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Superior mesenteric artery (SMA) syndrome is a rare but potentially fatal complication following spinal fusion for scoliosis. The aims of our study were to identify clinical features and evaluate their importance in SMA syndrome following posterior spinal fusion (PSF) in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients and to recommend a simple approach for the recognition and management of SMA syndrome. This is an IRB-approved study. Three patients in our series and 11 patients from other published case reports who underwent PSF for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis were included in our study. Patient demographics, clinical presentation, investigations, and management were recorded and analyzed. In this combined series of 14 patients (mean age 14.8 years), the main presenting clinical features included vomiting of any kind (92.9), abdominal paintenderness (57.1), abdominal distension (42.9), bilious vomiting (35.7), and hypoactive bowel sounds (28.6). Most patients presented within 2 weeks of surgery (71.4). In total, 50 of patients presented with both vomiting (of any kind) and abdominal tenderness. The number of presenting symptoms appeared to be directly related to the severity of SMA syndrome. Our second patient had intermittent vomiting on postoperative day (POD) 3, which was initially considered as insignificant; she was discharged on POD 9 and readmitted for recurrent vomiting, during which SMA syndrome was diagnosed. Our first patient presented in the classical manner. Our third patient had bilious vomiting after discharge that started on POD 13 and increased in frequency until readmission on POD 27. Vomiting and abdominal pain are nonspecific symptoms following PSF; differentiating between SMA syndrome and postoperative ileus can be challenging. The highest index of suspicion applies to patients who present within the first week with symptoms of vomiting and abdominal pain. We propose an algorithm for the management of SMA syndrome, which includes a focused clinical assessment to evaluate for intestinal obstruction, followed by an abdominal radiography and barium contrast study if clinical assessment is positive. An early referral to general surgery should be considered especially for high-risk patients (BMI<5 percentile, sagittal kyphosis). Early diagnosis of SMA syndrome allows for early intervention, reducing the likelihood of future complications and need for surgery.

We conducted a nested case-control study to determine potential risk factors for developing encephalitis from West Nile virus (WNV) infection. Retrospective medical chart reviews were completed for 172 confirmed WNV cases hospitalized in Houston between 2002 and 2004. Of these cases, 113 had encephalitis, including 17 deaths, 47 had meningitis, and 12 were fever cases; 67% were male. Homeless patients were more likely to be hospitalized from WNV compared to the general population. A multiple logistic regression model identified age [odds ratio (OR) 1·1, P<0·001], history of hypertension, including those cases taking hypertension-inducing drugs (OR 2·9, P=0·012), and history of cardiovascular disease (OR 3·5, P=0·061) as independent risk factors for developing encephalitis from WNV infection. After adjusting for age, race/ethnicity (being black) (OR 12·0, P<0·001), chronic renal disease (OR 10·6, P<0·001), hepatitis C virus (OR 23·1, P=0·0013), and immunosuppression (OR 3·9, P=0·033) were identified as risk factors for death from WNV infection.

The DERA Centre for Human Sciences is involved with the development of Future Infantry Systems Technology (FIST), producing a wearable computing system for future infantry applications. In addition, the in-Field Computer (iFC) research group (part of the Advanced VR Research Centre) at Loughborough University are also conducting work in this area. In order to bring both these groups together a Technical Workshop was run, in which representatives responsible for the research, development, and procurement of FIST systems were able to address some of the underlying human factors issues. The exchange of ideas highlighted important issues for understanding the fundamental human factors underpinning the development and use of wearable systems technology. The findings not only provide a more coherent understanding of infantry systems for both research communities but also facilitate the development of wearable computing in other applications and the underlying philosophy of wearable computing, per se.

The hardware discussed in the paper employs field programmable logic devices to interface with memory components and, unlike previous implementations, utilises dynamic RAM without compromising performance. The network offers the opportunity to estimate process parameters without recourse to image reconstruction. Tests reveal speedups of 17, 22 and 6 for image reconstruction, void fraction estimation and flow regime classification, respectively, from electrical capacitance tomography data.

With the presumption that a shifted Maxwellian velocity distribution adequately describes the electrons in a flowing plasma, a method with optimum signal to noise resolution to measure directed velocity is described. The lowest velocity that can be determined by this method is shown to depend on the electron random thermal velocity. The basic diagnostic system is outlined and consists of a ruby laser source and two detectors set 180° from each other and both set at 90° with respect to the incident laser beam. Simplified analysis compared to standard peak shift detection techniques is seen to be possible using optimization techniques. This proposed method is shown to be superior in SNR for plasma temperature below 7.2 eV.

Conventional Thomson scattering using a ruby laser evidences difficulty in scattered signal detection for electron densities <10^13 cm^−3. Use of a Nd-glass laser source in combination with appropriate detectors can result in gains in the resolution of scattered signal of at least 1 order of magnitude over a conventional ruby laser system. However, due to the ∼2.5-nm full bandwidth of a Nd-glass laser line, the electron temperature information in the incoherent scattered signal must be extracted from a Voigt profile, not from the usual Gaussian profile as when a ruby laser is used.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of corn apparent metabolizable energy (AME) value, on broiler performance associated with geographical location (source), xylanase inclusion, and formulation. A 3 (corn source) × 2 (formulation; adjusted or non-adjusted value) × 2 (xylanase inclusion, 0 vs 16,000 BXU/kg) factorial randomized complete block desig study was conducted which included 10 replicates of 20 male broilers per replicate for a 42 d experiment. In the non-adjusted corn diets, each dietary treatment contained the same percentage of each corn source while the adjusted corn diets formulated based on a corn near-infrared (NIR) nutrient analysis and AME prediction equation (AB Vista, Marlborough, UK). In all cases, the predicted AME of the corns was lower than the NRC (1994) AME value, resulting in additional fat inclusion. The dietary program consisted of 3 dietary phases; starter (d 1 to 18), grower (d 19 to 33), and finisher (d 34 to 42) with growth performance monitored at feed changes. Xylanase increased (p < 0.05) starter feed consumption and d 18 body weight (BW) (2.1%), and an increase in BW (4.6%) was observed using the predicted AME values. Corn source continued to impact broiler performance throughout the remainder of the trial as corn source A consistently outperformed (p < 0.05) corn source C with increased BW and reduced mortality corrected FCR. Dietary adjustment with AME predicted values for each corn source consistently improved (p < 0.05) growth performance. Corn source A had the highest average BW with a 2.9% increase (p < 0.05) over corn source C. Early feed conversion rate (FCR) was improved (p < 0.05) with the predicted AME value diet-fed broilers, decreasing FCR by 3%. Multiple significant interactions were observed between the corn source and the adjustment method. For example, with d 42 FCR, using the predicted AME value adjustment had an impact of 9 and 10 points for corn source B and C, respectively, but only 2 for corn source A. This experiment demonstrates the impact of variable corn nutrient content and the potential improvement when using NIR technology for ingredient nutrient specifications.

