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Introduction Simulation is increasingly used throughout medicine. Within ultrasound, simulators are more established for learning transvaginal and interventional procedures. The use of modern high-fidelity transabdominal simulators is increasing, particularly in centres with large trainee numbers. There is no current literature on the value of these simulators in gaining competence in abdominal ultrasound. The aim was to investigate the impact of a new ultrasound curriculum, incorporating transabdominal simulators into the first year of training in a UK radiology academy. Methods The simulator group included 13 trainees. The preceding cohort of 15 trainees was the control group. After 10 months, a clinical assessment was performed to assess whether the new curriculum resulted in improved ultrasound skills. Questionnaires were designed to explore the acceptability of simulation training and whether it had any impact on confidence levels. Results Trainees who had received simulator-enriched training scored higher in an objective clinical ultrasound assessment, which was statistically significant (p = 0.0463). End confidence scores for obtaining diagnostic images and demonstrating pathology were also higher in the simulation group. All trainees stated that transabdominal simulator training was useful in early training. Conclusions This initial study shows that embedded into a curriculum, transabdominal ultrasound simulators are an acceptable training method that can result in improved ultrasound skills and higher confidence levels. Using simulators early in training could allow trainees to master the basics, improve their confidence, enabling them to get more educational value from clinical ultrasound experience while reducing the impact of training on service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is planned to install the heavy-ion, low-energy ring TSR, currently at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, at the HIEISOLDE facility in CERN, Geneva. Such a facility will provide a capability for experiments with stored, cooled secondary beams that is rich and varied, spanning from studies of nuclear ground-state properties and reaction studies of astrophysical relevance, to investigations with highly-charged ions and pure isomeric beams. In addition to experiments performed using beams recirculating within the ring, the cooled beams can be extracted and exploited by external spectrometers for high-precision measurements. The capabilities of the ring facility as well as some physics cases will be presented, together with a brief report on the status of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prospective study of 47 married women who met RDC for major depressive disorder investigated the relationship between the social support provided by the husbands and the post-hospital symptom course of the women. Separate taped semistructured interviews were held with the patient and husband at the time of admission. Six months later, symptom course was rated using the LIFE psychiatric status schedule. Only 51% of the sample recovered in the six months. Few demographic or clinical factors were related to symptom course. Recovery was predicted by the depressed woman's ratings of the current marital relationship and by the husband's rating of the pre-morbid relationship but not by the husband's level of expressed criticism or his ratings of the current relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on use of ultrasound imaging for diagnosis of "on call" acute scrotum, and mentions sonographic appearances of conditions that may present with acute scrotal symptoms.

The article presents several case studies related to renal tract imaging, which include a case of a woman in her seventies who referred for ultrasound of her abdomen, a case of a man in her sixties who was admitted to hospital due to sudden-onset right flank pain, a case of a pregnant patient.

