Recurrent Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Tenosynovitis

Background: Nontuberculous mycobacteria are an uncommon pathogen for musculoskeletal infection and are difficult to treat because of delays in diagnosis, prolonged treatment requiring both antimycobacterial therapy and surgical debridement, and high rates of resistance to antimycobacterial therapy. Case Report: We report the case of an 88-year-old male with recurrent Mycobacterium avium complex tenosynovitis despite receiving multiple courses of pharmacologic therapy and surgical debridement. Conclusion: Nontuberculous mycobacterial musculoskeletal infections can be difficult to diagnose and equally difficult to treat. A combination of antimycobacterial therapy and surgical debridement is often required; however, the rate of treatment failure remains high, particularly with rapidly growing mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium avium

A NEW APPROACH TO BASEBALL BAT SWING WARM-UP

The purpose of this study was to compare a new form of warm-up with the traditional warm-up routine in baseball bat swing. Three different warm-up conditions (i.e., the standard bat warm-up (CO), the overweighted arm warm-up (OA), and the overweighted bat warm-up (OB)) were tested. Twenty subjects who had competitive baseball experience in high school or college participated in this study. Results indicated that during warm-up swings the bat speed of the CO (31.95 ± 1.50 m/s) was significantly faster than that of the OA (31.35 ± 1.82 m/s) and the OB (25.55 ± 1.43 m/s). However, the OA warm-up increased bat speed (0.659 ± 2.79%) more than the CO (0.049 ± 2.54%) and OB (−0.203 ± 3.83%) warm-ups. However, these differences were not statistically significant due to large variation across subjects. This study also found a significant drop of the bat speed at the first trial (−0.499 ± 3.21% and −1.07 ± 3.21% for the OA and OB warm-ups, respectively) immediately following loaded warm-ups. It was concluded that the overweighted arm warm-up might be better than the traditional warmup routine (i.e., the overweighted bat) but a short break (e.g., 3-min) is recommended to maximize the performance

Integrated Ultrasonic Transducer

Ultrasonic transducers composed of integrated assemblies of double-diffused MOS transistors (DMOST) and thin-film piezoelectric transducing elements are described. The entire transducer is built on a single-crystal silicon wafer and offers a number of attractive features including: small size and correspondingly precise localization of the sensitive element, a response that can be predicted by relatively simple theory, a large bandwidth, and a possibility of producing arrays of sensors together with other signal-processing elements in a single processing sequence. The piezoelectric film (zinc oxide) is sputtered either in the gate region of a double-diffused H6S transistor (making the so-called PI-MOST ) or adjacent to the gate electrode of a double-diffused MOS transistor. The transducer~ be excited in various ways: (1) in a thickness mode from the bare silicon surface opposite the piezoelectric-coated region; (2) in a flexural mode caused by bending the silicon wafer; (3) end excitation by surface motions either normal or transverse to the edge of the wafer; (4) by surface waves. Various of these modes are characterized by high sensitivity to strain, low conversion loss, large bandwidth, and good response at very low or very high frequencies

Integrated Ultrasonic Transducer

The typical transducer considered consists of a piezoelectric film, and associated.electrodes, connected to one gate of a dual-gate field-effect transistor in the silicon wafer on which the piezoelectric film is situated. An individual transducer responds to various modes of excitation (flexural, surface, bulk) at frequencies which may range from far below one Hertz to hundreds of megahertz. The second gate of the field-effect transistor can be used for electrical amplitude control or for mixing purposes, Connection of a number of these small transducers together to form arrays permits realizing ultrasonic receiving devices having variable directivity, and progammable surface-wave signal processors

Current Source DC-DC Converter for Undersea Fiber Optic Sensors

Today, there are nearly 400 cable networks spanning roughly 750,000 miles to connect our world together. With thousands of miles of cable already lying on the ocean floor, with thousands more to come, many have recognized a unique opportunity in using this cable infrastructure as an attachment point for sensors to help study and monitor the ocean. Placing sensors onto a submarine cable is not a simple task; the sensors will require power that they receive from a transmission cable, from a battery, or from the submarine cable itself. Unfortunately, the existing power feed configuration for submarine cables typically only accounts for cable repeaters and their specified current requirement. Therefore, a converter will be required to properly power the sensors. Because only the current is a known value (as the voltage will be variable depending on the position along the cable), a current source DC-DC converter must be used. This project entails the design and construction of a current source DC-DC converter that is intended to meet the following specifications for the sensors: step down an input current of 0.9 amps to 0.625 amps, maintain an output voltage of 24 volts, and an output power of 15 watts. The goal of this project was to create a current-source DC-DC converter that stepped down a 0.9A input current to a 0.625A output current at 24V. The designed circuit successfully stepped down the input current to the proper output; however, further improvements will be needed to achieve the desired efficiency and output ripple specifications. Overall, the constructed circuit provides a proof of concept of the current source design that can be iterated upon for better results in the future

Professional Interpreter Services and the Impact on Hospital Care Outcomes: An Integrative Review of Literature

