MANAGEMENT OF CORD AND PLACENTAL BLOOD AND ITS EFFECT UPON THE NEWBORN,Part I

A comparative study was made of erythrocyte counts and weights of the newborn at term. Three groups were used: Cases in which the cord was clamped at once, those in which the cord was allowed to pulsate five minutes, and those in which the cord and placental blood was stripped into the baby. Standards and procedure were set up so that there would be a minimum of error.Evidence was elicited showing that babies in the “pulsating” and the “stripped” groups received a significant amount of blood which was beneficial. The amount varied, but when the stripping method was used, the term baby received about 100 cc. of blood.Babies receiving this blood had higher erythrocyte counts, higher hemoglobin values, higher initial weights, less weight loss, and less rapid loss of weight.It is believed the additional blood supplied is of benefit especially to prematures and to those infants who are in any degree of shock following long labors, difficult deliveries, abruptio placenta, placenta previa, or compression of the cord.The added blood benefits the baby by combating the initial shock, by aiding in filling the capillary bed of the expanding lungs, by increasing iron reserve, by lessening demand upon blood-forming organs (especially in prematures), by protecting the breakdown of body proteins and by aiding the transition from one source of oxygen to another.Five minutes, as a rule, is not long enough to wait for pulsation if the baby is to receive its quota of available blood.Stripping of cord and placental blood into the infant is not a harmful procedure when done gently and is particularly useful in cases where the condition of the mother or child is such that it is inadvisable to wait for the uterus to force the blood physiologically into the child.The additional blood does not cause icterus.The pulsating of the umbilical cord plays only a minor role in the process by which the baby receives blood after the second stage of labor. The pressure of the uterine contractions upon a blood-filled placenta, forcing blood through the umbilical vein into the child, plays the major role. Pitocin and/or ergot preparations would aid in this process.Anemic mothers have a tendency toward having anemic babies.Venous pressure experiments using a phlebaumanometer showed pressures before and after stripping, the force of uterine contractions on the umbilical vein pressure and the variation in pressure with crying and at rest. The giving of 100 cc. of blood by stripping affects the venous pressure of the child very little, if done slowly. If the stripping is done rapidly, there is a transient rise with a return to normal within a few minutes.A survey of 1,900 diplomates of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology showed that there is wide variation in the management of cord and placental blood. Of 455 specialists who stripped the cord, five thought there was some increase in icterus, and one reported cardiovascular distress.     

Primary cytodiagnosis of synchronous small-cell cancer and squamous-cell carcinoma of the respiratory tract

Report is made of the first primary cytodiagnosis of a synchronous small-cell cancer of the lung and squamous-cell carcinoma of the larynx, which were histologically confirmed. Sputum cytology should be used in the detection and surveillance of multiple primary malignancies of the respiratory tract, which have been observed with increasing frequency.     

Prefrontal deep projection neurons enable cognitive flexibility via persistent feedback monitoring

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Response to lethal UVA radiation in the Antarctic bacterium Pseudomonas extremaustralis: polyhydroxybutyrate and cold adaptation as protective factors

Extremophiles - Pseudomonas extremaustralis is an Antarctic bacterium with high stress resistance, able to grow under cold conditions. It is capable to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) mainly...     

Rosuvastatin protects isolated hearts against ischemia-reperfusion injury: role of Akt-GSK-3β, metabolic environment,and mitochondrial permeability transition pore

Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry - The cardioprotective activity of rosuvastatin (R) is yet to be known. The objective of this study was to research whether R perfusion before global ischemia...     

Improvement of homologous GH10 xylanase production by deletion of genes with predicted function in the Aspergillus nidulans secretion pathway

Filamentous fungi are important cell factories for large-scale enzyme production. However, production levels are often low, and this limitation has stimulated research focusing on the manipulation of genes with predicted function in the protein secretory pathway. This pathway is the major route for the delivery of proteins to the cell exterior, and a positive relationship between the production of recombinant enzymes and the unfolded protein response (UPR) pathway has been observed. In this study, Aspergillus nidulans was exposed to UPR-inducing chemicals and differentially expressed genes were identified by RNA-seq. Twelve target genes were deleted in A. nidulans recombinant strains producing homologous and heterologous GH10 xylanases. The knockout of pbnA (glycosyltransferase), ydjA (Hsp40 co-chaperone), trxA (thioredoxin) and cypA (cyclophilin) improved the production of the homologous xylanase by 78, 171, 105 and 125% respectively. Interestingly, these deletions decreased the overall protein secretion, suggesting that the production of the homologous xylanase was specifically altered. However, the production of the heterologous xylanase and the secretion of total proteins were not altered by deleting the same genes. Considering the results, this approach demonstrated the possibility of rationally increase the production of a homologous enzyme, indicating that trxA, cypA, ydjA and pbnA are involved in protein production by A. nidulans.     

Multispectral canopy reflectance improves spatial distribution models of Amazonian understory species

Species distribution models are required for the research and management of biodiversity in the hyperdiverse tropical forests, but reliable and ecologically relevant digital environmental data layers are not always available. We here assess the usefulness of multispectral canopy reflectance (Landsat) relative to climate data in modelling understory plant species distributions in tropical rainforests. We used a large dataset of quantitative fern and lycophyte species inventories across lowland Amazonia as the basis for species distribution modelling (SDM). As predictors, we used CHELSA climatic variables and canopy reflectance values from a recent basin-wide composite of Landsat TM/ETM+ images both separately and in combination. We also investigated how species accumulate over sites when environmental distances were expressed in terms of climatic or surface reflectance variables. When species accumulation curves were constructed such that differences in Landsat reflectance among the selected plots were maximised, species accumulated faster than when climatic differences were maximised or plots were selected in a random order. Sixty-nine species were sufficiently frequent for species distribution modelling. For most of them, adequate SDMs were obtained whether the models were based on CHELSA data only, Landsat data only or both combined. Model performance was not influenced by species’ prevalence or abundance. Adding Landsat-based environmental data layers overall improved the discriminatory capacity of SDMs compared to climate-only models, especially for soil specialist species. Our results show that canopy surface reflectance obtained by multispectral sensors can provide studies of tropical ecology, as exemplified by SDMs, much higher thematic (taxonomic) detail than is generally assumed. Furthermore, multispectral datasets complement the traditionally used climatic layers in analyses requiring information on environmental site conditions. We demonstrate the utility of freely available, global remote sensing data for biogeographical studies that can aid conservation planning and biodiversity management.     

Exploring context dependency in eco‐evolutionary patterns with the stick insect Timema cristinae

Rapid evolution can influence the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems, but the importance of evolution for ecological dynamics remains unclear, largely because the contexts in which evolution is powerful are poorly resolved. Here, we carry out a large observational study to test hypotheses about context dependency of eco‐evolutionary patterns previously identified on the stick insect Timema cristinae. Experiments and observations conducted in 2011 and 2012 documented predator‐mediated negative effects of camouflage maladaptation (i.e., evolutionary dynamics) on: (a) T. cristinae abundance and, (b) species richness and abundance of other arthropods. Here we show that camouflage maladaptation does not correlate with T. cristinae abundance and, instead, is associated with increased abundance and species richness of cohabitating arthropods. We furthermore find that plants with high levels of Timema maladaptation tend to have higher foliar nitrogen, that is, higher nutritional value, and more positive mass‐abundance slopes in the coexisting arthropod communities. We propose explanations for the observed contrasting results, such as negative density‐ and frequency‐dependent selection, feedbacks between herbivore abundance and plant nutritional quality, and common effects of predation pressure on selection and prey abundance. Our results demonstrate the utility of observational studies to assess the context dependency of eco‐evolutionary dynamics patterns and provide testable hypotheses for future work.