Case Study: The Surgical Management of Angiokeratoma Resulting from Radiotherapy for Penile Cancer

Angiokeratoma is a rare, benign skin lesion and a recognised complication of radiation therapy. Here we describe a case of extensive angiokeratoma of the groin and external genitalia resulting from external beam radiation to that area in a patient with penile carcinoma. Furthermore, we outline the management of this problem by surgical reconstruction

Paraganglioma of the Spermatic Cord: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Paragangliomas rarely involve the genitourinary tract. We present a case of a paraganglioma arising from the spermatic cord and review the literature on the topic

The Challenges of Wastewater Irrigation in Developing Countries

The volume of wastewater generated by domestic, industrial, and commercial sources has increased with population, urbanization, improved living conditions, and economic development. The productive use of wastewater has also increased, as millions of small-scale farmers in urban and peri-urban areas of developing countries depend on wastewater or wastewater-polluted water sources to irrigate high-value edible crops for urban markets, often as they have no alternative sources of irrigation water. Undesirable constituents in wastewater can harm human health and the environment. Hence, wastewater irrigation is an issue of concern to public agencies responsible for maintaining public health and environmental quality. For diverse reasons, many developing countries are still unable to implement comprehensive wastewater treatment programs. Therefore in the near term, risk management and interim solutions are needed to prevent adverse impacts from wastewater irrigation. A combination of source control and farm-level and post-harvest measures can be used to protect farm workers and consumers. The WHO guidelines revised in 2006 for wastewater use suggest measures beyond the traditional recommendations of producing only industrial or nonedible crops, as in many situations it is impossible to enforce a change in the current cash crop pattern, or provide alternative vegetable supply to urban markets. There are several opportunities for improving wastewater management via improved policies, institutional dialogues, and financial mechanisms, which would reduce the risks in agriculture. Effluent standards combined with incentives or enforcement can motivate improvements in water management by household and industrial sectors discharging wastewater from point sources. Segregation of chemical pollutants from urban waste-water facilitates treatment and reduces risk. Strengthening institutional capacity and establishing links between water delivery and sanitation sectors through interinstitutional coordination leads to more efficient management of wastewater and risk reduction

The Challenges of Wastewater Irrigation in Developing Countries

The volume of wastewater generated by domestic, industrial, and commercial sources has increased with population, urbanization, improved living conditions, and economic development. The productive use of wastewater has also increased, as millions of small-scale farmers in urban and peri-urban areas of developing countries depend on wastewater or wastewater-polluted water sources to irrigate high-value edible crops for urban markets, often as they have no alternative sources of irrigation water. Undesirable constituents in wastewater can harm human health and the environment. Hence, wastewater irrigation is an issue of concern to public agencies responsible for maintaining public health and environmental quality. For diverse reasons, many developing countries are still unable to implement comprehensive wastewater treatment programs. Therefore in the near term, risk management and interim solutions are needed to prevent adverse impacts from wastewater irrigation. A combination of source control and farm-level and post-harvest measures can be used to protect farm workers and consumers. The WHO guidelines revised in 2006 for wastewater use suggest measures beyond the traditional recommendations of producing only industrial or nonedible crops, as in many situations it is impossible to enforce a change in the current cash crop pattern, or provide alternative vegetable supply to urban markets. There are several opportunities for improving wastewater management via improved policies, institutional dialogues, and financial mechanisms, which would reduce the risks in agriculture. Effluent standards combined with incentives or enforcement can motivate improvements in water management by household and industrial sectors discharging wastewater from point sources. Segregation of chemical pollutants from urban waste-water facilitates treatment and reduces risk. Strengthening institutional capacity and establishing links between water delivery and sanitation sectors through interinstitutional coordination leads to more efficient management of wastewater and risk reduction

The Challenges of Wastewater Irrigation in Developing Countries

The volume of wastewater generated by domestic, industrial, and commercial sources has increased with population, urbanization, improved living conditions, and economic development. The productive use of wastewater has also increased, as millions of small-scale farmers in urban and peri-urban areas of developing countries depend on wastewater or wastewater-polluted water sources to irrigate high-value edible crops for urban markets, often as they have no alternative sources of irrigation water. Undesirable constituents in wastewater can harm human health and the environment. Hence, wastewater irrigation is an issue of concern to public agencies responsible for maintaining public health and environmental quality. For diverse reasons, many developing countries are still unable to implement comprehensive wastewater treatment programs. Therefore in the near term, risk management and interim solutions are needed to prevent adverse impacts from wastewater irrigation. A combination of source control and farm-level and post-harvest measures can be used to protect farm workers and consumers. The WHO guidelines revised in 2006 for wastewater use suggest measures beyond the traditional recommendations of producing only industrial or nonedible crops, as in many situations it is impossible to enforce a change in the current cash crop pattern, or provide alternative vegetable supply to urban markets. There are several opportunities for improving wastewater management via improved policies, institutional dialogues, and financial mechanisms, which would reduce the risks in agriculture. Effluent standards combined with incentives or enforcement can motivate improvements in water management by household and industrial sectors discharging wastewater from point sources. Segregation of chemical pollutants from urban waste-water facilitates treatment and reduces risk. Strengthening institutional capacity and establishing links between water delivery and sanitation sectors through interinstitutional coordination leads to more efficient management of wastewater and risk reduction

Doping-induced spin Hall ratio enhancement in A15-phase, Ta-doped β-W thin films

As spintronic devices become more and more prevalent, the desire to find Pt-free materials with large spin Hall effects is increasing. Previously it was shown that β-W, the metastable A15 structured variant of pure W, has charge-spin conversion efficiencies on par with Pt, and it was predicted that β-W/Ta alloys should be even more efficient. Here we demonstrate the enhancement of the spin Hall ratio (SHR) in A15-phase β-W films doped with Ta (W4-xTax where x = 0.34 ± 0.06) deposited at room temperature using DC magnetron co-sputtering. In close agreement with theoretical predictions, we find that the SHR of the doped films was ~9% larger than pure β-W films. We also found that the SHR's in devices with Co2Fe6B2 were nearly twice as large as the SHR's in devices with Co4Fe4B2. This work shows that by optimizing deposition parameters and substrates, the fabrication of the optimum W3Ta alloy should be feasible, opening the door to commercially viable, Pt-free, spintronic devices

Determinants of the dynamic cerebral critical closing pressure response to changes in mean arterial pressure

Objective. Cerebral critical closing pressure (CrCP) represents the value of arterial blood pressure (BP) where cerebral blood flow (CBF) becomes zero. Its dynamic response to a step change in mean BP (MAP) has been shown to reflect CBF autoregulation, but robust methods for its estimation are lacking. We aim to improve the quality of estimates of the CrCP dynamic response. Approach. Retrospective analysis of 437 healthy subjects (aged 18–87 years, 218 males) baseline recordings with measurements of cerebral blood velocity in the middle cerebral artery (MCAv, transcranial Doppler), non-invasive arterial BP (Finometer) and end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2, capnography). For each cardiac cycle CrCP was estimated from the instantaneous MCAv-BP relationship. Transfer function analysis of the MAP and MCAv (MAP-MCAv) and CrCP (MAP-CrCP) allowed estimation of the corresponding step responses (SR) to changes in MAP, with the output in MCAv (SRVMCAv) representing the autoregulation index (ARI), ranging from 0 to 9. Four main parameters were considered as potential determinants of the SRVCrCP temporal pattern, including the coherence function, MAP spectral power and the reconstruction error for SRVMAP, from the other three separate SRs. Main results. The reconstruction error for SRVMAP was the main determinant of SRVCrCP signal quality, by removing the largest number of outliers (Grubbs test) compared to the other three parameters. SRVCrCP showed highly significant (p < 0.001) changes with time, but its amplitude or temporal pattern was not influenced by sex or age. The main physiological determinants of SRVCrCP were the ARI and the mean CrCP for the entire 5 min baseline period. The early phase (2–3 s) of SRVCrCP response was influenced by heart rate whereas the late phase (10–14 s) was influenced by diastolic BP. Significance. These results should allow better planning and quality of future research and clinical trials of novel metrics of CBF regulation