Portable parallel kernels for high-speed beamforming in synthetic aperture ultrasound imaging

In medical ultrasound, synthetic aperture (SA) imaging is well-considered as a novel image formation technique for achieving superior resolution than that offered by existing scanners. However, its intensive processing load is known to be a challenging factor. To address such a computational demand, this paper proposes a new parallel approach based on the design of OpenCL signal processing kernels that can compute SA image formation in real-time. We demonstrate how these kernels can be ported onto different classes of parallel processors, namely multi-core CPUs and GPUs, whose multi-thread computing resources are able to process more than 250 fps. Moreover, they have strong potential to support the development of more complex algorithms, thus increasing the depth range of the inspected human volume and the final image resolution observed by the medical practitioner.published_or_final_versio

ESTRATÉGIAS DE TROCA PARA SEGUNDO IMUNOBIOLÓGICO NA ARTRITE REUMATOIDE: RESULTADOS DO REGISTRO BRASILEIRO DE AGENTES IMUNOBIOLÓGICOS EM DOENÇAS REUMÁTICAS BIOBADABRASIL

OBJETIVOS: Comparar as diferentes estratégias de troca para a segunda Terapia Imunobiológica (TIB) na Artrite Reumatoide (AR), do registro BIOBADABRASIL. MÉTODOS: Coorte de base populacional incluindo 1.109 pacientes com AR que preencheram os critérios classificatórios da American College of Rheumatology / European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) 2010 e que iniciaram a primeira TIB. Os pacientes foram acompanhados em até 7 anos, no período de janeiro de 2009 até dezembro de 2015. Foram consideradas as variáveis sexo, idade, duração da doença, Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS 28), além de tratamentos concomitantes, que também foram avaliados. Foram aplicados testes Kaplan-Meier, Qui-Quadrado, Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney e análise de regressão de Cox. As drogas Golimumabe (GOLI) e Certolizumabe (CERTO) foram excluídas da análise de sobrevida em função da pequena amostra. RESULTADOS: Da amostra estudada, 85% dos pacientes eram mulheres com idade média de 50 anos e 11 anos de diagnóstico. O Fator Reumatoide (FR) positivo do grupo foi de 87%, DAS 28 de 5,36 ±1,35, 76% estavam em uso de corticoide e 71% foram avaliados em uso de Metotrexate (MTX). Noventa e um porcento iniciaram agente Anti-fator de Necrose Tumoral (Anti-TNF), nas seguintes proporções: Adalimumabe (ADA) 33% (370), Infliximabe (INF) 32 % (356), Etanercepte (ETA) 23% (258), Rituximabe (RTX) 4% (48), Tocilizumabe (TOCI) 3% (35), Golimumabe(GOLI) 2% (19), Abatacepte (ABA), 1% (14) e Certolizumabe (CERTO) 1% (9). No primeiro tratamento, a sobrevida foi maior para o grupo de não anti-TNF (58,50 ± 3,46 e 95%CI 51,71 65,28) que o grupo de anti-TNF (53,43 ± 1,21 e 95%CI 51,05 55,77), p=0,042. O Tocilimumabe (TOCI) apresentou maior sobrevida (57,22 ± 4,57 e 95%CI 48,27 66,17) quando comparado ao grupo dos antiTNF (53,41±1,21 95%CI 51,05 55,77) e p=0,023. Apenas 32,28% (358) trocaram para um segundo IB (Imunobiológico). Destes, 65,92% (236) mudaram de anti-TNF para anti-TNF (ETA=105, ADA=83, INF=33, outros anti-TNF=15); 27,93% (100) trocaram de anti-TNF para não anti-TNF (RTX=38, TOCI=32, ABA=30) e um menor número de apenas 6,13% (22) mudaram de não anti-TNF para outra classe. Em função da pequena amostra, GOLI e CERTO foram excluídos da segunda análise de sobrevida. A melhor estratégia de troca foi de anti-TNF para não-anti-TNF: 50,72 ± 3 meses (CI 95% 44,84-56,60) vs 44,67±2,46 meses (CI 95% 39,85-49,49) p=0,010. Apesar de usarem menos corticoide e terem maior DAS 28 no início do tratamento, os pacientes que migraram de anti TNF para TOCI apresentaram melhor sobrevida (55,80 ± 4,74 IC 95% 46,51,65,09 meses, p=0,029) comparado ao ETA (50,06 ±3,61 IC 95% 42,99-57,14), RTX (47,75 ± 4,93 IC 95% 38,10-57,40), ABA (44,89±5,94 IC 95% 33,25-56,53), ADA (39,45±3,89 IC 95% 31,83-47,08) e INF (34,43±4,65 IC 95% 25,31-43,55). O principal motivo da troca do primeiro IB foi por ineficácia ou perda de eficácia (64%, n = 216), seguido de efeitos adversos (26%, n=87) e outros motivos (10%, n = 33). Quando o motivo da troca se deu por evento adverso, a melhor alternativa foi observada com a troca para um agente não anti- TNF com 50,29 ± 4,93 meses (95%IC=40,62 59,95) vs 43,23 ± 4,22 meses (95%IC= 34,96 51,51) , p=0,038. CONCLUSÃO: Os agentes anti-TNF são as drogas mais prescritas no registro brasileiro BIOBADABRASIL como primeira e segunda TIB. A opção por um agente não anti TNF como primeira TIB foi a melhor alternativa. A Troca de anti-TNF para não anti-TNF também representou a melhor opção. TOCI mostrou melhor sobrevida como segundo IB. O principal motivo da troca ocorreu por ineficácia ou perda de eficácia. Quando o motivo da troca foi evento adverso , optar por um agente não anti-TNF foi melhor alternativa. Palavras-chave: Artrite reumatoide. Terapia biológica. Sobrevida. Troca. Anti TNF. Não Anti-TNF, Tocilizumabe

