Experiencing male infertility: A review of the qualitative research literature

This article examines the qualitative research literature that exists in relation to men’s experiences of male infertility. Since men have often been marginalized in the realm of reproduction, including academic research on infertility, it is important to focus on any qualitative research that gives voices to male perspectives and concerns. Given the distress documented by studies of infertile women, we focus in particular on the emotive responses and lived experiences of men in relation to infertility. In this article then, we present an analysis of the core themes across 19 qualitative articles, which include “infertility as crisis”; “emoting infertility- men as “being strong”’ “infertility as a source of stigma”; and the “desire for fatherhood.” In light of these insights, we identify key areas for future research and development including men’s emotional responses to infertility, how men seek support for infertility, the intersection between masculinity and infertility, the relationship between the desire to father and infertility, and the outcomes of infertility for men in terms of other aspects of their lives. We suggest that such research would facilitate making the experiences of men more central within our understandings of infertility within a field that has primarily been female focused

Design parameters for a siphon system

DHI are interested in understanding a rather unusual water extraction system that is operated by a water supply company. Typically when water is extracted from the ground a well is dug and a pump is installed in the well to push the water to the surface where it enters a distribution system of pipes. Such a system may consist of a dozen or so wells each connected to a single collection pipe. The system that DHI wish to more fully understand consists of a series of ten wells connected to a single collection pipe. The difference in the mode of operation is that the system contains no pumps in the wells. The force to collect the water comes from placing the end of the collection pipe in a tank that is continuously pumped to keep it at approximately 0.5 bar below atmospheric pressure. In this way the water is drawn out of the wells by a siphon mechanism. Such a system appears cheaper o install with fewer pumps and water supplied in this manner costs roughly half the price of water from a standard pump system. How this multiple siphon system works and how it might be controlled were the general problems of interest to the study group

Influenza and associated co-infections in critically ill immunosuppressed patients

Abstract Background It is unclear whether influenza infection and associated co-infection are associated with patient-important outcomes in critically ill immunocompromised patients with acute respiratory failure. Methods Preplanned secondary analysis of EFRAIM, a prospective cohort study of 68 hospitals in 16 countries. We included 1611 patients aged 18 years or older with non-AIDS-related immunocompromise, who were admitted to the ICU with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. The main exposure of interest was influenza infection status. The primary outcome of interest was all-cause hospital mortality, and secondary outcomes ICU length of stay (LOS) and 90-day mortality. Results Influenza infection status was categorized into four groups: patients with influenza alone (n = 95, 5.8%), patients with influenza plus pulmonary co-infection (n = 58, 3.6%), patients with non-influenza pulmonary infection (n = 820, 50.9%), and patients without pulmonary infection (n = 638, 39.6%). Influenza infection status was associated with a requirement for intubation and with LOS in ICU (P < 0.001). Patients with influenza plus co-infection had the highest rates of intubation and longest ICU LOS. On crude analysis, influenza infection status was associated with ICU mortality (P < 0.001) but not hospital mortality (P = 0.09). Patients with influenza plus co-infection and patients with non-influenza infection alone had similar ICU mortality (41% and 37% respectively) that was higher than patients with influenza alone or those without infection (33% and 26% respectively). A propensity score-matched analysis did not show a difference in hospital mortality attributable to influenza infection (OR = 1.01, 95%CI 0.90–1.13, P = 0.85). Age, severity scores, ARDS, and performance status were all associated with ICU, hospital, and 90-day mortality. Conclusions Category of infectious etiology of respiratory failure (influenza, non-influenza, influenza plus co-infection, and non-infectious) was associated with ICU but not hospital mortality. In a propensity score-matched analysis, influenza infection was not associated with the primary outcome of hospital mortality. Overall, influenza infection alone may not be an independent risk factor for hospital mortality in immunosuppressed patients

Design parameters for a siphon system

DHI are interested in understanding a rather unusual water extraction system that is operated by a water supply company. Typically when water is extracted from the ground a well is dug and a pump is installed in the well to push the water to the surface where it enters a distribution system of pipes. Such a system may consist of a dozen or so wells each connected to a single collection pipe. The system that DHI wish to more fully understand consists of a series of ten wells connected to a single collection pipe. The difference in the mode of operation is that the system contains no pumps in the wells. The force to collect the water comes from placing the end of the collection pipe in a tank that is continuously pumped to keep it at approximately 0.5 bar below atmospheric pressure. In this way the water is drawn out of the wells by a siphon mechanism. Such a system appears cheaper o install with fewer pumps and water supplied in this manner costs roughly half the price of water from a standard pump system. How this multiple siphon system works and how it might be controlled were the general problems of interest to the study group

Sensitive determination of the Young's modulus of thin films by polymeric microcantilevers

A method for the highly sensitive determination of the Young's modulus of TiO2 thin films exploiting the resonant frequency shift of a SU-8 polymer microcantilever (MC) is presented. Amorphous TiO2 films with different thickness ranging from 10 to 125 nm were grown at low temperature (90 degrees C) with subnanometer thickness resolution on SU-8 MC arrays by means of atomic layer deposition. The resonant frequencies of the MCs were measured before and after coating and the elastic moduli of the films were determined by a theoretical model developed for this purpose. The Young's modulus of thicker TiO2 films (> 75 nm) was estimated to be about 110 GPa, this value being consistent with the value of amorphous TiO2. On the other hand we observed a marked decrease of the Young's modulus for TiO2 films with a thickness below 50 nm. This behavior was found not to be related to a decrease of the film mass density, but to surface effects according to theoretical predictions on size-dependent mechanical properties of nano- and microstructures