Medical Literary Messenger (Vol. 5, No. 1, Fall/Winter 2017)

Home Visit / Melissa Fournier -- Stiffness / Hannah Shea -- Exile / Lane Falcon -- Good Intentions / Laura Foley -- Resurrection / Les Cohen -- Visits / Craig W. Steele -- That Last Night / Laura Foley -- Taste / Dan Campion -- Bumblebees Don’t Always Sting / Diane M. Parker -- Mental Status Exam / Melissa Fournier -- Dystrophia I / Ashley Purdy -- Muck Out / Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois -- Endoscope / Lane Falcon -- Leftovers / Erynn Porter -- Another Autumn / Deborah Fleming -- Autism / Laura Foley -- Nearly Sunset / Craig W. Steele -- Palms / Mitchell Krockmalnic Grabois -- concentric / Michele Riedel -- Hashimoto’s / Hannah Shea -- Uncharted Territory / Katacha Díaz -- Skeletal Survey / Melissa Fournier -- Humanism in Medicine: Reflections from Diastole / Helen Lin -- Late Voyage / Laura Foley -- Sponge Bath / Dan Campion

Some light on Littlewood-Paley theory

The purpose of this note is to correct an error in a paper of M. Cowling, G. Fendler and J.J.F. Fournier, and to give a counterexample to a conjecture of J.-L. Rubio de Francia.Comment: 3 pages, no figures; submitted to Math Annale

Nematic-Wetted Colloids in the Isotropic Phase: Pairwise Interaction, Biaxiality and Defects

We calculate the interaction between two spherical colloidal particles embedded in the isotropic phase of a nematogenic liquid. The surface of the particles induces wetting nematic coronas that mediate an elastic interaction. In the weak wetting regime, we obtain exact results for the interaction energy and the texture, showing that defects and biaxiality arise, although they are not topologically required. We evidence rich behaviors, including the possibility of reversible colloidal aggregation and dispersion. Complex anisotropic self-assembled phases might be formed in dense suspensions.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

An assessment of Fe XX - Fe XXII emission lines in SDO/EVE data as diagnostics for high density solar flare plasmas using EUVE stellar observations

The Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory obtains extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) spectra of the full-disk Sun at a spectral resolution of ~1 A and cadence of 10 s. Such a spectral resolution would normally be considered to be too low for the reliable determination of electron density (N_e) sensitive emission line intensity ratios, due to blending. However, previous work has shown that a limited number of Fe XXI features in the 90-60 A wavelength region of EVE do provide useful N_e-diagnostics at relatively low flare densities (N_e ~ 10^11-10^12 cm^-3). Here we investigate if additional highly ionised Fe line ratios in the EVE 90-160 A range may be reliably employed as N_e-diagnostics. In particular, the potential for such diagnostics to provide density estimates for high N_e (~10^13 cm^-3) flare plasmas is assessed. Our study employs EVE spectra for X-class flares, combined with observations of highly active late-type stars from the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite plus experimental data for well-diagnosed tokamak plasmas, both of which are similar in wavelength coverage and spectral resolution to those from EVE. Several ratios are identified in EVE data which yield consistent values of electron density, including Fe XX 113.35/121.85 and Fe XXII 114.41/135.79, with confidence in their reliability as N_e-diagnostics provided by the EUVE and tokamak results. These ratios also allow the determination of density in solar flare plasmas up to values of ~10^13 cm^-3.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, MNRAS in pres

In vitro susceptibility of 120 strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolated in Kyrghyzstan.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization has established a worldwide program for gonococcal antimicrobial surveillance, but so far no data on gonococcal susceptibility in Central Asia are available. GOAL: The need for biological data on the susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Kyrghyzstan, to enable adaptation of the national treatment protocol for gonococcal infections, led Médecins Sans Frontières and Epicentre to conduct a survey in collaboration with the Alfred Fournier Institute in Paris and the health authorities in Bishkek. STUDY DESIGN: In vitro susceptibility of N gonorrhoeae strains was determined with use of the reference agar-plate dilution technique. RESULTS: Results for 11 antibiotics tested on 120 strains of gonococci showed a low proportion (11.7%) of penicillinase-producing N gonorrhoeae and high proportions of intermediate or resistant strains to the majority of the antibiotics tested, including fluoroquinolones (>or=25% of strains resistant). All the strains were susceptible to spectinomycin, and only two strains had decreased susceptibility to cefixime. CONCLUSION: The therapeutic choices available in Kyrghyzstan appear to be limited to cephalosporins and spectinomycin

Spontaneous melanotic lesions in axillary seabream, Pagellus acarne (Risso)

In this paper, we describe spontaneous melanotic lesions in the skin of axillary seabream, Pagellus acarne (Risso) from a defined area of the Portuguese Coast, located in Cabo da Roca and Foz do Arelho. The lesions corresponded to black pigmentation spots on the skin of the head, fins, lips and conjunctiva and, additionally, black nodules on the skin of the head and lips. In some specimens, the nodular formations in the head changed their anatomical conformation. Histologically, there were melanophores scattered along the basement membrane or forming aggregates in the dermis, infiltrating the subcutaneous tissue but not invading the adjacent muscle tissue. The aim of this study was to characterize the macroscopic and microscopic features of the pigmented lesions. These fish show sessile hyperpigmented lesions (spots) that correspond to proliferative lesions of melanophores in the dermis and nodular lesions that correspond to neoplastic lesions, melanophoromas. The melanophores in such lesions showed high concentration of melanin in the cytoplasm, moderate pleomorphism and compact distribution throughout all of the dermis

Design aspects of a solar array drive for spot, with a high platform stability objective

A solar array drive mechanism (MEGS) for the SPOT platform, which is a prototype of a multimission platform, is described. High-resolution cameras and other optical instruments are carried by the platform, requiring excellent platform stability in order to obtain high-quality pictures. Therefore, a severe requirement for the MEGS is the low level of disturbing torques it may generate considering the 0.6 times 10 to the minus 3 power deg/sec stability required. The mechanical design aspects aiming at reducing the mean friction torque, and therefore its fluctuations, are described as well as the method of compensation of the motor imperfections. It was concluded, however, that this is not sufficient to reach the stability requirement

Distributed upper-surface blowing concept

A low speed investigation was conducted in the Langley V/STOL tunnel to determine the powered lift aerodynamic performance of a distributed upper surface blown propulsive lift transport model. The model used blowing slots across the span of the wing to produce a thin jet efflux near the leading edge and at the knee of the trailing edge flap (internally blown jet flap). Results indicate that these concepts have both good propulsive related lift and low drag due to lift characteristics because of uniform spanwise propulsive thrust. The leading edge blowing concept provides low speed lift characteristics which are competitive with the flap-hinge-line blowing concept and does not require additional leading edge treatment for prevention of abrupt stall