Protein losing gastroenteropathy and possible relationship to cytomegalovirus infection. Ménétrier disease in a child

La enfermedad de Ménétrier infantil es una gastroenteropatía perdedora de proteínas caracterizada por hipertrofia de la mucosa gástrica, de causa desconocida, aunque la mayoría de los casos informados se han asociado a infecciones virales. Se manifiesta clínicamente por edema y bioquímicamente por hipoproteinemia e hipoalbuminemia. Es poco común en los niños, en quienes tiene un carácter benigno y autolimitado, a diferencia de los adultos, en los que tiende a cronificarse y, en ocasiones, a malignizarse. Se presenta un caso de enfermedad de Ménétrier infantil con síndrome ascítico edematoso posiblemente asociado a una infección por citomegalovirus.Ménétrier's disease is a childhood protein-losing gastroenteropathy characterized by hypertrophy of the gastric mucosa, of unknown etiology, although most of reported cases have been associated with viral infections. Clinical manifestation is edema and biochemically there are hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia. This disease is very rare in children and they have a benign and self-limiting course in contrast to adults where tend to be chronic and occasionally to become malignant. We present a child with Ménétrier disease with edema and ascites possibly associated with a cytomegalovirus infection.Fil: Hillman, María M.. Hospital Privado Centro Médico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Meinarde, Leonardo L.. Hospital Privado Centro Médico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Furnes, Raquel A.. Hospital Privado Centro Médico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Daruich, María L.. Hospital Privado Centro Médico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Riva, Verónica. Hospital Privado Centro Médico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Cuestas, Eduardo. Hospital Privado Centro Médico de Córdoba; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Pelvic irradiation does not increase the risk of hip replacement in patients with gynecological cancer. A cohort study based on 8,507 patients

Background and purpose — Long-term survivors of cancer can develop adverse effects of the treatment. 60% of cancer patients survive for at least 5 years after diagnosis. Pelvic irradiation can cause bone damage in these long-term survivors, with increased risk of fracture and degeneration of the hip. Patients and methods — Analyses were based on linkage between the Cancer Registry of Norway (CRN) and the Norwegian Arthroplasty Register (NAR). All women who had been exposed to radiation for curative radiotherapy of gynecological cancer (40–60 Gy for at least 28 days) were identified in the CRN. Radiotherapy had been given between 1998 and 2006 and only patients who were irradiated within 6 months of diagnosis were included. The control group contained women with breast cancer who had also undergone radiotherapy, but not to the pelvic area. Fine and Gray competing-risk analysis was used to calculate subhazard-rate ratios (subHRRs) and cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) for the risk of having a prosthesis accounting for differences in mortality. Results — Of 962 eligible patients with gynecological cancer, 26 (3%) had received a total hip replacement. In the control group without exposure, 253 (3%) of 7,545 patients with breast cancer had undergone total hip replacement. The 8-year CIF for receiving a total hip replacement was 2.7% (95% CI: 2.6–2.8) for gynecological cancer patients and 3.0% (95% CI: 2.95–3.03) for breast cancer patients; subHRR was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.53–1.22; p = 0.3). In both groups, the most common reason for hip replacement was idiopathic osteoarthritis. Interpretation — We did not find any statistically significantly higher risk of undergoing total hip replacement in patients with gynecological cancer who had had pelvic radiotherapy than in women with breast cancer who had not had pelvic radiotherapy

Evaluation of palagonite: crystallization, chemical changes and element budget

[1] The structural and chemical evolution of palagonite was studied as a function of glass composition, alteration environment, and time by applying a range of analytical methods (electron microprobe, infrared photometry, atomic force microscopy, X-ray fluorescence, and X-ray diffraction). Palagonitization of volcanic glass is a continuous process of glass dissolution, palagonite formation, and palagonite evolution, which can be subdivided into two different reaction stages with changing element mobilities. The first stage is characterized by congruent dissolution of glass and contemporaneous precipitation of “fresh,” gel-like, amorphous, optically isotropic, mainly yellowish palagonite. This stage is accompanied by loss of Si, Al, Mg, Ca, Na, and K, active enrichment of H2O, and the passive enrichment of Ti and Fe. The second stage is an aging process during which the thermodynamically unstable palagonite reacts with the surrounding fluid and crystallizes to smectite. This stage is accompanied by uptake of Si, Al, Mg, and K from solution and the loss of Ti and H2O. Ca and Na are still showing losses, whereas Fe reacts less consistently, remaining either unchanged or showing losses. The degree and direction of element mobility during palagonitization was found to vary mainly with palagonite aging, as soon as the first precipitation of palagonite occurs. This is indicated by the contrasting major element signatures of palagonites of different aging steps, by the changes in the direction of element mobility with palagonite aging, and by the general decrease of element loss with increasing formation of crystalline substances in the palagonite. Considering the overall element budget of a water-rock system, the conversion of glass to palagonite is accompanied by much larger element losses than the overall alteration process, which includes the formation of secondary phases and palagonite aging. The least evolved palagonitized mafic glass studied has undergone as much as 65 wt% loss of elements during palagonite formation, compared to ∼28 wt% element loss during bulk alteration. ABout 33 wt% element loss was calculated for one of the more evolved, in terms of the aging degree, rocks studied, compared to almost no loss for bulk alteration

