No abstract

We investigated the association of pre-operative activity, reported by the Duke Activity Score Index, Short Form-12 and measured by an accelerometer worn at home, with five cardiopulmonary exercise variables: peak power; peak oxygen consumption; anaerobic threshold; and ventilatory equivalents for oxygen and carbon dioxide. Fifty patients scheduled for major surgery underwent a standard pre-operative cardiopulmonary exercise test and wore a chest-mounted triaxial accelerometer for a mean (SD) duration of 3.2 (0.4) days. The Duke Activity Score Index and six accelerometer variables were significantly correlated with all five cardiopulmonary exercise variables, Pearson correlation coefficients 0.5-0.7, p = 0.02 to p < 0.001. Our results can guide future studies that measure physical activity for pre-operative assessment and interventions.

This report deals with observations on the directional locomotion of amoeba before and after fixation and scanning electron microscopy. The study was aimed at visualization of the stepwise events of directional movements. After the analysis of the data it is proposed that the amoeba undergoes a sequence of movement events that can be defined as a walking form of locomotion.

No abstract

Epon 812 has been used successfully as an embedding medium because of its well known sectioning and staining characteristics as well as its ability to tolerate the unfriendly confines of an electron microscope column which include intense heat and strong vacuum. Although production of this popular medium was discontinued by the Shell Chemical Co. in the mid-1970's, the product still is available from several suppliers. However, existing inventories now are nearly 10 years old and microscopists eventually must rely on similar substitutes if Epon was their original choice. This work has examined the replacements EmBed 812, LX-112, Pelco Medcast and PolyBed 812 for physical characteristics such as flow rate, density, viscosity and hardness. In addition, an original supply of Shell Epon 812 was tested and compared to the Epon facsimilies. This work also seeks to establish ideal infiltration and polymerization schedules in order to minimize processing time and insure that tissues are well impregnated subsequent to microtomy and microscopy.