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Behavioral studies document a functional hand proximity effect: objects near the palm, but not the back of the hand, affect visual processing. Although visuotactile bimodal neurons integrate visual and haptic inputs, their receptive fields in monkey cortex encompass the whole hand, not just the palm. Using ERPs, we investigated whether hand function influenced the topology of integrated space around the hand. In a visual detection paradigm, target and non-target stimuli appeared equidistantly in front or in back of the hand. Equivalent N1 amplitudes were found for both conditions. P3 target versus non-target amplitude differences were greater for palm conditions. Hand proximity biased processing of visual targets equidistant from the hand early in processing. However, hand function biases emerged later when targets were selected for potential action. Thus, early hand proximity effects on object processing depend on sensory-reliant neural responses, whereas later multisensory integration depend more on the hand's functional expertise.

Although holistic processing has been documented extensively for upright faces, it is unclear whether it occurs for other visual categories with more extensive substructure, such as body postures. Like faces, body postures have high social relevance, but they differ in having fine-grain organization not only of basic parts (e.g., arm) but also subparts (e.g., elbow, wrist, hand). To compare holistic processing for whole bodies and body parts, we employed a novel stereoscopic depth manipulation that creates either the percept of a whole body occluded by a set of bars, or of segments of a body floating in front of a background. Despite sharing low-level visual properties, only the stimulus perceived as being behind bars should be holistically "filled in" via amodal completion. In two experiments, we tested for better identification of individual body parts within the context of a body versus in isolation. Consistent with previous findings, recognition of body parts was better in the context of a whole body when the body was amodally completed behind occluders. However, when the same bodies were perceived as floating in strips, performance was significantly worse, and not significantly different, from that for amodally completed parts, supporting holistic processing of body postures. Intriguingly, performance was worst for parts in the frontal depth condition, suggesting that these effects may extend from gross body organization to a more local level. These results provide suggestive evidence that holistic representations may not be "all-or-none," but rather also operate on body regions of more limited spatial extent.

OBJECTIVES Cluster headaches are a set of episodic and chronic pain syndromes that are sources of significant morbidity for patients. The standard of care for cluster headaches remains medication therapy, however a minority of patients will remain refractory to treatment despite changes to dosage and therapeutic combinations. In these patients, functional neuromodulation using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) presents the opportunity to alleviate the significant pain that is experienced by targeting the neurophysiological substrates that mediate pain. MATERIAL AND METHODS We review the literature on chronic cluster headache, including the growing number of DBS case reports and series that describe the alleviation of pain in a majority of patients through conventional or endoventricular targeting of the posterior hypothalamus and ventral tegmental area, with a minimal side effect profile. RESULTS In this review, the history and outcomes of DBS use for medication-refractory cluster headaches are examined, with discussion on future directions for improving this novel treatment modality and providing efficacious, longer-lasting pain relief in headache patients. CONCLUSION In patients with chronic cluster headache, functional neuromodulation using DBS presents the opportunity to alleviate the significant pain that is experienced by targeting the neurophysiological substrates that mediate pain.

The hand proximity effect (nearby hands influence visual processing) reflects the integration of vision and proprioception for upcoming action; it is reduced when hand position is occluded. In an ERP study, we investigate whether hand proximity, without vision of the hand, accentuates the processing of stimuli requiring actions (targets) early (N1) and later (P3) in processing. In a go/no-go paradigm, participants viewed stimuli between two panels with hands placed near or far from stimuli. Occlusion of the hand eliminated near-hand target vs. non-target differentiation of the N1; amplification of near-hand target amplitudes emerged at the P3. Visual hand location appears necessary to draw visual attention to intended-action objects to integrate body and visual information early in processing. The integration of visual stimulus information and hand position from proprioception appears later in processing, indicating greater reliance on cognitive systems for discriminating the task-relevance of a stimulus.

The clinical application of hypnosis has been effective in obstetrics. Intrauterine growth restriction and oligohydramnios are dreaded complications of pregnancy that may result in preterm deliveries causing increased perinatal morbidity and mortality. In this longitudinal prospective study, clinical hypnosis was used in addition to the conventional medical management in such pregnancies. The perinatal outcome was compared with the control group wherein hypnosis was not used. The hypnosis group had a significantly shorter preterm delivery rate (p = .004) and fewer incidence of low birth weight babies (p = .009). Significantly reduced operative intervention in terms of lower rate of cesarean section (p = .008) was also observed in the experimental group. Hence, the use of clinical hypnosis as a viable adjunct to medical management is suggested to help to prevent neonatal morbidity and fetal loss. A multicenter randomized, controlled clinical trial is encouraged in this area.

