Unusual gastric band migration outcome: distal small bowel obstruction and coming out per-rectum

We describe a case of unusual gastric band migration outcome. A 54 years old female was submitted to laparoscopic adjustable gastric band in September 2001. In September 2009 she developed access-port infection which needed drainage and access-port removal. Three months later in December 2009 the patient was investigated due to abdominal pain and abdominal distention. X-rays and Abdomen CT revealed migrated gastric band which is completely intraluminal with its connecting tube, causing transient distal small bowel obstruction and subsequently comes out per-rectum. Band erosion and intragastric migration is a late complication that frequently needs surgical removal. There are few reported cases in the literature of migrated gastric band removal by endoscopy. However according to my knowledge, this is the first reported case of migrated gastric band coming out per rectum without need for surgical or enoscoipic removal.Pan African Medical Journal 2012; 13:5

Relationship Between Evidence Requirements, User Expectations, and Actual Experiences : Usability Evaluation of the Twazon Arabic Weight Loss App

Acknowledgments: This research project was supported by a grant from the Research Center of the Female Scientific and Medical Colleges, Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dental Hygiene Alternative Practice Models: Preparedness and Confidence of 2015 Graduates

Purpose: evaluate dental hygiene graduates’ perceived preparedness and confidence to practice in alternative settings. Methods: a survey was sent through ADHA to all members who graduated within the last year (2015-2016) with a minimum of one-week work experience. The survey consisted of demographics, and two alternative practice scales. Independent variables characterized as follows: (1) graduate of a baccalaureate degree dental hygiene program within an allied health science program, (2) graduate of a baccalaureate degree dental hygiene program within a dental school, or (3) graduate of an associate degree dental hygiene program. The dependent variables were preparedness, confidence and practice management skills. Results: A total of 319 responses were received; 303 participants met inclusion criteria. The majority (97.7%) of the sample was female. Over two thirds of respondents (68.5%) were aged 20 to 30 years. Most respondents (85.8%) worked in a private setting. Only 2 dental hygienists worked under direct access. Most respondents had an associate degree. Dental hygienists aged 20–30 years showed significantly higher level of preparedness over those above 30 years, p =0.043. Dental hygienists practicing under direct supervision demonstrated significantly lower levels of preparedness than the other hygienists, p =0.030. Graduates from programs located in a collage of allied health reported being less prepared for alternative practice than graduates from programs located in a dental school; p=0.032. Conclusions: Most hygienists from this study were working in dentists’ offices; however, majority felt prepared to pursue careers in alternative settings. Hygienists showed a high level of confidence in their clinical skills but they were not confident enough with their practice management skills. No differences were identified for self-confidence or practice management skills

Recombinant antibodies against Clostridium difficile toxin A

The carboxy-terminal region of Clostridium difficile Toxin A was expressed as a recombinant protein (ToxinA-CT), purified, and shown to behave as would be expected of the receptor-binding domain. ToxinA-CT was then used to isolate scFv antibodies from a phage display library using conventional bio-panning methods. Progressive enrichment of ToxinA-CT-specific scFvs through 3 rounds of selection was observed. Those scFvs that showed strongest reaction with ToxinA-CT in ELISA were sequenced, expressed as soluble antibodies and purified. A panel of diverse scFvs was established that appeared to bind to non-overlapping epitopes on ToxinA-CT. To assay for protective activity, scFvs were mixed with native Toxin A, added to cells in culture, and the response monitored over a 2 hour period. The scFvs were added to consistently delay the cytopathic activity of Toxin A but were unable to match the neutralizing activity of a polyclonal serum or its Fab derivatives. The epitopes recognised by the scFvs were localized using a sub-cloning strategy. Defined parts of the ToxinA-CT reading frame were recovered by PCR and fusions created with maltose binding protein. scFvs were tested for recognition of the maltose binding fusion proteins. In one instance, a scFv reacted with multiple fusion proteins suggesting recognition of a repeated peptide motif. A maltose binding protein fusion carrying a candidate sequence was successfully recognised by this scFv. Overall, phage display enabled assembly of a panel of scFv antibodies against epitopes in the carboxy-terminal domain of Toxin A. The inability of these antibodies to block the activity of Toxin A may be due to the multivalent interaction between the toxin and its receptor. Alternatively, the ToxinA-CT used in scFv isolated may lack functions that are crucial for receptor interaction and hence potential targets for antibody-mediated inhibition

