White Ring Research Articles

Hiding Spot

Hiding Spot Caroline Kim (bio) It was a good hiding spot. Too good. Mrs. Lee stood in her closet with her hands on her hips, squeezing her eyes shut, telling herself to “think, think.” She could almost see it, see herself folding tissue paper around her wedding rings, pushing them down into a blue velvet pouch that also held her wedding pearls and a white jade ring passed down from her mother. Yes, she could almost even feel herself pulling the yellow drawstring tightly closed and putting it all . . . where? In a box? Under something? In something? Scornfully, she remembered congratulating herself for picking such a good hiding spot because no one would think to look there. She felt like a character in a folktale, an old fool, tripped up by her own cleverness. It was only three months ago that she had hidden her jewelry, in the days before she and Mr. Lee went on a cruise to Alaska. They weren’t the vacationing type, but one day while Mr. Lee was reading the Chosun Ilbo online, he saw an ad for a cruise line offering incredible deals. “It’ll feel like we’re losing money if we don’t go,” he said. The only catch was that the cruise left in just a few days from Seattle. No problem. Isn’t this why they’d retired from their dry-cleaning business the year before? They certainly didn’t have to worry about anyone missing them. Not a single person would be affected if they left at a moment’s notice. So they flew from Atlanta to San Francisco to Seattle and spent a week in a tiny, closet-sized room with no windows, disembarking in the mornings to take other, smaller boats out to where they took pictures of melting glaciers and smelly, wild-looking sled dogs. Mr. Lee couldn’t sleep because of the nonstop humming of the ship which Mrs. Lee hardly noticed. While he spent hours lying in their tiny room watching Korean dramas and reading newspapers on his laptop, Mrs. Lee sat out on the top deck watching people brave the chilly air to swim in the pools or sit in the foamy waters of the hot tub, which Mr. Lee called “people soup.” The only good parts were the entertainment and the profligate amount of food on the ship, which Mrs. Lee found unnerving though it did not stop her nor Mr. Lee from stuffing themselves at all hours of the day and night. When they returned home, Mrs. Lee didn’t look for her rings right away. But on the evening they were invited to a dol by the Chois, whose plump grandson was turning one, Mrs. Lee discovered she couldn’t remember where she’d hidden her rings. At first she didn’t worry. Her memory had just turned shy, refusing to reveal what she needed to know when she was too focused on it. This had happened to [End Page 134] her her whole life. Thinking too much about one thing made it flee instead of getting it nailed down. She figured the pouch would turn up eventually when she was looking for something else. But now there was an urgency. She needed to find her rings because Ken had showed up the night before, with a girl, no less. Ken, the son she hadn’t seen for two years. ________ Mrs. Lee moved quietly through the house because Ken and the girl were still sleeping. Mr. Lee was at the YMCA getting in his laps before the pool became crowded. Their new house was a lot smaller than their last; they had downsized a year back after taking a good long look at their finances. But the two of them were fine in a small bungalow with just the two bedrooms, the larger one for sleeping, the smaller one as Mrs. Lee’s craft room, where Ken and his girl were now sleeping. She kept a bookcase of yarn and a sewing machine on a desk in there, a comfortable chair where she knit hats and blankets, sewed baby-sized quilts for her church to donate. But there...

Climate Change and the Spatiotemporal Variation in Survival of a Long-Distance Migrant (White Stork, Ciconia ciconia) across Western Europe

The spatial variation in the strength of climate change may lead to different impacts on migratory birds using different breeding areas across a region. We used a long-term data series of White Stork ring recoveries to study the temporal and spatial variation of annual survival rates of White Stork across western Europe between 1960 and 2009 in relation to climatic and environmental conditions at their breeding and wintering grounds. White Stork survival was estimated from the Cormack–Jolly–Seber (CJS) model using a cohort-based analysis. Our results support that climate change has caused a gradual decline in the survival performance of western European White Storks during the study period. Both the shape and the strength of the relationship between climate warming and survival differ among different life-stages of the individual development, with juvenile White Storks more strongly affected. The decline in survival is particularly marked for those storks breeding in southern Europe. The large-scale effect of climatic conditions identified in this widespread long-distance migrant species represents a highly likely scenario for other migratory birds in Europe.

