738 research outputs found
Incidental findings detected with panoramic radiography: prevalence calculated on a sample of 2017 cases treated at a major Italian trauma and cancer centre
Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of incidental findings, not strictly related to dentistry, viewed with panoramic radiography. Methods: Panoramic radiographs performed between December 2013 and June 2016 were retrospectively collected. These images were analyzed, searching for incidental findings. All the information collected was statistically analysed Results: A total of 2307 Panoramic Radiograph were analyzed and 2017 of them were included in the study. 529 incidental findings were seen: 255 (48.2%) were ESP (Elongation of Styloid Process), 167 were CAC (Carotid Artery Calcification) (31.57%), 36 were maxillary sinus pathologies (6.8%) and 71 were other incidental findings (13.42%). The total prevalence of IF was 26, 23%., CAC was 8.28% in the total population, and it was higher in women (9.82%) than men (6.54%). 48.5% of CAC were bilateral. When unilateral, the right side showed a higher right side prevalence. The prevalence of ESP was 12.64% in total population (men: 13.82%; women: 11.60%). 84.71% of ESP were bilateral and, when present unilaterally, no side difference was seen. 13.33% of the ESP appeared segmented. The prevalence of maxillary sinus pathologies was 1.78% (men: 2.32%; women: 1.31%). Only 8.33% of these pathologies were bilateral, and, when unilateral, they were mostly present on the right side. Between the 71 other IF (prevalence: 3.52%), sialoliths and tonsilloliths were assessed most frequently. Conclusion: Due to the high prevalence of incidental findings detected with panoramic radiography, dental practitioners should be aware of the various pathologic conditions seen on the panoramic radiographs
When strategy meets purpose.
Effectively realizing corporate purpose requires mediating, integrating, and balancing the interests of different corporate stakeholders and their goals. And the trade-offs that result from such a balancing act need to be acknowledged, measured, and communicated as the organization reports the efforts and performance connected to the creation of long-term sustainable value. Moving from the articulation of a company’s purpose to execution requires strategy and capital allocation with a comprehensive management system able to link sustainability strategies with financial returns. It involves reconciling competitiveness and sustainable growth within the context of an inclusive business model to take advantage of the opportunities and face the challenges of the market. Importantly, this requires the development of new measurement practices that can capture whole processes of long-term value creation—taking into account the social and environmental externalities produced by its operations and, especially, its products and services, as well as how the multiple and heterogeneous resources provided by the company’s stakeholders contribute to its financial and nonfinancial performance. Today, the investment community broadly recognizes the need to better understand how material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues matter to financial performance
Snow metamorphism: a fractal approach
Snow is a porous disordered medium consisting of air and three water phases:
ice, vapour and liquid. The ice phase consists of an assemblage of grains, ice
matrix, initially arranged over a random load bearing skeleton. The
quantitative relationship between density and morphological characteristics of
different snow microstructures is still an open issue. In this work, a
three-dimensional fractal description of density corresponding to different
snow microstructure is put forward. First, snow density is simulated in terms
of a generalized Menger sponge model. Then, a fully three-dimensional compact
stochastic fractal model is adopted. The latter approach yields a quantitative
map of the randomness of the snow texture, which is described as a
three-dimensional fractional Brownian field with the Hurst exponent H varying
as continuous parameter. The Hurst exponent is found to be strongly dependent
on snow morphology and density. The approach might be applied to all those
cases where the morphological evolution of snow cover or ice sheets should be
conveniently described at a quantitative level
Genetic parameters for casein and urea content in the Italian Brown Swiss dairy cattle
A total of 137,753 test day records of 20,745 Italian Brown Swiss dairy cows from 26 provinces of Italy were used to estimate heritability for casein and urea content in milk and their genetic correlations with other production traits and milk somatic cell score. Milk component values were obtained by Fourier Transformed Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy from milk samples collected during national routine recording and were analysed using test day repeatability animal models. Fixed effects included 1,001 levels of herd-test date, 15 classes of days in milk, and 13 classes of age at calving within parity. The variation among cows was large for most of the traits. The heritability value for casein content was 0.31, as for protein content, and genetic and phenotypic correlations between these two traits were large (0.99 and 0.97 respectively). Milk urea content had a heritability of 0.17 and a positive genetic relationship with fat (0.12), null with protein (0.03) and casein (0.002) content and a negative genetic correlation with milk yield (-0.17) suggesting that the genetic improvement for milk urea content would be possible, but genetic gain would be affected by other traits included as selection criteria in the economic index and by their relative economic emphasis
Near Real-Time Data Labeling Using a Depth Sensor for EMG Based Prosthetic Arms
Recognizing sEMG (Surface Electromyography) signals belonging to a particular
action (e.g., lateral arm raise) automatically is a challenging task as EMG
signals themselves have a lot of variation even for the same action due to
several factors. To overcome this issue, there should be a proper separation
which indicates similar patterns repetitively for a particular action in raw
signals. A repetitive pattern is not always matched because the same action can
be carried out with different time duration. Thus, a depth sensor (Kinect) was
used for pattern identification where three joint angles were recording
continuously which is clearly separable for a particular action while recording
sEMG signals. To Segment out a repetitive pattern in angle data, MDTW (Moving
Dynamic Time Warping) approach is introduced. This technique is allowed to
retrieve suspected motion of interest from raw signals. MDTW based on DTW
algorithm, but it will be moving through the whole dataset in a pre-defined
manner which is capable of picking up almost all the suspected segments inside
a given dataset an optimal way. Elevated bicep curl and lateral arm raise
movements are taken as motions of interest to show how the proposed technique
can be employed to achieve auto identification and labelling. The full
implementation is available at https://github.com/GPrathap/OpenBCIPytho
Open Boundaries for the Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation
We present a new algorithm, the Time Dependent Phase Space Filter (TDPSF)
which is used to solve time dependent Nonlinear Schrodinger Equations (NLS).
