An in vitro anatomic model of the human cerebral arteries with saccular arterial aneurysms

Summary: Anin vitro model of the main human cerebral arteries with or without saccular arterial aneurysms is presented. A cast of the cerebral arteries was obtained in a human specimen. Three aneurysms were simulated and added to the cast. Wax copies of the cast were produced, and embedded with liquid resin solidifying into solid blocks. After evacuation of the wax, a model consisting of a hollow reproduction of the cast within the resin block was obtained. The model is reproducible and anatomically accurate. Since it is transparent to visible light, and compatible with x-ray, magnetic resonance and transcranial doppler techniques, it should prove useful for a wide range of haemodynamic and radiologic investigations. The reported technique may be adapted to any structure with a hollow configuration, allowing for the preparation of arterial and venous models from other vascular areas, as well as models from other anatomic systems, such as the biliary or urinary tract

Growth of Single Unit-Cell Superconducting La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_{4} Films

We have developed an approach to grow high quality ultrathin films of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_{4}$ with molecular beam epitaxy, by adding a homoepitaxial buffer layer in order to minimize the degradation of the film structure at the interface. The advantage of this method is to enable a further reduction of the minimal thickness of a superconducting La$_{1.9}$Sr$_{0.1}$CuO$_{4}$ film. The main result of our work is that a single unit cell (only two copper oxide planes) grown on a SrLaAlO$_4$ substrate exhibits a superconducting transition at 12.5 K (zero resistance) and an in-plane magnetic penetration depth $\lambda_{ab}(0)$ = 535 nm.Comment: to be published in "Solid State Electonics" special issue, conference proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Oxide Electronics, St-Pete Beach, FL, 20-23 november 2002 : 12 pages 4 figures in preprint versio

CT angiography, MR angiography and rotational digital subtraction angiography for volumetric assessment of intracranial aneurysms. An experimental study

The purpose of our experimental study was to assess the accuracy and precision of CT angiography (CTA), MR angiography (MRA) and rotational digital subtraction angiography (DSA) for measuring the volume of an in vitro aneurysm model. A rigid model of the anterior cerebral circulation harbouring an anterior communicating aneurysm was connected to a pulsatile circuit. It was studied using unenhanced 3D time-of-flight MRA, contrast-enhanced CTA and rotational DSA angiography. The source images were then postprocessed on dedicated workstations to calculate the volume of the aneurysm. CTA was more accurate than MRA (P=0.0019). Rotational DSA was more accurate than CTA, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (P=0.1605), and significantly more accurate than MRA (P<0.00001). CTA was more precise than MRA (P=0.12), although this did not reach statistical significance. Rotational DSA can be part of the diagnosis, treatment planning and support endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms. The emerging endovascular treatment techniques which consist of using liquid polymers as implants to exclude aneurysms from arterial circulation would certainly benefit from this precise measurement of the volume of aneurysm

White matter lesions in watershed territories studied with MRI and parenchymography: a comparative study

Brain aging affects an increasing segment of the population and the role of chronic cerebrovascular disease is considered to be one of the main parameters involved. For this purpose we compared retrospectively MRI data with digitized subtraction angiography (DSA) data in a group of 50 patients focusing onto the watershed area of the carotid artery vascular territories. In order to evaluate the presence of white matter lesions (WML) in the hemispheric watershed areas, coronal fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery or axial T2 weighted MRI images of patients with symptomatic cerebrovascular insufficiency areas were compared with the capillary phase of DSA studies in anterior-posterior projection. Presence of cerebrovascular occlusive disease was evaluated on DSA using North American symptomatic carotid endarterectomy trial criteria and including evaluation of collateral vascular supply. Pathological MRI findings in the region of the watershed territories correlated overall in 66% of cases with a defect or delayed filling on DSA. In the case of asymmetrical MRI findings, there was a pathological finding of the capillary phase in the watershed area in 92% of DSA studies. Hypoperfusion in the capillary phase of the watershed area as seen on DSA correlated with the stenosis degree of the concerned carotid artery. Our findings suggest that asymmetrical findings of WML in the watershed areas as seen on MRI are caused by hemodynamic effect and a differentiation between small vessel disease and a consequence of distant stenosis may be possible under such condition

Radiation dose in vertebroplasty

We wished to measure the absorbed radiation dose during fluoroscopically controlled vertebroplasty and to assess the possibility of deterministic radiation effects to the operator. The dose was measured in 11consecutive procedures using thermoluminescent ring dosimeters on the hand of the operator and electronic dosimeters inside and outside of the operator's lead apron. We found doses of 0.022-3.256mGy outside and 0.01-0.47mGy inside the lead apron. Doses on the hand were higher, 0.5-8.5mGy. This preliminary study indicates greater exposure to the operator's hands than expected from traditional apron measurement

WIRA-C: a compact 142-GHz-radiometer for continuous middle-atmospheric wind measurements