Coats’ White Ring: The Embellished and Spruced up Iron Remnant in the Cornea

Coats’ white ring can be a common finding in the cornea following incomplete removal of the iron rust ring after ocular trauma with iron particles. Though the finding is common and innocuous, it’s etiology is rarely understood and commonly considered as a corneal opacity following an ocular injury and less recognised as a distinct entity. It can be diagnosed from the history and the typical appearance as a ring of discrete white dots in the subepithelial layers with intact epithelium. Patients are asymptomatic and treatment is not required.

The use of molecular diagnostics of BLV in the study of various biological material

It is known that milk is one of the factors in the transmission of susceptible cattle to retroviral infection, in this case, induced bovine leukemia virus (BLV). On the other hand, one of the most important aspects of studying the biological properties of BLV is the potential ability of the virus to infect xenogenic species of animals, including humans, who consume animal products and are in close contact with cattle. Milk may contain leukocytes with integrated proviral DNA, which produce mature BLV virions and the mature virions themselves, which have come from the bloodstream. The use of molecular diagnostics of this biological material will make it possible to more effectively track contaminated dairy products on farms. However, the detection of BLV proviral DNA in milk is important not only for human health, but also for animals. Since some of the products are used directly on farms, for example for feeding young animals. In regard to this, we have undertaken optimization of the methodology for the study of milk for the presence of proviral DNA of BLV. The article presents the results of the analysis of milk from 5 seropositive cows of the Holstein breed by the method of molecular diagnostics real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR-RT). When optimizing the method of sample preparation of milk, casein and other impurities that are inhibitors of the amplification reaction were removed, in order to reduce their influence, the samples were centrifuged under various conditions. Several nucleic acid isolation techniques were used to extract proviral DNA. Based on the results of the studies, a positive amplification result was recorded in 1 out of 5 animals. At the same time, this positive result was found in test tubes with complementary DNA (cDNA) samples, it means that RNA was isolated both from the "white ring" fraction with white blood cells and monocytes, and from the sediment cells.

Dermoscopy Features of Acquired Perforating Dermatosis Among 39 Patients.

In this report, we concluded there are four dermoscopic features of APD including a yellow-brown homogeneous structureless area in the center of the lesion, dotted and linear vessels distribution radially and a dam shape uplift at the periphery, as well as a white irregular ring surrounding the lesion. There are three features, including the yellow-brown homogeneous structureless area in the center of the lesion, the dotted and linear vessels distribution radially and the white irregular ring surrounding the lesion were correspond to the report of Emma Ormerod et al.These features are also similar to those previously discribed in three separated reports of seven cases with APD. In our report, we found a new dermoscopic features: the dam shape uplift at the periphery. These finding may be contributed to improve the rate of clinical diagnosis of APD.

Digital Cholangioscopic Interpretation: When North Meets the South

Digital single-operator cholangioscopy (DSOC) (SpyGlass DS™, Boston Scientific, MA, USA) allows for high-definition imaging of the biliary tree. The superior visualization has led to the development of two different sets of criteria to evaluate and classify indeterminate biliary strictures: the Monaco criteria and the criteria in Carlos Robles-Medranda's publication (CRM). Our objective was to assess the interrater agreement (IA) of DSOC interpretation for indeterminate biliary strictures using the two newly published criteria. Forty de-identified DSOC video recordings were sent to 15 interventional endoscopists with experience in cholangioscopy. They were asked to score the videos based on the presence of Monaco Classification criteria: stricture, lesion, mucosal changes, papillary projections, ulceration, white linear bands or rings, and vessels. Next, they scored the videos using CRM criteria: villous pattern, polypoid pattern, inflammatory pattern, flat pattern, ulcerate pattern and honeycomb pattern. The endoscopists then diagnosed the recordings as neoplastic or non-neoplastic based on the criteria. Intraclass correlation (ICC) analysis was done to evaluate interrater agreement for both criteria set and final diagnosis. Recordings of 26 malignant lesions and 14 benign lesions were scored. The IA using both the Monaco criteria and CRM criteria ranged from poor to excellent (range 0.1-0.76) and (range 0.1-0.62), respectively. Within the Monaco criteria, IA was excellent for lesion (0.75) and fingerlike papillary projections (0.74); good for tortuous vessels (0.7), mucosal features (0.62), uniform papillary projections (0.53), and ulceration (0.58); and fair for white linear bands (0.4). Within the CRM criteria, the IA was good for villous pattern (0.62), flat pattern (0.62), and honeycomb pattern; fair for ulcerated pattern (0.56), polypoid pattern (0.52) and inflammatory pattern (0.54). The diagnostic IA using Monaco criteria was good (0.65), while the diagnostic IA using CRM was fair (0.58). The overall diagnostic accuracy using the Monaco classification was 61% and CRM criteria were 57%. The IOA and accuracy rate of DSOC using visual criteria from both Monaco Criteria and CRM are similar. However, some criteria from both sets suffer from poor IA, thus affecting the overall diagnostic accuracy. More formal training and refinements in visual criteria with additional validation are needed to improve diagnostic accuracy. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02166099.

