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PubMed2006

Ultrasonic flowmeters: half-century progress report, 1955-2005.

Ultrasonic flowmeters are one of the fastest-growing technologies within the general field of instruments for process monitoring, measurement and control. Today, acoustic/ultrasonic flowmeters utilize clamp-on and wetted transducers, single and multiple paths, paths on and off the diameter, passive and active principles, contrapropagating transmission, reflection (Doppler), tag correlation, vortex shedding, liquid level sensing of open channel flow or flow in partially-full conduits, and other interactions. Ultrasonic flowmeters are applicable to liquids, gases, and multiphase mixtures, but not without limits. However, no single technology, nor one type of interaction within a technology, can be best for all fluids, occasions and situations. Users who select a particular type of ultrasonic flowmeter over one based on a competing (nonultrasonic) technology often do so for one (or more) of the following reasons: ultrasonic equipment provides a useful measurement whether the fluid is single-phase or not single-phase; equipment is easy to use; flow regime can be laminar, transitional or turbulent; transducers are totally external (no penetration of the pressure boundary); transducers, if not clamp-on, are minimally invasive; no excess pressure drop; when certain conditions are met, accuracy can be better than 0.5%; fast (ms) response; reliable despite temperature extremes; reasonable purchase price, installation, operating and maintenance costs. Sometimes mass flowrate is obtainable. Energy flowrate might be achieved for natural gas and biogas in the near future. How did ultrasonic flowmeters advance in the past fifty years to support such claims? This paper tries to answer this question by looking at ultrasonic flowmeter inventions and publications since 1955, to see how four key problems were solved.

Blood Flow Velocity↗
PubMed2005

Application of angiogenic factors for therapy of erectile dysfunction: protein and DNA transfer of VEGF 165 into the rat penis.

OBJECTIVES: To establish a laboratory animal model for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) transfer in the rat penis to invent a curative therapy for erectile dysfunction (ED). Vascular insufficiency is a common pathomechanism of ED. Previous investigations have shown neovascularization of ischemic organs after gene transfer of VEGF. METHODS: For VEGF-protein transfer, osmotic pumps were connected to the renal arteries of rats. The pumps were filled with human VEGF 165 protein (n = 20) or sterile saline (n = 20). After 28 days, a VEGF serum immunoassay was performed to document successful delivery. For VEGF-DNA transfer, liposome complexes containing VEGF 165 expression vectors were injected into rat corpora cavernosa. After immunostaining, computerized image analysis was performed to quantify the percentage of area (within the corpora cavernosa) covered by smooth muscle or endothelial cells. RESULTS: The immunoassay of the VEGF-protein transfer showed a 10-fold greater VEGF concentration in the serum of rats carrying VEGF pumps than in the control group. In the VEGF-DNA transfer, the penes transfected with VEGF 165 vectors showed a 283-bp polymerase chain reaction product according to specific primers for human VEGF. Although statistical trends were measured in the VEGF protein-treated group, no statistically significant difference in smooth muscle or endothelial cell content was found between the control and VEGF-treated rats. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings have established proof of principle for successful delivery of VEGF protein and VEGF-DNA transfer in the rat penis. This study was a prelude to attempt to manipulate genetically expression of angiogenic factors in insufficient erectile tissue as a curative therapy for ED.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

The origin of viruses and their possible roles in major evolutionary transitions.

Viruses infecting cells from the three domains of life, Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya, share homologous features, suggesting that viruses originated very early in the evolution of life. The three current hypotheses for virus origin, e.g. the virus first, the escape and the reduction hypotheses are revisited in this new framework. Theoretical considerations suggest that RNA viruses may have originated in the nucleoprotein world by escape or reduction from RNA-cells, whereas DNA viruses (at least some of them) might have evolved directly from RNA viruses. The antiquity of viruses can explain why most viral proteins have no cellular homologues or only distantly related ones. Viral proteins have replaced the ancestral bacterial RNA/DNA polymerases and primase during mitochondrial evolution. It has been suggested that replacement of cellular proteins by viral ones also occurred in early evolution of the DNA replication apparatus and/or that some DNA replication proteins originated directly in the virosphere and were later on transferred to cellular organisms. According to these new hypotheses, viruses played a critical role in major evolutionary transitions, such as the invention of DNA and DNA replication mechanisms, the formation of the three domains of life, or else, the origin of the eukaryotic nucleus.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2006

The S. purpuratus genome: a comparative perspective.

