A Patient-Specific Approach for Breast Cancer Detection and Tumor Localization Using Infrared Imaging

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer among women in the United States; approximately one out of every 24 women die of related causes. BC screening is a critical factor for improving patient prognosis and survival rate. Infrared (IR) thermography is an accurate, inexpensive and operator independent modality that is not affected by tissue density as it captures surface temperature variations induced by the presence of tumors. A novel patient-specific approach for IR imaging and simulation is proposed. In this work, multi-view IR images of isolated breasts are obtained in the prone position (face down), which allows access to the entire breast surface because the breasts hang freely. The challenge of accurately determining size and location of tumors within the breasts is addressed through numerical simulations of a patient-specific digital breast model. The digital breast models for individual patients are created from clinical images of the breast, such as IR imaging, digital photographs or magnetic resonance images. The numerical simulations of the digital breast model are conducted using ANSYS Fluent, where computed temperature images are generated in the same corresponding views as clinical IRI images. The computed and clinical IRI images are aligned and compared to measure their match. The determination of tumor size and location was conducted through the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, which iteratively minimized the mean squared error. The methodology was tested on the breasts of seven patients with biopsy-proven breast cancer with tumor diameters ranging from 8 mm to 27 mm. The method successfully predicted the equivalent tumor diameter within 2 mm and the location was predicted within 6.3 mm in all cases. The time required for the estimation is 48 minutes using a 10-core, 3.41 GHz workstation. The method presented is accurate, fast and has potential to be used as an adjunct modality to mammography in BC screening, especially for dense breasts

Determinación del óptimo técnico y económico en el cultivo de papa de temporal

articulo optimosSe calcula el nivel óptimo técnico (not) y económico (noe) en la producción de papa para determinar el uso eficiente de recursos y permitir al productor maximizar sus ganancias monetarias; la investigación se realizó en diez municipios del Estado de México en 2011. Se utilizaron dos modelos econométricos cúbicos con rendimientos marginales decrecientes: el primero con dap (18-46-00), fosfonitrato y cloruro de potasio como nutriente; el segundo se refiere a la fertilización con mezcla papera. Los resultados para el primer modelo fueron: not en dap (18-46-00) con 929.1 kg y noe de 922.7 kg de insumo; para fosfonitrato el not fue 272.0 y el noe de 270.3 kg; en cloruro de potasio el not fue de 282.7 y el noe fue de 281.6 kg. Para el segundo, el not de mezcla papera fue 1 465.0 kg ha-1 y un noe de 1 448.1 kg ha-1. Se concluye que el máximo rendimiento de papa no implicó la mayor ganancia en dinero. En los dos modelos la ganancia en el noe es mayor que en el not.Universidad Autonóma del Estado de México, Centro Universitario UAEM Temascaltepe

Data driven process for the energy assessment of building envelope retrofits

In the last decades, a growing industry has been created in relation to building envelope retrofits. Linked to the lack of financial capacity of many building owners, innovative instruments such as energy performance contracts have been promoted by public bodies. This kind of instruments require of detailed energy assessment processes in order to define the expected heat load reduction and the associated economic flows between building owners and Energy Services Companies. When dealing with building envelopes, existing methods for building envelope heat loss characterization require of substantial efforts in terms of equipment and time, which makes them difficult to apply in real practice. In this paper, a novel method is proposed based on whole-building heat load assessment by means of heat meters, and analytical calculations of building envelope transmission heat load coefficients. This method, which requires minimal or no additional equipment, can be used over historical data from District Heating systems. It assigns a specific load fraction to building envelope heat transfer and allows to assess the expected reduction due to the building envelope retrofit. Numerical and experimental data is presented based on an educational building in the city of Burgos, Spain.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 768567

Disfunción familiar y depresión en niños de 8-12 años de edad

La población estudiada incluyó 326 niños, de 8 a 12 años de edad. De ellos el 54.3% correspondió al género femenino y el 45.7% al masculino, predominando en frecuencia los niños en edades de 9 a 11 años.Introducción: La frecuencia de depresión infantil se ha incrementado en años recientes y constantemente se asocia a un ambiente familiar disfuncional. El objetivo fue determinar la correlación entre disfuncionalidad familiar y depresión infantil en niños de 8 a 12 años de edad. Materiales y métodos: En una muestra probabilística, aleatoria de 326 niños de 8 a 12 años de edad, de una escuela primaria semiurbana, de bajo nivel socioeconómico en el Estado de México, se determinó la frecuencia de depresión infantil, aplicándose la escala modificada Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) de Kovacs, 2004 y Kovacs y Beck, 1977. Para evaluación de la funcionalidad familiar, se aplicó a padres de familia la escala reajuste social de Holmes. Resultados: Se identificó correlación estadísticamente significativa al nivel de 0.01 entre disfunción familiar y depresión infantil. El 34.1% de los familiares de los niños en estudio fueron disfuncionales, sólo el 11.7% de los sujetos manifestó síntomas de depresión infantil y de ellos únicamente el 8.7% se relacionó con disfuncionalidad familiar. Conclusiones: Se encontró correlación estadísticamente significativa entre disfunción familiar y depresión infantil, afectando en mayor porcentaje al género femenino y con mayor prevalencia en los niños de 8, 10 y 11años de eda

Características clínicas de la retinopatía diabética en pacientes enviados al Servicio de Oftalmología

