Two new Morganella species from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest

Two new Morganella species, M. albostipitata and M. rimosa were found during studies of gasteroid fungi in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, Amazonas State, Brazil. The new taxa are described, and illustrated with photographs and line drawings, and taxonomical comments are made

Scleroderma minutisporum, a new earthball from the Amazon rainforest

A new species of earthball, Scleroderma minutisporum was found in the Brazilian Amazon. The specimen, collected in Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, Amazonas State, Brazil is named because of the small size of its basidiospores. A description, photographs, and taxonomical comments are provided, and the holotype is compared with related taxa

Optical parametric oscillation with distributed feedback in cold atoms

There is currently a strong interest in mirrorless lasing systems, in which the electromagnetic feedback is provided either by disorder (multiple scattering in the gain medium) or by order (multiple Bragg reflection). These mechanisms correspond, respectively, to random lasers and photonic crystal lasers. The crossover regime between order and disorder, or correlated disorder, has also been investigated with some success. Here, we report one-dimensional photonic-crystal lasing (that is, distributed feedback lasing) with a cold atom cloud that simultaneously provides both gain and feedback. The atoms are trapped in a one-dimensional lattice, producing a density modulation that creates a strong Bragg reflection with a small angle of incidence. Pumping the atoms with auxiliary beams induces four-wave mixing, which provides parametric gain. The combination of both ingredients generates a mirrorless parametric oscillation with a conical output emission, the apex angle of which is tunable with the lattice periodicity

Involvement of patients or their representatives in quality management functions in EU hospitals:implementation and impact on patient-centred care strategies

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to describe the involvement of patients or their representatives in quality management (QM) functions and to assess associations between levels of involvement and the implementation of patient-centred care strategies. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, multilevel STUDY DESIGN: that surveyed quality managers and department heads and data from an organizational audit. SETTING: Randomly selected hospitals (n = 74) from seven European countries (The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkey). PARTICIPANTS: Hospital quality managers (n = 74) and heads of clinical departments (n = 262) in charge of four patient pathways (acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hip fracture and deliveries) participated in the data collection between May 2011 and February 2012. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Four items reflecting essential patient-centred care strategies based on an on-site hospital visit: (1) formal survey seeking views of patients and carers, (2) written policies on patients' rights, (3) patient information literature including guidelines and (4) fact sheets for post-discharge care. The main predictors were patient involvement in QM at the (i) hospital level and (ii) pathway level. RESULTS: Current levels of involving patients and their representatives in QM functions in European hospitals are low at hospital level (mean score 1.6 on a scale of 0 to 5, SD 0.7), but even lower at departmental level (mean 0.6, SD 0.7). We did not detect associations between levels of involving patients and their representatives in QM functions and the implementation of patient-centred care strategies; however, the smallest hospitals were more likely to have implemented patient-centred care strategies. CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence that involving patients and their representatives in QM leads to establishing or implementing strategies and procedures that facilitate patient-centred care; however, lack of evidence should not be interpreted as evidence of no effect

Preliminary Outcomes 1 Year after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy Based on Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome System (BAROS)

# The Author(s) 2011. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Background The aim of this study was to assess outcomes of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) as a stand-alone bariatric operation according to the Bariatric Analysis and Reporting Outcome System (BAROS). Methods Out of 112 patients included and operated on initially, 84 patients (F/M, 63:21) were followed up for 14– 56 months (mean 22±6.75). Patients lost to follow-up did not attend scheduled follow-up visits or they have withdrawn their consent. Mean age was 39 years (range 17–67; SD±12.09) with mean initial BMI 44.62 kg/m 2 (range 29.39–82.8; SD±8.17). Statistical significance was established at the p<0.05 level. Results Mean operative time was 61 min (30–140 min) with mean hospital stay of 1.37 days (0–4; SD±0.77). Excellent global BAROS outcome was achieved in 13 % of patients, very good in 30%, good in 34.5%, fair 9.5 % and failure in 13 % patients 12 months after surgery. Females achieved significantly better outcomes than males with the mean 46.5 % of excess weight loss (EWL) versus 35.3 % of EWL at 12 months (p=0.02). The mean percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL) was 43.6 % at 12 months and 46.6 % at 24 months. Major surgical complication rate was 7.1%; minor surgical complication rate 8.3%. There was one conversion (1.2%) due to the massive bleeding. Comorbidities improved or resolved in numerous patients

The electric vehicle in smart homes: a review and future perspectives

The electric mobility dissemination is forcing the adoption of new technologies and operation paradigms, not only focusing on smart grids, but also on smart homes. In fact, the emerging technologies for smart homes are also altering the conventional grids toward smart grids. By combining the key pillars of electric mobility and smart homes, this paper characterizes the paradigms of the electric vehicle (EV) in smart homes, presenting a review about the state of the art and establishing a relation with future perspectives. Since the smart home must be prepared to deal with the necessities of the EV, the analysis of both on board and off board battery charging systems are considered in the paper. Moreover, the in-clusion of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and dc electrical appliances in smart homes towards sustainability is also considered in this paper, but framed in the perspective of an EV off board battery charging system. As a pertinent contribution, this paper offers future perspectives for the EV in smart homes, including the possibility of ac, dc, and hybrid smart homes. Covering all of these aspects, exemplificative and key results are presented based on numerical simulations and experimental results obtained with a proof of concept prototype.FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019. This work has been supported by the FCT Project newERA4GRIDs PTDC/EEI-EEE/30283/2017, and by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017. Tiago Sousa is supported by the doctoral scholarship SFRH/BD/134353/2017 granted by FC