A cut above the rest: Trimming as a painless depilatory

Shaving and other modes of epilation can cause undue anxiety, pain, or skin irritation in children. Here, we present hair trimming as a safe, painless, and cost‐effective alternative for patients with unwanted hair which may be performed indefinitely or until the child is old enough to direct management. In select cases, removing unwanted hair using this technique may facilitate dermatologic surveillance.     

Japanese Versus Non-Japanese Patients with Transient Ischemic Attack or Minor Stroke: Subanalysis of TIA registry.org

BackgroundTIAregistry.org is an international cohort of patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) or minor stroke within 7 days before enrollment in the registry. Main analyses of 1-year follow-up data have been reported.⁵ We conducted subanalysis on the baseline and 1-year follow-up data of Japanese patients.MethodsThe patients were classified into 2 groups based on Japanese ethnicity, Japanese (345) and non-Japanese (3238), and their baseline data and 1-year event rates were compared. We also determined risk factors and predictors of 1-year stroke.ResultsCurrent smoking, regular alcohol drinking, intracranial arterial stenosis, and small vessel occlusion; and hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, and extracranial arterial stenosis were more and less common among Japanese patients, respectively. Stroke risk was higher and TIA risk was lower at 1-year follow-up among Japanese patients. The baseline risk factors for recurrent stroke were diabetes, alcohol drinking, and large artery atherosclerosis. Independent predictors of 1-year stroke risk were prior congestive heart failure and alcohol consumption.ConclusionsThe two populations of patients featured differences in risk factors, stroke subtypes, and outcome events. Predictors of recurrent stroke among Japanese patients included congestive heart failure and regular alcohol drinking. Strategies to attenuate residual risk of stroke aside from adherence to current guidelines should take our Japanese-patient specific findings into account.     

Experimental evaluation of three osteosynthesis devices used for stabilizing condylar fractures of the mandible.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of the study is to evaluate experimentally the quality of the primary stability achieved in treating low subcondylar fractures by means of three different osteosynthesis devices. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The devices, a standard four-hole plate, an axial lag screw and a three-dimensional rectangular plate were tested on fresh isolated human mandibles. Testing was done on a test bench by reproducing static biting exercises between the first molars on the side of the fracture. The quality of the osteosynthesis was assessed by measuring the macroscopic amount of fragment displacement and on the device's ability to diffuse the mechanical strain within the fractured area by photoelastic stress analysis. RESULTS: The straight plates provided the worst restoration. This was explained by the unfavourable position of the plate along compression lines. The axial lag screws allowed average stability. This was due to the difficulty of intra-medullary positioning of the screw, and by the compression of the fracture line. Rectangular plates allowed good stability associated with rather good restitution of the strains. These good results were assigned to the shape of the plate, one of its arms approximating the tensile strain lines. CONCLUSION: Positioning and shape of the osteosynthesis device are of prime importance for condylar fracture stabilization. None of the three tested devices was optimal but the three-dimensional plate was the best. There is a need to develop the geometry of new plates.     

Motivated behavior and the estrous cycle in rats

(1) The estrous cycle in the rat may be used to study recurrent changes in motor behaviors and motivation which are strongly related to cyclic hormonal and CNS changes. (2) The peak in motivated behaviors occurs during a sharply defined period on the night between proestrus and estrus and is evident in facilitated wheel-running, lordosis, and intracranial self-stimulation. (3) Behaviors without a clearly motivated character do not show an estrous cyclicity. (4) The estrous cyclic variation in intracranial self-stimulation was observed at a specific locus — the pars campacta of the substantia nigra. (5) A neurochemical link between sexually motivated behavior, wheel running and intracranial self-stimulation is suggested. This link is in part dopaminergic but is probably also activated by many other systems.     

Neurobiology of obsessive compulsive disorder--a serotonergic basis of Freudian repression

Intrusive thoughts and images, often of a violent, horrific, or blasphemous nature are the hallmark of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD patients frequently also often have reductions in normal serotonergic (5-HT) function. This paper proposes a model of 5-HT function involving the routine filtering and suppression of violent or libidinal impulses. This model accounts for OCD as an instance of failed inhibition. The model also appears to resemble Freud's model of ego-id interactions at least in part, suggesting that it may be possible to psychobiologically substantiate a Freudian metaphor.     

Local demineralization as a model for bone strength reductions in lytic transcortical metastatic lesions.

The structural consequences of bone density changes associated with lytic metastatic lesions were investigated using an experimental model of regular, lytic metastatic lesions in bone. Circular holes were drilled in the mid-diaphyseal cortex of paired adult canine femora. The region around the defect was demineralized in one bone of each pair with 0.8 N HCl. Specimens were tested to failure in four-point bending. Defect size was determined from conventional planar radiographs as the maximum apparent defect diameter divided by the periosteal diameter. Demineralization resulted in irregular defect geometries, which increased the maximum defect dimension 33% to 57% with respect to the original drill hole diameter. Demineralization resulted in additional strength reductions beyond those expected from the original drill hole alone. Despite the irregular demineralization patterns observed, strength reductions were in close agreement with those predicted from data for regular, nondemineralized holes (r2 = 0.93). The results demonstrate that irregular diaphyseal defect borders may not require more complex fracture risk predictors than can be determined from analytic and experimental studies of regular defect geometries. Our results also demonstrate that errors of over 100% can occur when measuring diaphyseal defect size from radiographs that are not optimally aligned with respect to the defect.