Allocation of periodic tasks with precedences on transputer-based systems

Task allocation is an important component of the process of mapping modules of application programs to multicomputers. A scheme for static allocation of periodic tasks with precedences to processors is developed considering task execution times, communication costs, and utilization level of each processor. It has the main goal of minimizing the application response time with a minimum number of processors. A network of transputers is employed as a platform to experimentally evaluate the allocation approach constructed with this work. An existing communication layer in the language ADA is improved to provide an efficient support for task flow simulations on transputer networks. The first phase of the allocation scheme is a constructive assignment heuristic that allocates the cluster of tasks composed of all tasks in the critical path in the same processor. The remaining tasks are allocated according to a heuristic function that considers task precedences, task execution times, and relative sizes of intertask messages. The initial allocation is improved in the second phase by using an iterative pairwise interchange of tasks that considers interprocessor communication distances. The overall scheme of task allocation was successfully tested and analyzed through simulation of several applications on a transputer network providing a near optimal solution.http://archive.org/details/allocationofperi00falcLieutenant Commander, Brazilian NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Three-dimensional spatial solitons in CS2

International audienc

Deep Chandra Observations of NGC 5728: Morphology and Spectral Properties of the Extended X-ray Emission

Recent deep Chandra observations of nearby Compton thick (CT) AGN have produced surprising results, uncovering extended emission not only in the soft X-rays but in the hard emission (>3 keV), challenging the long-held belief that the characteristic hard X-ray continuum and fluorescent Fe Ka lines are associated with the torus in the standard picture of AGN. In this work, we present the analysis of our deep (~261 ks) X-ray Chandra ACIS-S observations of NGC 5728, a nearby (z=0.00932) CT AGN. We find that the diffuse emission is more extended at lower energies, in the bicone direction out to ~2 kpc radially, but also significantly extended in the direction of the cross-cone, out to ~1.4 kpc. Our results suggest that the ratio of detected photons in the cross-cone to the bicone region is ~16%, below 3 keV, decreasing to 5% for energies 3-6 keV. The nuclear spectrum suggests a low photoionization phase mixed with a more ionized gas component, while the bicone and cross-cone spectra are dominated by a mix of photoionization and shocked gas emission. A mixture of thermal and photoionization models to fit the spectra indicates the presence of complex gas interactions, consistent with previous observations of other CT AGN (e.g., ESO 428-G014)

Near-infrared Kerr nonlinearity of Pb(PO3)2–WO3 glasses

We report measurements of the nonlinear refractive index, n 2 , and the nonlinear absorption coefficient, α 2 , of Pb ( PO 3 ) 2 – WO 3 glasses. The measurements were performed using 100 fs (17 ps) laser pulses at 800 nm (1064 nm). Positive values of n 2 ∼ 10 − 19 m 2 / W and negligible α 2 were measured. The results show that the nonlinearity is faster than 100 fs and it is observed an increase of n 2 with the increasing of the WO 3 amount in the samples. The Boling, Glass, and Owyoung model, based on the semiclassical harmonic oscillator model, was used to predict the values of n 2 , with basis on the values of the linear refractive index of the samples

Melanoma targeting with alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone analogs labeled with fac-[Tc-99m(CO)(3)](+): effect of cyclization on tumor-seeking properties

