A young woman with renal colic presenting with urogenital anomaly: a case report

A 26-year-old female presented with a two-week history of right flank pain. She underwent abdomen ultrasound which revealed moderate pelvicalyceal dilatation in the right kidney and proximal ureter with no apparent cause. Intravenous pyelography showed a fish-hook (reversed ‘J’) shape of ureter. No renal tract calcification was noticed. The findings were consistent with that of a retrocaval ureter

The origin of amphibole in ultramafic rocks and a new amphibole-clinopyroxene Fe-Mg exchange thermometer for mantle peridotite lithologies

Η αμφίβολος είναι μια δευτερογενής φάση που συχνά υφίσταται σε υπερμαφικές λιθολογίες (ξενολιθικοί περιδοτίτες του μανδύα, Αλπινότυποι και οφιολιθικοί περιδοτίτες) σε διάφορα περιβάλλοντα όπως μαγματικά τόξα, εσωτερικά πλακών, ρήγματα μετασχηματισμού, ζώνες διάρρηξης και σύγκρουσής. Η δημιουργία της έχει αποδοθεί είτε στην αλληλεπίδραση ρευστών/τηγμάτων με πετρώματα του μανδύα είτε στην απευθείας κρυστάλλωση από ένυδρα τήγματα. Για τον σκοπό της παρούσας εργασίας, συντέθηκε μια εκτενής βιβλιογραφική βάση δεδομένων η οποία περιλαμβάνει τις συστάσεις, σε κύρια στοιχεία, αμφιβόλων που βρίσκονται σε υπερμαφικά πετρώματα σε διαφορετικά γεωτεκτονικά περιβάλλοντα ανά τον κόσμο. Επίσης συμπεριλήφθηκαν γεωχημικά δεδομένα αμφιβόλων από ένα ευρύ φάσμα ηφαιστειακών πετρωμάτων (μαφικά έως φελσικά) τόσο σε φυσικές όσο και σε πειραματικές συνθήκες. Η μελέτη και σύγκριση των προαναφερθέντων συλλογών δεδομένων επέτρεψε την διάκριση διαφόρων τύπων αμφιβόλων καθώς και την κατανόηση της δημιουργίας των αμφιβόλων στον μανδύα. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, οι αμφίβολοι Τύπου-Ι (πλούσιες σε Na και Ti, αλλά φτωχές σε Cr) έχουνε προκύψει από την απευθείας κρυστάλλωση από βασαλτικά, βασανιτικά, ανδεσιτικά, δακιτικά τήγματα και βρίσκονται κυρίως σε ηπειρωτικά τόξα (π.χ. Καμτσάτκα, Ρωσία), περιβάλλοντα εσωτερικά των πλακών (π.χ. Δυτικό Άιφελ, Γερμανία) και ωκεάνια τόξα μετασχηματισμού (π.χ. 15°20' Ζώνη Διάρρηξης, Μέσο-Ατλαντική ράχη). Οι αμφίβολοι Τύπου-ΙΙ είναι πλούσιες σε Cr και περιέχουνε διάφορα ποσοστά σε Ti και αλκάλια. Έχουνε προκύψει από την αντίδραση μεταξύ τηγμάτων και ορυκτών του μανδύα (κυρίως κλινοπυρόξενο και σπινέλιο). Βρίσκονται συνήθως σε μαγματικά κέντρα στο εσωτερικό των πλακών (π.χ. Μασίφ Σαντράλ, Γαλλία) και σε μερικά ηπειρωτικά τόξα (π.χ. Ίτσινομεγκάτα, Ιαπωνία). Οι Τύπου-ΙΙΙ αμφίβολοι αντιπροσωπεύουν την αλληλεπίδραση ένυδρων ρευστών και τηγμάτων με υπερμαφικά πετρώματα σε περιοχές ζωνών υπαγωγής και χαρακτηρίζονται από υψηλά ποσοστά σε Cr και αλκάλια, αλλά μικρό περιεχόμενο σε Ti. Οι Τύπου-ΙΙΙ αμφίβολοι εντοπίζονται σε ωκεάνια τόξα (π.χ. TUBAF, PNG), οφιολίθους (π.