Early recovery of microvascular perfusion induced by t-PA in combination with abciximab or eptifibatide during postischemic reperfusion

BACKGROUND: GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors abciximab and eptifibatide have been shown to inhibit platelet aggregation in ischemic heart disease. Our aim was to test the efficacy of abiciximab (Reo Pro) or eptifibatide (Integrilin) alone or in combination with plasminogen activator (t-PA) in an experimental model of ischemia reperfusion (I/R) in hamster cheek pouch microcirculation visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Hamsters were treated with saline, or abiciximab or eptifibatide or these drugs combined with t-PA infused intravenously 10 minutes before ischemia and through reperfusion. We measured the microvessel diameter changes, the arteriolar red blood cell (RBC) velocity, the increase in permeability, the perfused capillary length (PCL), and the platelet and leukocyte adhesion on microvessels. RESULTS: I/R elicited large increases in the platelet and leukocyte adhesion and a decrease in microvascular perfusion. These responses were significantly attenuated by abiciximab or eptifibatide (PCL:70 and 65% at 5–10 mins of reperfusion and 85 and 87% at 30 mins of reperfusion, respectively, p < 0.001) while t-PA combined with abiciximab or eptifibatide, was more effective and microvascular perfusion recovered immediately after postischemic reperfusion. CONCLUSIONS: Platelets are crucial in I/R injury, as shown by the treatment with abicixmab or eptifibatide, which decreased platelet aggregation in microvessels, and also decreased leukocyte adhesion in venules. Arterial vasoconstriction, decreased arterial RBC velocity and alterations in the endothelial barrier with increased permeability delayed the complete restoration of blood flow, while t-PA combined with inhibition of platelet aggregation speeded up the capillary perfusion after reperfusion

Factors Related to the Adoption of Good Agrarian Practices (GAP) in Plastic Covered Horticulture of Southeastern Spain

The adoption by farmers of Good Agrarian Practices (GAP), that favouring the environment and assure food quality and safety, is being a frequent fact. Considering the plastic covered horticulture, these kind of practices can be of different nature: use of organic fertiliser, made of crops rotations, use of recyclable plastic as greenhouse cover, good management of organic residuals (use of containers), recycling of plastic containers, etc. This paper, wich try to analyse the adoption of GAP by protected vegetable growers, is based on a survey carried out to 114 farmers in the southeast coastline of Spain, asking for the level of adoption of a set of GAP. From the information gathered on the suvey, an aggregated index of adoption has been performed, and the relationship between this index and some structural and managerial characteristics of the greenhouses, and some sociocultural variables of the growers (age, study, agrarian formation, etc) has been analysed, trying to identify factors related to adoption of GAP, which could probably help to design strategies for the increase of the level of GAP adoption in the system.Crop Production/Industries,

Optimal High School Location: First Results for Turin, Italy

This paper reports on an analysis of the location of high schools in the town of Turin, Italy. It presents .the first exploratory results of the application of a static location model and suggests some possible ways of generalizing this model into a dynamic one. A detailed sensitivity analysis is presented, and it is shown how the results obtained lead naturally to dynamic issues. A simple Markov-chain model is used to evaluate the effects of changes in the first year admission policy, and the resulting shifts in the spatial distribution of required school capacity are shown. Finally, a simplified version of a dynamic optimal capacity-adjustment model is proposed, and its possible extensions are outlined

Reconnaissance d’activités dans un habitat intelligent à l’aide de radars Ultra-WideBand