The algorithm consists of solving the NLS on a box with periodic boundary
conditions (by any algorithm). Periodically in time we decompose the solution
into a family of coherent states. Coherent states which are outgoing are
deleted, while those which are not are kept, reducing the problem of reflected
(wrapped) waves. Numerical results are given, and rigorous error estimates are
described.
The TDPSF is compatible with spectral methods for solving the interior
problem. The TDPSF also fails gracefully, in the sense that the algorithm
notifies the user when the result is incorrect. We are aware of no other method
with this capability.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure
P38 SNP PROFILING OF KIDNEY TRANSPLANT PATIENTS: HIGHLIGHTING THE DIFFERENCES IN THE GENETICAL BACKGROUND TO MAXIMALIZE IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE THERAPIES
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Partial Photoionization Cross Sections And Photoelectron Angular Distributions For Double Excitations Up To The N=5 Threshold In Helium
Partial photoionization cross sections sigma(n) and photoelectron angular distributions beta(n) were measured for all possible final ionic states He+(n) in the region of the double excitations N(K,T)(A) up to the N=5 threshold. At a photon energy bandpass of 12 meV below the thresholds N=3,4, and 5, this level of differentiation offers the most critical assessment of the dynamics of the two-electron excitations to date. The experimental data are very well described by the most advanced theoretical calculations. Weaker double-excitation series with K=N-4 are clearly visible in the beta(n) data, and even previously unobserved extremely weak series members with A=-1 can be discerned, showing the high sensitivity of the angular resolved measurements. The shapes of the resonance-induced variations of sigma(n) or beta(n) in the double excitations below a given threshold N change radically depending on the final ionic state n but display striking similarities when comparing the satellite states with n=N-1 and n=N-2 below each threshold N. These systematic patterns may indicate a general rule for the underlying two-electron dynamics
SAT0245 RENAL INVOLVEMENT AT ONSET IN ANTI-NEUTROPHIL CYTOPLASMIC ANTIBODY (ANCA)-ASSOCIATED VASCULITIS: A MAJOR INDEPENDENT RISK FACTOR FOR RENAL RELAPSE
Background:In ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), renal relapses are cause for concern as they are unpredictable and predictors of end-stage renal disease (ESRD).Objectives:We aimed to assess the frequency of major renal (MR) relapses in AAV in our cohort and identify independent predictors of the first MR relapse at diagnosis.Methods:We performed a retrospective monocentric observational study in our Vasculitis clinic from January 2000 to August 2019. Inclusion criteria were: 1) granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA), microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) and limited kidney disease (LKD) diagnosis fulfilling EMA algorithm criteria; 2) achievement of a stable remission, defined as absence of vasculitis symptoms or signs and adherence to the prednisone taper during remission-induction treatment. We excluded patients who developed ESRD before remission and those with incomplete data during the follow-up. Major renal (MR) relapses were defined as occurrence of at least one major item of renal Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score version 3 (BVASv3).All remitted patients were allocated in two subgroups: patients without MR relapse and patients with MR relapse. Univariate and multivariable analysis of first MR relapse predictors was performed with Fine and Gray (F&G) sub distribution hazards model to assess all competitive risks (progression to ESRD without MR relapse and death before MR relapse). Due to the relatively low frequency of events and the risk of overfitting, we performed several multivariable models with three variables, as recommended by Peduzzi e al1. The best multivariable model was selected accordingly to the Akaike information criterion (AIC).Results:96 (53% females) patients met the inclusion criteria: 74 GPA, 21 MPA and 1 LKD. Median age at diagnosis was 54 (44-64) years. ANCA testing was present in 94 patients, 85 were ANCA positive: 56 c-ANCA/PR3, 28 p-ANCA/MPO and 1 double positivity.During a median follow-up (FU) of 54.5 months (29.3-96.5), we observed 19 MR relapses in 17 patients while 2 patients progressed to ESRD, 3 died without events and 76 reported no MR relapse. Density-incidence of MR relapses since remission was 3.6/100 person-year (CI 95% 2.2-5.6). Median time to first MR relapse after remission was 33 months (14-67.5).At first MR relapse, 8 (53.3%) patients were on steroids while 10 (66.7%) were on immunosuppressant (5 azathioprine, 5 mycophenolate). In 2 cases, data about remission-maintenance treatment was not available.MR relapses were observed only in ANCA positive patients with a significantly higher frequency of skin, kidney and nerve involvement at diagnosis (41.2% vs 17.7%, p=0.034, 94.1% vs 57.0% p=0.004, and 52.9% vs 25.3% p=0.024, respectively); while Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) involvement was significantly lower (35.3% vs 62.0% p=0.043). Mean BVASv3 at diagnosis scored significantly higher in MR relapse group (24.1±6.2 vs 18.1±8.1. p=0.007).At multivariable analysis with F&G model, renal involvement and induction treatment without cyclophosphamide and/or Rituximab at diagnosis were independent predictors of MR relapse (sHR 20.4 (2.6-158.2), p=0.004 and sHR 4.2 (1.5-12.0), p=0.007, respectively). Moreover, there was a trend of higher risk of MR relapse in PR3-ANCA (sHR 2.5 (0.9-7.1), p=0.091).Conclusion:Renal involvement at diagnosis and milder remission-induction treatment regimens resulted in a significantly higher risk of MR relapse during the FU in our cohort. PR3-ANCA specificity was not an independent predictor of MR relapse, even if we observed a trend of higher MR relapse risk with this covariate.References:[1]Peduzzi P et al. A simulation study of the number of events per variable in logistic regression analysis. J Clin Epidemiol. 1996;49(12):1373-9.Disclosure of Interests:Mara Felicetti: None declared, Augusta Ortolan: None declared, Anna Chiara Frigo: None declared, Roberto Padoan: None declared, Michela Gasparotto: None declared, Mariagrazia Lorenzin: None declared, Andrea Doria Consultant of: GSK, Pfizer, Abbvie, Novartis, Ely Lilly, Speakers bureau: UCB pharma, GSK, Pfizer, Janssen, Abbvie, Novartis, Ely Lilly, BMS, Roberta Ramonda Speakers bureau: Novartis, Celgene, Janssen, Pfizer, Abbvie, Lilly, Franco Schiavon: None declare
Postoperative streptococcus constellatus bacteremia in a 75-year-old patient with pyometra: A case report
Background: Pyometra is an accumulation of pus in the uterine cavity. It is rare in the general population but more common in elderly women. If diagnosed in the early stage, life-threating conditions may be avoided. The most common etiological microorganisms of pyometra are Escherichia coli, Bacteroides species, Staphylococci (eg, epidermid-is) and Streptococci. Occasionally, atypical bacteria may be the cause. Case Report: We present the case of a 75-year-old woman, with multiple risk factors, admitted to the Gynecology Department with a 15-day history of yellowish-brown vaginal discharge. Because of rapid enlargement of the uterine cavi-ty, the patient underwent to endometrial curettage. Three hours after surgery, she developed a high-grade fe-ver, and Streptococcus constellatus was isolated in her blood cultures. A specific antibiotic therapy was admin-istered for a total of 14 days, resulting in complete resolution of the infection. Conclusions: This case report describes a rare case of bacteremia caused by Streptococcus constellatus, that resulted from a pyometra. The classic triad of symptoms (postmenopausal bleeding, vaginal discharge, and lower abdominal pain) may be helpful for diagnosis; however, 50% of patients are asymptomatic. An early recognition of the con-dition is important to avoid rare but risky consequences, such as perforation of the uterus itself. Nevertheless, surgery can cause dangerous complications such as bacteremia. A different spectrum of bacteria may be in-volved in the development of pyometra, even in atypical cases, mostly when multiple comorbidities are pres-ent. A correct evaluation and management of the patient is essential to guarantee a good prognosis in this rare infection
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