Exploring the Use of Smartphones as Clickers

Clickers or Quick Response Systems (QRS) have been used widely in classrooms for different purposes. However, no research has explored the use of smartphones when they are used as clickers instead of dedicated hardware devices. With their wide spreading among students and educators nowadays, it is possible that smartphones can be used in the classroom easily as clickers using applications or via the web. The main purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary assessment on the use of smartphones as clickers. Students’ views on their satisfaction, performance, participation, feedback, and ease of use of smartphones as clickers were surveyed with the help of a 9-statement survey with 5-point Likert scale. Teachers were also interviewed to know their opinions about the use of smartphones as clickers in their classrooms. Their functionality, features and user experiences are investigated. The collected data was analyzed with the help of descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations). The use of smartphones as clickers found to be beneficial for teachers and students. The familiarity with the technology made it easy for participants to take more active part in the classroom work which was reflected in their learning outcomes. Further, the positive attitudes regarding the use of smart phone as QRS devices were also noticed. The overall experience of teachers regarding the tool was reported in the study and found to be promising. Keywords: Smartphones, Clickers, Active Classroom, Active learning, QRS

Full Wave Form Inversion for Seismic Data

In seismic wave inversion, seismic waves are sent into the ground and then observed at many receiving points with the aim of producing high-resolution images of the geological underground details. The challenge presented by Saudi Aramco is to solve the inverse problem for multiple point sources on the full elastic wave equation, taking into account all frequencies for the best resolution. The state-of-the-art methods use optimisation to find the seismic properties of the rocks, such that when used as the coefficients of the equations of a model, the measurements are reproduced as closely as possible. This process requires regularisation if one is to avoid instability. The approach can produce a realistic image but does not account for uncertainty arising, in general, from the existence of many different patterns of properties that also reproduce the measurements. In the Study Group a formulation of the problem was developed, based upon the principles of Bayesian statistics. First the state-of-the-art optimisation method was shown to be a special case of the Bayesian formulation. This result immediately provides insight into the most appropriate regularisation methods. Then a practical implementation of a sequential sampling algorithm, using forms of the Ensemble Kalman Filter, was devised and explored

Factors Effecting User Adoption Of I Dentity Management Systems: An Empi Rical Study

This study focuses on Web- based Identity Management Systems (IdMS), a new and emerging field where technology and business processes are integrated for the creation of identity -centric approaches to the management of users, their attributes, authentication factors and security privileges across the Internet and within an organisation. Understanding factors that affect user adoption of information technology is of interest to researchers in a diversity of fields. Although previous studies have addressed an extensive range of factors related to user adoption of information technology applications and products, there is no research examining the adoption of IdMS . In addition, no studies have investigated the conceptualisation and measurement of adoption factors in the IdMS context. The main objective of this study is to fill this clear gap by aiming to explore and understand the important factors influencing the user adoption of IdMS

Microseismic source imaging using physics-informed neural networks with hard constraints

Microseismic source imaging plays a significant role in passive seismic monitoring. However, such a process is prone to failure due to the aliasing problem when dealing with sparse measured data. Thus, we propose a direct microseismic imaging framework based on physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), which can generate focused source images, even with very sparse recordings. We use the PINNs to represent a multi-frequency wavefield and then apply the inverse Fourier transform to extract the source image. Specially, we modify the representation of the frequency-domain wavefield to inherently satisfy the boundary conditions (the measured data on the surface) by means of the hard constraint, which helps to avoid the difficulty in balancing the data and PDE losses in PINNs. Furthermore, we propose the causality loss implementation with respect to depth to enhance the convergence of PINNs. The numerical experiments on the Overthrust model show that the method can admit reliable and accurate source imaging for single- or multiple- sources and even in passive monitoring settings. Then, we further apply our method on the hydraulic fracturing field data, and demonstrate that our method can correctly image the source

Density response of maize canopy architecture in adapted and unadapted synthetic populations

ABSTRACT Since the 1950\u27s, the average maize grain yield, on a per unit area basis, has risen exponentially and without a pause. Associated with this increase have been changes in shoot morphology which permit more light penetration into the canopy. Changes in plant traits including plant height, leaf number, individual leaf area, vertical leaf angle, tassel size and weight, and leaf area density distribution along the main stem have been reported in the literature; however, the response of canopy components to changes in plant density has not been examined in closed populations and at today\u27s densities. The objective of this study was to: (i) analyze canopy traits (leaf angle / leaf area) to determine how canopy architecture has changed; (ii) determine if canopy architecture interacted with density either directly or indirectly. Materials from unselected base populations, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) and Iowa Corn Borer Synthetic no.1, were compared to the most advanced cycles of selection at four locations near Ames, Carroll, Crawfordsville, and Keystone, IA, in 2011. Populations were compared at six densities ranging from 3.0 to 9.5 plants m-1. Each breeding population by density combination was replicated once at each location and arranged in a split plot design. Increased densities resulted in reduced numbers of total nodes, lower ear height, shorter plant stature, smaller tassels, more upright leaf angles with smaller leaf areas at the top sector of the canopy and more horizontal leaf angles with larger leaf areas lower in the canopy. More importantly, the shape of the canopy was affected by plant height, ear height, node of attachment of the ear, and density