Canine biphasic synovial sarcoma: case report and immunohistochemical characterization

The clinical, radiological and pathologic features of a biphasic synovial sarcoma in the left elbow joint of a two-year-old male Rottweiler are presented. The tumor showed positive immunoreactivity for vimentin, Epithelial Membrane Antigen (EMA), p53 and PCNA, while it was negative for the cytokeratin used, S-100, Rb and p21. Immunohistochemistry for EMA allowed the identification of epithelioid components of synovial sarcoma, and may, therefore, contribute in establishing a diagnosis of biphasic synovial sarcoma. Intratumoral variation in PCNA immunoreactivity was minimal, indicating that the various tumor components proliferate at more or less similar rates. Overall, the characterized immunohistochemical profile for canine synovial sarcoma, not defined previously, may provide clues to the histogenesis of the phenotypically mesenchymal and epithelial elements of the tumor, and may be of value in the differential diagnosis of challenging cases, decreasing the risk of under- and mis-diagnosis. Although more cases need to be studied to determine whether there is a consistent pattern of immunostaining in canine synovial sarcoma, its potential significance is discussed in relation to the histogenesis, molecular pathology and differential diagnosis of canine synovial sarcoma

Using Multi-Modal Bio-Digital Technologies to Support the Assessment of Cognitive Abilities of Children with Physical and Neurological Impairments

Current studies done using a learning test for children have problems as they only make evaluations of Physically and Neurologically Impaired (PNI) children who can succeed in the test and can be considered as a PASS/FAIL test. This pilot study takes a holistic view of cognitive testing of PNI children using a user-test-device triad model and provides a framework using non-PNI children and adults as controls. Comparisons using adapted off-the-shelf novel interfaces to the computer, in particular, an Electroencephalograph (EEG) head-set, an eye-tracker and a head-tracker and a common mouse were carried out. In addition, two novel multi-modal technologies were developed based on the use of brain-waves and eye-tracking as well as head-tracking technologies to support the study. The devices were used on three tests with increasing cognitive complexity. A self-developed measure based on success streaks (consecutive outcomes) was introduced to improve evaluations of PNI children. A theoretical model regarding a fit of ability to devices was initially setup and finally modified to fit the view of the empirical model that emerged from the outcomes of the study. Results suggest that while multi-modal technologies can address weaknesses of the individual component modes, a compromise is made between the user’s ability for multi-tasking between the modes and the benefits of a multi-modal device but the sample size is very small. Results also show children failing a test with a mouse but passing it subsequently when direct communication is used suggesting that a device can affect a test for children who are of a developing age. This study provides a framework for a more meaningful conversation between educational psychologists as well as other professionals and PNI parents because it provides more discrimination of outcomes in cognitive tests for PNI children. The framework provides a vehicle that addresses scientifically the concerns of parents and schools.EPSR

Embedded Trusted Monitoring and Management Modules for Smart Solar Panels

This paper investigates developing a prototype of smart solar panels. This architecture consists of a panel monitoring module and the central management unit. The monitoring module is to be embedded inside each PV panel making it secure to transfer the trusted data via Wi-Fi to the central Management unit (which can accommodate an array of PV panels in an installation). This module is required for data storage and provides the ability to upload secure data to the cloud. This platform presents the ability to securely manage large numbers of rooftop solar panels in a distributed ledger by implementing block chain algorithm. For achieving this purpose, Module 400 is envisaged to be turned into a Blockchain node as it provides the infrastructure to implement this technology

Feline Cryptococcus in Malaysia: a first report

Cryptococcosis was diagnosed in a Domestic Shorthair cat showing upper respiratory signs of sneezing, stertorous, bilateral mucopurulent nasal discharges and swelling over the frontal area and nasal bridge. The diagnosis was made based on cytology, culture and histopathology. Treatment with itraconazole was unsuccessful because of poor client compliance. To our knowledge, this is the first report of cryptococcosis in cats in Malaysia

The Related Effects of Increased PN Junction Area on ESD Protection Capability

ESD protection devices comprising polysilicon resistor, Vcc and Vss connected diodes with different sizes of PN junction area were fabricated on CMOS test chip and underwent ESD stress. The result of testing shows that larger PN junction area will subject the polysilicon resistor to bear more energy from ESD stress and end up with more failures. The relationship between stressing energy and junction area is hereby derived. Different failure modes for positive and negative ESD pulses are also identified. By comparing our own design with those of commercial designs, a safe length of contacting parameter at Al-polysilicon contact capable of handling the discharging current is identified to be more than 90 μm

