Rothenberg William David Coolidge (1873–1975) William Coolidge was born in Hudson, NY in 1873. He obtained his BS at the Massacusetts Institute of Technology in 1896. Coolidge then went to the University of Leipzig, Germany for graduate study with physicists Paul Drude and Gustave Wiedemann and received a Ph.D. in 1899. While in Germany he met Wilhelm Roentgen. Coolidge returned to the US to teach at MIT where he was associated with Arthur A. Noyes of the Chemistry Department, working on the electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions. Willis R. Whitney, under whom Coolidge had worked before going to Germany, became head of the newly formed General Electric Research Laboratory and he invited Coolidge to work with him. In 1905, Coolidge joined the staff of the GE laboratory and was associated with it for the remainder of his life. He developed ductile tungsten filaments to replace fragile carbon filaments as the material for electric light bulb filaments. Until that innovation light bulbs had a notoriously short life. He later incorporated the ductile tungsten as a filament material for a hot cathode, fully evacuated x-ray tube, first described in 1912, which allowed higher current and x-ray output, and greater reliability than had previously been possible. These “Coolidge x-ray tubes” were far superior to the cold cathode, partial pressure gas x-ray tubes that had been in use since Roentgen’s discovery of x-rays in 1895. The Coolidge tube with incremental developments is now the key component for x-ray production in all of our modern x-ray imaging devices, such as CT scanners, interventional radiology systems, and mammography units. Coolidge was also involved in the development of sectional x-ray tubes for research and treatment that were initially designed to reach 800 kV. Additional improvements led to 1 MV and 2 MV devices. In 1932 Coolidge became director of the General Electric Research Laboratory, and in 1940, was made Vice-President and Director of Research. In 1945 he retired and was named Director Emeritus of the laboratory. Coolidge held 83 patents and was recognized for these and many other achievements by election to the National Academy of Engineers, a place in the Engineering Hall of Fame and the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. The AAPM’s highest honor, the Coolidge Award, was named after him. He accepted Honorary Membership in the AAPM and was the first recipient of the AAPM Coolidge Award, which was presented to him in a special ceremony in Schenectady, NY in 1972 when he was 100 years old. Edith Hinckley Quimby (1891–1982) Edith Quimby was born in Rockford, IL in 1891. She graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA with a B.S. in 1913, and then obtained a masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Later in her career, after many significant achievements, Quimby was awarded honorary doctorates by Whitman College and Rutgers University. Edith Quimby was hired by Giacchino Failla as a radiation physicist at Memorial Hospital for Cancer in New York City. Failla had studied with Madame Curie and obtained his doctoral degree in her laboratory. After many groundbreaking medical physics studies from 1919 until 1942, they both moved to Columbia University. Dr. Quimby developed a widely employed dosimetry system for single plane implants with radium and radon seeds, and a dosimetry methodology for internal radionuclides. She was author of more than 75 scientific publications, and of significant textbooks including the first comprehensive physics textbook for radiologists “Physical Foundations of Radiology”, which was co-authored with Otto Glasser, Lauriston Taylor and James Weatherwax in the first edition, with Russell Morgan added for the second edition and Paul Goodwin for the fourth edition. With Sergei Feitelberg, M.D. she published two editions of “Radioactive Isotopes in Medicine and Biology: Basic Physics and Instrumentation”. Quimby became a renowned examiner for the American Board of Radiology when the third ABR examination, given in 1936, added physics. She served as President of the American Radium Society, received the RSNA Gold Medal, and also numerous prestigious awards given to women in science. Edith Quimby was a Charter Member of AAPM. The AAPM Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed the Edith H. Quimby Lifetime Achievement Award in her honor in 2011. Marvin Martin Dixon Williams (1902–1981) Marvin Williams was born in Walla Walla, WA in 1902, and attended the same college as Edith Quimby, graduating from Whitman College in 1926. He was greatly influenced to go into medical physics by her accomplishments. During his early career, Williams worked with James Weatherwax in Philadelphia while he was working toward an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1931 Williams was awarded a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Minnesota, with the work actually performed at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of the University. While completing his Ph.D. studies, Marvin met Dr. Paul Hodges who had returned from the Peiping Union Medical College in Peiping (now Beijing), China. Hodges suggested that a physicist be sent to Peiping to install x-ray therapy equipment and a radon plant. Williams accepted the position and, in 1931, he and his wife Orpha left for China. Before going to China, Williams had spent time with the physics group at Memorial Hospital to learn about the operation of a radon plant. In China, he constructed the radon plant, employing 0.25 g of radium, and also installed the x-ray therapy unit. Williams and his wife returned to the US in 1935, and he accepted a research position at the Mayo Clinic. In 1950, he became Professor of Biophysics at Mayo, where he taught physics and biophysics until his retirement in 1967. Williams was also very active in the American Board of Radiology where, from 1944 through 1977, he examined over 3000 radiologists and 250 physicists. Marvin Williams was a Charter member of AAPM, served as the fourth President of AAPM in 1963, and was the fourth recipient the AAPM Coolidge Award in 1975. The Marvin Williams Award was originally established as the highest award of the American College of Medical Physics. When various functions of the ACMP were absorbed into the AAPM in 2012, the Marvin M D Williams Professional Achievement Award became one of the AAPM’s highest honors. Learning Objectives: Become familiar with the persons in whose honor the three major AAPM Award are named Learn about the achievements and activities which influenced the AAPM to name these awards in their honor.« less

WE-G-213-00: History Symposium: Radiological Physics Pioneers: Roentgen and the AAPM Award Eponyms - William Coolidge, Edith Quimby, and Marvin Williams - Who Were They and What Did They Do?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

