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Mannitol is routinely used during partial nephrectomies due to its renoprotective properties. With minimally invasive techniques, the need for mannitol has been questioned. Robotic-assisted laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (RALPN) has been shown to decrease warm ischemia time, which may potentially minimize the benefit of mannitol. To date, no prospective, randomized, controlled trials have investigated the use of mannitol in only robotic procedures. We hypothesize that the intraoperative mannitol use during RALPN provides no statistically significant benefit for post-operative renal function outcomes. We conducted a randomized, controlled, double-blinded, single surgeon, prospective study to assess renal function after RALPN. Patients were randomized into a control group with intravenous normal saline infusion prior to clamping of the vessels or to an experimental group with an infusion of mannitol. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were obtained prior to the surgery as well as post operatively at 24 h, 1 week, and 30 days. Preoperative eGFR showed no statistical differences between the groups and evaluation of median percent change in eGFR after surgery did not indicate a statistical difference between the groups after RALPN. After prospective analysis of the change in post-operative renal function of randomized groups who received 12 g of mannitol following RALPN, we determined that infusion of mannitol does not provide significant improvement of maintenance of renal functions after RALPN. Based on our results, we recommend discontinuing routine use of mannitol during RALPN.

Structural control devices facilitate the construction of lightweight structures by suppressing excessive vibrations that arise from the reduced self-weight. Most of the current structural control systems are permanent installations designed to control particular structural properties and are hence specific to a particular application. This paper presents a novel concept of a deployable, autonomous control system (DACS) targeting specific applications where short-term vibration mitigation is desired. These applications may include control of existing structures during predictable extreme loading events or temporary structures where the need for vibration mitigation depends on usage characteristics. This control system consists of an electromechanical mass damper (EMD) mounted on an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) equipped with vision sensors. The mobility of the UGV combined with on-board vision sensors facilitates autonomous positioning of the device at any desired location of the structure. This allows the device to update its position on the structure as required, through a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) solution, to effectively control different structural modes. The performance of the SLAM solution is evaluated using a full-scale pedestrian bridge while the ability of the proposed system to re-position itself to control various modes of vibration is studied through real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS). The experimental results confirm the ability of the proposed system to effectively control large amplitude motion in slender bridges, while being able to position itself at the appropriate locations for multi-modal control. The concept of the overall system presents promising results for applications where temporary control is desired.

Background The goal of the study was to investigate whether cigarette smoking alters oral and nasal microbial diversity, composition, and structure. Twenty-three current smokers and 20 never smokers were recruited. From each subject, nine samples including supra and subgingiva plaque scrapes, saliva, swabs from five soft oral tissue sites, and one nasal swab from both the anterior nares were collected. 16S rRNA V3-V4 region was sequenced for microbial profiles. Results We found that alpha diversity was lower in smokers than in nonsmokers in the buccal mucosa, but in other sample sites, microbial diversity and composition were not significantly different by smoking status. Microbial profiles differed significantly among eight oral sites. Conclusions This study investigates the effect of cigarette smoking on different sites of the oral cavity and shows a potential effect of cigarette smoking on the buccal mucosa microbiota. The marked heterogeneity of the oral microbial ecosystem that we found may contribute to the stability of the oral microbiota in most sites when facing environmental perturbations such as that caused by cigarette smoking. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40168-016-0226-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

With the emergence of service provisioning environments and new networking capabilities, antagonistic businesses have been able to collaborate securely by sharing information in order to have a beneficial result for all. This collaboration has sometimes been imposed by state legislation and sometimes been desirable by the firms themselves so as to resolve frequently occurring abnormalities. In any case, as information exchange takes place between antagonistic firms, security and privacy issues arise. In the context of this paper, a collaborative environment has been analyzed for enterprises that set out in the banking sector. A Grid-based Anti-Money Laundering (AML) system has been developed in an effort to take advantage of the Grid infrastructure, supporting the secure and trustful exchange of information between financial institutions and ensuring the confidentiality of the data transferred and the authentication of the users to whom they are available. Special emphasis is put on security mechanisms for supporting identity and privacy management as well as in Service Level Agreements (SLA) enforcement for enabling a trust enforcement platform in a collaboration business model.

Background: Dendritic cells (DCs) are central to the initiation and regulation of the adaptive immune response during infection. Modulation of DC function may therefore allow evasion of the immune system by pathogens. Significant depression of the host’s systemic immune response to both concurrent infections and heterologous vaccines has been observed during malaria infection, but the mechanisms underlying this immune hyporesponsiveness are controversial. Results: Here, we demonstrate that the blood stages of malaria infection induce a failure of DC function in vitro and in vivo, causing suboptimal activation of T cells involved in heterologous immune responses. This effect on T-cell activation can be transferred to uninfected recipients by DCs isolated from infected mice. Significantly, T cells activated by these DCs subsequently lack effector function, as demonstrated by a failure to migrate to lymphoid-organ follicles, resulting in an absence of B-cell responses to heterologous antigens. Fractionation studies show that hemozoin, rather than infected erythrocyte (red blood cell) membranes, reproduces the effect of intact infected red blood cells on DCs. Furthermore, hemozoin-containing DCs could be identified in T-cell areas of the spleen in vivo. Conclusions: Plasmodium infection inhibits the induction of adaptive immunity to heterologous antigens by modulating DC function, providing a potential explanation for epidemiological studies linking endemic malaria with secondary infections and reduced vaccine efficacy.

On the basis of the recent demonstration that sources of the dual Riemann tensor are violations of local energy-momentum conservation, it is hypothesized that matter is subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle because of stochastic Planck-scale fluctuations in the Euclidean geometry of the vacuum. The identification of such singularities with unitons, whose masses are quantized in discrete units of the Planck mass, and also with the sources of “strong gravity,” is shown to lead to the correct strength, range, and duration of strong interactions. A vacuum-induced cosmological term, due to coupling of spin to space-time torsion, results in massive gravitons, with mass similar to the spin-2 mesons, and a Yukawa, rather than Newtonian, variation of the hadron gravitational potential, thus adding support to “strong gravity” theories of the strong force.