The outcome of elderly patients following removal of indwelling urinary catheter

The objectives of this study were to examine the documented indications for the insertion of the indwelling urinary catheter in elderly patients before admission to Zammit Clapp Hospital, St. Julians and St Vincent de Paule Residence, Luqa and to study the outcome after attempting removal of the indwelling urinary catheter. 64 patients from Zammit Clapp Hospital and 61 patients from St. Vincent de Paule Residence were studied. In 34 patients (24%), no clear reason for catheterisation prior to admission could be identified. In 46 patients (32 %) catheterisation was performed for severe uncontrollable incontinence. In all, 66 patients had their indwelling urinary catheter removed at some stage. Of these a total of 49 patients were continent 15 days after the removal of the catheter, 33 patients were still continent after 3 months and 29 patients remained continent after one year. With regards’ to continence rate, a poorer outcome was noted in patients with a mental score of less than 5/10, when compared to patients with a mental score of more than 5/10. Continence rates were better in patients from Zammit Clapp Hospital than in patients from St. Vincent de Paule residence. In conclusion, attempts should be made to use long term indwelling urinary catheterisation only if other measures fail. This can be achieved by proper multi-disciplinary team assessment and education of the patient or his carers. Full support from social services and provision and advice about the use of continence aids is necessary.peer-reviewe

Silicon Drift Detector Readout Electronics for a Compton Camera

A prototype detector for Compton camera imaging is under development. A monolithic array of 19 channel Silicon drift detector with on-chip electronics is going to be used as a scatter detector for the prototype system. Custom designed analog and digital readout electronics for this detector was first tested by using a single cell Silicon drift detector. This paper describes the readout architecture and presents the results of the measurement.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Micromachined Polycrystalline Sige-Based Thermopiles for Micropower Generation on Human Body

This paper presents a polycrystalline silicon germanium (poly-SiGe) thermopile specially designed for thermoelectric generators used on human body. Both the design of the single thermocouple and the arrangement of the thermocouple array have been described. A rim structure has been introduced in order to increase the temperature difference across the thermocouple junctions. The modeling of the thermocouple and the thermopile has been performed analytically and numerically. An output power of about 1 $\mu$W at an output voltage of more than 1 V is expected from the current design of thermopiles in a watch-size generator. The key material properties of the poly-SiGe have been measured. The thermopile has been fabricated and tested. Experimental results clearly demonstrate the advantage of the rim structure in increasing output voltage. In presence of forced convection, the output voltage of a non-released thermopile can increase from about 53 mV/K/cm2 to about 130 mV/K/cm2 after the rim structure is formed. A larger output voltage from the thermopile is expected upon process completion.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Nucleon decay and atmospheric neutrinos in the Mont Blanc experiment

In the NUSEX experiment, during 2.8 years of operation, 31 fully contained events have been collected; 3 among them are nucleon decay candidates, while the others have been attributed to upsilon interactions. Limits on nucleon lifetime and determinations of upsilon interaction rates are presented

A bolometric measurement of the antineutrino mass

High statistics calorimetric measurements of the beta spectrum of 187Re are being performed with arrays of silver perrhenate crystals operated at low temperature. After a modification of the experimental set-up, which allowed to substantially reduce the background of spurious counts and therefore to increase the sensitivity on the electron antineutrino mass, a new measurement with 10 silver perrhenate microbolometers is running since July 2002. The crystals have masses between 250 and 350 micrograms and their average FWHM energy resolution, constantly monitored by means of fluorescence X-rays, is of 28.3 eV at the beta end-point. The Kurie plot collected during 4485 hours x mg effective running time has an end-point energy of 2466.1 +/- 0.8{stat} +/- 1.5 {syst} eV, while the half lifetime of the decay is found to be 43.2 +/- 0.2{stat} +/- 0.1{syst} Gy. These values are the most precise obtained so far for 187Re. From the fit of the Kurie plot we can deduce a value for the squared electron antineutrino mass m(nu)^2 of 147 +/- 237{stat} +/- 90{syst} eV^2. The corresponding 90% C.L. upper limit for m(nu) is 21.7 eV.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let