Different incidences of knee arthroplasty in the Nordic countries.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesBackground and purpose - The annual number of total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) has increased worldwide in recent years. To make projections regarding future needs for primaries and revisions, additional knowledge is important. We analyzed and compared the incidences among 4 Nordic countries Patients and methods - Using Nordic Arthroplasty Register Association (NARA) data from 4 countries, we analyzed differences between age and sex groups. We included patients over 30 years of age who were operated with TKA or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) during the period 1997-2012. The negative binomial regression model was used to analyze changes in general trends and in sex and age groups. Results - The average annual increase in the incidence of TKA was statistically significant in all countries. The incidence of TKA was higher in women than in men in all 4 countries. It was highest in Finland in patients aged 65 years or more. At the end of the study period in 2012, Finland's total incidence was double that of Norway, 1.3 times that of Sweden and 1.4 times that of Denmark. The incidence was lowest in the youngest age groups (< 65 years) in all 4 countries. The proportional increase in incidence was highest in patients who were younger than 65 years. Interpretation - The incidence of knee arthroplasty steadily increased in the 4 countries over the study period. The differences between the countries were considerable, with the highest incidence in Finland. Patients aged 65 years or more contributed to most of the total incidence of knee arthroplasty.NordForsk gran

Hybrid Structural Composites with Energy Harvesting Capabilities

Hybrid materials have received significant interest due to the potential enhancements they provide over traditional materials such as sensing, actuating, energy scavenging, thermal management, and vibration damping. While traditional materials can be utilized for either one of these functions or loadbearing, the hybrid materials are superior as they allow combination of a wide array of functionalities whilst being suitable for load-bearing purposes. The goal of this thesis is to elucidate the synergistic effects of hybridization of two piezoelectric materials; zinc oxide nanowires (ZnO NWs) and thin film of lead zirconium titanate (PZT) on the mechanical and energy harvesting of beams made from plain-woven carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites (CFRPs). ZnO NWs have, by contrast, displayed great promises. While not only being a very strong piezoelectric material, it enhanced the mechanical and dynamic properties of the composite due to the increased surface area and mechanical interlocking. However, the aspect of energy scavenging is somewhat limited due to the weak piezoelectrical effects of ZnO nanowires. In this thesis, the prospects of ZnO NWs are exploited further to improve both their production processes and piezoelectric performance. Combining ZnO NWs grown on carbon fibers combined with other piezoelectrical materials has not yet been implemented but appears to be encouraging. This is the focus of this thesis. Despite that the composite comprising the combination of the two piezoelectric materials showed a minor drop in tensile strength and damping characteristics, the substantial gain in both stiffness (25.8 % increase compared to plain composite) and the electrical power gain (733.94 % more than that for ZnO NWs) is very promising for future application of the hybrid material into real engineering problems. A comprehensive study utilizing available commercial finite element software to simulate and foresee the behavior of hybrid materials was also carried out. The simulations agreed qualitatively with the experimental observations and explanations of the discrepancies between the model and experiment setup were discussed. Despite the preliminary promising results, more work is necessary to exploit the full potential of these material by optimizing the design of the energy harvesting devices and establishing more feasible models that treat the electromechanical coupling of these multifunctional hybrid composites more realistically