Roentgen and the Birth of Modern Medical Physics – Perry Sprawls Wilhelm Roentgen is well known for his discovery of x-radiation. What is less known and appreciated is his intensive research following the discovery to determine the characteristics of the “new kind of radiation” and demonstrate its great value for medical purposes. In this presentation we will imagine ourselves in Roentgen’s mind and follow his thinking, including questions and doubts, as he designs and conducts a series of innovative experiments that provided the foundation for the rapid growth of medical physics. Learning Objectives: Become familiar with the personal characteristics andmore » work of Prof. Roentgen that establishes him as an inspiring model for the medical physics profession. Observe the thought process and experiments that determined and demonstrated the comprehensive characteristics of x-radiation. The AAPM Award Eponyms: William D. Coolidge, Edith H. Quimby, and Marvin M.D. Williams - Who were they and what did they do? – Lawrence N. Rothenberg William David Coolidge (1873–1975) William Coolidge was born in Hudson, NY in 1873. He obtained his BS at the Massacusetts Institute of Technology in 1896. Coolidge then went to the University of Leipzig, Germany for graduate study with physicists Paul Drude and Gustave Wiedemann and received a Ph.D. in 1899. While in Germany he met Wilhelm Roentgen. Coolidge returned to the US to teach at MIT where he was associated with Arthur A. Noyes of the Chemistry Department, working on the electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions. Willis R. Whitney, under whom Coolidge had worked before going to Germany, became head of the newly formed General Electric Research Laboratory and he invited Coolidge to work with him. In 1905, Coolidge joined the staff of the GE laboratory and was associated with it for the remainder of his life. He developed ductile tungsten filaments to replace fragile carbon filaments as the material for electric light bulb filaments. Until that innovation light bulbs had a notoriously short life. He later incorporated the ductile tungsten as a filament material for a hot cathode, fully evacuated x-ray tube, first described in 1912, which allowed higher current and x-ray output, and greater reliability than had previously been possible. These “Coolidge x-ray tubes” were far superior to the cold cathode, partial pressure gas x-ray tubes that had been in use since Roentgen’s discovery of x-rays in 1895. The Coolidge tube with incremental developments is now the key component for x-ray production in all of our modern x-ray imaging devices, such as CT scanners, interventional radiology systems, and mammography units. Coolidge was also involved in the development of sectional x-ray tubes for research and treatment that were initially designed to reach 800 kV. Additional improvements led to 1 MV and 2 MV devices. In 1932 Coolidge became director of the General Electric Research Laboratory, and in 1940, was made Vice-President and Director of Research. In 1945 he retired and was named Director Emeritus of the laboratory. Coolidge held 83 patents and was recognized for these and many other achievements by election to the National Academy of Engineers, a place in the Engineering Hall of Fame and the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. The AAPM’s highest honor, the Coolidge Award, was named after him. He accepted Honorary Membership in the AAPM and was the first recipient of the AAPM Coolidge Award, which was presented to him in a special ceremony in Schenectady, NY in 1972 when he was 100 years old. Edith Hinckley Quimby (1891–1982) Edith Quimby was born in Rockford, IL in 1891. She graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA with a B.S. in 1913, and then obtained a masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Later in her career, after many significant achievements, Quimby was awarded honorary doctorates by Whitman College and Rutgers University. Edith Quimby was hired by Giacchino Failla as a radiation physicist at Memorial Hospital for Cancer in New York City. Failla had studied with Madame Curie and obtained his doctoral degree in her laboratory. After many groundbreaking medical physics studies from 1919 until 1942, they both moved to Columbia University. Dr. Quimby developed a widely employed dosimetry system for single plane implants with radium and radon seeds, and a dosimetry methodology for internal radionuclides. She was author of more than 75 scientific publications, and of significant textbooks including the first comprehensive physics textbook for radiologists “Physical Foundations of Radiology”, which was co-authored with Otto Glasser, Lauriston Taylor and James Weatherwax in the first edition, with Russell Morgan added for the second edition and Paul Goodwin for the fourth edition. With Sergei Feitelberg, M.D. she published two editions of “Radioactive Isotopes in Medicine and Biology: Basic Physics and Instrumentation”. Quimby became a renowned examiner for the American Board of Radiology when the third ABR examination, given in 1936, added physics. She served as President of the American Radium Society, received the RSNA Gold Medal, and also numerous prestigious awards given to women in science. Edith Quimby was a Charter Member of AAPM. The AAPM Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed the Edith H. Quimby Lifetime Achievement Award in her honor in 2011. Marvin Martin Dixon Williams (1902–1981) Marvin Williams was born in Walla Walla, WA in 1902, and attended the same college as Edith Quimby, graduating from Whitman College in 1926. He was greatly influenced to go into medical physics by her accomplishments. During his early career, Williams worked with James Weatherwax in Philadelphia while he was working toward an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1931 Williams was awarded a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Minnesota, with the work actually performed at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of the University. While completing his Ph.D. studies, Marvin met Dr. Paul Hodges who had returned from the Peiping Union Medical College in Peiping (now Beijing), China. Hodges suggested that a physicist be sent to Peiping to install x-ray therapy equipment and a radon plant. Williams accepted the position and, in 1931, he and his wife Orpha left for China. Before going to China, Williams had spent time with the physics group at Memorial Hospital to learn about the operation of a radon plant. In China, he constructed the radon plant, employing 0.25 g of radium, and also installed the x-ray therapy unit. Williams and his wife returned to the US in 1935, and he accepted a research position at the Mayo Clinic. In 1950, he became Professor of Biophysics at Mayo, where he taught physics and biophysics until his retirement in 1967. Williams was also very active in the American Board of Radiology where, from 1944 through 1977, he examined over 3000 radiologists and 250 physicists. Marvin Williams was a Charter member of AAPM, served as the fourth President of AAPM in 1963, and was the fourth recipient the AAPM Coolidge Award in 1975. The Marvin Williams Award was originally established as the highest award of the American College of Medical Physics. When various functions of the ACMP were absorbed into the AAPM in 2012, the Marvin M D Williams Professional Achievement Award became one of the AAPM’s highest honors. Learning Objectives: Become familiar with the persons in whose honor the three major AAPM Award are named Learn about the achievements and activities which influenced the AAPM to name these awards in their honor.« less

Experimental and petrological constraints on long-term magma dynamics and post-climactic eruptions at the Cerro Galán caldera system, NW Argentina

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grocke, Stephanie B.; Andrews, Benjamin J.; de Silva, Shanaka L.

2017-11-01

Cerro Galán in NW Argentina records > 3.5 Myr of magmatic evolution of a major resurgent caldera complex. Beginning at 5.72 Ma, nine rhyodacitic ignimbrites (68-71 wt% SiO2) with a combined minimum volume of > 1200 km3 (Dense Rock Equivalent; DRE) have been erupted. The youngest of those ignimbrites is the eponymous, geochemically homogenous, caldera-forming 2.08 ± 0.02 Ma Cerro Galán Ignimbrite (CGI; > 630 km3 DRE). Following this climactic supereruption, structural and magmatic resurgence led to the formation of a resurgent dome and post-climactic lava domes and their associated pyroclastic deposits. A clear transition from amphibole to sanidine-bearing magmas occurred during the evolution of Cerro Galán and is inferred to represent a shallowing of the magma system. We test this hypothesis here using experimental phase equilibria. We conducted a series of phase equilibria experiments on the post-climactic dome lithologies under H2O-saturated conditions using cold seal Waspaloy pressure vessels with an intrinsic log fO2 of NNO + 1 ± 0.5 across a temperature-pressure range of 750-900 °C and 50-200 MPa (PH2O = Ptotal), respectively. Petrologic and geochemical analysis of the post-climactic lithologies shows that the natural phase assemblage (plagioclase + quartz + biotite + sanidine + Fe-Ti oxides ± apatite ± zircon) is stable at < 50 MPa (PH2O) and 805-815 °C. Applying experimental results to the CGI pumice, which has the same phenocryst phase assemblage and modal abundance, whole rock and phenocryst chemistry, and overlapping temperature and fO2 as the post-climactic deposits, suggests that these pre-eruptive conditions (PH2O < 50 MPa) are relevant for the magmas that sourced the climactic CGI supereruption as well. Amphibole in the early Cerro Galán ignimbrites (Toconquis Group; 5.72-4.51 Ma, and the Cueva Negra Ignimbrite, 3.77 ± 0.08 Ma) records crystallization across a range of pressures (500 to 200 ± 60 MPa). In the interval between the eruption of the Cueva Negra ignimbrite and the CGI (2.08 ± 0.02 Ma) the complex magma system shallowed and stalled at low pressures (< 100 MPa), resulting in a more simple magma reservoir configuration represented by a large-volume, geochemically homogenous magma body. The shallowing of the Cerro Galán magma system during this time explains the marked transition from amphibole to sanidine-bearing magmas and seems to characterize many large silicic caldera-forming magma systems that erupt over million year timescales to generate long-lived volcanic complexes. The post-climactic history of Cerro Galán is informed through a detailed investigation of the textural differences among the post-climactic dome lithologies, and a comparison of those textures with previously published decompression experiments. These suggest that the highly vesiculated, pumiceous clasts with rare microlites represent magma stored within the core of the lava dome that decompressed relatively rapidly (0.003-0.0003 MPa s-1) and evolved via closed system degassing. Resulting over-pressure of the dome may have triggered superficial explosion. In contrast, dense clasts with abundant crystalline silica precipitates represent more typical dome-forming magmas that decompressed more slowly (< 0.00005 MPa s-1), evolved via open system degassing, and form the outer carapace of a lava dome. Integrating decompression histories with results from new phase equilibria experiments suggests that during post-climactic volcanic activity at Cerro Galán, remnant CGI dome-forming magmas ascended from the shallow magma reservoir (< 4 km) to motivate resurgent uplift and erupt as lava domes either explosively as vesiculated clasts or effusively as dense clasts that make up the outer structure of lava domes.

