Corneoscleral laceration and ocular burns caused by electronic cigarette explosions

PURPOSE: To report cases of acute globe rupture and bilateral corneal burns from electronic cigarette (EC) explosions. METHODS: Case series. RESULTS: We describe a series of patients with corneal injury caused by EC explosions. Both patients suffered bilateral corneal burns and decreased visual acuity, and one patient sustained a unilateral corneoscleral laceration with prolapsed iris tissue and hyphema. A review of the scientific literature revealed no prior reported cases of ocular injury secondary to EC explosions; however, multiple media and government agency articles describe fires and explosions involving ECs, including at least 4 with ocular injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Given these cases and the number of recent media reports, ECs pose a significant public health risk. Users should be warned regarding the possibility of severe injury, including sight-threatening ocular injuries ranging from corneal burns to full-thickness corneoscleral laceration

Objective Review of Mediastinal Lymph Node Examination in a Lung Cancer Resection Cohort

Background:Accurate staging of resected lung cancer requires mediastinal lymph node (MLN) examination. MLN dissection (MLND) and systematic sampling (SS) are acceptable procedures; random sampling (RS) and no sampling (NS) are not. Forty percent of US lung cancer resections have NS. We closely examined the pattern of MLN examination in a lung resection cohort.Methods:This is a retrospective review of all lung cancer resections in Memphis, TN, from 2004 to 2007. We compared operating surgeons' claims to the pathology report and an audit of the operation narrative by an independent surgeon.Results:Forty-five percent of resections were reported by surgeons as MLND, 8% RS, and 48% NS. None met pathology criteria for MLND, 9% were SS, 50% were RS, and 42% were NS. The concordance rate between the operating surgeon and pathology report was 39%. The surgeon audit suggested 29% of resections had MLND, 26% RS, and 45% NS. Concordance between operating and auditing surgeons was 71%. Sublobar resection, T1 stage, and age were associated with NS.Conclusions:Most resections had suboptimal MLN examination. Concordance was poor between surgeon claims, objective review of pathology reports, and an independent surgeon audit. The higher concordance between operating and auditing surgeons may suggest incomplete pathology examination of MLN material. The terms used by operating surgeons to describe MLN retrieval were often inaccurate

Contribution of advanced fluorescence nano microscopy towards revealing mitotic chromosome structure

The organization of chromatin into higher-order structures and its condensation process represent one of the key challenges in structural biology. This is important for elucidating several disease states. To address this long-standing problem, development of advanced imaging methods has played an essential role in providing understanding into mitotic chromosome structure and compaction. Amongst these are two fast evolving fluorescence imaging technologies, specifically fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and super-resolution microscopy (SRM). FLIM in particular has been lacking in the application of chromosome research while SRM has been successfully applied although not widely. Both these techniques are capable of providing fluorescence imaging with nanometer information. SRM or nanoscopy is capable of generating images of DNA with less than 50 nm resolution while FLIM when coupled with energy transfer may provide less than 20 nm information. Here, we discuss the advantages and limitations of both methods followed by their contribution to mitotic chromosome studies. Furthermore, we highlight the future prospects of how advancements in new technologies can contribute in the field of chromosome science

Mobile Information Systems 3 (2007) 107-132 107 IOS Press High performance publish/subscribe middleware for mobile wireless networks

Abstract. Decoupling, flexible, scalable and asynchronous nature of publish/subscribe paradigms makes them a good choice for mobile wireless networks. However, our research shows that current implementations of publish/subscribe systems as well as the traditional solutions for extending publish/subscribe systems to the mobile domain do not perform well in highly mobile and unreliable wireless settings. We present semi-durable subscriptions, a technique that we have developed to overcome the challenges and the performance concerns publish/subscribe systems face in mobile wireless settings. We discuss the architecture of semi-durable subscriptions and study in detail the effect of various mobility parameters on the performance of semi-durable subscriptions to demonstrate their efficacy in mobile wireless settings. We also discuss system parameters for semi-durable subscriptions and with the help of experimental results demonstrate how these parameters can be controlled to configure a system according to a set of desired characteristics

Geographic range extension of Speke's Hinge-back Tortoise Kinixys spekii Gray, 1863

Kinixys spekii has a wide distribution range across sub-Saharan Africa, having been reported from Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, eSwatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Kinixys spekii inhabits savannah and dry bushveld habitats and was previously considered an inland species. However, recent records suggest a more extensive geographical distribution. Here, we provide genetically verifed records for Angola, South Africa, and Mozambique, and discuss reliable sightings for Rwanda. These new records extend the range signifcantly to the east and west, and provide evidence for the occurrence of this species along the coast of the Indian Ocean in South Africa and Mozambique.© 2019 Ihlow et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: offcial journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation; official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org

Green supply chain management – food for thought?

This paper investigates the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices on the performance of UK food retail small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A quantitative approach using a non-probability sampling of 84 participants was employed. Based on the literature review, five hypotheses were developed and tested using the partial least square-structural equation modeling (SEM-Smart PLS 2.03) approach. The reviewed literature revealed that key internal drivers (ID) and external pressures (EP) stimulate organizations to initiate GSCM practices in UK food retail SMEs. Though empirical findings strongly supported the statement that ID influence GSCM practices, they did not show a significant relationship between EP and GSCM practices. Literature also suggests that practicing GSCM can help improve the efficiency, brand image (BI) and profitability, and thus improve the overall firm performance which is also empirically proved. This study helps enrich existing theories on SCM and organizational performance. As to practical impact, this study should facilitate SMEs in GSCM practices and thus help green the economy. While the findings of this study have limited generalisability as the data were collected from UK SMEs only and the sample size was comparatively small, this research establishes a foundation for further study in this domain

Measurement of the electric dipole moments for transitions to rubidium Rydberg states via Autler-Townes splitting

We present the direct measurements of electric-dipole moments for $5P_{3/2}\to nD_{5/2}$ transitions with $20<n<48$ for Rubidium atoms. The measurements were performed in an ultracold sample via observation of the Autler-Townes splitting in a three-level ladder scheme, commonly used for 2-photon excitation of Rydberg states. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic measurement of the electric dipole moments for transitions from low excited states of rubidium to Rydberg states. Due to its simplicity and versatility, this method can be easily extended to other transitions and other atomic species with little constraints. Good agreement of the experimental results with theory proves the reliability of the measurement method.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures; figure 6 replaced with correct versio