Some entertaining video links

TAKE a BREAK:

When starting this blog I said that some "entertainment" content may show up in it. Well here is some - two YouTube video links - one to a production of my own that some of you, namely the runners, might like (and which took me 8 years to finish, after doing the takes in 2005) and one I just discovered: It shows and talks about SVG in a more professional production. This latter one you might wish to make known to your friends...to show them where you had the privilege of studying. I myself cannot believe I spent almost 20 years on and in those beautiful islands...:

SVG Videos

Run Ian Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v707-x5a9xg

iTravel2000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elLJDHLdN8U

Last Blog

Hello all - now all of you (I hope) entering Term 3 in January 2013. As I had explained - I could not manage to create any of the promised blog entries in the fall of 2012. And now I also have to tell you that I will not be coming back to Trinity.

So this is the end of this blog - and I hope that overall it was a good thing that is coming to this end...You are, however, welcome to ask me any questions on subjects we had covered or beyond!

All the very best to all of you!

Hans Baer

Welcome Fall 2012 Term!

I think I managed to figure out the problem of inserting an image when using this new tablet of mine, and so I am sending you this shot taken some 15 m away, by a friend of mine back in Canada. The reason he was not eaten, I think, is that the animal saw that he was old (82) and thus would not taste so good...in time you, too, will learn to recognize your patient,s features just by looking at them...

Another Topol digital medicine idea

The FDA (following European licensing authorities) has approved ingestible sensors to be used for monitoring compliance with drug use and also relaying other vital sign data such has heart rate in the course of therapy. I do not fully understand, beyond the general principle, all the aspects of this new approach and form of "digital medicine" and have no idea about the cost. You can read up on this here.

New beta-adrenergic drug

The FDA just approved a new drug, Mirabegron, for the treatment of overactive bladder: This drug is a selective beta-3 agonist, and it looks like these receptors are prominent in the bladder and cause relaxation when stimulated. So, maybe we have to add this to the list of items to cover in my ANS lectures. To date I have not talked about beta-3 recptors. They are present in brown fat cells that is very rich in mitochondria and contribute to heat generation in the body (such as in babies), and it is now news to me that they are also in other parts of the body and can be "exploited" now in this scenario of bladder related dysfunction. The classical treatment of overactive bladder is with anticholinergic drugs, as you may recall.
What adverse effects would you expect with this new drug mirabegron?? Make a comment below!

An interesting question:

Which is the leading cause of death worldwide among boys 5 to 14 years of age?

In the United States, this cause of death is the second leading cause of injury-related death among children 1 to 4 years of age, with a death rate of 3 per 100,000, and in some countries, such as Thailand, the death rate among 2-year-old children is 107 per 100,000. In many countries in Africa and in Central America, the incidence of this cause of death is 10 to 20 times as high as the incidence in the United States. Key risk factors for this cause of death are male sex, age of less than 14 years,alcohol use, low income, poor education,  rural residency, risky behavior and lack of supervision. For people with epilepsy, the risk of this cause of death is 15 to 19 times as high as the risk for those who do not have epilepsy. For every person who dies from this cause of death, another four persons receive care in the emergency department for nonfatal incidences of this cause of death.

Give us your answer or guess in the Comments!

Missing slide: Indirect i.v. effect of ACh

Somehow, a slide seems to have disappeared from one of my lectures, dealing with the i.v. effect of acetylcholine. I inserted it into the ANS2 lecture and it says this:

• Injecting ACh i.v., interaction with vascular smooth muscle should cause contraction and rise in BP.
• BUT: Muscarinic receptors on endothelial cells, when stimulated, will cause Ca-mediated activation of nitric oxide synthase and formation of nitric oxide: This will overcome the contractile s.m. effect and lead to vasodilation and fall in BP/shock.
• This is referred to as an "indirect" action of ACh.

HB