A rare case of clostridium difficile infection-associated reactive arthritis

Clostridium difficile is an uncommon cause of reactive arthritis in children. We herein present a rare case of C. difficile infection-associated reactive arthritis (CDIAReA) in a child, who developed severe diarrhea and a knee effusion following a course of oral antibiotic treatment. Our report emphasizes that CDIAReA should be considered in the differential diagnosis of children presenting with acute and painful arthritis that develops in the setting of antibiotic associated diarrhea. © 2018 by Pediatric

On the s-procedure and some variants

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In this thesis, we deal with the S-procedure that corresponds to verifying that the minimum of a quadratic function over constraints consisting of quadratic functions is positive. S-procedure is an instrumental tool in control theory and robust optimization analysis. It is also used in linear matrix inequality (or semi definite programming) reformulations and analysis of quadratic programming. We improve an error bound in the Approximate S-Lemma used in establishing levels of conservatism results for approximate robust counterparts. Moreover we extend the S-procedure and obtain some general results in this field. Finally, we get a bound similar to Nesterov’s bound for trust region subproblem, which consists in minimizing an indefinite quadratic function subject to a norm-1 constraint by using the Approximate S-Lemma.Derinkuyu, KürşadM.S

An improved probability bound for the Approximate S-Lemma

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The purpose of this note is to give a probability bound on symmetric matrices to improve an error bound in the Approximate S-Lemma used in establishing levels of conservatism results for approximate robust counterparts. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

On the S-procedure and some variants

We give a concise review and extension of S-procedure that is an instrumental tool in control theory and robust optimization analysis. We also discuss the approximate S-Lemma as well as its applications in robust optimization

Organization and functioning of liberalized electricity markets: An overview of the Dutch market

Abstract In this paper, we examine the organization and the functioning of the Dutch electricity market. First we describe the organization of the Dutch electricity supply chain and the role of the main market participants including the transmission system operator, distribution system operators, program responsible parties and metering companies. We then describe the organization of financial trading and clearing mechanism of electricity through the organized futures exchange (The European Energy Derivatives Exchange), and the spot market (Amsterdam Power Exchange) which includes the day-ahead market and intra-day markets. We also detail the functioning of the imbalance market and reserve capacity management in the Netherlands. Through a set of numerical analysis, we provide an exploratory analysis of the APX day-ahead spot prices and the real-time imbalance prices using electricity price data from 2002 to 2013. We observe the price spikes both in the day-ahead and imbalance markets usually occur around 6-10 AM and 5-7 PM. We also observe that in the imbalance market system overages happen significantly more often than shortages pointing out that the market tends to buy more than what is demanded. This could be explained by the risk attitude of the market participants in the imbalance market. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd

Incarcerated uterus and bilateral ovaries in a premature female infant inguinal hernia

We present a case of an inguinal hernia in a premature female infant containing the uterus and bilateral adnexa. This was diagnosed on ultrasound and underwent operative repair. The viable hernia contents were reduced laparoscopically, however the sliding nature of the hernia warranted open repair. Surgery was converted to the traditional inguinal approach and the hernia was successfully repaired with high ligation of the sac and additional closure of the internal ring. Post-operative course was unremarkable

A newborn with an alternative porto-caval shunt

BACKGROUND: Absent ductus venosus (ADV) is a rare condition, but it should be known that this embryonic anomaly may be detected by fetal echocardiographic or newborn ultrasound examinations. CASE REPORT: We present a baby with an ADV and an accompanying alternative porto-caval shunt between the right portal vein and inferior vena cava detected on postnatal ultrasound examination. CONCLUSIONS: Variations in the fetal umbilical or porto-systemic circulations should be detected by fetal or newborn ultrasound examinations and kept in mind before common interventions such as UV catheterizations

Optimization models for transport and service scheduling

textThis dissertation focuses on service scheduling and transshipment problems. The study of service scheduling is motivated by decisions facing service planners, who must inspect and maintain geographically dispersed infrastructure facilities. We study the problem of deciding which operations a service unit must perform at each customer location, given the sequence in which the unit periodically visits these locations. Each customer requires multiple service operations, and each operation has a time-varying completion or penalty cost that depends on the previous service time. The goal is to schedule the service start time for each customer and select the operations to perform so as to minimize the total completion cost. We first discuss how to solve a special case of this problem in which each site is visited only once per service cycle. We formulate this problem as a discrete time indexed network flow problem and prove that it is NP-hard in the ordinary sense. Then, we represent the problem as a multidimensional shortest path problem with path-dependent arc lengths. In this structure, arc costs depend on the total time spent for all customers. The resulting formulation is solvable via algorithms that have pseudo-polynomial run times. Computational results show that the shortest path approach outperformed the general network flow model. We then analyze the general case of this problem, in which each site can be visited more than once and prove that the problem is NP-Hard in the strong sense. We discuss the valid cuts and describe the preprocessor that reduces the problem size. Next, we examine an application to the general case of the problem and develop a fast and effective heuristic procedure that repeatedly applies the shortest path approach to subsequences that do not visit any customer more than once. Computational results for several problem instances show that the proposed heuristic identifies near optimal results very quickly, whereas a general purpose integer-programming solver (CPLEX) is not able to find an optimal solution even after many hours of computational time. Then we focus on techniques such as problem reduction, branching variables, and subdividing problem to smaller problems to get better solution times for the actual problem. Computational results show that these techniques can improve solution times substantially. Finally, we study a transshipment problem, in which the shipments need to be transported from their origin to destination and are subject to the logical and physical transportation network on which they rely. We consider a space-time network that allows one to formulate the problem as a multi-commodity network flow problem with additional side constraints and show the complexity results. We propose alternative models and propose algorithms for lower and upper bound calculations.Operations Research and Industrial Engineerin

The Relationship between Vitamin D Levels and Systemic Inflammation In Patients with COPD.

TEZ10065Tez (Uzmanlık) -- Çukurova Üniversitesi, Adana, 2013.Kaynakça (s. 86-108) var.xi, 111 s. : res. (bzs. rnk.), tablo ; 29 cm.Giriş ve Amaç: Vitamin D eksikliğinin pek çok kronik hastalıkta sistemik inflamasyonla ilişkisi gösterilmiş olmakla birlikte günümüzde Kronik Obstrüktif Akciğer Hastalığı‘nda (KOAH) sistemik inflamasyon ile vitamin D iliGkisi henüz bilinmemektedir. Bu çalışmada stabil KOAH‘lı hastalarda sistemik inflamasyonun serum vitamin D düzeyleri ile iliGkisini araştırmak amaçlanmıGtır. Gereç ve Yöntem: ÇalıGmaya Temmuz - Ekim 2011 tarihleri arasında Çukurova Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Göğüs Hastalıkları Polikliniğine başvuran ve GOLD 2009-2011 kriterlerine göre KOAH tanısı konulan kırk yaş üzeri, halen sigara içen veya sigarayı bırakmış elli stabil hasta ve benzer yaG ve cinsiyette ellibir sağlıklı kontrol olgusu dahil edildi. ÇalıGma grubunun klinik demografik özellikleri kaydedildikten sonra solunum fonksiyon testleri (SFT), 6 dakika yürüme testleri yapıldı. BODE indeksi, fiziksel aktivite düzeyleri, mMRC dispne skorları ölçüldü. Daha sonra hasta ve kontrol grubundan 25-OH Vitamin D3 düzeyi ile birlikte sistemik inflamasyonun değerlendirilmesi amacıyla serum IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-alfa, CRP, Alfa 1 antitripsin ve fibrinojen düzeylerinin ölçümü için periferik venöz kan örnekleri alındı. Bulgular: Vitamin D eksikliği (?20 ng/ml) prevelansı sağlıklı kontrollere göre KOAH‘lı hastalarda daha yüksek bulundu (% 46 vs % 11,5, p0. 05). KOAH‘lı hasta grubunda vitamin D eksikliği olan ve olmayan hastalar karGılaGtırıldığında vitamin D eksikliği olanlarda mMRC dispne skorunun daha düGük (1,4±1,1 vs. 2,3±1,3, p0.05). When patients with stable COPD were compared according to with or without deficiency of vitamin D, mMRC dyspnea scores was found lower (1. 4±1. 1 vs. 2. 3±1. 3, p<0. 05), BODE index was found higher (4. 1±2. 1 vs. 2. 3±2. 6, p<0. 05), and physical activity levels and 6-minute walking test was similar in patients with vitamin D deficiency. According to GOLD 2011 classification, as the severity of COPD increased, the deficiency of vitamin D was found higher. When the patients with COPD were compared according to systemic inflammatory markers, no significant difference was found between the patients with or without deficiency vitamin D. And, also, no significant correlation was revealed beetween serum vitamin D levels and systemic inflammatory markers. Discussion: In this study, it is demonstrated that deficiency vitamin D was more frequent in patients with COPD, but any significant relationship was not found between serum vitamin D levels and systemic inflammatory markers. Further large clinical trials are needed to evaluate the impact of level of vitamin D on the systemic inflammation in patients with COPD

