23 research outputs found
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The archaeology of the military orders: the material culture of holy war
This paper reviews the current state of research into the archaeology of the military orders. It contrasts the advances made by historians and archaeologists, with the latter continuing to focus on the particularism of individual sites, with an emphasis on architectural analyses. Historians have contributed new insights by adopting a supranational approach. This paper argues that archaeologists can build on this by adopting a more problem-oriented, comparative approach. Drawing on examples from frontier and heartland territories, archaeological approaches are subdivided into material investment, material identity and cultural landscapes, to place sites of the military orders within a long-term, multi-scalar contexts. This contributes to a broader social and economic understanding of the orders, who contributed significantly to urbanisation, rural development and trade, and invested in material expressions of their authority and ideology. The paper concludes that more holistic, inter-regional approaches will move the archaeological study of the military orders forward
Influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients: systematic review and meta-analysis from a public health policy perspective.
Immunocompromised patients are vulnerable to severe or complicated influenza infection. Vaccination is widely recommended for this group. This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses influenza vaccination for immunocompromised patients in terms of preventing influenza-like illness and laboratory confirmed influenza, serological response and adverse events
Particularities of phase transitions in thermomechanically processed Cu-Al-Mn shape memory alloys
The thermally and stress induced phase transitions occurring in a Cu-Al-Mn Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) have been investigated by means of thermal analysis techniques, tensile testing and microscopic observations. On heating a hot rolled solution annealed Cu-Al-Mn SMA, up to 873 K, two phase transformations, related to equilibrium phase precipitation and to 2-step order-disorder transition, respectively, were revealed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). During tensile testing, the Cu-Al-Mn SMA under study experienced almost complete superelasticity, after five mechanical training cycles, as well as good ductility and tensile resistance. On trained specimens the formation of stress induced martensite was revealed by optical microscopy (OM) observations. The reversion to austenite of stress induced martensite was accompanied by relatively large increases of elastic modulus and internal friction, determined on Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer (DMA) and by marked variations of relative elongation, thermal expansion coefficient and elongation rate, determined by dilatometry. Since it is a two step transition, it was associated with the two morphologies of stress induced martensite observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
Diagnostic and treatment difficulties in insulinomas
Background: Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas (NTP) comprise a unique and
relatively rare group of tumors, of which gastrinoma and insulinoma are the most common types.
Insulinomas tend to be small, solitary and benign, with surgical resection curable in most cases.
Introduction: Insulinomas are localized preoperatively using conventional imaging studies as
transabdominal ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT), and/or magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI).
Purpose: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a valuable tool in the diagnosis of insulinomas.
Goals & methods: We performed a retrospective study on 21 patients with insulinoma (6 male and
15 female, 25 to 73 years of age), who were hospitalized and operated on between 2003 and 2012
at “Dr. Carol Davila” Central Military Emergency University Hospital, Bucharest.
Results: US view was positive in 10% of patients (2 of 20), that presented proximal location. The
sensitivity of CT was unsatisfactory, 21.05% (4 positive results of 19). CT failed to detect liver
metastases, but identified nodal metastasis in one patient. MRI was performed in 18 patients and
was diagnostic in 11 of them, recording a detection sensitivity of 61.11%, including infracentimetric
tumor size. EUS has a high resolution which allows detection of lesions with very small
diameter is safe and minimally invasive. EUS was performed in all patients, being able to identify
formations in 17, was inconclusive in 3, showing a diagnosis sensitivity of 81%. Liver metastases
were demonstrated in 3 patients, one by US and all 3 by MRI.
Conclusions:
- CT with intravenous iodinated contrast agent had a poor sensitivity in detecting the primary
tumors, was insensitive in detecting liver metastases, but showed metastases in lymph nodes.
- MRI has higher sensitivity than CT in detecting primary tumors, including insulinomas with
infracentimetric size, and is the imaging test of choice for possible liver metastases.
- EUS is the preoperative imaging test of choice