We also used the studentized version of the test, which is more r

We also used the studentized version of the test, which is more robust to non-Gaussian variation (Koenker, 1981), and the results remained identical to at least two decimal places. Once the power transformation has been selected, the regression is not used further. For the 20 pools, the selected powers ranged from 0.23 to 0.31, mean 0.27. In other words, the optimal transformations were close to fourth root (power = 1/4). Fig. 1 Ixazomib solubility dmso shows the Bland and Altman plots for the first haemagglutinin pool, and the second neuraminidase pool. These plots

also show i) the test wells positive on the T-SPOT criteria (see Introduction), and ii) the control wells which would have been positive on the same criteria, had the test and control status been reversed, hereafter referred to as pseudo-positive. For haemagglutinin, the T-SPOT-positive test wells greatly outnumber the pseudo-positive control wells (247:46), but this is not the case for neuraminidase (58:59). By quartile on the horizontal axis, the proportions positive on the T-SPOT criteria are: 0, 23, 26 and 32% for haemagglutinin and 0, 0, 6 and 16% for neuraminidase. To select a threshold

value for defining positive wells, we use the principle that test minus control values should, on average, be larger than control minus test. Otherwise, there SB431542 is no evidence of a ‘signal’ over the ‘noise’ of control variation, and any positivity threshold is dubious. To select the threshold we compare the empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDFs) of i) test–control for those plates with test > control and ii) control–test for those with control > test. The ECDF of a sample is simply the proportion of the data points which lie at or below a given value. The difference between ECDFs can be used to discriminate between a mixture of two distributions. In particular, the value which maximizes the difference in ECDFs also maximizes the probability of correct classification (Stoller, 1954). Hence, for the current purpose, we choose the threshold to be the value which maximizes the difference between the above two ECDFs. Pools whose difference over

control exceeds this value are declared positive. In principle it is possible for this maximum difference in ECDFs to occur at more than RANTES one value on the horizontal axis. Hence we define the threshold, more precisely, to be the lowest such value on the horizontal axis. This is shown in Fig. 2 for the two selected pools. Greater data values shift the ECDF to the right, making it lower at any given point on the horizontal axis. For haemagglutinin, the ECDFs of test-minus-control and control-minus-test are much more widely separated than for neuraminidase. For haemagglutinin, the maximum difference in ECDFs is 0.22 and occurs at a transformed test-minus-control value of 1 (i.e. a value greater than 1 is considered positive).

Fluorescent dyes used for single molecule fluorescence applicatio

Fluorescent dyes used for single molecule fluorescence applications commonly exhibit a maximum extinction coefficient ɛmax > 80.000 mol−1 cm−1 and a fluorescence quantum yield of Φ > 0.1. Their fluorescence lifetime is of the order of a few nanoseconds and their Raf activation size is roughly one nanometer. Bioconjugation is commonly carried out with fluorophore derivatives that target the functional side chains of specific native or engineered amino acids in a protein. The fluorophore attachment site has to be carefully chosen in order to prevent label-induced alteration of the protein’s activity and folding. The coupling reaction should be efficient in aqueous buffers at neutral pH and ambient

temperatures as most proteins Dapagliflozin datasheet are not soluble in organic solvents and tend to unfold or aggregate at high temperatures

and in highly basic or acidic environments. In addition, the coupling reaction needs to be highly chemoselective to ensure site-specific labelling of a single site in the protein. To this end coupling to amines and thiols are the most common labelling strategies that work efficiently under mild reaction conditions [10]. Newly developed technologies like bioorthogonal chemistry in combination with genetic engineering facilitate the site-specific labelling of unnatural amino acids (UAA) at any given position in a protein [11] improving the freedom of label positioning particularly in large proteins Urease hitherto inaccessible for site-specific labelling because of first, their high cysteine content, second, an unfavourable position of the cysteine residue in the core of the protein or third, the essential role of the cysteine in the coordination of bivalent metal ions as seen

in zinc-containing proteins. The coupling chemistries used in bioorthogonal reactions rely on unique chemical groups (e.g. para-acetyl or para-azide moieties) that are not part of the biological repertoire of amino acids [12• and 13]. However, several conditions have to be fulfilled to make such a strategy successful. The UAA — that is supplied to the growth media — has to cross the membrane of the bacteria and be compatible with the bacterial metabolism (i.e. not be cytotoxic). A unique amber stop codon (TAG) is engineered into the desired labelling site that serves as a coding codon for the unnatural amino acid. Plasmid-borne pairs of engineered orthogonal tRNAs and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases facilitate the efficient loading of the UAA to the tRNA and subsequent incorporation of the UAA at amber stop codons. tRNA loading by the tRNA synthetase has to be highly specific for the exogenous amino acid but at the same time needs to be compatible with the bacterial translation machinery. Directed protein evolution schemes yielded several orthogonal pairs that have been adapted for use in Escherichia coli [ 14, 15 and 16].

Further work and

Further work and PFT�� chemical structure additional sensitivity experiments should help clarify this point. Analysis of heat, freshwater and volume transport was done using PAGO

(http://www.whoi.edu/science/PO/pago/). DS thanks Laurent Bopp and Christian Ethé for their help in the setup of the CM5_piCtrl_NoBio simulation. Arnaud Caubel, Sébastien Denvil, Marie-Alice Foujols and the whole team of the “pole de modélisation de l’IPSL” are also acknowledged for their work in carrying CMIP3 and 5 simulations from IPSL. This work has benefited from the support of LEFE-MISSTERRE. The authors are grateful to the reviewers and editor for their valuable comments which helped to improve the manuscript. “
“The publisher regrets that the value for Eq. (3) was not incorporated appropriately for the above paper. The equation should be read as: C10=10-4-0.0160U102+0.967U10+8.058 The publisher would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused. “
“The selleck range of temporal and spatial scales of ocean flows is vast, differing from hours to centuries and metres to thousands of kilometres. The ocean is also full of transient features that can change in both size and/or location; examples include algal blooms, dense water overflows and mesoscale eddies. In an ocean model how much, when and where to place numerical resolution, both spatial and temporal, must be considered and cannot necessarily

be predicted a priori. Adaptive meshes, which coarsen or refine depending on the evolution of the flow,

support efficient use of available computational resources and, in principle, do not require an extensive a priori knowledge of the dynamics (e.g. Behrens, 1998, Jacobs et al., 2013, Munday et al., 2010 and Popinet and Rickard, 2007). Using an adaptive mesh adds another layer of numerical complexity to a model. The performance of such meshes and the implications for the computed flow dynamics therefore require careful consideration. Adaptive mesh techniques have been used relatively widely in computational fluid dynamics (Baker, 1997, Cao, 2005, Frey and Alauzet, 2005, Remacle Urocanase et al., 2005, Speares and Berzins, 1997 and Venditti and Darmofal, 2003), with the use of adaptive meshes in ocean modelling still under development (Piggott et al., 2009). For structured meshes, studies include the application and extension of a quadtree based adaptive structured mesh Navier–Stokes solver (Gerris) to ocean flows (Popinet and Rickard, 2007) and investigation of a general adaptive structured mesh tool (Blayo and Debreu, 1999). For unstructured meshes, the studies have focused predominantly on the shallow-water equations (Behrens, 1998, Bernard et al., 2007 and Remacle et al., 2006) with limited applications in three dimensions (Munday et al., 2010, Piggott et al., 2008 and Power et al., 2006).

This procedure provides a useful and sensitive assay for real-tim

This procedure provides a useful and sensitive assay for real-time detection of oxidant production by phagocytes (Antonini et al., 1994). Particle stocks were thawed at room temperature, sonicated for 10 s and vortexed for 30 s. Particle stocks were diluted in complete M199 containing 5% FBS. Total and insoluble particulate fractions were diluted to 2 mg/ml, whereas EHC-93sol was diluted to 500 μg/ml, in complete M199 cell culture medium. Particle suspensions (50 μl each mTOR inhibitor at 20, 50 and 100 μg) were added to the cell culture wells containing macrophages. The EHC-93sol was added at 5, 12.5, 25 μg/well to approach to the 20, 50, 100 μg/well mass equivalence of EHC-93tot

and EHC-93insol. The final volume in all wells was 150 μL (5% FBS, 200 μM luminol). Immediately after addition of AG-014699 nmr the particles, the plates were placed in a Dynatech ML-2350 Luminometer (Dynatech Laboratories, Chantily, VA, USA) at 37 °C and the luminescence was read every 5 min for a total of 2 h ( Fig. 1). All experiments were conducted as three to five independent replicates, on separate days and each time using freshly isolated rat macrophages. The cells from two to three rats were combined into a common and uniform pool of cells to supply all assays within each experiment. One to three technical replicate assays were conducted for each experimental condition within experiments. Following exposure to the particles for 2 h and the initial particle-induced

