Determination of normal splenic volume in relation to age, gender and body habitus: a stereological study on computed tomography

Background: The aim of this study is to assess and document the dimensions of the normal spleen measured on computed tomography (CT) images with the normal splenic volume measured by Cavalieri principle on CT images and thereby serve as a baseline for comparison in cases of splenomegaly using abdominal CT. To investigate the relationship between these changes and body mass index, gender, abdominal diameters.Materials and methods: We retrospectively reviewed abdominal CT examinations of 212 adults between the ages of 20 and 88 years. There were seven groups of patients. The spleen volume (SV) measurements using abdominal CT images of each patient on the Image Information Systems were performed with Cavalieri principle.Results: The mean SV and splenic length (SL), width (SW), and thickness (ST) for the total study population of 212 patients was 198 ± 88 cm3, 9.96 ± 2.1 cm, 8.87 ±± 1.6 cm and 4.58 ± 0.8 cm, respectively. There was a strong correlation between SV and ST (r = 0.752, p < 0.001), SL (r = 0.735, p < 0.001), SW (r = 0.681,p < 0.001) mean values of total study population. Comparison between mean splenic dimension parameters for males and females showed a statistically significant difference (p = 0.032 for SV, p = 0.04 for ST) but no statistically significant difference with SL and SW. Also there was a positive correlation between SV and body height, sagittal abdominal diameter and transvers abdominal diameter in mean of total groups and female groups, there was no correlation in males.Conclusions: The normal reference ranges for SV and size given in this study canserve as a standard to judge whether splenomegaly is present in patients

Patients With Kidney Cancer

To develop a preoperative prognostic model in order to predict recurrence-free survival in patients with nonmetastatic kidney cancer.A multi-institutional data base of 1889 patients who underwent surgical resection between 1987 and 2007 for kidney cancer was retrospectively analyzed. Preoperative variables were defined as age, gender, presentation, size, presence of radiological lymph nodes and clinical stage. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the variables were performed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. A model was developed with preoperative variables as predictors of recurrence after nephrectomy. Internal validation was performed by Harrells concordance index.The median follow-up was 23.6 months (1222 months). During the follow-up, 258 patients (13.7) developed cancer recurrence. The median follow-up for patients who did not develop recurrence was 25 months. The median time from surgery to recurrence was 13 months. The 5-year freedom from recurrence probability was 78.6. All variables except age were associated with freedom from recurrence in multivariate analyses (P 0.05). Age was marginally significant in the univariate analysis. All variables were included in the predictive model. The calculated c-index was 0.747.This preoperative model utilizes easy to obtain clinical variables and predicts the likelihood of development of recurrent disease in patients with kidney tumors

Application of extracts from the poisonous plant, Nerium Oleander L., as a wood preservative

The antifungal properties of poisonous plant extracts from oleanders (Nerium oleander L.) were determined when used as a wood preservative. The extract was prepared from oleanders leaves andflowers in 96% ethyl alcohol. The wood blocks of Turkish oriental beech (Fagus orientalis L.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) were impregnated with the extracts. The abilities of the extract to suppressattack by Postia placenta (Fr.) (brown rot) and Trametes versicolor (L: Fr.) Quel. (a white-rot) was investigated. Treated blocks were exposed to P. placenta and T. versicolor attacks for 12 weeks by following the soil-block method. While untreated wood specimens have weight loss ranging between 27.37 and 30.66% for P. placenta and 8.64 and 24.06% for T. versicolor, the wood treated with theextracts is of weight loss between 5.54 and 10.98% for P. placenta, and between 5.02 and 28.25% for T. versicolor. The lowest weight loss was found to be for beech wood (5.02%) impregnated with the extractof oleander at a concentration level of 0.25% against T. versicolor. While the highest weight loss was also on the beech wood (28.25%) treated with the same extract at the level of 0.50% concentrationagainst T. versicolor. In conclusion, the extracts could be used as effective wood preservative

Effect of twine thickness on selectivity of gillnets for bogue, Boops boops,in Turkish waters

To investigate the effect of twine thickness on the selectivity of multifilament gillnet targeting bogue,Boops boops L., four different stations were sampled between March and November 2008 in the northern Aegean Sea. Gillnets with 22, 23, and 25 mm nominal mesh size (bar length) each having two different twine thicknesses (approximately 0.45 mm and 0.54 mm ∅) were applied for this purpose. The deviances from the SELECT method revealed that lognormal models provided the best fits for both of the twine thicknesses. Results from the two-way ANOVA analyses revealed that the mean total lengths increased with the mesh size (F = 87.36; df = 2; P < 0.0001) and decreased with the twine thickness (F = 46.12; df = 1; P < 0.0001). The 22 mm mesh size net (0.45 mm ∅) captured significantly larger fish than the 23 mm mesh size net (0.54 mm ∅) probably due to the higher elasticity and flexibility of the thinner twine. Thus, fisheries managers should take into consideration the twine thickness while advising mesh size regulations in gillnet fisheries

Introduction and evaluation of the wood preservative potentials of the poisonous Sternbergia candidum extracts

The ability of Sternbergia candida (SB Candidum Mathew.) extract to suppress attack by Postia placenta (Fries) M. Larsen et Lombard (Mad 698), (a brown-rot) and Trametes versicolor (L.ex Fr.) Quel.(a white-rot) was investigated. The extract was dissolved from Sterinbergia Candidum’s bulb and leaves in 96% ethyl alcohol. Poisonous extract impregnated into wood blocks of Turkish oriental beech (Fagus orientalis L.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Extract dosages were 0.25, 0.75, 1.50 and 3.00%. Treated blocks were exposed to P. placenta and T. versicolor attack for 12 weeks by the soil block method. Only extract dosages of 0.25 and 0.75% were found efficacious in suppressing attack. A tukey studentized test found both dosages significant at 5% level. In conclusion, the poisonous extracts could be used as effective wood preservative when concentration was adjusted

An ILP formulation for application mapping onto Network-on-Chips

Ever shrinking technologies in VLSI era made it possible to place several modules onto a single die. However, the need for the new communication methods has also increased dramatically since traditional bus-based systems suffer from signal propagation delays, signal integrity, and scalability. Network-on-Chip (NoC) is the biggest step towards the communication bottleneck of System-on-Chip (SoC) architectures. In this paper, we present an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation for application mapping onto mesh based Network-on-Chips to minimize the energy consumption of the system. The proposed method obtains optimal or close to optimal results within the given computation time limit. We also experimentally investigate the impact of the size of the mesh architecture on the application mapping and total communication. ©2009 IEEE

Non-equilibrium Condensation Process in a Holographic Superconductor

We study the non-equilibrium condensation process in a holographic superconductor. When the temperature T is smaller than a critical temperature T_c, there are two black hole solutions, the Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black hole and a black hole with a scalar hair. In the boundary theory, they can be regarded as the supercooled normal phase and the superconducting phase, respectively. We consider perturbations on supercooled Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes and study their non-linear time evolution to know about physical phenomena associated with rapidly-cooled superconductors. We find that, for T<T_c, the initial perturbations grow exponentially and, eventually, spacetimes approach the hairy black holes. We also clarify how the relaxation process from a far-from-equilibrium state proceeds in the boundary theory by observing the time dependence of the superconducting order parameter. Finally, we study the time evolution of event and apparent horizons and discuss their correspondence with the entropy of the boundary theory. Our result gives a first step toward the holographic understanding of the non-equilibrium process in superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure