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Abstract Introduction Torsion of the gallbladder is a rare condition that most commonly affects the elderly. Pre-operative diagnosis is the exception rather than the rule. Any delay in treatment can be fatal as the gallbladder may rupture, leading to biliary peritonitis. Case presentation We present the case of an 80-year-old woman who was admitted with right upper quadrant pain initially thought to be secondary to acute cholecystitis. Subsequent ultrasound and computed tomography scans of the abdomen revealed signs suggestive of acute cholecystitis but neither modality detected any gallstones. As the patient's symptoms failed to resolve on conservative management, she was taken to theatre for an open cholecystectomy. Intra-operatively, the gallbladder had undergone complete torsion and appeared gangrenous. A routine cholecystectomy followed and she recovered from the operation without incident. Conclusion It is rare to diagnose torsion of the gallbladder pre-operatively despite advances in diagnostic imaging. However, this differential diagnosis should be borne in mind particularly in the elderly patient, without proven gallstones, who fails to improve on conservative management. An emergency cholecystectomy is indicated in the event of diagnosing torsion of the gallbladder to avert the potentially lethal sequelae of biliary peritonitis.

Abstract Introduction Intussusception of the appendix is an extremely rare condition that ranges from partial invagination of the appendix to involvement of the entire colon. Endometriosis is an exceptionally rare cause of appendiceal intussusception and only very few cases have been reported in the literature to date. Case presentation A 40 year-old woman presented to clinic with a long history of lower abdominal pain, loose motions and painful, heavy periods. Subsequent colonoscopy revealed submucosal endometriotic nodules in the sigmoid as well as a polyp thought to be arising from the appendix, which had inverted itself. She was referred to a colorectal surgeon because the polyp could not be removed endoscopically despite several attempts. At laparotomy, the appendix had intussuscepted but it was possible to reduce it and therefore a simple appendicectomy was carried out. On histology, there were widespread endometrial deposits within the wall of the appendix and this was thought to be the basis for the intussusception. Conclusion Histological evidence of the lead point is of crucial importance in cases of appendiceal intussusception, in order to exclude an underlying neoplastic process. Consequently, surgical resection is necessary either through an open or a laparoscopic approach. Gastrointestinal endometriosis should be considered as a cause of appendiceal intussusception in post-menarchal women with episodic symptoms and proven disease.

Today's multi-computer systems are heterogeneous in nature, i.e., the machines they are composed of, have varying processing capabilities and are interconnected through high speed networks, thus, making them suitable for performing diverse set of computing-intensive applications. In order to exploit the high performance of such a distributed system, efficient mapping of the tasks on available machines is necessary. This is an active research topic and different strategies have been adopted in literature for the mapping problem. A novel approach has been introduced in the paper for the efficient mapping of the DAG-based applications. The approach that takes into account the lower and upper bounds for the start time of the tasks. The algorithm is based on list scheduling approach and has been compared with the well known list scheduling algorithms existing in the literature. The comparison results for the randomly synthesized graphs as well as the graphs from the real world elucidate that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms the existing ones on the basis of different cost and performance metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]