respiratory burst, we have assessed the responses of the cells to the Phosphoglycerate kinase respiratory burst stimulants PMA, Zymosan and LPS/IFN-γ (Fig. 1). Respiratory burst stimulant stocks were thawed at room temperature. Working stocks were prepared daily for PMA (4 μM), Zymosan (200 μg/ml), LPS (20 μg/ml) and IFN-γ (4000 IU/ml) in serum-free M199. Immediately after addition of the respiratory burst stimulants (50 μL per cell culture well), the plates were placed in

the luminometer at 37 °C. The final volume in all wells was 200 μL (3.75% FBS, 150 μM luminol). For PMA (final concentration, 1 μM), the luminescence was read every 2 s for 40 min. For Zymosan (final concentration, 50 μg/ml) and LPS/IFN-γ (final concentration, LPS 5 μg/ml, IFN-γ 1,000 IU/ml), the luminescence was read every 5 min for 5 h. In an initial experiment, freshly isolated alveolar macrophages were exposed to PMA, Zymosan or LPS/IFN-γ to assess the kinetics of the respiratory burst response and to determine the duration for which the respiratory burst response needed to be monitored during subsequent particle exposure experiments. Distinct respiratory burst response kinetics were observed upon stimulation, with Zymosan producing the highest baseline levels of respiratory burst as measured by luminescence, ∼20-fold higher (12,000 L.U.) than PMA (550 L.U.) or LPS/IFN-γ (610 L.U.) (Fig. 2). The viability of macrophages was determined in a separate set of culture plates after 2, 3, 7 and 24 h of exposure.

Animals were subjected to restraint stress by placing them in a m

Animals were subjected to restraint stress by placing them in a metal restrainer (17 × 6 × 5 cm) for 15 min, followed by decapitation and blood collection for corticosterone and ACTH measurements. The groups were as follows: Wistar basal (n = 5), Wistar restraint (n = 6), WAR basal (n = 4) selleckchem and WAR restraint (n = 5). To determine the adrenal responsiveness to ACTH 24 h before the experiments, rats were anesthetized with 2,2,2-tribromoethanol (25 mg/100 g bw. i.p., Aldrich, Milwaukee, WI, USA); a catheter was inserted into the right external jugular vein and advanced to the right atrium (Harms and Ojeda, 1974) for i.v. drug administration. On the day of the experiment, rats were pretreated

with dexamethasone (100 μg/100 g subcutaneously) and 2 h later they received an i.v. injection of ACTH (Synacthène, Novartis—8 ng/rat) or vehicle (0.9% NaCl). Trunk blood samples for plasma corticosterone determination were collected by decapitation 15 min after the injection. Groups: Wistar vehicle (n = 4), Wistar ACTH (n = 5), WAR vehicle (n = 4) and WAR ACTH (n = 5). BTK inhibitor cell line Plasma hormone levels were determined by specific radioimmunoassay, as previously described (Elias et al., 2002). The assay sensitivity was 0.4 μg/dl for corticosterone and 16 pg/ml for ACTH. The intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were 4% and 8% for corticosterone and 4.3% and 16% for ACTH, respectively. All samples from a single experiment were assayed

in duplicate in the same assay. Data were expressed as means ± SEM. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data obtained from experiments on circadian rhythm variation, restraint stress

and exogenous ACTH stimulation. To analyze adrenal gland weight, adrenal medulla area and adrenal cortex layers, the Mann–Whitney test was used. Significance was established at p < 0.05. Eduardo HL Umeoka: Experimental procedures, data analysis and article preparation. Sérgio Britto Garcia: Histopathology and morphometry analysis of adrenal gland. José Antunes-Rodrigues, Lucila LK Elias and Norberto Garcia-Cairasco: Cediranib (AZD2171) Experimental design, advice on execution of experimental protocols/methods and article preparation. This project is supported by FAPESP, FAPESP-Cinapce, CAPES, PROEX-Physiology and PROEX-Neurology, FAEPA. JAR, LLEK and NGC are recipients of CNPq-Brazil research fellowship. We wish to thank all members of the Neuroendocrinology Laboratory and Neurophysiology and Experimental Neuroethology Laboratory, especially Rodrigo Rorato, Mauricio Benedetti, Olagide Castro, Victor Santos Rodrigues and Simone Marroni. The authors also wish to thank Maria Valci Silva, Marina Holanda and Rosangela Orlandin Lopes for their technical support. “
“In the above article, Fig. 1 and the legend for Fig. 1 appeared incorrectly. The correct Fig. 1 and legend for Fig. 1 are included here. “
“The five factor model is one of the most extensively applied models of personality currently in use.

