Arms down cone beam CT hepatic angiography: are we focusing on the wrong target?

We read with great interest the recent article by Dr. Gonzalez-Aguirre and colleagues entitled ‘‘Arms Down Cone Beam CT Hepatic Angiography Performance Assessment: Vascular Imaging Quality and Imaging Artefacts’’ [1]. One of the most important advantages of cone beam CT (CBCT) is the possibility to evaluate the lesion’s feeders assisting their identification and catheterization [2]. In this set, the patient’s arms positioning is crucial in order not to impair CBCT imaging. Dr. Gonzalez-Aguirre et al. had elegantly demonstrated that vessels’ visualization is independent from the patient’s arms position, allowing to perform the entire procedure without patient’s movements. This minimizes the risk of contamination and reduces procedural time. However, literature shows that the major pivotal strength of CBCT, either mono-phasic or possibly bi-phasic, is the ability to depict in intra-procedurally ‘‘occult lesions’’, not visible at pre-procedural second-line non-invasive imaging (MRI, MDCT) [3]. This ability is not just for show, but yield to some major clinical implications: the visualization of an occult nodule identifies a subset of population experiencing fast tumour growth, having consequences on the number of adjunctive treatments controlling tumour growth (adjunctive RFA, or TACE procedures) and prioritization for transplantation [4]. Moreover, bi-phasic CBCT, with its unique ability to intra-procedural permit nodule characterization, could help in patients’ reclassification and real-time TACE strategy modification [5]. In this light would be a crucial interest for the audience to know whether the CBCT acquisition with arms down does not alter the diagnostic performance of the modality and ability of lesion’s characterization, especially for those lesion localized peripherally, where the beam hardening artefacts have been shown to be significant. Finally, patient’s positioning is fundamental for CBCT imaging. By acquiring the scan with patient’s arm down, liver volume would not be located within the rotation isocentre. This could be a substantial limitation for lesion located within the left liver lobe, eventually hypertrophied, and for high BMI patients

Implementing Culturally Diverse Strategies in Higher Education Classrooms

Abstract In this qualitative case study, the researcher determined how student cultural differences influenced Western Coastal University (WCU, pseudonym) faculty pedagogies within their courses. Additionally, the researcher clarified how WCU faculty described their understanding and awareness of culturally diverse teaching strategies. Further investigation also uncovered what successes and challenges professors faced when implementing culturally diverse strategies in the classroom and what differences they discovered in their teaching and student learning as a result. The researcher used in-depth interviews, artifact documents such as the WCU’s Diversity Rationale Statement and Strategic Plan, and course survey data. Three overarching themes emerged from the data collection, revealing a lack of a unified vision and approach to diversity education within their department at WCU, the challenges the faculty experienced such as the implementation of culturally diverse strategies, and the faculty’s recognition of the need for culturally diverse teaching strategies. Exploring the data in a real-life environment while identifying complexities of real-life situations has the potential to help WCU and the wider community of interest by bridging the cultural gap between faculty and students, resulting in an enhanced organizational culture that will better serve the increasingly diverse student body

The Historical Development of the Port of Livorno (Italy) and Its New Port Plan 2010 in Advanced Stage of Elaboration

The geographical location makes the port of Livorno one of the most important in Italy. The port, in fact, benefits of an extended network of roads and rails connecting it with the rest of Italy, and central and southern Europe as well. The history of Livorno and its port is inextricably linked to that of Pisa and Florence, and to the complexity of events that determined the political set-up of the region along several centuries. Looking at the new port plan of Livorno has made it necessary an extensive overview of the history of both the port, and of its planning. This analysis has allowed: to understand the reason for the different choices made in the past for the development of the port, highlighting, when necessary, the errors made; to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the existing port infrastructure; to identify the works needed to boost the port in the European context. The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the analysis performed for the implementation of the new Livorno port plan 2010 and show how the port planning in Italy is often conditioned by hundreds of centuries of history

