Multiple metastatic infections in a hemodialysis patient with untunneled internal jugular catheter

We present an end‐stage renal disease patient on dialysis with fever. The primary source was right internal jugular vein catheter which had metastatic infections in the body probably via an arteriovenous communication in a cavity in left lung. Patient had right psoas muscle abscess and a left kidney abscess. An ¹⁸F‐fluorodeoxyglucose‐positron emission spectroscopy scan was done to find out left kidney abscess. A search of literature did not reveal many patients of psoas abscess secondary to infection of hemodialysis access.     

Multinational Enterprises and the Geographical Clustering of Innovation

Research on the geographic clustering of economic activity dates back to the early twentieth century. It is recognized that in spite of advances in transportation and communications, clustering remains most critical, and is consequently prevalent, in knowledge-intensive fields. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) that increasingly base their value creation and competitive advantage on knowledge-intensive activities are key participants in clusters, affecting both the nature and intertemporal evolution of local innovative activities. However, the role of MNEs in clusters remains under-researched. This paper traces the origins of research on geographic clusters, identifies the seminal contributions focusing on the role of MNEs, discusses potential problems inherent to this area of inquiry and develops an organizing framework for new research.     

Performance modeling of DTN routing with heterogeneous and selfish nodes

The performance modeling study of Delay-Tolerant Network routing, in general, assumes the nodes to be homogeneous (in terms of features such as the coverage range) and uncompromised (in terms of forwarding messages). However, in realistic settings this may not be the case. The routing performance modeling of such realistic scenarios that involve multifariously-featured and egotistic nodes would be interesting and insightful. To this end, in this paper, we analytically model the routing behavior of such nodes using Ordinary Differential Equations for two different routing protocols namely, Epidemic Routing and Two-Hop Routing. Furthermore, we also study the degradation in the routing performance caused by an increase in the fraction of selfish nodes present in the heterogeneous node population. The proposed analytical model is validated via extensive simulations.     

Influence of β‐nucleation on polymorphism and properties in random copolymers and terpolymers of propylene

The competition between α, β, and γ polymorphs has been studied in several random copolymers and terpolymers of propylene, by performing X‐ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry experiments. Formation of β‐crystals, achieved by the addition of a β‐nucleating agent, was found to be highly dependent on comonomer type and crystallization conditions. Additionally, the mechanical properties have been evaluated from stress‐strain, microhardness and dynamic‐mechanical thermal analyses. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Investigating the Financial Implications and Viability of Diversified Water Supply Systems in an Urban Water Supply Zone

Water Resources Management - Diversified water supply schemes can reduce both peak demand and overall demand in the urban water supply network. Consequently, they provide benefits to both the water...     

An energy efficient middleware for an ad-hoc AAL wireless sensor network

DIA (Dispositivo Inteligente de Alarma, in Spanish) is an AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) system that allows to infer a potential dangerous action of an elderly person living alone at home. This inference is obtained by a specific sensorisation with sensor nodes (portables and fixes) and a reasoning layer embedded in a PC that learns of the users behaviour patterns and advices when actual one differs significantly of the normal patterns. In AAL systems, energy is a limited resource therefore sensor devices need to be properly managed to conserve energy. In this paper, we introduce the design and implementation of innovative and specific mechanisms at the sensory layer middleware which is capable of, first to discriminate spurious motion detections assuming that these signals do not resemble the patterns of real motion detections and, second to reduce the dynamics of messages by a sensor signal processing in order to compress the whole information in one single event. The middleware achieves power saving by modifying the raw information from sensors and adapting it to the predefined semantic of the reasoning layer. It manages the important task of data processing from sensors (raw information), and transfers the pre-processed information into the top layer of reasoning in a more energy efficient way. We also address the trade-off between reducing power consumption and reducing delay for incoming data. We present results from experiments using our implementation of these mechanisms at the middleware that comprises from node firmware to the PC driver. The number of messages of the proposed method with respect to the raw data is reduced by approximately 98.5%. The resources used in the PIR signal processing is reduced by approximately 85%. The resulting delay introduced is small (10–19 s) but system dynamics is slow enough to avoid contextualisation errors or reduction of system performance. We consider these results as very satisfactory.     

Assessment of the Use of NaClO as an Alternative to H2O2 in the Oxidant-Titanium Ore-Simulated Solar Light System for Thiabendazole Degradation

Topics in Catalysis - The use of the magnetic fraction (MF) of a low-grade titanium ore (TO) and two oxidants (H2O2 and NaClO), testing each one separately, were compared in photo-Fenton like...     

Applications of an oak extract on Petit Verdot grapevines. Influence on grape and wine volatile compounds

Petit Verdot vineyards were treated at veraison with a commercial aqueous French oak extract in order to determine if the extract’s volatile components can be transferred to grapes and then to wines. Three different formulations (25% (one application), 25% (four applications) and 100%) were tested, together with an eugenol and guaiacol standard solution to better follow their behaviour. The volatile compounds of treated grapes and their wines after alcoholic and malolactic fermentation and after 8 months were analysed by stir bar sorptive extraction and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SBSE-GC–MS). The results showed that the grapes stored the volatile compounds mainly as non-volatile precursors, and some of these were released after winemaking. In the case of wines, it was possible to distinguish the control versus the ones from vineyard treatments. The different oak extract applications were evident only after alcoholic fermentation sampling, making it very interesting for young wines.     

Predicting cetane number,kinematic viscosity,density and higher heating value of biodiesel from its fatty acid methyl ester composition

Biodiesel is a renewable bio-fuel derived from natural fats or vegetable oils, and it is considered as a promising alternative to substitute diesel fuels. Cetane number, viscosity, density, and higher heating value are important properties to affect the utilization of biodiesel fuels, because they are involved in the definition of fuel quality and are required as input data for predictive engine combustion models. This work presents the characterization of two biodiesel samples made from beef tallow and soybean oil through their fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) profile. Empirical equations were developed to estimate four physical properties of methyl esters; and an average absolute deviation (AAD) of 5.95%, 2.57%, 0.11% and 0.21% for the cetane number, kinematic viscosity, density, and higher heating value were founded. Cetane number, viscosity, and higher heating value increases because of the increase of molecular weight and these physical properties decrease as the number of double bonds increases. Unlike that of above properties, density decreases as molecular weight increases and density increases as the degree of unsaturation increases. Two general mixing rules and five biodiesel samples were used to study the influence of FAMEs over the physical properties of biodiesel. The prediction of the cetane number, kinematic viscosity, density and higher heating value of biodiesel is very close to the experimental values.