Several Roman period surface scatters and a settlement located in the Yambol District, along the Tundzha River, have been investigated within the last few years. Surface surveys and geophysical ...prospection were combined with a thorough material evaluation, to allow a description of the possible dimensions and character of several sites, all likely located in the territory of ancient Kabyle. The investigation focused on several single features located in the Tundzha Municipality, such as the extensive settlement near Kozarevo village and a smaller installation, perhaps a villa, near the Roman settlement at Kabyle. Several scatters, already detected by the Tundzha Regional Archaeological Project, were re-surveyed in Elhovo Municipality, between the Dereorman and Gerenska rivers. The territory along the two rivers seems to have been densely populated during the 2nd–4th c. AD, with about 11 scatters dated to the Roman period, likely representing small rural settlements, distributed in regular intervals along the two rivers. One of the settlements on the Dereorman River, Yurta-Stroyno, surveyed and excavated in 2014–2016, provided a comparative base for the rest of the area. Evaluating the gathered data, the territory of Kabyle seems to have been quite self-sufficient during the Roman period. The rural settlements provide evidence of raw material processing, production of everyday items, as well as a preference for the locally available products, such as household pottery, limiting the number of pottery imports to a minimum.
Widespread antibiotic use in clinical medicine and the livestock industry has contributed to the global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens, including
We report on a method used ...to produce a personalized bacteriophage-based therapeutic treatment for a 68-year-old diabetic patient with necrotizing pancreatitis complicated by an MDR
infection. Despite multiple antibiotic courses and efforts at percutaneous drainage of a pancreatic pseudocyst, the patient deteriorated over a 4-month period. In the absence of effective antibiotics, two laboratories identified nine different bacteriophages with lytic activity for an
isolate from the patient. Administration of these bacteriophages intravenously and percutaneously into the abscess cavities was associated with reversal of the patient's downward clinical trajectory, clearance of the
infection, and a return to health. The outcome of this case suggests that the methods described here for the production of bacteriophage therapeutics could be applied to similar cases and that more concerted efforts to investigate the use of therapeutic bacteriophages for MDR bacterial infections are warranted.
A novel reference design for an air levitation system to teach control engineering and mechatronics is introduced. The device is built as a swappable and compact extension shield for Arduino embedded ...microcontroller prototyping boards. The fully documented hardware design uses off-the-shelf electronic components and 3D printed mechanical parts to encourage easy and low-cost replication with editable design files provided online. The open source software includes an application programming interface for the Arduino IDE, MATLAB and Simulink. The examples included with the software demonstrate possibilities for typical classroom use.
Introduction: Atrial‐esophageal fistula formation is a dreaded complication of radiofrequency catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. Esophageal localization is of potential value in avoiding ...lesion placement where the left atrium is juxtaposed to the esophagus.
Methods and Results: Twenty‐seven patients underwent 33 pulmonary vein encirclement procedures. All the patients received general anesthesia with inhalational agents and either a fenestrated laryngeal mask airway or an endotracheal tube. A diagnostic electrophysiologic catheter was inserted into the esophagus, and a virtual esophageal tube was created using an electroanatomic mapping system. In all cases, the catheter was placed without difficulty and satisfactory virtual esophageal images were created. The catheter remained in the esophagus until the end of each ablation procedure. Esophageal catheter location during and after the ablation was compared with the initial location. Areas of close proximity between the left atrium and esophagus were easily identified. Change in esophageal location was not observed. Identification of esophageal proximity to the pulmonary veins allowed for identification of high‐risk cases. In such cases, the planned procedure was modified to avoid esophageal injury (12 of 27 patients).
Conclusions: (1) Real‐time localization of esophageal position using a nonfluoroscopic mapping system during atrial fibrillation ablation is safe, practical, and straightforward. (2) Among patients who receive general anesthesia, esophageal position appears to be static, suggesting that one initial virtual image is sufficient for the duration of an ablation procedure.
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane is closely apposed to the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM), which facilitates communication between these organelles. These contacts, known as ...mitochondria-associated membranes (MAM), facilitate calcium signaling, lipid transfer, as well as antiviral and stress responses. How cellular proteins traffic to the MAM, are distributed therein, and interact with ER and mitochondrial proteins are subject of great interest. The human cytomegalovirus UL37 exon 1 protein or viral mitochondria-localized inhibitor of apoptosis (vMIA) is crucial for viral growth. Upon synthesis at the ER, vMIA traffics to the MAM and OMM, where it reprograms the organization and function of these compartments. vMIA significantly changes the abundance of cellular proteins at the MAM and OMM, including proteins that regulate calcium homeostasis and cell death. Through the use of superresolution imaging, we have shown that vMIA is distributed at the OMM in nanometer scale clusters. This is similar to the clusters reported for the mitochondrial calcium channel, VDAC, as well as electron transport chain, translocase of the OMM complex, and mitochondrial inner membrane organizing system components. Thus, aside from addressing how vMIA targets the MAM and regulates survival of infected cells, biochemical studies and superresolution imaging of vMIA offer insights into the formation, organization, and functioning of MAM. Here, we discuss these insights into trafficking, function, and organization of vMIA at the MAM and OMM and discuss how the use of superresolution imaging is contributing to the study of the formation and trafficking of viruses.
We report a case of biventricular implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator (ICD) insertion in which standard lead placement techniques could not achieve left ventricular capture. Protrusion of the ...guidewire beyond a venous stenosis provided adequate left ventricular capture.
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