An unusual and difficult diagnosis of intestinal obstruction: The abdominal cocoon. Case report and review of the literature

Since publication of our article, "An unusual and difficult diagnosis of intestinal obstruction: The abdominal cocoon. Case report and review of the literature." World J Emerg Surg. 2006, 1: 8 we believe that the case mentioned should have been described as a 'peritoneal encapsulation' rather than 'abdominal cocoon' as concluded in the original publication

An unusual and difficult diagnosis of intestinal obstruction: The abdominal cocoon. Case report and review of the literature

Abdominal cocoon is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction. The abdominal cocoon is probably a developmental abnormality, largely asymptomatic, and is found incidentally at laparotomy or autopsy. Pre-operative diagnosis cannot be often made correctly. This rare entity of intestinal obstruction has been described in the whole literature as a thick fibrotic sac covering the small bowel partially or completely. The etiology of abdominal cocoon is unknown and most often it is found in adolescent girls from tropical or subtropical countries. Complete recovery is generally expected after the removal of the membrane surgically. This paper reports a male patient who has had intestinal obstruction symptoms and has per-operatively been diagnosed as abdominal cocoon

High-pressure spectroscopic investigation of multiferroic Ni3TeO6

We combined diamond anvil cell techniques, infrared and Raman spectroscopies, and lattice dynamics calculations to explore the high pressure properties of multiferroic Ni3TeO6. Using a frequency trend analysis, we trace a subtle decrease in compressibility near 4 GPa to a minimum in the O-Ni2-O bond angle. This unique behavior emanates from the proximity of the Ni2 center in the Ni3-Ni2-Ni1-Te chain to a flexible pocket that is intrinsic to the crystal structure. At the same time, predicted trends in the superexchange pathways are consistent with greater antiferromagnetic character under compression, in line with both phase stability calculations and direct susceptibility measurements. These findings highlight opportunities for local structure control of corundumlike materials

Coherent Pair Production by Photons in the 20-170 GeV Energy Range Incident on Crystals and Birefringence

The cross section for coherent pair production by linearly polarised photons in the 20-170 GeV energy range was measured for photon aligned incidence on ultra-high quality diamond and germanium crystals. The theoretical description of coherent bremsstrahlung and coherent pair production phenomena is an area of active theoretical debate and development. However, under our experimental conditions, the theory predicted the combined cross section and polarisation experimental observables very well indeed. In macroscopic terms, our experiment measured a birefringence effect in pair production in a crystal. This study of this effect also constituted a measurement of the energy dependent linear polarisation of photons produced by coherent bremsstrahlung in aligned crystals. New technologies for manipulating high energy photon beams can be realised based on an improved understanding of QED phenomena at these energies. In particular, this experiment demonstrates an efficient new polarimetry technique. The pair production measurements were done using two independent methods simultaneously. The more complex method using a magnet spectrometer showed that the simpler method using a multiplicity detector was also viable.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, REVTeX4 two column, Version for publicatio

Linear to Circular Polarisation Conversion using Birefringent Properties of Aligned Crystals for Multi-GeV Photons

We present the first experimental results on the use of a thick aligned Si crystal acting as a quarter wave plate to induce a degree of circular polarisation in a high energy linearly polarised photon beam. The linearly polarised photon beam is produced from coherent bremsstrahlung radiation by 178 GeV unpolarised electrons incident on an aligned Si crystal, acting as a radiator. The linear polarisation of the photon beam is characterised by measuring the asymmetry in electron-positron pair production in a Ge crystal, for different crystal orientations. The Ge crystal therefore acts as an analyser. The birefringence phenomenon, which converts the linear polarisation to circular polarisation, is observed by letting the linearly polarised photons beam pass through a thick Si quarter wave plate crystal, and then measuring the asymmetry in electron-positron pair production again for a selection of relative angles between the crystallographic planes of the radiator, analyser and quarter wave plate. The systematics of the difference between the measured asymmetries with and without the quarter wave plate are predicted by theory to reveal an evolution in the Stokes parameters from which the appearance of a circularly polarised component in the photon beam can be demonstrated. The measured magnitude of the circularly polarised component was consistent with the theoretical predictions, and therefore is in indication of the existence of the birefringence effect.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, REVTeX4 two column, Version for publicatio

Results on the Coherent Interaction of High Energy Electrons and Photons in Oriented Single Crystals

The CERN-NA-59 experiment examined a wide range of electromagnetic processes for multi-GeV electrons and photons interacting with oriented single crystals. The various types of crystals and their orientations were used for producing photon beams and for converting and measuring their polarisation. The radiation emitted by 178 GeV unpolarised electrons incident on a 1.5 cm thick Si crystal oriented in the Coherent Bremsstrahlung (CB) and the String-of-Strings (SOS) modes was used to obtain multi-GeV linearly polarised photon beams. A new crystal polarimetry technique was established for measuring the linear polarisation of the photon beam. The polarimeter is based on the dependence of the Coherent Pair Production (CPP) cross section in oriented single crystals on the direction of the photon polarisation with respect to the crystal plane. Both a 1 mm thick single crystal of Germanium and a 4 mm thick multi-tile set of synthetic Diamond crystals were used as analyzers of the linear polarisation. A birefringence phenomenon, the conversion of the linear polarisation of the photon beam into circular polarisation, was observed. This was achieved by letting the linearly polarised photon beam pass through a 10 cm thick Silicon single crystal that acted as a "quarter wave plate" (QWP) as suggested by N. Cabibbo et al.Comment: Presented at International workshop "Relativistic Channeling and Related Coherent Phenomena", Frascati (Rome) 23-26 March 200

