Superficial femoral artery catheterisation with two parallel guidewires after femoris profunda artery cannulation in antegrade percutaneous femoral access

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Experimental Test of an Event-Based Corpuscular Model Modification as an Alternative to Quantum Mechanics

We present the first experimental test that distinguishes between an event-based corpuscular model (EBCM) [H. De Raedt et al.: J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. 8 (2011) 1052] of the interaction of photons with matter and quantum mechanics. The test looks at the interference that results as a single photon passes through a Mach-Zehnder interferometer [H. De Raedt et al.: J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 74 (2005) 16]. The experimental results, obtained with a low-noise single-photon source [G. Brida et al.: Opt. Expr. 19 (2011) 1484], agree with the predictions of standard quantum mechanics with a reduced $\chi^2$ of 0.98 and falsify the EBCM with a reduced $\chi^2$ of greater than 20

Coil embolization as an alternative endovascular approach for ruptured superficial femoral artery aneurysms

Purpose: True aneurysms of the superficial femoral artery (SFAA) are rare and, the endovascular approach using covered stents has gained more popularity. We report an endovascular alternative using embolization coils for treatment of a ruptured SFAA. Case description: An 88-old male admitted for a ruptured true SFAA (67×52mm in diameter and 70mm in length) presenting with painful mass pulsating in the proximal third of the left thigh. His surgical history consisted of an infrarenal abdominal aneurysm treated by open surgery and an ipsilateral popliteal aneurysm treated with prosthetic bypass by a medial approach; this was revealed to be occluded at the CT scan evaluation. The patient was asymptomatic for limb ischaemia, therefore we decided to perform embolization of the SFA with coils (MReye®Embolization Coil, Cook Medical, Bloomington,USA). Under local anaesthesia, via a 5-Fr sheath and an antegrade approach, coils were deployed first at the distal neck of the SFAA and then to its proximal neck. On the angiogram, complete aneurysm sac thrombosis with no leaks was achieved. At 6-month follow-up, the SFAA remained occluded, and the patient had not developed any sign of limb ischaemia. Conclusion: Coil embolization of SFAA in selected cases represents a feasible and safe endovascular alternative

Effetti cardiorespiratori degli sprint ripetuti in giovani calciatori

Scopo: Nel calcio la performance dipende da attività caratterizzate da sforzi di breve durata, talora ad alta intensità, con ridotti tempi di recupero. Questo tipo di sforzo può avere maggiore potenzialità aritmogena rispetto a sforzi, anche massimali, iniziati e terminati in modo graduale. Gli sprint ripetuti permettono di valutare la performance e lo stato di allenamento in giovani calciatori. Scopo del nostro lavoro è stato quello di valutare gli effetti degli sprint ripetuti sul sistema cardiorespiratorio in giovani calciatori delle rappresentative regionali siciliane della FIGC. Metodi: Sono stati esaminati 12 calciatori, di età media di 15±1 anni. Per valutare lo stato di fitness cardiorespiratoria sono stati determinati, al test da sforzo incrementale massimale al treadmill (SI), il VO2max in ml.Kg-1.min-1 (VO2maxSI) e la FCmax in bpm (FCmaxSI). Per valutare gli effetti cardiorespiratori degli sprint ripetuti, gli atleti hanno eseguito un test da sforzo al cicloergometro a freno meccanico (SR) che prevedeva 10 sprint massimali “all-out” di 6 sec, intervallati da 30 sec di recupero passivo. Nella serie dei 10 sprint, sono stati determinati il valore più elevato di VO2 in ml.Kg-1.min-1 (VO2maxSR) e di FC in bpm (FCmaxSR). Risultati: Il valore medio di VO2maxSI (56,22±3,93 ml.Kg-1.min-1) indica che i soggetti esaminati hanno un buon livello di potenza aerobica, raggiunta ad una FCmaxSI di 190±8 bpm. I dati di VO2maxSR rilevati al test degli sprint ripetuti evidenziano un valore medio di 42,67±5,57 ml.Kg-1.min-1 (70% del VO2maxSI), raggiunto ad una FCmaxSR di 175±11 bpm (92% della FCmaxSI). Conclusioni: I dati del nostro studio indicano che nei soggetti esaminati gli sprint ripetuti determinano incrementi della frequenza cardiaca rapidi, elevati e persistenti nella fase di recupero. Questo dato deve essere preso in considerazione non solo per la valutazione della performance ma anche nella formulazione dell’idoneità a praticare la disciplina sportiva del calcio

Complex Network Tools to Understand the Behavior of Criminality in Urban Areas

Complex networks are nowadays employed in several applications. Modeling urban street networks is one of them, and in particular to analyze criminal aspects of a city. Several research groups have focused on such application, but until now, there is a lack of a well-defined methodology for employing complex networks in a whole crime analysis process, i.e. from data preparation to a deep analysis of criminal communities. Furthermore, the "toolset" available for those works is not complete enough, also lacking techniques to maintain up-to-date, complete crime datasets and proper assessment measures. In this sense, we propose a threefold methodology for employing complex networks in the detection of highly criminal areas within a city. Our methodology comprises three tasks: (i) Mapping of Urban Crimes; (ii) Criminal Community Identification; and (iii) Crime Analysis. Moreover, it provides a proper set of assessment measures for analyzing intrinsic criminality of communities, especially when considering different crime types. We show our methodology by applying it to a real crime dataset from the city of San Francisco - CA, USA. The results confirm its effectiveness to identify and analyze high criminality areas within a city. Hence, our contributions provide a basis for further developments on complex networks applied to crime analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 14th International Conference on Information Technology : New Generation

Acompanhamento de safras de cana-de-açúcar por meio de técnicas de agrupamento em séries temporais de NDVI.

