Emphysematous cystitis and necrotizing fasciitis

Emphysematous cystitis is an uncommon and often severe infectious condition of the bladder that usually affects women and diabetics. We report a case of a 62-year-old male patient who presented with concomitant emphysematous cystitis and necrotizing fasciitis of the right leg. The patient was initially managed with emergent disarticulation of the right leg. Tissue cultures were positive for Ciprofloxacin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. He was treated with Piperacillin-Tazobactam; however, due to the failure of conservative management of the condition, the patient underwent a cystoprostatectomy with ileal conduit. To our knowledge, this is the first report of concomitant emphysematous cystitis and necrotizing fasciitis requiring aggressive surgical intervention for both diseases

Allograftaugmentierte LOR-Pfannenimplantation unter Verwendung von Knochenmehl oder Knochenchips:Eine retrospektive Untersuchung nach klinischen, psychometrischen und radiologischen Gesichtspunkten

Bei 29 Pat. wurde eine Hüftpfannenrevision mit längsovaler Revisionspfanne (LOR) und acetabulärer, homologer Rekonstruktion durchgeführt. Die Verteilung Knochenchips /Knochenmehl betrug 12 zu 17 Pat.. Der Merlé-d´Aubigné-Score, der Harris Hip Score, der Short-Form-Health-Survey und eine radiologische Analyse (periartikuläre Ossifikationen nach Brooker, DeLee/Charnley Score und die Pfannenmigration nach Nunn) wurden erhoben. Ergebnisse: Das Patientenkollektiv verbesserte sich durchschnittlich im HHS von 36,8 Pkt. auf 72,9 Pkt., im MdS von 7,6 Pkt. auf 15 Pkt.. Im SF-36 ergaben sich im Vergleich mit Normpopulationen ähnliche, teils auch schlechtere Ergebnisse. Periart. Ossifikationen wiesen 23 Pat. auf. Die meisten Pat. zeigten keine oder Lysesäume <=1 mm. Eine Pfannenmigration ergab sich bei 16 Pat.. Schlußfolgerung: Es ist in klinischer, psychometrischer und radiologischer Hinsicht kein signifikanter Unterschied bzgl. der Verwendung von Knochenmehl oder Knochenchips nachzuweisen

Pair production of neutralinos via gluon-gluon collisions

The production of a neutralino pair via gluon-gluon fusion is studied in the minimal supersymmetric model(MSSM) at proton-proton colliders. The numerical analysis of their production rates are carried out in the mSUGRA scenario. The results show that this cross section may reach about 80 femto barn for $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ pair production and 23 femto barn for $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$ pair production with suitable input parameters at the future LHC collider. It shows that this loop mediated process can be competitive with the quark-antiquark annihilation process at the LHC.Comment: LaTex file, l4 pages, 5 EPS figure

Design and conduct of 'Xtreme Alps' : a double-blind, randomised controlled study of the effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on acclimatisation to high altitude

The study of healthy human volunteers ascending to high altitude provides a robust model of the complex physiological interplay that emulates human adaptation to hypoxaemia in clinical conditions. Nitric oxide (NO) metabolism may play an important role in both adaptation to high altitude and response to hypoxaemia during critical illness at sea level. Circulating nitrate and nitrite concentrations can be augmented by dietary supplementation and this is associated with improved exercise performance and mitochondrial efficiency. We hypothesised that the administration of a dietary substance (beetroot juice) rich in nitrate would improve oxygen efficiency during exercise at high altitude by enhancing tissue microcirculatory blood flow and oxygenation. Furthermore, nitrate supplementation would lead to measurable increases in NO bioactivity throughout the body. This methodological manuscript describes the design and conduct of the ‘Xtreme Alps’ expedition, a double-blind randomised controlled trial investigating the effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on acclimatisation to hypobaric hypoxia at high altitude in healthy human volunteers. The primary outcome measure was the change in oxygen efficiency during exercise at high altitude between participants allocated to receive nitrate supplementation and those receiving a placebo. A number of secondary measures were recorded, including exercise capacity, peripheral and microcirculatory blood flow and tissue oxygenation. Results from this study will further elucidate the role of NO in adaption to hypoxaemia and guide clinical trials in critically ill patients. Improved understanding of hypoxaemia in critical illness may provide new therapeutic avenues for interventions that will improve survival in critically ill patients