Second, to address the issue of consumer surplus, a downward
<

Second, to address the issue of consumer surplus, a downward

sloping demand is required and the form used is price=p−βY in Section 3.4. For the discussion of producer surplus in Section 3.5, a convex cost function is required, and the form chosen is the quadratic C=αE2, knowing that any form could do as long as the marginal cost increases with effort. Thus any C=αEa, with a>1, may be used. Possible implications of this for the results are discussed in Section 3.5. Under open access, effort is adjusted in proportion to profit according to equation(6) dEdt=μ(AR(E)−MC(E)),where μ is the effort response parameter, AR(E) is the average revenue as a function of effort and MC(E) is the marginal cost of effort. Trametinib concentration Equilibrium under pure open access requires that (1) and (6) both equal zero, while for an MPA and open access equilibrium in HZ it is required that (2), (3) and (6) all equal zero. In the pre-reserve case when both price p and unit cost of effort a are constant, equilibrium stock level and fish density will be S=c=a/pr and equilibrium effort will be E=1−c. In the case of an MPA and open access HZ the stock level in the harvest zone will be S2=c(1−m).

Note that the fish buy Epacadostat density at open-access equilibrium is the same pre-reserve and post-reserve. The steady state stock levels in the case of a downward sloping demand or non-linear costs will be addressed in 3.4 and 3.5 respectively. Parameter values used for figures and illustrations are listed in Table 1. The analysis is restricted to fisheries where the stock is biologically overfished, implying that the pre-MPA stock Fenbendazole level is less than 50% of the carrying capacity. Two cases

are chosen, one in which the stock is severely overfished and at only 15% of the carrying capacity, and one in which the stock is lightly overfished, with equilibrium stock level at 45% of carrying capacity.3 The analysis is restricted to cases where an MPA will be sufficient to protect a stock from extinction even in the case of zero cost harvesting – when γ, the ratio of the migration coefficient and the intrinsic growth rate of the stock is less than 1. If γ>1, an MPA alone will not be sufficient to protect a stock from extinction in the zero cost case ( [15], Theorem 1). As the value of this parameter is significant for the results, two different values are used; γ=0.3 and γ=0.7, recalling that γ=σ/r. Conservation of fish stocks may be an objective in itself, for example to reduce the risk of extinction or to ensure non-use and/or option values of the resource. Non-use values incorporate existence and bequest values, such as the pure valuation of the existence of natural resources or the willingness to pay to leave resources for future generations.

Their results showed that the Tg of the solutions rose as the pro

Their results showed that the Tg of the solutions rose as the proportions of these sugars in the vitrification solution increased. The results from

the present study showed that solutions were better vitrified using fibreplug when compared to 0.25 ml plastic straws. It has been shown in the literature that the most effective way for increasing cooling rates is to use the smallest possible volume of cryoprotectant solution in order to establish a direct contact (without any thermal insulating layer) between the solution and the liquid nitrogen [42]. A smaller volume may also offer a special advantage: it prevents heterogeneous ice formation. In zebrafish, it has been shown that methanol and propylene glycol are less toxic to stage III oocytes than other cryoprotectants, such as ethylene glycol and Me2SO [24] and [31]. This explains the higher membrane integrity of ovarian follicles after exposure to V16 solution (1.5 M methanol + 4.5 M propylene Z-VAD-FMK clinical trial glycol) when

compared to the results recorded for the follicles exposed to V2 (1.5 M methanol + 5.5 M Me2SO). Me2SO at 5.5 M became toxic to stage III zebrafish Epacadostat solubility dmso ovarian follicles. Although ethylene glycol is considered to be the most toxic among the CPAs used in this experiment [43], ovarian follicles exposed to V21 (1.5 M methanol + 6.0 M ethylene glycol + 0.5 M sucrose) displayed the highest membrane integrity of all treated groups. The presence of sucrose may have lowered the toxicity of ethylene glycol and worked as an osmotic buffer

