A case of pericardial effusion: Aid of bedside ultrasound in clinical decision making

Background: In life-threatening conditions, such as cardiac tamponade, we need to recognize signs of impending decompensation in a timely manner. Point of care ultrasound is non-invasive and is readily available, particularly in a resource limited setting. In this case, we present a patient with worsening pericardial effusion and the importance of bedside cardiac ultrasound. Case presentation: A 76-year-old male with stage IV adenocarcinoma of the lung was admitted for worsening dysphagia for 3 days and decreased oral intake. He was normotensive but was tachycardic with muffled heart sounds. CT of the chest demonstrated a significant pericardial effusion. Bedside ultrasound to evaluate the extent of pericardial effusion revealed significant circumferential effusion, right systolic atrial collapse, and non-variable IVC, signs of pre-tamponade physiology. Given these findings, cardiology was emergently consulted who recommended transfer to a higher level of care facility. Thus, point of care ultrasound helped in making an immediate decision prior to clinical decompensation of the patient. Conclusion: Point of care ultrasound can help in making critical decisions in resource-limited settings. In this patient, a large effusion with pre-tamponade physiology was identified on bedside ultrasound. Early recognition during bedside ultrasound can help reach a diagnosis before clinical deterioration. Our case highlights the importance of point of care ultrasound as a tool to reinforce critical thinking and help expedite rational decision-making processes

Fault detection on bearings coupled to permanent magnet DC motors by using a generalized Takagi-Sugeno PI observer

© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksThis paper presents a fault detection system for rotative machinery. A permanent-magnet DC motor is used as case of study. The main idea is to estimate on-line the non-load torque (To) in order to monitor the bearing health condition. The fault detection system is based on the design of a generalized Takagi-Sugeno PI (proportional-integral) observer. The main advantage of this approach is that it can be easily implemented because the observer gains are obtained by solving a set of LMIs (linear matrix inequalities). Moreover, the method can be extended to more complicated nonlinear systems by using the Takagi-Sugeno approach. A simulation is performed to show that this fault detection scheme can be applied to detect abrupt faults on rotative machinery which can lead the system to undesirable performance caused by vibrations or breakdown.Accepted versio

Controlled conversion approaches to selective laser sintering (SLS) printing of high Tg thermosets

Thermoset materials display superior physical and mechanical properties as compared to commonly printed semi-crystalline thermoplastics, yet they typically are not printed by selective laser sintering (SLS). This is because these materials require a post-print thermal cure above Tg to achieve maximal properties. However, such thermal treatment typically results in re-melting of the printed part. Current approaches to printing thermoset materials by this technique have largely relied on infiltrating a porous thermoplastic printed object with a low viscosity reactive resin which is then cured. More recently, direct printing of thermoset materials was also demonstrated, but these approaches require very rapid curing which is often also associated with reduced shelf-life and/or high filler content which may not be desired. Other higher temperature thermoplastics with superior properties (PPS and PEEK) have also been printed using this technique, but the printing of these requires specially designed high-temperature (200-300°C) printing chambers. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Severe Hypercalcemia: Unusual Life-threatening Presentation of Addison’s Disease

Background: Addison’s Disease, also known as primary adrenal insufficiency, is a rare disorder of the adrenal gland typically characterized by the combination of cortisol and mineralocorticoid deficiencies in addition to electrolyte abnormalities including hyponatremia and hyperkalemia. Addison\u27s disease is an uncommon cause of hypercalcemia. We present a rare case of hypercalcemia in the setting of primary adrenal insufficiency. Case Presentation: Our patient is 43-year-old Hispanic lady with no reported medical history who presented to the Emergency Room for evaluation of intractable nausea and vomiting of about a month duration. Clinical examination revealed a lethargic, dehydrated, and hypotensive lady. Initial laboratory findings revealed severe hypercalcemia of 15.4 mg/dl (N: 8.6-10.4). Serum AM Cortisol level was low \u3c 0.5ug/dl ( N: 7-25ug/dl) and Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH) level was elevated 612 pg/ml ( N: 7.2-63.3pg/ml) confirming the diagnosis of Addison’s disease. However, laboratory investigations and imaging studies into other causes of hypercalcemia were unremarkable. She was admitted, rehydrated, placed on pressors, Calcitonin, Hydrocortisone and Fludrocortisone . Her symptoms improved with resolution of hypercalcemia. Conclusion: Though rare, Addison’s disease should always be considered by physicians in the work up for hypercalcemia. This high index of suspicion improved the outcome in the management of this patient

Robustness of spatial Penning trap modes against environment-assisted entanglement

The separability of the spatial modes of a charged particle in a Penning trap in the presence of an environment is studied by means of the positive partial transpose (PPT) criterion. Assuming a weak Markovian environment, described by linear Lindblad operators, our results strongly suggest that the environmental coupling of the axial and cyclotron degrees of freedom does not lead to entanglement at experimentally realistic temperatures. We therefore argue that, apart from unavoidable decoherence, the presence of such an environment does not alter the effectiveness of recently suggested quantum information protocols in Penning traps, which are based on the combination of a spatial mode with the spin of the particle.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Using the second-order information for reconfigurability analysis and design in the fault tolerant framework

The control reconfigurability measure defines the capability of a control system to allow recovery of performance when faults occur; therefore, it has been intended to be a tool for designing and synthesizing approaches in the fault tolerant control context. Reconfigurability depends on the controllability gramian, also known as the second-order information (SOI) in a broad sense. This paper proposes the assignation, by feedback, of the deterministic SOI in order to set the control reconfigurability of a given linear system. The theory concerned with this assignation is reviewed, then constructive theorems are given for finding constant feedback gains that approximate a required control reconfigurability for ease implementation. Also an unification of the reconfigurability measures proposed in the fault tolerance literature is given. Once the SOI is assigned by feedback, it can be computed online by using an identification method, which uses process input/output data. Results from simulation of the three tanks hydraulic benchmark, show that this approach can provide information about the system performance for fault tolerant purposes, thus online control reconfigurability computation and fault accommodation are considered. The approach presented in the paper gives an alternative for supervision taking into account the reconfigurability assigned by design