Acute loin pain represents one of the most common clinical problems requiring emergency medical care. Although there are many renal and non-renal causes of loin pain, the prime consideration in most patients will be renal colic caused by the presence of a ureteric stone. Radiology is central to the evaluation of these patients, not only in confirming that ureteric obstruction is the cause of pain but also in identifying the presence of an obstructing stone and guiding appropriate management. In cases where initial imaging shows no ureteric obstruction, other potential causes of loin pain need to be identified. This article reviews the merits of the various imaging techniques that can be applied to the investigation of a suspected ureteric stone and how they can be used to influence optimal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of transfer reactions in inverse kinematics is a major focus of existing and future radioactive-ion-beam facilities. One of the obstacles in such measurements is poor Q-value resolution, often several hundred keV, which can prevent the extraction of useful information. At Argonne National Laboratory, it has recently been demonstrated that good Q-value resolution can be achieved by transporting the outgoing ions through a high-field solenoid, measuring their position as a function of energy. This provides several advantages over conventional Si arrays, such as large acceptance, good particle identification, and most importantly a Q-value resolution of better than 100 keV in most cases, including reactions with moderately heavy beams. In this paper, the concept of the solenoidal spectrometer, called HELIOS, will be discussed along with highlights of recent results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pairing properties of the neutrinoless double-β decay (0ν2β) candidate 100Mo have been studied, along with its daughter 100Ru, to provide input for nuclear matrix element calculations relevant to the decay. The (p, t) two-neutron transfer reaction was measured on nuclei of l100,102Ru and 100,98Mo. The experiment was designed to have particular sensitivity to 0+ states up to excitation energies of ~3 MeV with high energy resolution. Measurements were made at two angles and L = 0 transitions identified by the ratio of yields between the two angles. For the reactions leading to and from 100Ru, greater than 95% of the L =0 (p, t) strength was in the ground state, but in 100Mo about 20% was in excited 0+ states. The measured (p, t) data, together with existing (t, p) data, suggest that 100Mo is a shape-transitional nucleus while 100Ru is closer to the spherical side of that transition. Theoretical calculations of the 0ν2β nuclear matrix element may be complicated by this difference in shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Digital tomosynthesis is a new digital technique based on conventional Xray tomography. It acquires multiple low-dose projections during a single sweep of the X-ray tube, which are reassembled to provide high-resolution slices at different depths. Suggested uses include visualisation of pulmonary nodules, mammography, angiography, dental imaging and delineation of fractures. This study aims to evaluate its potential role as part of an intravenous urogram (IVU) by assessing the diagnostic quality in imaging the kidneys in clinical practice. Methods: 100 renal units from consecutive traditional IVU studies were retrospectively compared with 101 renal units imaged using digital tomosynthesis. These were scored for visualisation of the renal outline and collecting system, presence of a renal cyst or mass and overall diagnostic quality. Radiation doses were calculated. Results: 46.5% of traditional IVUs were found to be of diagnostic quality. The IVUs with digital tomosynthesis were of diagnostic quality in 95.5%. This represents a highly statistically significant difference (p<0.0001). There was also a statistically significant dose reduction, with a mean reduction of 56%, for the samples studied. Conclusion: Digital tomosynthesis offers a significant increase in the percentage of diagnostic quality tests for assessing renal pathology, compared with traditional IVU, and significantly reduces radiation. It also offers considerable advantages in ease and speed of imaging. For these reasons, in any situation where IVU is still being used to assess the kidneys, digital tomosynthesis is likely to be of considerable benefit in improving diagnostic quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency of ADHD in the aging population and its relationship to late-life cognitive decline has not been studied previously. To address this gap in our understanding, the Wender-Utah ADHD Rating scale (WURS) was administered to 310 geriatric subjects with cognitive status ranging from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment to overt dementia. The frequency of WURS-positive ADHD in this sample was 4.4%. WURS scores were not related to cognitive diagnoses, but did show nonlinear associations with tasks requiring sustained attention. The frequency of ADHD appears stable across generations and does not appear to be associated with MCI or dementia diagnoses. The association of attentional processing deficits and WURS scores in geriatric subjects could suggest that such traits remain stable throughout life. Caution should be considered when interpreting cognitive test profiles in the aging population that exhibit signs and symptoms of ADHD, as attentional deficitsmay not necessarily imply the existence of an underlying neurodegenerative disease state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasistatic strain imaging is a form of elastography that can produce qualitative images of tissue stiffness with only software modifications to conventional ultrasound hardware. Unlike current commercial offerings, the novel strain-imaging system that is the subject of this paper displays regions of signal decorrelation using an overlaid colour mask and can also produce three-dimensional (3D) strain images. In illustrative studies of the breast, testis and thyroid, the colour mask is seen to reduce the potential to misinterpret noise as meaningful stiffness information, and also helps to differentiate cystic and solid lesions. High-quality imaging of the testis in vivo demonstrates that 3D strain imaging is feasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quiz concerning the diagnosis of a 75-year-old male patient who was referred with macroscopic hematuria is presented.

