We describe a simple technique which obviates the need for an assistant during transperineal and transrectal needle biopsies of the prostate gland. The role of the assistant, who must elevate and retract the scrotum, is eliminated by using a large-gauge urethral sound, such as the Van Buren sound. The patient is placed in the relaxed lithotomy position, and the scrotum is elevated cephalad with...

This article is one of ten reviews selected from the Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2013 and co-published as a series in Critical Care. Other articles in the series can be found online at

Hydatid disease is endemic in farming areas but occurs worldwide. Echinococciasis is a parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus. Primary Hydatid disease of the spleen is very rare and generally asymptomatic. Owing to the high risk of a rupture, splenic hydatid cysts are usually treated sugically. The standard treatment is splenectomy. In this report, a case of an isolated splenic hyd...

Emotions play a significant role in students’ learning behaviour. Positive emotions can enhance learning, whilst negative emotions can inhibit it. This paper describes a Wizard-of-Oz (WoZ) study which investigates the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) together with an emotion detector able to classify emotions from speech to support young children in their exploration and reflecti...

Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilisation (MOMP) is the point of no return in many forms of apoptotic cell death. The killing effect of MOMP is twofold; it both initiates a proteolytic cascade of pro-apoptotic enzymes and damages mitochondrial function. Accordingly, prevention of MOMP can rescue cells from death. It is clear that either Bak or Bax, which are Bcl-2 family members, are requir...

AIM Maternal personality traits affect child dental behaviour and have a potential link with dental treatment methods. This study aims to evaluate which maternal personality traits affect child dental behaviour. MATERIALS AND METHODS Research was carried out upon 60 children aged between 3-12 years, who had been admitted to our clinic for tooth extraction. All children were evaluated by means...

BACKGROUND Rehabilitation in patients with disabilities is an important aspect of tertiary prevention. Severity of disability, evaluated by global measures of autonomy, are essential for functional outcome evaluation. AIM To determine the effectiveness of a rehabilitation programme in terms of percentage functional improvement (PFI); to verify the role of gender, age and length of stay (LOS),...