Ground-based microwave wind radiometry provides a method to measure horizontal wind speeds at altitudes between 35 and 75&thinsp;km as has been shown by various previous studies. No other method is capable of continuously delivering wind measurements in this altitude region. As opposed to lidar systems, microwave radiometers operate autonomously and independent of daylight and clouds.In this paper, we present the WIRA-C (Wind Radiometer for Campaigns) instrument that observes the 142.17504&thinsp;GHz rotational transition line of ozone with a high spectral resolution using a low noise single side band heterodyne receiver. Because the emitting molecules are drifting with the wind, the line is Doppler shifted. Together with the pressure broadening effect, this allows the retrieval of altitude resolved wind profiles.The novel WIRA-C instrument represents the newest development in microwave wind radiometry and implements many improvements over its predecessor, the WIRA instrument. The main improvements include the compact structure, lower noise and an advanced retrieval setup. This paper describes the instrument and the data processing with a focus on the retrieval that takes into account a three-dimensional atmosphere and has never been used in ground-based radiometry before. The retrieval yields profiles of horizontal wind speeds with a 12&thinsp;h time resolution and a vertical resolution of 10&thinsp;km for zonal and 10 to 15&thinsp;km for meridional wind speeds. We give an error estimate that accounts for the thermal noise on the measured spectra and additionally estimate systematic errors using Monte Carlo methods.WIRA-C has been continuously measuring horizontal wind speeds for 1 year at the Maïdo observatory on Réunion (21.4°&thinsp;S, 55.9°&thinsp;E). We present the time series of this campaign and compare our measurements to model data from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and coincident measurements of the co-located Rayleigh–Mie Doppler wind lidar. We find a good agreement between our measurements and the ECMWF operational analysis for the time series, where many features are present in both datasets. The wind profiles of the coincident WIRA-C and lidar observations are consistent and agree within their respective uncertainties for the lidar measurements with long integration times.</p

ADC mapping of the aging frontal lobes in mild cognitive impairment

Normal aging, leukoaraiosis (LA) and vascular disease particularly involve the human frontal lobes. We decided to investigate a population of elderly patients referred for neuroimaging because of progressive minor cognitive deficits but no dementia. They underwent conventional Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using axial T1 and T2-weighted imaging as well as coronal FLAIR sequences in addition to the axial diffusion-weighted MRI. MRI allowed us to differentiate patients with leukoaraïosis (LA+) from those without it (LA-) and mapping of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) to investigate local tissular water motion.We observed an increase in the ADC in all investigated patients with increasing age (r=0.326, p=0.002). This increase was observed in both patients groups (LA+ and LA-) . In addition, the LA+ group had significant higher ADC values than the LA- group after controlling for age (p<0.0001

Comparison of co-located independent ground-based middle atmospheric wind and temperature measurements with numerical weather prediction models

High-resolution, ground-based and independent observations including co-located windradiometer, lidar stations, and infrasound instruments are used to evaluate the accuracy of general circulationmodels and data-constrained assimilation systems in the middle atmosphere at northern hemispheremidlatitudes. Systematic comparisons between observations, the European Centre for Medium-Range WeatherForecasts (ECMWF) operational analyses including the recent Integrated Forecast System cycles 38r1 and 38r2,the NASA’s Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalyses, and thefree-running climate Max Planck Institute–Earth System Model–Low Resolution (MPI-ESM-LR) are carried out inboth temporal and spectral dom ains. We find that ECMWF and MERRA are broadly consistent with lidar and windradiometer measurements up to ~40 km. For both temperature and horizontal wind components, deviationsincrease with altitude as the assimilated observations become sparser. Between 40 and 60 km altitude, thestandard deviation of the mean difference exceeds 5 K for the temperature and 20 m/s for the zonal wind. Thelargest deviations are observed in winter when the variability from large-scale planetary waves dominates.Between lidar data and MPI-ESM-LR, there is an overall agreement in spectral amplitude down to 15–20 days. Atshorter time scales, the variability is lacking in the model by ~10 dB. Infrasound observations indicate a generalgood agreement with ECWMF wind and temperature products. As such, this study demonstrates the potentialof the infrastructure of the Atmospheric Dynamics Research Infrastructure in Europe project that integratesvarious measurements and provides a quantitative understanding of stratosphere-troposphere dynamicalcoupling for numerical weather prediction applications

Quenched spectroscopy with fixed-point and chirally improved fermions

We present results from quenched spectroscopy calculations with the parametrized fixed-point and the chirally improved Dirac operators. Both these operators are approximate solutions of the Ginsparg-Wilson equation and have good chiral properties. This allows us to work at small quark masses and we explore pseudoscalar-mass to vector-mass ratios down to 0.28. We discuss meson and baryon masses, their scaling properties, finite volume effects and compare our results with recent large scale simulations. We find that the size of quenching artifacts of the masses is strongly correlated with their experimentally observed widths and that the gauge and hadronic scales are consistent.Comment: 66 pages, 33 figures. Published version: minor modifications in the text, references adde

N-Acetylglutamate Synthase Deficiency Due to a Recurrent Sequence Variant in the N-acetylglutamate Synthase Enhancer Region

N-acetylglutamate synthase deficiency (NAGSD, MIM #237310) is an autosomal recessive disorder of the urea cycle that results from absent or decreased production of N-acetylglutamate (NAG) due to either decreased NAGS gene expression or defective NAGS enzyme. NAG is essential for the activity of carbamylphosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1), the first and rate-limiting enzyme of the urea cycle. NAGSD is the only urea cycle disorder that can be treated with a single drug, N-carbamylglutamate (NCG), which can activate CPS1 and completely restore ureagenesis in patients with NAGSD. We describe a novel sequence variant NM_153006.2:c.-3026C > T in the NAGS enhancer that was found in three patients from two families with NAGSD; two patients had hyperammonemia that resolved upon treatment with NCG, while the third patient increased dietary protein intake after initiation of NCG therapy. Two patients were homozygous for the variant while the third patient had the c.-3026C > T variant and a partial uniparental disomy that encompassed the NAGS gene on chromosome 17. The c.-3026C > T sequence variant affects a base pair that is highly conserved in vertebrates; the variant is predicted to be deleterious by several bioinformatics tools. Functional assays in cultured HepG2 cells demonstrated that the c.-3026C > T substitution could result in reduced expression of the NAGS gene. These findings underscore the importance of analyzing NAGS gene regulatory regions when looking for molecular causes of NAGSD