Screening for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms in patients with aortoiliac atherosclerosis: a preliminary study

Thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAs) usually present with rupture and carry a high morbidity and mortality rate. Early detection of TAAs with screening methods and elective surgical repair could potentially diminish these complications. The present study was aimed at screening for TAA in patients with angiography-proven aortoiliac atherosclerosis (n = 43). A group of patients without aortoiliac atherosclerosis was used as controls (n = 15). Age, sex and aortic diameter at the level of the T12 vertebra were recorded. The subjects were divided into two age categories, the first made up of those aged less than 65 years and the second those aged 65 years or more. A T12 aortic diameter greater than 35 mm was used to indicate TAA. Statistical analyses were performed by independent t-test and general linear model with age category, sex and atherosclerosis as factors. The mean T12 aortic diameters were greater in patients with atherosclerosis than in the control group (25.2 ± 5.0 vs. 22.9 ± 2.4 mm; p = 0.034). Two out of 43 patients (4.7%) with aortoiliac atherosclerosis had TAA, while no one in the control group had TAA. A general linear model showed that the interaction of age category and sex significantly affected the T12 aortic diameter [F (1.49) = 4.044, p = 0.050]. Post hoc (LSD) tests revealed that male patients aged over 65 had greater T12 aortic diameters than other patients. We conclude that patients with aortoiliac atherosclerosis may be at greater risk for developing TAA. Ageing and male sex may also be associated with thoracoabdominal aortic enlargement. (Folia Morphol 2008; 67: 78-83

Size and shape evolution of embedded single-crystal αα-Fe nanowires

The size and shape evolution of embedded ferromagnetic αα-Fe nanowires is discussed. The αα-Fe nanowires are formed by pulsed-laser deposition of La0.5Sr0.5FeO3−xLa0.5Sr0.5FeO3−x on single-crystal SrTiO3SrTiO3 (001) substrate in reducing atmosphere. The average diameter of the nanowires increases from d ≈ 4d≈4 to 50 nm as the growth temperature increases from T = 560T=560 to 840 °C. Their in-plane shape evolves from circular to octahedral and square shape with [110] facets dominating as the growth temperature increases. A fitting to a theoretical calculation shows that the circular shape is stable when the diameter of the nanowires is smaller than 8 nm.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87835/2/203110_1.pd

Modelling Temperature Variation of Mushroom Growing Hall Using Artificial Neural Networks

The recent developments of computer and electronic systems have made the use of intelligent systems for the automation of agricultural industries. In this study, the temperature variation of the mushroom growing room was modeled by multi-layered perceptron and radial basis function networks based on independent parameters including ambient temperature, water temperature, fresh air and circulation air dampers, and water tap. According to the obtained results from the networks, the best network for MLP was in the second repetition with 12 neurons in the hidden layer and in 20 neurons in the hidden layer for radial basis function network. The obtained results from comparative parameters for two networks showed the highest correlation coefficient (0.966), the lowest root mean square error (RMSE) (0.787) and the lowest mean absolute error (MAE) (0.02746) for radial basis function. Therefore, the neural network with radial basis function was selected as a predictor of the behavior of the system for the temperature of mushroom growing halls controlling system

Ferric carboxymaltose versus ferrous fumarate in anemic children with inflammatory bowel disease:the POPEYE randomized controlled clinical trial

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether intravenous (IV) or oral iron suppletion is superior in improving physical fitness in anemic children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a clinical trial at 11 centers. Children aged 8 to 18 with IBD and anemia (defined as hemoglobin (Hb) z-score &lt; -2) were randomly assigned to a single IV dose of ferric carboxymaltose or 12 weeks of oral ferrous fumarate. Primary endpoint was the change in 6-minute walking distance (6MWD) from baseline, expressed as z-score. Secondary outcome was a change in Hb z-score from baseline.RESULTS: We randomized 64 patients (33 IV iron; 31 oral iron) and followed them for 6 months. One month after the start of iron therapy, the 6MWD z-score of patients in the IV group had increased by 0.71 compared with -0.11 in the oral group (P=0.01). At 3- and 6-months follow-up, no significant differences in 6MWD z-scores were observed. Hb z-scores gradually increased in both groups and the rate of increase was not different between groups at 1, 3 and 6 months after initiation of iron therapy (overall P=0.97).CONCLUSION: In this trial involving anemic children with IBD, a single dose of IV ferric carboxymaltose was superior to oral ferrous fumarate with respect to quick improvement of physical fitness. At 3 and 6 months after initiation of therapy, no differences were discovered between oral or IV therapy. The increase of Hb over time was comparable in both treatment groups.TRIAL REGISTRATION: NTR4487 [Netherlands Trial Registry].</p

Predictive modelling of soils’ hydraulic conductivity using artificial neural network and multiple linear regression

As a result of heterogeneity nature of soils and variation in its hydraulic conductivity over several orders of magnitude for various soil types from fine-grained to coarse-grained soils, predictive methods to estimate hydraulic conductivity of soils from properties considered more easily obtainable have now been given an appropriate consideration. This study evaluates the performance of artificial neural network (ANN) being one of the popular computational intelligence techniques in predicting hydraulic conductivity of wide range of soil types and compared with the traditional multiple linear regression (MLR). ANN and MLR models were developed using six input variables. Results revealed that only three input variables were statistically significant in MLR model development. Performance evaluations of the developed models using determination coefficient and mean square error show that the prediction capability of ANN is far better than MLR. In addition, comparative study with available existing models shows that the developed ANN and MLR in this study performed relatively better

Spent mushroom compost (SMC) as a source for biogas production in Iran

202001 bcmaVersion of RecordPublishe

Application of ANNs, ANFIS and RSM to estimating and optimizing the parameters that affect the yield and cost of biodiesel production

201809 bcrcVersion of RecordPublishe