Extracranial-intracranial bypass in atherosclerotic cerebrovascular disease: Report of a single centre experience

Despite the failure of the international extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass study in showing the benefit of bypass procedure for prevention of stroke recurrence, it has been regarded to be beneficial in a subgroup of well-selected patients with haemodynamic impairment. This report includes the EC-IC bypass experience of a single centre over a period of 14 years. All consecutive 72 patients with atherosclerotic occlusive cerebrovascular lesions associated with haemodynamic compromise treated by EC-IC bypass surgery were retrospectively reviewed. Pre-operatively, 61% of patients presented with minor stroke and the remaining 39% with recurrent transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) despite maximal medical therapy. Angiography revealed a unilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis/occlusion in 79%, bilateral ICA stenosis/occlusion in 15%, MCA stenosis/occlusion in 3% and other multiple vessel stenosis/occlusion in 3% of the cases. H(2)(15)O positron emission tomography (PET) or 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT with acetazolamide challenge was performed for haemodynamic evaluation of the cerebral blood flow (CBF). All the patients had impaired haemodynamics pre-operatively in terms of reduced regional cerebrovascular reserve capacity and rCBF. Standard STA-MCA bypass procedure was performed in all patients. A total of 68 patients with 82 bypasses were reviewed with a mean follow-up period of 34 months. Stroke recurrence took place in 10 patients (15%) resulting in an annual stroke risk of 5%. Improved cerebral haemodynamics was documented in 81% of revascularised hemispheres. Patients with unchanged or worse haemodynamic parameters had significantly more post-operative TIAs or strokes when compared to those with improved perfusion reserves (30% vs.5% of patients, p<0.05). In conclusion, EC-IC bypass procedure in selected patients with occlusive cerebrovascular lesions associated with haemodynamic impairment has revealed to be effective for prevention of further cerebral ischemia, when compared with a stroke risk rate of 15% reported to date in patients only under antiplatelet agents or anticoagulant therapy

Wavefront compensation method using novel index in holographic data storage

Photopolymer media that uses holographic data storage generally causes volume shrinkage. This volume shrinkage distorts the recorded interference fringes. We propose an adaptive optics using novel index to compensate this distortion. The SNR value is improved from 2.1 dB to 3.4 dB in the worst part of a reproduced image and the peak intensity and the full width of the half maximum of an angle are improved by 6% and 10%, respectively. These results prove that adaptive optics using this novel index worked effectively

Compensation of hologram distortion by controlling defocus component in reference beam wavefront for angle multiplexed holograms

Holographic memory has the potential to function as a recording system with a large capacity and high data-transfer-rate. Photopolymer materials are typically used as a write-once recording medium. When holograms are recorded on this medium, they can distort due to shrinkage or expansion of the materials, which degrades the reconstructed image and causes a higher bit error rate (bER) of the reproduced data. We propose optically compensating for hologram distortion by controlling aberration components in the reference beam wavefront while reproducing data, thereby improving the reproduced data quality. First, we investigated the relation between each aberration component of the reference beam and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the reproduced data using numerical simulation and found that horizontal tilt and the defocus component affect the SNR. Next, we experimentally evaluated the reproduced data by controlling the defocus component in the reference beam and found that the bER of the reproduced data could be decreased by controlling the defocus center with respect to the hologram position and phase modulation depth of the defocus component. Then, we investigated a practical control method of the defocus component using an evaluation value similar to the definition of the SNR for actual data reproduction from holograms. Using a defocus controlled wavefront enabled us to decrease the bER from 3.54 x 10^-3 with a plane wave to 3.14 x 10^-4. We also investigated how to reduce the bERs of reproduced data in angle multiplexed holograms. By using a defocus controlled wavefront to compensate for hologram distortion on the 40th data page in 80-page angle multiplexed holograms, the bERs of all pages could be decreased to less than 1x10^-3. We showed that controlling the defocus component is an effective way to compensate for hologram distortion and to decrease the bER of reproduced data in holographic memory

Wildlife survey along the Rawog River Conservation Area, Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve

The Rawog river that stretched along the Rawog Conservation Area is one of the two rivers within the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve. Nonetheless, there is still scarce studies that document the wildlife that inhabit along this river. As such, limited information is available to describe the qualities of the Rawog river as part of the protected area. Therefore, this study was conducted during the Rawog Scientific Expedition with the aim to document and update the wildlife that includes birds, terrestrial mammals and crocodile that can be found along that river. Opportunistic observation survey was conducted for both morning and night sessions during the 4 days of expedition. A total of 61 individuals from 31 species and 24 families of wildlife were recorded. Interestingly, there were Endangered species of bird namely the Storm's Stork (Ciconia stormi) and one species with Vulnerable status that is Greater Green Leafbird (Chloropsis sonnerati) sighted during the survey. Meanwhile, for terrestrial mammals, there one Endangered species namely the Flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) and one Near-Threatened species of amphibian of which, is the Greater Swamp Frog (Limnonectes ingeri) were also able to be recorded even though there were no crocodile spotted during the survey. The result from this preliminary survey showed that the Rawog river play an important role in supporting diverse species of wildlife and worth to be retained as the fully protected area inside the Segaliud Lokan Forest Reserve

Magnetic enhancement of Co0.2_{0.2}Zn0.8_{0.8}Fe2_2O4_4 spinel oxide by mechanical milling

We report the magnetic properties of mechanically milled Co$_{0.2}$Zn$_{0.8}$Fe$_2$O$_4$ spinel oxide. After 24 hours milling of the bulk sample, the XRD spectra show nanostructure with average particle size $\approx$ 20 nm. The as milled sample shows an enhancement in magnetization and ordering temperature compared to the bulk sample. If the as milled sample is annealed at different temperatures for the same duration, recrystallization process occurs and approaches to the bulk structure on increasing the annealing temperatures. The magnetization of the annealed samples first increases and then decreases. At higher annealing temperature ($\sim$ 1000$^{0}$C) the system shows two coexisting magnetic phases {\it i.e.}, spin glass state and ferrimagnetic state, similar to the as prepared bulk sample. The room temperature M\"{o}ssbauer spectra of the as milled sample, annealed at 300$^{0}$C for different durations (upto 575 hours), suggest that the observed change in magnetic behaviour is strongly related with cations redistribution between tetrahedral (A) and octahedral (O) sites in the spinel structure. Apart from the cation redistribution, we suggest that the enhancement of magnetization and ordering temperature is related with the reduction of B site spin canting and increase of strain induced anisotropic energy during mechanical milling.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, 10 ps figure

Localization by disorder in the infrared conductivity of (Y,Pr)Ba2Cu3O7 films

The ab-plane reflectivity of (Y{1-x}Prx)Ba2Cu3O7 thin films was measured in the 30-30000 cm-1 range for samples with x = 0 (Tc = 90 K), x = 0.4 (Tc = 35 K) and x = 0.5 (Tc = 19 K) as a function of temperature in the normal state. The effective charge density obtained from the integrated spectral weight decreases with increasing x. The variation is consistent with the higher dc resistivity for x = 0.4, but is one order of magnitude smaller than what would be expected for x = 0.5. In the latter sample, the conductivity is dominated at all temperatures by a large localization peak. Its magnitude increases as the temperature decreases. We relate this peak to the dc resistivity enhancement. A simple localization-by-disorder model accounts for the optical conductivity of the x = 0.5 sample.Comment: 7 pages with (4) figures include