Arsenic and Old Mustard: Chemical Problems of Old Arsenical and 'Mustard' Munitions (Joseph F. Bunnett and Marian Mikotajczyk, Eds.)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garrett, Benjamin

1999-10-01

What do Knute Rockne, Notre Dame's famed football coach, and Lewisite, a chemical warfare agent dubbed "the dew of death", have in common? Both owe their discovery to Father Julius Arthur Nieuwland.1 Rockne's legacy lives on in the Fighting Irish and their tradition of excellence on the gridiron. Lewisite, together with other arsenical- and mustard-type chemical warfare agents, provide a legacy that lives on, too, but with less cheerful consequences. The book Arsenic and Old Mustard: Chemical Problems of Old Arsenical and 'Mustard' Munitions makes clear the challenges faced in dealing with those consequences. This book documents the proceedings of a workshop devoted to arsenical- and mustard-type chemical warfare agents and their associated munitions. The workshop, held in Poland in 1996, included nine lectures, eight posters, and three discussion groups; and the contents of all these are presented. Major support for the workshop came from the Scientific Affairs Division of NATO as part of on ongoing series of meetings, cooperative research projects, and related efforts dealing with problems leftover from the Cold War and, in the case of the arsenicals and mustards, from conflicts dating to World War I. These problems can be seen in contemporary accounts, including a January 1999 news report that the U.S. Department of Defense intends to survey Washington, DC, areas near both American University and the Catholic University of America (CUA), site of the original synthesis of Lewisite, for chemical warfare agents and other materials disposed at the end of World War I.2 The first nine chapters of the book present the workshop's lectures. Of these, readers interested in chemical weapon destruction might find especially useful the first chapter, in which Ron Mansley of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons presents a scholarly overview covering historical aspects of the arsenicals and mustards; their production and use; prospective destruction technologies; and international obligations attendant to the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force in 1997. Hermann Martens's presentation of German arsenical and mustard munitions and of technical approaches to their destruction is similarly detailed, thorough, and engaging. W. R. Cullen's chapter "Arsenic in the Environment" and Shigeru Maeda's chapter "Biotransformation of Arsenic in Freshwater Organisms" help place the problems associated with the arsenicals in their environmental context and, hence, should appeal to a large audiencenot merely those specialists dealing with chemical weapon destruction. The reports of the three discussion groupsYperite,3 Arsenicals, and Recovered Munitionsprovide useful summaries of current knowledge and needs for additional research. The Arsenicals report observes that "destruction of arsenical agents appears to have received little attention." This situation may change if searches in Washington, DC, should uncover caches of old arsenicals at CUA and, especially, when the governments of the People's Republic of China and Japan agree on funding for destruction of the chemical munitions Japan caused to be abandoned on what is now the territory of the PRC. A conservative estimate is that there are 2,000,000 of these abandoned munitions, most of them being arsenicals and mustards.4 Notes and References 1. Nieuwland (1878-1936) hired Rockne in 1914 as a chemistry instructor. According to Father Nieuwland, Rockne owed much of his prowess as one of the greatest coaches of all time to his training in chemistry, which taught him the method of reasoning (Ind. Eng. Chem. New Ed., April 20, 1931). W. Lee Lewis, Lewisite's eponym, credits Nieuwland's unpublished dissertation as the source for his 1918 synthesis (Lewis, W. L.; Perkins, G. A. The beta-Chlorovinyl Chloroarsines; Ind. Eng. Chem. 1923, 15, 290-295). Lewisite itself is actually the group of mono-, di-, and tri-substituted 2-chloroethenyl derivatives of arsenic(III) chloride. 2. Vogel, S. Search to Resume near AU for WWI Chemicals; Washington Post, January 24, 1999, page C01. 3. Yperite is a trivial name for sulfur mustard or bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide. The name honors Ypres, Belgium, where the Germans first used sulfur mustard as a chemical weapon on July 12, 1917. 4. Zhao, L. Two Scenes of Poisonous Shells Left Over by Japan in Dunhua, Jilin Province; presented at the Fifth International Symposium on Sino-Japan relations over the past 100 years, Changchun, PRC, September 23-29, 1998.

Social evolution in the Hallstatt--La Tène period.

PubMed

Smrcka, Václav

2009-01-01

On the archaeological finds, written reports and in the composition of the bone tissue, we can suppose that social evolution in Hallstatt--La Tène period proceeded through the three following stages. In the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt period) with funerary furnishings of barrows, seldom, also, of burial grounds, we can distinguish only two groups: a ruler and his court with women and servants. Elements of nomadic and pastoral traditions can be distinguished in the ruling stratum. The second class of people living in bondage has agricultural features. At this first stage of social evolution (approximately between the 7th and the 5th centuries B.C.), in the period of princes, we can distinguish only two social groups--the king (prince) with his court on one side and peasants on the other side. This social stratification determines access to land and, at the same time, ownership of mobile wealth--cattle. The elite accumulates wealth coming also from other sources, for example, in an eponymic locality it mines salt and controls its distribution, other elites of the Hallstatt society control key points of trade, in the first place the trade in amber, being the trade proper provided by foreign merchants. In an archaeological context there appear the settlements of the elite of the refugium. The second social stage with military democracy (in the 4th and the 3rd centuries B.C.) is characterised by several factors: 1st Cheaper weapons, due to their manufacture using products with ensured sources of raw material, 2nd overproduction of foodstuffs, 3rd increase of population. Access to the sources has a larger spectrum, this is why the social stratification of the structured unevenness in this period is taking the form of a pyramid. This social pyramid is confirmed by written reports and also appears in the funerary furnishings. Not only are the ruler and his "court" put in the graves, but also all the members of the clan. We suppose that the new social group of priests, who gained a high social prestige both in wartime and in peacetime, took part in this change of mentality and opinions. Due to the rich admission of the dietary elements Sr and Zn, we suppose that it could be garniture 600 in the burial grounds that represents this group. From the result it can be deduced at 5% significance level (p = 0.0519) that also the relations between the garnitures within the social stratification differ consistently with the region. When strontium content in social groups was statistically tested regardless of the region, differences are found at the 5% level of significance (p = 0.0402) between the group II (males with weapons, females with anklets and with 2 bracelets, 54 skeletons with mean content of 198 microg Sr/g of bone) and group IV (males without funerary furniture, children and exceptions, 31 skeletons with mean content of 154.9 microg Sr/g of bone). Also at statistical testing of lead content, regardless of the region, there are differences at the 5% level of significance between group II (48 skeletons with mean content 1.5 microg Pb/g of bone) and group IV (27 skeletons with mean content 0.47 microg Pb/g of bone). Regardless of region there is an apparent difference in consumption of the vegetal component of diet (strontium) and social marker (lead) between the richest elite group II and group IV covering the persons living in bondage on the level of slaves. The third phase of social evolution of the urban type is characterised by the evolution of oppida. Production is fully concentrated here. An oppidum is a market place formed by agricultural villages. Due to the change of the funerary rite towards cremation and the absence of burial grounds, the social structure can only be judged in a mediated manner by means of written reports. A large number of smaller tribal "kingdoms" are concentrated into several larger ones, comprising even several tribes, such as, for example at the king of the Boeotians and of the Taurisks Kritasir in Pannonia and Norik [1]. In these three phases, social evolution lasted for 6 to 7 centuries and headed towards the state system. It was interrupted by the migrations of the Celts and by external pressure from the Romans and the Germans.

The Physics and Chemistry of Oxygen-Rich Circumstellar Envelopes as Traced by Simple Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, Ka Tat

2018-04-01

The physics and chemistry of the circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) of evolved stars are not fully understood despite decades of research. This thesis addresses two issues in the study of the CSEs of oxygen-rich (O-rich) evolved stars. In the first project, the ammonia (NH3) chemistry of O-rich stars is investigated with multi-wavelength observations; in the second project, the extended atmosphere and inner wind of the archetypal asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star o Ceti (Mira) is studied with high-angular resolution observations. One of the long-standing mysteries in circumstellar chemistry is the perplexing overabundance of the NH3 molecule. NH3 in O-rich evolved stars has been found in much higher abundance, by several orders of magnitude, than that expected in equilibrium chemistry. Several mechanisms have been suggested in the literature to explain this high NH3 abundance, including shocks in the inner wind, photodissociation of nitrogen by interstellar ultraviolet radiation, and nitrogen enrichment in stellar nucleosynthesis; however, none of these suggestions can fully explain the abundances of NH3 and various other molecular species in the CSEs of O-rich stars. In order to investigate the distribution of NH3 in O-rich CSEs, observations of the spectral lines of NH3 from a diverse sample of evolved stars and in different wavelength regimes are necessary. In this thesis, the NH3 line emission and absorption from four O-rich stars are studied. These targets include the AGB star IK Tauri, the pre-planetary nebula OH 231.8+4.2, the red supergiant VY Canis Majoris, and the yellow hypergiant IRC +10420. The amount of NH3 observational data has increased drastically thanks to the recent advancement of instrumentation. Observations of NH3 rotational line emission at submillimetre/far-infrared wavelengths were possible with the Herschel Space Observatory (2009–2013). The new wideband correlator in the upgraded Karl G. Janksy Very Large Array (VLA) provided data of multiple radio inversion lines of NH3. Furthermore, mid-infrared absorption of NH3 has been observed by the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) for IK Tau and VY CMa. Full radiative transfer modelling including mid-infrared pumping to the first vibrationally excited state (v2=1) has been carried out to reproduce the observed emission and absorption spectra and to retrieve the NH3 abundances in the targets. It is found that the NH3 emission in the CSEs of the targets arises from localised spatial-kinematic structures in which the gas density may be higher than in the surrounding gas. Circumstellar shocks may contribute to, but cannot fully account for, the formation of the molecule. Besides circumstellar chemistry, our understanding of the dust formation and wind-driving mechanisms of oxygen-rich evolved stars is still incomplete. One of the obstacles in the past was the difficulty in imaging the dust condensation and wind acceleration zones due to the lack of high-angular resolution instruments. Thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which has the longest baseline of about 15 km, we are now able to produce high-fidelity images at unprecedented angular resolutions of tens of milliarcseconds (mas) in the (sub)millimetre regime. Such angular resolutions, which are comparable to the stellar radii of nearby objects, are necessary to understand the gas dynamics and chemical evolution in the pulsating atmosphere and dust formation zone of nearby AGB stars. The eponymous Mira-type long-period variable, o Cet, was observed as a Science Verification target during the first ALMA Long Baseline Campaign that took place in 2014. The observations produced images of the stellar radio photosphere and the molecular transitions of SiO and H2O at an angular resolution of about 30 mas near 220 GHz (1.3 mm). The millimetre stellar disc of o Cet was resolved and modelled. More importantly, this is the first time that molecular line absorption against the background stellar continuum has been clearly imaged in the (sub)millimetre wavelength regime. Through radiative transfer modelling of the SiO and H2O line absorption and emission, it is found that during the ALMA observations, the extended atmosphere of the star exhibited infall motions in general with a shock front of velocity

Book Review:

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trimble, Virginia

2007-05-01

Here are two textbooks, both published by Springer and each roughly half devoted to cosmology—the large scale structure and evolution of the Universe. I can imagine a context (not the same context) in which each would be useful. And there the similarities largely end. Bergstrom and Goobar's (hereafter B&G) other topic is particle astrophysics, and they are addressing students who already have some knowledge of advanced quantum mechanics and classical field theory (or who can master some relativistic dynamics and the Dirac equation on the basis of a couple of very information-dense appendices). The book is meant for use at the graduate level, probably the second year by US standards (the authors are from Stockholm). Schneider (hereafter PS), on the other hand, begins with galaxies, and then alternates between cosmological topics of gradually increasing sophistication (expanding universe to CMB fluctuations) and additional galactic topics—clusters, quasars and all. The book is meant as the second half of an introductory astronomy/astrophysics course for physics majors, and in the US would fit into an upper division `capstone' course. Each is meant for a single semester class at the target level, and might be squeezed into a 10-week term with elimination of some topics. B&G is a paperback of a second edition, with colour confined to a central block of plates, relatively few graphs and drawings, but lots of complex equations. PS is a hard cover translation from a German original, with colour used freely in astronomical images and graphs throughout, with fewer and less complex equations. Though the nominal difference in copyright date is only two years (2006 for PS, 2004 for B&G), the former is considerably more up to date, mentioning, for instance, that the third year WMAP results are not different enough from the first year to justify redoing drawings and such (I agree). What can you expect to get if you buy one or both of these? B&G have a homepage of error corrections. There are worked problems in the text and 2-15 problems at the ends of each of the 15 chapters (5 on average). I can do at least some of them. The list of references or suggestions for further reading is partly out of date and gives no indication of the levels of the books mentioned. The preface promises a list of outstanding texts in particle physics and cosmology to appear at the end of the first chapter. Either this is the (rather unsatisfactory) list at the end of the book, or it has disappeared completely. The reader is also referred to the arXiv astro-ph and hep-ph sections and to proceedings of the Texas and TAUP conference series for current information. Some, but not all, of the equations and problems choose c = G = 1 or c = planck = 1 units. The discussion of inflation includes flatness, horizon and monopole problems, but not the production and amplitude of primordial fluctuations. The PS appendices are very basic astronomy, and the units are generally cgs and astronomical (but with a sudden outbreak of light years in one place). The text and author do not have their own website, but readers are referred to both arXiv and ADS. The description of histories of current issues is sometimes superficial (but so is that of B&G). The basic equations relating H, ρ, Λ and others are in the optimal form for actually estimating numerical values (which is less true of B&G). There are particularly good quantitative treatments of gravitational lensing (the author's speciality) and basic cosmological models. Other topics, like active galaxies, are presented attractively but qualitatively, and one might be hard pressed to come up with suitable homework and exam problems covering them. There are some classic `back of the envelope' calculations embedded in the text, but no problems at the ends of the chapters. The treatment of inflation mentions only the flatness and horizon problems, and it may take you a while to find the bits you want. The index lists neither lambda nor the cosmological constant, and inflation is said to appear on pp 307-412. The chapters are of equal length, in traditional textbook fashion. Neither volume has much to say about issues that are currently `hot'—the importance of extra dimensions, fine tuning of cosmological parameters, possible evidence for cosmic geometry different from the simplest. Discussions of such things will, of course, date a textbook quickly. On the other hand, they are often the items that physics (etc) students will have heard about in colloquia and would like to have clarified. Names appear only as eponyms, from Altarelli Parisi evolution (which is not on the page to which B&G's index refers you) to the Zeeman effect, which is where PS's index says it is. Can I imagine using either of these as texts? Definitely yes for PS, since it is a possible fit to an astrophysics course that UCI offers as a `vocabulary builder' for students coming out of mainstream physics (and for which we have yet to find an entirely suitable text). We are contemplating a faculty hire or two in astro-particle physics, in which case B&G might well be a good fit to a seminar for students beginning work in that area. If I were asked to teach the course, however, I would probably want an instructor's solution manual for the text problems. One may well exist, though the book does not mention it. Using PS, you will have to make up your own problems (which you can then reasonably be expected to be able to work without help).

Book Review:

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, J. M.

2006-02-01

In 1952, Mme Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat published a major paper, Théorème d'existence pour certains systèmes d'équations aux dérivées partielles non linéaires (Acta Math. 88 141-225), which laid the foundation for modern studies of the Cauchy problem in general relativity. The fiftieth anniversary of this event was celebrated with an eponymous Cargèse Summer School in 2002. The proceedings of that summer school are summarized electronically (as audio, video, transparencies and lecture notes, where available) on a DVD archive included with this volume, and are also available on the internet. However the organizers decided that a separate volume describing the 'state of the art in mathematical general relativity' would be useful, and this book is the result. It includes some material not covered in the school and excludes some school material which has been covered adequately elsewhere. Unfortunately, I was unable to find, electronically, a table of contents, which every prospective purchaser would wish to see, and so this review does in fact list all the articles, ordered, roughly, by length. About one fifth of the book is devoted to a survey of Smoothness at Null Infinity and the Structure of Initial Data by Helmut Friedrich. This is a modern study of gravitational radiation, and the analysis of Einstein's equations. It is extremely helpful to survey all of this material, including some of the latest developments, using a consistent notation. This article is strongly recommended to anyone hoping to gain a foothold in this area. Note also that 47 pages of transparencies have become 84 book pages. Lars Andersson has surveyed, in The Global Existence Problem in General Relativity, some results and conjectures about the global properties of 3+1-dimensional spacetimes with a compact Cauchy surface. Again it is very useful to have essentially all of the known results presented in a consistent notation. This material is not on the DVD. Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat has contributed a long research paper, Future Complete U(1) Symmetric Einsteinian Spacetimes, the Unpolarized Case. There is a non-linear stability theorem due to her and Vincent Moncrief in which spacetime is of the form M × R where M is a circle bundle over a compact orientable surface of genus >1 and the 4-metric admits a Killing symmetry along the spacelike circular fibres. The new result removes the polarization condition, i.e., the orthogonality of the fibres to quotient 3-manifolds. This is a classic example of how to derive results in this field. It is also available, in full, on the DVD. The article Group Actions on Lorentz Spaces, Mathematical Aspects: A Survey, contributed by Thierry Barbot and Abdelghani Zeghib, extends the second author's school presentation on the classification of large isometry groups of Lorentz manifolds, which brings together comprehensively material of surprising diversity, well worth a perusal. Robert Bartnik and Jim Isenberg have contributed a brilliant review of The Constraint Equations, greatly extending the first author's one hour school presentation. This is a worthy successor to the landmark survey of James W York, 26 years earlier. There is a survey of systems of partial differential equations which admit an initial value formulation up to gauge diffeomorphisms by Robert Geroch entitled Gauge, Diffeomorphisms, Initial-Value Formulation, Etc, which appears to be a reworking and update of an earlier review by the author. The school presentation is very nearly the same as the book version. Hubert Bray presented a trio of lectures on global inequalities at the summer school. These have been expanded into a review The Penrose Inequality, with a second author Piotr Chrusciel, which deals with its generalization as the Riemannian Penrose inequality. It is very satisfying to see an information flow from general relativity to Riemannian geometry! In Future Complete Vacuum Spacetimes, Lars Andersson and Vincent Moncrief contribute a global existence theorem for small perturbations of K = -1 vacuum Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetimes. The novelty here is the use of the Bel-Robinson energy and its generalizations. At a more specialized level, Michael Anderson has contributed a review of Cheeger-Gromov Theory and Applications to General Relativity, which is an update of the lectures he gave at the summer school. This reviewer is unfamiliar with the material presented here, but it looks to be potentially important. Luis Lehner and Oscar Reula have presented a rather useful but concise review of numerical relativity for mathematical relativists, entitled Status Quo and Open Problems in the Numerical Construction of Spacetimes, which is very different to the first author's school presentation. This should perhaps be worked up to a more encyclopaedic review. Gregory Galloway has contributed Null Geometry and the Einstein Equations, an extended version of his summer school lectures, which surveyed how techniques from global Lorentzian geometry and causality theory can be used to obtain results about the global behaviour of solutions of the Einstein equations, thus generalizing and extending the classic Hawking-Penrose results. The reader should recall that the articles have been ordered by objective length rather than subjective quality. Alan Rendall's is a masterly if terse review of The Einstein-Vlasov System, a laudable attempt to bring the mathematical status of results on the non-vacuum field equations up to that of their vacuum counterparts. This duplicates precisely his school presentation. Last but not least, John Friedman has given an excellent succinct review of what can go wrong if one abandons the requirement of time-orientability, The Cauchy problem on Spacetimes That Are Not Globally Hyperbolic, which seems to be identical to his school presentation. As always, this experienced author's presentation has exemplary clarity. This is an impressive volume presenting clearly the current state of the art. No relativity group should be without a copy.

