318 research outputs found
Surgical management and longterm follow-up of non-parasitic hepatic cysts
BACKGROUND: Despite the increasing use of laparoscopic techniques, the optimal surgical approach for cystic liver disease has not been well defined. This study aims to determine the optimum operative approach for these patients. METHODS: Data were identified from the Lothian Surgical Audit, case note review and general practitioner contact. Patients were contacted and asked to complete the SF-36 questionnaire on quality of life. RESULTS: A total of 102 patients (67 with simple cysts, 31 with polycystic liver disease [PCLD], four with cystic tumours) underwent 62 laparoscopic deroofings, 15 open deroofings, 36 resections and one liver transplant between June 1985 and April 2006. The median follow-up was 77 months (range 3–250 months). Morbidity and recurrent symptom rates after laparoscopic surgery were greater in PCLD patients compared with simple cyst patients, at 31% (four patients) vs. 15% (seven patients) and 85% (11 patients) vs. 29% (24 patients), respectively. Four patients with simple cysts and eight with PCLD required further surgery. All patients with simple cysts had comparable quality of life after surgery. Patients with recurrent symptoms after surgery for PCLD had a significantly better quality of life following laparoscopic deroofing than after resection. CONCLUSIONS: Most simple cysts can be managed laparoscopically, but there is a definite role for open resection in some patients. Open deroofing is the preferred approach for a dominant cyst pattern in PCLD, whereas resection is necessary for diffuse cystic disease
Engineering robust polar chiral clathrate crystals
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ Royal Society of Chemistry 2013.The R-(+)-enantiomeric form of Dianin's compound and the S-(+)-enantiomeric form of its direct thiachroman analogue both obtained chromatographically employing a cellulose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) column, are shown to undergo supramolecular assembly to form a polar clathrate lattice which is stable even in the absence of a consolidating guest component
Performance Testing of a Large-Format Reflection Grating Prototype for a Suborbital Rocket Payload
The soft X-ray grating spectrometer on board the Off-plane Grating Rocket
Experiment (OGRE) hopes to achieve the highest resolution soft X-ray spectrum
of an astrophysical object when it is launched via suborbital rocket. Paramount
to the success of the spectrometer are the performance of the reflection
gratings populating its reflection grating assembly. To test current grating
fabrication capabilities, a grating prototype for the payload was fabricated
via electron-beam lithography at The Pennsylvania State University's Materials
Research Institute and was subsequently tested for performance at Max Planck
Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics' PANTER X-ray Test Facility. Bayesian
modeling of the resulting data via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling
indicated that the grating achieved the OGRE single-grating resolution
requirement of at the 94% confidence level.
The resulting posterior probability distribution suggests that this
confidence level is likely a conservative estimate though, since only a finite
parameter space was sampled and the model could not constrain the upper
bound of to less than infinity. Raytrace simulations of the system found
that the observed data can be reproduced with a grating performing at
. It is therefore postulated that the behavior of the obtained
posterior probability distribution can be explained by a finite
measurement limit of the system and not a finite limit on . Implications
of these results and improvements to the test setup are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, preprint of an article accepted for publication
in the Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation \copyright 2020 [copyright
World Scientific Publishing Company]
[https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscinet/jai
Effect of three diets on the gametogenic development and fatty acid profile of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamark, 1816) gonads
Original articleIn this study, the effects of three diets were investigated to enhance Paracentrotus
lividus production for commercial purposes. P. lividus were fed ad libitum for 80 days
with: diet A—fresh Codium tomentosum Stackhouse, 1797; diet B—formulated using
a jellified mix of macroalgae and vegetables, including C. tomentosum (20%), Coralina
sp. Linnaeus, 1758 (17%), cabbage Brassica oleracea var. capitata Linnaeus, 1753
(30%), carrot Daucus carota Linnaeus, 1753 (30%) and agar (3%) as a gelling agent.
Diet C consisted of maize Zea mays Linnaeus, 1753 (56%) and New Zealand spinach
Tetragonia tetragonoides (Pallas, 1781) Kuntze, 1891 (44%). Their effects on the gonadal
and somatic growths, gonadosomatic index (GI) and gametogenesis were evaluated,
as well as on the total lipid content and fatty acid composition of sea urchin's
gonads. Diet A provided high values of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Gonads of sea
urchins fed with diet A were found mostly in growth and maturation stages of gametogenesis
and showed the lowest lipid content. Sea urchins fed with diet B presented
their gonads in the reabsorption stage and had the highest values of omega‐3 polyunsaturated
fatty acids (PUFAs). Sea urchins fed with diet C were in the early stages
of gametogenesis and had the highest values of lipid content, plus omega‐6 PUFAs.
Once as an ingredient in a balanced mix with vegetables, C. tomentosum can be a
key factor to the development of new promising high‐quality and low‐cost feed for
P. lividus roe enhancementinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Rates of Progression in Diabetic Retinopathy During Different Time Periods: A systematic review and meta-analysis
10.2337/dc09-0615Diabetes Care32122307-2313DICA
Comparison of a Flow Assay for Brucellosis Antibodies with the Reference cELISA Test in West African Bos indicus
Brucellosis is considered by the Food and Agricultural Organisation and the World Health Organisation as one of the most widespread zoonoses in the world. It is a major veterinary public health challenge as animals are almost exclusively the source of infection for people. It is often undiagnosed in both human patients and the animal sources and it is widely acknowledged that the epidemiology of brucellosis in humans and animals is poorly understood, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. It is therefore important to develop better diagnostic tools in order to improve our understanding of the epidemiology and also for use in the field for disease control and eradication. As with any new diagnostic test, it is essential that it is validated in as many populations as possible in order to characterise its performance and improve the interpretation of its results. This paper describes a comparison between a new lateral flow assasy (LFA) for bovine brucellosis and the widely used cELISA in a no gold standard analysis to estimate test performance in this West African cattle population. A Bayesian formulation of the Hui-Walter latent class model incorporated previous studies' data on sensitivity and specificity of the cELISA. The results indicate that the new LFA is very sensitive (∼87%) and highly specific (∼97%). The analysis also suggests that the current cut-off of the cELSIA may not be optimal for this cattle population but alternative cut-offs did not significantly change the estimates of the LFA. This study demonstrates the potential usefulness of this simple to use test in field based surveillance and control which could be easily adopted for use in developing countries with only basic laboratory facilities
Testing data types implementations from algebraic specifications
Algebraic specifications of data types provide a natural basis for testing
data types implementations. In this framework, the conformance relation is
based on the satisfaction of axioms. This makes it possible to formally state
the fundamental concepts of testing: exhaustive test set, testability
hypotheses, oracle. Various criteria for selecting finite test sets have been
proposed. They depend on the form of the axioms, and on the possibilities of
observation of the implementation under test. This last point is related to the
well-known oracle problem. As the main interest of algebraic specifications is
data type abstraction, testing a concrete implementation raises the issue of
the gap between the abstract description and the concrete representation. The
observational semantics of algebraic specifications bring solutions on the
basis of the so-called observable contexts. After a description of testing
methods based on algebraic specifications, the chapter gives a brief
presentation of some tools and case studies, and presents some applications to
other formal methods involving datatypes
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