Intramural duodenal hematoma: clinical course and imaging findings

Background: Intramural duodenal hematoma is a rare condition. Different imaging modalities are at hand for diagnosis. Purpose: To identify patients with intramural duodenal hematoma and report imaging findings and clinical courses. Material and Methods: Typical imaging patterns using ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging were carried out on 10 patients. Results: The mean patient age was 7.5 years. The average disease duration was 13 months. Clinical signs of improvement were observed within 16 days. Residues were still detectable at long-term follow-up. Conclusion: For patients with intramural duodenal wall hematoma, diagnosis should be considered early. Typical imaging findings should be known to ensure optimal treatment

Clinical utility of combined T2-weighted imaging and T2-mapping in the detection of prostate cancer: a multi-observer study

Background: To evaluate the clinical utility of combined T2-weighted imaging and T2-mapping for the detection of prostate cancer. Methods: Forty patients underwent multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) and T2-mapping of the prostate. Three readers each reviewed two sets of images: T2-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE) sequence (standard T2), and standard T2 in combination with T2-mapping. Each reader assigned probability scores for malignancy to each zone [peripheral zone (PZ) or transition zone (TZ)]. Inter-observer variability for standard T2 and combined standard T2 with T2-mapping were assessed. Diagnostic accuracy was compared between standard T2 and combined standard T2 with T2-mapping. Results: There was fair agreement between all three readers for standard T2 [intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) =0.56] and combined standard T2 with T2-mapping (ICC =0.58). There was no significant difference in the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve for standard T2 compared to combined standard T2 with T2-mapping (0.89 vs. 0.82, P=0.31). Sensitivity (Sn) for combined standard T2 with T2-mapping was significantly higher compared to standard T2 alone (73.0% vs. 49.2%, P=0.006). Specificity (Sp) for combined standard T2 with T2-mapping was borderline significantly lower compared to standard T2 alone (89.3% vs. 94.9%, P=0.05). There was no significant differences between the negative predictive values (NPVs) and positive predictive values (PPVs) (P=0.07, P=0.45). Conclusions: Combination of T2-weighted imaging and T2-mapping could potentially increase Sn for prostate malignancy compared to T2-weighted imaging alone

Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency after bariatric surgery

Morbid obesity is a lifelong disease, and all patients require complementary follow-up including nutritional surveillance by a multidisciplinary team after bariatric procedures. Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) refers to an insufficient secretion of pancreatic enzymes and/or sodium bicarbonate. PEI is a known multifactorial complication after upper gastrointestinal surgery, and might constitute an important clinical problem due to the large number of bariatric surgical procedures in the world. Symptoms of PEI often overlap with sequelae of gastric bypass, making the diagnosis difficult. Steatorrhea, weight loss, maldigestion and malabsorption are pathognomonic for both clinical conditions. Altered anatomy after bypass surgery can make the diagnostic process even more difficult. Fecal elastase-1 (FE1) is a useful diagnostic test. PEI should be considered in all patients after bariatric surgery with prolonged gastrointestinal complaints that are suggestive of maldigestion and/or malabsorption. Appropriate pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy should be part of the treatment algorithm in patients with confirmed PEI or symptoms suggestive of this complication

The Twofold Value of IT-Based Peer Assessment in Management Information Systems Education

Feedback is one of the most influential factor when it comes to learning success of students. Especially large-scale classes at universities often lack feedback caused by the scarcity of resources. Even though a lack of feedback is problematic across all domains, especially when educating future IS executives, who are supposed to lead team members by providing effective feedback. In this study, we use IT-based peer assessment (ITPA) in a large-scale class to support learners with feedback during the teaching-learning process. The first results show that students increase their learning success and at the same time, train their ability to provide feedback. Specifically, our results suggest that participating in ITPA could lead to an increase in knowledge on the content of the class of about 28% on average. Furthermore, the students’ ability to provide feedback – measured twice, self-reported and as quality of the feedback received – increased significantly during the class