Tree ring-reconstructed late summer moisture conditions, 1546 to present, northern Lake Michigan, USA

Drought can affect even humid regions like northeastern North America, which experienced significant, well-documented dry spells in the 1930s, 50s, 60s, and 80s, and proxies tell us that in the years before instrumentally recorded climate, droughts could be even more severe. To get a more complete picture of pre-recorded climate, the spatial coverage of proxy-based climate reconstructions must be extended. This can better put in context past, current, and future climate, and it can lend anthropological and historical insights. With regard to tree rings as climate proxies, however, there is increasing evidence that relationships between tree growth and climate can be inconsistent over time, in some cases decreasing the utility of tree rings in the representation of climate. We developed a chronology from white cedar Thuja occidentalis tree ring widths for the period 1469-2015 C.E. with which we modeled the relationship between growth and July-September moisture conditions (Palmer Z index). The relationship was consistent across the period of instrumentally recorded climate, 1895-present, and the model explained 27% of variability. Therefore, we used the model to reconstruct July-September moisture conditions from 1546-2014. We found the most variable century to be the 20th, the least the 18th. The severest decade-scale droughts (≤0.75 SD from mean) occurred in the 1560s, 1600s/10s, 1630s, 1770s/80s, 1840s, and 1910s/20s, the severest pluvials (≥0.75 SD) in the 1610s/20s, 1660s/70s, and the 1970s/80s. The occasional occurrence of severe droughts throughout the reconstruction, increasing variability in the 20th century, and expected climate change-enhanced late summer drought, portend a future punctuated with severe droughts.

Axenfeld's anomaly with ocular hypertension: A case report and review of literature

Anterior segment dysgenesis refers to a spectrum of developmental anomalies which occurs due to aberration in the migration and differentiation of the neural crest cells. Here, we describe a young male who was referred for ophthalmic evaluation by a general physician with a white ring at the corneo-scleral junction. He had 6/6 vision but with raised intraocular pressure in both eyes. Slit-lamp evaluation revealed posterior embryotoxon and fundus examination showed no optic nerve damage. Gonioscopy revealed a prominent Schwalbe's line with multiple irido-trabecular adhesions suggestive of Axenfeld anomaly. Patients with Axenfeld anomaly are at increased risk of developing glaucoma in late childhood or early adulthood. Patients with such anomalous findings should be evaluated and followed up for glaucoma.

15963 Dermoscopy of early and advanced folliculotropic mycosis fungoides: A correlation of dermoscopic and trichoscopic criteria with clinical features

There are limited data concerning dermoscopic/trichoscopic presentation of folliculotropic mycosis fungoides (FMF).The aim of this study was to analyze dermoscopic/trichoscopic features in FMF patients in relation to lesion morphology and location. The study group included patients diagnosed/treated owing to FMF at the Department of Dermatology, Venereology, and Allergology or the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic (from May 2016 to May 2019). In all patients (n = 6) the diagnosis was made based on clinical and histopathologic criteria. Yellow dots of different size were present in all analyzed cases of FMF. The presence of white peripheral circle (white halo) was more prevalent within the facial and auricular lesions, compared with other anatomic locations. Scalp lesions also revealed yellow dots associated with various anomalies of hair shafts. Yellow dots were most evident in comedogenic lesions, less visible in plaques and tumours, and discrete within the papular/erythematous lesions. In long standing scalp lesions yellow dots became replaced by hairless white/pinkish structureless areas with white dots and/or lines (representing scarring). The vascular pattern (polymorphic vessels/ branched vessels of large diameter) was more evident in plaques and tumours, and more discrete in papules. The present study supports the role of dermoscopy in the diagnosis of FMF. This diagnosis should be taken into consideration in the presence of yellow dots (with or without white peripheral ring) and polymorphic vascular pattern. The details and distribution of these features may differ depending on the lesion location and morphology. Later in the course of disease yellow dots may become replaced with structureless areas and white dots/lines.

