Applying scanning electron microscopy for the ultrastructural and clinical analysis of periprosthetic capsules in implant-based breast reconstruction

La reconstruction en deux étapes par expanseur et implant est la technique la plus répandue pour la reconstruction mammmaire post mastectomie. La formation d’une capsule périprothétique est une réponse physiologique universelle à tout corps étranger présent dans le corps humain; par contre, la formation d’une capsule pathologique mène souvent à des complications et par conséquent à des résultats esthétiques sous-optimaux. Le microscope électronique à balayage (MEB) est un outil puissant qui permet d’effectuer une évaluation sans pareille de la topographie ultrastructurelle de spécimens. Le premier objectif de cette thèse est de comparer le MEB conventionnel (Hi-Vac) à une technologie plus récente, soit le MEB environnemental (ESEM), afin de déterminer si cette dernière mène à une évaluation supérieure des tissus capsulaires du sein. Le deuxième objectif est d‘appliquer la modalité de MEB supérieure et d’étudier les modifications ultrastructurelles des capsules périprothétiques chez les femmes subissant différents protocoles d’expansion de tissus dans le contexte de reconstruction mammaire prothétique. Deux études prospectives ont été réalisées afin de répondre à nos objectifs de recherche. Dix patientes ont été incluses dans la première, et 48 dans la seconde. La modalité Hi-Vac s’est avérée supérieure pour l’analyse compréhensive de tissus capsulaires mammaires. En employant le mode Hi-Vac dans notre protocole de recherche établi, un relief 3-D plus prononcé à été observé autour des expanseurs BIOCELL® dans le groupe d’approche d’intervention retardée (6 semaines). Des changements significatifs n’ont pas été observés au niveau des capsules SILTEX® dans les groupes d’approche d’intervention précoce (2 semaines) ni retardée.

Europe’s reactive and protective muddling through: the results of a summit in fire fighting mode. EPC Post-Summit Analysis, 19 October 2015

The EU’s October summit was dominated by one issue; the migration and refugee crisis, with EU leaders intent on putting on a public display of unity after weeks of bitter arguments, and concentrating on fire-fighting and immediate measures to tackle the most pressing reasons for, and impacts of, the crisis. Longer-term measures to address some of the root causes of increased migratory flows, support for the integration of newly arrived refugees or the introduction of new channels of legal migration, were not discussed. The Summit also spent little time on two issues that had originally been expected to be a key part of the agenda: the forthcoming British referendum on EU membership, where irritation with the slow pace of talks and British vagueness about its demands were in evidence; and the governance of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), where EU leaders missed another opportunity for a thorough debate about future perspectives on the basis of the ‘Five Presidents’ Report’.

The philosophy of arithmetic as developed from the three fundamental processes of synthesis, analysis and comparison, containing also a history of arithmetic.

Mode of access: Internet.

Nature displayed in her mode of teaching language to man : being a new and infallible method of acquiring languages with unparalleled rapidity : deduced from the analysis of the human mind and consequently suited to every capacity /

Mode of access: Internet.

Multivariate analyses of variance and covariance for simulation studies involving normal time series

Photocopy.

Physical activity and strength of the femoral neck during the adolescent growth spurt: A longitudinal analysis

Loading of the femoral neck (FN) is dominated by bending and compressive stresses. We hypothesize that adaptation of the FN to physical activity would be manifested in the cross-sectional area (CSA) and section modulus (Z) of bone, indices of axial and bending strength, respectively. We investigated the influence of physical activity on bone strength during adolescence using 7 years of longitudinal data from 109 boys and 121 girls from the Saskatchewan Paediatric Bone and Mineral Accrual Study (PBMAS). Physical activity data (PAC-Q physical activity inventory) and anthropometric measurements were taken every 6 months and DXA bone scans were measured annually (Hologic QDR2000, array mode). We applied hip structural analysis to derive strength and geometric indices of the femoral neck using DXA scans. To control for maturation, we determined a biological maturity age defined as years from age at peak height velocity (APHV). To account for the repeated measures within individual nature of longitudinal data, multilevel random effects regression analyses were used to analyze the data. When biological maturity age and body size (height and weight) were controlled, in both boys and girls, physical activity was a significant positive independent predictor of CSA and Z of the narrow region of the femoral neck (P < 0.05). There was no independent effect of physical activity on the subperiosteal width of the femoral neck. When leg length and leg lean mass were introduced into the random effects models to control for size and muscle mass of the leg (instead of height and weight), all significant effects of physical activity disappeared. Even among adolescents engaged in normal levels of physical activity, the statistically significant relationship between physical activity and indices of bone strength demonstrate that modifiable lifestyle factors like exercise play an important role in optimizing bone strength during the growing years. Physical activity differences were explained by the interdependence between activity and lean mass considerations. Physical activity is important for optimal development of bone strength. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Normal ranges for automated analysis of global LV function using 2D Strain