χ. Οφιόλιθος της Λυκίας, Τουρκία) αλλά συχνά και σε ηπειρωτικά τόξα. Επιπλέον, στην παρούσα εργασία, δημιουργήθηκε ένα θερμόμετρο ανταλλαγής Fe και Mg μεταξύ αμφιβόλου και κλινοπυροξένου το οποίο βαθμονομήθηκε σύμφωνα με προϋπάρχοντα, πειραματικά δεδομένα σε υπερμαφικές συστάσεις. Το σφάλμα του θερμομέτρου είναι ±34 °C για ένα εύρος πίεσης 0.5-3.7 GPa. Εφαρμόζοντας το θερμόμετρο σε περιδοτιτικούς ξενολίθους, που δείχνουν ενδείξεις χημικής ισορροπίας και ισορροπίας υφών μεταξύ των ορυκτών του μανδύα (π.χ. Δυτικό Άιφελ, Γερμανία; Ανατολική Τρανσυλβανική Λεκάνη, Ρουμανία), προκύπτουν θερμοκρασίες που είναι συγκρίσιμες με τη διπυροξενική θερμομετρία ανταλλαγής Fe και Mg. Το νέο θερμόμετρο μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί για να περιγράψει την θερμοδυναμική ισορροπία της αμφιβόλου και του κλινοπυροξένου στον μανδύα.Amphibole is a secondary phase commonly found in ultramafic lithologies (mantle xenoliths, Alpine-type and ophiolitic peridotites) occurring in diverse environments such as magmatic arcs, plate interiors, transform faults, rifts and collision zones. Its formation has mainly been attributed to fluid-melt/rock interaction or direct crystallisation from melts/fluids. For the purpose of the present thesis, an extensive bibliographical database has been compiled. It involves major-element compositional data of amphibole in ultramafic rocks from various geotectonic settings around the globe. Additionally, amphiboles related to a wide spectrum of melts spanning from felsic to mafic in composition, both natural (rock samples) and synthetic (laboratory experiments) have also been considered. Type-I amphiboles (enriched in Na and Ti but depleted in Cr) are the products of direct crystallisation from basaltic, basanitic, andesitic and dacitic melts and are mostly found in continental arcs (e.g. Kamchatka, Russia), within-plate settings (e.g. West Eifel, Germany) and oceanic transform faults (e.g. 15°20´N Fracture Zone, Mid-Atlantic Ridge). Type-II amphiboles are Cr-rich, contain variable amounts of Ti and alkalis, and form via reaction between the aforementioned melts and primary mantle phases (mostly clinopyroxene and spinel). They are usually found in within-plate magmatic centers (e.g. Massif Central, France) and several localities in continental arcs (e.g. Ichino-megata, Japan). Amphiboles belonging to type-III reflect hydrous fluid/melt-rock interactions above subduction zones. Type-III amphiboles are predominantly encountered in oceanic arcs (e.g. TUBAF seamount, PNG) and ophiolites (Lycian ophiolite, Turkey) but occasionally they also occur in continental-arc settings. We have furthermore calibrated a new Fe Mg exchange thermometer between amphibole and clinopyroxene based on existing experimental data on ultramafic compositions with an error of ±46°C in the pressure range 0.5–3.7 GPa. Peridotite xenoliths that display good evidence of textural and chemical equilibration among their constituent minerals (e.g. West Eifel, Germany; Eastern Transylvanian Basin, Romania) yield amphibole temperatures comparable to those predicted from two-pyroxene Fe Mg exchange thermometry

