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Necrotizing fasciitis is a severe soft-tissue infection with a high mortality rate. There is little literature on the relationship between the ultrasonographic finding of fluid accumulation along the deep fascia and the diagnosis and prognosis of necrotizing fasciitis. This retrospective study showed that when fluid accumulation was present along the deep fascia, patients with clinically suspected necrotizing fasciitis had a higher probability of having necrotizing fasciitis. The ultrasonographic finding of fluid accumulation with a cutoff point of more than 2 mm of depth had the best accuracy (72.7%) for diagnosing necrotizing fasciitis. In regard to the prognosis of necrotizing fasciitis, when fluid accumulation was present along the deep fascia, patients with necrotizing fasciitis had a longer length of hospital stay and were at risk of amputation or mortality. Ultrasonography is a point-of-care imaging tool that facilitates the diagnosis and prognosis of necrotizing fasciitis.

Background: Genitourinary tuberculosis (GUTB) is rare but fatal if not diagnosed early. The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcomes of GUTB in Taiwan. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 57 patients who were diagnosed as GUTB from January 2002 to December 2016, over a 15-year period. Demographic data and clinical manifestations were recorded for analysis. Results: There were 37 males and 20 females with a median age of 71 years. Kidney (24.6%) was the most involved organ. Fever (56.1%) was the major presentation. Sixteen (28.1%) patients presented unfavorable outcome. Compared with the favorable outcome group, the unfavorable outcome group had more malignancy (p = 0.013), fever (p = 0.020), anemia (p = 0007), thrombocytopenia (p = 0.003), and hypoalbuminemia (p = 0.015). In a multivariate analysis, fever (odds ratio: 42.716, 95% confidence interval: 1.032–1767.569; p = 0.048) was identified as prognostic factors for unfavorable outcome. Conclusion: GUTB is often in advanced stages with a high mortality in Taiwan. Establishing a diagnosis is difficult and requires thorough investigation. Fever is associated with unfavorable outcome. Keywords: Genitourinary tuberculosis, Genitourinary tract surgery, Anemia

We demonstrate the successful fabrication of all-solid-state flexible micro-supercapacitors (μSCs) on commercial polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sheet using a commercial laser printer. The interdigitated in-planar electrodes of the μSC are fabricated by commercial toner cartridge and their self-aligned stacking configurations are made by depositing Pt thin films and hydrous ruthenium oxide (RuO·xH2O, hRuO2) layers on the PET sheets using a post-low-temperature annealing process. The μSC cells can be combined in parallel or series by an arbitrary printing process operated on a personal computer, thereby avoiding unnecessary external connections and improving the capacitive behavior. The fabricated hRuO2-based μSCs exhibit excellent electrochemical-energy storage, along with ultrahigh volumetric power density (73460 mW cm−3) and energy density (24.9 mWh cm−3). This facile and simplified strategy constructs μSCs with tailored self-aligned electrodes of arbitrary design, excellent mechanical stability, and high flexibility. Therefore, it offers a high-productivity, low-cost, photolithography-free microfabrication of μSCs for microscale supercapacitor applications.

A strong turnover premium exists such that stocks with lower turnover have higher future returns in the 5 years following their formation than those with higher turnover. This turnover premium cannot be explained by existing asset-pricing models, a risk-based liquidity factor, or anomalies such as size, book-to-market ratio, or momentum. Further analysis indicates that the turnover premium is greater for stocks with higher idiosyncratic volatility, higher transaction costs, lower institutional ownership, and lower investor sophistication, which implies it is consistent with the mispricing explanation based on arbitrage risk.