Background: The purpose of this case report is to present an unusual and unique case of vertebral osteomyelitis due to the organism Cryptococcus neoformans, which was found to be isolated to the fourth lumbar vertebra...Background: The purpose of this case report is to present an unusual and unique case of vertebral osteomyelitis due to the organism Cryptococcus neoformans, which was found to be isolated to the fourth lumbar vertebra in an immunocompetent patient. Cryptotoccus neoformans is an encapsulated yeast which typically presents in severely immunocompromised patients. Vertebral osteomyelitis is most commonly associated with bacterial infections. Case Description: A 51-year-old male presented with severe pain localized to the lumbar region, and a high grade fever for 15 days, chills, urinary hesitancy, dysuria, and fatigue. The patient’s only past medical history included Type II Diabetes Mellitus. Neoplasms and HIV were ruled out. No source of entry was located upon examination and the lungs were negative for the presence of Cryptococcal pathogen. The CT scan revealed a lytic lesion located in the fourth lumbar vertebral body. A bone biopsy confirmed the presence of Cryptococcus neoformans as the source of infection. A follow up visit was also conducted to examine the patient’s status of infection, and for the presence of complications. Conclusion: At this time, it is important to note Cryptococcus neoformans can be isolated to a single vertebral level. This case study is pivotal in demonstrating the importance of the comprehension of rare, and non-traumatic Cryptococcal infections in Central Nervous System, showing also that immunocompetent patients are well at risk for this infectious process.展开更多
Honghu Lake,located in the southeast of Hubei Province,China,has suffered a severe disturbance during the past few decades.To restore the ecosystem,the Honghu Lake Wetland Protection and Restoration Demonstration Proj...Honghu Lake,located in the southeast of Hubei Province,China,has suffered a severe disturbance during the past few decades.To restore the ecosystem,the Honghu Lake Wetland Protection and Restoration Demonstration Project(HLWPRDP) has been implemented since 2004.A back propagation(BP) artificial neural network(ANN) approach was applied to evaluatinig the ecosystem health of the Honghu Lake wetland.And the effectiveness of the HLWPRDP was also assessed by comparing the ecosystem health before and after the project.Particularly,12 ecosystem health indices were used as evaluation parameters to establish a set of three-layer BP ANNs.The output is one layer of ecosystem health index.After training and testing the BP ANNs,an optimal model of BP ANNs was selected to assess the ecosystem health of the Honghu Lake wetland.The result indicates that four stages can be identified based on the change of the ecosystem health from 1990 to 2008 and the ecosystem health index ranges from morbidity before the implementation of HLWPRDP(in 2002) to middle health after the implementation of the HLWPRDP(in 2005).It demonstrates that the HLWPRDP is effective and the BP ANN could be used as a tool for the assessment of ecosystem health.展开更多
BACKGROUND Drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization(DEB-TACE)is an endovascular treatment to release chemotherapeutic agents within a target lesion,minimizing systemic exposure and adverse effects to chemothe...BACKGROUND Drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization(DEB-TACE)is an endovascular treatment to release chemotherapeutic agents within a target lesion,minimizing systemic exposure and adverse effects to chemotherapeutics.Therefore,identifying which patient characteristics may predict imaging response to DEB-TACE can improve treatment results while selecting the best candidates.Predictors of the response after DEB-TACE still have not been fully elucidated.This is the first prospective study performed with standardized DEBTACE technique that aim to identify predictors of radiological response,assessing patients clinical and laboratory characteristics,diagnostic imaging and intraprocedure data of the hepatocellular carcinoma treated in the neoadjuvant context for liver transplantation.AIM To identify pre-and intraoperative clinical and imaging predictors of the radiological response of drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization(DEB-TACE)for the neoadjuvant treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).METHODS This is prospective,cohort study,performed in a single transplant center,from 2011 to 2014.Consecutive patients with HCC considered for liver transplant who underwent DEB-TACE in the first session for downstaging or bridging purposes were recruited.Pre and post-chemoembolization imaging studies were performed by computed tomography or magnetic resonance.The radiological response of each individual HCC was evaluated by objective response using mRECIST and the percentage of necrosis.RESULTS Two hundred patients with 380 HCCs were examined.Analysis of the objective response(nodule-based analysis)demonstrated that HCC with pseudocapsules had a 2.01 times greater