Long-term results of iliac aneurysm repair with iliac branched endograft. A 5-year experience on 100 consecutive cases

Background: Iliac branch device (IBD) technique has been introduced as an appealing and effective solution to avoid complications occurring during repair of aorto-iliac aneurysm with extensive iliac involvement. Nevertheless, no large series with long-term follow-up of IBD are available. The aim of this study was to analyse safety and long-term efficacy of IBD in a consecutive series of patients.Methods: Between 2006 and 2011, 100 consecutive patients were enrolled in a prospective database on IBD. Indications included unilateral or bilateral common iliac artery aneurysms combined or not with abdominal aneurysms. Patients were routinely followed up with computed tomography. Data were reported according to the Kaplan-Meier method.Results: There were 96 males, mean age 74.1 years. Preoperative median common iliac aneurysm diameter was 40 mm (interquartile range (IQR): 35-44 mm). Sixty-seven patients had abdominal aortic aneurysm >35 mm (IQR: 40-57 mm) associated with iliac aneurysm. Eleven patients presented hypogastric aneurysm. Twelve patients underwent isolated iliac repair with IBD and 88 patients received associated endovascular aortic repair. Periprocedural technical success rate was 95%, with no mortality. Two patients experienced external iliac occlusion in the first month. At a median follow-up of 21 months (range 1-60) aneurysm growth >3 mm was detected in four iliac (4%) arteries. Iliac endoleak (one type III and two distal type I) developed in three patients and buttock claudication in four patients. Estimated patency rate of internal iliac branch was 91.4% at 1 and 5 years. Freedom from any reintervention rate was 90% at 1 year and 81.4% at 5 years. No late ruptures occurred.Conclusions: Long-term results show that IBD use can ensure persistent iliac aneurysm exclusion at 5 years, with low risk of reintervention. This technique can be considered as a first endovascular option in patients with extensive iliac aneurysm disease and favourable anatomy. (C) 2011 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Relation between the spectral properties of wall turbulence and the scaling of the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor

Empirical formulas describing the Darcy-Weisbach friction factor remain indispensable for applications in sciences and engineering dealing with turbulent flows. Despite their practical significance, these formulas have remained without theoretical interpretation for many decades. To close this knowledge gap, much research has been devoted to the development of the so-called "spectral link"introduced in the early 2000s. Such a theory is entirely based on elegant phenomenological arguments that make no contact with equations describing turbulent wall flows. The spectral link spawned alternative approaches, now labeled "cospectral budget"(or CSB) models, that describe how turbulent eddies contribute to wall stresses. The CSB overcomes some of the shortcomings of the phenomenological approach and is here employed to provide a thorough clarification of the link between spectral properties of velocity fluctuations and the scaling of friction factors in turbulent pipe flows in the hydraulically smooth and fully rough regimes

Historical reconstruction of the population dynamics of southern right whales in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean

Understanding the recovery of whale populations is critical for developing population-management and conservation strategies. The southern right whale (SRW) Eubalena australis was one of the baleen whale species that has experienced centuries of exploitation. We assess here for the first time the population dynamics of the SRW from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean at the regional level to measure numerically the effect of whaling and estimate the population trend and recovery level after depletion. We reconstructed the catch history of whaling for the period 1670–1973 by an extensive review of different literature sources and developed a Bayesian state-space model to estimate the demographic parameters. The population trajectory indicated that the pre-exploitation abundance was close to 58,000 individuals (median = 58,212; 95% CI = 33,329–100,920). The abundance dropped to its lowest abundance levels in the 1830s when fewer than 2,000 individuals remained. The current median population abundance was estimated at 4,742 whales (95% CI = 3,853–6,013), suggesting that the SRW population remains small relative to its pre-exploitation abundance (median depletion P2021 8.7%). We estimated that close to 36% of the SRW population visits the waters of the Península Valdés, the main breeding ground, every year. Our results provide insights into the severity of the whaling operation in the southwestern Atlantic along with the population´s response at low densities, thus contributing to understand the observed differences in population trends over the distributional range of the species worldwide.Fil: Romero, Maria Alejandra. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro de Investigación Aplicada y Transferencia Tecnológica en Recursos Marinos "Almirante Storni". - Provincia de Río Negro. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca. Centro de Investigación Aplicada y Transferencia Tecnológica en Recursos Marinos "Almirante Storni". Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro de Investigación Aplicada y Transferencia Tecnológica en Recursos Marinos "Almirante Storni"; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Escuela de Ciencias Marinas; ArgentinaFil: Coscarella, Mariano Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; ArgentinaFil: Adams, G. A.. University of Washington; Estados UnidosFil: Pedraza, Juan C.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: González, Raul Alberto Candido. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro de Investigación Aplicada y Transferencia Tecnológica en Recursos Marinos "Almirante Storni". - Provincia de Río Negro. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca. Centro de Investigación Aplicada y Transferencia Tecnológica en Recursos Marinos "Almirante Storni". Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro de Investigación Aplicada y Transferencia Tecnológica en Recursos Marinos "Almirante Storni"; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Escuela de Ciencias Marinas; ArgentinaFil: Crespo, Enrique Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; Argentin