[The Gulf War Syndrome twenty years on].

PubMed

Auxéméry, Y

2013-10-01

After Operation Desert Storm which took place in Iraq from August 1990 to July 1991 involving a coalition of 35 countries and a 700,000 strong contingent of mainly American men, some associations of war veterans, the media and researchers described a new diagnostic entity: the Gulf War Syndrome (GWS). GWS seems to be a new disorder which associates a litany of functional symptoms integrating the musculoskeletal, digestive, tegumentary and neurosensory systems. The symptoms presented do not allow a syndrome already known to be considered and the aetiology of the clinical picture remains unexplained, an increasing cause for concern resulting from the extent of the phenomenon and its media coverage. It quickly appears that there is no consensus amongst the scientific community concerning a nosographic description of GWS: where can all these functional complaints arise from? Different aetiopathogenic hypotheses have been studied by the American administration who is attempting to incriminate exposure to multiple risks such as vaccines and their adjuvants, organophosphorous compounds, pyridostigmine (given to the troops for the preventive treatment of the former), impoverished uranium, and the toxic emanations from oil well fires. But despite extremely in-depth scientific investigations, 10 years after the end of the war, no objective marker of physical suffering has been retained to account for the disorders presented. It would appear that the former soldiers are in even better objective health than the civil population whereas their subjective level of health remains low. Within this symptomatic population, some authors have begun to notice that the psychological disorders appear and persist associating: asthenia, fatigability, mood decline, sleep disorders, cognitive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Within the nosological framework, does GWS cause functional disorders or somatisation? Finally, 20 years after the end of the fighting, only PTSD has been causally attributed to military deployment. Certain functional symptoms of GWS occur during the latent phase of a future reexperiencing syndrome, latent phase which is the locus of nonspecific symptoms. The psychotraumatised subject does not express himself spontaneously and waits to be invited to do so: if the social context does not allow this expression, the suffering can remain lodged in a few parts of the body. How can the inexpressible part of the trauma be recounted, particularly if the social context does not allow it? For civil society, calling into question "the somatic word" of veterans is difficult: why were they sent to face these hardships? What could we learn from these soldiers we do not wish to listen to: the horror of the war, the aggressive impulse of men, and the confrontation with death? Another obstacle to this reflection is the reference to stress as a prevalent aetiopathogenic model of the psychological trauma. A model like this, considering that PTSD is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation, finally discredits the subject and society and disempowers them by freezing them in a passive status of victim. However, as GWS affects approximately a quarter of subjects deployed, it is not very likely that all these symptoms are caused by a psychotraumatic reaction. Many veterans suffering from GWS have themselves rejected the diagnosis of PTSD, arguing that they do not suffer repetition nightmares. What the veterans rightly tell us here is that the notions of stress and trauma cannot strictly be superimposed. A subject may have been intensely stressed without ever establishing traumatic flashbacks and likewise; a psychological trauma can be experienced without stress and without fear but in a moment of terror. This clarification is in line with the first criterion of the DSM-IV-TR which necessarily integrates the objective and subjective dimensions as determinants of PTSD. Yet, scientific studies relating to GWS are struggling to establish opposition or continuity links between the objective external exposure (smoke from petrol wells, impoverished uranium, biological agents, chemicals) and the share of inner emotion albeit reactive and characterised by a subjective stress. There were no lack of stress factors for the troops deployed: repeated alerts of chemical attacks, hostility of the environment with its sandstorms and venomous animals, climatic conditions making long hours of backup and static observation difficult, collecting bodies, lack of knowledge of the precise geography of their movements and uncertainty of the duration of the conflict. The military anti-nuclear-bacteriological-chemical uniform admittedly provided protective confinement, shutting out the hostile world from which the threat would come but, at the same time, this isolation increases the fear of a hypothetical risk whilst the internal perceptions are increased and can open the way to future somatisations. In a context like this, the somatic manifestations of anxiety (palpitations, sweating, paresthesia…) are willingly associated with somatised functional disorders to which can also be assigned over-interpretations of bodily feelings according to a hypochondriacal mechanism. The selective attention to somatic perceptions in the absence of mentalisations, the request for reassurance reiterated and the excessive use of the treatment system will be diagnostic indices of these symptoms caused by the stress. Rather than toxic exposure to such and such a substance, the non-specific syndrome called "Gulf War Syndrome" is the result of exposure to the eponymous operational theatre. But if the psychological and psychosomatic suffering occurring in veterans is immutable throughout history, the expression of these difficulties has specificities according to the past cultural, political and scientific context. In the example of GWS, the diffusion of the fear of a pathology resulting from chemical weapons has promoted this phenomenon. In the end, biochemical and biological weapons have not been used on a large scale but the mediatisation of this possibility has led to a deleterious… To spare the bother of a group psychological reflection, the scientific and political authorities chose to investigate the implication of environmental factors in the genesis of the disorder. At individual as well as social level, rather than accept a psychogenic origin, a common defence mechanism is to assign the suffering to an external cause. With the perspective of preventing the risk of diffusion of other unexplained syndromes, which could occur following future armed conflicts, new epidemiological diagnostic models must be defined. The media also has considerable responsibility for the diffusion of epidemic psychological reactions but at the same time, they can inform the population about certain individual or group psychopathological mechanisms. The GWS exists: it is not an "imaginary illness" but a serious public health issue which has led to tens of thousands of complaints and swallowed up millions of dollars. To reply to human suffering, a new nosographic entity can spread through society taking the epidemic expression of a somatised disorder via identification, imitation and suggestion mechanisms. This possibility questions not only mental health but also the sociology and politics. It is necessary to inform the leaders and the general population of the possibility of this type of mass reaction, which can take the shape of a highly contagious complex functional syndrome. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

WE-G-213-01: Roentgen and the Birth of Modern Medical Physics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sprawls, P.

Roentgen and the Birth of Modern Medical Physics – Perry Sprawls Wilhelm Roentgen is well known for his discovery of x-radiation. What is less known and appreciated is his intensive research following the discovery to determine the characteristics of the “new kind of radiation” and demonstrate its great value for medical purposes. In this presentation we will imagine ourselves in Roentgen’s mind and follow his thinking, including questions and doubts, as he designs and conducts a series of innovative experiments that provided the foundation for the rapid growth of medical physics. Learning Objectives: Become familiar with the personal characteristics andmore » work of Prof. Roentgen that establishes him as an inspiring model for the medical physics profession. Observe the thought process and experiments that determined and demonstrated the comprehensive characteristics of x-radiation. The AAPM Award Eponyms: William D. Coolidge, Edith H. Quimby, and Marvin M.D. Williams - Who were they and what did they do? – Lawrence N. Rothenberg William David Coolidge (1873–1975) William Coolidge was born in Hudson, NY in 1873. He obtained his BS at the Massacusetts Institute of Technology in 1896. Coolidge then went to the University of Leipzig, Germany for graduate study with physicists Paul Drude and Gustave Wiedemann and received a Ph.D. in 1899. While in Germany he met Wilhelm Roentgen. Coolidge returned to the US to teach at MIT where he was associated with Arthur A. Noyes of the Chemistry Department, working on the electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions. Willis R. Whitney, under whom Coolidge had worked before going to Germany, became head of the newly formed General Electric Research Laboratory and he invited Coolidge to work with him. In 1905, Coolidge joined the staff of the GE laboratory and was associated with it for the remainder of his life. He developed ductile tungsten filaments to replace fragile carbon filaments as the material for electric light bulb filaments. Until that innovation light bulbs had a notoriously short life. He later incorporated the ductile tungsten as a filament material for a hot cathode, fully evacuated x-ray tube, first described in 1912, which allowed higher current and x-ray output, and greater reliability than had previously been possible. These “Coolidge x-ray tubes” were far superior to the cold cathode, partial pressure gas x-ray tubes that had been in use since Roentgen’s discovery of x-rays in 1895. The Coolidge tube with incremental developments is now the key component for x-ray production in all of our modern x-ray imaging devices, such as CT scanners, interventional radiology systems, and mammography units. Coolidge was also involved in the development of sectional x-ray tubes for research and treatment that were initially designed to reach 800 kV. Additional improvements led to 1 MV and 2 MV devices. In 1932 Coolidge became director of the General Electric Research Laboratory, and in 1940, was made Vice-President and Director of Research. In 1945 he retired and was named Director Emeritus of the laboratory. Coolidge held 83 patents and was recognized for these and many other achievements by election to the National Academy of Engineers, a place in the Engineering Hall of Fame and the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame. The AAPM’s highest honor, the Coolidge Award, was named after him. He accepted Honorary Membership in the AAPM and was the first recipient of the AAPM Coolidge Award, which was presented to him in a special ceremony in Schenectady, NY in 1972 when he was 100 years old. Edith Hinckley Quimby (1891–1982) Edith Quimby was born in Rockford, IL in 1891. She graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA with a B.S. in 1913, and then obtained a masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Later in her career, after many significant achievements, Quimby was awarded honorary doctorates by Whitman College and Rutgers University. Edith Quimby was hired by Giacchino Failla as a radiation physicist at Memorial Hospital for Cancer in New York City. Failla had studied with Madame Curie and obtained his doctoral degree in her laboratory. After many groundbreaking medical physics studies from 1919 until 1942, they both moved to Columbia University. Dr. Quimby developed a widely employed dosimetry system for single plane implants with radium and radon seeds, and a dosimetry methodology for internal radionuclides. She was author of more than 75 scientific publications, and of significant textbooks including the first comprehensive physics textbook for radiologists “Physical Foundations of Radiology”, which was co-authored with Otto Glasser, Lauriston Taylor and James Weatherwax in the first edition, with Russell Morgan added for the second edition and Paul Goodwin for the fourth edition. With Sergei Feitelberg, M.D. she published two editions of “Radioactive Isotopes in Medicine and Biology: Basic Physics and Instrumentation”. Quimby became a renowned examiner for the American Board of Radiology when the third ABR examination, given in 1936, added physics. She served as President of the American Radium Society, received the RSNA Gold Medal, and also numerous prestigious awards given to women in science. Edith Quimby was a Charter Member of AAPM. The AAPM Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed the Edith H. Quimby Lifetime Achievement Award in her honor in 2011. Marvin Martin Dixon Williams (1902–1981) Marvin Williams was born in Walla Walla, WA in 1902, and attended the same college as Edith Quimby, graduating from Whitman College in 1926. He was greatly influenced to go into medical physics by her accomplishments. During his early career, Williams worked with James Weatherwax in Philadelphia while he was working toward an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1931 Williams was awarded a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Minnesota, with the work actually performed at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of the University. While completing his Ph.D. studies, Marvin met Dr. Paul Hodges who had returned from the Peiping Union Medical College in Peiping (now Beijing), China. Hodges suggested that a physicist be sent to Peiping to install x-ray therapy equipment and a radon plant. Williams accepted the position and, in 1931, he and his wife Orpha left for China. Before going to China, Williams had spent time with the physics group at Memorial Hospital to learn about the operation of a radon plant. In China, he constructed the radon plant, employing 0.25 g of radium, and also installed the x-ray therapy unit. Williams and his wife returned to the US in 1935, and he accepted a research position at the Mayo Clinic. In 1950, he became Professor of Biophysics at Mayo, where he taught physics and biophysics until his retirement in 1967. Williams was also very active in the American Board of Radiology where, from 1944 through 1977, he examined over 3000 radiologists and 250 physicists. Marvin Williams was a Charter member of AAPM, served as the fourth President of AAPM in 1963, and was the fourth recipient the AAPM Coolidge Award in 1975. The Marvin Williams Award was originally established as the highest award of the American College of Medical Physics. When various functions of the ACMP were absorbed into the AAPM in 2012, the Marvin M D Williams Professional Achievement Award became one of the AAPM’s highest honors. Learning Objectives: Become familiar with the persons in whose honor the three major AAPM Award are named Learn about the achievements and activities which influenced the AAPM to name these awards in their honor.« less

Preface: SciDAC 2007

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keyes, David E.