Flow in Pelton turbines

The flow in Pelton turbines is subsonic, turbulent, multiphase (water, air, and water vapor from cavitation), has high speeds, sharp gradients, free surface and dynamic boundary conditions. A static grid is unsuitable for modeling this mainly due to the turbine wheel and the liquid having a non-stationary relative motion.In recent times, significant progress in CFD simulation has been made, which also is relevant for Pelton turbines.Nevertheless, it is still common to perform costly model tests to test the design of Pelton turbines. There is therefore a need to develop and implement numerical methods that allow for more realistic simulation of flows in a Pelton turbine.In this thesis a meshfree numerical method has been studied, to investigate whether this method can be used to provide a better and more realistic simulation of flows in a Pelton turbine.Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is a meshfree numerical method, and has in recent year?s undergone considerable development. The advantage of SPH is that the method is not bound to a lattice and can better manage the free surface of a liquid motion. It uses discrete particles of fixed mass to describe fluid properties, where each particle represents mass and volume. SPH method approximates a function f(x), using a smoothing function W and interpolating between the particles i and j, where the smoothing length h determines the resolution and the number of neighbors that contribute to the properties at a point. There are a number of different interpolation functions.The purpose of this study was to investigate and assess whether the SPH based program DualSPHysics can be a good approach for simulating flows in Pelton turbines.In this paper two test cases relevant for Pelton turbine simulations were performed, a water jet impinging normally on a fixed plate and a simple Pelton bucket geometry. The results were compared with analytical and experimental data. Comparison showed a partially good correlation between the real world and DualSPHysics. In summary, DualSPHysics and SPH emerge as a promising tool in CFD, but this thesis shows that there is some uncertainty concerning the accuracy of the program

Developmental Dyslexia and Phonological Processing in European Portuguese Orthography

This study analysed the performance of phonological processing, the diagnostic accuracy and the influence on reading in children who were native speakers of an orthography of intermediate depth. Portuguese children with developmental dyslexia (DD; N=24; aged 10-12 years), chronological age (CA)-matched controls (N=24; aged 10-12 years) and reading level (RL)-matched controls (N=24; aged 7-9 years) were tested on measures of phonological processing (phonological awareness, naming speed and verbal short-term memory) and reading. The results indicated that the children with DD performed significantly poorer in all measures compared with the CA and RL. Phonological awareness and naming speed showed a high accuracy (receiver operating characteristics curve analysis) for discriminating the children with DD from the CA and RL, whereas the presence of abnormally low scores in phonological awareness and naming speed was more frequent in the DD group than in the controls and the normative population. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that phonological awareness was the most important predictor of all reading accuracy measures, whereas naming speed was particularly related to text reading fluency

Effect of a Non-Ideal Power Take-Off System on the Electrical Power Output of a Wave Energy Converter under Passive Control

