Vade Mecum Research Articles

Nonneoplastic pathology of the appendix: A review article, based on the recent literature.

The appendix, although considered a vestigial organ, is of considerable clinical importance because acute appendicitis is a common medical problem. There are also other disease processes involving the appendix. The appendix is among the first specimens that the pathologist (and surgeon) cuts one's teeth on. Thus, there may be a tendency to underestimate the clinically and prognostically significant appendiceal pathologies. We provide a vade mecum of the pathologic features of a wide range of nonneoplastic appendiceal pathologies, with an emphasis on developing a practical approach to grossing, microscopy, and reporting-all with clinical and therapeutic implications. Much of this is based on literature on MEDLINE with reference to years 2008 to 2023, as well as on personal experiences and interpretations. The appendix can harbor a myriad of nonneoplastic pathologies, including infections, inflammations of varying etiologies (including interval appendectomy), endometriosis, diverticulosis, and so on. Chronic appendicitis, Crohn disease, and clinical audit are recurring themes while COVID-19 is a new entity. Most importantly, all pathologists should appreciate that the appendix is not as "routine" a specimen as one would want to believe.

Interaction of Au(III) with amino acids: a vade mecum for medicinal chemistry and nanotechnology.

Au(III) is highly reactive. At odds with its reduced counterpart, Au(I), it is hardly present in structural databases. And yet, it is the starting reactant to form gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) and the constitutive component of a new class of drugs. Its reactivity is a world apart from that of the iso-electronic Pt(II) species. Rather than DNA, it targets proteins. Its interaction with amino acid residues is manifold. It can strongly interact with the residue backbones, amino acid side chains and protein ends, it can form appropriate complexes whose stabilization energy reaches up to more than 40 kcal mol-1, it can affect the pKa of amino acid residues, and it can promote charge transfer from the residues to the amount that it is reduced. Here, quantum chemical calculations provide quantitative information on all the processes where Au(III) can be involved. A myriad of structural arrangements are examined in order to determine the strongest interactions and quantify the amount of charge transfer between protonated and deprotonated residues and Au(III). The calculated interaction energies of the amino acid side chains with Au(III) quantitatively reproduce the experimental tendency of Au(III) to interact with selenocysteine, cysteine and histidine and negatively charged amino acids such as Glu and Asp. Also, aromatic residues such as tyrosine and tryptophan strongly interact with Au(III). In proteins, basic pH plays a role in the deprotonation of cysteine, lysine and tyrosine and strongly increases the binding affinity of Au(III) toward these amino acids. The amino acid residues in the protein can also trigger the reduction of Au(III) ions. Sulfur-containing amino acids (cysteine and methionine) and selenocysteine provide almost one electron to Au(III) upon binding. Tyrosine also shows a considerable tendency to act as a reductant. Other amino acids, commonly identified in Au-protein adducts, such as Ser, Trp, Thr, Gln, Glu, Asn, Asp, Lys, Arg and His, possess a notable reducing power toward Au(III). These results and their discussion form a vade mecum that can find application in medicinal chemistry and nanotech applications of Au(III).

Gershom Bulkeley, “Saltbox Science,” and the Colonial New England Laboratory

This article investigates the prolific colonial New England alchemist and physician Gershom Bulkeley (1635/36–1713) and his late seventeenth-century household laboratory. First, I provide an updated bibliography and biography of Bulkeley and then engage an assemblage of surviving commonplace and account books, inventories, a vade mecum, and several books discovered to have been previously owned by Bulkeley. In order to understand Bulkeley’s laboratory, I coin the term “saltbox science,” arguing that his work combined European textual knowledge and temporal and material adaptations within the colonial household and town. I describe first his creative flexibility in regard to the construction of laboratory furnaces that were based on designs initially gained from Europeans. Thereafter, I demonstrate how his laboratory practice was embedded within his household and his town’s temporal rhythms and material networks. Bulkeley’s “saltbox science” is meant to serve as a template for understanding a certain domestic class of seventeenth-century colonial New England alchemists who, in general, leave behind little archival evidence of their laboratory activities.

A vade mecum for crossing the second translational "valley of death" in brain tumor classification.

A vade mecum for crossing the second translational "valley of death" in brain tumor classification.