Background: Automated measurement of LV function could extend the clinical utility of echo by less expert readers. We sought to define normal ranges of global 2D strain (2DS) and strain-rate (SR) in an international, multicenter study of healthy subjects, and to assess the determinants of variation. Methods: SR and 2DS were measured in 18 myocardial segts in both apical and short axis views of 227 normal subjects (38% men, 48±14y) with no cardiac history, risk factors or drug therapy. The association of age and resting hemodynamics with global strain indices was sought using multiple regression. Differences in variance were expressed as F values. Results: Baseline SBP was 127±18 mmHg, pulse was 76±13/min and ejection fraction 50±20%. Although global longitudinal strain was influenced by endsystolic volume (F=4.2, p

Cardiac syndrome X: relevance of arterial pressure waveform analysis to patients with chest pain and normal coronary arteries

We report the case study of a 68-year-old female with cardiac syndrome X presenting with abnormal pressure waveforms and a hypertensive response to exercise with ST-segment depression. After amlodipine treatment, pressure waveform morphology was significantly improved, exercise testing was normal and symptoms had resolved. This case emphasizes the potential clinical value of arterial waveform analysis.

An automated failure mode and effect analysis based on high-level design specificication with behavior trees

Formal methods have significant benefits for developing safety critical systems, in that they allow for correctness proofs, model checking safety and liveness properties, deadlock checking, etc. However, formal methods do not scale very well and demand specialist skills, when developing real-world systems. For these reasons, development and analysis of large-scale safety critical systems will require effective integration of formal and informal methods. In this paper, we use such an integrative approach to automate Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), a widely used system safety analysis technique, using a high-level graphical modelling notation (Behavior Trees) and model checking. We inject component failure modes into the Behavior Trees and translate the resulting Behavior Trees to SAL code. This enables us to model check if the system in the presence of these faults satisfies its safety properties, specified by temporal logic formulas. The benefit of this process is tool support that automates the tedious and error-prone aspects of FMEA.

β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition in cognitively normal brain, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Alzheimer's disease:a study using principal components analysis

The densities of diffuse, primitive, and classic ß-amyloid (Aß) deposits were studied in the temporal lobe in cognitively normal brain, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD), and sporadic AD (SAD). Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to determine whether there were distinct differences between groups or whether Aß pathology was more continuously distributed from group to group. Three principal components (PC) were extracted from the data accounting for 56% of the total variance. Plots of cases in relation to the PC did not result in distinct groups but suggested overlap in Aß deposition between the groups. In addition, there were linear correlations between the densities of Aß deposits and the distribution of the cases along the PC in specific brain regions suggesting continuous variation from group to group. PC1 was associated with the degree of maturation of Aß deposits, PC2 with differences between FAD and SAD, and PC3 with the degree of spread of Aß pathology into the hippocampus. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype was not associated with variation in Aß deposition between cases. PCA may be a useful method of studying the pathological interface between closely related neurodegenerative disorders.

Gamma-shaped long-cavity normal-dispersion mode-locked Er-fiber laser for sub-nanosecond high-energy pulsed generation

We propose the design of a novel ?-shaped fiber laser resonator and apply it to build a long-cavity normaldispersion mode-locked Er-fiber laser which features enhanced functionalities for management and optimization of pulsed lasing regimes. We report the generation of sub-nanosecond pulses with the energy of ~0.5 µJ at a kilohertz-scale repetition rate in an all-fiber system based on the new laser design. A combination of special design solutions in the laser, such as polarization instability compensation in the ultra-long arm of the resonator, intra-cavity spectral selection of radiation with a broadband fiber Bragg grating, and polarization selection by means of a tilted refractive index grating, ensures low amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and high stability of the laser system output parameters.

All-fiber normal-dispersion single-polarization passively mode-locked laser based on a 45°-tilted fiber grating

An all-fiber normal-dispersion Yb-doped fiber laser with 45- tilted fiber grating (TFG) isto the best of our knowledgeexperimentally demonstrated for the first time. Stable linearly-chirped pulses with the duration of 4 ps and the bandwidth of 9 nm can be directly generated from the laser cavity. By employing the 45 TFG with the polarization-dependent loss of 33 dBoutput pulses with high polarization extinction ratio of 26 dB are implemented in the experiment. Our result shows that the 45 TFG can work effectively as a polarizerwhich could be exploited to singlepolarization all-fiber lasers.

Gamma-shaped long-cavity normal-dispersion mode-locked Er-fiber laser for sub-nanosecond high-energy pulsed generation

We propose the design of a novel ?-shaped fiber laser resonator and apply it to build a long-cavity normaldispersion mode-locked Er-fiber laser which features enhanced functionalities for management and optimization of pulsed lasing regimes. We report the generation of sub-nanosecond pulses with the energy of ~0.5 µJ at a kilohertz-scale repetition rate in an all-fiber system based on the new laser design. A combination of special design solutions in the laser, such as polarization instability compensation in the ultra-long arm of the resonator, intra-cavity spectral selection of radiation with a broadband fiber Bragg grating, and polarization selection by means of a tilted refractive index grating, ensures low amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and high stability of the laser system output parameters.