chance of being responders than those without pseudocapsules(P=0.01),and the addition of every 1mg of chemoembolic agent increased the chance of therapeutic response in 4%(P<0.001).Analysis of the percentage of necrosis through multiple linear regression revealed that the addition of each 1mg of the chemoembolic agent caused an average increase of 0.65%(P<0.001)in necrosis in the treated lesion,whereas the hepatocellular carcinoma with pseudocapsules presented 18.27%(P<0.001)increased necrosis compared to those without pseudocapsules.CONCLUSION The presence of a pseudocapsule and the addition of the amount of chemoembolic agent increases the chance of an objective response in hepatocellular carcinoma and increases the percentage of tumor necrosis following drug-eluting bead chemoembolization in the neoadjuvant treatment,prior to liver transplantation.展开更多
Cooling by evaporation through transpiring porous walls is expanding in various industrial applications such as air conditioning. It is also used to cool water in a clay jug. This process deserves to be studied, under...Cooling by evaporation through transpiring porous walls is expanding in various industrial applications such as air conditioning. It is also used to cool water in a clay jug. This process deserves to be studied, understood and valued. This paper deals with the transpiration phenomenon through a saturated porous plate coupled with heat and mass transfer by natural convection. Conservation Equations (mass, momentum, energy and concentration), associated with adequate boundary conditions, have been numerically solved using an implicit finite difference iterative method. The numerical model has been validated by experimental measurements from holographic interferometry. The used method to obtain temperature and concentration profiles was explained. They are evaluated from the refractive index of moisture air in the boundary layer. The main numerical results presented are: Nusselt and Sherwood numbers, temperature, humidity, and velocity profiles within the boundary layer as well as the different heat fluxes exchanged between the plate and the surrounding environment. Besides, the present model allows showing the important effect of the equivalent thermal conductivity and the surface emissivity on temperature and heats flux.展开更多
This review describes advances in understanding and forecasting tropical cyclone(TC)subseasonal variability during the past four years.A large effort by the scientific community has been in understanding the sources of...This review describes advances in understanding and forecasting tropical cyclone(TC)subseasonal variability during the past four years.A large effort by the scientific community has been in understanding the sources of predictability at subseasonal timescales beyond the well-known modulation of TC activity by the Madden-Julian Oscillation(MJO).In particular,the strong modulation of TC activity over the western North Pacific by the Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation(BSISO)has been documented.Progress has also been realized in understanding the role of tropical-extratropical interactions in improving subseasonal forecasts.In addition,several recent publications have shown that extratropical wave breaking may have a role in the genesis and development of TCs.Analyses of multi-model ensemble data sets such as the Subseasonal to Seasonal(S2S)and Subseasonal Experiment(SubX)have shown that the skill of S2S models in predicting the genesis of TCs varies strongly among models and regions but is often tied to their ability to simulate the MJO and its impacts.The skill in select models has led to an increase over the past four years in the number of forecasting centers issuing subseasonal TC forecasts using various techniques(statistical,statistical-dynamical and dynamical).More extensive verification studies have been published over the last four years,but often only for the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific.展开更多
The machine-tools performances within the framework of high-speed machining both depend on the design of the reference trajectory and on the tuning of the servo controllers. The reduction of the contouring error can b...The machine-tools performances within the framework of high-speed machining both depend on the design of the reference trajectory and on the tuning of the servo controllers. The reduction of the contouring error can be achieved by adapting the feedrate to the path profile. An alternative method consists of smoothing the spatial trajectory that allows to decrease the cycle time. A path smoothing technique is provided, which uses an analogy with racing-car piloting. The trajectory is modified pointwise according to a set of rules and is designed using fuzzy control.展开更多
文摘Background: The purpose of this case report is to present an unusual and unique case of vertebral osteomyelitis due to the organism Cryptococcus neoformans, which was found to be isolated to the fourth lumbar vertebra in an immunocompetent patient. Cryptotoccus neoformans is an encapsulated yeast which typically presents in severely immunocompromised patients. Vertebral osteomyelitis is most commonly associated with bacterial infections. Case Description: A 51-year-old male presented with severe pain localized to the lumbar region, and a high grade fever for 15 days, chills, urinary hesitancy, dysuria, and fatigue. The patient’s only past medical history included Type II Diabetes Mellitus. Neoplasms and HIV were ruled out. No source of entry was located upon examination and the lungs were negative for the presence of Cryptococcal pathogen. The CT scan revealed a lytic lesion located in the fourth lumbar vertebral body. A bone biopsy confirmed the presence of Cryptococcus neoformans as the source of infection. A follow up visit was also conducted to examine the patient’s status of infection, and for the presence of complications. Conclusion: At this time, it is important to note Cryptococcus neoformans can be isolated to a single vertebral level. This case study is pivotal in demonstrating the importance of the comprehension of rare, and non-traumatic Cryptococcal infections in Central Nervous System, showing also that immunocompetent patients are well at risk for this infectious process.
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 40871251)Knowledge Innovation Programs of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No KZCX2-YW-141)
文摘Honghu Lake,located in the southeast of Hubei Province,China,has suffered a severe disturbance during the past few decades.To restore the ecosystem,the Honghu Lake Wetland Protection and Restoration Demonstration Project(HLWPRDP) has been implemented since 2004.A back propagation(BP) artificial neural network(ANN) approach was applied to evaluatinig the ecosystem health of the Honghu Lake wetland.And the effectiveness of the HLWPRDP was also assessed by comparing the ecosystem health before and after the project.Particularly,12 ecosystem health indices were used as evaluation parameters to establish a set of three-layer BP ANNs.The output is one layer of ecosystem health index.After training and testing the BP ANNs,an optimal model of BP ANNs was selected to assess the ecosystem health of the Honghu Lake wetland.The result indicates that four stages can be identified based on the change of the ecosystem health from 1990 to 2008 and the ecosystem health index ranges from morbidity before the implementation of HLWPRDP(in 2002) to middle health after the implementation of the HLWPRDP(in 2005).It demonstrates that the HLWPRDP is effective and the BP ANN could be used as a tool for the assessment of ecosystem health.
文摘BACKGROUND Drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization(DEB-TACE)is an endovascular treatment to release chemotherapeutic agents within a target lesion,minimizing systemic exposure and adverse effects to chemotherapeutics.Therefore,identifying which patient characteristics may predict imaging response to DEB-TACE can improve treatment results while selecting the best candidates.Predictors of the response after DEB-TACE still have not been fully elucidated.This is the first prospective study performed with standardized DEBTACE technique that aim to identify predictors of radiological response,assessing patients clinical and laboratory characteristics,diagnostic imaging and intraprocedure data of the hepatocellular carcinoma treated in the neoadjuvant context for liver transplantation.AIM To identify pre-and intraoperative clinical and imaging predictors of the radiological response of drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization(DEB-TACE)for the neoadjuvant treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).METHODS This is prospective,cohort study,performed in a single transplant center,from 2011 to 2014.Consecutive patients with HCC considered for liver transplant who underwent DEB-TACE in the first session for downstaging or bridging purposes were recruited.Pre and post-chemoembolization imaging studies were performed by computed tomography or magnetic resonance.The radiological response of each individual HCC was evaluated by objective response using mRECIST and the percentage of necrosis.RESULTS Two hundred patients with 380 HCCs were examined.Analysis of the objective response(nodule-based analysis)demonstrated that HCC with pseudocapsules had a 2.01 times greater chance of being responders than those without pseudocapsules(P=0.01),and the addition of every 1mg of chemoembolic agent increased the chance of therapeutic response in 4%(P<0.001).Analysis of the percentage of necrosis through multiple linear regression revealed that the addition of each 1mg of the chemoembolic agent caused an average increase of 0.65%(P<0.001)in necrosis in the treated lesion,whereas the hepatocellular carcinoma with pseudocapsules presented 18.27%(P<0.001)increased necrosis compared to those without pseudocapsules.CONCLUSION The presence of a pseudocapsule and the addition of the amount of chemoembolic agent increases the chance of an objective response in hepatocellular carcinoma and increases the percentage of tumor necrosis following drug-eluting bead chemoembolization in the neoadjuvant treatment,prior to liver transplantation.