Quantum dots with two electrons: Singlet-triplet transitions

The magnetic character of the ground-state of two electrons on a double quantum dot, connected in series to left and right single-channel leads, is considered. By solving exactly for the spectrum of the two interacting electrons, it is found that the coupling to the continuum of propagating states on the leads, in conjunction with the electron-electron interactions, may result in a delocalization of the bound state of the two electrons. This, in turn, reduces significantly the range of the Coulomb interaction parameters over which singlet-triplet transitions can be realized. It is also found that the coupling to the leads favors the singlet ground-state.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Ontogenetic shift in diet of a large elapid snake is facilitated by allometric change in skull morphology

As snakes are limbless, gape-limited predators, their skull is the main feeding structure involved in prey handling, manipulation and feeding. Ontogenetic changes in prey type and size are likely to be associated with distinct morphological changes in the skull during growth. We investigated ontogenetic variation in diet from stomach contents of 161 Dugite specimens (Pseudonaja affinis, Elapidae) representing the full range of body size for the species, and skull morphology of 46 specimens (range 0.25–1.64 m snout-vent-length; SVL). We hypothesised that changes in prey type throughout postnatal ontogeny would coincide with distinct changes in skull shape. Dugites demonstrate a distinct size-related shift in diet: the smallest individuals ate autotomised reptile tails and reptiles, medium-sized individuals predominantly ate mammals, and the largest individuals had the most diverse diet, including large reptiles. Morphometric analysis revealed that ~40% of the variation in skull shape was associated with body size (SVL). Through ontogeny, skulls changed from a smooth, bulbous cranium with relatively small trophic bones (upper and lower jaws and their attachments), to more rugose bones (as a likely reflection of muscle attachment) and relatively longer trophic bones that would extend gape. Individual shape variation in trophic bone dimensions was greater in larger adults and this likely reflects natural plasticity of individuals feeding on different prey sizes/types. Rather than a distinct morphological shift with diet, the ontogenetic changes were gradual, but positive allometry of individual trophic bones resulted in disproportionate growth of the skull, reflected in increased gape size and mobility of jaw bones in adults to aid the ingestion of larger prey and improve manipulation and processing ability. These results indicate that allometric scaling is an important mechanism by which snakes can change their dietary niche

Spinning Relations: High-Speed Networks for Distributed Join Processing

By leveraging modern networking hardware (RDMA-enabled network cards), we can shift priorities in distributed database processing significantly. Complex and sophisticated mechanisms to avoid network traffic can be replaced by a scheme that takes advantag

Geodesic distance for right invariant Sobolev metrics of fractional order on the diffeomorphism group

We study Sobolev-type metrics of fractional order $s\geq0$ on the group \Diff_c(M) of compactly supported diffeomorphisms of a manifold $M$. We show that for the important special case $M=S^1$ the geodesic distance on \Diff_c(S^1) vanishes if and only if $s\leq\frac12$. For other manifolds we obtain a partial characterization: the geodesic distance on \Diff_c(M) vanishes for $M=\R\times N, s<\frac12$ and for $M=S^1\times N, s\leq\frac12$, with $N$ being a compact Riemannian manifold. On the other hand the geodesic distance on \Diff_c(M) is positive for $\dim(M)=1, s>\frac12$ and $\dim(M)\geq2, s\geq1$. For $M=\R^n$ we discuss the geodesic equations for these metrics. For $n=1$ we obtain some well known PDEs of hydrodynamics: Burgers' equation for $s=0$, the modified Constantin-Lax-Majda equation for $s=\frac 12$ and the Camassa-Holm equation for $s=1$.Comment: 16 pages. Final versio

Computation of Light Scattering in Young Stellar Objects

A Monte Carlo light scattering code incorporating aligned non-spherical particles is described. The major effects on the flux distribution, linear polarisation and circular polarisation are presented, with emphasis on the application to Young Stellar Objects (YSOs). The need for models with non-spherical particles in order to successfully model polarisation data is reviewed. The ability of this type of model to map magnetic field structure in embedded YSOs is described. The possible application to the question of the origin of biomolecular homochirality via UV circular polarisation in star forming regions is also briefly discussed.Comment: Accepted by The Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. Replaced version corrects an error in the definition of the sense of Cpol in the published version and other minor errors found at the proof stag