Secondary closures of penile skin incisions.

We present a helpful technique for secondarily closing dehisced suture wounds of the penile skin.     

Multiple penile schwannomas

The occurrence of penile schwannoma is very rare. A 41-year-old man presented with multiple penile tumors and pain on erection. The largest tumor causing pain was excised. Pathology was characteristic of benign schwannoma. We recommend that penile schwannomas be excised if the tumors cause pain or are malignant.     

Inducements revisited

The paper defends the permissibility of paying inducements to research subjects against objections not covered in an earlier paper in Bioethics. The objections are that inducements would cause inequity, crowd out research, and undesirably commercialize the researcher-subject relationship. The paper shows how these objections presuppose implausible factual and/or normative claims. The final position reached is a qualified defence of freedom of contract which not only supports the permissibility of inducements but also offers guidance to ethics committees in dealing with practical problems that might arise if inducements are offered.     

Bayer revisited

Bayer accuses me of wrongly claiming that he holds a negative thesis about the role that the liberal emphasis on privacy rights has had on AIDS public health policy. In his reply to my review essay, he denies holding such a thesis and, moreover, makes the stronger claim that his position is sympathetic to liberalism, or at least to some versions of it. Although I appreciate Bayer's efforts to clarify his views about liberalism and a "culture of restraint and responsibility", it is clear to me that our differences are related not to a misunderstanding on my part, but to a fundamental disagreement concerning what liberalism as a political philosophy is, and what public policy implications it entails in the case of AIDS....     

Superbubbles revisited

Background

Superbubbles are distinctive subgraphs in direct graphs that play an important role in assembly algorithms for high-throughput sequencing (HTS) data. Their practical importance derives from the fact they are connected to their host graph by a single entrance and a single exit vertex, thus allowing them to be handled independently. Efficient algorithms for the enumeration of superbubbles are therefore of important for the processing of HTS data. Superbubbles can be identified within the strongly connected components of the input digraph after transforming them into directed acyclic graphs. The algorithm by Sung et al. (IEEE ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform 12:770–777, 2015) achieves this task in \(\mathcal {O}(m~log(m))\)-time. The extraction of superbubbles from the transformed components was later improved to by Brankovic et al. (Theor Comput Sci 609:374–383, 2016) resulting in an overall \(\mathcal {O}(m+n)\)-time algorithm.

Results

A re-analysis of the mathematical structure of superbubbles showed that the construction of auxiliary DAGs from the strongly connected components in the work of Sung et al. missed some details that can lead to the reporting of false positive superbubbles. We propose an alternative, even simpler auxiliary graph that solved the problem and retains the linear running time for general digraph. Furthermore, we describe a simpler, space-efficient \(\mathcal {O}(m+n)\)-time algorithm for detecting superbubbles in DAGs that uses only simple data structures.

Implementation

We present a reference implementation of the algorithm that accepts many commonly used formats for the input graph and provides convenient access to the improved algorithm. https://github.com/Fabianexe/Superbubble.

     

Spermatogenesis revisited

Summary This ultrastructural study confirms and extends the light microscope findings of Bryan (1971) concerning the presence and developmental fate of multinucleate spermatids. Four main classes of cells: uninucleate-individual, uninucleate-conjoined, multinucleate-conjoined, and multinucleate-individual, were identified along with a few instances of more complex syncytial organizations. When the respective nuclei in a given multinucleate are far enough apart, each develops autonomously but in synchrony with its neighbors. When nuclei are intimately associated, the normal pattern of spermiogenesis may be altered, giving rise to highly bizarre spermatozoa. Commonly, a single Golgi complex serves a pair of nuclei and gives rise to a T-shaped acrosome which binds the nuclei together. During the ensuing nuclear elongation phase, such units are invested by a single manchette. Pairs of axonemes within a common plasma membrane have also been encountered. These ultrastructural findings indicate that multinucleate spermatids are true components (not artifacts) of the seminiferous epithelium of normal animals. The presence of such cells and the unusual developmental consequences which can arise as a result of the multinucleate state must be taken into account when evaluating the course of spermatogenesis in cases of mutation- or chemically-induced infertility.These studies have been supported by funds from The Office of General Research, The University of Georgia.     

Spermatogenesis revisited

Summary Gametogenesis is normal through meiosis and the earliest phases of spermiogenesis in male-sterile mice homozygous for the recessive, pleiotropic, mutation hpy (hydrocephalic-polydactyl). However, structurally complete sperm flagella were not encountered. Instead, partially assembled axonemal structures and/or poorly organized aggregates of other tail components (mitochondria, outer coarse fibers) were seen at the posterior poles of nuclei in older spermatids. The ultrastructure of centrioles in spermatids was normal, but that of axonemes associated with them was not. These findings suggest that the observed flagella dysgenesis results from defects in assembly rather than from defective intiation centers. Released gametes usually consisted of distorted nuclei and associated acrosome enclosed in a relatively close fitting plasma membrane. Perturbations of sperm head development were also encountered; they included extreme nuclear elongation, and distortion of the acrosome and underlying nuclear material by inpushings of finger-like processes of Sertoli cells. It is believed that sperm head anomalies are secondary consequences of the mutant condition. The findings support the view that the hpy locus represents one of a number of genes primarily involved in the mediation of flagella development.Aided by a grant from The National Foundation-March of DimesA preliminary account of some of the findings was presented elsewhere (Bryan, 1976)The author wishes to express his thanks to Mrs. Charla Danforth and Mr. James Barrows for capable technical assistance, to Dr. Walter J. Humphreys, Director, The Central Electron Microscope Laboratory, University of Georgia, for use of the facility, and to Dr. Willard F. Hollander, Iowa State University, for original breeding stock and helpful discussions     

Dualism revisited

The problem of consciousness should eventually receive a scientific solution, but there are a number of scientific and philosophical obstacles along the way. I offer solutions to the philosophical problems and proposals for approaching the scientific problems.     

Cyclazocine revisited

Recently synthesized compounds which have long-term mu antagonist activity and short-term kappa agonist effects prevent self-administration of cocaine and morphine in rats. Cyclazocine, a compound synthesized in 1962 and studied in animals and man in the 1960's and in the early 1970's is a mu antagonist in rats and man and is a potent kappa agonist in both species. It also prevents self-administration of cocaine and morphine in rats. Although it produces unpleasant side effects in man, subjects become tolerant to these side effects but not to the antagonistic actions of the drug after prolonged administration. Deceased Special issue dedicated to Dr. Eric J. Simon.