Peculiar Mammographic and Ultrasonographic Findings of a Retained Silastic Drain in the Breast

Foreign bodies, such as surgical sponges or drains, are sometimes retained after surgical procedures.1 Retention of a drain in the breast tissue postoperatively is an unusual complication. This report describes two cases of characteristic sonographic findings related to retained silastic drains following breast surgery

Dimensions of Affecting Factors on the Acceptance of Smartphones regarding Travel Information

With hand-held devices and mobile computing becoming ubiquitous in our lives, it is true that many people are interested inthe usage of smartphones in the tourism industry. However, even though there are lots of studies on technology acceptanceand online travel information, there is little research on smartphone acceptance for travel information. The aim of this study isto investigate the determinants of travelers’ intentions to adopt smartphones within the context of their travel activities. Inthis paper we propose a new approach to examine the intention of travelers to use smartphones by viewing smartphone usagefrom two standpoints: hardware (technology) and software (online travel information). In terms of hardware, the unitedtheory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model is used to investigate the intention to use smartphones, and thetravel websites satisfaction (E-SAT) model is used to investigate the intention to use smartphones in terms of software. Basedon the literature of two research streams, this study proposes an instrument to measure the affecting factors on the acceptanceof smartphones regarding travel information

Real-time delay-multiply-and-sum beamforming with coherence factor for in vivo clinical photoacoustic imaging of humans

In the clinical photoacoustic (PA) imaging, ultrasound (US) array transducers are typically used to provide B-mode images in real-time. To form a B-mode image, delay-and-sum (DAS) beamforming algorithm is the most commonly used algorithm because of its ease of implementation. However, this algorithm suffers from low image resolution and low contrast drawbacks. To address this issue, delay-multiply-and-sum (DMAS) beamforming algorithm has been developed to provide enhanced image quality with higher contrast, and narrower main lobe compared but has limitations on the imaging speed for clinical applications. In this paper, we present an enhanced real-time DMAS algorithm with modified coherence factor (CF) for clinical PA imaging of humans in vivo. Our algorithm improves the lateral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of original DMAS beam-former by suppressing the background noise and side lobes using the coherence of received signals. We optimized the computations of the proposed DMAS with CF (DMAS-CF) to achieve real-time frame rate imaging on a graphics processing unit (GPU). To evaluate the proposed algorithm, we implemented DAS and DMAS with/without CF on a clinical US/PA imaging system and quantitatively assessed their processing speed and image quality. The processing time to reconstruct one B-mode image using DAS, DAS with CF (DAS-CF), DMAS, and DMAS-CF algorithms was 7.5, 7.6, 11.1, and 11.3 ms, respectively, all achieving the real-time imaging frame rate. In terms of the image quality, the proposed DMAS-CF algorithm improved the lateral resolution and SNR by 55.4% and 93.6 dB, respectively, compared to the DAS algorithm in the phantom imaging experiments. We believe the proposed DMAS-CF algorithm and its real-time implementation contributes significantly to the improvement of imaging quality of clinical US/PA imaging system.11Ysciescopu

Two-point discrimination values vary depending on test site, sex and test modality in the orofacial region: a preliminary study

The two-point discrimination (TPD) test is one of the most commonly used neurosensory tests to assess mechanoperception in the clinical settings. While there have been numerous studies of functional sensibility of the hand using TPD test, there have been relatively not enough reports on TPD in the orofacial region. Objective The aims of the present study were to determine the normal values of TPD in the six trigeminal sites (the forehead, cheek, mentum, upper lip, lower lip, and the tongue tip) and to investigate the effect of the site, sex, and test modality on the TPD perception. Material and Methods Forty healthy volunteers consisting of age-matched men (20) and women (20) with a mean age of 27.1 years were recruited. One examiner performed the TPD test using a simple hand-operated device, i.e., by drawing compass with a blunt or sharp-pointed tip. The static TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (STPDB), moving TPD with a blunt-pointed tip (MTPDB), and static TPD with a sharp-pointed tip (STPDS) were measured. The predictors were the site, sex, and test modality, and the outcome variable was the TPD value. Three-way ANOVA was used for statistics. Results The analysis showed a significant effect of the site, sex and test modality on the TPD values. Significant differences between the test sites were observed with the descending order from the forehead and cheek>;mentum>;upper lip and lower lip>;tongue tip and index finger. Women showed lower TPD values than those of men. The STPDS measurements were consistently lower than those of the STPDB and MTPDB. Conclusions The normal values of TPD in this study suggest that the cheek and forehead were less sensitive than other regions evaluated and women were more sensitive than men. The STPDS was the most sensitive test modality

Soft x-ray polarizer for optical productions of any orthogonal state of the linear and circular polarization modes

An efficient soft x-ray polarizer that is able to optically convert a linear polarization state to any orthogonal state of not only linear but also circular polarization modes is found by means of numerical calculations of the intensities of individual orthogonal polarization components in reflected waves. Calculation results, using the known linear-polarization-mode based Kerr matrix as well as a newly derived circular-polarization-mode based Kerr matrix, indicate that a +45?? or -45?? linearly polarized incident wave can be readily converted to any orthogonal states of both circular and linear polarization modes, i.e., left- and right-handed circular and s - and p -linear polarizations through reflection, at certain grazing angles of incidence near the critical angle from a simple ferromagnetic thin film of Co (9.0 nm) Si substrate. The intensities of almost pure circularly or linearly polarized reflected waves are about 10% or less in a certain spectral soft x-ray range just below the absorption edges of constituent magnetic elements. The counterpart orthogonal states of the linear as well as circular modes can be rapidly switched simply by reversing oppositely the orientation of longitudinal magnetizations. These results suggest that the orthogonal polarization states of the circular- and linear-polarization modes converted from such a polarizing optical element through reflection can be practically used in probing the vector quantities of element specific magnetizations in multicomponent magnetic materials.open2

Total Reflection and Negative Refraction of Dipole-Exchange Spin Waves at Magnetic Interfaces: Micromagnetic Modeling Study

We demonstrated that dipole-exchange spin waves traveling in geometrically restricted magnetic thin films satisfy the same laws of reflection and refraction as light waves. Moreover, we found for the first time novel wave behaviors of dipole-exchange spin waves such as total reflection and negative refraction. The total reflection in laterally inhomogeneous thin films composed of two different magnetic materials is associated with the forbidden modes of refracted dipole-exchange spin waves. The negative refraction occurs at a 90 degree domain-wall magnetic interface that is introduced by a cubic magnetic anisotropy in the media, through the anisotropic dispersion of dipole-exchange spin waves.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure