797 research outputs found
Vena cava anomalies in thoracic surgery
Background: Vena cava anomalies are a rare group of anatomical variations due to an incorrect development of the
superior or inferior vena cava during fetal life. They generally show no clinical relevance and the diagnosis is done due
to the association with congenital heart diseases in most of cases. However, preoperative identification of these anomalies
is mandatory for surgeons to proper surgical planning. If not recognized, lethal complications may occur, as already reported
in literature.
Case presentation: We report a case series of three different unidentified vena cava anomalies in patients undergoing lung
resection. These unrecognized anomalies led to minor complications in two cases and required an accurate intraoperative
evaluation in another.
A careful retrospective evaluation of preoperative radiological images showed the anomalies.
Conclusions: A careful evaluation of the vena cava anatomy at pre-operative imaging is mandatory for thoracic surgeons to
properly plan the surgery and avoid complications
Spinning Pupil Aberration Measurement for anisoplanatic deconvolution
The aberrations in an optical microscope are commonly measured and corrected
at one location in the field of view, within the so-called isoplanatic patch.
Full-field correction is desirable for high-resolution imaging of large
specimens. Here we present a novel wavefront detector, based on pupil sampling
with sub-apertures, which measures the aberrated wavefront phase at each
position of the specimen. Based on this measurement, we propose a region-wise
deconvolution that provides an anisoplanatic reconstruction of the sample
image. Our results indicate that the measurement and correction of the
aberrations can be performed in a wide-field fluorescence microscope over its
entire field of view.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Beyond multi-view deconvolution for inherently-aligned fluorescence tomography
In multi-view fluorescence microscopy, each angular acquisition needs to be
aligned with care to obtain an optimal volumetric reconstruction. Here,
instead, we propose a neat protocol based on auto-correlation inversion, that
leads directly to the formation of inherently aligned tomographies. Our method
generates sharp reconstructions, with the same accuracy reachable after
sub-pixel alignment but with improved point-spread-function. The procedure can
be performed simultaneously with deconvolution further increasing the
reconstruction resolution
Compressed sensing in fluorescence microscopy.
Compressed sensing (CS) is a signal processing approach that solves ill-posed inverse problems, from under-sampled data with respect to the Nyquist criterium. CS exploits sparsity constraints based on the knowledge of prior information, relative to the structure of the object in the spatial or other domains. It is commonly used in image and video compression as well as in scientific and medical applications, including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. In the field of fluorescence microscopy, it has been demonstrated to be valuable for fast and high-resolution imaging, from single-molecule localization, super-resolution to light-sheet microscopy. Furthermore, CS has found remarkable applications in the field of mesoscopic imaging, facilitating the study of small animals' organs and entire organisms. This review article illustrates the working principles of CS, its implementations in optical imaging and discusses several relevant uses of CS in the field of fluorescence imaging from super-resolution microscopy to mesoscopy
A semantic-enabled platform for realizing an interoperable Web of Things
Nowadays, the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem is experiencing a lack of interoperability across the multiple competing platforms that are available. Consequently, service providers can only access vertical data silos that imply high costs and jeopardize their solutions market potential. It is necessary to transform the current situation with competing non-interoperable IoT platforms into a common ecosystem enabling the emergence of cross-platform, cross-standard, and cross-domain IoT services and applications. This paper presents a platform that has been implemented for realizing this vision. It leverages semantic web technologies to address the two key challenges in expanding the IoT beyond product silos into web-scale open ecosystems: data interoperability and resources identification and discovery. The paper provides extensive description of the proposed solution and its implementation details. Regarding the implementation details, it is important to highlight that the platform described in this paper is currently supporting the federation of eleven IoT deployments (from heterogeneous application domains) with over 10,000 IoT devices overall which produce hundreds of thousands of observations per day.This work was partially funded by the European project Federated Interoperable Semantic IoT/cloud Testbeds and Applications (FIESTA-IoT) from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme with the Grant Agreement No. CNECT-ICT-643943 and, in part, by the Spanish Government by means of the Project ADVICE “Dynamic Provisioning of Connectivity in High Density 5G Wireless Scenarios” under Grant TEC2015-71329-C2-1-R
The study of polyplex formation and stability by time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy of SYBR Green I-stained DNA
Polyplexes are nanoparticles formed by the self-assembly of DNA/RNA and cationic polymers specifically designed to deliver exogenous genetic material to cells by a process called transfection. There is a general consensus that a subtle balance between sufficient extracellular protection and intracellular release of nucleic acids is a key factor for successful gene delivery. Therefore, there is a strong need to develop suitable tools and techniques for enabling the monitoring of the stability of polyplexes in the biological environment they face during transfection. In this work we propose time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy in combination with SYBR Green I-DNA dye as a reliable tool for the in-depth characterization of the DNA/vector complexation state. As a proof of concept, we provide essential information on the assembly and disassembly of complexes formed between DNA and each of three cationic polymers, namely a novel promising chitosan-graft-branched polyethylenimine copolymer (Chi-g-bPEI), one of its building block 2 kDa bPEI and the gold standard transfectant 25 kDa bPEI. Our results highlight the higher information content provided by the time-resolved studies of SYBR Green I/DNA, as compared to conventional steady state measurements of ethidium bromide/DNA that enabled us to draw relationships among fluorescence lifetime, polyplex structural changes and transfection efficiency
A challenging upper digestive tract continuity restoration after recurrent esophago-colonic anastomosis complications
Background: Acute and chronic complications in esophago-colonic anastomosis have a significant impact in the postoperative course of patients with colonic transposition. Evidence about their management is poor and surgical treatment is mostly based on tailored approaches, so each new experience could be useful to improve knowledge about this peculiar condition. We report a unique case of an esophago-colonic resection and re-anastomosis without sternal approximation after recurrent anastomosis failure and strictures. Case presentation: A 69-year-old woman was referred to our hospital for worsening dysphagia. The patient had undergone esophago-gastrectomy with right colon interposition 12 years prior due to caustic ingestion. The esophago-colonic anastomosis was initially complicated by an enterocutaneous fistula, which was treated with anastomosis resection and left colon transposition. This was then further complicated by dehiscence and sternal infection treated with resection of the distal portion of the sternum and a new colo-jejunal anastomosis. Finally, a chronic anastomotic stricture occurred, refractory to endoscopic dilatation and prothesis positioning. We planned a new colonic-esophageal resection and re-anastomosis. The main technical challenges were addressing the adhesions resulting from previous surgery and mobilizing an adequate length of the intestinal tract to allow conduit continuity restoration. Blood supply was assessed through Indocyanine Green Fluorescence. To avoid compression of the digestive conduit sternal margins were not re-approximated, and the transposed tube was covered and protected using both pectoralis major muscles flap. We decided to avoid the use of any prosthetic material to reduce the risk of infection. The patient was able to resume oral food intake on the 12th day postoperatively after a barium swallowing test showed an adequate conduit caliber. Conclusion: Esophago-colonic anastomosis complications represent a life-threatening condition. Therefore, reports and sharing of knowledge are important to improve expertise in management of these conditions
Agronomic and molecular analyses for the characterisation of accessions in Tunisian olive germplasm collections
In this study, a total of 14 agronomic traits, five AFLP primer
combinations and ten SSR loci were used to describe and to classify a
group of Tunisian olive genotypes into groups based on molecular
profiles and agronomic traits. The analysis of variance of the
agronomical data revealed significant differences among accessions for
all measured traits. The mean phenotypic dissimilarity (0.34 with a
range of 0.08-0.6) was low in comparison to dissimilarity calculated
using AFLP (0.50 with a range of 0.16-0.70) and SSR markers (0.76 with
a range 0.35-0.94). The correlation between the agronomical
dissimilarity matrix and the matrices of genetic dissimilarity based on
SSR and AFLP markers was very weak: 0.156 (p = 0.05) and 0.185 (p =
0.05), respectively. The SSR-AFLP dendrogram based on unweighted
pair-group cluster analysis using Jaccard\u2019s index revealed that
the genetic diversity was predominantly structured according to fruit
size. A trend of clustering together of accessions originating from the
same or adjacent regions was also observed. The data obtained can be
used for the varietal survey and construction of a database of all
olive varieties grown in Tunisia and providing also additional
information that could form the basis for the rational design of
breeding programs
Pure stress urinary incontinence: analysis of prevalence, estimation of costs, and financial impact
BackgroundThe prevalence of pure stress urinary incontinence (P-SUI) and the role of urodynamic investigation (UDI) prior to surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is debated. Since the exact prevalence of P-SUI is not clear, its clinical and economic impact is not well defined. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence of P-SUI in a population of women who underwent UDI for urinary incontinence (UI), also assessing: 1) the correspondence between clinical diagnosis of P-SUI and urodynamic findings; 2) the analysis of costs in terms of UDI and eventually post-UDI avoided surgical procedures.MethodsA single cohort of women who underwent UDI for UI between January 2012 and July 2016 was prospectively collected and retrospectively analyzed. Clinical P-SUI was defined by the strict criteria of the International Continence Society. For each patient, history, physical examination and UDI were collected. The correspondence between clinical and urodynamic findings of P-SUI was analyzed. The rate of clinical P-SUI changed after performing UDI and the number of unnecessary intervention after UDI were reported. A wide cost analysis of UDIs, and the amount of surgical procedures that were believed unnecessary after UDI was reported.ResultsStress urinary incontinence was present in 323/544 (59.4%) patients. The prevalence of clinical P-SUI was 20.7% (67/323), while the prevalence of complicated SUI (C-SUI) was 79.3% (256/323). After UDI, diagnosis of P-SUI decreased to 18.3% (59/232). In 10.2% of cases (6/59) the scheduled middle urethral sling (MUS) was suppressed after the UDI results because 3/6 cases had detrusor overactivity and urge incontinence, in 2/6 cases SUI was treated with a conservative management, in 1/6 case an important voiding dysfunction was detected. Considering the national reimbursement in our country, the cost of each UDI was 296.5 euros and the total amount was 17,493.5 euros. So far the surgery-related savings covered 61.7-105.0% of the costs of total number of UDIs performed in the uncomplicated patients.ConclusionsThe prevalence of clinical P-SUI is relevant, involving about 20% of women with clinical SUI. Although the correspondence between clinical and urodynamic diagnosis was high, we demonstrated that UDI may help in some cases to avoid an inappropriate surgical treatment. Therefore, UDI prior to SUI surgery should be considered to achieve a correct diagnosis and a proper therapeutic strategy
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