I beg your pardon? Acoustic behaviour of a wild solitary common dolphin who interacts with harbour porpoises

Kylie is a solitary common dolphin who inhabits a restricted area within the Firth of Clyde (Scotland). She spends most of her time around navigational buoys in the Hunterston/Fairlie channel, where she has been seen interacting with harbour porpoises. Recordings from 2016 and 2017 were used to study her acoustic behaviour when seen alone and with a porpoise. Clicks were classified as potential porpoise or dolphin clicks based on the waveform, power spectrum, and spectrogram, as well as direction of arrival, inter-click interval, amplitude, and centroid frequency variations. Kylie emitted clicks exclusively, which were of variable nature, including low, mid, and high-frequency (HF, centroid frequency > 100 kHz) as well as broad or narrowband. Some of Kylie's HF clicks were similar to porpoise clicks both in the time (e.g., polycyclic) and frequency (e.g., narrowband with most energy between 100 and 150 kHz) domains, which cannot be explained by physical phenomenon alone

Spatial Models of Abundance and Habitat Preferences of Commerson’s and Peale’s Dolphin in Southern Patagonian Waters

Funding: This research was possible with the support of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Funding for travel to and accommodation for NAD in Aberdeen, Scotland was provided by CONICET and Cetacean Society International. The work of NAD was part of a postdoctoral fellowship funded by CONICET. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Trophic niche partitioning of five skate species of genus Bathyraja in northern and central Patagonia, Argentina

Overexploitation of marine communities can lead to modifications in the structure of the food web and can force organisms like elasmobranchs to change their feeding habits. To evaluate the impact that fisheries have on food webs and on the interactions between species, it is necessary to describe and quantify the diet of the species involved and follow it through time. This study compares the diet of five skate species using the data obtained from the by-catch of the Argentine hake (Merluccius hubbsi) fishery in north and central Patagonia, Argentina. Diet composition was assessed by analysing the digestive tract contents and trophic overlapping between species of the genus Bathyraja: Bathyraja albomaculata, Bathyraja brachyurops, Bathyraja macloviana, Bathyraja magellanica and Bathyraja multispinis. A total of 184 stomachs were analysed. The diets of B. albomaculata and B. macloviana mainly comprised annelids, whereas that of B. brachyurops primarily comprised fish, including hake heads discarded by the fishery. The diets of B. magellanica and B. multispinis were largely based on crustaceans. Despite the morphological similarities and their shared preference for benthic habitats, no complete diet overlaps were found between the different species. These results suggest that these skate species have undergone a process of diet specialisation. This is a common feeding strategy that occurs to successfully eliminate competition when resources are limited, which corresponds to the conditions found in an environment being affected by the pressures of overfishing.Fil: Tschopp, Ayelen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; ArgentinaFil: Cristiani, Franco. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Ciencias de la Salud - Sede Puerto Madryn. Departamento de Biología y Ambiente; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Nestor Anibal. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; ArgentinaFil: Crespo, Enrique Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Ciencias de la Salud - Sede Puerto Madryn. Departamento de Biología y Ambiente; ArgentinaFil: Coscarella, Mariano Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Ciencias de la Salud - Sede Puerto Madryn. Departamento de Biología y Ambiente; Argentin

“Innumeras praetera sumptuosissimas domos”: le residenze di casa Borromeo. Vivere nel Ducato di Milano tra XV e XVI secolo

A partire dal primo ventennio del XV secolo, i membri di casa Borromeo - mercanti e banchieri di origine toscana trapiantati a Milano – finanziano la ristrutturazione e la costruzione di una serie di residenze ad uso della famiglia. Sparse in tutto il territorio del Ducato, le dimore, situate all’interno di feudi o al centro di vaste proprietà agricole nel contado, garantivano sia il controllo dei propri domini (attraverso i fortilizi di Arona, Angera, Camairago e Bissone) che comodi spazi per l’ospitalità, l’attività venatoria e gli svaghi dell’otio (le domus di Lainate, Robecco, Origgio). In città, a rappresentare lo status raggiunto dalla casata erano i tre quartieri posti in Porta Vercellina, Porta Tosa e Porta Romana/Ticinese; nel suburbio, ad attestare il successo economico e le capacità imprenditoriali, stavano le redditizie possessioni di Peschiera e Longhignana con le signorili cascine castellate circondate da rogge e giardini. Continuamente ampliate e regolarizzate negli impianti planimetrici nonché nell’organizzazione degli interni, le residenze urbane e suburbane erano abbellite anche all’esterno da ricchi apparati decorativi dipinti, di cui oggi non rimane che qualche residua traccia, ma che in origine dovevano connotare cromaticamente una buona parte delle superfici parietali. All’interno di questa rete di case diverse, i Borromeo hanno vissuto spostandosi, a seconda del calendario, delle esigenze di sicurezza, delle strategie economiche e di rappresentatività della famiglia. Questo modo di vivere, che potremmo definire profondamente Tardogotico, probabilmente non fu caratteristico della sola famiglia dei Conti di Arona e forse fu condiviso con altri pari, con simili ruoli nella società ducale milanese fra XV e XVI secolo. Fu però talmente identitario da trasformarsi, nei secoli successivi, nella più solida memoria dello stile di vita del casato.From the beginning of the 15th century, the Borromeo’s family members (bankers and merchants coming from Tuscany and established in Milan), began to restore and build many residences for family use. Scattered throughout the Duchy of Milan, mansions were located inside feuds or countryside properties, devoted to crop production. Fortresses in Arona, Angera, Camairago and Bissone could guarantee the control of their domains; the abodes in Lainate, Robecco, Origgio ensured a relaxing stay, a pleasant hospitality and hunting grounds as well as the leisure activities of otio. In the city, the three districts of Porta Vercellina, Porta Tosa and Porta Romana/Ticinese were representative of the high social status achieved by the family. In the suburbs, there were the profitable lands of Peschiera and Longhignana with their castle-shaped farmsteads surrounded by irrigation ditches and gardens to witness the economic success and entrepreneurial skills. The urban and suburban houses were constantly enlarged and reorganized in terms of planimetry as well as interior layouts. The exterior walls of each buildings were also decorated with rich paintings full of different colours, based on geometric shapes and family crests, of which, however, only a small residual trace remains today. Living these mansions over seasons, the Borromeo family spent its time moving from place to place for safety needs, economic reasons and social visibility. This way of life, which we could actually consider as “Late Gothic”, was probably not only a typical feature of the family of the Counts of Arona, but perhaps it was shared with other peers having similar roles in the ducal society of Milan between the 15th and 16th centuries. However, it was so a distinctive feature that it became the most consolidated memory of the family's way of life in the following centuries

La famiglia Borromeo fra Quattro e Cinquecento. Otium e negotium in città e nel territorio

La famiglia Borromeo fra la fine del XIV e la metà del XVI secolo ha coltivato relazioni complesse fra le dimensioni dell’otio e del negotio. Per evidenziare alcuni aspetti di questa vicenda, si propone un breve racconto, ambientato nella geografia delle ‘possessioni’ del casato e articolato cronologicamente in tre periodi diversi. Nell’incipit ci si sofferma sulle riflessioni del ‘cardinal Federigo’ che, nel 1623, scrisse un trattatello morale su questi temi, in apparente antitesi rispetto alle origini e alla storia della famiglia.From the end of the XIVth Century to the half of the XVIth Century, history end attitudes of Borromeo’s family had developed through a continuous relationship between the otio and the negotio actions. In this essay the authors offer a brief excursus which focuses on some elements of this relationship, moving through the geography of the ‘possessioni’ and structured in three time periods. The incipit deals with the thoughts of ‘Cardinal Federigo’, who wrote in 1623 a brief moral treaty on abovementioned matters, not being aligned, apparently, with tradition and history of the family