Emergence and History

Emergence and History

Saint Sophrony Sakharov’s Vade Mecum towards the Divine Light

The present study aims to capitalise on Saint Sophrony Sakharov’s theological/mystical view of experiencing the divine Light, which the Essex Abbot construes as an aspiration to be pursued by any Christian, not only by spiritual elites. For this reason, the experience, and exhortations of Saint Silouan’s disciple as to the believer’s partaking in God’s uncreated Light can become for contemporary man a vade mecum adapted to the spiritual requirements and realities of our time. The drafting of these spiritual guidelines will be based on the writings of St. Sophrony (especially We Shall See Him as He Is) and the testimonies of his direct disciples and of those who assumed his way of life in the light of Jesus Christ (Zacharias Zacharou, Hierotheos Vlachos, Neacşu Nathanael, and Maxime Egger). We believe that our effort to capitalise on the mystical experience of St. Sophrony will enable the reader to access the knowledge required to understand how one may come to partake in the divine Light.

Needle Configuration and Application in Cosmetic and Medical Tattooing.

Needles, machines, and techniques used for professional cosmetic and medical tattooing have reached a high level of sophistication. Best utensils are combined with operator's insight - the key to best results. Nowadays, a broad range of different tattoo needles serving different purposes are available. The chapter reviews round, flat, triangular, magnum, nano, polished, textured needles, etc. and their coding and preferred use in practice. The chapter is intended to be the vade mecum for practitioners in the field, the newcomer as well as the experienced, in private setting as well as in hospital.

Letter to the Coeditors: Toward an Architectonic in Academic Advising: Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising (2nd Edition)

Letter to the Coeditors: Toward an Architectonic in Academic Advising: <i>Scholarly Inquiry in Academic Advising (2nd Edition)</i>

Saña y codicia como conceptos rectores de la miscelánea castellana del ms. Salamanca, Biblioteca Universitaria, 1877

Abstract Salamanca, University Library, MS 1877 (1469–1470) is a miscellany made up of genetically independent works, all in Castilian: the Fuero real by Alfonso X; a translation of the Barlaam et Josaphat; sayings of the desert fathers taken from the Vitae patrum of Pelagius and John; a translation of John of Rupescissa’s Vade mecum in tribulatione; segments of three French Arthurian romances (Libro de Josep Abarimatia, Estoria de Merlín and Lançarote); a short catechism with no known direct source. But it is also miscellaneous because, as usually occurs in these compilations, the collected works belong to different textual genres: code of law; oriental didactic literature; hagiographic and apocalyptic discourses; Arthurian romance; catechetical compendium. Taking materialist philology as a theoretical framework, this article will propose a unitary reading of the manuscript from the hypothesis that among its dissimilar components there are semantic ties that give it a specific coherence and meaning. We will claim that the codex explores a series of exemplary variations destined to reprove the excess of irascible (saña) and concupiscible (codicia) appetites that those who dedicate themselves to active life tend to experience against the virtues of justice and prudence that are essential to access contemplative life.

The New Jewish Question

AbstractIn this article I attempt to lay out at least the bones of an argument for a shift in the terms of world Jewish life. Against the Hobson’s choice of “religion” or “state,” I offer an older paradigm of diaspora nation, the Yiddishe Folk. Because I am opposed to both the mononational state and cosmopolitanism (of the classic Appiah-like variety), I work out a description (not fully defined) of diaspora that comprises dual loyalties, to the place where I am and especially its oppressed people and to others of my nation scattered in many places (ideally!). This statement constitutes a vade mecum to a longer manifesto to be published by Yale University Press, late in 2022.

Samuel Johnson: Selected Works. Ed. Robert DeMaria Jr., Stephen Fix, and Howard D. Weinbrot.

<i>Samuel Johnson: Selected Works</i>. Ed. Robert DeMaria Jr., Stephen Fix, and Howard D. Weinbrot.

A theory vade mecum for PSI experiments

This article gives a compact introduction and overview of the theory underlying the experiments described in the rest of this review.

