Meningitis due to Fusobacterium necrophorum in an adult

BACKGROUND: Fusobacterium necrophorum may cause a number of clinical syndromes, collectively known as necrobacillosis. Meningitis is a significant cause of mortality, rarely reported in the adult population. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a fatal case of meningitis, caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum, secondary to otitis media in an alcoholic male. Diagnosis was delayed due to the typical slow growth of the organism. The clinical course was complicated by encephalitis and by hydrocephalus. The patient failed to respond to metronidazole and penicillin. The patient died on day 12 from increased intracranial pressure and brain stem infarction. CONCLUSIONS: This case emphasizes the need for a high index of clinical suspicion to make the diagnosis of Fusobacterium necrophorum meningitis. We recommend the use of appropriate anaerobic culture techniques and antimicrobial coverage for anaerobic organisms when the gram stain shows gram negative bacilli

Wayforlight : the Catalogue of European light sources

Wayforlight.eu is the gateway to find-ing the most suitable instruments for experiments with synchrotron, FEL, and laser light sources. The portal's main asset is a de-tailed searchable catalogue of facilities, beam-lines, and instrumentation available at Euro-pean light sources. Thanks to its advanced search tools, a visitor can filter beamlines by scientific discipline, by technique, but also by energy range or sample type

Thirty years of application of the electroslag process in Czechoslovak ferrous metallurgy

18.00; Translated from Czech. (Hutn. Listy 1988 v. 43(4) p. 234-238)Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:9023.19(VR-Trans--3942)T / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Using electroslag technology for manufacture of tools of high-speed tool steel

Translated from Russian (Problemy Spetsial'noi Elektrometallurgii 1988 v. 4(2) p. 35-40)Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:9023.19(VR-Trans--4016)T / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Preparation and Characterization of Bragg Fibers for Delivery of Laser Radiation at 1064 nm

Bragg fibers offer new performance for transmission of high laser energies over long distances. In this paper theoretical modeling, preparation and characterization of Bragg fibers for delivery laser radiation at 1064 nm are presented. Investigated Bragg fibers consist of the fiber core with a refractive index equal to that of silica which is surrounded by three pairs of circular layers. Each pair is composed of one layer with a high and one layer with a low refractive index and characterized by a refractive-index difference around 0.03. Propagation constants and radiation losses of the fundamental mode in such a structure were calculated on the basis of waveguide optics. Preforms of the Bragg fibers were prepared by the MCVD method using germanium dioxide, phosphorous pentoxide and fluorine as silica dopants. The fibers with a diameter of 170 m were drawn from the preforms. Refractive-index profiles, angular distributions of the output power and optical losses of the prepared fibers were measured. Results of testing the fibers for delivery radiation of a pulse Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm are also shown

Thulium-doped optical fibers for fiber lasers operating at around 2 μm

The paper deals with spectral and lasing characteristics of thulium-doped optical fibers fabricated by means of two doping techniques, i.e. via a conventional solution-doping method and via a nanoparticle-doping method. The difference in fabrication was the application of a suspension of aluminum oxide nanoparticles of defined size instead of a conventional chloride-containing solution. Samples of thulium-doped silica fibers having nearly identical chemical composition and wave guiding properties were fabricated. The sample fabricated by means of the nanoparticle-doping method exhibited longer lifetime, reflecting other observations and the trend already observed with the fibers doped with erbium and aluminum nanoparticles. The fiber fabricated by means of the nanoparticle-doping method exhibited a lower lasing threshold (by »20%) and higher slope efficiency (by »5% rel.). All these observed differences are not extensive and deserve more in-depth research; they may imply a positive influence of the nanoparticle approach on properties of rare-earth-doped fibers for fiber lasers

Using PVDF films as flexible piezoelectric generators for biomechanical energy harvesting

In this paper, a commercial polymeric piezoelectric film, the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was used to harvest electrical energy during the execution of five locomotion activities (walking, going down and up the stairs, jogging and running). The PVDF film transducer was placed into a tight suit in proximity of four body joints (shoulder, elbow, knee and ankle). The RMS values of the power output measured during the five activities were in the range 0.1-10 μW depending on the position of the film transducer on the body. This amount of electrical power allows increasing the operation time of wearable systems, and it may be used to prolong the monitoring of human vital signals for personalized health, wellness, and safety applications

Thermal stability and photoluminescence properties of RE-doped (RE = Ho, Er, Tm) alumina nanoparticles in bulk and fiber-optic silica glass

We present the thermal stability and the photoluminescence properties of RE-doped (RE = Ho, Er, Tm) alumina nanoparticles in the phase system Al2O3-SiO2 with respect to the chemical composition and the thermal processing conditions applied in the fiber-optic technology. The alumina and silica soot reacted together to form mullite when the Al2O3 concentration was higher than 5 mol. %. We have demonstrated that the solubility limits of RE ions in the mullite nanocrystals are strongly limited. The RE ions preferentially occupy highly disordered positions on the nanoparticle surface or in the amorphous Al3+-enriched shell around the nanoparticles, exhibiting maximal lifetime of approx. 1.2 ms, 10.0 ms and 0.6 ms in the Ho-, Er- and Tm-doped samples. Rapid cooling of the samples with stoichiometric composition 3Al2O3.2SiO2 managed to prepare highly defective mullite nanocrystals with embedded RE ions, exhibiting promising photoluminescence lifetimes of 5.6 ms and 2.4 ms in the case of Ho3+ and Tm3+ ions, respectively. In optical fibers with 5 mol. % Al2O3, the formation of amorphous Al3+-enriched nanoparticles was observed and the photoluminescence lifetime was in a good agreement with corresponding bulk samples. Exploitation of the RE-doped stoichiometric mullite in the fiberoptic technology may be a perspective way to improve the photoluminescence efficiency of active optical fibers for high-power applications

Erbium and Al2O3 nanocrystals-doped silica optical fibers

Fibre lasers and inherently rare-earth-doped optical fibers nowadays pass through a new period of their progress aiming at high efficiency of systems and their high power. In this paper, we deal with the preparation of silica fibers doped with erbium and Al2O3 nanocrystals and the characterization of their optical properties. The fibers were prepared by the extended Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) method from starting chlorides or oxide nanopowders. Conventional as well as modified approaches led to a nanocrystalline mullite phase formation in the fiber cores in which erbium is dissolved. The proposed modified approach based on starting nanopowders led to improved geometry of preforms and fibers and consequently to the improvement of their background attenuation. Such nanocrystal -doped fibers can be used for ASE sources. Further improvement of fiber optical properties can be expected