The predicted gene models derived from the sea urchin genome were compared to the gene catalogs derived from other completed genomes. The models were categorized by their best match to conserved protein domains. Identification of potential orthologs and assignment of sea urchin gene models to groups of homologous genes was accomplished by BLAST alignment and through the use of a clustering algorithm. For the first time, an overview of the sea urchin genetic toolkit emerges and by extension a more precise view of the features shared among the gene catalogs that characterize the super-clades of animals: metazoans, bilaterians, chordate and non-chordate deuterostomes, ecdysozoan and lophotrochozoan protostomes. About one third of the 40 most prevalent domains in the sea urchin gene models are not as abundant in the other genomes and thus constitute expansions that are specific at least to sea urchins if not to all echinoderms. A number of homologous groups of genes previously restricted to vertebrates have sea urchin representatives thus expanding the deuterostome complement. Obversely, the absence of representatives in the sea urchin confirms a number of chordate specific inventions. The specific complement of genes in the sea urchin genome results largely from minor expansions and contractions of existing families already found in the common metazoan "toolkit" of genes. However, several striking expansions shed light on how the sea urchin lives and develops.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Regio- and stereospecific analysis of glycerolipids.

In recent years researchers have recognized the potential value of comprehensive lipid profiling (lipidomics), which was invented and promoted by lipidologists who recognized the many valuable applications that grew out of the fields of DNA profiling (genomics) and protein profiling (proteonomics). Through lipid class-selective intrasource ionization and subsequent analysis of two-dimensional cross-peak intensities, the chemical identity and mass composition of individual molecular species of most lipid classes can now be determined in a chloroform extract. There remains, however, the necessity to distinguish the enantiomers and isobaric regioisomers resulting from enzymatic and chemical reactions, which conventional high performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) has been slow to accommodate, and tandem MS unable to provide. While reversed-phase HPLC can separate regioisomers, normal-phase HPLC can resolve diastereomers, and chiral-phase HPLC can effect dramatic resolution of enantiomers, the full potential of the combined systems has seldom been exploited. The present chapter calls attention to both recent and earlier combinations of these methodologies with mass spectrometry, which allows the HPLC/ESI (electrospray ionization)-MS/MS separation and identification of enantiomeric diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, and glycerophospholipids as well as their isobaric regioisomers. These developments permit further expansion of lipid profiling (lipidomics) and better understanding of lipid metabolism.

Biochemistry↗
PubMed2004

Interventions fail to increase cancer screening rates in community-based primary care practices.