Introducción: La retinopatía diabética (RD) es la tercera causa de ceguera de tipo irreversible en el mundo, pero prevenible. EL objetivo de esta investigación fue identificar sus características clínicas y el estadio en que Los pacientes son enviados al Servicio de Oftalmología, del Hospital General Regional (HGR) NC 220 del MSS. Objetivo: Determinar el estadio de RD de Los pacientes que son enviados por primera vez, al Servicio de Oftalmología del HGR N° 220 del IMSS Materiales y método: Se realizó un estudio prospectivo, descriptivo y transversal. A través de una cédula y la exploración oftalmológica realizada a los pacientes, se identificaron Ias características clínicas de 65 pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (DM 2), de Los cuales 32 presentaron RD y 33 no la presentaron, por lo que fueron eliminados del estudio. Resultados: El estadio más frecuente fue el no proliferativo leve (40.62%), sin embargo se encontró un gran porcentaje de estadios avanzados. Por otra parte, La patología sistémica asociada más frecuente fue Ia hipertensión arterial. Conclusiones: El porcentaje de pacientes con estadios avanzados de RD, hace imprescindible reflexionar sobre el manejo del paciente con diabetes, siendo necesario un mayor control de la glicemia y una adecuada revisión oftalmológica

Hydrogen production by laser irradiation of metals in water under an ultrasonic field: A novel approach

An alternative method for hydrogen production by laser irradiation of metals in water is proposed. Metals such as Ti, Al, Mg an Al–Mg alloy and Si, were laser ablated and subjected to an ultrasonic field simultaneously to promote a displacement chemical reaction of hydrogen from water. The produced gas was characterized by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Molecular hydrogen was found suggesting that this procedure allows the production of H 2 of high purity. All the studied metals under laser irradiation produced H 2 and the volume rise as the laser fluence was increased following a no-linear monotonic behavior with a similar tendency. Without ultrasound the amount of hydrogen was significantly reduced. An important advantage of the proposed H 2 production method is the low amount of mass consumed which lead to maximum hydrogen production rates close to 1300 ml/min per gr of aluminumThis work was partially supported by the CONACYT (Mexico) Projects CB-240998 and SENER-CONACYT 226151. The authors thank Arturo Olalde and Albina Gutierrez for their technical assistance

Synthesis by wet chemistry and characterization of LiNbO3 nanoparticles

Actually, lithium niobate (LiNbO3) has been used for optical wavelength conversion and ultrafast optical signal processing because of its outstanding rapid nonlinear optical response behavior, low switching power and broad conversion bandwidth. LiNbO3nanoparticles, which belong to the ferroelectric oxide class, were synthesized by chemical reaction with wetchemistry. Their sizedistributionwascenteredaround200 nm. Xray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to further investigate the quality of the obtained LiNbO3powders.The present work shows thatby employingthis chemical method the correct stoichiometric phasewas obtained. This wascorroborated by XPS (X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) results. Also, the nanoparticles showed a defined crystallinity and uniform morphology. This way of obtaining nanoparticles is innovative because of its low cost and simple way to reproduce it. It isan important method of increasing the surfacearea, controlling thephase purityand reducing theparticle size distribution. The samples were obtained under low temperature annealing at500, 650 and 800 ºC. Those features can be controlled using variables such temperature, time of synthesis,and calcination. In previous worksit wasfound that hydrothermal methods offer many advantages over conventional ceramic synthesis methods

Failure Diagnosis on Photovoltaic Modules Using Thermography, Electroluminescence, Rgb and I-V Techniques

Different techniques can be used to detect and quantify PV modules anomalies, as visual inspections, electrical tests like the I-V curve test, infrared thermography (IRT) or electroluminescence (EL). PV plants operators usually apply only one or two of them within the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) activities. Additionally, researchers usually studied them separately. However, these methods provide complementary results, glimpsing interesting information about the PV site state. The main strength of the research performed is the simultaneous study of all these inspection techniques, studying the correlation between them. Results confirm that, EL and IRT under current injection on modules are closely correlated, while IRT under normal operation (sun exposure) reveals complementary information not detected in EL but existing in the visible spectrum. In conclusion, it is advisable using as many techniques as possible to characterize the actual state of the module and to explain its I-V curve.Proyecto de Investigación ENE2017-89561-C4-3-R (MCIN)Proyecto de Investigación RTC-2017-6712-3 (MCIN)Proyecto de Investigación VA283P18 (Junta de Castilla y León

The influence of the moisture content on the electrical resistance of two types of cork stoppers

The relationship between the log of the electrical resistance (ER; measured using pin electrodes) and the moisture content (MC) have not been reported in any form of cork. That is important for the cork stoppers industry because it should help in the design and verification of more precise devices for measuring cork moisture content. In this study, using linear regression techniques, different regression models of the type log(Log(R) + 1) = axh + b were derived to describe the relationship ERMC, that was measured using pin electrodes on two types of cork stoppers [natural (N) and agglomerate(AG)]. The results obtained show that in the models proposed, the moisture content of AG cork stoppers can be estimated with an error of ± 0.3%, while that of N stoppers can be estimated with an error of 0.5%. Neither the geographical origin of the N corks nor the surface treatment to which the AG corks were subjected significantly affected the proposed models. Therefore, the moisture content of cork stoppers could be measured at the industrial scale using electrical resistancetype moisture meter

Monitoring implantable immunoisolation devices with intrinsic fluorescence of genipin

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149252/1/jbio201800170.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149252/2/jbio201800170_am.pd