Patients with acute loin pain regularly present for emergency medical care. In most, renal obstruction due to an ureteric stone will be the prime diagnostic consideration; however, there are many other renal and non-renal pathologies that may present with loin pain. Imaging investigations are indispensable in achieving a rapid and accurate diagnosis and in planning treatment. This article reviews the technique and diagnostic efficacy of the various radiological investigations that are used in patients with suspected ureteric colic, and describes an approach to their interpretation. The use of unenhanced CT will be considered in detail, as this modality is now the investigation of choice in the majority of these patients. The modern management of renal stone disease will also be reviewed briefly. Finally, other renal and non-renal causes of loin pain that may be encountered will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of near-yrast states in the β-stable nucleus 91Zr51 has been carried out using the fusion evaporation reaction, 82Se(13C,4n)91Zr at an incident beam energy of 50 MeV. States above the reported τ = 6 µs, Iπ = 21/2+ isomeric level at Ex = 3167 keV have been identified for the first time in this work, a tentative decay scheme of near-yrast states to excitation energies in excess of 10 MeV has been constructed. These states are of relevance to shell model structures formed via limited valence-space configurations in this semi-magic N = 51 nucleus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-nucleon transfer reaction using an 850 MeV 136Xe beam incident on a 198Pt target was used to populate high-spin states in 184W, 14 nucleons from the target. A 4-quasiparticle isomer with t1/2 =188±38 ns has been observed for the first time and its de-excitation through collective and intrinsic structures studied. The results are compared with predictions of blocked BCS Nilsson calculations. Observation of this metastable state completes the tungsten 4-quasiparticle isomer systematics from A 176 to 186. Mapping out the most yrast 4-quasiparticle isomers in these even-even tungsten isotopes suggests the existence of a highly favoured state in 188W, within reach of current experimental set-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theπh9/2[541 1/2−] band in 167Tm has been studied through the 124Sn(48Ca, p4n)167Tm reaction at Ebeam = 210 MeV. The favoured signature of the πh9/2[541 1/2−] band is observed to spin 61/2h̅. A remarkable small gain in aligned angular momentum at the AB-band crossing has been found. The crossing frequency and the gain in aligned angular momentum for 167Tm are compared with data for the N = 98 isotones of Lu, Ta and Re, and contrasted with Cranked Shell Model predictions, based on frequency diabatic configurations. Large deviations are found for the gain in aligned angular momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staff working with advanced cancer patients may experience considerable stress but there have been few attempts to measure such stress systematically. This paper presents preliminary studies of staff stress in two cancer centers. Nurses in an active treatment cancer hospital were found to focus on problems with dying patients as a displacement for their feelings of personal inadequacy in stressful situations. Major problems with the work situation and with staff communications were cited just as often as problems in watching patients suffer and die. A series of discussion groups lasting eight sessions was held with the nurses to facilitate communication with other staff and patients to promote understanding of the problems of dealing with life-threatening illnesses and death. Staff on a newly opened palliative care unit were found to experience only slightly less stress than a group of newly widowed women. While the stress decreased over time, indications are that some staff working in newly developed hospice units may be at considerable risk. Stress among physicians has been observed (although not measured) in a number of oncology settings. The difficulties inherent in being an oncologist in an institutions where research is a major goal are discussed and recommendations are made to decrease some of the stress being experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasing trainee numbers and changes to working patterns have resulted in a scarcity of training opportunities for training-grade doctors wishing to learn nephrostomy tube insertion techniques. A method of introducing trainees to the skills required to perform percutaneous nephrostomy in a safe, non-threatening environment, without risk to patients, is desirable. Commercial and biological nephrostomy phantoms are available, but they are expensive and not widely available, and a cheap, safe, valid alternative is desirable. We describe a simple technique for producing a gelatin-based phantom, which we suggest has face and content simulator validity. The use of this nephrostomy phantom could optimise existing clinical training opportunities through familiarisation with nephrostomy technique and equipment, and development of the psychomotor skills required for successful nephrostomy insertion prior to undertaking supervised procedures on patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study of a 60-year-old female who had undergone transabdominal and transvaginal sonography after endocervical polyp resection. The patient was observed to have a hyperechoic mass and an intramural uniformly hyperechoic mass with posterior sound attenuation at the uterine fundus. Such a case is indicated as a reminder of a benign uterine tumour that is rare.