Phytase supplementation beyond the standard doses used for phosphorus release has been reported to result in extraphosphoric effects by enhancing nutrient digestibility resulting in improved performance of broilers. A study was conducted to examine the effects of the progressive addition of an enhanced Escherichia Coli phytase (400–1,600 phytase units; FTU) on growth performance and carcass characteristics from 1 to 42 d of age in male broilers. One thousand four hundred Hubbard × Cobb 500 1-d-old chicks were randomly distributed into 56 floor pens (0.08 m2/bird). Seven dietary treatments were provided in a 3-phase feeding program consisting of (1) a positive control (adequate Ca and nonphytate P; PC); (2) 1 negative control (Ca and nonphytate P reduced by 0.14% and 0.13%; NC); (3 to 6) the NC diet with 4 increasing supplemental phytase concentrations (NC + 400 FTU, NC + 800 FTU, NC + 1,200 FTU, and NC + 1,600 FTU, respectively); and (7) a low-energy NC diet without phytase and xylanase (reduced 66 kcal of AMEn/kg). Body weight gain, feed conversion, mortality, weight and yield of whole carcass, abdominal fat, and pectoralis major and minor muscles were evaluated. Progressive supplementation of phytase decreased cumulative FCR linearly. Broilers fed diets containing 1,600 FTU had heavier total breast meat by 49 g compared with birds receiving the PC diets. Broilers consuming the NC + 400 FTU or the low-energy NC diet had similar growth performance and meat yield compared with birds provided PC diet. These data indicated that phytase supplementation beyond the need for phosphorus enhances growth performance and carcass characteristics.

The objective of the current study was to evaluate the effect of feeding a thermo-tolerant xylanase in low-energy broiler diets on performance and processing parameters. Evaluation criteria included average broiler BW, FCR, livability, carcass yield, and fat pad yields. The experimental design consisted of 3 nutrient profiles: positive control, negative control 1 (−66 kcal/kg), and negative control 2 (−132 kcal/kg). Two xylanase inclusion programs were included in the negative control 1 and 2 diets; 60 g/t was included in the starter and grower diets with either 60 or 100 g/t in the finisher and withdrawal diets, yielding a total of 7 treatment groups with 8 replicate pens per treatment each containing 42-d-old straight-run chicks per treatment (2,352 total broilers). Broilers were reared in floor pens through 45 d of age. The dietary program consisted of 5 dietary phases: starter (1–15 d), grower 1 (16–23 d), grower 2 (24–31 d), finisher (32–38 d), and withdrawal (39–45 d). Body weights and feed consumption were determined on days of dietary changes, including d 15, 23, 31, 38, and 45. On d 45, 4 male and 4 female broilers per replicate (448 total) were subjected to an 8-h feed withdrawal period and processed to obtain carcass and fat pad weights. Reducing the dietary energy level increased FCR and decreased the fat pad weight of broilers in the negative control 2 treatment compared with the positive control. Inclusion of xylanase during the starter phase increased d 15 BW and reduced FCR. The inclusion of xylanase continued to reduce FCR throughout the trial, as compared with diets without xylanase inclusion. Within this study, we have demonstrated the effectiveness of xylanase inclusion in reduced-energy diets (−66 and −132 kcal/kg) to improve FCR of broilers to that of broilers fed energy-adequate diets.

The increased incidence of severe systemic infections in INSC secondary to bacteria with polysaccharide capsules suggests a defect in serum complement activity relating to chemotactic activity. Chemotactic function was assessed in INSC during 1) “severe” relapse, 2) “mild” relapse, & 3) “remission” with respect to A) chemotactic activity generated by INSC sera (±zymosan activation) B)chemotactic responses of INSC PMNs to control sera, & C)inhibitory effects of INSC sera and/or plasma on control PMNs (modified Bovden method). Serum chemotactic activity in 14 “severe” relapsing INSC patients was diminished compared to controls (p < 0.01) and 21 “mild” and “remission” patients (p<0.001). Chemotactic activity of zymosan activated sera was diminished compared to controls and to “mild” or “remission” states (p<0.025). Decreased serum chemotactic activity was related to occurrence of systemic bacterial infection, and decreased serum Factor B and albumin values. Serial determinations in “severe” cases demonstrated increasing chemotactic activity, serum Factor B & albumin associated with a positive response to treatment and return to clinical remission. Normal chemotactic responses of patient PMNs to control sera (±zymosan) were shown in all patient groups, and patient sera did not inhibit chemotactic function of control PMNs. These findings suggest that bacterial infection in INSC may be causally related to impaired serum chemotactic activity related to an abnormality of properdin pathway complement activation.