Assessing the cervical range of motion in infants with positional plagiocephaly

Purpose: To determine if infants with positional plagiocephaly have limitations of active and passive cervical range of motion measured with simple and reliable methods. Methods: The examiners assessed bilateral active and passive cervical rotations and passive cervical lateral flexion. Cervical assessment was performed twice by 2 different physicians to assess intertester reliability. To assess intratester reliability the first investigator performed a second examination 48 hours after the first one. Results: One-hundred nine subjects were analyzed; 70.7% of the sample had head positional preference on the right, while 29.3% had head positional preference on the left (x2 35.52, P <0.001). Cervical rotations and lateral flexion showed reliable levels of agreement for intra and intertester reliability. Conclusions: The most limited range of motion in infants with positional plagiocephaly was cervical active rotation which affected more than 90% of patients. Passive cervical rotations and lateral flexion were limited in more than 60% of patient

Quasi-local masses and cosmological coupling of black holes and mimickers

Motivated by the recent heated debate on whether the masses of local objects, such as compact stars or black holes (BHs), may be affected by the large-scale, cosmological dynamics, we analyze the conditions under which, in a general relativity framework, such a coupling small/large scales is allowed. We shed light on some controversial arguments, which have been used to rule out the latter possibility. We find that the cosmological coupling occurs whenever the energy of the central objects is quantified by the quasi-local Misner-Sharp mass (MS). Conversely, the decoupling occurs whenever the MS mass is fully equivalent to the (nonlocal) Arnowitt-Deser-Misner (ADM) mass. Consequently, for singular BHs embedded in cosmological backgrounds, like the Schwarzschild-de Sitter or McVittie solutions, we show that there is no cosmological coupling, confirming previous results in the literature. Furthermore, we show that nonsingular compact objects couple to the cosmological background, as quantified by their MS mass. We conclude that observational evidence of cosmological coupling of astrophysical BHs would be the smoking gun of their nonsingular nature.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, some discussions expanded, matches version published on JCA

Déplacements et activités de chats sauvages sardes Felis silvestris libyca suivis par radiotélémétrie

Déplacements et activités de chats sauvages sardes Felis silvestris libyca suivis par radiotélémétrie. - Pour la première fois, les déplacements et les activités de huit chats sauvages sardes Felis silvestris libyca Forster, 1780, ont été étudiés par télémétrie dans une zone protégée du sud-ouest de la Sardaigne (Monte Arcosu, province de Cagliari: 39°09'44"N, 08°52'53"E). Quatre femelles et quatre mâles ont été équipés d'émetteurs radios. Les individus ont été suivis à différentes périodes de juillet 1994 à mars 2002. En tout 4 356 localisations ont été enregistrées. Cejeu de données a été analysé par des procédures de randomisation, avec 10 000 permutations Monte Carlo du jeu original. Les localisations d'activité ont représenté 55,6 % du nombre total de relevés. Néanmoins, nous avons observé une grande variabilité individuelle dans les rythmes d'activité et dans les distances parcourues de nuit. Un individu isolé était essentiellement diurne alors que tous les autres étaient nocturnes. La distance parcourue chaque nuit par les femelles (922 m en moyenne) était inférieure à celle des mâles (1 208 m). Durant les mois d'été, les chats sauvages ont montré un déclin général de leur activité et de leurs déplacements

Numerical Analysis of Real Fluid Behavior Effects on a Sliding-Vane Compressor Comprehensive Model

This work presents a simulation model on a sliding vane compressor based on a lumped parameter model. The model is capable of predicting the performance of sliding-vane compressors. The model is divided into different sub-sections to evaluate the compressor's geometry, kinetics, thermodynamics, and rotor dynamics. The output of the tool includes the compressor unit's performance, such as volumetric flow rate, mechanical power, and process efficiency. The study examines the tool's ability to perform quick and efficient analyses using using either ideal or real fluid characterization, based on the REFPROP code. The code is validated against one experimental point. Simulations were conducted on a mid-size sliding-vane rotary compressor operating with three different types of working fluids from 20 °C and 1 bar (absolute) to 11 bar at 1500 rpm. In the ideal fluid case, simulations took 10–27 s, while real fluid assumptions took 1038–4329 s. The volumetric flow rate was influenced by the gas used, but changes among fluid models were not substantial, with a mean absolute percent difference of 0.5%. Mechanical power consumption was affected by the fluid choice and gas model, leading to a mechanical power difference between 0.4 and 1.1% in the ideal gas case. The specific mechanical work showed greater deviations among the fluids, with methane molar mass coherently increasing its value. Results show that the model developed is able to assess the major phenomena of sliding-vane compressors, and the ideal fluid model should be preferred when possible since computational times are significantly reduced with comparable results

