A rare cause of acute pancreatitis: Hantavirus infection

Hantaviruses cause potentially fatal two different systemic infectious diseases in humans named as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome. The clinical features of HFRS are hemorrhage, fever, thrombocytopenia and acute renal insufficiency frequently observed. HFRS shows distinctive clinical manifestations throughout from acute influenza-like febrile illness to shock. Although a large portion of HRFS patients present with a complaint of abdominal pain, acute pancreatitis is a rare complication of HFRS. No specific treatment protocol has been described for HRFS and supportive treatment is the basic approach. The rate of success enhanced with early diagnosis and intensive care support. Clinicians should be alert to the HFRS in patients with acute pancreatitis associated with systemic viral infection. We describe a case with HFRS who has presented with acute kidney injury, thrombocytopenia and acute pancreatitis. The patient was treated by supportive management successfully

Strength reduction on saturation of coal and coal measures rocks with implications for coal pillar strength

Coal and associated coal measures rocks, including shales, mudstones and sandstones, may lose significant strength on water saturation due to the absorption of water, stress corrosion or mineralogical changes to the clays within the rock matrix. As most coal seams are natural aquifers, water ingress into underground mine workings is common, and is typically controlled during mining by dewatering pumps. After a mine has closed, unless ongoing pumping is maintained, workings will flood and coal pillars and the pillar roof and floor foundations will revert to fully saturated conditions. This paper reports on a study of how flooding effects pillar strength in an abandoned coal mine in Queensland, Australia. The reduction in strength of coal and coal measures rocks between unsaturated and saturated water moisture contents has been quantified through physical testing. These strength data, along with the distribution of lithologies in a coal pillar from the mine, were used as inputs for numerical modelling of the strength reduction of a coal pillar on water saturation. It was found that the modelled pillar strength reduction could be estimated by the average strength reduction of all the lithological components of the pillar, weighted by the thickness of each lithology

Tensile fracture strength of Brisbane tuff by static and cyclic loading tests

This research presents the results of laboratory experiments during the investigation of tensile strength-strain characteristics of Brisbane tuff disc specimens under static and diametral cyclic loading. Three different cyclic loading methods were used; namely, sinusoidal cyclic loading, type I and II increasing cyclic loading with various amplitude values. The first method applied the stress amplitude-cycle number (s-n) curve approach to the measurement of the indirect tensile strength (ITS) and fracture toughness (K ) values of rocks for the first time in the literature. The type I and II methods investigated the effect of increasing cyclic loading on the ITS and K of rocks. For Brisbane tuff, the reduction in ITS was found to be 30 % under sinusoidal loading, whereas type I and II increasing cyclic loading caused a maximum reduction in ITS of 36 %. The maximum reduction of the static K of 46 % was obtained for the highest amplitude type I cyclic loading tested. For sinusoidal cyclic loading, a maximum reduction of the static K of 30 % was obtained. A continuous irreversible accumulation of damage was observed in dynamic cyclic tests conducted at different amplitudes and mean stress levels. Scanning electron microscope images showed that fatigue damage in Brisbane tuff is strongly influenced by the failure of the matrix because of both inter-granular fracturing and trans-granular fracturing. The main characteristic was grain breakage under cyclic loading, which probably starts at points of contact between grains and is accompanied by the production of very small fragments, probably due to frictional sliding within the weak matrix