BACKGROUND: Cancer screening in primary care offices is reaching only a modest percentage of adults 50 years and older. The objectives of this study were to determine if screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer could be significantly increased by two simple office interventions in community-based primary care offices and then maintained over 3 years. METHODS: Twenty-two community-based primary care practices were divided randomly into four arms: control, practice-based intervention, patient-based intervention, and both interventions combined. At baseline and annually for 3 years, medical records from approximately 100 male and 100 female patients 50 years and older were randomly selected. The outcome measures were screening rates for mammogram, Pap smear, fecal occult blood test, and flexible sigmoidoscopy or other colonic imaging. RESULTS: Generally each study arm evidenced a significant 1-year increase in screening rates, followed by an overall decline to approximate baseline levels. The first year increases in screening were not related to either invention, alone or in combination. CONCLUSIONS: These interventions do not have a significant impact on cancer screening rates in adults over several years. A variety of possible variables may have affected the long-term outcomes.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Comparison of the factors that influence obesity prevalence in three district municipalities of the same city with different socioeconomical status: a survey analysis in an urban Turkish population.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the obesity status, factors and comorbidities related to it in three district municipalities (DM) that compose city center of Bursa with inhabitants of different socioeconomic status. METHODS: A total of 1632 inhabitants >/=18 years of age were interviewed. The number of sample in each DM was obtained proportional to their populations by stratified sampling method. Among 1632, a total of 1543 subjects were included by random sampling and a questionnaire was filled in including demographic, social and behavioral features. RESULTS: The participants living in DM with the highest socioeconomical status (SES) score and level of education had the lowest body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (%BF) compared to other DMs. The lowest obesity prevalence (30.8% vs. 36.4% and 39.3%) in that DM was possibly due to younger age, lower female ratio, more active professional, higher percentage of smoking, more consumption of vegetables, olive or corn oil, and less carbohydrate. For the evaluation of the factors that may influence obesity risk, we investigated the effects of these factors in men and women separately with logistic regression model. Sedentary life style and dyslipidemia (DL) in men, being unemployed, having lower level of education and having hypertension (HT) in women and familial obesity in both gender were found to be related to increased obesity risk. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of obesity in Bursa is increasing although inhabitants are taking some precautions parallel to their socioeconomical and educational levels. Obesity is becoming a more alarming public health problem in Bursa and Turkey like in most other parts of the world, which forces us to invent new prevention policies. Besides, the results of our study highlight the fact that especially female education requires more attention for decreasing obesity prevalence in coming generations.

Cross-Sectional Studies↗
PubMed2000

The first modern operating room in America.

The modern OR was a vital addition to aseptic technique and essential to the development of invasive surgery, and many people do not realize that it needed to be "invented." Gustav Neuber, William S. Halsted, Charles McBurney, and others pioneered the necessary changes in practices and the environment to protect the patient from infection. This article presents the history behind the evolvement of the modern OR and discusses changes in the structures of some facilities as awareness increased about the principles of asepsis.

Facility Design and Construction↗
PubMed1999

Entrepreneurship--transforming a perioperative problem into a product solution.

No one is more capable of identifying problems related to health care than health care practitioners. Identifying a problem is the first step to every new product or invention. This article provides step-by-step information to help health care practitioners identify problems and possible solutions, look for a creative company to bring the solution to the marketplace, and present the product idea to potential industry partners. The author also discusses the legal aspects of product development and the advantages and disadvantages of licensing a new product or starting a business to develop a product.

Entrepreneurship↗
PubMed1996

Radioiodine and thyroid disease: the beginning.

In 1936, Karl Compton, then president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the thyroid group of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), undertook a joint study that led to the production of small amounts of short-lived radioiodine (iodine 128, half-life, 25 min). The original intent was to use it for diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease, but in order to explore the underlying physiology, their first work was performed in rabbits and published in 1938. It clearly showed that the radioiodine was selectively and avidly taken up by the thyroid gland. It was immediately apparent to the MGH-MIT group and another team working at the Berkeley, CA cyclotron that longer-lasting iodine isotopes were needed, and soon both developed procedures for cyclotron-produced 130 (half-life, 12.5 hr) and 131I (half-life, 8 d). In 1939, the Berkeley group, using 131I, was the first to show that the normal human thyroid gland accumulated radioiodine. By 1941, the MGH-MIT team, using mainly 130I, was able to successfully treat a few patients with hyperthyroidism, and so achieved their original goal. The Berkeley group did the same a few months later, using mainly 131I. Both presented results at the same meeting of the American Society for Clinical Investigation in Atlantic City, NJ in the spring of 1942. This was in the midst of World War II and it was not easy to get much 130I or 131I, so experience was limited. Although effective, radioiodine treatment of hyperthyroidism had not been widely adopted by the end of the war in 1945, partly because radioiodine remained in short supply and partly because another medical therapy for hyperthyroidism, antithyroid drugs, had been invented. However, by 1946, fission-derived radioiodine became readily available as a by-product of the Manhattan project in Oak Ridge, TN; hundreds of patients were treated within a few years, both for hyperthyroidism and for thyroid cancer. A new treatment, based on the physiological application of a radioisotope of iodine, was then a reality.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Rational design and engineering of delivery systems for therapeutics: biomedical exercises in colloid and surface science.