Summary Background Inhaled endotoxin or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is implicated in the pathogenesis of pulmonary diseases. We investigated the inhalation effects of two different doses of LPS in healthy human subjects. Methods Eighteen healthy non-atopic human subjects inhaled either 15μg \( n = 1 0 \) or 50μg \( n = 8 \) Escherichia coli LPS in an open study. As control, each subject had isotonic saline inhalation 1 week before (baseline) and after LPS inhalation. Data collected included those of clinical parameter, induced sputum and peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Results Acute flu-like symptoms and pyrexia were significantly greater in the 50μg than 15μg LPS group. Similarly, the increase in sputum and blood total cell and neutrophil counts at 6h following inhaled LPS were greater in the 50μg group. Myeloperoxidase, human neutrophil elastase and interleukin-8 in sputum sol, but not blood, showed a trend towards greater increase following 50μg LPS. All these changes were resolved at one week. In the 50μg dose group alone, there was a reduction in the proportion of peripheral blood interferon (IFN)- γ -producing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells at 6h followed by an increase at 1 week after inhaled LPS. Conclusions The airway and systemic effects of inhaled LPS are dose-related and predominantly neutrophilic. The changes in the proportions of circulating CD4+ and CD8+ T cells suggests preferential recruitment of IFN- γ -producing T cells into tissue from inhaled 50μg LPS, followed by reappearance of these cells in blood 1 week later.

To evaluate the impact of Down syndrome on the early postoperative outcomes of children undergoing complete atrioventricular septal defect repair.Retrospective cohort study.Single tertiary pediatric cardiac center.All children admitted to PICU following biventricular surgical repair of complete atrioventricular septal defect from January 2004 to December 2009.None.A total of 107 children, 67 with Down syndrome, were included. Children with Down syndrome were operated earlier: 4 months (interquartile range, 3.5-6.6) versus 5.7 months (3-8.4) for Down syndrome and non-Down syndrome groups, respectively (p0.01). There was no early postoperative mortality. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of dysplastic atrioventricular valve between the two groups. Two children (2.9%) from Down syndrome and three children (7.5%) from non-Down syndrome group required early reoperation (p = 0.3). Junctional ectopic tachycardia was the most common arrhythmia, and the prevalence of junctional ectopic tachycardia was similar between the two groups (9% and 10% in Down syndrome and non-Down syndrome, respectively, p = 1). One patient from each group required insertion of permanent pacemaker for complete heart block. Children with Down syndrome had significantly higher prevalence of noncardiac complications, that is, pneumothorax, pleural effusions, and infections (p0.01), than children without Down syndrome. There was a trend for longer duration of mechanical ventilation in children with Down syndrome (41 hr [20-61 hr] vs 27.5 hr [15-62 hr], p = 0.2). However, there was no difference in duration of PICU stay between the two groups (2 d [1.3-3 d] vs 2 d [1-3 d], p = 0.9, respectively).In our study, we found no difference in the prevalence of atrioventricular valve dysplasia between children with and without Down syndrome undergoing complete atrioventricular septal defect repair. This finding contrasts with previously published data, and further confirmatory studies are required. Although clinical outcomes were similar, children with Down syndrome had a significantly higher prevalence of noncardiac complications in the early postoperative period than children without Down syndrome.

176 chromium-exposed and 30 control subjects were selected for this study. Blood samples (3 ml) were collected for the estimation of chromium. The data on chromium concentration indicated a significant higher level of chromium in the blood of the exposed workers as compared to the control. There was no significant correlation between the mean blood and environmental chromium level. This study suggests that exposure to chromium may have some effect on the health of workers, even though the dose response relationship could not be established between blood chromium and environmental chromium levels. This study suggests that exposure to chromium may have some effect on the health of workers, even though the dose response relationship could not be established between blood chromium and environmental chromium levels. Study also indicates that the environmental levels to Cr are well below the permissible levels at all the sites of the industry at the time of survey even though the blood Cr levels were observed high in 14.8% of workers and some of them were having Cr related morbidity. Therefore, preventive and engineering control measures are suggested to minimize the chromium exposure in the chromium based industry located in Gorwa industrial estate at Baroda, Gujarat. About three months period was taken to complete this study.

