Xanthogranulomatous Appendicitis in a Child: Report of a Case and Review of the Literature

Xanthogranulomatous inflammation is a well-described inflammatory process, which may involve any organ but is most frequently encountered in the gall bladder and the kidney. There are rare reports of xanthogranulomatous appendicitis (XA) in the adult population, but only one brief mention of such a diagnosis in a child. In this report, we describe the case of an 11-year-old boy who presented with clinical signs and symptoms of acute appendicitis necessitating appendectomy. Upon microscopic examination, the appendix showed the typical features of XA. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first well-described case XA in a noninterval appendix in a child. We also reviewed the limited medical literature on the subject

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation using an LTP-like repetitive stimulation protocol for patients with upper limb complex regional pain syndrome: A feasibility study

Introduction This feasibility study aimed to (i) develop a clinical protocol using a long-term potentiation-like repetitive stimulation protocol for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation in patients with upper limb complex regional pain syndrome and (ii) develop a research protocol for a single-blind randomised controlled trial investigating the efficacy of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for complex regional pain syndrome. Methods This small-scale single-blind feasibility randomised-controlled trial planned to randomise 30 patients with upper limb complex regional pain syndrome to either a variant of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or placebo transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for three weeks. Stimulation comprised 20 pulses over 1 s with a non-stimulation interval of 5 s, a so-called repetitive electrical stimulation protocol following the timing of long-term potentiation. Pain, function and body image were measured at baseline, post-treatment and at three months follow-up. At three months, participants were invited to one-to-one interviews, which were analysed thematically. Results A transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation protocol with electrodes applied proximal to the area of allodynia in the region of the upper arm was developed. Participant concordance with the protocol was high. Recruitment was below target (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (n = 6), placebo (n = 2)). Mean (SD) pain intensity for the transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation group on a 0 to 10 scale was 7.2 (2.4), 6.6 (2.8) and 7.8 (1.9), at baseline, post-treatment and at three-month follow-up, respectively. Qualitative data suggested that some patients found transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation beneficial, easy to use and were still using it at three months. Conclusion Patients tolerated transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation well, and important methodological information to facilitate the design of a large-scale trial was obtained (ISRCTN48768534). </jats:sec

Environmental Chamber for in Situ Dynamic Control of Temperature and Relative Humidity During X-Ray Scattering

We have designed, constructed, and evaluated an environmental chamber that has in situ dynamic control of temperature (25 to 90 °C) and relative humidity (0% to 95%). The compact specimen chamber is designed for x-ray scattering in transmission with an escape angle of 2θ = ±30°. The specimen chamber is compatible with a completely evacuated system such as the Rigaku PSAXS system, in which the specimen chamber is placed inside a larger evacuated chamber (flight path). It is also compatible with x-ray systems consisting of evacuated flight tubes separated by small air gaps for sample placement. When attached to a linear motor (vertical displacement), the environmental chamber can access multiple sample positions. The temperature and relative humidity inside the specimen chamber are controlled by passing a mixture of dry and saturated gas through the chamber and by heating the chamber walls. Alternatively, the chamber can be used to control the gaseous environment without humidity. To illustrate the value of this apparatus, we have probed morphology transformations in Nafion® membranes and a polymerized ionic liquid as a function of relative humidity in nitrogen

Proper motions of field L and T dwarfs -II

By using images taken with WFCAM on UKIRT and SofI on the NTT and combining them with 2MASS we have measured proper motions for 126 L and T dwarfs in the dwarf archive. Two of these L dwarfs appear to have M dwarf common proper motion companions, and 2 also appear to be high velocity dwarfs, indicating possible membership of the thick disc. We have also compared the motion of these 126 objects to that of numerous moving groups, and have identified new members of the Hyades, Ursa Major and Pleiades moving groups. These new objects, as well as those identified in Jameson et al. (2008) have allowed us to refine the L dwarf sequence for Ursa Major that was defined by Jameson et al. (2008).Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 10 pages, 3 figure

Measurement of WγW\gamma and ZγZ\gamma Production in ppˉp\bar{p} Collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV

The Standard Model predictions for $W\gamma$ and $Z\gamma$ production are tested using an integrated luminosity of 200 pb$^{-1}$ of \ppbar collision data collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross sections are measured selecting leptonic decays of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons, and photons with transverse energy $E_T>7$ GeV that are well separated from leptons. The production cross sections and kinematic distributions for the $W\gamma$ and $Z\gamma$ are compared to SM predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates

We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s --> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07 +{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47 +{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes in results or conclusion

Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Secondary Vertex b-tagging

We present a measurement of the ttbar production cross section using events with one charged lepton and jets from ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. In these events, heavy flavor quarks from top quark decay are identified with a secondary vertex tagging algorithm. From 162 pb-1 of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab, a total of 48 candidate events are selected, where 13.5 +- 1.8 events are expected from background contributions. We measure a ttbar production cross section of 5.6^{+1.2}_{-1.1} (stat.) ^{+0.9}_{0.6} (syst.) pb.Comment: 28 pages, 20 figures. Published in Physical Review

Search for ZZ and ZW Production in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a search for ZZ and ZW vector boson pair production in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV using the leptonic decay channels ZZ --> ll nu nu, ZZ --> l l l' l' and ZW --> l l l' nu. In a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 194 pb-1 collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab, 3 candidate events are found with an expected background of 1.0 +/- 0.2 events. We set a 95% confidence level upper limit of 15.2 pb on the cross section for ZZ plus ZW production, compared to the standard model prediction of 5.0 +/- 0.4 pb.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. This version is accepted for publication by Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

Measurement of the Cross Section for Prompt Diphoton Production in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We report a measurement of the rate of prompt diphoton production in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96 ~\hbox{TeV}$ using a data sample of 207 pb$^{-1}$ collected with the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II). The background from non-prompt sources is determined using a statistical method based on differences in the electromagnetic showers. The cross section is measured as a function of the diphoton mass, the transverse momentum of the diphoton system, and the azimuthal angle between the two photons and is found to be consistent with perturbative QCD predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures,revtex4. Version accepted by PRL, but with cross section tables i