Este artigo propõe o uso da técnica de agrupamento de dados (clustering) para auxiliar no acompanhamento de safras de cana-de-açúcar a partir de séries temporais de NDVI obtidas do satélite AVHRR/NOAA para o estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Os experimentos realizados em uma região do estado que concentra áreas com produção alta de cana mostraram que é possível acompanhar a evolução da cultura ao longo da safra identificando regiões com padrões semelhantes. Além disso, pode-se obter uma classificação mensal dos valores de NDVI por região, o que pode servir de subsídio para pesquisas futuras. O restante desse artigo descreve a Metodologia do Trabalho na Seção 2, discute os Resultados na Seção 3 e apresenta as Conclusões na Seção 4.SBSR 2011

Relationship between heart rate variability and repeated sprint exercise in young soccer players

Aim: The sport of soccer is characterized by neuromuscular performance resulting in short bursts interspersed by brief recovery periods over an extended period of time. Several studies suggest that the cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) assessed by heart rate variability (HRV) may provide useful information regarding the functional adaptations to training stimulus. Although HRV has often been associated with aerobic power and cardiovascular fitness, the influence of sympathovagal balance on neuromuscular performance in young athletes is not well assessed. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of the autonomic system on the performance of repeated sprints, involving predominantly muscular power and anaerobic metabolism, in young soccer players. Method: Twelve young soccer players, selected for the Sicilian Regional Representative of the Italian Football Federation, mean age 15 years, were recruited. Resting HRV was measured and indices of power spectral analysis (ratio LF/HF) were calculated to evaluate the sympathovagal balance. To assess the state of physical fitness of subjects, VO2max was determined by maximal graded treadmill test. Finally, the athletes performed 10 maximal all-out 6-sec cycling sprints (RS), interspersed with 30-sec of passive recovery, to measure the peak power (PP) represented by the highest value recorded during a single sprint, and the average of the values of maximum power (AP) recorded during all sprints. Results: On the basis of their VO2max (56.22 ± 3.93 ml/Kg/min), all subjects showed good levels of physical fitness. HRV index (LF/HF = 1.31 ± 0.74) showed an inverse correlation with PP (14.05 ± 0.89 W/Kg; r = -0.709, P = 0.01), and with AP (12.82 ± 0.88 W/Kg; r = -0.606, P = 0.04). Conclusion: Our study shows that a low ratio LF/HF, which reflects a parasympathetic predominance in the ANS balance, is associated with a better anaerobic contribution to performance resulting in higher values of PP and AP during brief repeated maximal cycling sprints. The assessment of resting HRV before exercise may be useful for performance monitoring of young soccer players

Improving metric access methods with bucket files

Modern applications deal with complex data, where retrieval by similarity plays an important role in most of them. Complex data whose primary comparison mechanisms are similarity predicates are usually immersed in metric spaces. Metric Access Methods (MAMs) exploit the metric space properties to divide the metric space into regions and conquer efficiency on the processing of similarity queries, like range and k-nearest neighbor queries. \ud Existing MAM use homogeneous data structures to improve query execution, pursuing the same techniques employed by traditional methods developed to retrieve scalar and multidimensional data. In this paper, we combine hashing and hierarchical ball partitioning approaches to achieve a hybrid index that is tuned to improve similarity queries targeting complex data sets, with search algorithms that reduce total execution time by aggressively reducing the number of distance calculations. We applied our technique in the Slim-tree and performed experiments over real data sets showing that the proposed technique is able to reduce the execution time of both range and k-nearest queries to at least half of the Slim-tree. Moreover, this technique is general to be applied over many existing MAM.CAPESCNPqFAPESPInternational Conference on Similarity Search and Applications - SISAP (8. 2015 Glasgow

Nanodiamonds-induced effects on neuronal firing of mouse hippocampal microcircuits

Fluorescent nanodiamonds (FND) are carbon-based nanomaterials that can efficiently incorporate optically active photoluminescent centers such as the nitrogen-vacancy complex, thus making them promising candidates as optical biolabels and drug-delivery agents. FNDs exhibit bright fluorescence without photobleaching combined with high uptake rate and low cytotoxicity. Focusing on FNDs interference with neuronal function, here we examined their effect on cultured hippocampal neurons, monitoring the whole network development as well as the electrophysiological properties of single neurons. We observed that FNDs drastically decreased the frequency of inhibitory (from 1.81 Hz to 0.86 Hz) and excitatory (from 1.61 Hz to 0.68 Hz) miniature postsynaptic currents, and consistently reduced action potential (AP) firing frequency (by 36%), as measured by microelectrode arrays. On the contrary, bursts synchronization was preserved, as well as the amplitude of spontaneous inhibitory and excitatory events. Current-clamp recordings revealed that the ratio of neurons responding with AP trains of high-frequency (fast-spiking) versus neurons responding with trains of low-frequency (slow-spiking) was unaltered, suggesting that FNDs exerted a comparable action on neuronal subpopulations. At the single cell level, rapid onset of the somatic AP ("kink") was drastically reduced in FND-treated neurons, suggesting a reduced contribution of axonal and dendritic components while preserving neuronal excitability.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figure