EULAR guidelines on ANCA-associated vasculitis in the real life

Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-associated vasculitides (AAVs) are a heterogenous group of inflammatory diseases which primarily involve small vessels and include granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA). They present heterogeneous clinical manifestations, while their diagnosis and management still remain a challenge for clinicians. Nowadays, the treatment is based on two different regimens: the remission-induction treatment and the remission-maintenance treatment. The therapeutic armamentarium has grown over the years, with the aim to lessen adverse effects, improve quality of life of patients and maintain the disease under control. Biological treatments are the future: they act on different pathogenic pathways and may offer in the future a personalized management approach tailored to actual clinical manifestations. The latest guidelines were published in 2015 by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and still represent the vade mecum for the management of AAVs. In this review, we will focus on the principal strategies to treat AAVs. We discuss the remission-induction therapy and the remission- maintenance therapy; we have also distinguished the management of GPA and MPA from that of EGPA, because of their different clinical pictures.

Review of Hill (2019): The Historical Phonology of Tibetan, Burmese, and Chinese

Abstract The book under review serves as a significant contribution to the field of Trans-Himalayan linguistics. Designed as a vade mecum for readers with little linguistic background in these three languages, Nathan W. Hill’s work attempts, on the one hand, a systematic exploration of the shared history of Burmese, Tibetan and Chinese, and, on the other, a general introduction to the reader interested in obtaining an overall understanding of the state of the art of the historical phonology of these three languages. Whilst it is acknowledged that the book in question has the potential to be a solid contribution to the field, it is also felt that few minor issues can be also addressed.

Optimization of Multilayered Walls for Building Envelopes Including PCM-Based Composites.

This work proposes a numerical procedure to simulate and optimize the thermal response of a multilayered wallboard system for building envelopes, where each layer can be possibly made of Phase Change Materials (PCM)-based composites to take advantage of their Thermal-Energy Storage (TES) capacity. The simulation step consists in solving the transient heat conduction equation across the whole wallboard using the enthalpy-based finite element method. The weather is described in detail by the Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) of the building location. Taking the TMY as well as the wall azimuth as inputs, EnergyPlusTM is used to define the convective boundary conditions at the external surface of the wall. For each layer, the material is chosen from a predefined vade mecum, including several PCM-based composites developed at the Institut für Werkstoffe im Bauwesen of TU Darmstadt together with standard insulating materials (i.e., EPS or Rockwool). Finally, the optimization step consists in using genetic algorithms to determine the stacking sequence of materials across the wallboard to minimize the undesired heat loads. The current simulation-based optimization procedure is applied to the design of envelopes for minimal undesired heat losses and gains in two locations with considerably different weather conditions, viz. Sauce Viejo in Argentina and Frankfurt in Germany. In general, for each location and all the considered orientations (north, east, south and west), optimal results consist of EPS walls containing a thin layer made of the PCM-based composite with highest TES capacity, placed near the middle of the wall and closer to the internal surface.

The dawn of the future: 30 years from the first biopsy of a human embryo. The detailed history of an ongoing revolution

Following early studies showing no adverse effects, cleavage stage biopsy by zona drilling using acid Tyrode's solution, and removal of single blastomeres for preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) and identification of sex in couples at risk of X-linked disease, was performed by Handyside and colleagues in late 1989, and pregnancies reported in 1990. This method was later used for specific diagnosis of monogenic conditions, and a few years later also for chromosomal structural and/or numerical impairments, thereby establishing a valuable alternative option to prenatal diagnosis. This revolutionary approach in clinical embryology spread worldwide, and several other embryo biopsy strategies developed over three decades in a process that is still ongoing. The rationale of this narrative review is to outline the different biopsy approaches implemented across the years in the workflow of the IVF clinics that provided PGT: their establishment, the first clinical experiences, their downsides, evolution, improvement and standardization. The history ends with a glimpse of the future: minimally/non-invasive PGT and experimental embryo micromanipulation protocols. This grand theme review outlines a timeline of the evolution of embryo biopsy protocols, whose implementation is increasing worldwide together with the increasing application of PGT techniques in IVF. It represents a vade mecum especially for the past, present and upcoming operators and experts in this field to (re)live this history from its dawn to its most likely future.

