2,305 research outputs found
Aspergillosis of the Sphenoid Sinus with the Involvement of the Clivus
Introduction: Fungal infections of the nose and paranasal sinuses are frequent in this part of the world. One aspect of the increased frequency is the improved clinical, radiological and pathological diagnostic methods that are now available. Aspergillus is the commonest infecting fungus of the nose and the paranasal sinus1 . It is mainly a saprophytic spore producing fungus and can cause invasive and non-invasive infections. The initial report of fungal paranasal infection largely dealt with immunocompromised individuals as distinct from the allergic fungal infection. Aspergillosis confined to the sphenoid sinus is uncommon with only 34 cases having been reported in the literature2,3. These were mostly seen in immunosuppressed patients. Isolated sphenoid sinusitis is uncommon and that due to fungal infection is rare4 . We report the case of aspergillosis of the sphenoid siiius where disease had extended into the upper part of the clivus bone
Influence of Wettability and Reactivity on Refractory Degradation â Interactions of Molten Iron and Slags with Steelmaking Refractories at 1550°C
Refractories, materials that can withstand high temperatures, play an important role in the iron and steel sector which alone accounts for ~70% of total refractories produced. In this chapter, detailed wettability and interfacial phenomena investigations on alumina-carbon and zirconia-carbon refractories at steelmaking temperatures. The wettability between refractory substrates and molten iron/slags was investigated at 1550°C using the sessile drop approach in a horizontal tube furnace equipped with a CCD camera. Detailed experimental results were obtained on alumina-carbon/molten iron system at high temperatures. Alumina is known to be non-wetting to molten iron while carbon can be easily wetted. Observed contact angles were found to depend strongly on the substrate composition and contact time. While the refractory substrates containing 50 and 60% carbon were found to be non-wetting to molten iron, the substrates containing higher amounts of C (℠70%) were found to become increasingly wetting. Molten iron droplets were seen to spread on these substrates
Mobile Computing in Physics Analysis - An Indicator for eScience
This paper presents the design and implementation of a Grid-enabled physics
analysis environment for handheld and other resource-limited computing devices
as one example of the use of mobile devices in eScience. Handheld devices offer
great potential because they provide ubiquitous access to data and
round-the-clock connectivity over wireless links. Our solution aims to provide
users of handheld devices the capability to launch heavy computational tasks on
computational and data Grids, monitor the jobs status during execution, and
retrieve results after job completion. Users carry their jobs on their handheld
devices in the form of executables (and associated libraries). Users can
transparently view the status of their jobs and get back their outputs without
having to know where they are being executed. In this way, our system is able
to act as a high-throughput computing environment where devices ranging from
powerful desktop machines to small handhelds can employ the power of the Grid.
The results shown in this paper are readily applicable to the wider eScience
community.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Presented at the 3rd Int Conf on Mobile Computing
& Ubiquitous Networking (ICMU06. London October 200
Sub-Riemannian Fast Marching in SE(2)
We propose a Fast Marching based implementation for computing sub-Riemanninan
(SR) geodesics in the roto-translation group SE(2), with a metric depending on
a cost induced by the image data. The key ingredient is a Riemannian
approximation of the SR-metric. Then, a state of the art Fast Marching solver
that is able to deal with extreme anisotropies is used to compute a SR-distance
map as the solution of a corresponding eikonal equation. Subsequent
backtracking on the distance map gives the geodesics. To validate the method,
we consider the uniform cost case in which exact formulas for SR-geodesics are
known and we show remarkable accuracy of the numerically computed SR-spheres.
