We present a case of spontaneous pneumomediastinum (SPM) associated with sex. A 22-year-old lesbian with a history of asthma, cigarette and illicit drug smoking was diagnosed with a SPM after developing chest pain and dyspnoea in the context of performing oral sex. The main finding was subcutaneous emphysema involving the neck. SPM is an important differential diagnosis for chest pain in young ...

SUMMARY In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication, and testing of monolithically micromachined silicon probes for scanning probe microscope (SPM) applications. An SPM probe consists of three parts: an atomically sharp tip, a supporting flexural beam, and a handle. Unique design and fabrication processes allow probes with uniform geometry be developed efficiently. The process is robust ...

The segmentations by human, TPS method, and SPM method are given in Figure 3. The summary table for all the coefficients and indices is given in Table 1, which shows that the performance of TPS is similar to that of SPM by comparing against manual segmentation. Also, the TPS segmentations tend to have smaller variances than the SPM segmentations. The subpixel property of TPS method is shown in ...

Breaking the speed limit One of the serious, inherent limitations in all forms of SPM is the low imaging rate. This is because each image is built up pixel by pixel in a sequential scan of the surface. The scanning motion involves electronically controlled mechanical displacements, and usually some form of feedback is applied between a control parameter, such as tunneling current or force, and ...

Two pyrenyl-biimidazole based mononuclear Ru(II) and Os(II) complexes of the type [(bpy)2M(Py-BiimzH2)](2+) (M = Ru(II) and Os(II)), where Py-BiimzH2 = 10-(1-H-imidazole-2-yl)-9H-pyreno[4,5-d]imidazole and bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, have been synthesized and thoroughly characterized in this work using various analytical tools and spectroscopic techniques. These complexes were designed to recognize ...

The effects of permeant (K+) ions on polyamine (PA)-induced rectification of cloned strong inwardly rectifying channels (IRK1, Kir2.1) expressed in Xenopus oocytes were examined using patch-clamp techniques. The kinetics of PA-induced rectification depend strongly on external, but not internal, K+ concentration. Increasing external [K+] speeds up "activation" kinetics and shifts rectification t...

Subpixel mapping (SPM) is a technique that produces hard classification maps at a spatial resolution finer than that of the input images produced when handling mixed pixels. Existing spatial attraction model (SAM) techniques have been proven to be an effective SPM method. The techniques mostly differ in the way in which they compute the spatial attraction, for example, from the surrounding pixe...

The Drosophila Sex Comb on Midleg (SCM) protein is a transcriptional repressor of the Polycomb group (PcG). Although genetic studies establish SCM as a crucial PcG member, its molecular role is not known. To investigate how SCM might link to PcG complexes, we analyzed the in vivo role of a conserved protein interaction module, the SPM domain. This domain is found in SCM and in another PcG prote...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most virulent and resistant non-fermenting Gram-negative pathogens in the clinic. Unfortunately, P. aeruginosa has acquired genes encoding metallo-β-lactamases (MβLs), enzymes able to hydrolyze most β-lactam antibiotics. SPM-1 is an MβL produced only by P. aeruginosa, while other MβLs are found in different bacteria. Despite similar active sites, the resista...

BACKGROUND Because our previous study showed disparate voxel based morphometry (VBM) results between SPM and FSL softwares in the brain of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients with frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD), we investigated which VBM results may more represent atrophy by comparing with Freesurfer's cortical volume and thickness measures. METHODS MRI at 1.5 T was obtained during rout...