Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Tensile Bond Strength of Metal Bracket Bonding to Glazed Ceramic Surfaces With Different Surface Conditionings

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the tensile bond strength of metal brackets bonding to glazed ceramic surfaces using three various surface treatments.Materials and Methods: Forty two glazed ceramic disks were assigned to three groups. In the first and second groups the specimens were etched with 9.5% hydrofluoric acid (HFA). Subsequently in first group, ceramic primer and adhesive were applied, but in second group a bonding agent alone was used. In third group, specimens were treated with 35% phosphoric acid followed by ceramic primerand adhesive application. Brackets were bonded with light cure composites. The specimens were stored in distilled water in the room temperature for 24 hours and thermocycled 500 times between 5°C and 55°C. The universal testing machine was used to test the tensile bond strength and the adhesive remenant index scores between three groups was evaluated. The data were subjected to one-way ANOVA, Tukey and Kruskal-Wallis tests respectively.Results: The tensile bond strength was 3.69±0.52 MPa forfirst group, 2.69±0.91 MPa for second group and 3.60±0.41 MPa for third group. Group II specimens showed tensile strength values significantly different from other groups (P<0.01).Conclusion: In spite of limitations in laboratory studies it may be concluded that in application of Scotch bond multipurpose plus adhesive, phosphoric acid can be used instead of HFA for bonding brackets to the glazed ceramic restorations with enough tensile bond strength

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

Performance of the ATLAS Detector using First Collision Data

More than half a million minimum-bias events of LHC collision data were collected by the ATLAS experiment in December 2009 at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 TeV and 2.36 TeV. This paper reports on studies of the initial performance of the ATLAS detector from these data. Comparisons between data and Monte Carlo predictions are shown for distributions of several track- and calorimeter-based quantities. The good performance of the ATLAS detector in these first data gives confidence for successful running at higher energies

Measurement of the W -&gt; lv and Z/gamma* -&gt; ll production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

First measurements of the W → ℓν and Z/γ * → ℓℓ (ℓ = e, μ) production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 7TeV are presented using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The results are based on 2250 W → ℓν and 179 Z/γ* → ℓℓ candidate events selected from a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 320 nb-1. The measured total W and Z/ γ*-boson production cross sections times the respective leptonic branching ratios for the combined electron and muon channels are σtotW · BR(W → ℓν) = 9.96 ± 0.23(stat) ± 0.50(syst) ± 1.10(lumi) nb and σtotZ/γ* · BR(Z/ γ* → ℓℓ) = 0.82 ± 0.06 (stat) ± 0.05 (syst) ± 0.09 (lumi) nb (within the invariant mass window 66 &lt; mℓℓ &lt; 116 GeV). The W/Z cross-section ratio is measured to be 11.7 ± 0.9(stat) ± 0.4(syst). In addition, measurements of the W+ and W- production cross sections and of the lepton charge asymmetry are reported. Theoretical predictions based on NNLO QCD calculations are found to agree with the measurements