A systematic study of neutron-hole strength in the N=81 nuclei 137Ba, 139Ce, 141Nd, and 143Sm is reported. The single-neutron removal reactions (p,d) and (³He, α) were measured at energies of 23 and 34 MeV, respectively. Spectroscopic factors were extracted from measured cross sections through a distorted-wave Born approximation analysis and centroids of single-particle strength have been established. The change in these centroid energies as a function of proton number have been compared to calculations of the monopole shift for the s1/2 and h11/2 orbitals, where the majority of the strength has been observed. Significant fragmentation of strength was observed for the d and g7/2 orbitals, particularly for the latter orbital which is deeply bound, with summed strengths that indicate a significant amount lies outside of the measured excitation energy range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamma-rays from the odd-odd transitional proton-emitting nucleus 146Tm have been observed using the recoil-decay tagging technique. A rotational band similar to the h11/2 decoupled band in 147Tm has been observed. The particle decay of 146Tm has been measured with improved statistics. A new decay scheme for 146Tm is discussed with reference to prompt and delayed γ-rays detected in coincidence with particle decays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which described a novel triggerless data acquisition method which is being developed for the gamma recoil electron alpha tagging spectrometer. Information on the conventional recoil decay tagging; Details of the total detail readout method; Conclusion.

The pairing properties of the neutrinoless double-β decay candidate 116Cd have been investigated. Measurements of the two-neutron removal reactions on isotopes of 114,116Cd have been made in order to identify 0+ strength in the residual nuclei up to ≈3 MeV. No significant L=0 strength has been found in excited states indicating that the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) approximation is a reasonable basis to describe the neutrons in the ground state. This approximation avoids complications in calculations of double-β decay matrix elements that use the quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA) techniques. However this is not the case for the protons, where pair vibrations are prevalent and the BCS approximation is no longer valid, complicating the use of traditional QRPA techniques for this system as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rearrangements of protons and neutrons amongst the valence single-particle orbitals during double-β decay of 100Mo have been determined by measuring cross sections in (d,p), (p,d), (³He,α), and (³He,d) reactions on 98,100Mo and 100,102Ru targets. The deduced nucleon occupancies reveal significant discrepancies when compared with theoretical calculations; the same calculations have previously been used to determine the nuclear matrix element associated with the decay probability of double-β decay of the 100Mo system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excited states in 3 transitional proton emitters 145, 146, 147Tm were studied using the Gammasphere Ge array coupled with the Argonne Fragment Mass Analyzer. The 147Tm level scheme was extended and the unfavored signature partner of the decoupled proton h11/2 band was found. A rotational band feeding the high-spin isomer in 146Tm was observed with properties similar to the 147Tm ground-state band. A regular sequence of γ rays correlated with the ground-state 145Tm proton decay has properties of the h11/2 band as well. In addition, coincidences between the fine structure proton line and the 2+ → 0+ γ-ray transition in the daughter nucleus were detected. Comparison between level energies measured and calculated using the Particle Rotor model indicates that 145Tm might be γ-soft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bronchus arising directly from the trachea is an infrequent congenital anomaly which usually represents the displaced origin of a normal bronchus. Rarely, a true supernumerary tracheal bronchus occurs supplying an associated tracheal lobe. The case is described of a patient in whom a supernumerary tracheal bronchus and tracheal lobe was demonstrated by computed tomographic scanning and magnetic resonance imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]