Kawasaki disease: An unusual presentation in a 14-year old boy in Sokoto, north western Nigeria

Kawasaki disease (KD) is an acute systemic vasculitis that mostly affects children less than 5years. Occasionally, it may presents with renal  involvement of varying severity. In Nigeria and most of Africa, only a few cases of KD have been reported and these were among children withinthe typical age group. We report an unusual case of Kawasaki disease with renal manifestation in a 14 year old adolescent. Apart from the principalfeatures of KD comprising of high grade fever, non purulent conjunctivitis, polymorphous rash, right sided cervical lymphadenitis and symmetrical desquamative lesions of the digits of the hands and feet; our patient also had renal involvement. The renal manifestations included mild periorbitaledema, oliguria, hypertension (140/90mmHg), hematuria(++), proteinuria(++) and elevated serum urea and creatinine (8.3mmol/L and 1.9mg/dl respectively). He was managed with high dose aspirin at  80mg/kg/day. The dose was reduced (5mg/Kg/day) and subsequently stopped after serial echocardiography showed normal coronary arteries. Intravenous immune globuline (IVIG) could not be started due to nonavailability. Nevertheless, clinical signs resolved, renal function normalisedafter 6 weeks and echocardiographic picture did not deteriorate. Patient is currently on follow up at the paediatric cardiology clinic of UDUTH, Sokoto, Nigeria..Conclusion: Kawasaki disease can occur even in older children and renal manifestation may be self limiting. This report highlights the need for high index of suspicion in all cases.Key words: Kawasaki disease, renal involvement, Adolescent, Sokoto, North-western Nigeria

Double resonance in the infinite-range quantum Ising model

We study quantum resonance behavior of the infinite-range kinetic Ising model at zero temperature. Numerical integration of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation in the presence of an external magnetic field in the $z$ direction is performed at various transverse field strengths $g$. It is revealed that two resonance peaks occur when the energy gap matches the external driving frequency at two distinct values of $g$, one below and the other above the quantum phase transition. From the similar observations already made in classical systems with phase transitions, we propose that the double resonance peaks should be a generic feature of continuous transitions, for both quantum and classical many-body systems.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Superconductivity-induced Phonon Renormalization on NaFe1−x_{1-x}Cox_{x}As

We report a study of the lattice dynamics in superconducting NaFeAs (Tc = 8 K) and doped NaFe0.97Co0.03As (Tc = 20 K) using Raman light scattering. Five of the six phonon modes expected from group theory are observed. In contrast with results obtained on iso-structural and iso-electronic LiFeAs, anomalous broadening of Eg(As) and A1g(Na) modes upon cooling is observed in both samples. In addition, in the Co-doped sample, a superconductivity-induced renormalization of the frequency and linewidth of the B1g(Fe) vibration is observed. This renormalization can not be understood within a single band and simple multi-band approaches. A theoretical model that includes the effects of SDW correlations along with sign-changing s-wave pairing state and interband scattering has been developed to explain the observed behavior of the B1g(Fe) mode.Comment: 10 pages; 6 figure

Physicians’ and Pharmacists’ Experience and Expectations of the Roles of Pharmacists: Insights into Hospital Setting in Macau

Purpose: To investigate physicians’ and pharmacists’ experience and expectations of the roles of pharmacists in hospital setting in Macau for the development of physician-pharmacist collaborative working relationship (CWR).Methods: A survey was conducted to address the research questions. The study population included the physicians and pharmacists working in hospitals in Macau. A self-administered survey was designed correspondingly to physicians and pharmacists with same series of questions, which composed of 4 parts: demographics, collaboration status, roles of pharmacist based on experience, and roles of pharmacist based on expectations.Results: Sixty six out of the 120 physician surveys and 18 out of the 30 pharmacist surveys were returned, giving a response rate of 55.00% and 60.00% respectively. 33.33% of physicians and 77.8% of pharmacists claimed they collaborated with the other professional at least once a week. The main reason for collaboration was prescription order queries. Both professionals indicated that “medication dispensing” and “identification and prevention of prescription errors” were currently the top responsibilities of pharmacists. It was anticipated by the physicians that pharmacists would remain focused on “medication dispensing” but should put in more effort. Pharmacists, on the other hand, would like to develop their role in direct patient care such as “patient counseling”.Conslusion: There were discrepancies in physicians’ and pharmacists’ expectations of the roles of pharmacists. The 6 most important responsibilities of pharmacists were determined in consultation with physicians’ opinions. Capacity building of pharmacists, communication between the two professionals and administrative co-ordinations were considered important elements in developing CWR.Keywords: Physician-pharmacist relationship, Pharmacist roles, Collaboration, Expectations