Early detection of primary melanoma tumors is essential because there is no effective treatment for metastatic melanoma. Several linear and cyclic radiolabeled alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) analogs have been proposed to target the melanocortin type 1 receptor (MC1R) overexpressed in melanoma. The compact structure of a rhenium-cyclized alpha-MSH analog (Re-CCMSH) significantly enhanced its in vivo tumor uptake and retention. Melanotan II (MT-II), a cyclic lactam analog of alpha-MSH (Ac-Nle-cyclo[Asp-His-DPhe-Arg-Trp-Lys]-NH2]), is a very potent and stable agonist peptide largely used in the characterization of melanocortin receptors. Taking advantage of the superior biological features associated with the MT-II cyclic peptide, we assessed the effect of lactam-based cyclization on the tumor-seeking properties of alpha-MSH analogs by comparing the pharmacokinetics profile of the (99)mTc-labeled cyclic peptide beta Ala-Nle-cyclo[Asp-His-DPhe-Arg-Trp-Lys]-NH2 with that of the linear analog beta Ala-Nle-Asp-His-DPhe-Arg-Trp-Lys-NH2 in melanoma-bearing mice. We have synthesized and coupled the linear and cyclic peptides to a bifunctional chelator containing a pyrazolyl-diamine backbone (pz) through the amino group of beta Ala, and the resulting pz-peptide conjugates were reacted with the fac-[Tc-99m(CO)(3)](+) moiety. The Tc-99m(CO)(3)-labeled conjugates were obtained in high yield, high specific activity, and high radiochemical purity. The cyclic Tc-99m(CO)(3)-labeled conjugate presents a remarkable internalization (87.1% of receptor-bound tracer and 50.5% of total applied activity, after 6 h at 37 degrees C) and cellular retention (only 24.7% released from the cells after 5 h) in murine melanoma B16F1 cells. A significant tumor uptake and retention was obtained in melanoma-bearing C57BL6 mice for the cyclic radioconjugate [9.26 +/- 0.83 and 11.31 +/- 1.83% ID/g at 1 and 4 h after injection, respectively]. The linear Tc-99m(CO)(3)-pz-peptide presented lower values for both cellular internalization and tumor uptake. Receptor blocking studies with the potent (Nle(4),DPhe(7))-alpha MSH agonist demonstrated the specificity of the radioconjugates to MC1R (74.8 and 44.5% reduction of tumor uptake at 4 h after injection for cyclic and linear radioconjugates, respectively)

Enteral enriched nutrition to prevent cognitive dysfunction after surgery:A study in rats

BACKGROUND: Inflammation plays an important role in postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), particularly in elderly patients. Enteral enriched nutrition was shown to inhibit the response on inflammatory stimuli. Aim of the present study was to explore the therapeutic potential of enteral enriched nutrition in our rat model for POCD. The anticipated mechanism of action was examined in young rats, while responses in the target group of elderly patients were evaluated in old rats. METHODS: Male 3 and 23 months old Wistar rats received a bolus of enteral fat/protein-enriched nutrition 2 ​h and 30 ​min before surgery. The inflammatory response was evaluated by systemic inflammation markers and brain microglia activity. Additionally, in old rats, the role of the gut-brain axis was studied by microbiome analyses of faecal samples. Days 9–14 after surgery, rats were subjected to cognitive testing. Day 16, rats were sacrificed and brains were collected for immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: In young rats, enriched nutrition improved long-term spatial learning and memory in the Morris Water Maze, reduced plasma IL1-β and VEGF levels, but left microglia activity and neurogenesis unaffected. In contrast, in old rats, enriched nutrition improved short-term memory in the novel object- and novel location recognition tests, but impaired development of long-term memory in the Morris Water Maze. Systemic inflammation was not affected, but microglia activity seemed even increased. Gut integrity and microbiome were not affected. CONCLUSION: Enteral enriched nutrition before surgery in young rats indeed reduced systemic inflammation and improved cognitive performance after surgery, whereas old rats showed a mixed favorable/unfavorable cognitive response, without effect on systemic inflammation. Anti-inflammatory effects of enriched nutrition were not reflected in decreased microglia activity. Neither was an important role for the gut-brain axis observed. Since the relatively straight forward effects of enriched nutrition in young rats could not be shown in old rats, as indicated by a mixed beneficial/detrimental cognitive outcome in the latter, caution is advised by translating effects seen in younger patients to older ones

Near‐infrared dissipative three‐dimensional spatial solitons in CS2

International audienc