A Brodie's abscess with soft tissue collection-complicating an already difficult diagnosis

A healthy 14-year-old boy with a 3-month history of thigh pain and swelling is referred to a specialist centre with an uncertain diagnosis. After extensive tests and imaging a Brodie’s abscess is diagnosed. The abscess is complicated by a fistula (cloaca) through the cortical bone of the femur, resulting in a large complex soft tissue collection. This is a presentation, we are unaware has been documented in any literature. After specialist multi-team combined management (Paediatric Trauma and Orthopaedic and Paediatric Infectious Diseases), the patient undergoes two surgical procedures, and extensive antibiotic cover. The patient makes a good recovery with no long lasting sequelae to date

A systematic review of the effect of individualized risk communication strategies on screening uptake and its psychological predictors: the role of psychology theory

People might be more likely to attend for health screening if they are told their individual risk of an illness. The way this risk of ill-health is communicated might have an effect on screening uptake or its psychological proxies. It is possible that the format, presentation, and details of the information as well as the complexity of an intervention and use of psychological theory to inform the intervention may impact the effectiveness of individual risk communication. This systematic review collates, analyses and synthesizes the evidence for effectiveness of these aspects of individual risk communication. The synthesis indicated that written, individualized risk scores or categories are effective at supporting screening uptake and its psychological proxies. Complex, or theory-based interventions, surprisingly, are no more effective than simpler or atheoretical interventions

PDS 144: the first confirmed Herbig Ae-Herbig Ae wide binary

PDS 144 is a pair of Herbig Ae stars that are separated by 5.'' 35 on the sky. It has previously been shown to have an A2Ve Herbig Ae star viewed at 83 degrees inclination as its northern member and an A5Ve Herbig Ae star as its southern member. Direct imagery revealed a disk occulting PDS 144 N-the first edge-on disk observed around a Herbig Ae star. The lack of an obvious disk in direct imagery suggested PDS 144 S might be viewed face-on or not physically associated with PDS 144 N. Multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope imagery of PDS 144 with a 5 year baseline demonstrates PDS 144 N & S are comoving and have a common proper motion with TYC 6782-878-1. TYC 6782-878-1 has previously been identified as a member of Upper Sco sub-association A at d = 145 +/- 2 pc with an age of 5-10 Myr. Ground-based imagery reveals jets and a string of Herbig-Haro knots extending 13' (possibly further) which are aligned to within 7 degrees +/- 6 degrees on the sky. By combining proper motion data and the absence of a dark mid-plane with radial velocity data, we measure the inclination of PDS 144 S to be i = 73 degrees +/- 7 degrees. The radial velocity of the jets from PDS 144 N & S indicates they, and therefore their disks, are misaligned by 25 degrees +/- 9 degrees. This degree of misalignment is similar to that seen in T Tauri wide binaries.Peer reviewe

The SOD2 C47T polymorphism influences NAFLD fibrosis severity: evidence from case-control and intra-familial allele association studies.

AIMS: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a complex disease trait where genetic variations and environment interact to determine disease progression. The association of PNPLA3 with advanced disease has been consistently demonstrated but many other modifier genes remain unidentified. In NAFLD, increased fatty acid oxidation produces high levels of reactive oxygen species. Manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), encoded by the SOD2 gene, plays an important role in protecting cells from oxidative stress. A common non-synonymous polymorphism in SOD2 (C47T; rs4880) is associated with decreased MnSOD mitochondrial targeting and activity making it a good candidate modifier of NAFLD severity. METHODS: The relevance of the SOD2 C47T polymorphism to fibrotic NAFLD was assessed by two complementary approaches: we sought preferential transmission of alleles from parents to affected children in 71 family trios and adopted a case-control approach to compare genotype frequencies in a cohort of 502 European NAFLD patients. RESULTS: In the family study, 55 families were informative. The T allele was transmitted on 47/76 (62%) possible occasions whereas the C allele was transmitted on only 29/76 (38%) occasions, p=0.038. In the case control study, the presence of advanced fibrosis (stage>1) increased with the number of T alleles, p=0.008 for trend. Multivariate analysis showed susceptibility to advanced fibrotic disease was determined by SOD2 genotype (OR 1.56 (95% CI 1.09-2.25), p=0.014), PNPLA3 genotype (p=0.041), type 2 diabetes mellitus (p=0.009) and histological severity of NASH (p=2.0×10(-16)). CONCLUSIONS: Carriage of the SOD2 C47T polymorphism is associated with more advanced fibrosis in NASH

On right conjugacy closed loops of twice prime order

The right conjugacy closed loops of order 2p, where p is an odd prime, are classified up to isomorphism.Comment: Clarified definitions, added some remarks and a tabl

Electrical Properties of Carbon Fiber Support Systems

Carbon fiber support structures have become common elements of detector designs for high energy physics experiments. Carbon fiber has many mechanical advantages but it is also characterized by high conductivity, particularly at high frequency, with associated design issues. This paper discusses the elements required for sound electrical performance of silicon detectors employing carbon fiber support elements. Tests on carbon fiber structures are presented indicating that carbon fiber must be regarded as a conductor for the frequency region of 10 to 100 MHz. The general principles of grounding configurations involving carbon fiber structures will be discussed. To illustrate the design requirements, measurements performed with a silicon detector on a carbon fiber support structure at small radius are presented. A grounding scheme employing copper-kapton mesh circuits is described and shown to provide adequate and robust detector performance.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, submitted to NI

Metal-Insulator oscillations in a Two-dimensional Electron-Hole system

The electrical transport properties of a bipolar InAs/GaSb system have been studied in magnetic field. The resistivity oscillates between insulating and metallic behaviour while the quantum Hall effect shows a digital character oscillating from 0 to 1 conducatance quantum e^2/h. The insulating behaviour is attributed to the formation of a total energy gap in the system. A novel looped edge state picture is proposed associated with the appearance of a voltage between Hall probes which is symmetric on magnetic field reversal.Comment: 4 pages, 5 Postscript figures: revised versio