Intraosseous Lipoma of Calcaneus as a Rare Cause of Heel Pain

Bone lipoma is a rare, primary and benign tumor. In recent years, its detection rate is higher as a result of the increasing use of accurate and more detailed cross-sectional imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) plus the utilization of advanced histological diagnostic facilities. The radiographic appearance on x-ray is not usually characteristic of this lesion and therefore requires differential diagnostics conducted for a long time. However, CT and MRI allow for a tissue-specific diagnosis. The microscopic features are usually those of mature adipose tissue. Sometimes, still, pathological reports may show discordance with radiologic findings. For optimal management, surgical curettage and packing with autogenous bone grafts is usually recommended if the lesion is causing the pain or if the correct diagnosis cannot otherwise be obtained. Our case is a 43-year-old female patient who presented to our clinic with chronic left foot pain. Pain was localized over the left heel with radiation to surrounding areas. The radiological diagnosis of intraosseous lipoma was made based on CT imaging and confirmed later through biopsy. Surgical intervention was needed after failure of conservative management. Curettage of all lesion and packing with autogenous bone grafts was done. Postoperatively, the patient showed remarkable improvement and follow up consultations showed good healing and no signs of recurrence

Prediction and Verification of the Conditions Governing the Synthesis of Tailored Zeolite a for Heavy Metals Removal

Numerous experimental trials, exhaustive analytical and testing procedures are usually undertaken, to reach the appropriate conditions for synthesis of “Zeolite A”. However, it is possible to come-up with a semi quantitative approach, through modeling and optimization techniques, to define the approximate range of initial conditions governing the preparation of a tailored zeolite with specific characteristics including silica to alumina ratio, particle size, and cation exchange capacity to be used for the removal of heavy metals. This paper is an attempt to adopt an engineering approach essentially comprising the formulation of a mathematical model relating the characteristics of zeolite A to the synthesis conditions based on numerous experimental published results, optimization to define the synthesis conditions required to produce specific zeolite A , verification of this proposed approach with experimental results for preparation of tailored zeolite A conducted at our laboratories and the assessment of its efficiency for separation of chromium (III). The composition of the synthesized zeolite A has been as anticipated and the removal of chromium (III) has been in agreement with the developed model. These results indicate that is possible to adopt this approach in a generic manner to select the optimum synthesis conditions for the preparation of zeolites having specific performance characteristics

Cupriphication of gold to sensitize d10–d10 metal–metal bonds and near-unity phosphorescence quantum yields

Outer-shell s0/p0 orbital mixing with d10 orbitals and symmetry reductionuponcupriphicationofcyclic trinucleartrigonal-planargold(I) complexes are found to sensitize ground-state Cu(I)–Au(I) covalent bonds and near-unity phosphorescence quantum yields. Heterobimetallic Au4Cu2 {[Au4(μ-C2,N3-EtIm)4Cu2(μ-3,5-(CF3)2Pz)2], (4a)}, Au2Cu {[Au2(μ-C2,N3-BzIm)2Cu(μ-3,5-(CF3)2Pz)], (1) and [Au2(μ-C2, N3-MeIm)2Cu(μ-3,5-(CF3)2Pz)], (3a)}, AuCu2 {[Au(μ-C2,N3-MeIm)Cu2(μ3,5-(CF3)2Pz)2], (3b) and [Au(μ-C2,N3-EtIm)Cu2(μ-3,5-(CF3)2Pz)2], (4b)} and stacked Au3/Cu3 {[Au(μ-C2,N3-BzIm)]3[Cu(μ-3,5-(CF3)2Pz)]3, (2)} formuponreactingAu3 {[Au(μ-C2,N3-(N-R)Im)]3 ((N-R)Im = imidazolate; R =benzyl/methyl/ethyl =BzIm/MeIm/EtIm)} with Cu3 {[Cu(μ-3,5(CF3)2Pz)]3 (3,5-(CF3)2Pz = 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)pyrazolate)}. The crystal structures of 1 and 3a reveal stair-step infinite chains whereby adjacent dimer-of-trimer units are noncovalently packed via twoAu(I)⋯Cu(I)metallophilicinteractions,whereas 4a exhibitsa hexanuclear cluster structure wherein two monomer-of-trimer units are linked by a genuine d10–d10 polar-covalent bond with ligandunassisted Cu(I)–Au(I) distances of 2.8750(8) Å each—the shortest such an intermolecular distance ever reported between any two d10 centers so as to deem it a “metal–metal bond” vis-à-vis “metallophilic interaction.” Density-functional calculations estimate 35– 43kcal/molbindingenergy,akintotypicalM–Msingle-bondenergies. Congruently, FTIR spectra of4a showmultiple far-IR bands within 65– 200 cm−1, assignable to vCu-Au as validated by both the Harvey–Gray method of crystallographic-distance-to-force-constant correlation and dispersive density functional theory computations. Notably, the heterobimetallic complexes herein exhibit photophysical properties that are favorable to those for their homometallic congeners, due to threefold-to-twofold symmetry reduction, resulting in cuprophilicsensitizationinextinctioncoefficientandsolid-state photoluminescence quantum yields approaching unity (ΦPL = 0.90–0.97 vs. 0–0.83 for Au3 and Cu3 precursors), which bodes well for potential future utilization in inorganic and/or organic LED applications

