Determination of anomalous pulmonary venous return with high-pitch low-dose computed tomography in paediatric patients

Background: In this study, we aimed to image pulmonary venous return anomalies and associated cardiovascular and pulmonary abnormalities by high-pitch low-dose computed tomography (CT) in children. Materials and methods: Forty-one patients with total or partial anomalous pulmonary venous return anomalous between May 2012 and June 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. The anomalies were determined using high-pitch low-dose CT. The patients’ mean age was 3 years (6 months to 15 years), and 24 of them were female. Results: There were 10 patients with total pulmonary venous return anomalies (TPVRA) and 31 patients with partial pulmonary venous return anomalies (PPVRA). Six (60%) patients with TPVRA had the supracardiac type, 2 (20%) had the cardiac type, and 2 (20%) had the mixed type. All patients with TPVRA had a large atrial septal defect (ASD), 1 patient also had patent ductus arteriosus, and 1 patient had right cardiac hypertrophy. Forty cases of PPVRA were found in 31 patients. Twenty-seven (67%) of them were right-sided, and 13 were left-sided (33%). Twenty (65%) patients also had an additional cardiovascular anomaly (ASD in 12 patients, persistent superior vena cava in 4 patients, patent ductus arteriosus in 3 patients, and aortic coarctation in 2 patients). Of the 27 patients with right-sided PPVRA, it drained into the superior vena cava in 19 patients, the right atrium in 5 patients, and the inferior vena cava in 3 patients. In left-sided cases, the anomalous pulmonary vein drained into the left innominate vein in 9 patients, and in 4 patients, there were accessory pulmonary veins that drained into the left innominate vein. Many of the patients had additional lung anomalies, including pneumonic infiltration (n = 12), atelectasis (n = 8), and lobar emphysema (n = 5), and some of these findings coexisted. Conclusions: Anomalous pulmonary venous drains and associated cardiac and extra-cardiac anomalies can be detected reliably and quickly with high-pitch low-dose CT without sedation in paediatric patients

Heritability of facial soft tissue growth in mono- and dizygotic twins at 12 and 17 years of age: A retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this investigation of untreated monozygotic and dizygotic twins was to identify the genetic and environmental components to the facial soft tissue growth. SETTINGS AND SAMPLE POPULATION The sample consisted of 52 untreated monozygotic twins (36 male and 16 female) and 46 untreated dizygotic twins (23 male and 23 female) from the Forsyth Moorrees Twin Study (1959-1975). MATERIALS AND METHODS Lateral cephalograms were taken at 12 and 17 years of age and traced to analyse facial convexity, nasolabial angle, upper and lower lip thickness, upper and lower lip profile and nose prominence. The genetic and environmental components of variance were analysed with structural equation modelling for multilevel mixed-effects model. RESULTS At 12 years of age, strong additive genetic influence was seen for facial convexity (70%), upper lip profile (66%) and nose prominence (65%), whereas strong dominant genetic components were found for upper lip thickness (56%). Nevertheless, under unique environment influence were nasolabial angle (58%), lower lip profile (51%) and lower lip thickness (64%). At 17 years of age, only upper lip thickness (55%) and nose prominence (84%) were under strong additive genetic control, while the rest of the variables were under strong dominant genetic control. The only exception was lower lip thickness (61%), which is still influenced by the unique environment. CONCLUSION Although monozygotic/dizygotic twins share at least part of their genome, at both times either additive, dominant or environmental components were found. Nevertheless, at 17 years of age most of the variables are either under additive or dominant genetic influence

The utility of multidetector computed tomography for evaluation of congenital heart disease

Background: Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are the leading cause of birthdefect-related deaths. Multidedector computed tomography (MDCT) plays animportant role for imaging CHD in addition to echocardiography and providesa comprehensive evaluation of complex heart malformations for the referringcardiologist. The aim of the study was to evaluate the utility of MDCT in theassessment of CHD.Materials and methods: A 102 patients with CHD were investigated after initialassessment by echocardiography. The information obtained by MDCT and findingsof echocardiography were reviewed together by paediatric cardiologistsand cardiac radiologists. Perioperative anatomic descriptions, wherever available(n = 34) formed the gold standard for the comparison.Results: The clinical consensus diagnosis defined 154 cardiovascular lesions inthe patients. The results were classified in groups. We present the appearanceof various congenital cardiac lesions seen in clinical practice.Conclusions: MDCT provides important information about anatomic details ofCHD for the referring cardiologist. The evaluation of different anatomic structuressuch as heart, great vessels, lungs and abdomen is possible in one acquisitionwith this technique

Pruning Edge Research with Latency Shears

Edge computing has gained attention from both academia and industry by pursuing two significant challenges: 1) moving latency critical services closer to the users, 2) saving network bandwidth by aggregating large flows before sending them to the cloud. While the rationale appeared sound at its inception almost a decade ago, several current trends are impacting it. Clouds have spread geographically reducing end-user latency, mobile phones? computing capabilities are improving, and network bandwidth at the core keeps increasing. In this paper, we scrutinize edge computing, examining its outlook and future in the context of these trends. We perform extensive client-to-cloud measurements using RIPE Atlas, and show that latency reduction as motivation for edge is not as persuasive as once believed; for most applications the cloud is already 'close enough' for majority of the world's population. This implies that edge computing may only be applicable for certain application niches, as opposed to a general-purpose solution.Peer reviewe

Discovering Communities for Microgrids with Spatial-Temporal Net Energy

Smart grid has integrated an increasing number of distributed energy resources to improve the efficiency and flexibility of power generation and consumption as well as the resilience of the power grid. The energy consumers on the power grid, e.g., households, equipped with distributed energy resources can be considered as “microgrids” that both generate and consume electricity. In this paper, we study the energy community discovery problems which identify energy communities for the microgrids to facilitate energy management, e.g., load balancing, energy sharing and trading on the grid. Specifically, we present efficient algorithms to discover such communities of microgrids considering both their geo-locations and net energy (NE) over any period. Finally, we experimentally validate the performance of the algorithms using both synthetic and real datasets

Dynamic optimization of a gas-liquid reactor

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10910-011-9941-1A dynamic gas-liquid transfer model without chemical reaction based on unsteady film theory is considered. In this case, the mathematical model presented for gas-liquid mass-transfer processes is based on mass balances of the transferred substance in both phases. The identificability property of this model is studied in order to confirm the possible identifiable parameters of the model from a given set of experimental data. For that, a different modeled of the system is given. A procedure for the identification is proposed. On the other hand, the aim of this work is to solve the quadratic optimal control problem, using an explicit representation of the model. The problem includes some results on controllability, observability and stability criteria and the relation between these properties and the parameters of the model. Using the optimal control problem we study the stability of the system and show how the choice of the weighting matrices can improve the behavior of the system but with an increase of the energy control cost. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.This work has been partially supported by PAID-05-10-003-295 and by MTM2010-18228.Cantó Colomina, B.; Cardona Navarrete, SC.; Coll, C.; Navarro-Laboulais, J.; Sánchez, E. (2012). Dynamic optimization of a gas-liquid reactor. Journal of Mathematical Chemistry. 50(2):381-393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10910-011-9941-1S381393502Bayón L., Grau J.M., Ruiz M.M., Suárez P.M.: Initial guess of the solution of dynamic optimization of chemical processes. J. Math. Chem. Model. 48, 28–37 (2010)Ben-Zvi A., McLellan P.J., McAuley K.B.: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 42, 6607–6618 (2003)Cantó B., Coll C., Sánchez E.: Structural identifiability of a model of dialysis. Math. Comp. Model. 50, 733–737 (2009)Cantó B., Coll C., Sánchez E.: Identifiability of a class of discretized linear partial differential algebraic equations. Math. Probl. Eng. 2011, 1–12 (2011)Craciun G., Pantea C.: Identifiability of chemical reaction networks. J. Math. Chem. 44, 244–259 (2008)Dai L.: Descriptor Control Systems. Springer, New York (1989)Deckwer W.D.: Bubble Column Reactors. Wiley, Chichester (1992)Kantarci N., Borak F., Ulgen K.O.: Bubble column reactors. Proc. Biochem. 40(7), 2263–2283 (2005)Kawakernaak H., Sivan R.: Linear Optimal Control Systems. Wiley-Interscience, New York (1972)Kuo B.C.: Automatic Control Systems, 6th edn. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1991)Navarro-Laboulais J., Cardona S.C., Torregrosa J.I., Abad A., López F.: Practical identifiability analysis in dynamic gas-liquid reactors. Optimal experimental design for mass-transfer parameters determination. Comp. Chem. Eng. 32, 2382–2394 (2008)Navarro-Laboulais J., López F., Torregrosa J.I., Cardona S.C., Abad A.: Transient response, model structure and systematic errors in hybrid respirometers: structural identifiabilit analysis based on OUR and DO measurements. J. Math. Chem. 44(4), 969–990 (2007)Patel R., Munro N.: Multivariable Systen. Theory and Design. Pergamon Press, New York (1982)Sondergeld K.: A generalization of the Routh–Hurwitz stability criteria and a application to a problem in robust controller design. IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr. AC-28(10), 965–970 (1983

Multiple Sclerosis Susceptibility-Associated SNPs Do Not Influence Disease Severity Measures in a Cohort of Australian MS Patients