2007-09-01

It takes a village to perform a petascale computation—domain scientists, applied mathematicians, computer scientists, computer system vendors, program managers, and support staff—and the village was assembled during 24-28 June 2007 in Boston's Westin Copley Place for the third annual Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) 2007 Conference. Over 300 registered participants networked around 76 posters, focused on achievements and challenges in 36 plenary talks, and brainstormed in two panels. In addition, with an eye to spreading the vision for simulation at the petascale and to growing the workforce, 115 participants—mostly doctoral students and post-docs complementary to the conferees—were gathered on 29 June 2007 in classrooms of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a full day of tutorials on the use of SciDAC software. Eleven SciDAC-sponsored research groups presented their software at an introductory level, in both lecture and hands-on formats that included live runs on a local BlueGene/L. Computation has always been about garnering insight into the behavior of systems too complex to explore satisfactorily by theoretical means alone. Today, however, computation is about much more: scientists and decision makers expect quantitatively reliable predictions from simulations ranging in scale from that of the Earth's climate, down to quarks, and out to colliding black holes. Predictive simulation lies at the heart of policy choices in energy and environment affecting billions of lives and expenditures of trillions of dollars. It is also at the heart of scientific debates on the nature of matter and the origin of the universe. The petascale is barely adequate for such demands and we are barely established at the levels of resolution and throughput that this new scale of computation affords. However, no scientific agenda worldwide is pushing the petascale frontier on all its fronts as vigorously as SciDAC. The breadth of this conference archive reflects the philosophy of the SciDAC program, which was introduced as a collaboration of all of the program offices in the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in Fall 2001 and was renewed for a second period of five years in Fall 2006, with additional support in certain areas from the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). All of the projects in the SciDAC portfolio were represented at the conference and most are captured in this volume. In addition, the Organizing Committee incorporated into the technical program a number of computational science highlights from outside of SciDAC, and, indeed, from outside of the United States. As implied by the title, scientific discovery is the driving deliverable of the SciDAC program, spanning the full range of the DOE Office of Science: accelerator design, astrophysics, chemistry and materials science, climate science, combustion, life science, nuclear physics, plasma physics, and subsurface physics. As articulated in the eponymous report that launched SciDAC, the computational challenges of these diverse areas are remarkably common. Each is profoundly multiscale in space and time and therefore continues to benefit at any margin from access to the largest and fastest computers available. Optimality of representation and execution requires adaptive, scalable mathematical algorithms in both continuous (geometrically complex domain) and discrete (mesh and graph) aspects. Programmability and performance optimality require software environments that both manage the intricate details of the underlying hardware and abstract them for scientific users. Running effectively on remote specialized hardware requires transparent workflow systems. Comprehending the petascale data sets generated in such simulations requires automated tools for data exploration and visualization. Archiving and sharing access to this data within the inevitably distributed community of leading scientists requires networked collaborative environments. Each of these elements is a research and development project in its own right. SciDAC does not replace theoretical programs oriented towards long-term basic research, but harvests them for contemporary, complementary state-of-the-art computational campaigns. By clustering researchers from applications and enabling technologies into coordinated, mission-driven projects, SciDAC accomplishes two ends with remarkable effectiveness: (1) it enriches the scientific perspective of both applications and enabling communities through mutual interaction and (2) it leverages between applications solutions and effort encapsulated in software. Though SciDAC is unique, its objective of multiscale science at extreme computational scale is shared and approached through different programmatic mechanisms, notably NNSA's ASC program, NSF's Cyberinfrastructure program, and DoD's CREATE program in the U.S., and RIKEN's computational simulation programs in Japan. Representatives of each of these programs were given the podium at SciDAC 2007 and communication occurred that will be valuable towards the ends of complementarity, leverage, and promulgation of best practices. The 2007 conference was graced with additional welcome program announcements. Michael Strayer announced a new program of postdoctoral research fellowships in the enabling technologies. (The computer science post-docs will be named after the late Professor Ken Kennedy, who briefly led the SciDAC project Center for Scalable Application Development Software (CScADS) until his untimely death in February 2007.) IBM announced its petascale BlueGene/P system on June 26. Meanwhile, at ISC07 in Dresden, the semi-annual posting of a revised Top 500 list on June 27 showed several new Top 10 systems accessible to various SciDAC participants. While SciDAC is dominated in 2007 by the classical scientific pursuit of understanding through reduction to components and isolation of causes and effects, simulation at scale is beginning to offer something even more tantalizing: synthesis and integration of multiple interacting phenomena in complex systems. Indeed, the design-oriented elements of SciDAC, such as accelerator and tokamak modeling, area already emphasizing multiphysics coupling, and climate science has been doing so for years in the coupling of models of the ocean, atmosphere, ice, and land. In one of the panels at SciDAC 2007, leaders of a three-stage `progressive workshop' on exascale simulation for energy and environment (E3), considered prospects for whole-system modeling in a variety of scientific areas within the domain of DOE related to energy, environmental, and global security. Computer vendors were invited to comment on the prospects for delivering exascale computing systems in another panel. The daunting nature of this challenge is summarized with the observation that the peak processing power of the entire Top 500 list of June 2007 is only 0.0052 exaflop/s. It takes the combined power of most of the computers on the internet today worldwide to reach 1 exaflop/s or 1018 floating point operations per second. The program of SciDAC 2007 followed a template honed by its predecessor meetings in San Francisco in 2005 and Denver in 2006. The Boston venue permitted outreach to a number of universities in the immediate region and throughout southern New England, including SciDAC campuses of Boston University, Harvard, and MIT, and a dozen others including most of the Ivy League. Altogether 55 universities, 20 laboratories, 14 private companies, 5 agencies, and 4 countries were represented among the conference and tutorial workshop participants. Approximately 47% of the conference participants were from government laboratories, 37% from universities, 9% from federal program offices, and 7% from industry. Keys to the success of SciDAC 2007 were the informal poster receptions, coffee breaks, working breakfasts and lunches, and even the `Right-brain Night' featuring artistic statements, both reverent and irreverent, by computational scientists, inspired by their work. The organizers thank the sponsors for their generosity in attracting participants to these informal occasions with sumptuous snacks and beverages: AMD, Cray, DataDirect, IBM, SGI, SiCortex, and the Institute of Physics. A conference as logistically complex as SciDAC 2007 cannot possibly and should not be executed primarily by the scientists, themselves. It is a great pleasure to acknowledge the many talented staff that contributed to a productive time for all participants and nearperfect adherence to schedule. Chief among them is Betsy Riley, currently detailed from ORNL to the program office in Germantown, with degrees in mathematics and computer science, but a passion for organizing interdisciplinary scientific programs. Betsy staffed the organizing committee during the year of telecon meetings leading up to the conference and masterminded sponsorship, invitations, and the compilation of the proceedings. Assisting her from ORNL in managing the program were Daniel Pack, Angela Beach, and Angela Fincher. Cynthia Latham of ORNL performed admirably in website and graphic design for all aspects of the online and printed materials of the meeting. John Bui, John Smith, and Missy Smith of ORNL ran their customary tight ship with respect to audio-visual execution and capture, assisted by Eric Ecklund and Keith Quinn of the Westin. Pamelia Nixon-Hartje of Ambassador Services was personally invaluable in getting the most out of the hotel and its staff. We thank Jeff Nichols of ORNL for managing the primary subcontract for the meeting. The SciDAC tutorial program was a joint effort of Professor John Negele of MIT, David Skinner, PI of the SciDAC Outreach Center, and the SciDAC 2007 Chair. Sponsorship from the Outreach Center in the form of travel scholarships for students, and of the local area SciDAC university delegation of BU, Harvard, and MIT for food and facilities is gratefully acknowledged. Of course, the archival success of a scientific meeting rests with the willingness of the presenters to make the extra effort to package their field-leading science in a form suitable for interaction with colleagues from other disciplines rather than fellow specialists. This goal, oft-stated in the run up to the meeting, was achieved to an admirable degree, both in the live presentations and in these proceedings. This effort is its own reward, since it leads to enhanced communication and accelerated scientific progress. Our greatest thanks are reserved for Michael Strayer, Associate Director for OASCR and the Director of SciDAC, for envisioning this celebratory meeting three years ago, and sustaining it with his own enthusiasm, in order to provide a highly visible manifestation of the fruits of SciDAC. He and the other Office of Science program managers in attendance and working in Washington, DC to communicate the opportunities afforded by SciDAC deserve the gratitude of a new virtual scientific village created and cemented under the vision of scientific discovery through advanced computing. David E Keyes Fu Foundation Professor of Applied Mathematics