Migration patterns have rapidly changed in Australia and elsewhere, which have contributed to increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse societies. This requires healthcare sectors to provide professional interpreter services for patients with a language barrier to eliminate healthcare disparities. This integrative review aimed to investigate the impact of professional interpreter services on hospital care outcomes and the associated cost of service provision. A systematic search of five databases was conducted for peer-reviewed articles from January 1996 to December 2020. Data were extracted for the hospital setting, intervention, population, study design, outcomes and key findings. Following the PRISMA guidelines, full-text screening identified 37 articles that were analysed and included. Communication quality, hospital care outcomes and hospital costs were the three main themes identified. Closing the language gap should be a primary consideration to prevent adverse events that affect patient safety and the standard of care in hospitals. The findings of this review indicate the provision of professional interpreter services can enhance hospital care for linguistically diverse patients by improving patient–provider communication. To gain insight into the changing patterns on the outcomes of medical care, further research requires efforts by the hospital administrative system to document complete records of service usage

Preferences for social services, living arrangements and care of Chinese senior citizens in Christchurch

This study examines the preferences for social services, living arrangements and care of Chinese senior citizens (aged 60 and over) in Christchurch, should they no longer be able to live on their own. Fifty-three respondents were selected through the snowball sampling procedure. Using a questionnaire, the researcher conducted all interviews at the respondents' homes. A brief history of Chinese immigration to New Zealand is discussed. Dominant social gerontological theories are seen as limited in explaining the ageing experience of the elderly Chinese. An historical-structural approach is adopted to examine the socio-political and economic influences on Chinese senior citizens in New Zealand. In so doing, this approach relates their personal experiences and problems to larger historical and structural contexts. Past restrictive immigration legislation had a major impact on the current demographic trend of the Chinese community in New Zealand. Thus, the structural conditions of the host society in shaping the ethnic variations in the ageing experience are examined. As a group, Chinese senior citizens have a unique historical experience in the host society. This may affect their perceptions in the areas of social service needs, preferred living arrangements and care preferences. This study challenges the commonly held view of Chinese senior citizens being looked after by their adult children in the name of filial piety. Filial piety and veneration of the aged do not seem to play a major part in the care of Chinese senior citizens in Christchurch. The assumption that the Chinese family can provide care for their aged is fallacious and detrimental, because the elderly may be deprived of necessary non-familial sources of support in later life. Social work practitioners and other health professionals will benefit from the information on the provision and delivery of social and health services to their elderly clients from ethnic minority groups. These findings could stimulate further research and practice innovation that are conducive to an improved quality of life for the elderly Chinese in the community. This has implications for future delivery of social services and policy developments for the ethnic minority aged in New Zealan

Photooxidation of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO) as a potential source of secondary organic aerosol

2-Methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO) is an important biogenic hydrocarbon emitted in large quantities by pine forests. Atmospheric photooxidation of MBO is known to lead to oxygenated compounds, such as glycolaldehyde, which is the precursor to glyoxal. Recent studies have shown that the reactive uptake of glyoxal onto aqueous particles can lead to formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). In this work, MBO photooxidation under high- and low-NO_x conditions was performed in dual laboratory chambers to quantify the yield of glyoxal and investigate the potential for SOA formation. The yields of glycolaldehyde and 2-hydroxy-2-methylpropanal (HMPR), fragmentation products of MBO photooxidation, were observed to be lower at lower NO_x concentrations. Overall, the glyoxal yield from MBO photooxidation was 25% under high-NO_x and 4% under low-NO_x conditions. In the presence of wet ammonium sulfate seed and under high-NO_x conditions, glyoxal uptake and SOA formation were not observed conclusively, due to relatively low (<30 ppb) glyoxal concentrations. Slight aerosol formation was observed under low-NO_x and dry conditions, with aerosol mass yields on the order of 0.1%. The small amount of SOA was not related to glyoxal uptake, but is likely a result of reactions similar to those that generate isoprene SOA under low-NO_x conditions. The difference in aerosol yields between MBO and isoprene photooxidation under low-NO_x conditions is consistent with the difference in vapor pressures between triols (from MBO) and tetrols (from isoprene). Despite its structural similarity to isoprene, photooxidation of MBO is not expected to make a significant contribution to SOA formation

Call for quality epilepsy neuroimaging—An illustrative case of missed epileptic substrate

No. 779

Ion source for neutral beam injection meant for plasma and magnetic field diagnostics

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) a diagnostic neutral beam injection system for measuring plasma parameters, flow velocity, and local magnetic field is being developed. The systems is designed to have a 90 % proton fraction and small divergence with beam current at 5-6 A and a pulse length of {approx}1 s occurring once every 1-2 min. The ion source needs to generate uniform plasma over a large (8 cm x 5 cm) extraction area. For this application, we have compared RF driven multicusp ion sources operating with either an external or an internal antenna in similar ion source geometry. The ion beam will be made of an array of six sheet-shaped beamlets. The design is optimized using computer simulation programs