Retirement: An idiosyncratic vade mecum

Many physicians tend to regard their upcoming retirement with great trepidation. They are worried that after years of productive activity they will become useless and lose all their connections with medicine. This essay will try to impress on readers that this way of thinking is absolutely incorrect, and it will provide some personal insights regarding the retirement process. These will address why I retired (due to governmental interference), how I felt before I retired (pretty lousy), and how I felt after closing my practice (really liberated). I’ve also included some thoughts on how to minimize aggravation when shuttering a practice, as well as suggestions on how to remain active in medicine. Some reflections on staying fulfilled during postretirement are presented, ranging from making an effort to teach colleagues and young physicians (the most important project), lots of omnivorous reading (the second most important pastime), continuing medical writing, trying to travel, taking up cooking (truly marvelous!), and generally attempting to fully enjoy the leisure time afforded upon leaving practice. The bottom line is that retirement is not to be dreaded or feared but rather anticipated and enjoyed. For me, it has turned out to be simply delightful and wonderful.

Recent Studies on the Antimicrobial Activity of Transition Metal Complexes of Groups 6–12

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires innovative solutions to counteract new resistance mechanisms emerging and spreading globally in infectious pathogens. Classic organic antibiotics are rapidly exhausting the structural variations available for an effective antimicrobial drug and new compounds emerging from the industrial pharmaceutical pipeline will likely have a short-term and limited impact before the pathogens can adapt. Inorganic and organometallic complexes offer the opportunity to discover and develop new active antimicrobial agents by exploiting their wide range of three-dimensional geometries and virtually infinite design possibilities that can affect their substitution kinetics, charge, lipophilicity, biological targets and modes of action. This review describes recent studies on the antimicrobial activity of transition metal complexes of groups 6–12. It focuses on the effectiveness of the metal complexes in relation to the rich structural chemical variations of the same. The aim is to provide a short vade mecum for the readers interested in the subject that can complement other reviews.

A trustworthy network or a technologically disguised scam

PurposeThe initiation of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin has invoked a general curiosity in the international financial regime. Bitcoin works in a peer-to-peer framework with no third party acting as a monitoring agency. This brings in both positive and negative spirit to the table. Though generic understanding is available, the studies done on bitcoin and blockchain are far and few. The purpose of this paper is to decipher the level of understanding the scientific world has on bitcoin and the underlying blockchain and thereby to find out the pertinent research gaps existing in this field.Design/methodology/approachA biblio-morphological analysis is undertaken which underscores a comprehensive framework characterizing the bitcoin and blockchain literature in terms of dimensions and options. This was developed as a result of extensive scanning of the relevant literature.FindingsThe biblio-morphological analysis broadly outlines the present status of the research on the topic. The morphological analysis brings out the 169 research gaps that exist in the area of bitcoin and underlying blockchain technology. The cross-consistency matrix underscores the fact that this novel technology bears large research potential.Research limitations/implicationsThe biggest contribution of this paper would be to underline the present status of the literature on bitcoin and blockchain technology. This study attempts to make this document a vade mecum for both the industry and the academia in the area of bitcoin and blockchain technology. The blockchain technology and its effects and influences on other disciplines can effectively be explored by taking cues from the gaps identified by this biblio-morphological analysis. Such unique combinations can open up new avenues of research in the broader realm of business and economics.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is a first comprehensive biblio-morphological analysis on bitcoin and underlying blockchain technology, which characterizes blockchain literature and thereby offers to reduce redundant research by delineating the possible avenues in the area of blockchain technology.

Anatomy of scalenovertebral triangle: A vade mecum for clinicians

The thorough anatomical knowledge of scalenovertebral triangle or Triangle of the vertebral artery and its contents is crucial in various neurosurgical procedures such as scalenotomy, stellate ganglion block, direct isolation of proximal vertebral artery and proximal brachial plexus repair. Thirty scalenovertebral triangles of known age and sex were dissected. The morphometry of the triangle and stellate ganglion was done. Various relevant distances were measured for topographical location of neurovascular structures especially stellate ganglion and vertebral artery within the triangle. The mean height and width of the scalenovertebral triangle was 21.7+5.1mm and 19.4+4.4mm respectively. Vertebral artery originated from subclavian artery within the triangle except in one case (left side) where it originated from aortic arch. The mean minimum distance of stellate ganglion from phrenic nerve, scalenus anterior and vertebral origin was 12.6+4.5mm, 12.26+4mm and 2.3+1.3mm respectively. The origin and proximal part of vertebral artery may not be present within the scalenovertebral triangle, thus topographic anatomy of the stellate ganglion is also affected and may cause complications during stellate ganglion block. Stellate ganglion is never located in the lateral or upper third of triangle. Occasionally, the phrenic nerve may cross the triangle, making it unsafe during stellate ganglion block.