Towards a portable platform integrated with multi-spectral non-contact probes for delineating normal and breast cancer tissue based on near-infrared spectroscopy

Currently, the confirmation of diagnosis of breast cancer is made by microscopic examination of an ultra-thin slice of a needle biopsy specimen. This slice is conventionally formalin-fixed and stained with hematoxylin-eosin and visually examined under a light microscope. This process is labor-intensive and requires highly skilled doctors (pathologists). In this paper, we report a novel tool based on near-infrared spectroscopy (Spectral-IRDx) which is a portable, non-contact, and cost-effective system and could provide a rapid and accurate diagnosis of cancer. The Spectral-IRDx tool performs absorption spectroscopy at near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths of 850 nm, 935 nm, and 1060 nm. We measure normalized detected voltage (Vdn) with the tool in 10 deparaffinized breast biopsy tissue samples, 5 of which were cancer (C) and 5 were normal (N) tissues. The difference in Vdn at 935 nm and 1060 nm between cancer and normal tissues is statistically significant with p-values of 0.0038 and 0.0022 respectively. Absorption contrast factor (N/C) of 1.303, 1.551, and 1.45 are observed for 850 nm, 935 nm, and 1060 nm respectively. The volume fraction contrast (N/C) of lipids and collagens are reported as 1.28 and 1.10 respectively. Higher absorption contrast factor (N/C) and volume fraction contrast (N/C) signifies higher concentration of lipids in normal tissues as compared to cancerous tissues, a basis for delineation. These preliminary results support the envisioned concept for non-invasive and non-carcinogenic NIR-based breast cancer diagnostic platform, which will be tested using a larger number of samples

Phonon arithmetic in a trapped ion system

Single-quantum level operations are important tools to manipulate a quantum state. Annihilation or creation of single particles translates a quantum state to another by adding or subtracting a particle, depending on how many are already in the given state. The operations are probabilistic and the success rate has yet been low in their experimental realization. Here we experimentally demonstrate (near) deterministic addition and subtraction of a bosonic particle, in particular a phonon of ionic motion in a harmonic potential. We realize the operations by coupling phonons to an auxiliary two-level system and applying transitionless adiabatic passage. We show handy repetition of the operations on various initial states and demonstrate by the reconstruction of the density matrices that the operations preserve coherences. We observe the transformation of a classical state to a highly non-classical one and a Gaussian state to a non-Gaussian one by applying a sequence of operations deterministically

Numerical simulations of drop collisions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76145/1/AIAA-1994-835-900.pd

Quantum state conversion by cross-Kerr interaction

A generalized Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer equipped with cross-Kerr elements is proposed to convert N-photon truncated single-mode quantum states into (N+1)-mode single-photon states, which are suitable for further state manipulation by means of beam splitter arrays and ON/OFF-detections, and vice versa. Applications to the realization of unitary and non-unitary transformations, quantum state reconstruction, and quantum telemanipulation are studied.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, using a4.st

Experimental Test of Quantum Jarzynski Equality with a Trapped Ion System

The past two decades witnessed important developments in the field of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Among these developments, the Jarzynski equality, being a milestone following the landmark work of Clausius and Kelvin, stands out. The Jarzynski equality relates the free energy difference between two equilibrium states and the work done on the system through far from equilibrium processes. While experimental tests of the equality have been performed in classical regime, the verification of the quantum Jarzynski equality has not yet been fully demonstrated due to experimental challenges. Here, we report an experimental test of the quantum Jarzynski equality with a single \Yb ion trapped in a harmonic potential. We perform projective measurements to obtain phonon distributions of the initial thermal state. Following that we apply the laser induced force on the projected energy eigenstate, and find transition probabilities to final energy eigenstates after the work is done. By varying the speed of applying the force from equilibrium to far-from equilibrium regime, we verified the quantum Jarzynski equality in an isolated system.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Raman Scattering Study of the Lattice Dynamics of Superconducting LiFeAs

We report an investigation of the lattice dynamical properties of LiFeAs using inelastic light scattering. Five out of the six expected phonon modes are observed. The temperature evolution of their frequencies and linewidths is in good agreement with an anharmonic-decay model. We find no evidence for substantial electron-phonon coupling, and no superconductivity-induced phonon anomalies.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl