Mycobacterium ulcerans infection (Buruli ulcer) is a neglected but treatable skin disease endemic in over 30 countries. M. ulcerans is an environmental mycobacteria with an elusive mode of transmission to humans. Ecological and Molecular epidemiological studies to identify reservoirs and transmission vectors are important for source tracking infections especially during outbreaks and elucidatin...

Physical interaction often relies on information stemming from sensors perceiving the real world. Sensors however, have imperfections resulting in drawbacks such as uncertainty and latency. Consequently, the improvement of sensors and perception methods is important. In this paper we argue however that imperfections of sensing will remain and that the key to better physical interaction lies in ...

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 that was signed into law as part of the "stimulus package" represents the largest US initiative to date that is designed to encourage widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs). In light of the changes anticipated from this policy initiative, the purpose of this paper is to review and summarize the l...

T HE dominance of genes controlling fitness components and other quantitative characters is important for theoretical predictions concerning the maintenance of genetic variability (see e.&, CABALLERO and KEIGHTLEY 1994). Consider, for instance, mutation selection balance at a diallelic autosomal locus with mutation rate p to the deleterious allele and fitnesses 1, 1-sh, and 1-s, with s > 0 and ...

The measurement of procalcitonin has recently become a mainstay for the diagnosis and therapeutic management of severe bacterial infections, especially those sustained by Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide a narrative overview on the potential role of procalcitonin measurement in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). According to the available sci...

BACKGROUND Hardware removals are among the most commonly performed surgical procedures worldwide. Current literature offers little data concerning postoperative patient satisfaction. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the patients' point of view on implant removal. METHODS We surveyed patients of a German level one trauma center, who underwent hardware removal in 2009 and 2010, with reg...