We also show a dramatic decrease in computational time with respect to a
previous PDE-based iterative approach. Regarding image analysis applications,
we show the potential of considering these data adaptive geodesics for a fully
automated retinal vessel tree segmentation.Comment: CIARP 201
Measuring and Analysing the Chain of Implicit Trust: AStudy of Third-party Resources Loading
The web is a tangled mass of interconnected services, whereby websites import a range of external resources from various third-party domains. The latter can also load further resources hosted on other domains. For each website, this creates a dependency chain underpinned by a form of implicit trust between the first-party and transitively connected third parties. The chain can only be loosely controlled as first-party websites often have little, if any, visibility on where these resources are loaded from. This article performs a large-scale study of dependency chains in the web to find that around 50% of first-party websites render content that they do not directly load. Although the majority (84.91%) of websites have short dependency chains (below three levels), we find websites with dependency chains exceeding 30. Using VirusTotal, we show that 1.2% of these third parties are classified as suspiciousâalthough seemingly small, this limited set of suspicious third parties have remarkable reach into the wider ecosystem. We find that 73% of websites under-study load resources from suspicious third parties, and 24.8% of first-party webpages contain at least three third parties classified as suspicious in their dependency chain. By running sandboxed experiments, we observe a range of activities with the majority of suspicious JavaScript codes downloading malware
Time Trends in Survival Following First Hemorrhagic or Ischemic Stroke Between 1991 and 2015 in the Rotterdam Study
Background and Purpose- The introduction of stroke units and the implementation of evidence-based interventions have been a breakthrough in the management
Environmental Impact of Processing Electronic Waste â Key Issues and Challenges
Extensive utilization of electric and electronic equipment in a wide range of applications has resulted in the generation of huge volumes of electronic waste (e-waste) globally. Highly complex e-waste can contain metals, polymers and ceramics along with several hazardous and toxic constituents. There are presently no standard approaches for handling, dismantling, and the processing of e-waste to recover valuable resources. Inappropriate and unsafe practices produce additional hazardous compounds and highly toxic emissions as well. This chapter presents an overview of the environmental impact of processing e-waste with specific focus on toxic elements present initially in a variety of e-waste as well as hazardous compounds generated during e-waste processing. Hazardous constituents/ and contaminants were classified in three categories: primary contaminants, secondary contaminants, and tertiary contaminants. Primary contaminants represent hazardous substances present initially within various types of e-waste; these include heavy metals such as lead, mercury, nickel and cadmium, flame retardants presents in polymers etc. Secondary contaminants such as spent acids, volatile/toxic compounds, PAHs are the by-products or waste residues produced after inappropriate processing of e-waste and the tertiary contaminants include leftover reagents or compounds used during processing. A detailed report is presented on the environmental impact of processing e-waste and the detrimental impact on soil contamination, vegetation degradation, water and air quality along with implications for human health. Challenges and opportunities associated with appropriate e-waste management are also discussed
The Impact of Promotional Strategies on Consumer Interest in Purchasing Toyota Innova Brand Cars at PT. Hadji Kalla, Sumoharjo Branch, Makassar City
This study aims to ascertain whether there exists a positive and significant impact of the Promotion Strategy on Consumer Interest in purchasing Toyota Innova cars at PT. Hadji Kalla's Sumoharjo Branch in Makassar City. The study encompasses two variables: the Promotion Strategy as the independent variable and Consumer Interest in purchasing a Toyota Innova as the dependent variable. The outcomes of the study reveal a simple linear regression equation as Y = 15.635 + 0.763X. The test results also yield a coefficient of determination (r) of 0.632, indicating that the Promotion Strategy influences Consumer Interest in Purchasing a Toyota Innova by 40%, while the remaining 60% is attributed to other factors not considered in this study. Moreover, the calculated t-value of 5.654 surpasses the t-critical value of 0.2353. This implies that the Promotion Strategy variable significantly and positively impacts consumer interest in purchasing a Toyota Innova. Thus, the hypothesis stands confirmed
An ideal solution? Optimising pretreatment methods for artificially mummified ancient Egyptian tissues
RATIONALE
Although the analysis of skeletal remains dominates the study of ancient dietary stable isotopes, mummified bodies also allow shortâterm diet to be studied through the analysis of soft tissues. The application of resins, waxes and oils during mummification can affect the results obtained. This study assesses a range of methods for removing such substances from mummified tissue.
METHODS
An experimental mummification model following ancient Egyptian methods was created using a modern pig leg. Subâsamples of skin, muscle and bone were removed and coated with a range of substances used in Egyptian mummification. Four methods were used to clean these samples before the measurement of the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of their gelatinised collagen content using a ThermoFinnigan Flash Elemental analyser coupled to a DeltaPlus XL isotope ratio mass spectrometer via a ConFlo III interface.
RESULTS
The results showed that embalming materials can significantly affect dietary stable isotope ratios, and that these substances are most effectively removed using a mixture of polar and nonâpolar solvents. Results indicate that bone samples demineralised with HCl and skin samples produce more accurate results than bone samples demineralised with EDTA or muscle samples.
CONCLUSIONS
The choice of tissue and the preparation methods used can have a significant effect on the accuracy of stable isotope data obtained from mummified tissue, particularly when embalming materials are also present. A mixture of solvents appears to be a more effective cleaning agent than a single solvent. Demineralisation with HCl is preferable for wellâpreserved bone as used in this study, but whether this is the case for more fragile, less wellâpreserved bone requires further study. Skin samples produce more consistent data than muscle, but visually distinguishing between these tissues is not simple on ancient mummies
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