Aspergilloma in a patient with no previous history of chronic lung disease

Patients with aspergilloma should undergo surgical treatment, because there is a risk of sudden life threatening hemoptysis and because there is no effective alternate medical therapy. We report a case of aspergilloma in a 47 year old man with no past history of tuberculosis presented with the complaint of hemoptysis for two weeks. It was diagnosed radiologically and treated with left upper lobectomy. Post operative course was complicated by cardiorhythmic disorder

Primary repair of an esophageal rupture using pleural flap

Esophageal perforation remains an important thoracic emergency. Aggressive operative therapy remains the mainstay for treatment. A case of esophageal perforation, consequent upon impacted food bolus, is presented. An 80 years old female, with multiple comorbidities, presented with dysphagia and right sided chest pain, who had a distal esophageal tear, secondary to accidental meat ball ingestion. Rigid esophagoscopy showed complete occlusion of the distal esophagus with a meat ball. Right thoracotomy was performed, which showed perforated esophagus with large meat ball protruding from it. Endoscopic removal of the food particles was done, and the rupture was repaired using a pleural flap. The entire postoperative stay was uneventful and the patient was discharged on the ninth post-operative day

Chronic Umbilical Discharge : An unusual presentation of endometriosis

Umbilical endometriosis is an important differential diagnosis of any umbilical lesion. A 35-yearold type 2 diabetic woman presented with intermittent umbilical discharge which failed to respond to various antibiotics. An ultrasound scan and MRI scan failed to show any obvious abnormality. The umbilicus was excised and histology confirmed endometriosis. Surgical excision provides a definitive diagnosis and curative treatment for isolated endometriosis

Multi-Connectivity for Multicast Video Streaming in Cellular Networks (Extended Abstract)

In video streaming applications especially during live streaming events (such as the Super Bowl), video traffic can account for a significant portion of network traffic and can lead to severe network congestion. During such events, multicast transmission can be used to avoid network congestion since the same video content is being streamed to multiple users simultaneously. However, providing seamless connectivity to cellular users in multicast streaming remains an open problem. To address this issue, this paper explores the potential of using multi-connectivity (MC) in wireless multicast streaming. Our results reveal that MC significantly improves the performance of multicast services, especially for cell edge users who often suffer from poor channel conditions. We prove that optimal resource allocation in MC multicast streaming is an NP-hard problem. Therefore, we propose a greedy approximation algorithm for this problem with an approximation factor of $(1-1/e)$. We also prove that no other polynomial-time algorithm can provide a better approximation.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2202.0505

Endovascular foreign body retrieval

ObjectiveThe number of endovascular procedures performed is increasing exponentially as technology improves. A serious complication of endovascular therapy is loss of a foreign body in the vasculature. We reviewed our experience and evaluated the cause, management, and outcomes of intravascular foreign body (IVFB) misplacement.MethodsWe completed a retrospective review of patients who underwent endovascular retrieval of IVFBs between 2005 and 2010. Patients were identified by current procedural terminology code or by our hospital's risk management team. Patients undergoing routine endovascular retrieval of temporary vena cava filters were excluded.ResultsTwenty-seven IVFBs were identified in 26 patients. Twenty patients were asymptomatic (76.9%). Six patients were symptomatic (22.2%) with either pain (n = 4) or abnormal physical findings (n = 2). There were 13 (48.1%) catheter fragments, six (22.2%) guidewires, five (18.5%) inferior vena cava (IVC) filter (embolisms), two (7.4%) stents, and one (3.7%) sheath fragment. There were five (15.6%) embolizations of an IVFB into the right heart, three (9.4%) into a pulmonary artery, eight (25%) into the vena cava, eight (25%) into peripheral veins, five (15.6%) into peripheral arteries, one (3.1%) into a coronary artery, one (3.1%) into a hepatic vein, and one (3.1%) into adjacent soft tissue. The mechanism of endovascular loss was device fracture in 16 (59.3%) cases, loss of control in six cases (22.2%), migration in four (14.8%) cases, and incorrect device deployment in one case (3.7%). The probable cause of foreign body loss was technical error in eight (29.6%) cases. In three cases, IVFB retrieval was not attempted. The misplacement and retrieval were completed during the same procedure in 13 (48%) cases. Twenty-four endovascular retrievals were performed. Fifteen (62.5%) procedures used a snare to remove the IVFB and two (8.2%) used balloon catheters. Three IVFBs could not be removed and two cases were converted to open procedures. Technical success was achieved in 19/24 cases (79.2%). There were no immediate complications related to the retrieval of the IVFB; however, there was a single late complication of pulmonary embolism after failed endovascular retrieval (1/24, 4.2%). Thirty-day survival was 100%.ConclusionsIntravascular foreign bodies are a serious complication of endovascular therapy that can be minimized with proper device selection and deployment. When an intravascular foreign body is identified, endovascular retrieval should be attempted due to its high success rate and minimal morbidity

Wall Microstructures of High Aspect Ratio Enabled by Near‐Field Electrospinning

Near-field electrospinning (NFES) holds the potential to develop into a versatile additive nanomanufacturing platform. However, the impact of a variety of processing variables remains unresolved.Herein, the effect of solvents used to prepare suitable solutions for 3D microstructuring by electrospinning is studied. 3D straight walls of stacked fibers are fabricated using a layer-by-layer fiber deposition approach. The effect of the choice of substrate material is also explored. The results show that a high vapor pressure, and a low dielectric constant of the solvent, as well as a high substrate conductivity facilitate improved stacking of fiber layers. Utilizing these conditions, 3D stacked walls of polyethylene oxide are fabricated, and a maximum aspect ratio of 191.7 ± 52.6, while using a chromium/gold substrate and dichloromethane/methanol as the solvent is achieved

TREATMENT OF TEXTILE EFFLUENTS BY LOW COST AGRICULTURAL WASTES: BATCH BIOSORPTION STUDY

ABSTRACT The present investigation deals with the treatment of different dye containing effluents by using different agricultural waste biomasses (corncobs, sugarcane bagasse, cotton sticks, sunflower and peanut husk). Samples of textile wastewater were collected from five different textile industries of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Screening test was conducted to select the biosorbent with maximum dye removal efficiency for each of textile wastewater samples. Different process parameters like biosorbent dose, shaking speed and temperature were optimized during the study. The biosorption process using corncobs biomass was found to be good for the removal of dyes up to 79% from the one real textile wastewater sample. The biosorption efficiency of adsorbents was maximum at 0.3 g 50mL -1 of adsorbent dose with 120 rpm shaking speed and 303 K temperature. Thermodynamic study was also carried out to evaluate different parameters like free energy change (ΔG°), enthalpy change (ΔH°) and entropy change (ΔS°) and biosorption process was found to be exothermic. Characterization of effluents was carried out before and after the biosorption process to check out the effect of process on the removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS). The results proved that agricultural wastes are good option for the removal of color and COD from real textile effluents