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After myocardial infarction (MI) the human heart is unable to regenerate lost tissue, leading to scarring, pathological remodeling and progression to heart failure. The study of animal models that can intrinsically regenerate their heart, therefore, offers therapeutic insight into targeting tissue restoration. In 2011, the first evidence of mammalian heart regeneration was reported by Hesham Sadek, Eric Olson and colleagues1. Following surgical resection of ~15% of the left ventricle apex of a oneday old (P1) neonatal mouse, the heart fully regenerated by 21-days post-injury, whereas if the procedure was repeated one week later on a post-natal day 7 (P7) mouse heart, fibrosis and scarring ensued, recapitulating the adult wound-healing response. The mechanism of regeneration observed involved proliferation of resident cardiomyocytes, analogous to that described in the adult zebrafish heart2. Since the original study others have described neonatal myocardial regeneration after alternative insults, such as MI3. However, there is also controversy surrounding the extent of heart regeneration during the first weeks of life, whereby it was reported regeneration did not occur in the P1 heart and was replaced by long-term fibrosis (180 days) with extensive cardiac remodelling4.

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating condition that may ultimately require total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Non-operative treatments are bracing, oral analgesics, physical therapy, and intra-articular knee injection (IAKI). The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review regarding intra-articular treatment of knee OA and insight into promising new products of regenerative medicine that may eventually have a substantial effect on treatment.A literature search was executed using Medline, Cochrane, and Embase with keywords "knee osteoarthritis" and "injection." Specifically, 45 articles that discussed intra-articular knee injection using corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid, analgesics, local anesthetics, and newer products of regenerative medicine, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), were analyzed. Of these, eleven were level 1, three were level 2, twelve were level 3, two were level 4, and seventeen were level 5 evidence. Papers included animal models.Local anesthetics have potential side effects and may only be effective for a few hours. Morphine and ketorolac may provide significant pain relief for 24 hours. Corticosteroids may give patients weeks to months of effective analgesia, but complications may occur, such as systemic hyperglycemia, septic arthritis, and joint degradation . Hyaluronic acid is a natural component of synovial fluid, but efficacy with respect to analgesia is controversial. Platelet-rich plasma formulations, autologous conditioned serum, autologous protein solution, and mesenchymal stem cell injections contain anti-inflammatory molecules and have been proposed to attenuate joint destruction or potentially remodel the joint.Currently, knee OA treatment does not address the progressively inflammatory environment of the joint. More investigation is needed regarding products of regenerative medicine, but they may ultimately have profound implications in the way knee OA is managed.

Whilst lower vertebrate species, such as newt and zebrafish, can regenerate their hearts following substantial injury throughout life, humans and other adult mammals undergo cardiac scarring and remodelling in response to myocardial infarction (MI), which leads to chronic heart failure. However, recent work has identified a 'regenerative window' in mammals such that the 1 day-old mouse (P1) was able to regenerate lost myocardium following MI induced by ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) within three weeks, but an equivalent injury sustained on or after P7 resulted in adult-like wound healing. These findings suggest that developmental cues may be instructive towards regeneration. The epicardium, the outer mesothelial lining of the heart, is an important source of cardiovascular cells and signals that respectively contribute directly to the major lineages of the forming heart and instruct muscle growth during heart development. Under normal conditions, the epicardium is quiescent in the adult heart, but is activated upon injury and can be ectopically stimulated to contribute to neovascularisation and myocardial repair in infarcted adult mouse hearts. Furthermore, organ-wide activation of the epicardium underpins zebrafish heart regeneration, functioning, in part, to contribute a vascular niche and regulate cardiomyocyte cell-cycle re-entry and proliferation. We, therefore, hypothesised that epicardial signalling may also influence heart regeneration in neonatal mice. The aims of this project were to 1) establish the neonatal MI injury model in-house; 2) confirm and characterise neonatal mouse heart regeneration by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and 3) investigate the role(s) of the epicardium and epicardial signalling in mammalian heart regeneration. In addressing these aims, novel anaesthetic and aseptic protocols were designed to refine cardiothoracic surgery in neonatal mice and establish the injury model. A protocol for MRI assessment of heart regeneration in neonatal mice was also established. Consistent with previous reports, we observed significant, although incomplete myocardial regeneration after 21 days with limited anterior wall scarring when MI was induced at P1, compared to significant collagen deposition and remodelling following MI at P7. Epicardial potential was lost coincident with closure of the 'regenerative window' and the epicardial response following injury induced at regenerative (P1) and reparative (P7) time-points was documented via retinoic acid signalling as a key developmental epicardial mitogen. This work furthers our understanding of the cell and molecular mediators of regeneration in neonatal mice, and may lead to therapeutic strategies for amplifying the regenerative response of adult mammalian hearts to injury.

Knotted ureteral stent is rare yet tedious complication that might represent a treatment challenge to the endourologist. Only twelve cases of knotted stent have been reported. Different management options have been reported, including simple traction, ureteroscopy, percutaneous removal, and open surgery. In this paper, we present the successful untying of the knot using ureteroscopy with holmium laser.

Knotted ureteral stent is rare yet tedious complication that might represent a treatment challenge to the endourologist. Only twelve cases of knotted stent have been reported. Different management options have been reported, including simple traction, ureteroscopy, percutaneous removal, and open surgery. In this paper, we present the successful untying of the knot using ureteroscopy with holmium laser.

Text entry on mobile devices (e.g. phones and PDAs) has been a research challenge since devices shrank below laptop size: mobile devices are simply too small to have a traditional full-size keyboard. There has been a profusion of research into text entry techniques for smaller keyboards and touch screens: some of which have become mainstream, while others have not lived up to early expectations. As the mobile phone industry moves to mainstream touch screen interaction we will review the range of input techniques for mobiles, together with evaluations that have taken place to assess their validity: from theoretical modelling through to formal usability experiments. We also report initial results on iPhone text entry speed.

This paper reports on an initial study into the use of haptic (or touch) technology in the training of veterinary students. One major problem faced in veterinary education is that animals can be harmed by inexperienced students who are trying to learn the skills they need. The aim of the work described here is to provide haptic models to simulate internal examinations of horses so that students can learn the basic skills required on computer and then transfer to real animals with much less risk of doing them injury.