Comparing the nutritional status of vegetarians and non-vegetarians from a Buddhist organisation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Introduction: A vegetarian diet is generally considered as healthy for preventing metabolic-related diseases. There is lack of studies in Malaysia comparing the nutritional status of vegetarians and non-vegetarians. This cross-sectional study aims to compare body weight status, dietary intake and blood pressure level between these two groups. Methods: A total of 131 vegetarians and 135 non-vegetarians were recruited using convenience sampling from a Buddhist organisation in Kuala Lumpur. Body weight, height, waist circumference, percentage of body fat, and blood pressure measurements were taken, while dietary intake was assessed using a 2-day 24-hour dietary recall. Results: More vegetarians were underweight than non-vegetarians (31.3% vs 15.6%), while prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher among the non-vegetarians (23.7% vs 9.9%). A higher proportion of non-vegetarians (34.1%) had an unhealthy range of body fat percentage and significantly higher risk of abdominal obesity (24.4%) than the vegetarians (19.1% body fat; 13.7% abdominal obesity). Mean intakes for protein and fat were significantly lower among the vegetarians, while no significant differences were observed in the mean intake for energy and carbohydrate. Vegetarians had significantly higher intakes of vitamins C, D and E, calcium, potassium and folate, while vitamin B12 intake was significantly higher in the non-vegetarians. More non-vegetarians presented with unhealthy blood pressure status. Conclusion: Vegetarians in this study generally showed healthier dietary intake and lower body fatness than the non-vegetarians. Studies are suggested to be undertaken on a bigger sample size of vegetarians to confirm these findings

Post Mortem Ultrasound and Computed Tomography Findings of an Extraluminal Urinary Bladder Leiomyoma in a Dog

Background: Neoplasia of the urinary bladder is common in dogs, accounting approximately 0.5 to 1.0 percent of all neoplasms. Most of the neoplasia of the urinary bladder is epithelial in origin and only 10% of urinary bladder neoplasms in dogs are from mesenchymal origin, of which the most frequent types are leiomyoma / leiomyosarcoma, and hemangioma / hemangiosarcoma. Virtual autopsy refers to the postmortem use of radiology, ultrasound and cross-sectional imaging prior to conventional necropsy. This paper reports the detection of a rare extra-luminal urinary bladder mass diagnosed as leiomyoma with a virtual autopsy techniques.Case: A 16-year-old male Schnauzer had previous history of seizure and no complains related to the urinary system. The animal was treated symptomatically to the neurological signs and responded to medical treatment. Nine weeks later from the first visit to the hospital the dog was found dead at home. Then postmortem ultrasound and computed tomography of the abdomen were performed. Postmortem ultrasound revealed a homogenously hypoechoic, rounded and slightly irregularly marginated mass located externally but adjacent to the left cranial wall of the urinary bladder and appears to extend from its serosal margins. Postmortem computed tomography was performed after postmortem ultrasound. A pedunculated homogenous soft tissue attenuating mass was located at the left lateral aspect of the urinary bladder and extended cranially. It had a stalk that connected to the left lateral wall of the urinary bladder. A partial necropsy of the abdomen was done just to examine the mass. A round extraluminal, pedunculated mass was observed at the left lateral aspect of the urinary bladder wall. It was pale pink on the outside and white inside, with a soft to firm consistency. The lumen and mucosal surface of the urinary bladder was smooth and regular. The histology of the mass revealed a densely cellular neoplastic proliferation, expansive, composed of spindle-shaped cells with moderate to large eosinophilic cytoplasm, sometimes wavy and with indistinct edges. The nuclei were large, oval to flattened, with dense chromatin and inconspicuous nucleoli. Anisocytosis and anisokariosis were discrete and no mitotic figures were observed. The arrangement consisted of dense, irregular and multidirectional bundles and the stroma was scarce. The mass was histologically confirmed as leiomyoma.Discussion: In this case, we performed postmortem ultrasound and computed tomography as part of a virtual necropsy study and in both modalities the urinary bladder mass was able to be identified, followed by a partial necropsy to further investigate the nature of the mass and to collect a sample to obtain the histological diagnosis. A few of the disadvantages of the postmortem ultrasound and computed tomography specially in this case were the lack of color Doppler investigation on ultrasound and the lack of evaluation of the patter of contrast enhancement on computed tomography. These techniques could have added important information related to the vascularity characteristics of the mass in a live patient. This is the first case report in veterinary medicine that describes an extra-luminal pedunculated urinary bladder leiomyoma in a canine patient, and it is emphasized the approach by postmortem ultrasound, postmortem computed tomography and conventional necropsy findings to reach the definitive diagnosis

