Extradural hematoma: comparative radiological study between, comatous and noncomatous patients

A series of 129 patients harbouring extradural hematomas was analysed considering the neurological state immediately before operation as the most consistent variable. Seventy eight patients were considered to be comatous (Group I) and 51 were noncomatous. Among the comatous group, 30 were investigated with computerized tomography (23.3% mortality, 50% good results), 31 were submitted to angiography (48.3% mortality, 38.7% good results), and 17 were operated based on the neurological examination and skull radiography (47% mortality, 35.2% good results). The presence or absence of skull fracture and the density of hematoma did not change the final outcome. Associated intracranial lesions increased the mortality and lowered the good results in both groups. Frontal hematomas (10 cases) in the comatous group were associated with high mortality (52.6%) due to bad neurological state (Glasgow 3-5) and to isolated or multiple intracranial associated lesions (6 patients).Considerando o estado neurológico imediatamente antes da operação como a variável miais fidedigna para antecipação do prognóstico dos hematomas extradurais, os autores realizaram estudo radiológico comparativo de 129 pacientes operados por esta patologia. Desta amostra, 78 casos se encontravam em coma (Grupo I) e 51 eram não comatosos (Grupo II). No grupo I, os 30 casos investigados pré-operatoriamente com tomografia tiveram 23,3% de mortalidade e 50% de bons resultados; dos 31 casos submetidos a angiografia, 48,3% faleceram e 38,7% tiveram bons resultados; 17 casos foram operados pela radiografia simples de crânio e exame neurológico, com 47% de mortalidade e 35,2% de bons resultados. A presença de fratura de crânio e a densidade tomográfica do hematoma não interferiram nos resultados. A presença de lesão associada intracraniana aumentou a mortalidade e diminuiu a quantidade de bons resultados tanto no Grupo I quanto no Grupo II. A localização frontal do hematoma foi associada a elevada mortalidade (52,6%) no grupo comatoso, por estarem todos os pacientes entre 3 a 5 pontos na Escala de Glasgow e seis deles por apresentarem lesões associadas intracranianas únicas ou múltiplas.Hospital Santa IsabelEscola Paulista de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

An application of the SMED methodology in an electric power controls company

Lean production is a strategy for high competiveness in manufacturing. The capability for economical manufacture in small batch sizes is an essential requirement for achieving lean production. This facilitates mixed production of several kinds of products to match varying product demand and can have a major impact in reducing inventories. An obvious requirement for this is the high frequency of equipment setups or product changeovers. This will not be attractive unless set-up times and costs can be reduced to competitive levels. The application of SMED can achieve this. SMED is a well-established methodology involving a set of techniques, methods and guidelines to achieve fast product changeovers at machines. This paper describes the application of SMED in the production process of plastic and metal components required for the assembly of several types of circuit breakers. The work was carried out during a short period of a few months under a master thesis project. Several important SMED strategies and solutions were implemented and evaluated in terms of their impact on productivity and on other manufacturing performance measures. Three specific machines were involved: a punch-bending machine, a punch press and an injection moulding machine. An important contribution was made by introducing innovative and simple solutions such as adapting tools and normalizing changeover operations. Most of the achieved results exceeded the initial expectations. Beyond the purely technical and economic benefits of SMED, better workstations’ ergonomic conditions were also attained. Besides the usual quantification of setup time reduction, other indicators were calculated, namely: work-in- process (WIP), annual setup cost and distance travelled by operators during the changeover process. Reductions of setup time varying from 59% to 90% were achieved. WIP of metal components was reduced from 17.05 to 7.74 days reducing more than 50% on the corresponding costs. A more impressive reduction on WIP was obtained for plastic parts, actually from 5 to 1.09 days of work corresponding to a WIP cost reduction of over 80%. The distance travelled by operators during the changeover process was dramatically reduced too: typically a reduction from 300 m to 10 m and less. The total annual cost savings projection, in this small area of parts production, is near 20,000 €. Although large benefits were obtained from the study, scope for further improvement still exists. In fact the objective of product changeover times below 10 minutes aimed by SMED was not achieved in one case.Universidade do MinhoFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

New occurrences of Corallium spp. (Octocorallia, Coralliidae) in the Central Northeast Atlantic

Corallium niobe Bayer, 1964 and Corallium tricolor (Johnson, 1899) are reported as new records from the central Northeast Atlantic. C. niobe was caught in the Azores and C. tricolor on the slope of the Irving Seamount (South Azores Seamounts). The presence of Corallium johnsoni Gray, 1860 in Azorean waters is confirmed. The sub-tropical Macaronesian islands and seamounts appear to be an important hot-spot for Corallium spp. Most colonies have been collected on seamounts and island slopes around Madeira, Canaries, Azores and the Cape Verde archipelagos. In the Azores most of these corals live below the normal depth of commercial fishing operations and are unlikely to be severely impacted by this activity

Slipped clip: report of two cases

Aneurysm rest occurs in 1 to 10% of operated patients and of these, 21.8% are due to slipped clips. D´Angelo and coworker (1998) found 1 to 10% of residual aneurysms. They suggest that if the residual aneurysm has less than 2 mm, angiographic control must be performed after 3-5 years of the surgical procedure; if between 2 and 4 mm, the angiographic control must be done in the first 6 months after surgery and then, anually. If it has more than 4mm a direct surgical approach is advised. We present the cases of two female patients submitted to microsurgical treatment of intracranial aneurysm, without any intra-operative abnormal event. The angiographic study further made showed displacement of the clip from its original position and aneurysm again. A review of the literature is also presented.A incidência de clipagem de aneurismas em que permanecem restos da dilatação varia, nas séries estudadas, de 1-10%. Deste percentual, 21,8% é devido à migração do clipe.D´Angelo e seus colaboradores (1998), encontraram 1 a 10% de aneurismas residuais. Sugerem que quando o resíduo for menor que 2 mm seja realizado estudo angiográfico entre 3-5 anos após o procedimento cirúrgico; se entre 2 e 4 mm, este estudo deve ser mais precoce, dentro dos primeiros 6 meses e depois anualmente; e, quando maior que 4 mm, a reabordagem. Apresentamos os casos de duas pacientes submetidas a tratamento cirúrgico de aneurismas intracranianos, com intra-operatório sem intercorrências e que, em exames ulteriores, evidenciaram migração do clipe de sua posição original. É apresentada, ainda, revisão da literatura.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Escola Paulista de Medicina Disciplina de NeurocirurgiaUNIFESP, EPM, Disciplina de NeurocirurgiaSciEL

Analysis of the Effect of Tilling and Crop Type on Soil Structure Using 3D Laser Profilometry

Background and aim: Soil structure is an important indicator of the quality of soil, but detecting the early signs of soil degradation from soil structure is difficult. Developing precise instruments able to diagnose soil structure quickly is therefore critical to improve management practices. Here, the objective is to develop an instrument analysing the roughness of surfaces resulting from the fracture of soil cores, and to test the instrument’s ability to detect changes in soil structure cause by crop type and tillage. We have designed and constructed a 3D laser profilometer suitable for analysing standard soil cores. The 3D soil profiles were first assembled into a 3D surface using image analysis before roughness indicators could be computed. The method was tested by analysing how soil surface roughness was affected by crop varieties (barley and bean) and tillage (conventional tillage and no tillage). Results showed the method is precise and could reliably detect an influence of crop type and tillage on the roughness indicator. It was also observed that tillage reduced the difference in soil structure between the different cultures. Also, the soil in which barley grew had significantly lower roughness, irrespective of the tillage method. This could indicate that the roughness indicator is affected by biopores created by the root system. In conclusion, roughness indicators obtained from the fracture of soil cores can be easily obtained by laser profilometry and could offer a reliable method for assessing the effect of crop types and soil management on soil quality.</p

Analysis of the Effect of Tilling and Crop Type on Soil Structure Using 3D Laser Profilometry

Background and aim: Soil structure is an important indicator of the quality of soil, but detecting the early signs of soil degradation from soil structure is difficult. Developing precise instruments able to diagnose soil structure quickly is therefore critical to improve management practices. Here, the objective is to develop an instrument analysing the roughness of surfaces resulting from the fracture of soil cores, and to test the instrument’s ability to detect changes in soil structure cause by crop type and tillage. We have designed and constructed a 3D laser profilometer suitable for analysing standard soil cores. The 3D soil profiles were first assembled into a 3D surface using image analysis before roughness indicators could be computed. The method was tested by analysing how soil surface roughness was affected by crop varieties (barley and bean) and tillage (conventional tillage and no tillage). Results showed the method is precise and could reliably detect an influence of crop type and tillage on the roughness indicator. It was also observed that tillage reduced the difference in soil structure between the different cultures. Also, the soil in which barley grew had significantly lower roughness, irrespective of the tillage method. This could indicate that the roughness indicator is affected by biopores created by the root system. In conclusion, roughness indicators obtained from the fracture of soil cores can be easily obtained by laser profilometry and could offer a reliable method for assessing the effect of crop types and soil management on soil quality.</p

Effects of conductive and non-conductive materials on the activity of a hydrogenotrophic methanogen

Several conductive materials (CM), such as carbon nanotubes (CNT), activated carbon (AC), and magnetite, have been reported to mediate interspecies electron transfer in methanogenic environments. However, CNT also accelerated methane production (MP) of pure cultures of methanogens. We hypothesize that other CM and also non-CM may affect the methanogenic activity of pure cultures. For that purpose, we incubated the hydrogenotrophic methanogen, Methanobacteriun formicicum strain DSM 1535T, with AC, zeolite (Zeo), sand and glass beads (at 0.5 g/L), and followed MP. All materials reduced lag phases preceding the MP, and the time for complete conversion of H2/CO2 to methane. The best results were obtained with Zeo, since total hydrogen conversion occurred in less than 5 days (instead of 8 days as in the control incubated without materials). Approximately 5 days with sand, and 6 days with glass beads and AC, were necessary to achieve the complete conversion. The lag phases with AC were quite short (1 day) when compared with the control assay without materials (5 days). The initial MP (determined during the first 3 days of incubation) was improved 16 times with Zeo and 11 times with AC, when compared with the cultures incubated without materials. The results show that there is not a direct relationship between conductivity and the improvement of methanogenic activity. Other physicochemical properties of the materials might be related with the beneficial effects towards methanogens.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Zeolite stimulates the activity of microbial enrichments converting butyrate to methane

Conductive materials have been tested as a strategy to improve methane production (MP) in anaerobic digestion (AD) processes1,2. The effect of zeolite (0.5 g/L) towards microbial enrichments converting butyrate (10 mmol/L) to methane was investigated and compared with a microbial enrichment in the absence of the material. The enrichments were initiated with granular anaerobic sludge from a brewery WWTP as inoculum. Incubations were carried out under strict anaerobic conditions (at 37 °C) and periodically transferred to fresh medium. The results showed that, after an initial adaptation period (3 transfers), the presence of zeolite significantly accelerated the total conversion of butyrate to methane, since it took approximately 30d with zeolite and around 45d without zeolite. However, both enrichment cultures after extended adaptation (more than 8 transfers) behaved similarly, degrading butyrate in approximately 15d. Nevertheless, zeolite addition to active butyrate enrichment cultures without previous contact with zeolite, slightly accelerated MP, while the highly adapted zeolite-enrichment decreased activity when incubated without zeolite. Thus, the presence of zeolite showed to stimulate the microbial activity enhancing MP from butyrate degradation. This material possess natural ion-exchange properties, absorptive capacity and could function as a support for biomass which makes its application very attractive to AD processes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pure cultures of hydrogenotrophic methanogens are affected by modified activated carbons, zeolite, sand and glass beads

The metabolism of hydrogenotrophs has been showed to be improved in the presence of carbon nanotubes, which is relevant since they are crucial microorganisms in the conversion of waste to methane1. In this study, we investigated if other materials, with different physicochemical properties, also affect the hydrogenotrophic activity of Methanobacterium formicicum. M. formicicum was incubated separately with 0.5 g/L of sand, and commercial zeolite, glass beads and activated carbon (AC0) with and without modifications on the AC0 surface. Modifications were obtained by chemical oxidation with HNO3 (AC_HNO3), H2SO4 (AC_ H2SO4) or both (AC_HNO3_ H2SO4) and thermal treatments. All materials, with exception of AC_HNO3_ H2SO4, improved the methanogenic activity. Carbon-based materials significantly reduced the lag phases preceding methane production (MP) (from approximately 5 days in the control to circa 1 day). Zeolite, sand and glass beads also reduced the lag phases but less than carbon materials (i.e., from 5 days to 1.5, 2.7 and 3.5 days, respectively). Additionally, exponential MP rates were up to 1.5 times higher in the assays with non-carbon materials. All materials tested have different physical/chemical properties including conductivities, but all stimulated the methanogenic activity. Thus, further studies are necessary to identify the mechanisms behind the underlying observations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio