Fever in intensive care: keep medications in mind at all times

In two patients, men aged 35 and 69 years admitted postoperatively to the intensive care unit, fever of unknown origin developed. One had been admitted because aspiration was suspected. He had been treated immediately with amoxicillin and clavulanic acid. The other had undergone oesophageal excision and gastric reconstruction because of oesophageal carcinoma and had been subjected to antibiotic decontamination (amphotericin B, norfloxacine en fungizone). No cause for the fever was detected, but it quickly subsided after discontinuation of the amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and the norfloxacine, respectively. When encountering fever of unknown origin in intensive care patients it is always important to think of drug fever.     

A generalised fuzzy reasoning algorithm for an object-oriented expert system tool

Abstract: A fuzzy reasoning algorithm is presented in this paper. It is based on the concept of a generalised fuzzy production rule that adds new conjunctions such as ADD and REL to the usual AND and OR conjunctions for the linkage of premises in conventional rules. A definition is given for weights and related factors, to express and measure a relation between the premises. A formal representation for fuzzy premises is presented, together with the introduction of a fuzzy match method. Multiple thresholds are used to convert the uncertainty measures of reasoning results into linguistic variables. We have applied the fuzzy reasoning algorithm to a frame-based hybrid expert system tool. An object-oriented approach is used in implementing the system. Some results of the application are presented and discussed.     

Intraventricular chemotherapy in neonatal meningitis

All of 16 infants with neonatal meningitis treated during a 30-month period were found to have accompanying ventriculitis at the time of the initial ventricular puncture. Fifteen of these infants were caused by gramm-negative organisms. All infants received antibiotics systemically and intraventricularly via an implanted ventriculostomy reservoir or by direct ventricular injection. Antibiotic concentrations within the ventricular fluid were monitored during chemotherapy; the complications encountered during treatment are discussed. Fifteen infants survived the infection; of these, seven infants were normal at follow-up examinations. In our experience intraventricular chemotherapy as an adjunct to systemic administration of antibiotics has greatly reduced the mortality rate in neonatal meningitis.     

Ethnic origin, belief, and personality information in interpersonal attraction.

To test the effects on interpersonal attraction of 3 categories of information, 78 English-speaking undergraduates made liking and social distance ratings about a derived target. The person rated was either English or French Canadian, pro- or anti-capital-punishment and the harsh treatment of criminals, and high or low on the Cognitive Structure and Order scales of the Personality Research Form. Results show that the judges were all anti-capital-punishment and low on the personality traits. Belief and belief-congruence were the primary determinants of attraction. The 3 categories of information interacted on 2 measures. French Canadians were rated more favorably than English-Canadians when similar to the judge in belief or personality but less favorably when similar in neither belief nor personality. (French summary) (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of Young''''s modulus by nanoindentation

Loadanddepthsensingindentationtechniqueisveryusefulinprobingthemechanicalpropertiesofmaterialsonsmallscales[1—5].Youngsmodulusisoneofthemostcommonlyconcernedmaterialpropertiesmeasuredbythiskindoftechnique.Conventionally,itisachievedonthebasisofthemethodproposedbyOliverandPharr[4]usingthewell-knownrelationship:whereSuistheinitialslopeofunloadingcurve,EristhereducedmodulusandrelatedwiththeYoungsmodulusEandPoissonsratioνoftheindentedmaterialandthose(Ei,ni)oftheindenterbytheequation1/Er=(1-n2…     

Effects of nickel(II) addition on the activity of activated sludge microorganisms and activated sludge process

The effects of Ni(II) in a synthetic wastewater on the activity of activated sludge microorganisms and sequencing batch reactor (SBR) treatment process were investigated. Two parallel lab-scale SBR systems were operated. One was used as a control unit, while the other received Ni(II) concentrations equal to 5 and 10 mg/l. The SBR systems were operated with FILL, REACT, SETTLE, DRAW and IDLE modes in the time ratio of 0.5:3.5:1.0:0.75:0.25 for a cycle time of 6 h. The addition of Ni(II) into SBR system caused drastically dropped in TOC removal rate (k) and specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) by activated sludge microorganisms due to the inhibitory effects of Ni(II) on the bioactivity of microorganisms. The addition of 5 mg/l Ni(II) caused a slight reduction in TOC removal efficiency, whereas 10 mg/l Ni(II) addition significantly affected the SBR performance in terms of suspended solids and TOC removal efficiency. Termination of Ni(II) addition led to almost full recovery of the bioactivity in microorganisms as shown in the increase of specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR) and SBR treatment performance.     

Computer-based extraction of the inferior alveolar nerve canal in 3-D space

Computed tomography (CT) is increasingly employed in orthodontic treatment. One of the most successful applications is in dental implantology, in which an artificial root is surgically inserted into the jawbone to provide anchorage for a dental prosthesis. For successful implant surgery, it is crucial to locate internal structures such as the inferior alveolar nerve canal (IAC). This paper presents a computerized technique for extracting the IAC. To facilitate the extraction, we first generate panoramic CT images (panoramics) by reformatting the original CT images. The panoramics are a series of cross-sectional images along curved planes through the mandible (lower jawbone). Hollow canals are subsequently detected by analyzing the voxel intensities and 3-D gradient orientations in the panoramics. The axis of the IAC is then traced out by a novel 3-D line-tracking technique. The method is effective for extracting the IAC despite the open structure of the surrounding bone.     

Purification and characterization of two forms of urokinase

Affinity chromatography on agmatine-Sepharose was used for the separation of two active forms of urokinase (EC 3.4.99.26) from partially purified human urinary urokinase. The approximate molecular weight of the heavier form was 47 000 and of the lighter 33 400. Both forms were homogeneous by sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis and by 3H-labeled diisopropylphosphorofluoridate and 14C-labeled p-nitrophenyl-p'-guanidinobenzoate incorporation studies. The 33 400 mol. wt. form had a single chain, and the 47 000 mol. wt. form had two chains (33 100 and 18 600 mol. wt.) linked by disulfide bonds. The specific activity of the heavier form was 104 000 CTA units/mg protein, compared with 226 000 units/mg for the lighter form but the activities per mmol of active site (molar activities) of the two forms were almost identical (9.6-10(9) and 10.2-10(9) CTA units/mmol). Isoelectric focusing on gels showed that the 47 000 material contained one major subform with a pI of 8.60 and a minor subform with a pI of 8.90, while the 33 400 material had three major subforms with pI values of 8.35, 8.60 and 8.70, respectively, and a minor subform with a pI of 8.05. 3H-labeled diisopropylphosphorofluoridate incorporation studies revealed an active-site serine residue in the heavy chain.     

Rasch simultaneous vertical equating for measuring reading growth

The longitudinal measurement of ability growth requires that the measures that are taken at the various time points be obtained using the same yardstick. Tests given for this purpose, therefore, need to be equated. The popular practice still in use for the purpose of equating tests, is the grade-equivalent. This paper compares the observation of children's growth in reading using grade-equivalents with that using Rasch Simultaneous Vertical Equating procedure. It is found that grade equivalents differ much more between two different test forms compared to ability measures obtained using Rasch Simultaneous Vertical Equating. It is also found that the spread of students' grade-equivalents, increased over the years as they grow while the standard deviations of their Rasch measures remain relatively constant over the same period of time. Student responses to the ITBS Form 7 and the CPS90 and CPS 91 were used. A total of 5,623 students were tracked over eight years.