Observing UT1‑UTC with VGOS

We present first results for the determination of UT1-UTC using the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS). During\ua0December 2019 through February 2020, a series of 1 h long observing sessions were performed using the VGOS stations\ua0at Ishioka in Japan and the Onsala twin telescopes in Sweden. These VGOS-B sessions were observed simultaneously\ua0to standard legacy S/X-band Intensive sessions. The VGOS-B data were correlated, post-correlation processed,\ua0and analysed at the Onsala Space Observatory. The derived UT1-UTC results were compared to corresponding results\ua0from standard legacy S/X-band Intensive sessions (INT1/INT2), as well as to the final values of the International Earth\ua0Rotation and Reference Frame Service (IERS), provided in IERS Bulletin B. The VGOS-B series achieves 3–4 times lower\ua0formal uncertainties for the UT1-UTC results than standard legacy S/X-band INT series. The RMS agreement w.r.t. to\ua0IERS Bulletin B is slightly better for the VGOS-B results than for the simultaneously observed legacy S/X-band INT1\ua0results, and the VGOS-B results have a small bias only with the smallest remaining standard deviation

Seasonality in extra-pulmonary tuberculosis notifications in Germany 2004-2014- a time series analysis

Background Seasonality in tuberculosis (TB) has been found in different parts of the world, showing a peak in spring/summer and a trough in autumn/winter. The evidence is less clear which factors drive seasonality. It was our aim to identify and evaluate seasonality in the notifications of TB in Germany, additionally investigating the possible variance of seasonality by disease site, sex and age group. Methods We conducted an integer-valued time series analysis using national surveillance data. We analysed the reported monthly numbers of started treatments between 2004 and 2014 for all notified TB cases and stratified by disease site, sex and age group. Results We detected seasonality in the extra-pulmonary TB cases (N = 11,219), with peaks in late spring/summer and troughs in fall/winter. For all TB notifications together (N = 51,090) and for pulmonary TB only (N = 39,714) we did not find a distinct seasonality. Additional stratified analyses did not reveal any clear differences between age groups, the sexes, or between active and passive case finding. Conclusion We found seasonality in extra-pulmonary TB only, indicating that seasonality of disease onset might be specific to the disease site. This could point towards differences in disease progression between the different clinical disease manifestations. Sex appears not to be an important driver of seasonality, whereas the role of age remains unclear as this could not be sufficiently investigated.Peer Reviewe

Combining VGOS, legacy S/X and GNSS for the determination of UT1

We perform a combination on the observation level (COL) between VLBI and co-located GNSS in the context of VLBI intensive sessions. Our approach revolves around an estimation procedure which uses 3 h of GNSS data that uniformly encapsulate the 1-h VLBI data, in order to provide consistent troposphere information. We test this approach on both VGOS and Legacy S/X using the VGOS-B and concurrently observed INT1 sessions. The COL strategy is found to increase the precision by 15 % over both session types and leads to an increase of 65 % in the agreement between the sessions when estimating tropospheric gradients every 3 h. A more frequent estimation of the gradients every 1 h, which can be rigorously pursued with the utilization of multi-GNSS, results in a further convergence of the two session types by 30 %. The COL-aided length-of-day (LOD) products also show a 55 % better agreement to external GNSS-derived LOD. In the light of the increasing precision of broadcast GNSS orbits and clocks, this COL strategy can be used to derive rapid UT1-UTC products

Clock monitoring is associated with age-related decline in time-based prospective memory

In laboratory time-based prospective memory tasks, older adults typically perform worse than younger adults do. It has been suggested that less frequent clock checking due to problems with executive functions may be responsible. We aimed to investigate the role of clock checking in older adults’ time-based prospective memory and to clarify whether executive functions would be associated with clock checking and consequently, with time-based prospective memory. We included 62 healthy older adults (62-85 years of age) and applied tasks of time-based prospective memory as well as of executive functions (i.e., inhibition, fluency, and working memory). We used mediation analysis to test whether time-based prospective memory declined with advancing age due to less frequent clock checking. In addition, we tested whether there would be an association between executive functions and clock checking or time-based prospective memory. Time-based prospective memory declined with advancing age due to less frequent clock checking within 30s prior to intention completion. We only found a link between executive functions and clock checking (or time-based prospective memory) when not controlling for age. Our results support the importance of clock checking for time-based prospective memory and add to the current literature that older adults’ prospective memory declines because they are less able to adapt their clock checking. Yet, the reason why older adults are less able to adapt their clock checking still remains open. Our results do not indicate that executive function deficits play a central role