Tracing sediment sources in an agriculture and livestock catchment of Argentina through the use of geochemical fingerprints

A mixing modelling approach (CSSIAR v2.00), using Energy Dispersive X Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) data as fingerprints for sediment sources and sinks, was applied for identifying critical hot spots of erosion in a typical Argentinian agro-ecosystem. The selected study site is the Estancia Grande catchment, covering 1235 hectares, which is located 23 km north east of San Luis (in the centre of Argentina). The studied catchment, which is characterized by highly erodible Haplic Kastanozem soils, is currently being used for agriculture (crop rotation), and livestock (free grazing and feedlots), and some fields are used for growing nut trees (walnuts and almonds) (Figure 1). Further fallow land is found in between the agriculture land and in the upper part of the catchment.Fil: Torres Astorga, Romina Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi". Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ciencias Físico, Matemáticas y Naturales. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi"; ArgentinaFil: Velasco, Ricardo Hugo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Luis. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi". Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Ciencias Físico, Matemáticas y Naturales. Instituto de Matemática Aplicada de San Luis "Prof. Ezio Marchi"; ArgentinaFil: Resch, C.. Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica ; AustriaFil: Gruber, R.. Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica ; AustriaFil: Padilla, R.. Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica ; AustriaFil: Dercon, G.. Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica ; AustriaFil: Mabit, L.. Organismo Internacional de Energía Atómica ; Austri

Isospectrality of conventional and new extended potentials, second-order supersymmetry and role of PT symmetry

We develop a systematic approach to construct novel completely solvable rational potentials. Second-order supersymmetric quantum mechanics dictates the latter to be isospectral to some well-studied quantum systems. $\cal PT$ symmetry may facilitate reconciling our approach to the requirement that the rationally-extended potentials be singularity free. Some examples are shown.Comment: 13 pages, no figure, some additions to introduction and conclusion, 4 more references; to be published in Special issue of Pramana - J. Phy

Biofilm formation displays intrinsic offensive and defensive features of Bacillus cereus

Biofilm formation is a strategy of many bacterial species to adapt to a variety of stresses and has become a part of infections, contaminations, or beneficial interactions. In this study, we demonstrate that profound physiological changes permit Bacillus cereus to switch from a floating to a sessile lifestyle, to undergo further maturation of the biofilm and to differentiate into the offensive or defensive features. We report that floating and biofilm cells are populations that differentiate metabolically, with members of each subpopulation developing different branches of certain metabolic pathways. Secondly, biofilm populations rearrange nucleotides, sugars, amino acids, and energy metabolism. Thirdly, this metabolic rearrangement coexists with: the synthesis of the extracellular matrix, sporulation, reinforcement of the cell wall, activation of the ROS detoxification machinery and production of secondary metabolites. This strategy contributes to defend biofilm cells from competitors. However, floating cells maintain a fermentative metabolic status that ensures a higher aggressiveness against hosts, evidenced by the production of toxins. The maintenance of the two distinct subpopulations is an effective strategy to face different environmental conditions found in the life styles of B. cereus

Analysis of a new strain of Euphorbia mosaic virus with distinct replication specificity unveils a lineage of begomoviruses with short Rep sequences in the DNA-B intergenic region

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Euphorbia mosaic virus </it>(EuMV) is a member of the SLCV clade, a lineage of New World begomoviruses that display distinctive features in their replication-associated protein (Rep) and virion-strand replication origin. The first entirely characterized EuMV isolate is native from Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico; subsequently, EuMV was detected in weeds and pepper plants from another region of Mexico, and partial DNA-A sequences revealed significant differences in their putative replication specificity determinants with respect to EuMV-YP. This study was aimed to investigate the replication compatibility between two EuMV isolates from the same country.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A new isolate of EuMV was obtained from pepper plants collected at Jalisco, Mexico. Full-length clones of both genomic components of EuMV-Jal were biolistically inoculated into plants of three different species, which developed symptoms indistinguishable from those induced by EuMV-YP. Pseudorecombination experiments with EuMV-Jal and EuMV-YP genomic components demonstrated that these viruses do not form infectious reassortants in <it>Nicotiana benthamiana</it>, presumably because of Rep-iteron incompatibility. Sequence analysis of the EuMV-Jal DNA-B intergenic region (IR) led to the unexpected discovery of a 35-nt-long sequence that is identical to a segment of the <it>rep </it>gene in the cognate viral DNA-A. Similar short <it>rep </it>sequences ranging from 35- to 51-nt in length were identified in all EuMV isolates and in three distinct viruses from South America related to EuMV. These short <it>rep </it>sequences in the DNA-B IR are positioned downstream to a ~160-nt non-coding domain highly similar to the CP promoter of begomoviruses belonging to the SLCV clade.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>EuMV strains are not compatible in replication, indicating that this begomovirus species probably is not a replicating lineage in nature. The genomic analysis of EuMV-Jal led to the discovery of a subgroup of SLCV clade viruses that contain in the non-coding region of their DNA-B component, short <it>rep </it>gene sequences located downstream to a <it>CP</it>-promoter-like domain. This assemblage of DNA-A-related sequences within the DNA-B IR is reminiscent of polyomavirus microRNAs and could be involved in the posttranscriptional regulation of the cognate viral <it>rep </it>gene, an intriguing possibility that should be experimentally explored</p