Drying kinetics and physico-chemical quality of mango slices

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is an important tropical fruit consumed worldwide and grown in Italy only in Sicily, where the areas of the Tyrrhenian coast have proved to be suitable to produce valuable fruits. Mango fruit has a pleasant aroma and taste, which are important qualities for consumer’s sensorial acceptance. However, they are highly perishable, prone to progressive undesired changes if stored untreated, resulting in around 25% postharvest losses, which is further increased during storage and transportation. An alternative for reducing the above-mentioned undesired changes is the dehydration of the cut fruit, which reduce the fruit water activity, thereby avoiding the deteriorative process and extending the shelf-life. This study investigates the effect of dehydration at different temperatures (50, 60 and 70°C) on drying kinetics and volatile compounds of two cultivars (Keitt and Osteen) of mango fruits cultivated in Sicily. Significant losses of volatile constituents of fresh mango occurred at higher temperature, especially for the Osteen cultivar. A diffusion model including the effect of shrinkage is also proposed, which may be used to describe drying behaviour of fruits and to define the optimal drying conditions.. Experimental data of the moisture ratio during drying were well predicted by the model

Use of potassium polyaspartate for the tartaric stabilization of Sicilian white wines

Cold stabilization is a common method used to avoid tartaric acid crystals from forming in bottled wine, but this technique shows some inconveniences on the sensory characteristics and energy cost. In the present research, the tartaric stabilization in Sicilian white wines, with a recently permissible molecule in oenology, was studied: the potassium polyaspartate (PAK). The PAK has a negative charge at wine pH and allows to sequester the K+ cations; consequently it inhibits the formation and the growth of potassium bitartrate crystals. PAK is a relatively small polymer; perfectly microfiltrated and does not allow the filling phenomena in filtration membranes. The adding of PAK allowed to reduce almost all the tartaric precipitations on very unstable wines, regardless of the chemical-physical characteristics of the treated white wines. The stability of PAK, after thermal stress of the wine added to this polymer, was confirmed evaluating different analytical parameters such as pH, total acidity and buffer power, while variations in the conductivity of wines seemed to indicate a residual tartaric instability. In conclusion, the use of PAK makes possible to improve the sensory characteristics of wines, considering lower losses of tartaric acid and potassium, which are important for acid perception and acid persistence (buffer power), as well as reducing production costs and low environmental impact

Regulation of ISWI chromatin remodelling activity

The packaging of the eukaryotic genome into chromatin facilitates the storage of the genetic information within the nucleus, but prevents the access to the underlying DNA sequences. Structural changes in chromatin are mediated by several mechanisms. Among them, ATP-dependent remodelling complexes belonging to ISWI family provides one of the best examples that eukaryotic cells evolved to finely regulate these changes. ISWI-containing complexes use the energy derived from ATP hydrolysis to rearrange nucleosomes on chromatin in order to favour specific nuclear reactions. The combination of regulatory nuclear factors associated with the ATPase subunit as well as its modulation by specific histone modifications, specializes the nuclear function of each ISWI-containing complex. Here we review the different ways by which ISWI enzymatic activity can be modulated and regulated in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells

Mapping and historical reconstruction of the great Mexican 22 June 1932 tsunami

At 07:00 h (UTC-6) on 22 June 1932, a <i>M</i><sub>s</sub> = 6.9 earthquake shocked the coasts of Colima and Jalisco. Five minutes later a tsunami arrived at the coast. It almost completely destroyed the town of Cuyutlán, Colima, causing the deaths of 50 people and leaving about 1200 injured. In this study, newspaper reports and technical reports are reviewed, as well as survivors' testimonials. The physical characteristics (mean sea level at the time, time of arrival, sea retreat, and inundation distribution) and the tsunami effects (number of victims, injuries, affected buildings) have been reconstructed and mapped. The interpretation of historical data allowed us to determine the intensity of the tsunami and to reveal the tsunamigenic source. This study emphasizes the relevance of historical analysis, including survivor's testimonies, in the reconstruction of tsunamis that lack instrumental data. The results of this study are relevant to paleotsunami studies and tsunami related hazard planning