Exceptional cause of bowel obstruction: rectal endometriosis mimicking carcinoma of Rectum - A case report

Endometriosis with intestinal serosal involvement is not uncommon in women of childbearing age. However, endometriosis presenting as colon obstruction is rare and occurs in less than 1% of cases. The Lack of pathognomonic signs makes the diagnosis difficult, mostly because the main differential diagnosis is with neoplasm, even during the intervention. Reported here is a case of a 35-year –old woman presenting with bowel obstruction due to rectal endometriosis. The patient presented signs and symptoms of bowel obstruction. Colonoscopy and radiological findings were suggestive of rectal carcinoma. Surgeons performed an anterior resection with right salpingectomy. Histopathology diagnosed bowel endometriosis. This case demonstrates the difficulty of establishing an accurate pre- and intra-operative diagnosis and the ability of intestinal endometriosis to mimic colon cancer

Managing Congestion in Vehicular Networks Using Tabu Search

© 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. In this era of communication, exponentially growing networks bring a lot of challenges to address for smoother network functionalities. Among them is efficiency in handling packet traffic to avoid and control congestion. A particular case is applicable to Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks, which are known with unbalanced resource utilisation, communication overheads, high transmission delay and least transmission capacity. This paper aims to minimise the delay and jitter for enhancing the Quality of Service (QoS) in Vehicular Adhoc Networks (VANET) using tabu search algorithm with multi-channel allocation capability. We proposed a scheme that prioritises each message considering the basis of message type or its substances, such as crisis, reference point, and administration oriented etc., and uses tabu search for scheduling the transmission of queued messages in order to enhance the efficiency, security, and durability of VANET. A comprehensive simulation is conducted to validate the proposed scheme and to evaluate the performances in comparison with other state-of-the-art approaches

Iatrogenic colorectal Kaposi sarcoma complicating a refractory ulcerative colitis in a human immunodeficiency negative-virus patient

Kaposi sarcoma is a mesenchymal tumor associated to a human herpes virus-8. It often occurs in human immunodeficiency virus-positive subjects. Colorectal localization is rare. We report the case of a colorectal Kaposi sarcoma complicating a refractory ulcerative colitis treated with surgery after the failure of immunomodulator therapy in a human immunodeficiency virus-negative heterosexual man.Key words: Kaposi’s Sarcoma, ulcerative colitis, Human Herpes Virus-8, Infliximab, immunosuppressio

Effects of moderate- vs. high-intensity interval training on physical fitness, enjoyment, and affective valence in overweight/obese female adolescents: a pre-/post-test study

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the effects of 12-week moderate-intensity interval training (MIIT) vs. high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on body composition, physical fitness, and psychological valence in overweight/obese (OW/OB) female adolescents. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty-eight OW/OB female students were randomized into HIIT (n=13), MIIT (n=13) or control (n=12) groups. The participants underwent a 12-week interval-training program at 100% to 110% and 60% to 75% of maximal aerobic speed for HIIT and MIIT, respectively. The control group kept their usual physical activity without completing the training program. Pre- and post-training measurements were performed to assess body composition, aerobic capacity, and anaerobic performance (using selected tests evaluating speed, jumping ability, and strength). Ratings of perceived exertion and the feeling scale were evaluated every three weeks. Enjoyment was measured at the end of the program. A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measurements was applied to test for "group×time" interactions for body composition, physical fitness, and affective variables. RESULTS Significant "group×time" interactions were detected for aerobic and anaerobic performance, body composition indices, and the feeling scale. HIIT resulted in more noticeable improvements in body composition and physical performance than MIIT, while no significant changes were found in the control group. Throughout the program, the feeling score has progressively increased in the MIIT group but decreased in the HIIT group. Ratings of the perceived exertion have increased in both groups, more noticeably in the HIIT group. At the end of the program, the MIIT group showed a higher enjoyment score. CONCLUSIONS Despite offering better body composition improvement and physical fitness enhancement, HIIT offered lesser enjoyment and affective valence than MIIT in OW/OB female adolescents. MIIT might be an alternative time-efficient protocol for improving health in this population

Bearing capacity charts of soft soil reinforced by deep mixing

A series of preliminary design charts were developed to predict the bearing capacity of fully and partially penetrated deep mixing (DM) of soft soil. The charts were produced by a new numerical analysis tool based on discontinuity layout optimisation (DLO) in which a previously proposed homogenisation method was used to define the improvement area. To measure the applicability of implementation of the homogenisation method in the DLO, a series of validation processes was performed against several previous studies under uniform soil strength. A new empirical solution was developed from the DLO method using the homogenisation method for the bearing capacity of soft ground under uniform soil strength, improved by the fully penetrated DM method. Results produced by the DLO approach were compared with existing analytical solutions and better agreement was found from the present model. The charts consider variation in improvement area ratio, column length and strength, and foundation width for the fully and partially penetrated DM cases. The simulations were related to real field cases in which the strength characteristics of soft soil increase with depth. An example is given to demonstrate use of the charts

In middle-aged and old obese patients, training intervention reduces leptin level: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Leptin is one of the major adipokines in obesity that indicates the severity of fat accumulation. It is also an important etiological factor of consequent cardiometabolic and autoimmune disorders. Aging has been demonstrated to aggravate obesity and to induce leptin resistance and hyperleptinemia. Hyperleptinemia, on the other hand, may promote the development of age-related abnormalities. While major weight loss has been demonstrated to ameliorate hyperleptinemia, obese people show a poor tendency to achieve lasting success in this field. The question arises whether training intervention per se is able to reduce the level of this adipokine. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to review the literature on the effects of training intervention on peripheral leptin level in obesity during aging, in order to evaluate the independent efficacy of this method. In the studies that were included in our analysis, changes of adiponectin levels (when present) were also evaluated. DATA SOURCES: 3481 records were identified through searching of PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library Database. Altogether 19 articles were suitable for analyses. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Empirical research papers were eligible provided that they reported data of middle-aged or older (above 45 years of age) overweight or obese (body mass index above 25) individuals and included physical training intervention or at least fitness status of groups together with corresponding blood leptin values. STATISTICAL METHODS: We used random effect models in each of the meta-analyses calculating with the DerSimonian and Laird weighting methods. I-squared indicator and Q test were performed to assess heterogeneity. To assess publication bias Egger's test was applied. In case of significant publication bias, the Duval and Tweedie's trim and fill algorithm was used. RESULTS: Training intervention leads to a decrease in leptin level of middle-aged or older, overweight or obese male and female groups, even without major weight loss, indicated by unchanged serum adiponectin levels. Resistance training appears to be more efficient in reducing blood leptin level than aerobic training alone. CONCLUSIONS: Physical training, especially resistance training successfully reduces hyperleptinemia even without diet or major weight loss