Mycophenolate mofetil and intravenous cyclophosphamide are similar as induction therapy for class V lupus nephritis

Class V lupus nephritis (LN) occurs in one-fifth of biopsy-proven cases of systemic lupus erythematosus. To study the effectiveness of treatments in this group of patients, we pooled analysis of two large randomized controlled multicenter trials of patients with diverse ethnic and racial background who had pure class V disease. These patients received mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) or intravenous cyclophosphamide (IVC) as induction therapy for 24 weeks, with percentage change in proteinuria and serum creatinine as end points. Weighted mean differences, pooled odds ratios, and confidence intervals were calculated by using a random-effects model. A total of 84 patients with class V disease were divided into equal groups, each group had comparable entry variables but one received MMF and one received IVC. Within these groups, 33 patients on MMF and 32 patients on IVC completed 24 weeks of treatment. There were no differences between the groups in mean values for the measured end points. Similarly, no difference was found regarding the number of patients who did not complete the study or who died. In patients with nephrotic syndrome, no difference was noted between those treated with MMF and IVC regarding partial remission or change in urine protein. Hence we found that the response to MMF as induction treatment of patients with class V LN appears to be no different from that to IVC

Hierarchical transfer learning for online recognition of compound actions

Recognising human actions in real-time can provide users with a natural user interface (NUI) enabling a range of innovative and immersive applications. A NUI application should not restrict users’ movements; it should allow users to transition between actions in quick succession, which we term as compound actions. However, the majority of action recognition researchers have focused on individual actions, so their approaches are limited to recognising single actions or multiple actions that are temporally separated. This paper proposes a novel online action recognition method for fast detection of compound actions. A key contribution is our hierarchical body model that can be automatically configured to detect actions based on the low level body parts that are the most discriminative for a particular action. Another key contribution is a transfer learning strategy to allow the tasks of action segmentation and whole body modelling to be performed on a related but simpler dataset, combined with automatic hierarchical body model adaption on a more complex target dataset. Experimental results on a challenging and realistic dataset show an improvement in action recognition performance of 16% due to the introduction of our hierarchical transfer learning. The proposed algorithm is fast with an average latency of just 2 frames (66ms) and outperforms state of the art action recognition algorithms that are capable of fast online action recognition

Accurate human pose tracking using efficient manifold searching

In this thesis we propose novel methods for accurate markerless 3D pose tracking. Training data are used to represent specific activities, using dimensionality reduction methods. The proposed methods attempt to keep the computational cost low, without sacrificing the accuracy of the final result. Also, we deal with the problem of stylistic variation between the motions seen in the training and the testing dataset. Solutions to address both single and multiple action scenarios are presented. Specifically, appropriate temporal non-linear dimensionality reduction methods are applied to learn compact manifolds that are suitable for fast exploration. Such manifolds are efficiently searched by a deterministic gradient-based method. In order to deal with stylistic differences of human actions, we represent human poses using multiple levels. Searching through multiple levels reduces the effect of being trapped in a local optimal and therefore leads to higher accuracy. An observation function controls the process to minimise the computational cost of the method. Finally, we propose a multi-activity pose tracking methods, which combines action recognition with single-action pose tracking. To achieve reliable online action recognition, the system is equipped with short memory. All methods are tested in publicly available datasets. Results demonstrate their high accuracy and relative low computational cost, in comparison to state-of-the-art methods

Prevalence, Mechanisms, Treatment, and Complications of Hypertension Postliving Kidney Donation

Living kidney donors represent a unique population of patients. Potential donors are selected based on the belief that their preoperative fitness is likely to mitigate the risks of long- and short-term harm following uninephrectomy. Studies performed on postdonation outcomes have largely focused on mortality and the risk of end-stage renal failure, but have also investigated secondary outcomes such as cardiovascular morbidity and hypertension. It has been postulated that hypertension is a possible outcome of living kidney donation. A variety of studies have been conducted to investigate the prevalence, epidemiology, mechanisms, treatment strategies, and long-term ramifications of hypertension postdonation. These studies are heterogeneous in their population, design, methodology, and outcome measures and have presented contradicting outcomes. Additionally, the absence of a well-matched control group has made it challenging to interpret and generalise the reported findings. As such, it is not possible to definitively conclude that hypertension occurs at a higher rate among donors than the general population. This article will review the evidence of postdonation hypertension prevalence, mechanisms, treatment, and complications

The “fish-vertebra” sign

The “fish-vertebra” sign appears as biconcave lumbar vertebrae with bone softening in lateral and posterior–anterior radiographs of the spine as an exaggeration of the normal concavity of the superior and inferior surfaces of one or more vertebral bodies. This is due to ischaemia of the central growth plate of the spine, and is typically seen in sickle cell disease