Development and productivity of two beet genotypes for fertilization

Beet needs a high demand of nutrients to improve its development and productivity. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of fertilizer forms in the development and productivity of the beet crop. The experiment was carried out in the experimental area of the Fazenda Escola of the Higher Education Center of Campos Gerais, located in the city of Ponta Grossa-PR, between September and November 2018. The experimental design was randomized blocks in a 2x4 factorial scheme [2 genotypes of beet (Boron hybrid and Tall Top Early Wonder cultivar) x 4 forms of fertilization, T1 - control (without fertilization), T2 - poultry litter, T3 - bovine manure and T4 - NPK], containing four repetitions. The harvest was carried out at 75 days after transplanting the seedlings, harvesting five plants from each plot to carry out the analyzes, thus evaluating the number of leaves per plant, height of the aerial part, fresh mass of the aerial part and the root, productivity, horizontal diameter and commercial classification of root, presence of white rings through notes and soluble solids content (ºBrix). Among the different genotypes studied, the cultivar Tall Top Early Wonder was superior in the variables of plant height, fresh mass of roots and leaves and soluble solids, 75 days after transplantation. The cultivar Tall Top Early Wonder responded better, implying the idea that organic fertilization would be an alternative as a source of nutrients in beet production.

Characterization of Maithili duck in middle Gangetic plain of Bihar

A study was conducted in middle Gangetic plain of Bihar to evaluate the smallholder duck production systems in the regions. A total of 70 duck farmers in Bihar were selected for this study. The information were collected by using standard questionnaire and an interview. The majority of the farmers (60%) belonged to middle-aged category. Majority of duck rearers in Bihar rears the duck more than 20 years. The average flock size was 6.1±0.33. Ducks were raised under semi-intensive management system and mostly depend on scavenging for their nutritional needs in the study area. About 88.6% farmers provided some kind of housing for their ducks, usually constructed mainly from simple and locally available materials in their backyard. Farmers did not possess any permanent shelter. Majority of the farmers (94.29%) did not vaccinate against the diseases of ducks due to unavailability. In both drake and duck, body carriage was slightly upright and Bill shape was horizontal. The ducks are raised both for meat and eggs. The average annual egg production per duck was ranged to be 30–60 eggs per annum. The average body weight of drake and duck were 1.40±0.07 and 1.37±0.08 kg, respectively. The predominant plumage colours of the Head, neck, breast, wing, and tail were brown (43.75%), brown and white mix with or without white ring (53.75%), brown (80.00%), brown, black and white mix (57.50%) and brown (40.00%) respectively. The dominant bill colour were yellow (43.75%) and web colour were orange (56.25%) respectively in Maithili duck. Mosaic plumage colour pattern was predominant in Maithili duck of Middle gangetic plain.

Real-Time Detection of Long Lived Near Infrared luminescence from Colourless Cubic Zirconia by Time-Gated Imaging

Here, we report a long-lived ms time scale decay luminescing in the near infrared >800 nm present in productions of ‘white’ colourless, facetted yttrium stabilized cubic zirconia and observed using time-gated imaging. The spectrum of the strong luminescing feature also has characteristics of Neodymium (Nd3+) and has a multiexponential decay behaviour. Real-time detection of cubic zirconia mounted in diamond jewellery containing very small stones (≤0.01 ct) is made possible, where observation by loupe is more challenging or other conventional techniques impractical and or slow to implement. The near infrared observed can be excited using a low-cost and eye/skin safe-visible green LED light source and the time-gated imaging of the luminescence using a machine vision monochrome camera. The use of near infrared, time-gated detection in combination with other verification instruments increases the robustness of screening diamond parcels. Therefore, it is recommended that any stone exhibiting strong delayed luminescence in the near infrared be treated with caution, as this is not a typical feature found in this precious gemstone. In this case, the instrument developed was expanded to incorporate a white LED illumination ring as a viewfinder, in order to aid the inspection of loose and mounted configurations.

Transfer and retention of oculomotor alignment rehabilitation training.