stabilizing the follicles membrane and consequently preserved its integrity. Studies have shown that the use of sucrose as non-permeating CPA provides additional protection to membranes from the consequences of dehydration in fish embryos and optimizes the performance of permeable CPAs when used Tolmetin in combination [1], [11], [15], [23] and [36]. The present study showed that the membrane integrity of ovarian follicles after vitrification, assessed by TB staining, was not preserved when using plastic straws. This result suggests that intracellular ice crystal formation may have taken place during vitrification process. No changes were observed in solution appearance in the straws during both cooling and warming procedures; however, even transparent solutions may contain countless ice nuclei and ice crystals, because the ice crystals only are detectable optically once they become larger than the wavelength of light [33]. The volume of the vitrification solution was minimized when fibreplug was used, increasing the probability of vitrification, which may have contributed to the higher membrane integrity of the ovarian follicles vitrified in V16 and V2. Guan et al. [12] reported a slightly higher membrane integrity after vitrification of isolated stage III zebrafish ovarian follicles than the results obtained here using ovarian fragments, when assessed by TB staining.

In fact, early biogeochemical models relied on nudging (then also

In fact, early biogeochemical models relied on nudging (then also referred to as restoring) of model nutrients to climatological nutrient distributions in order to infer net community production and other biogeochemical processes (Najjar et al., 1992 and Marchal et al., 1998). In PARP inhibition the more recent, mechanistically detailed biogeochemical

models nudging is frequently used for the reduction of biases resulting from imperfect boundary conditions; for instance, in nested 3D applications variables are nudged to physical and biogeochemical distributions (either from lower-resolution, larger-scale models or climatological observations) in buffer zones along their open boundaries (e.g. Fennel et al., 2008). Nudging is also used in 1D models

to drive variables toward either direct observations (e.g. Bagniewski et al., 2011) or climatologies (e.g. Fennel et al., 2003) in order to account for unresolved 3D processes. Advantages of conventional nudging are that it is easy to implement, robust and can force the model arbitrarily close to the observations. Unfortunately, there are serious limitations as well if the technique is used to nudge a model towards a climatology: high-frequency variability (e.g., eddies in ocean circulation models) are suppressed and artificial phase lags are introduced, especially when nudging is strong (Woodgate and Killworth, 1997 and Thompson et al., 2006). As a solution to this problem, selleck kinase inhibitor Thompson et al. (2006) proposed limiting the nudging to prescribed frequency bands, leaving the model to evolve freely outside of these bands. We will refer to this modified method as frequency dependent nudging. (In the original paper by Thompson et al. (2006) the nudges were filtered in both space and time and, for this reason, the

original method was called spectral nudging. In the present application the nudges are only filtered in time (i.e., in the frequency domain) and so we will refer to the method as frequency dependent nudging.) In ocean and atmosphere models the chosen frequency bands are often Metformin purchase centered on the mean and annual cycle, which tend to be well characterized in climatologies. Frequency dependent nudging has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing bias errors in eddy resolving ocean circulation models (e.g. Thompson et al., 2006, Thompson et al., 2007, Stacey et al., 2006 and Zhu et al., 2010). Here we perform an exploratory study to assess the utility of frequency dependent nudging in reducing seasonal biases in biogeochemical ocean models without suppressing higher frequency variations (e.g., blooms with typical scales of a week). To our knowledge, frequency dependent nudging has not yet been applied to such models. We use a framework where a simulation from a complete model is sampled and these samples are treated as observations. Although these “observations” are synthetic we henceforth refer to them simply as observations. A climatology, defined to consist only of the mean and annual cycle (i.e.