Engineering delivery systems of therapeutic agents has grown into an independent field, transcending the scope of traditional disciplines and capturing the interest of both academic and industrial research. At the same time, the acceleration in the discovery of new therapeutic moieties (chemical, biological, genetic and radiological) has led to an increasing demand for delivery systems capable of protecting, transporting, and selectively depositing those therapeutic agents to desired sites. The vast majority of delivery systems physically reside in the colloidal domain, while their surface properties and interfacial interactions with the biological milieu critically determine the pharmacological profiles of the delivered therapeutic agents. Interestingly though, the colloidal and surface properties of delivery systems are commonly overlooked in view of the predominant attention placed on the therapeutic effectiveness achieved. Moreover, the development and evaluation of novel delivery systems towards clinical use is often progressed by serendipity rather than a systematic design process, often leading to failure. The present article will attempt to illustrate the colloid and interfacial perspective of a delivery event, as well as exemplify the vast opportunities offered by treating, analysing and manipulating delivery systems as colloidal systems. Exploring and defining the colloid and surface nature of the interactions taking place between the biological moieties in the body and an administered delivery vehicle will allow for the rational engineering of effective delivery systems. A design scheme is also proposed on the way in which the engineering of advanced delivery systems should be practiced towards their transformation from laboratory inventions to clinically viable therapeutics. Lastly, three case studies are presented, demonstrating how rational manipulation of the colloidal and surface properties of delivery systems can lead to newly engineered systems relevant to chemotherapy, gene therapy and radiotherapy.

Biomedical Engineering↗
PubMed1987

Contraception: an overview.

In this century, paramount progress has been made in many areas of medicine, not least in the field of contraception, with landmarks such as the introduction of intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUDs), hormonal contraceptives (OCs), and laparoscopic sterilization. The general optimism of the 1960s about overcoming the problems of global overpopulation with these new tools has subsequently been replaced by growing concern about the risks of contraception in general and of OCs especially. It was not before the 1980s that the benefit-risk balance of hormonal contraception turned out to be much more favorable than was formerly suspected. The wide variation from country to country in the prevalence of contraceptive methods has economic, political, religious, sociological, educational, and legal rather than medical reasons. Former misjudgments have led to a ban on valuable tools such as the sequential regimen or the use of 17-acetoxyprogestogen analogues as components in OCs, or to a ban on the licensing of depot progestogens in some countries but not in others. The recent decision of U.S. firms to cease production and sale of IUDs for legal reasons is unique and hopefully will not be imitated elsewhere. Just after the introduction of oral contraception, tremendous inventive dynamics led to the discovery of several new contraceptive principles. Most of these have reached the stage of clinical application and are being used satisfactorily, at least in some parts of the world. Later contraceptive concepts are still in the stage of experimentation and no breakthrough appears to be directly ahead. If contraception means more than just meeting individual wants--if it is also to be an instrument for handling the increasing problems of overpopulation--then much more must be done to deepen our knowledge of reproductive physiology, to popularize efficient means of contraception, and to make them available to everyone. Otherwise, all efforts to improve health standards throughout the world according to the "WHO Global Strategy for Health for All by the Year 2000" will be in vain.

Contraception↗
PubMed2000

The last fifty years of neonatal surgical management.

Neonatal surgical mortality has steadily fallen over the last five decades. Improved survival does not appear to be related to the introduction of new operative procedures. Most of the basic procedures were developed by 1960. Eight developments appear to be responsible: (1) The growth of pediatric surgery resulted in widespread availability of neonatal surgeons and dissemination of knowledge about newborn surgical emergencies. (2) The parallel growth of pediatric anesthesia, beginning in 1946, provided specialized intraoperative management of the neonate. (3) Understanding neonatal physiology is the key to successful management; major advances occurred between 1950 and 1970. (4) New inventions revolutionized patient care; the transistor (1947) made it possible for medical devices to sense, amplify and control physiologic responses and opened the communication and computer age. (5) Neonatal mechanical ventilation had a prohibitive mortality and was seldom utilized; the development of CPAP and a continuous flow ventilator in the 1970s allowed safe ventilatory support. (6) Total parenteral nutrition (1968) prevented starvation that frequently affected infants with major anomalies. (7) The effective treatment of infection began with the clinical use of penicillin (1941); antibiotics have reduced mortality but infants suffering from the septic syndrome have a prohibitive mortality; cytokine, proinflammatory agent research, and the development of anti-inflammatory and blocking agents in the 1980s have not affected mortality. (8) The establishment of newborn intensive care units (1960) provided an environment, equipment, and staff for effective physiologic management.

