Gonococcal osteomyelitis in a pediatric patient with disseminated gonococcal infection: Implications for antimicrobial management

© 2020 The Authors We report a case of a female teenager with gonococcal septic arthritis of the right shoulder that also caused osteomyelitis of the humeral head. Infection with Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a frequently diagnosed sexually transmitted infection in the sexually active teenage population and disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI) is the most common systemic manifestation of acute gonorrhea. DGI commonly involves acute arthritis, tenosynovitis and dermatitis with less common complications of endocarditis, hepatitis and meningitis. In contrast, osteomyelitis has only rarely been reported as a result of gonococcal infection. Clinicians need to be aware of this unusual manifestation of DGI as a prolonged duration of antimicrobial treatment may be needed to assure complete resolution of this infection

Reduction of heat sink common-mode currents in switching mode power supply circuits

In this paper, a new filter design for a heat sink is presented. The parasitic couplings between electric power devices and the heat sink are responsible for common-mode currents. The main focus is on the reduction of these currents to reduce the heat sink radiation. For this purpose a new filter design is proposed. In addition, experimental results are shown to validate the proposed filter

Travel-Associated Zika Virus Disease Acquired in the Americas Through February 2016

BACKGROUND: Zika virus has spread rapidly in the Americas and has been imported into many nonendemic countries by travelers. OBJECTIVE: To describe clinical manifestations and epidemiology of Zika virus disease in travelers exposed in the Americas. DESIGN: Descriptive, using GeoSentinel records. SETTING: 63 travel and tropical medicine clinics in 30 countries. PATIENTS: Ill returned travelers with a confirmed, probable, or clinically suspected diagnosis of Zika virus disease seen between January 2013 and 29 February 2016. MEASUREMENTS: Frequencies of demographic, trip, and clinical characteristics and complications. RESULTS: Starting in May 2015, 93 cases of Zika virus disease were reported. Common symptoms included exanthema (88%), fever (76%), and arthralgia (72%). Fifty-nine percent of patients were exposed in South America; 71% were diagnosed in Europe. Case status was established most commonly by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing of blood and less often by PCR testing of other body fluids or serology and plaque-reduction neutralization testing. Two patients developed Guillain–Barre syndrome, and 3 of 4 pregnancies had adverse outcomes (microcephaly, major fetal neurologic abnormalities, and intrauterine fetal death). LIMITATION: Surveillance data collected by specialized clinics may not be representative of all ill returned travelers, and denominator data are unavailable. CONCLUSION: These surveillance data help characterize the clinical manifestations and adverse outcomes of Zika virus disease among travelers infected in the Americas and show a need for global standardization of diagnostic testing. The serious fetal complications observed in this study highlight the importance of travel advisories and prevention measures for pregnant women and their partners. Travelers are sentinels for global Zika virus circulation and may facilitate further transmission

Evidence for universal structure in galactic halos

The late infall of dark matter onto a galaxy produces structure (such as caustics) in the distribution of dark matter in the halo. We argue that such structure is likely to occur generically on length scales proportional to $l \sim t_0 v_{rot}$, where $t_0$ is the age of the universe and $v_{rot}$ is the rotation velocity of the galaxy. A set of 32 extended galactic rotation curves is analyzed. For each curve, the radial coordinate is rescaled according to $r\to \tilde r \equiv r (v_0 / v_{rot})$, where we choose $v_0 = 220 km/s$. A linear fit to each rescaled rotation curve is subtracted, and the residuals are binned and averaged. The sample shows significant features near $\tilde r = 40 kpc$ and $\tilde r = 20 kpc$. This is consistent with the predictions of the self-similar caustic ring model of galactic halos.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, 1 epsf figur

A Re-evaluation of Evidence for Light Neutral Bosons in Nuclear Emulsions

Electron-positron pair-production data obtained by bombardment of emulsion detectors with either cosmic rays or projectiles with mass between one and 207 and kinetic energies between 18 GeV and 32 TeV have been re-analysed using a consistent and conservative model of the background from electromagnetic pair conversion. The combined data yield a spectrum of putative neutral bosons decaying to e+e- pairs, with masses between 3 and 20 MeV/c^2 and femtosecond lifetimes. The statistical significance against background for these "X-bosons" varies between 2 and 8 sigma. The cross-section for direct production of X-bosons increases slowly with projectile energy, remaining over 1,000 times smaller the the pion production cross-section.Comment: major revision with improved figures; accepted by Int J Mod Phys

Tailoring Threshold Voltages of Printed Electrolyte-Gated Field-Effect Transistors by Chromium Doping of Indium Oxide Channels

Printed systems spark immense interest in industry, and for several parts such as solar cells or radio frequency identification antennas, printed products are already available on the market. This has led to intense research; however, printed field-effect transistors (FETs) and logics derived thereof still have not been sufficiently developed to be adapted by industry. Among others, one of the reasons for this is the lack of control of the threshold voltage during production. In this work, we show an approach to adjust the threshold voltage (V$_{th}$) in printed electrolyte-gated FETs (EGFETs) with high accuracy by doping indium-oxide semiconducting channels with chromium. Despite high doping concentrations achieved by a wet chemical process during precursor ink preparation, good on/off-ratios of more than five orders of magnitude could be demonstrated. The synthesis process is simple, inexpensive, and easily scalable and leads to depletion-mode EGFETs, which are fully functional at operation potentials below 2 V and allows us to increase V$_{th}$ by approximately 0.5 V

Axion Radiation from Strings

This paper revisits the problem of the string decay contribution to the axion cosmological energy density. We show that this contribution is proportional to the average relative increase when axion strings decay of a certain quantity $N_{\rm ax}$ which we define. We carry out numerical simulations of the evolution and decay of circular and non-circular string loops, of bent strings with ends held fixed, and of vortex-antivortex pairs in two dimensions. In the case of string loops and of vortex-antivortex pairs, $N_{\rm ax}$ decreases by approximately 20%. In the case of bent strings, $N_{\rm ax}$ remains constant or increases slightly. Our results imply that the string decay contribution to the axion energy density is of the same order of magnitude as the well-understood contribution from vacuum realignment.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Enhanced magnetocaloric effect in frustrated magnets

The magnetothermodynamics of strongly frustrated classical Heisenberg antiferromagnets on kagome, garnet, and pyrochlore lattices is examined. The field induced adiabatic temperature change (dT/dH)_S is significantly larger for such systems compared to ordinary non-frustrated magnets and also exceeds the cooling rate of an ideal paramagnet in a wide range of fields. An enhancement of the magnetocaloric effect is related to presence of a macroscopic number of soft modes in frustrated magnets below the saturation field. Theoretical predictions are confirmed with extensive Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 7 page