Portal Vein Gas in a Diabetic Patient with Gas-forming Pararenal Abscess

The incidence of portal vein gas (PVG), which used to be an ominous sign of intestinal sepsis, has increased with progressive improvements in imaging modalities. Therefore, the clinical significance of PVG has changed. Emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) is a rare, potentially life-threatening and gas-forming infection of the renal parenchyma and/or its surroundings. Gas-forming pararenal abscess presenting with PVG is even rarer. We hereby present the case of a diabetic female with poor glycemic control, who was diagnosed to have EPN and PVG concurrently by computed tomography. She underwent percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD) of the pyelonephritis. Both cultures of blood and pus grew Klebsiella pneumoniae. Her subsequent clinical course was uneventful. In summary, EPN is a rare but potentially fatal urinary tract infection in diabetic patients, and finding PVG on computed tomography can aid in diagnosis. Conservative treatment with intravenous antibiotics and PCD of pus may be adequate for the patient with EPN. However, nephrectomy may be necessary if the patient deteriorates and PCD fails to contain the infection

OMARS: The Framework of an Online Multi-Dimensional Association Rules Mining System

Recently, the integration of data warehouses and data mining has been recognized as the primary platform for facilitating knowledge discovery. Effective data mining from data warehouses, however, needs exploratory data analysis. The users often need to investigate the warehousing data from various perspectives and analyze them at different levels of abstraction. To this end, comprehensive information processing and data analysis have to be systematically constructed surrounding data warehouses, and an on-line mining environment should be provided. In this paper, we propose a system framework to facilitate on-line association rules mining, called OMARS, which is based on the idea of integrating OLAP service and our proposed OLAM cubes and auxiliary cubes. According to the concept of OLAM cubes, we define the OLAM lattice framework that exploit arbitrary hierarchies of dimensions to model all possible OLAM data cubes

How Is the Sustainable Consumption Intention Model in Food Industry under Preference Uncertainties? The Consumer Willingness to Pay on Recycled Packaging Material

Food packaging is costly to consumers and generates a huge volume of packaging waste, especially in Indonesia. Prior studies have neglected to construct a causal sustainable consumption intention model in food industry and link to the consumer willingness to pay under preference uncertainties. To address the gaps, this study explores consumer attributes to build a causal sustainable consumption intention model and takes the model to address the consumer willingness to pay under preference uncertainties. This study proposes a causal model that integrates five aspects of sustainable consumption intention model: (1) sustainable consumption knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors; (2) government policy and regulation on sustainable consumption; (3) recycled packaging eco-labeling certification; (4) supply chain innovation and infrastructure; and (5) sustainable product purchasing features. This study uses the fuzzy Delphi method to confirm the reliability and validate the criteria and applies cause and effect model to address the causal model. In addition, this study collects 428 valid responses to address the willingness to pay for causal sustainable consumption intention model and a cognitive best-worst choice experiment to confirm the model in the food industry. The result reveals that recycled packaging eco-labeling certification is the major aspect for enhancing the model, followed by government policy and regulation and supply chain innovation and infrastructure. In practice, consumers incur inconvenience in purchasing sustainable food products but prefer recycled packaging material at a standardized price

The Influence of Type 2 Diabetes and Glucose-Lowering Therapies on Cancer Risk in the Taiwanese

Objective. To investigate the association between type 2 diabetes, glucose-lowering therapies (monotherapy with either metformin, sulphonylurea or insulin) and cancer risk in Taiwan. Methods. Using Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes database of 1,000,000 random subjects from 2000–2008, we found 61777 patients with type 2 diabetes (age ≥20 years) and 677378 enrollees with no record of diabetes. Results. After adjusting for age and sex, we found patients with diabetes to have significantly higher risk of all cancers (OR: 1.176; 95% CI: 1.149–1.204, P < 0.001). Diabetic patients treated with insulin or sulfonylureas had significantly higher risk of all cancers, compared to those treated with metformin (OR: 1.583; 95% CI: 1.389–1.805, P < 0.001 and OR: 1.784; 95% CI: 1.406–2.262, P < 0.001). Metformin treatment was associated with a decreased risk of colon and liver cancer compared to sulphonylureas or insulin treatment. Sulfonylureas treatment was associated with an increased risk of breast and lung cancer compared to metformin therapy. Conclusions. Taiwanese with type 2 diabetes are at a high risk of breast, prostate, colon, lung, liver and pancreatic cancer. Those treated with insulin or sulfonylureas monotherapy are more likely to develop colon and liver cancer than those treated with metformin

Interactions between excitation and extraction modes in an organic-based plasmon-emitting diode

International audienceThis study demonstrates the feasibility of enhancing an organic-based plasmon-emitting diode on the directional light beaming efficiency by near-field surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in both metal grating and polymer grating nanostructures. The interaction between organic/metal and PR/metal interfaces to cause SPPs can facilitate specific directional emission. Directional emission properties give rise to a spectral band-gap response enhancement. Our results also verify that efficient surface plasmon grating coupled emissions (SPGCEs) can improve directionality under index-mediated tuning. Experimental results indicate SP decoupling emission in the visible light. The subsequent emission intensity can increase by up to 3.5 times. Moreover, a narrow FWHM of approximately 60 nm in a defined direction is achieved, and an SP coupling rate is approximately 80% on the metal grating structure. The proposed method is highly promising for use as an active plasmonic emitter and discoloration biosensors with enhanced SPPs resonance energy, owing to interactions with the organic/metal nanostructur

Interdisciplinary intervention decreases cognitive impairment for older Taiwanese with hip fracture: 2‐year follow‐up

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/101759/1/gps3945.pd

A Smartphone APP for Health and Tourism Promotion

The main purpose of this study is to develop an APP by integrating GPS to provide the digitized information of local cultural spots to guide tourists for tourism promotion and the digitized information of mountaineering trails to monitor energy expenditure (EE) for health promotion. The provided cultural information is also adopted for educational purpose. Extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to evaluate the usefulness and behavior intention of the provided information and functions in the developed system. Most users agreed that the system is useful for health promotion, tourism promotion, and folk-culture education. They also showed strong intention and positive attitude toward continuous use of the APP