Glioma Mimics: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Characteristics of Granulomas in Dogs

Granulomas can “mimic” gliomas on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in human patients. The goal of this retrospective study was to report canine brain granulomas that were consistent with glioma based upon MRI, report their histologic diagnosis, and identify MRI criteria that might be useful to distinguish granuloma from glioma. Ten granulomas, initially suspected to be glioma based on MRI, were ultimately diagnosed as granulomatous meningoencephalomyelitis (n = 5), infectious granulomas (n = 3) or other meningoencephalitis (n = 2). Age was 1.6–15.0 years and two dogs were brachycephalic breeds. MRI characteristics overlapping with glioma included intra-axial, heterogeneous, T2-weighted hyperintense, T1-weighted hypointense to isointense mass lesions with contrast-enhancement. Signals on fluid attenuation inversion recovery, gradient echo and diffusion weighted imaging also matched glioma. Peri-lesional edema and mass effect were toward the high end of findings reported for glioma. MRI characteristics that would be considered unusual for glioma included dural contact (n = 4), T2-hypointensity (n = 2), concomitant meningeal-enhancement (n = 9), and minor changes in the contralateral brain (n = 2). Cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealed albuminocytological dissociation or mild pleocytosis. These cases show that granulomas can “mimic” glioma on canine brain MRI. In individual cases, certain MRI findings may help increase the index of suspicion for granuloma. Lack of pronounced cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis does not exclude granuloma. Signalment is very useful in the suspicion of glioma, and many of these dogs with granuloma were of ages and breeds in which glioma is less commonly seen

Cerebrospinal Fluid Drop Metastases of Canine Glioma: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Classification

Dissemination of glioma in humans can occur as leptomeningeal nodules, diffuse leptomeningeal lesions, or ependymal lesions. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drop metastasis of glioma is not well-recognized in dogs. Ten dogs with at least two anatomically distinct and histologically confirmed foci of glioma were included in this study. The 10 dogs underwent 28 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations, with distant CSF drop metastasis revealed in 13 MRIs. The CSF drop metastases appeared as leptomeningeal nodules in four dogs, diffuse leptomeningeal lesions in six dogs, and ependymal lesions in seven dogs; six dogs had a combination of lesion types. Primary tumors were generally T2-heterogeneous and contrast-enhancing. Many metastases were T2-homogeneous and non-enhancing. Diffuse leptomeningeal lesions were seen as widespread extra-axial contrast-enhancement, again very dissimilar to the intra-axial primary mass. Primary masses were rostrotentorial, whereas metastases generally occurred in the direction of CSF flow, in ventricles, CSF cisterns, and the central canal or leptomeninges of the cervical or thoracolumbar spinal cord. Seven of the dogs had received therapy limited to the primary mass, such as surgery or stereotactic radiation, then developed metastasis in the following months. CSF drop metastasis of glioma may take a very different appearance on MRI to the primary mass, including periventricular lesions that are more homogeneous and less contrast-enhancing, rostral horn signal changes, or leptomeningeal enhancement ventral to the brainstem or encircling the spinal cord

A Holistic Systems Security Approach Featuring Thin Secure Elements for Resilient IoT Deployments

© 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.IoT systems differ from traditional Internet systems in that they are different in scale, footprint, power requirements, cost and security concerns that are often overlooked. IoT systems inherently present different fail-safe capabilities than traditional computing environments while their threat landscapes constantly evolve. Further, IoT devices have limited collective security measures in place. Therefore, there is a need for different approaches in threat assessments to incorporate the interdependencies between different IoT devices. In this paper, we run through the design cycle to provide a security-focused approach to the design of IoT systems using a use case, namely, an intelligent solar-panel project called Daedalus. We utilise STRIDE/DREAD approaches to identify vulnerabilities using a thin secure element that is an embedded, tamper proof microprocessor chip that allows the storage and processing of sensitive data. It benefits from low power demand and small footprint as a crypto processor as well as is compatible with IoT 29 requirements. Subsequently, a key agreement based on an asymmetric cryptographic scheme, namely B-SPEKE was used to validate and authenticate the source. We find that end-to-end and independent stand-alone procedures used for validation and encryption of the source data originating from the solar panel are cost-effective in that the validation is carried out once and not several times in the chain as is often the case. The threat model proved useful not so much as a panacea for all threats but provided the framework for the consideration of known threats, and therefore appropriate mitigation plans to be deployed.Peer reviewe