Influence of Classroom Acoustics on Noise Disturbance and Well-Being for First Graders

Several studies have shown so far that poor acoustics inside classrooms negatively affects the teaching and learning processes, especially at the lowest grades of education. However, the extent to which noise exposure or excessive reverberation affect well-being of children at school in their early childhood is still unanswered, as well as their awareness of noise disturbance. This work is a pilot study to investigate to which extent classroom acoustics affects the perceived well-being and noise disturbance in first graders. About 330 pupils aged from 6 to 7 years participated in the study. They belonged to 20 classes of 10 primary schools located in Torino (Italy), where room acoustic measurements were performed and where noise level was monitored during classes. The school buildings and the classrooms were balanced between socioeconomic status and acoustic conditions. Trained experimenters administered questionnaires in each class, where pupils answered all together during the last month of the school year (May). Questions included the happiness scale, subscales assessing self-esteem, emotional health, relationship at home and with friends, enjoyment of school, intensity and noise disturbance due to different sound sources, and quality of voice. The findings of the study suggest that long reverberation times, which are associated with poor classroom acoustics as they generate higher noise levels and degraded speech intelligibility, bring pupils to a reduced perception of having fun and being happy with themselves. Furthermore, bad classroom acoustics is also related to an increased perception of noise intensity and disturbance, particularly in the case of traffic noise and noise from adjacent school environments. Finally, happy pupils reported a higher perception of noise disturbance under bad classroom acoustic conditions, whereas unhappy pupils only reported complaints in bad classroom acoustics with respect to the perception of pleasances with himself or herself and of fitting in at school. Being a mother tongue speaker is a characteristic of children that brings more chances of attending classes in good acoustics, of being less disturbed, and of having more well-being, and richer districts presented better acoustic conditions, in turn resulting in richer districts also revealing a greater perception of well-being

Prevalence and antibiotic-resistance of <i>Salmonella</i> isolated from food in Morocco

Background: Salmonellosis remains one of the most frequent food-borne diseases worldwide, especially in developing countries. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella isolates from food can potentially compromise the treatment of these infections. This investigation was conducted for the first time in Morocco both to detect the occurrence of Salmonella in foods as well as to determine the antibiotic resistance profile of the Salmonella isolates. Methodology: In total, 11,516 food samples collected from 2002 to 2005 were investigated. Isolated Salmonella were characterized by serotyping and susceptibilities were determined for 15 antimicrobial drugs using the disc diffusion assay. Results: The overall percentage of Salmonella prevalence (n=105) was 0.91% with rates of 71% for slaughterhouses and 9% for seafood. Sixteen different serotypes were identified among 104 Salmonella enterica isolates including serotypes Infantis (n=25), Bredeney (n=13), Blokley (n=11), Typhimurium (n=9), Mbandaka (n=8), Branderup II (n=7), and Kiambu (n=6); 1 isolate of Salmonella enterica belonged to subspecies II salamae. Twenty-nine percent of isolates (n=30/105) were resistant to at least one antimicrobial. Resistance to tetracycline was the most common finding (21%), followed by resistance to ampicillin (13%), amoxicillin+clavulanic acid (9%), streptomycin (7%), chloramphenicol (4%) and nalidixic acid (3,8%). None of the isolates was resistant to 3rd-cephalosporin and fluoroquinolones (i.e. ciprofloxacin). Multidrug resistance (MDR) was seen in 9.5% of the isolates, mainly in S. Typhimurium DT104 with R-type ACSSuT and S. Hadar. Conclusions: Despite a low frequency of Salmonella isolation, S. Typhimurium DT104 was identified in the first step of the food chain. The study points out the need control antibiotic resistance in Salmonella isolated from food in Morocco to avoid the spread of MDR