Le vieillissement démographique de la population humaine et la prédominance de ce phénomène dans les pays occidentaux nous pousse à repenser notre système de santé et de prise en charge des personnes âgées. Les nouvelles technologies comme l’Internet Of Things (IOT) et l’Intelligence Artificielle (IA) se présentent comme une partie de la solution pour relever ce défi sociétal. Les habitats intelligents sont des outils puissants pour assister les personnes âgées à domicile et leur permettre de vivre plus longtemps en autonomie. Ils permettent notamment de faire de la reconnaissance d’activité pour s’assurer de la qualité du train de vie des habitants. Les radars Ultra-WideBand (UWB) représentent une alternative intéressante aux capteurs les plus en vogue dans les habitats intelligents. C’est pourquoi ce mémoire cherche à répondre à la problématique suivante : Comment effectuer de la reconnaissance d’activités dans un habitat intelligent à l’aide de radars ultra-wideband ? Une introduction présentant le contexte du projet de recherche et définissant ses concepts fondamentaux précédera un état de l’art des techniques d’apprentissage machine, discipline clé de l’intelligence artificielle. Il sera suivi par un autre état de l’art qui se penchera sur les radars UWB et sur les publications scientifiques dont les sujets sont connexes à notre problématique. Ensuite, plusieurs chapitres se concentreront sur la contribution apportée dans le cadre de ce projet de recherche. En premier lieu, les architectures physiques et logicielles du projet seront présentées. Ensuite, les deux jeux de données créés pour l’occasion seront décrits. Enfin, l’application de plusieurs techniques d’apprentissage machine sur l’un des jeux de données créé sera présentée, avec les résultats des tests effectués en conséquence. Population ageing and the strength with which it affects the western world makes us strive to reshape our health care system and the way we take care of the elderly. New technologies such as Internet Of Things (IOT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be part of the solution to face this societal challenge. Smart homes are powerfull tools to assist seniors in their daily life and help them stay autonomous as long as possible. They are especially helpful for activity recognition, which can help uphold inhabitants quality of life. In this context, Ultra-WideBand (UWB) radars might be a viable option as smart home sensors to perform activity recognition. That’s why this memoir aims to answer the following research problem : How to achieve activity recognition in a smart home environment using UWB radars ? A brief introduction will unfold this research project context and will define key concepts that will be used in further chapters. A state of the art regarding machine learning will then precede another state of the art about UWB radars, in which a brief review of scientific studies linked to our research problem will be made. The next chapters will focus on the contribution of this research project, first by presenting the hardware and software aspect of the project. Then, a brief showcase of the two datasets which were made for the occasion will be made. Last but not least, tests and results from machine learning methods used on one of the two datasets will be exhibited

Identification of surgically-induced longitudinal lesions of the equine deep digital flexor tendon in the digital flexor tendon sheath using contrast-enhanced ultrasonography: an ex-vivo pilot study

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal tears in the lateral aspect of the deep digital flexor tendon are the most common causes of pain localised to the equine digital flexor tendon sheath. However conventional ultrasonographic techniques provide limited information about acute lesions. Ultrasonographic contrast agents are newly developed materials that have contributed to advancement in human diagnostic imaging. They are currently approved for intravenous use in human and animal models. In this study we described intrathecal use in the horse. This study was undertaken to evaluate the reliability of standard and angle contrast-enhanced ultrasonography to detect and characterize surgically-induced longitudinal lesions in the deep digital flexor tendons. In this pilot study surgically-induced lesions were created in the lateral aspect of the deep digital flexor tendon within the digital flexor tendon sheath in 10 isolated equine limbs to generate a replicable model for naturally occurring lesions. Another 10 specimens were sham operated. All the limbs were examined ultrasonographically before and shortly after the intrasynovial injection of an ultrasound contrast agent containing stabilised microbubbles. The images were blindly evaluated to detect the ability to identify surgically-created lesions. The deep digital flexor tendons were dissected and a series of slices were obtained. The depth of longitudinal defects identified with contrast-enhanced ultrasound scans was compared to the real extent of the lesions measured in the corresponding gross tendon sections. RESULTS: Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with both angle and standard approach provided a significant higher proportion of correct diagnoses compared to standard and angle contrast ultrasonography (p < 0.01). Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography reliably estimated the depth of surgically-induced longitudinal lesions in the deep digital flexor tendons. CONCLUSION: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound of the digital flexor tendon sheath could be an effective tool to detect intrasynovial longitudinal tears of the deep digital flexor tendon, although an in vivo study is required to confirm these results for naturally occurring lesions