Blunt renal traumas: contribution of spiral CT with three dimensional reconstruction to the surgical decision process?

Spiral CT has proved to be a valuable tool by providing various kinds of three-dimensional (3D) images of the studied structures. Such 3D images, which offer a more realistic depiction of the lesions, could be of interest for surgeons who are attempting to treat conservatively blunt abdominal traumas and lead to less inappropriate triage between conservative and operative management particularly for renal trauma. A good working relationship between surgeons and radiologists allowed us to perform an early follow-up 3D spiral CT on a commercially available spiral CT scanner. In the first adult patient, the 3D CT demonstrated minor spleen injury associated with severe lacerations of the left kidney with complete separation of the kidney lower pole. A delayed partial lower nephrectomy was performed. For the second 12-year-old patient presenting with severe spleen trauma and macroscopic hematuria, the 3D CT accurately documented the spleen and renal lesions that were safely amenable to nonoperative treatment. For hemodynamically stable patients, 3D CT is a potentially helpful addition to conventional axial CT for quantifying blunt renal traumas and for making the strategic choice between nonoperative, emergency or delayed surgical treatment.     

Is adrenalectomy part of radical nephrectomy?

The spread of Classical Swine Fever (CSF) virus (strain Lorraine), originally isolated in the first CSF infected herd of the 1993-1994 Belgian epizootic, was examined in an isolation unit with three adjacent pens and 15 weaner pigs per pen. Virus was introduced through experimental inoculation of one weaner pig in the middle pen (pen 2). The experimentally inoculated pig became viraemic 4 days post-inoculation (dpi) and the pen mates at 12 (n = 9) and 14 dpi (n = 5). The first viraemia in pens 1 and 3 was observed 18 dpi. Pigs were found to be seropositive in pens 1, 2, and 3 from 24, 20, and 22 dpi onwards, respectively. The reproduction ratio (R0) for the pigs in pen 2, estimated according to the martingale method, was 81.3 (s.e. = 109.54). The rate ratio (Cox proportional hazard) of the first pigs to become viraemic in pen 3 (airborne contact plus contact via contaminated clothing and footwear with pen 2) versus pen 1 (airborne contact with pen 2 only) was 1.60 (P = 0.3342). Thus, the additional contact of contaminated clothing did not affect transmission of the CSF virus. The survivor function (Kaplan-Meier survival analysis) did not significantly differ per pen. The time from first detection of virus in plasma to death was not significantly different between pens. The mean rectal temperature of pigs in a pen increased 3 to 4 days prior to detection of virus. The proportion of seropositive pigs per pen (p) from the day the first weaner pig in a pen became viraemic (dpf) was examined as a function of time with a logistic regression model. The model parameter estimates did not differ between pens. Hence, the data from the three pens were pooled. The regression equation of the seroprevalence over time for the pooled data was p = 1/[1+e(4.65-0.39 *dpf)].     

“He said, she said”: who should speak for households about experiences of food insecurity in Bangladesh?

This paper examines the extent to which males and females from the same household respond differently to household food insecurity questions, and explores the reasons for these differences and the impact for measurement. The data derive from the 2001–2003 Bangladesh Food Insecurity Measurement and Validation Study. Male and female enumerators administered the food insecurity questionnaire to women and men in the same household during three survey rounds and debriefed a subsample of men and women regarding their response discrepancies. The rate of discordance in male-female responses to individual items was examined using contingency tables. Potential explanations for the discordance were informed by the joint respondent debriefing. These hypotheses were assessed through an examination of response patterns. To assess the impact of discordance on measurement, female and male responses to a scale of 13 food insecurity items were compared and the degree of differential classification was assessed. On average the rate of discordance was 15%, but it ranged for particular items from less than 1% to upwards of 53%. Item content interacted with gender to produce discordance; women and men seemed to respond differently due to separate spheres of responsibility within the same household, power imbalances influencing intra-household food allocation, and because men seemed to take more psychological responsibility for ensuring the household food supply. Nearly one-third of households were classified in a different food security category using female versus male responses to the items. The results suggest that the household food insecurity construct is not as useful in places like Bangladesh where certain food insecurity-related manifestations are not collectively or similarly shared by members of the same living space. Individual-level measures of food insecurity are needed to complement household data, along with surveys that allow for proportionate representation of potentially vulnerable individuals with different demographic characteristics across the population.     

A survey of studies contrasting the quality of group performance and individual performance, 1920-1957.

Research contrasting the quality of group performance with individual performance in each of the following general topic areas has been examined in this paper: judgment, learning, social facilitation, problem solving, memory, size of group, problem solving in more realistic situations, and productivity. Recent theoretical and methodological considerations as well as discussions of group types are included. Research weakness and theoretical problems are discussed. 74 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

“Formal methods” technology transfer will fail

For formal methods technology transfer to succeed, we must do two things: (1) integrate formal methods into basic university programming courses, and (2) improve the methods until they are better suited for practical application. Formal methods cannot be an “add-on” that is taught after programmers acquire bad habits, and they must produce documents that are easier to read than the programs that they describe.     

Document based rational software development

A software development process can be considered rational if each design decision can be justified based on given facts and design decisions that were made, reviewed, and accepted earlier. This paper describes a set of documents that can serve as a “knowledge base” for more rational software development. Each of these documents can be viewed as a place where the decisions made in one phase of a software development can be recorded for those who work in the next phase. These documents make it possible to develop software in a rational and reviewable way. We describe why each document is needed, how it should be organized, and how the information in the whole set of documents can be represented in a precise, checkable, and accessible way. We illustrate the approach with a detailed discussion of one of these documents, module interface documentation.     

Documenting and verifying systems assembled from components

This paper presents an approach to the problem of documenting the design of a network of components and verifying that its structure is complete and consistent, (i.e., that the components, functioning together, will satisfy the requirements of the complete product), before the components are implemented. Our approach differs from others in that both hardware and software components are viewed as hardware-like devices in which an output value can change instantaneously when input values change and all components operate synchronously rather than in sequence.We define what we mean by completeness and consistency and illustrate how the documents can be used to verify a design before it is implemented.     

A Primate-Restraint Device for Use in Microwave Biological Research

A restraint chair has been developed for use with subhuman primates in microwave biological research. The chair is essentially non-reflective, causing minimal perturbation of the field incident on the animal. The basic design of the device is simple and adaptable to different experimental configurations as required. Department.     

Priority Scheduling Versus Pre-Run-Time Scheduling

Builders of real-time systems often use priority scheduling in their systems without considering alternatives. This paper examines one alternative, pre-run-time scheduling, and show that when it can be applied it has significant advantages when compared to priority scheduling schemes.