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Raising the Bar: Improving Methodological Rigour in Cognitive Alcohol Research

Background and Aims: A range of experimental paradigms claim to measure the cognitive processes underpinning alcohol use, suggesting that heightened attentional bias, greater approach tendencies and reduced cue-specific inhibitory control are important drivers of consumption. This paper identifies methodological shortcomings within this broad domain of research and exemplifies them in studies focused specifically on alcohol-related attentional bias. Argument and analysis: We highlight five main methodological issues: (i) the use of inappropriately matched control stimuli; (ii) opacity of stimulus selection and validation procedures; (iii) a credence in noisy measures; (iv) a reliance on unreliable tasks; and (v) variability in design and analysis. This is evidenced through a review of alcohol-related attentional bias (64 empirical articles, 68 tasks), which reveals the following: only 53% of tasks use appropriately matched control stimuli; as few as 38% report their stimulus selection and 19% their validation procedures; less than 28% used indices capable of disambiguating attentional processes; 22% assess reliability; and under 2% of studies were pre-registered. Conclusions: Well-matched and validated experimental stimuli, the development of reliable cognitive tasks and explicit assessment of their psychometric properties, and careful consideration of behavioural indices and their analysis will improve the methodological rigour of cognitive alcohol research. Open science principles can facilitate replication and reproducibility in alcohol research

Family firms, firm performance and political connections: Evidence from Bangladesh

We investigate the role of political connections in the performance of family firms. We do so in the setting of Bangladesh, an emerging economy in which family firms are dominant and a weak regulatory environment increases the payoffs from political connections. We find that family firms perform better than nonfamily firms. Moreover, politically connected family firms outperform family firms that are not politically connected. In contrast, nonfamily firms with political connections demonstrate lower firm performance than nonfamily firms without political connections

Preliminary crustal deformation model deduced from GPS and earthquakes’ data at Abu-Dabbab area, Eastern Desert, Egypt

A local geodetic network consisting of eleven benchmarks has been established to study the recent crustal deformation in the Abu-Dabbab area. Seven campaigns of GPS measurements have been collected started from October 2008 and ended in March 2012. The collected data were processed using Bernese version 5.0, and the result values were adjusted to get the more accurate positions of the GPS stations. The magnitudes of horizontal displacements are variable from one epoch to another and in the range of 1–3 (±0.2) mm/yr. Due to the differences in rates of the horizontal displacement; the area is divided into two main blocks. The first one, moves to the east direction of about 3 mm/yr, while the second block, moves to the SW direction of about 6 mm/yr. According to the strain fields that were calculated for the different epochs of measurement, the main force is compression force and is taken the NW–SE to NWW–SEE direction. This force could be because of local and regional tectonic processes affecting on the study area. The maximum values of compression stress are found in the southern central and western part of study area. Estimated accumulation of this strain energy may be considered as an indicator of the possibility of earthquake occurrence. From the seismic tomography study, the 3D Vp and Vp/Vs crustal models indicate high Vp/Vs values forms an elongated anomaly, in the central part of the study area, that extends from a depth of 12 km to about 1–2 km of depth is obtained. By using this crustal model in relocations all seismicity informed that most of the seismicity strongly tend to occur in a cluster manner exactly above the southern part of the study area. Based on the conducted source mechanism study, it is noticed that shallow earthquakes are associated by a high CLVD ratio (up to 40%). Furthermore, initiation of a high level seismic activity, without a large seismic main shock is observed in the Abu-Dabbab area. The distribution of micro-earthquakes tends to align in an ENE–WSW direction marking a zone of activity verse the Red Sea. The nucleation of the seismic activity beneath the southern part of the Abu-Dabbab crust is more consistent with the obtained crustal deformation result by increasing the crustal movement in the south part than the northern part. Then, based on the obtained results of the above mentioned studies; seismic tomography; source mechanisms, and crustal deformation we conclude that these seismic activities that are associated by crustal deformation are owing to some magma activity beneath the crust of the Abu-Dabbab area