Texas Medical Center

About: Texas Medical Center is a healthcare organization based out in Houston, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 2845 authors who have published 2394 publications receiving 79426 citations.

The bx region enhancer, a distant cis-control element of the Drosophila Ubx gene and its regulation by hunchback and other segmentation genes.

Abstract: The Drosophila homeotic gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx) is regulated by complex mechanisms that specify the spatial domain, the timing and the activity of the gene in individual tissues and in individual cells. In early embryonic development, Ubx expression is controlled by segmentation genes turned on earlier in the developmental hierarchy. Correct Ubx expression depends on multiple regulatory sequences located outside the basal promoter. Here we report that a 500 bp DNA fragment from the bx region of the Ubx unit, approximately 30 kb away from the promoter, contains one of the distant regulatory elements (bx region enhancer, BRE). During early embryogenesis, this enhancer element activates the Ubx promoter in parasegments (PS) 6, 8, 10, and 12 and represses it in the anterior half of the embryo. The repressor of the anterior Ubx expression is the gap gene hunchback (hb). We show that the hb protein binds to the BRE element and that such binding is essential for hb repression in vivo, hb protein also binds to DNA fragments from abx and bxd, two other regulatory regions of the Ubx gene. We conclude that hb represses Ubx expression directly by binding to BRE and probably other Ubx regulatory elements. In addition, the BRE pattern requires input from other segmentation genes, among them tailless and fushi tarazu but not Kruppel and knirps.

The financial burden of emergency general surgery: National estimates 2010 to 2060.

Abstract: BACKGROUNDAdoption of the acute care surgery model has led to increasing volumes of emergency general surgery (EGS) patients at trauma centers. However, the financial burden of EGS services on trauma centers is unknown. This study estimates the current and future costs associated with EGS hospitaliz

Incidence of Tracheal Stenosis and Other Late Complications After Percutaneous Tracheostomy

Abstract: Tracheostomy is one of the most common elective surgical procedures performed on critically ill patients. Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) is now considered a safe and cost-effective alternative to standard surgical tracheostomy. The technique of PDT that is most frequently used was introduced by Ciaglia et al 1 in 1985. Many investigators have since published their experience with this technique and have concluded that the procedure is safe and cost-effective. 2–9 The perioperative complications of PDT are well described 10,11 and are considered less than for open surgical tracheostomy. 10,11 Late complications, particularly tracheal stenosis, are more difficult to quantify because many patients undergoing PDT are critically ill and may die or be discharged from the hospital before decannulation. In patients who survive their critical illness or injury, access to long-term follow-up is often difficult because of the complexity of follow-up at tertiary referral centers, persistent medical problems, or a reluctance to return for evaluation by survivors who are asymptomatic. Recent studies to determine the incidence of late complications from PDT have used a variety of methods, including questionnaires, 12–15 tracheal roentgenograms, 16 tracheal tomograms, 17 magnetic resonance imaging, 18 laryngotracheoscopy, 12,13 and various pulmonary function tests. 12,15 The purpose of our study was to determine the incidence of tracheal stenosis and other late complications of PDT in a population of critically ill patients who survived their initial hospital stay and were successfully decannulated. A high-resolution computed tomography (CT) technique used to identify bronchial stenosis in lung transplant recipients 19–22 was used as a noninvasive method of evaluation to identify all degrees of tracheal stenosis.

Tritiated Digoxin Binding to (Na+ + K+)-Activated Adenosine Triphosphatase: Possible Allosteric Site

Abstract: In the report, "Tritiated digoxin binding to (Na + + K + )-activated adenosine triphosphatase: possible allosteric site" by Arnold Schwartz et al. (p. 323, 19 Apr.), the opening parentheses of line 6, column 3, has been omitted. The line should read "(Na + + K + )-activated adenosine triphosphatase. . . ." The last line of paragraph 1 should read "K + -dependent phosphatase reaction (6)" and not ". . . phosphate reaction. . . ."