Ocular alignment defects such as strabismus affect around 5% of people and are associated with binocular vision impairments. Current nonsurgical treatments are controversial and have high levels of recidivism. In this study, we developed a rehabilitation method for ocular alignment training and examined the rate of learning, transfer to untrained alignments, and retention over time. Ocular alignment was controlled with a real-time dichoptic feedback paradigm where a static fixation target and white gaze-contingent ring were presented to the dominant eye and a black gaze-contingent ring with no fixation target was presented to the nondominant eye. Observers were required to move their eyes to center the rings on the target, with real-time feedback provided by the size of the rings. Offsetting the ring of the nondominant temporal or nasal visual field required convergent or divergent ocular deviation, respectively, to center the ring on the fixation target. Learning was quantified as the time taken to achieve target deviation of 2° (easy, E) or 4° (hard, H) for convergence (CE, CH) or divergence (DE, DH) over 40 trials. Thirty-two normally sighted observers completed two training sequences separated by one week. Subjects were randomly assigned to a training sequence: CE-CH-DE, CH-CE-DE, DE-DH-CE, or DH-DE-CE. The results showed that training was retained over the course of approximately one week across all conditions. Training on an easy deviation angle transferred to untrained hard angles within convergence or divergence but not between these directions. We conclude that oculomotor alignment can be rapidly trained, retained, and transferred with a feedback-based dichoptic paradigm. Feedback-based oculomotor training may therefore provide a noninvasive method for the rehabilitation of ocular alignment defects.

A Deep Learning Approach to Automatic Recognition of Arcus Senilis.

Background: Arcus Senilis (AS) appears as a white, grey or blue ring or arc in front of the periphery of the iris, and is a symptom of abnormally high cholesterol in patients under 50 years old.Objective: This work proposes a deep learning approach to automatic recognition of AS in eye images.Material and Methods: In this analytical study, a dataset of 191 eye images (130 normal, 61 with AS) was employed where ¾ of the data were used for training the proposed model and ¼ of the data were used for test, using a 4-fold cross-validation. Due to the limited amount of training data, transfer learning was conducted with AlexNet as the pretrained network.Results: The proposed model achieved an accuracy of 100% in classifying the eye images into normal and AS categories. Conclusion: The excellent performance of the proposed model despite limited training set, demonstrate the efficacy of deep transfer learning in AS recognition in eye images. The proposed approach is preferred to previous methods for AS recognition, as it eliminates cumbersome segmentation and feature engineering processes.

Historical smelting activities in Eastern Canada revealed by Pb concentrations and isotope ratios in tree rings of long-lived white cedars (Thuja occidentalis L.)

Mining activities at Duparquet in Western Quebec (Canada) have significantly affected the local environment and left behind significant amounts of metals. Monitoring this contamination is essential to infer its past and present impacts on environmental quality and to evaluate the resulting human exposure. In that context, we measured long time series of Pb concentrations and their corresponding stable isotope ratios in long-lived white cedars (Thuja occidentalis L.) growing at Duparquet Lake in order to evaluate potential time variations of the Pb environmental contamination as well as to identify the responsible source(s). Results show that before 1950, Pb at Duparquet is mostly terrigenous. Lead concentrations rapidly increase afterwards. A simultaneous shift to lower 206Pb/207Pb ratios identifies the smelting of Abitibi ores as the source of contamination. An isotope mass balance model evaluates at roughly 7.5–20%, 5–40%, 5–9% and <3% the Pb contributions from local smelters at distances of 3.6, 3.9, 7 and 9 km, respectively. The dispersion of the Pb contamination plume is possibly driven by the distance from the Beattie smelter. We finally estimated a delay of at least 13 years between atmospheric emissions from the Beattie smelting activities and the time they are recorded by tree rings. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that white cedar tree rings series provide reliable archives of past and present Pb atmospheric contamination.

Record of a 10-year old European Wildcat Felis silvestris silvestris Schreber, 1777 (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) from Mt. Etna, Sicily, Italy

Longevity data for wild felids are lacking in the literature. Here we report a camera trap recapture of a European Wildcat Felis silvestris at Mt. Etna in Sicily, Italy after nine years. This individual was clearly identifiable as its tail ended with a white ring rather than the typical black ring and had a unique shape of the dorsal stripe. At first capture on 26 May 2009, this cat was assessed as an adult, so that the likely minimum age of this individual at the time of recapture on 10 June 2018 must have been be at least 10 years. This finding represents the oldest known European Wildcat in the wild and provides insight into age structure in wildcat populations.

Design of Chinese Character Coded Targets for Feature Point Recognition Under Motion-Blur Effect

Coded targets have been widely used as a type of active visual feature points in fields such as close-range photogrammetry, robot navigation, 3D reconstruction, and augmented reality. However, coded targets in degraded images, such as images with motion blur effect, are hard to recognize. To this end, a set of novel Chinese character coded targets (CCTs) is designed and tested. A CCT is a square visual marker, shown as a relative small circular feature overlaid in the middle of a square Chinese character. A white circular ring is embedded in a black circle concentrically to serve as the circular feature, which facilitates extraction of the center point of the marker for localization. Whereas the distinctive peripheral Chinese character appearance of each CCT is utilized for identification. By synthesizing simulated CCTs with different degrees of motion blur and various postures with the real background images, a Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) is trained to locate and recognize the CCTs in motion blurred images. Experimental results on both artificial and actual motion blurred images demonstrate the superiorities of the designed CCTs as well as the proposed localization and recognition pipeline.

Part 4: Laser photocoagulation of macroaneurysms: clinical cases in DME

AbstractPrevalence of capillary telangiectatic capillaries (TelCaps) is estimated to be around 30% of cases in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME). TelCaps may be occult, or barely visible on fundus, because they are frequently associated with haemorrhages, exsudates or because of their transparency. TelCaps can take several appearances: round light red lesion, surrounded by a white ring (corresponding to a thickened wall), or isolated dark red lesions. They can be isolated, or multiple, and are predominant in the macular area. ICG‐angiography allows the detection of the TelCaps, and precise their location compared to larger retinal vessels. Media opacities (such as cataract), or eye movements, or non visualization of TelCaps on fundus, might prevent from efficient photocoagulation. Baseline laser parameters to start with are: spot size 60 µm, spot duration: 50–100 ms, power : 100 mW. Several shots can be performed. If the targeted TelCap is missed, a white burn is visible on the retinal pigmentary epithelium. The TelCaps to close to the fovea (i.e., located &lt;500 µm from the center) should not be treated. We will present several clinical cases to illustrate the photocoagulation technique.

3098 Small Plastic Objects Can Cause Foreign Body Impaction in Normal Adult Esophagus

INTRODUCTION: Foreign body impaction in the esophagus results from an inability of a swallowed object to pass through the esophagus to the stomach. In the United States, food, especially boneless meat, is the most commonly impacted foreign body. When impaction of a foreign body occurs in an adult esophagus, it usually occurs in the presence of underlying structural abnormalities (such as a web or stricture), functional abnormalities resulting from abnormal esophageal peristalsis, or when the swallowed object is too large to navigate the anatomic constrictions of the normal esophagus. This report describes two patients who had retained plastic foreign bodies in the esophagus in the presence of a normal esophageal anatomy. CASE DESCRIPTION/METHODS: Patient 1: A 39 year old man came to emergency room after accidentally swallowing a 2 cm plastic ring. He was able to swallow fluids and oral secretions, but felt a foreign body sensation in his upper chest. He denied any prior dysphagia. On endoscopy, a white plastic ring was seen in the mid-esophagus with no associated esophageal injury. Esophagus was normal with shiny mucosa. With insufflation and gentle prodding with the endoscope, the plastic ring easily passed into the stomach where it was captured using an endoscopic net and retrieved. The patient was discharged home after the procedure. Patient 2: A 53 year old woman presented to the emergency room with history of foreign body sensation and odynophagia localized to mid-chest after drinking an open cup of water. She was able to swallow water and oral secretions, but felt a sharp pain in the mid-chest every time she did so. Although she had seen a foreign body, she was convinced that she had foreign body stuck in her esophagus. Endoscopy showed a thin square piece of plastic measuring about 1 cm in size retained in a normal appearing esophagus with no obvious esophageal injury. It was retrieved using an endoscopic net. She was discharged home after the procedure. DISCUSSION: This report demonstrates that foreign bodies made of plastic can be retained in the adult esophagus in the absence of traditional risk factors. They can also present with atypical clinical features. The composition of plastic may make it more adherent to the esophageal mucosa thus preventing easy transit through the esophagus, even in the absence of restrictions in the esophagus. This report demonstrates the importance of endoscopic evaluation when a foreign body is suspected, even in the absence of a traditional presentation.

From our archives: An essay on platinum, by Richard M. Gross

When my mother’s silvery white wedding ring slid off and rolled under the porch of the summer cottage in New Hampshire, I was the only one small enough to crawl beneath the porch to retrieve it. I had no idea I would, later in life, consider the material used to make that ring—platinum—one of the elements important to one of my life’s pursuits. After I found the ring, I can distinctly remember feeling sorry for my mother because it wasn’t gold, like other mothers wore. I asked her about that, and I remember her answer. “This is rarer than gold,” she recounted, “and it’s sturdier, which means I can wear it my entire life.” So, my vast knowledge of platinum at that time was that it was used to make jewelry. By the time I was in high school and developing a growing interest in science, I was reintroduced to