An Uncommon Cause of Acute Bowel Obstruction: The Left Para.Duodenal Hernia

Internal hernias of the abdomen are uncommon. They represent less than 1% of bowel obstruction cases. The left Paraduodenal hernia (PH) is the most frequent type of internal hernias. We report a case of 77 year- old woman consulting for bowel obstruction evolving since two days. The abdominal computed tomography revealed a retroperitoneal small bowel contained in a peritoneal sac. The surgical exploration confirmed the diagnosis of a left internal PH by showing incarcerated jejunal loops in a PH through a narrow opening to the left of the angle of Treitz. A surgical reduction of the hernia and closure of the hernia neck were performed. The follow-ups were uncomplicated. Through this observation and a literature review, we try to recall the clinical and radiological characteristics of this disease and toclarify the therapeutic modalities.Keywords: Computed tomography, internal hernia, paraduodenal hernia, small bowel obstructio

The one-dimensional organic–inorganic hybrid: catena-poly[bis­[1-(3-ammonio­prop­yl)-1H-imidazolium] [[iodidoplumbate(II)]-tri-μ-iodido-plumbate(II)-tri-μ-iodido-[iodidoplumbate(II)]-di-μ-iodido]]

The organic–inorganic hybrid, {(C6H13N3)2[Pb3I10]}n, was obtained by the reaction of 1-(3-ammonio­prop­yl)imidazolium triiodide and PbI2 at room temperature. The structure contains one-dimensional {[Pb3I10]4−}n polymeric anions spreading parallel to [001], resulting from face–face–edge association of PbI6 distorted octa­hedra. One of the PbII cations is imposed at an inversion centre, whereas the second occupies a general position. N—H⋯I hydrogen bonds connect the organic cations and inorganic anions

Splitting Arabic Texts into Elementary Discourse Units

International audienceIn this article, we propose the first work that investigates the feasibility of Arabic discourse segmentation into elementary discourse units within the segmented discourse representation theory framework. We first describe our annotation scheme that defines a set of principles to guide the segmentation process. Two corpora have been annotated according to this scheme: elementary school textbooks and newspaper documents extracted from the syntactically annotated Arabic Treebank. Then, we propose a multiclass supervised learning approach that predicts nested units. Our approach uses a combination of punctuation, morphological, lexical, and shallow syntactic features. We investigate how each feature contributes to the learning process. We show that an extensive morphological analysis is crucial to achieve good results in both corpora. In addition, we show that adding chunks does not boost the performance of our system

Modelling prognostic factors in advanced pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death. Identification of defined patient groups based on a prognostic index may improve the prediction of survival and selection of therapy. Many prognostic factors have been identified often based on retrospective, underpowered studies with unclear analyses. Data from 653 patients were analysed. Continuous variables are often simplified assuming a linear relationship with log hazard or introducing a step function (dichotomising). Misspecification may lead to inappropriate conclusions but has not been previously investigated in pancreatic cancer studies. Models based on standard assumptions were compared with a novel approach using nonlinear fractional polynomial (FP) transformations. The model based on FP-transformed covariates was most appropriate and confirmed five previously reported prognostic factors: albumin, CA19-9, alkaline phosphatase, LDH and metastases, and identified three additional factors not previously reported: WBC, AST and BUN. The effects of CA19-9, alkaline phosphatase, AST and BUN may go unrecognised due to simplistic assumptions made in statistical modelling. We advocate a multivariable approach that uses information contained within continuous variables appropriately. The functional form of the relationship between continuous covariates and survival should always be assessed. Our model should aid individual patient risk stratification and the design and analysis of future trials in pancreatic cancer

Analyse des comportements spectraux dans l'olivette de Sfax (Tunisie)

Les oliviers de la région de Sfax représentent le tiers de la production nationale d’huile. L’olivette est plantée à la densité de 17 arbres à l’ha en climat méditerranéen aride maritime, sur des sols généralement sableux, avec parfois des cultures intercalaires. On a effectué 3 campagnes de mesures radiométriques de terrain dans des bandes spectrales identiques à celles du satellite SPOT, en étudiant les comportements spectraux des sols, des oliviers et de leur ombre, et des autres types de végétation (autres arbres fruitiers, orge, steppe, sebkha), existant dans la région. On a utilisé les combinaisons de bandes spectrales : S2 (rouge) et S3 (proche infra-rouge) qui sont apparues les plus caractéristiques. On a calculé leur rapport, leur différence normalisée, et leur indice de brillance. Des différences importantes entre sols et entre systèmes de cultures ont pu être mise en évidence dans ces simulations. La différenciation de certains milieux ou cultures nécessite la comparaison de scènes prises à des saisons différentes. Il reste à vérifier que ces comportements spectraux se retrouveront bien en traitant les scènes fournies par le satellite SPOT.Olive trees from the region of Sfax provide one third of national oil production in Tunisia. Orchards are planted with a density of 17 trees per ha, under an arid, maritime, mediterranean climate. Soils are generally sandy and sometimes carry interplanted crops, such as barley or other fruit trees. Three series of radiometric measurements were made in the field, in September 1984 and March 1985 and 1986, using the same spectral bands as the SPOT Satellite. We studied the spectral behaviour of the soils, the crowns of the olive trees, their shadows and the other kinds of vegetation (other fruit trees, barley, dry steppe vegetation and saline sebkha existing in the area). We analyzed the combinations of spectral bands : S2 (red) and S3 (near infra-red) which appeared to be most characteristic. The ratio R and normalized difference DN between them were studied and also the Index of brightness BR. Large differences between soils and between crops were found. In order to differentiate between soils, crops and cultural practices, careful comparison was needed between views obtained at different seasons of the year. We have now to verify whether the same spectral behaviour can be found again during the treatment of SPOT satellite images

Thermal conductivity and latent heat thermal energy storage properties of LDPE/wax as a shape-stabilized composite phase change material

Phase change material (PCM) composites based on low-density polyethylene (LDPE) with paraffin waxes were investigated in this study. The composites were prepared using a meltmixing method with a Brabender-Plastograph. The LDPE as the supporting matrix kept the molten waxes in compact shape during its phase transition from solid to liquid. Immiscibility of the PCMs (waxes) and the supporting matrix (LDPE) is a necessary property for effective energy storage. Therefore, this type paraffin can be used in a latent heat storage system without encapsulation. The objective of this research is to use PCM composite as integrated components in a passive solar wall. The proposed composite TROMBE wall allows daily storage of the solar energy in a building envelope and restitution in the evening, with a possible control of the air flux in a ventilated air layer. An experimental set-up was built to determine the thermal response of these composites to thermal solicitations. In addition, a DSC analysis was carried out. The results have shown that most important thermal properties of these composites at the solid and liquid states, like the "apparent" thermal conductivity, the heat storage capacity and the latent heat of fusion. Results indicate the performance of the proposed system is affected by the thermal effectiveness of phase change material and significant amount of energy saving can be achieved.Scopu