Hamatum osteoblastoma

SummaryWe report the case of an osteoblastoma of the hamate bone that was successfully treated by curettage. This tumor is very rare in a carpal bone and only nine cases have been reported in the literature. Pathological examination is mandatory before treatment due to the lack of distinctive clinical and radiological features. Osteoblastomas are benign, but potentially aggressive bone tumors. Treatment of the lesion may either be a conservative “intralesional resection” or radical “wide en bloc resection”. The latter option, which has non-negligible functional consequences in the wrist, should be reserved for recurrence after curettage but may also be considered a primary immediate alternative for aggressive forms

An Uncommon Cause of Acute Bowel Obstruction: The Left Para.Duodenal Hernia

Internal hernias of the abdomen are uncommon. They represent less than 1% of bowel obstruction cases. The left Paraduodenal hernia (PH) is the most frequent type of internal hernias. We report a case of 77 year- old woman consulting for bowel obstruction evolving since two days. The abdominal computed tomography revealed a retroperitoneal small bowel contained in a peritoneal sac. The surgical exploration confirmed the diagnosis of a left internal PH by showing incarcerated jejunal loops in a PH through a narrow opening to the left of the angle of Treitz. A surgical reduction of the hernia and closure of the hernia neck were performed. The follow-ups were uncomplicated. Through this observation and a literature review, we try to recall the clinical and radiological characteristics of this disease and toclarify the therapeutic modalities.Keywords: Computed tomography, internal hernia, paraduodenal hernia, small bowel obstructio

The one-dimensional organic–inorganic hybrid: catena-poly[bis­[1-(3-ammonio­prop­yl)-1H-imidazolium] [[iodidoplumbate(II)]-tri-μ-iodido-plumbate(II)-tri-μ-iodido-[iodidoplumbate(II)]-di-μ-iodido]]

The organic–inorganic hybrid, {(C6H13N3)2[Pb3I10]}n, was obtained by the reaction of 1-(3-ammonio­prop­yl)imidazolium triiodide and PbI2 at room temperature. The structure contains one-dimensional {[Pb3I10]4−}n polymeric anions spreading parallel to [001], resulting from face–face–edge association of PbI6 distorted octa­hedra. One of the PbII cations is imposed at an inversion centre, whereas the second occupies a general position. N—H⋯I hydrogen bonds connect the organic cations and inorganic anions

Splitting Arabic Texts into Elementary Discourse Units

International audienceIn this article, we propose the first work that investigates the feasibility of Arabic discourse segmentation into elementary discourse units within the segmented discourse representation theory framework. We first describe our annotation scheme that defines a set of principles to guide the segmentation process. Two corpora have been annotated according to this scheme: elementary school textbooks and newspaper documents extracted from the syntactically annotated Arabic Treebank. Then, we propose a multiclass supervised learning approach that predicts nested units. Our approach uses a combination of punctuation, morphological, lexical, and shallow syntactic features. We investigate how each feature contributes to the learning process. We show that an extensive morphological analysis is crucial to achieve good results in both corpora. In addition, we show that adding chunks does not boost the performance of our system

Modelling prognostic factors in advanced pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death. Identification of defined patient groups based on a prognostic index may improve the prediction of survival and selection of therapy. Many prognostic factors have been identified often based on retrospective, underpowered studies with unclear analyses. Data from 653 patients were analysed. Continuous variables are often simplified assuming a linear relationship with log hazard or introducing a step function (dichotomising). Misspecification may lead to inappropriate conclusions but has not been previously investigated in pancreatic cancer studies. Models based on standard assumptions were compared with a novel approach using nonlinear fractional polynomial (FP) transformations. The model based on FP-transformed covariates was most appropriate and confirmed five previously reported prognostic factors: albumin, CA19-9, alkaline phosphatase, LDH and metastases, and identified three additional factors not previously reported: WBC, AST and BUN. The effects of CA19-9, alkaline phosphatase, AST and BUN may go unrecognised due to simplistic assumptions made in statistical modelling. We advocate a multivariable approach that uses information contained within continuous variables appropriately. The functional form of the relationship between continuous covariates and survival should always be assessed. Our model should aid individual patient risk stratification and the design and analysis of future trials in pancreatic cancer

Cfd Based Shape Optimization of Ic Engine Optimisation de l'admission et des chambres de combustion des moteurs avec la modélisation 3D

Intense competition and global regulations in the automotive industry has placed unprecedented demands on the performance, efficiency, and emissions of today's IC engines. The success or failure of a new engine design to meet these often-conflicting requirements is primarily dictated by its capability to provide minimal restriction for the inducted and exhausted flow and by its capability to generate strong large-scale in-cylinder motion. The first criterion is directly linked to power performance of the engine, while the latter has been shown to control the burn rate in IC engines. Enhanced burn rates are favorable to engine efficiency and partial load performance. CFD based numerical simulations have recently made it possible to study the development of such engine flows in great details. However, they offer little guidance for modifying the ports and chamber geometry controlling the flow to meet the desired performance. This paper presents a methodology which combines 3D, steady state CFD techniques with robust numerical optimization tools to design, rather than just evaluate the performance, of IC engine ports and chambers. <br> La forte concurrence et les réglementations dans l'industrie automobile entraînent aujourd'hui une exigence sans précédent de performance, de rendement et d'émissions pour les moteurs à combustion interne. Le succès ou l'échec de la conception d'un nouveau moteur satisfaisant à ces propriétés, souvent contradictoires, est dicté, dans un premier temps, par l'obtention d'une restriction minimale des débits d'admission et d'échappement, ensuite, par la nécessité de générer des écoulements forts de grande amplitude. Le premier critère est directement lié à la performance du moteur, tandis que le second est reconnu comme contrôlant la combustion. Des dégagements de chaleur accélérés améliorent le rendement et les performances à faible charge. La simulation 3D rend possible depuis peu d'étudier avec beaucoup de détails les écoulements moteur. Cependant, elle offre encore une aide réduite à la modification des conduits d'admission ou des chambres pour contrôler ces écoulements afin d'obtenir les performances désirées. Cet article présente une méthodologie combinant le calcul 3D et des outils numériques robustes d'optimisation pour concevoir l'admission et la chambre de combustion, au lieu d'en évaluer seulement les performances