Fysiske havbølger er ikke-stasjonære av natur, noe som gir en utfordring når en bølgeomformer skal konstrueres og kontrolleres. Gjennom tidene er det foreslått mange forskjellige kontrollstrategier for å kunne øke mengden energi som absorberes av bølgeomformeren under ulike driftsforhold. Ytelsen til disse kontrollmetodene er bekreftet ved bruk av hydrodynamiske modeller, hvor ideelle elektriske kraftuttakssystemer (PTO) er antatt. Generelt kan de elektriske kraftuttakssystemene justeres enten etter en konstant frekvens karakterisert av et lokalt spektrum eller etter en kontinuerlig frekvens som følger bølgefrekvensen. Nyere studier med en passiv kontroll (PC) metode basert på Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), som justerer PTO systemet fra bølge til bølge, har vist lovende resultater med en ideell PTO for å kunne øke mengden absorbert energi fra bølgene. I denne masteroppgaven har disse studiene blitt utvidet til å omfatte en modell som inkluderer de fysiske begrensningene og effektiviteten til det elektriske PTO systemet. Gjennom numeriske simuleringer og sammenligninger med en passiv belastningsmetode (PL) som bruker den gjennomsnittlige spektralsentroiden av energispekteret til kraften av den innkommende bølgen og tilfellet når bare den hydrodynamiske modellen er vurdert, blir effekten PC metoden har på mengden elektrisk generert effekt til bølgeomformeren studert. Simuleringene med kun den hydrodynamiske modellen viser at PC strategien absorberer mer energi fra bølgene enn PL. Ett eksempel er, for havtilstander karakterisert med et bredt frekvensspekter, oppnådde PC en ytelsesforbedring i den absorberte energien på opptil 32% sammenlignet med PL. Fra resultatene med modellen av bølgeomformeren med en ikke-ideell PTO, ble det observert at PC genererer i gjennomsnitt 10% mer elektrisk effekt enn PL, noe som støtter resultatene med en ideell PTO. Derimot krever PC 84% mer effekt fra nettet, sammenlignet med PL, for å kunne operere korrekt. Selv om PL resulterer i høyere gjennomsnittlige effekttap enn PC, vil PL i gjennomsnitt gi ut ca. 6% mer elektrisk effekt enn PC. Dette viser at de fysiske begrensningene og ikke-linearitetene til PTO systemet reduserer fordelen med en tidsvarierende PTO dempning.Real ocean waves are non-stationary by nature, which gives a challenge when designing and controlling wave energy converters (WECs). Many different control strategies have been proposed to increase the energy absorption of WECs under a variety of operating conditions. The performance of these control schemes have been verified through the use of hydrodynamic models, with the assumption that the power take-off (PTO) system is ideal. Generally, the PTO system can either be tuned on a constant frequency characterized by a local spectrum or continuously tuned after the wave frequency. Recent studies with a passive control (PC) method based on the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), that tunes the PTO on a wave-by-wave basis, have shown promising results with an ideal PTO for increasing the energy absorption from the waves. In this thesis, these studies have been extended to include a fully-coupled wave-to-wire model that includes the physical limitations and efficiency of an electrical PTO system. Through numerical simulations and comparisons with a passive loading (PL) method tuned at the mean centroid frequency of the excitation force spectrum and the case when only the hydrodynamic model is considered, the effect of the PC strategy on the electrical power output of the WEC is studied. Simulations with the hydrodynamic model only showed that the PC scheme absorbs more energy from the waves than PL. For instance, for sea states characterized by a wideband spectra, PC obtained a performance improvement in the absorbed energy of up to 32% compared to PL. From the wave-to-wire results, it was observed that PC averagely generates 10% more electrical power than PL, supporting the results with an ideal PTO. However, PC also requires 84% more power from the grid compared to PL in order to operate correctly. Even though PL results in more average power losses than PC, PL still averagely give around 6% more electrical power output than PC. This shows that the physical limitations and non-linearity of the PTO reduces the benefit of a time-varying PTO damping

Observation-Resistant Multifactor Multimodal Authentication

ENGELSK: This thesis investigates the use of hand gestures as an additional modality in authentication schemes, to thwart the risk of observation (shoulder surfing) attacks. We used the accelerometer already embedded in the iPod Touch to gather accelerometer signals, which were used to conduct experiments on how accurately we could recognize and differentiate different gestures. We restricted ourselves to a pre-defined set of gestures, and achieved an EER of 5% on the controlled wrist movements, and 8% after including two circular motions. The algorithms we used were tailored to fit the limited computational power of the iPod Touch, as we needed a recognition module that could be used in real time for our authentication schemes. After assessing the characteristics of the different hand gestures, we developed two unique authentication schemes that incorporate hand gestures as an additional modality for authentication. We developed suitable attack scenarios, and found that both schemes adds additional entropy to the scheme, as well as a significant amount of shoulder surfing resistance.NORSK: Denne oppgaven ser på bruken av håndbevegelser som en ekstra modalitet i autentiseringsskjemaer, for å minske risikoen for observasjonsangrep. Vi utviklet et program for iPod Touch som bruker den innebygde akselerasjonsmåleren til å samle akselerometerdata. For å undersøke hvor nøyaktig vi kan gjenkjenne og skille mellom forskjellige håndbevegelser, ble dette programmet brukt til å samle data om 6 forskjellige bevegelser fra totalt 38 deltagere. Vi begrenset oss til et forhåndsdefinert sett av bevegelser, og oppnådde en EER på 5% på de kontrollerte håndleddsbevegelsene, og en EER på 8% da vi inkluderte to sirkulære bevegelser. Algoritmene vi brukte var skreddersydd for å passe den begrensede regnekraften i en iPod Touch, da det var viktig at gjenkjenningsmodulen kunne brukes av våre autentiseringsskjemaer i sanntid. Etter å ha oppnådd tilfredsstillende feilrater utviklet vi to unike autentiseringsskjemaer som bruker håndbevegelser i autentiseringen, og det ble utviklet passende angrepsscenarier for å verifisere styrken av disse. Sikkerheten til autentiseringsskjemaene ble vurdert, og vi fant at begge skjemaene øker sikkerheten og resistansen mot observajonsangrep betraktelig