Wikis

As a widely applied Web2.0 technology, wikis are open, dynamic websites with collaboratively constructed knowledge, information, and resources, which are freely available to any Internet user. This book chapter serves as an overview to wikis, discussing thei benefits and practical educational applications towards K-12, higher education, corporations, government, and non-profits, providing examples and references to further materials

Using the CERN generic Windows infrastructure in a specific control environment

CERN has a large Windows 95/NT infrastructure with more than 3500 PCs connected that is used as one of the main information services for the laboratory. This infrastructure is used for a wide set of services, including Office Automation, Computing Aided Engineering, Calculations, Software Development, and ... controls. This paper will describe the CERN generic infrastructure for Windows 95 and Windows NT and then give several examples of PC control applications and future directions. The implementation of an object oriented device server based on Windows NT and ActiveX in the CERN ISOLDE-REX experiment will be reported

Passagem Retrógrada Percutânea De Uma Lesão Estenosante Crítica Do Tronco Celíaco Via Artéria Mesentérica Superior Como Manobra Adjuvante Na Abordagem Anterógrada

We describe the case of a 63-year-old woman with chronic mesenteric ischemia, persistent postprandial upper abdominal pain and progressive weight loss. Retrograde recanalization was performed via the superior mesenteric artery in order to achieve the goal of crossing the near-occlusion, showing that retrograde catheterization of the celiac trunk can be a feasible approach in challenging cases in which an antegrade approach fails as a single maneuver. © 2016, Sociedade Brasileira de Angiologia e Cirurgia Vascular. All rights reserved.151616

Intragastric infusion of the bitter tastant quinine suppresses hormone release and antral motility during the fasting state in health female volunteers

Intragastric administration of the bitter tastant denatonium benzoate inhibits the increase of motilin plasma levels and antral contractility. While these findings suggest that gastrointestinal bitter taste receptors could be new targets to modulate gastrointestinal motility and hormone release, they need confirmation with other bitter receptor agonists. The primary aim was to evaluate the effect of intragastric administration of the bitter tastant quinine-hydrochloride (QHCl) on motilin and ghrelin plasma levels. Secondly, we studied the effect on interdigestive motility. Methods: Ten healthy female volunteers were recruited (33±4 years; 22±0.5 kg/m²). Placebo or QHCl (10 µmol/kg) was administered intragastrically through a nasogastric feeding tube after an overnight fast in a single-blind randomized fashion. Administration started 20 min after the first phase III of the migrating motor complex. The measurement continued for another 2 hours after the administration. Blood samples were collected every 10 min with the baseline sample taken 10 min prior to administration. Key results: The increase in plasma levels of motilin (administration; p=0.04) and total ghrelin (administration; p=0.02) was significantly lower after QHCl. The fluctuation of octanoylated ghrelin was reduced after QHCl (time by administration; p=0.03). Duodenal motility did not differ. The fluctuation of antral activity differed over time between placebo and QHCl (time by administration; p=0.03). Conclusions: QHCl suppresses the increase of both motilin and ghrelin plasma levels. Moreover, QHCl reduced the fluctuation of antral motility. These findings confirm the potential of bitter taste receptors as targets for modifying interdigestive motility in man

Moodling Around: A Tool for Interactive Technologies

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are becoming a widespread means of facilitating learning. The Moodle VLE is one of many technology tools that enable and support online learning. It is a user-friendly, free, opensource tool used to deliver instruction online and to supplement face-to-face learning