The prevalence rates and specific risk factors for development of eye conditions among Asian-Pacific Islander schoolchildren are unknown. This information is necessary to understand their eye care needs and to improve access to eye care for this rapidly growing population.Data obtained from a computer database of vision screening examinations conducted by the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic from October 1987 through December 1996 were analyzed for 2,687 Asian-Pacific Islander schoolchildren between 5 and 7 years of age.Myopia (8.9%) and astigmatism (15.8%) represented the majority of visual disorders. Mean myopic refractive error was -1.21 +/- 0.83 D among bilateral myopes. Color-vision deficiency was prevalent among 2.8% of male children, extraocular muscle imbalance among 3.0% of children, and amblyopia among 1.0% of children. All other conditions were present in less than 4% of children screened.Asian-Pacific Islander schoolchildren may be at higher risk for development of juvenile myopia than white, Hispanic, and African-American children. Prevalence rates of other disorders are comparable to those obtained for other ethnic groups. This information can be used in planning to meet the eye care needs of Asian-Pacific Islander schoolchildren.

Glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2) is a 33-aa proglucagon-derived peptide produced by intestinal enteroendocrine cells. GLP-2 stimulates intestinal growth and up-regulates villus height in the small intestine, concomitant with increased crypt cell proliferation and decreased enterocyte apoptosis. Moreover, GLP-2 prevents intestinal hypoplasia resulting from total parenteral nutrition. However, the mechanism underlying these actions has remained unclear. Here we report the cloning and characterization of cDNAs encoding rat and human GLP-2 receptors (GLP-2R), a G protein-coupled receptor superfamily member expressed in the gut and closely related to the glucagon and GLP-1 receptors. The human GLP-2R gene maps to chromosome 17p13.3. Cells expressing the GLP-2R responded to GLP-2, but not GLP-1 or related peptides, with increased cAMP production (EC 50 = 0.58 nM) and displayed saturable high-affinity radioligand binding ( K d = 0.57 nM), which could be displaced by synthetic rat GLP-2 ( K i = 0.06 nM). GLP-2 analogs that activated GLP-2R signal transduction in vitro displayed intestinotrophic activity in vivo . These results strongly suggest that GLP-2, like glucagon and GLP-1, exerts its actions through a distinct and specific novel receptor expressed in its principal target tissue, the gastrointestinal tract.

The molecular basis of general anesthetic action on membrane proteins that control ion transport is not yet understood. In a previous report (Covarrubias, M., and Rubin, E. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 90, 6957-6960), we found that low concentrations of ethanol (17-170mM) selectively inhibited a noninactivating cloned K+ channel encoded by Drosophila Shaw2. Here, we have conducted equilibrium dos-inhibition experiments, single channel recording, and mutagenesis in vitro to study the mechanism underlying the inhibition of Shaw2K+ channels by a homologous series of n-alkanols (ethanol to 1-hexanol). The results showed that: (i) these alcohols inhibited Shaw2 whole-cell currents, the equilibrium dose-inhibition relations were hyperbolic, and competition experiments revealed the presence of a discrete site of action, possibly a hydrophobic pocket; (ii) this pocket may be part of the protein because n-alkanol sensitivity can be transferred to novel hybrid K+ channels composed of Shaw2 subunits and homologous ethanol-insensitive subunits: (iii) moreover, a hydrophobic point mutation within a cytoplasmic loop of an ethanol-insensitive K+ channel (human Kv3.4) was sufficient to allow significant inhibition by n-alkanols, with a dose-inhibition relation that closely resembled that of wildtype Shaw2 channels; and (iv) 1-butanol selectively inhibited long duration single channel openings in a manner consistent with a direct effect on channel gating. These results strongly suggest that a discrete site within the ion channel protein is the primary locus of alcohol and general anesthetic action.

Summary The anaesthetic management of patients undergoing tracheal resection for tracheal stenosis and the advantage of the maintenance of spontaneous respiration without intubation of the distal tracheal segment is discussed. The case reports of two such patients using a continuous intravenous infusion of Althesin with maintenance of spontaneous respiration are presented. The technique expedited the surgical re-anastomosis due to lack of instrumentation in the surgical field. While some mild respiratory depression as evidenced by carbon dioxide retention did occur, the technique is worthy of consideration for the procedure.

Six individuals in three families with a history of suxamethonium sensitivity have been found to have genotype E1kE1s. The biochemical data for the recognition of this genotype have been analysed and the mean values compared with similar parameters for the usual phenotype. Individuals with genotype E1kE1s will be sensitive to suxamethonium.