Anesthesia↗
PubMed2001

[Eugene Koebèrlé (1828-1915), founder of modern surgery].

Eugène Koeberlé, surgeon and anatomist gained international renown due to his outstanding ability in resection of ovary cysts and in hysterectomy. He was one of the first to perform these operations successfully. He was a pioneer in asepsis and pre- and postoperative care. He also invented many surgical instruments, among them an efficient hemostatic forceps.

Female↗
PubMed2004

[Adam Politzer (1835-1920) and the Eustachian tube].

Adam Politzer is associated with the Eustachian tube via Politzer's manoeuver or politzerization, a technique of middle ear inflation. In 1863, Politzer invented this technique to assure permeability and pressure equilibrium between the middle ear and the nasopharynx. The technique was progressively improved with clinical experiments and intensively discussed by his colleagues including Josef Gruber. To complete the therapeutic possibilities of his technique, Politzer also proposed a new system of tubal catheterization in 1872. At the end of his life, Politzer completed his research, turning back the clock by publishing a biography of the man who gave his name to the tube: Eustachius. In fact, Politzer was the "Eustachius" of the second half of the 19th century and remains for us the man of the middle ear inflation technique.

Austria↗
PubMed2000

External shunt for off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting: distal coronary perfusion catheter.

We invented a simple external shunt catheter for off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. This catheter maintains coronary perfusion from femoral artery, prevents ischemia, reduces back-bleeding, and acts as a suture guide by preventing accidental missuturing of the posterior coronary wall. The insertion and withdraw technique is easier than intraluminal shunt. This catheter would be a useful tool for myocardial protection during off-pump revascularization.

Cardiac Catheterization↗
PubMed1978

Transapical aortic perfusion with a double-barreled cannula.

The transapical aortic perfusion method is a new approach to cardipulmonary bypass and is performed with an infusion cannula placed in the ascending aorta through the left ventricular apex. The technique is applicable to almost all varieties of open-heart surgery, and is the most efficient method in infants and small children. A double-barreled forked cannula performs the two functions of aortic infusion and left ventricular decompression. With a Bakelite obturator, its cannulation to the aorta is very quick and easy. The transapical aortic perfusion method with a double-barreled cannula has been utilized in 156 open-heart operations with 17 perioperative fatalities and 1 late death. The 138 surviving patients have done well for periods up to four years. The perfusion method was developed from the left heart bypass and assisted circulation technique independently invented by Chardack's group and by us in 1966 and 1969, respectively.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Embedded human computer interaction.

In this paper, human interaction with embedded or ubiquitous technology is considered. The techniques focus on the use of what might be termed "everyday" objects and actions as a means of controlling (or otherwise interacting with) technology. While this paper is not intended to be an exhaustive review, it does present a view of the immediate future of human-computer interaction (HCI) in which users move beyond the desktop to where interacting with technology becomes merged with other activity. At one level this places HCI in the context of other forms of personal and domestic technologies. At another level, this raises questions as to how people will interact with technologies of the future. Until now, HCI had often relied on people learning obscure command sets or learning to recognise words and objects on their computer screen. The most significant advance in HCI (the invention of the WIMP interface) is already some 40 years old. Thus, the future of HCI might be one in which people are encouraged (or at least allowed) to employ the skills that they have developed during their lives in order to interact with technology, rather than being forced to learn and perfect new skills.

Attitude to Computers↗