Long-term results of carotid artery stenting

ObjectiveData regarding the long-term efficacy of carotid artery stenting (CAS) are still scarce. As demonstrated by several major randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing the efficacy of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) vs medical therapy, even after successful carotid revascularization late ipsilateral stroke occurs in 5-13% at 5 years. Therefore, major concerns also remain about the durability of the CAS procedure in terms of stroke prevention. The purpose of this study was to review long-term results after carotid stent implantation in a large cohort of patients.MethodsThis retrospective investigation involved 3179 CAS procedures performed at four European carotid high-volume centers. Echo-duplex scan using modified velocity criteria to recognize in-stent restenosis (ISR) and neurological examinations of all patients were carried out every 6 months after the procedure. Life-table analysis was used to determine freedom from mortality, stroke-related death, ipsilateral fatal/major stroke, and any ipsilateral stroke. Freedom from ISR and from reintervention were also reported. The secondary aim was to identify predictive risk factors for neurological complications and ISR.ResultsAt 5 years freedom from mortality, stroke-related death, ipsilateral fatal/major stroke, and any stroke rate were 82%, 93.5%, 93.3%, and 91.9%, respectively. The only predictor for neurological complications was the presence of neurological symptoms before CAS (hazard ratio 1.38 [CI 1.05, 1.82] P = .02). Freedom from restenosis at 1, 3, and 5 years was, respectively, 98.4%, 96.1%, and 94%. Uni- and multi-variate analyses showed that stent characteristics (material/design/free-cell area) were not significantly associated with time to in-stent restenosis or time to reintervention.ConclusionOur long-term results in a large cohort of patients validated CAS as a durable procedure for stroke prevention. The annual rate of neurological complications after CAS was comparable to that of conventional surgery as demonstrated by large RCTs involving both symptomatic patients (North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial [NASCET] and European Carotid Surgery Trial [ECST]) and asymptomatic patients (Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study [ACAS] and Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial [ACST])

Pan-colonic pressurizations associated with relaxation of the anal sphincter in health and disease: a new colonic motor pattern identified using high-resolution manometry

Background: Only few studies have applied high-resolution manometry (HRM) to the study of colonic motility in adults and none of them have concurrently evaluated colonic and anal motor activity. Aims: To evaluate colonic and anal motor activity by means of HRM in healthy subjects. As the present study revealed the presence of a new colonic motor pattern (pan-colonic pressurizations) in healthy subjects, three additional studies were conducted: the first and the second to exclude that this motor event results from an artefact due to abdominal wall contraction and to confirm its modulation by cholinergic stimulation and the third, as pilot study, to test the hypothesis that this colonic pattern is defective in patients with chronic constipation refractory to current pharmacological treatments. Methods: In both volunteers and patients the HRM catheter was advanced proximally during colonoscopy. Results: In all subjects, pressure increases of 15±3 mmHg and 24±4s simultaneously occurring in all colonic sensors (pan-colonic pressurizations), associated with anal sphincter relaxation were identified. Subjects had 85±38 pan-colonic pressurizations which increased significantly during meal (p=0.007) and decreased afterward (p=0.01), and were correlated with feelings of and desire to evacuate gas. The mean number of propagating sequences was 47±39, and only retrograde increased significantly postprandially (p=0.01). Pan-colonic pressurizations differed from strain artifacts and significantly increased after prostigmine. In patients pan-colonic pressurizations were significantly reduced as compared to volunteers. Conclusions: Pan-colonic pressurizations associated with relaxations of the anal sphincter represent a new colonic motor pattern which seems to be defective in patients with treatment-refractory chronic constipation and may play a role in the transport of colonic gas and in the facilitation of the propagating sequences-induced colonic transport

The CERN PS/SL Controls Java Application Programming Interface

The PS/SL Convergence Project was launched in March 1998. Its objective is to deliver a common controls infrastructure for the CERN accelerators by year 2001. In the framework of this convergence activity, a project was launched to develop a Java Application Programming Interface (API) between programs written in the Java language and the PS and SL accelerator equipment. This Java API was specified and developed in collaboration with TJNAF. It is based on the Java CDEV [1] package that has been extended in order to end up with a CERN/TJNAF common product. It implements a detailed model composed of devices organised in named classes that provide a property-based interface. It supports data subscription and introspection facilities. The device model is presented and the capabilities of the API are described with syntax examples. The software architecture is also described

The evolution of the ISOLDE control system

The ISOLDE on-line mass separator facility is operating on a Personal Computer based control system since spring 1992. Front End Computers accessing the hardware are controlled from consoles running Microsoft WindowsTM through a Novell NetWare4TM local area network. The control system is transparently integrated in the CERN wide office network and makes heavy use of the CERN standard office application programs to control and to document the running of the ISOLDE isotope separators. This paper recalls the architecture of the control system, shows its recent developments and gives some examples of its graphical user interface