Disseminated Nocardia farcinica infection associated with bacteraemia and osteomyelitis pubis in an elderly patient.

OBJECTIVE: We describe a rare case of a disseminated Nocardia farcinica infection associated with hip osteomyelitis. METHODS: A 91-year-old female patient was admitted with oedema of her right leg, fever of 38 °C and data consistent with ruptured Baker's cyst. A disseminated Nocardia farcinica infection including bloodstream infection, pneumonia and multiple abscesses along both lower limbs was observed. RESULTS: After a four-week course of 320 mg/1600 mg/12 h of intravenous trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and multiple chirurgic drainages the patient was discharged with oral trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Nevertheless, the patient expired done month after being discharged from the hospital. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of a combination of intravenous antibiotics and drainages resulted in an initial improvement in the patient's condition. However, despite these interventions, the patient ultimately passed away probably due to natural causes.

Enhanced magnetic modulation of light polarization exploiting hybridization with multipolar dark plasmons in magnetoplasmonic nanocavities.

Enhancing magneto-optical effects is crucial for reducing the size of key photonic devices based on the non-reciprocal propagation of light and to enable active nanophotonics. Here, we disclose a currently unexplored approach that exploits hybridization with multipolar dark modes in specially designed magnetoplasmonic nanocavities to achieve a large enhancement of the magneto-optically induced modulation of light polarization. The broken geometrical symmetry of the design enables coupling with free-space light and hybridization of the multipolar dark modes of a plasmonic ring nanoresonator with the dipolar localized plasmon resonance of the ferromagnetic disk placed inside the ring. This hybridization results in a low-radiant multipolar Fano resonance that drives a strongly enhanced magneto-optically induced localized plasmon. The large amplification of the magneto-optical response of the nanocavity is the result of the large magneto-optically induced change in light polarization produced by the strongly enhanced radiant magneto-optical dipole, which is achieved by avoiding the simultaneous enhancement of re-emitted light with incident polarization by the multipolar Fano resonance. The partial compensation of the magneto-optically induced polarization change caused by the large re-emission of light with the original polarization is a critical limitation of the magnetoplasmonic designs explored thus far and that is overcome by the approach proposed here.

Lógica temporal del tiro libre en A. C. B / Temporal logic of free throwing in the Spanish A. C. B Basketball competition

A partir de datos play-by-play de nueve temporadas de la liga ACB de baloncesto (2929 partidos, 119338 intentos) se describen las propiedades estadísticas básicas de los tiros libres a partir de los factores temporales de lógica interna del juego (el tiempo de la temporada y el partido, el valor de las interacciones de marca, el estado del marcador). En este estudio se identifican por primera vez las series de tiros libres realizadas por un jugador cada vez que va a la línea de tiro libre. Las principales conclusiones son: la competencia en tiro libre parece estable a lo largo de la temporada; el rendimiento en tiro libre depende del acierto en los primeros tiros de las series; el tamaño de algunos de los efectos estadísticos encontrados parece ir demasiado en contra de las intuiciones prácticas, lo que nos debe hacer reflexionar sobre la conexión entre las decisiones del científico y las decisiones de los entrenadores (AU)

Based on play-by-play data from nine full seasons of ACB basket league (2929 games, 119338 efforts) the fundamental statistical properties of free throwing are described taking into account several time factors of the internal logic of the game (i.e. season periods and playing time of the match, the value of the different scoring interactions, score). FIn addition, and for the first time, it is possible to identify the sets of free shots taken by a player every time he goes to the line. The main conclusions were: the competence in free throwing seems stable along the season; free throwing performance depends on the success at the first shot of the series; some of the statistical effects seem practically too counterintuitive, what must make us reflect about the links between scientists’ decisions and the coaches’ decisions (AU)