A rare case of clostridium difficile infection-associated reactive arthritis

Clostridium difficile is an uncommon cause of reactive arthritis in children. We herein present a rare case of C. difficile infection-associated reactive arthritis (CDIAReA) in a child, who developed severe diarrhea and a knee effusion following a course of oral antibiotic treatment. Our report emphasizes that CDIAReA should be considered in the differential diagnosis of children presenting with acute and painful arthritis that develops in the setting of antibiotic associated diarrhea. © 2018 by Pediatric

A micro-analytic investigation of gaming interactions:displays of understanding in Overwatch

Abstract. This thesis examines the gaming interactions of players in Overwatch, a multiplayer, fast-paced, first-person shooter video game. The data contains players’ practice matches against other teams to improve their team synergy, and to try out new additions to their roster. Two hours of their video-recorded, naturally-occuring gaming interactions in English are analyzed using Conversation Analysis to uncover insights on how players achieve intersubjectivity (i.e. mutual understanding). As this phenomenon has not been subject to research in gaming contexts yet, the analytical focus is on displays of understanding in second turn (i.e. a turn that is addressed to its prior turn) during both talk and action sequences. Four types of displays of understanding are identified and discussed in detail: non-understanding, verbal display, embodied display, as well as embodied and verbal display. The study also discusses players’ engagement in presequential planning actions, their use of in-game jargon and shorthand expressions. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on gaming interactions, and to intersubjectivity research within social interaction. The analyses bring evidence to players attaining more in-game success when mutual understanding is achieved, and players being more prone to in-game failures when it is not. Furthermore, discussions regarding players’ speaker selection and repair practises to overcome interactional troubles are made

Nonequilibrium phase transitions and stationary state solutions of a three-dimensional random-field Ising model under a time dependent periodic external field

Nonequilibrium behavior and dynamic phase transition properties of a kinetic Ising model under the influence of periodically oscillating random-fields have been analyzed within the framework of effective field theory (EFT) based on a decoupling approximation (DA). Dynamic equation of motion has been solved for a simple cubic lattice ($q=6$) by utilizing a Glauber type stochastic process. Amplitude of the sinusoidally oscillating magnetic field is randomly distributed on the lattice sites according to bimodal and trimodal distribution functions. For a bimodal type of amplitude distribution, it is found in the high frequency regime that the dynamic phase diagrams of the system in temperature versus field amplitude plane resemble the corresponding phase diagrams of pure kinetic Ising model. Our numerical results indicate that for a bimodal distribution, both in the low and high frequency regimes, the dynamic phase diagrams always exhibit a coexistence region in which the stationary state (ferro or para) of the system is completely dependent on the initial conditions whereas for a trimodal distribution, coexistence region disappears depending on the values of system parameters.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure

Effective field theory analysis of 3D random field Ising model on isometric lattices

Ising model with quenched random magnetic fields is examined for single Gaussian, bimodal and double Gaussian random field distributions by introducing an effective field approximation that takes into account the correlations between different spins that emerge when expanding the identities. Random field distribution shape dependencies of the phase diagrams and magnetization curves are investigated for simple cubic, body centered and face centered cubic lattices. The conditions for the occurrence of reentrant behavior and tricritical points on the system are also discussed in detail.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

Training the brain to overcome the effect of aging on the human eye

Presbyopia, from the Greek for aging eye, is, like death and taxes, inevitable. Presbyopia causes near vision to degrade with age, affecting virtually everyone over the age of 50. Presbyopia has multiple negative effects on the quality of vision and the quality of life, due to limitations on daily activities – in particular, reading. In addition presbyopia results in reduced near visual acuity, reduced contrast sensitivity, and slower processing speed. Currently available solutions, such as optical corrections, are not ideal for all daily activities. Here we show that perceptual learning (repeated practice on a demanding visual task) results in improved visual performance in presbyopes, enabling them to overcome and/or delay some of the disabilities imposed by the aging eye. This improvement was achieved without changing the optical characteristics of the eye. The results suggest that the aging brain retains enough plasticity to overcome the natural biological deterioration with age

Retinal neurodegeneration in metabolic syndrome: a spectral optical coherence tomography study

• AIM: To evaluate the effects of metabolic syndrome (MetS) on retinal neurodegeneration by optical coherence tomography (OCT). • METHODS: Patients diagnosed as MetS were compared with the age and sex-matched healthy control group (CG). Waist circumference measurements, fasting serological biochemical tests, and systemic blood pressures of all participants were evaluated. The MetS group was divided into 3 subgroups according to the number of MetS components: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia (low-, high-density lipoprotein, hypertriglyceridemia), and visceral obesity findings; 3-component MetS3, 4-component MetS4, and all-component MetS5. All patients underwent complete eye examination and spectral OCT retinal imaging. • RESULTS: Totally 58 eyes of 58 patients were included in the MetS group and 63 eyes of 63 age and sex-matched healthy subjects were included in CG. MetS group was composed of 22 subjects in MetS3, 21 subjects in MetS4, and 15 subjects in the MetS5 subgroup. Mean foveal thickness (MetS, 218.7±23.1 µm vs CG, 228.8±21.9 µm, P=0.015), mean inferior (MetS, 283.4±17.0 µm vs CG, 288.7±38.4 µm, P=0.002), superior (MetS, 287.0±18.5 µm vs CG 297.3±17.1 µm, P=0.001), nasal (MetS 287.3±16.7 µm vs CG 297.9±13.9 µm, P=0.000) and temporal (274.5±17.6 µm vs CG 285.6±13.6 µm, P=0.000) thickness in the 3 mm Early Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) circle was significantly lower in the MetS group. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean inferior, superior, nasal, and temporal thickness of 6 mm ETDRS circle, total macular volume, peripapillary and macular retinal nerve fiber layer, macular ganglion cell layer with inner plexiform layer, and ganglion cell complex. No statistically significant difference was found in these values between the MetS3, MetS4, and the MetS5 groups. • CONCLUSION: A significant reduction in central macular region thickness in MetS is detected and macular thickness is more susceptible to MetS induced neurodegeneration than peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer. © 2023 International Journal of Ophthalmology (c/o Editorial Office). All rights reserved.Authors’ contributions: Polat E was responsible for designing the study protocol, supervision the study, conducting the search, screening potentially eligible studies, data collection, updating reference lists, and creating all tables. Celik E was responsible for designing the study protocol, contributed to writing the report, extracting and analyzing data, interpreting results, and creating all tables. Togac M was responsible for writing the protocol and report, contributed to data extraction, and provided feedback on the report. Sahin A was responsible for writing the literature review, data collection