Çözünmüş ve gaz karbon dioksit için yeni matriks malzemelerinin uygulaması ve fiber optik karbon dioksit sensör tasarımı

Çoğu optik karbon dioksit sensör tasarımında farklı absorpsiyon veya emisyon maksimumlarına sahip olan pH probları polimer ya da sol-jel matrikse hapsedilmiştir. Boyanın matriks materyaline immobilizasyonu sensör materyalin spektral özelliklerini etkiler. Bu çalışmada, polivinil klorür, etil selüloz ve polimetilmetakrilat gaz haldeki ve çözünmüş karbon dioksitin analizi için farklı katkı maddeleri ile birlikte kullanılmıştır. Karbon dioksit taşıyıcı perfloro bileşikleri veya oda sıcaklığında sıvı halde bulunan iyonik sıvıların polimer katkı maddeleri olarak kullanılmasının etkileri araştırılmıştır. Yeni sentezlenen azometin polimer matriks materyallerinde mikro fiber formunda veya ince film olarak spektroskopik çalışmalarla karakterize edilmiştir. Azometin boyalarının kuantum verimi ve asitlik sabiti hesaplamaları bilinen çözücülerde ve/veya kullanılan katı matrikslerde gerçekleştirilmiştir. İndikatörlerin kullanılan matrikslerde gaz haldeki veya çözünmüş karbon dioksite floresans esaslı yanıtları fiber optikli akışkan sistemde incelenmiştir. Bu çalışma karbon dioksit ölçüm çalışmaları için elektro eğirme yolu ile elde edilmiş sensör özellikteki fiberlerin üretimi için ilk çalışmadır. Azometin moleküllerinin, yapay fonksiyonların gerçekleşmesinde optik anahtar olarak kullanılma potansiyeli de moleküler düzeyde araştırılmıştır. İndikatör kompozisyonunun anyonlara, metal katyonlarına ve iyonik şiddete karşı duyarlılıkları incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmada karbon dioksit analizi ve pH ölçümü için azometin boyalarının dışında katkı maddesi içeren ya da içermeyen polimer matrikslerde üç farklı floresans schiff bazının cevabı araştırılmıştır. Bu schiff bazlarının absorpsiyon ve emisyon esaslı spektral yanıtları ve asitlik sabiti değerleri bilinen çözgenlerde, polimer matriks ortamlarında incelenmiştir. In most of the optical carbon dioxide sensor designs, pH probes with different absorption or emission maxima were embedded in a polymer or sol-gel matrix material. Immobilization of the dye in the matrix material effectively induces spectral characteristics of the sensing agent. In this work, polyvinyl chloride, ethyl cellulose and polymethylmethacrylate were used together with different types of additives for carbon dioxide or dissolved carbon dioxide sensing purposes. Carbon dioxide carriers of perfluorochemicals or room temperature ionic liquids were employed and tested as polymer additives. Newly synthesized azomethine dyes were characterized by spectroscopic ways in thin film or micro fiber form in the polymer matrix materials. Quantum yield and acidity constant calculations of the azomethine dyes were performed in the conventional solvents and/or in the employed solid matrices. Their fluorescence based response to carbon dioxide or dissolved carbon dioxide were examined in flow systems with fiber optics. To our knowledge this is the first attempt to produce electrospun sensor fibers for carbon dioxide sensing purpose. The potential use of some of azomethine molecules as optical switches for the realization of artificial functions at the molecular level was also investigated. Their cross sensitivities to anions, metal cations and effect of ionic strength were tested. Except that of azomethine dyes, three potential fluorescence Schiff bases were also investigated for carbon dioxide and pH sensing in plasticized polyvinyl chloride and ethyl cellulose, with or without additives. Absorption and emission based spectral data and acidity constants of the schiff bases were determined in conventional solvents such as polyvinyl chloride and ethyl cellulose