文摘Cooling by evaporation through transpiring porous walls is expanding in various industrial applications such as air conditioning. It is also used to cool water in a clay jug. This process deserves to be studied, understood and valued. This paper deals with the transpiration phenomenon through a saturated porous plate coupled with heat and mass transfer by natural convection. Conservation Equations (mass, momentum, energy and concentration), associated with adequate boundary conditions, have been numerically solved using an implicit finite difference iterative method. The numerical model has been validated by experimental measurements from holographic interferometry. The used method to obtain temperature and concentration profiles was explained. They are evaluated from the refractive index of moisture air in the boundary layer. The main numerical results presented are: Nusselt and Sherwood numbers, temperature, humidity, and velocity profiles within the boundary layer as well as the different heat fluxes exchanged between the plate and the surrounding environment. Besides, the present model allows showing the important effect of the equivalent thermal conductivity and the surface emissivity on temperature and heats flux.
基金NOAA through the Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies under Cooperative Agreement NA19NES4320002.Janiga acknowledges the support of the Chief of Naval Research through the NRL Base Program PE 62435N.Camargo and Lee acknowledge support from the NASA MAP program(80NSSC21K1495)Camargo also acknowledges support from NOAA(NA22OAR4310610)the Vetlesen Foundation.Wang was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.2116804。
文摘This review describes advances in understanding and forecasting tropical cyclone(TC)subseasonal variability during the past four years.A large effort by the scientific community has been in understanding the sources of predictability at subseasonal timescales beyond the well-known modulation of TC activity by the Madden-Julian Oscillation(MJO).In particular,the strong modulation of TC activity over the western North Pacific by the Boreal Summer Intra-Seasonal Oscillation(BSISO)has been documented.Progress has also been realized in understanding the role of tropical-extratropical interactions in improving subseasonal forecasts.In addition,several recent publications have shown that extratropical wave breaking may have a role in the genesis and development of TCs.Analyses of multi-model ensemble data sets such as the Subseasonal to Seasonal(S2S)and Subseasonal Experiment(SubX)have shown that the skill of S2S models in predicting the genesis of TCs varies strongly among models and regions but is often tied to their ability to simulate the MJO and its impacts.The skill in select models has led to an increase over the past four years in the number of forecasting centers issuing subseasonal TC forecasts using various techniques(statistical,statistical-dynamical and dynamical).More extensive verification studies have been published over the last four years,but often only for the North Atlantic and eastern North Pacific.
文摘The machine-tools performances within the framework of high-speed machining both depend on the design of the reference trajectory and on the tuning of the servo controllers. The reduction of the contouring error can be achieved by adapting the feedrate to the path profile. An alternative method consists of smoothing the spatial trajectory that allows to decrease the cycle time. A path smoothing technique is provided, which uses an analogy with racing-car piloting. The trajectory is modified pointwise according to a set of rules and is designed using fuzzy control.