13, 14 and 40 Moreover, evidence supporting the short- and long-t

13, 14 and 40 Moreover, evidence supporting the short- and long-term benefits of reducing deep sedation, including decreased delirium and ICU resource utilization, has also evolved over CAL 101 the past 30 years with the introduction and validation of sedation scales, goal-directed sedation, interruption of continuous sedative

infusions, use of bolus (rather than infusion) delivery of sedatives, and novel sedative agents.19, 21, 22, 23, 41, 42, 43 and 44 This QI project applied evidence from this body of literature and demonstrated that within a relatively short time period a large change in routine clinical practice could occur and achieve benefits similar to those demonstrated in prior research studies. As part of continuous Navitoclax molecular weight QI efforts, several steps have been taken to achieve further advances regarding early PM&R in the MICU at our hospital. Given the benefits demonstrated from this project, the hospital funded a new Critical Care Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation program, which allowed the multidisciplinary team assembled during the QI project to be sustained. This new program is seeking means of solidifying the gains from the existing QI process and investigating new ways of achieving

further improvement for early PM&R, including designing new medical devices to assist with ambulating mechanically ventilated patients and implementing or evaluating other evidence-based rehabilitation interventions, such as cycle ergometry and neuromuscular electrical stimulation therapy.33, 45, 46 and 47 Moreover, as of July 2009, the approach to sedation that

was encouraged during the QI project has been formalized as a new treatment protocol, and standardized delirium evaluation has been implemented as a routine nursing assessment throughout several ICUs at 2 of our hospitals. This QI project has limitations. First, given its design as a QI project with a before-after comparison, patients were not randomized to sedation or PM&R interventions, nor were the outcomes evaluated in a blinded manner. Hence, the results may be subject to measurement bias and temporal changes. However, the purpose of this project Racecadotril was not to test the efficacy of these interventions, because there are previously published studies demonstrating the safety, feasibility, and benefits of these activities, but to undertake a structured QI process to determine if routine clinical practice could be substantially and rapidly improved. Such a change may not be easy given that it requires a significant transformation in “culture” for the entire multidisciplinary ICU team, which can be extremely difficult to achieve in a relatively short time frame.40 Second, given the small size and duration of this QI project and its focus in a single MICU in an academic teaching hospital, the results may not be generalizable to other types of ICUs or hospitals.

Although laser Doppler flowmetry and laser fluorescence angiograp

Although laser Doppler flowmetry and laser fluorescence angiography are earlier described reliable methods of measuring intraoperative perfusion,17, 18, 19, 24, 31 and 32 they can be cumbersome and difficult to implement, especially during laparoscopic operations. The use of fluorescence angiography

has potential for great clinical significance Daporinad datasheet on outcomes of colorectal surgery especially with regard to high-risk anastomoses. Our data are consistent with this hypothesis by demonstrating lower anastomotic leak rates than those reported in the literature, even within the high-risk group. This result concurs with earlier reports by both Kudszus and colleagues5 and Jafari and colleagues,1 which demonstrated decreases in leak rates of 60% and 66%, respectively, when compared with a control group. Jafari and colleagues1 included a high-risk population of rectal cancer patients undergoing low anterior resection with anastomoses at a mean level of <5.5 cm from the anal verge. There was a reported 63% rate of history of radiation use in the fluorescence group. We demonstrated an anastomotic leak rate of 1.4% (n = 2), which is a promising reduction compared with that reported in the literature (12%).7 and 8 Considering the incidence of changes in the resection margin/anastomosis (n = 10) as high-risk patients who may have had leaks due to relative ischemia, it is

intriguing to note that if half of these patients had suffered leaks, the overall leak rate would have been 5%. If all Acesulfame Potassium of these Linsitinib cell line patients had leaks, the rate would have been 8.6%, putting the leak rate into an expected range for a heterogeneous group of medium- and high-risk

patients. Adequate perfusion is a key component of anastomotic integrity. To date, conventional methods have been inadequate, as demonstrated by a high rate of anastomotic failures, and almost mandatory use of diverting ileostomy for low pelvic, high risk anastomoses. These anastomotic leaks have a substantial impact on the morbidity and mortality of patients.2, 3, 13, 27, 30, 33 and 34 Therefore, any method to decrease the rate of anastomotic leak is of significant interest. Although patient-related-factors cannot be easily altered, there is potential to improve the assessment of bowel perfusion, viability, and anastomotic integrity. Our data may support the use of fluorescence angiography to allow for visualization of microperfusion of the bowel, which may, in turn, improve outcomes and decrease morbidity rates associated with anastomotic leaks. The 2 patients who developed anastomotic leaks in our series had minimal morbidity and required minimal interventions to manage the leak. This study should be viewed with certain significant limitations. As a prospective single armed study of moderate size, inherent biases exist.