Recent association studies in multiple sclerosis (MS) have identified and replicated several single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) susceptibility loci including CLEC16A, IL2RA, IL7R, RPL5, CD58, CD40 and chromosome 12q13–14 in addition to the well established allele HLA-DR15. There is potential that these genetic susceptibility factors could also modulate MS disease severity, as demonstrated previously for the MS risk allele HLA-DR15. We investigated this hypothesis in a cohort of 1006 well characterised MS patients from South-Eastern Australia. We tested the MS-associated SNPs for association with five measures of disease severity incorporating disability, age of onset, cognition and brain atrophy. We observed trends towards association between the RPL5 risk SNP and time between first demyelinating event and relapse, and between the CD40 risk SNP and symbol digit test score. No associations were significant after correction for multiple testing. We found no evidence for the hypothesis that these new MS disease risk-associated SNPs influence disease severity

Brain Changes in Long-Term Zen Meditators Using Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Diffusion Tensor Imaging: A Controlled Study

Introduction: This work aimed to determine whether 1H magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) are correlated with years of meditation and psychological variables in long-term Zen meditators compared to healthy non-meditator controls. Materials and Methods: Design. Controlled, cross-sectional study. Sample. Meditators were recruited from a Zen Buddhist monastery. The control group was recruited from hospital staff. Meditators were administered questionnaires on anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment and mindfulness. 1H-MRS (1.5 T) of the brain was carried out by exploring four areas: both thalami, both hippocampi, the posterior superior parietal lobule (PSPL) and posterior cingulate gyrus. Predefined areas of the brain were measured for diffusivity (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) by MR-DTI. Results: Myo-inositol (mI) was increased in the posterior cingulate gyrus and Glutamate (Glu), N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) and N-acetyl-aspartate/Creatine (NAA/Cr) was reduced in the left thalamus in meditators. We found a significant positive correlation between mI in the posterior cingulate and years of meditation (r = 0.518; p = .019). We also found significant negative correlations between Glu (r =20.452; p = .045), NAA (r =20.617; p = .003) and NAA/Cr (r =20.448; P = .047) in the left thalamus and years of meditation. Meditators showed a lower Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) in the left posterior parietal white matter than did controls, and the ADC was negatively correlated with years of meditation (r =20.4850, p = .0066). Conclusions: The results are consistent with the view that mI, Glu and NAA are the most important altered metabolites. This study provides evidence of subtle abnormalities in neuronal function in regions of the white matter in meditators

Sex differences in brain atrophy in dementia with Lewy bodies

\ua9 2023 The Authors. Alzheimer\u27s & Dementia published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer\u27s Association.INTRODUCTION: Sex influences neurodegeneration, but it has been poorly investigated in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We investigated sex differences in brain atrophy in DLB using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: We included 436 patients from the European-DLB consortium and the Mayo Clinic. Sex differences and sex-by-age interactions were assessed through visual atrophy rating scales (n = 327; 73 \ub1 8 years, 62% males) and automated estimations of regional gray matter volume and cortical thickness (n = 165; 69 \ub1 9 years, 72% males). RESULTS: We found a higher likelihood of frontal atrophy and smaller volumes in six cortical regions in males and thinner olfactory cortices in females. There were significant sex-by-age interactions in volume (six regions) and cortical thickness (seven regions) across the entire cortex. DISCUSSION: We demonstrate that males have more widespread cortical atrophy at younger ages, but differences tend to disappear with increasing age, with males and females converging around the age of 75. Highlights: Male DLB patients had higher odds for frontal atrophy on radiological visual rating scales. Male DLB patients displayed a widespread pattern of cortical gray matter alterations on automated methods. Sex differences in gray matter measures in DLB tended to disappear with increasing age

Proton spectroscopic imaging of brain metabolites in basal ganglia of healthy older adults

Object: We sought to measure brain metabolite levels in healthy older people. Materials and methods: Spectroscopic imaging at the level of the basal ganglia was applied in 40 participants aged 73–74 years. Levels of the metabolites N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), choline, and creatine were determined in "institutional units" (IU) corrected for T1 and T2 relaxation effects. Structural imaging enabled determination of grey matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid content. ANOVA analysis was carried out for voxels satisfying quality criteria. Results: Creatine levels were greater in GM than WM (57 vs. 44 IU, p < 0.001), whereas choline and NAA levels were greater in WM than GM [13 vs. 10 IU (p < 0.001) and 76 versus 70 IU (p = 0.03), respectively]. The ratio of NAA/cre was greater in WM than GM (2.1 vs. 1.4, p = 0.001) as was that of cho/cre (0.32 vs. 0.16, p < 0.001). A low voxel yield was due to brain atrophy and the difficulties of shimming over an extended region of brain. Conclusion: This study addresses the current lack of information on brain metabolite levels in older adults. The normal features of ageing result in a substantial loss of reliable voxels and should be taken into account when planning studies. Improvements in shimming are also required before the methods can be applied more widely