Coherent bremsstrahlung, boherent pair production, birefringence and polarimetry in the 20-170 GeV energy range using aligned crystals

The processes of coherent bremsstrahlung (CB) and coherent pair production (CPP) based on aligned crystal targets have been studied in the energy range 20-170 GeV. The experimental arrangement allowed for measurements of single photon properties of these phenomena including their polarization dependences. This is significant as the theoretical description of CB and CPP is an area of active theoretical debate and development. With the theoretical approach used in this paper both the measured cross sections and polarization observables are predicted very well. This indicates a proper understanding of CB and CPP up to energies of 170 GeV. Birefringence in CPP on aligned crystals is applied to determine the polarization parameters in our measurements. New technologies for high energy photon beam optics including phase plates and polarimeters for linear and circular polarization are demonstrated in this experiment. Coherent bremsstrahlung for the strings-on-strings (SOS) orientation yields a larger enhancement for hard photons than CB for the channeling orientations of the crystal. Our measurements and our calculations indicate low photon polarizations for the high energy SOS photons.Comment: 23 pages, 27 figures, 2 tables, REVTeX4 two column

Twin roll casting of Al-Mg alloy with high added impurity content

The final publication is available at Springer from the link belowThe microstructural evolution during twin roll casting (TRC) and downstream processing of AA5754 Al alloy with high added impurity content have been investigated. Strip casts with a high impurity content resulted in coarse α-Al grains and complex secondary phases. The grain size and centreline segregation reduced significantly on the addition of Al-Ti-B grain refiner (GR). Coarse-dendrite arm spacing (DAS) “floating” grains are observed in the impure alloy (IA) with higher volume in the GR strips. Two dimensional (2D) metallographic analysis of the as-cast strip suggests secondary phases (Fe bearing intermetallics and Mg2Si) are discrete and located at the α-Al cell/grain boundaries, while three dimensional (3D) analysis of extracted particles revealed that they were intact, well interconnected and located in interdendritic regions. Homogenizing heat treatment of the cast strip breaks the interconnective networks and modifies the secondary phases to more equiaxed morphology. During rolling, the eqiaxed secondary phases align along the rolling direction. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis suggests that α-Al(FeMn)Si and Mg2Si are the predominant secondary phases that formed during casting and remain throughout the downstream processing of the GR-IA. The high impurity sheet processed from TRC resulted in superior strength and ductility than the sheet processed from small book mould ingot casting. This study, have shown that the twin roll casting process can tolerate higher impurity levels and produce formable sheets from recycled aluminium for structural applications.UK Engineering Physical and Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Liquid Metal Engineering and the Technology Strategic Board (TSB), U

What Is the Important Point Related to Follow-Up Sonographic Evaluation for the Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip?

Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is an important cause of childhood disability. Subluxation or dislocation can be diagnosed through pediatric physical examination; nevertheless, the ultrasonographic examination is necessary in diagnosing certain borderline cases. It has been evaluated routine sonographic examination of 2,444 hips of 1,222 babies to determine differences in both, developmental dysplasia and types of hips, and evaluated their development on the 3-month follow-up. Evaluating the pathologic alpha angles under 59, there was no statistically significant differences between girls and boys in both right (55.57 +/- 3.73) (56.20 +/- 4.01), (p = 0.480), and left (55.79 +/- 3.96) (57.00 +/- 3.84), (p = 0.160) hips on the 45th day of life. Routine sonographic examinations on the 45th day of life revealed that 51 of (66.2%) 77 type 2a right hips were girls and 26 (33.8%) were boys. The number of the right hips that develop into type 1 was 38 (74.5%) for girls and 26 (100%) for boys on the 90th day of life (p = 0.005). A total of 87 type 2a left hips included 64 girls (73.6%) and 23 boys (26.4%). In the 90th day control, 49 right hip of girls (76.6%) and 21 right hip of boys (91.3%) developed into type 1 (p = 0.126). In the assessment of both left and right hips, girls showed a significantly higher frequency in latency and boys showed significantly higher development in the control sonography. A total of 31 girls (2.5%) and 11 boys (0.9%) accounted for a total of 42 (3.4%) cases who showed bilateral type 2a hips in 1,222 infants. On the 90th day control, 26 girls (83.9%) and all 11 boys (100%) developed into type 1 (p = 0.156). The study emphasizes the importance of the sonographic examination on the 90th day of life. Results of the investigation include the data of sonographic screening of DDH on the 45th day, and also stress the importance of the 90th-day control sonography after a close follow-up with physical examination between 45th and 90th days of life