[Archives de la parole]. , Belle enfant de la montagne ; Ah ! mon gas, combien nous nous aimons / Mlle Romanitsa [i. e. Romanitza], chant

[Traditions. Europe. Roumanie]

Johnston, Special Investigation Public Works Department, July 1, 1999 - February 17, 2003

City Audit Report, Special Investigation

Response-to-comments about: "Is it really the method for carbon dioxide determination in human postmortem cardiac gas samples using Headspace-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry valid?" from T. Saffaj and B. Ihssane

Saffaj et al. recently criticized our method of monitoring carbon dioxide in human postmortem cardiac gas samples using Headspace-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. According to the authors, their demonstration, based on the latest SFSTP guidelines (established after 2007 [1,2]) fitted for the validation of drug monitoring bioanalytical methods, has put in evidence potential errors. However, our validation approach was built using SFSTP guidelines established before 2007 [3-6]. We justify the use of these guidelines because of the post-mortem context of the study (and not clinical) and the gaseous state of the sample (and not solid or liquid). Using these guidelines, our validation remains correct.

Iowa Water Pollution Control Works and Drinking Water Facilities Financing Programs (Joint Programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources), June 30, 2002

State Agency Audit Report State Revolving Fund - Clean Water & Drinking Programs

Urinary analysis of four testosterone metabolites and pregnanediol by gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry after oral administrations of testosterone.

The most frequently used method to demonstrate testosterone abuse is the determination of the testosterone and epitestosterone concentration ratio (T/E ratio) in urine. Nevertheless, it is known that factors other than testosterone administration may increase the T/E ratio. In the last years, the determination of the carbon isotope ratio has proven to be the most promising method to help discriminate between naturally elevated T/E ratios and those reflecting T use. In this paper, an excretion study following oral administration of 40 mg testosterone undecanoate initially and 13 h later is presented. Four testosterone metabolites (androsterone, etiocholanolone, 5 alpha-androstanediol, and 5 beta-androstanediol) together with an endogenous reference (5 beta-pregnanediol) were extracted from the urines and the delta(13)C/(12)C ratio of each compound was analyzed by gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The results show similar maximum delta(13)C-value variations (parts per thousand difference of delta(13)C/(12)C ratio from the isotope ratio standard) for the T metabolites and concomitant changes of the T/E ratios after administration of the first and the second dose of T. Whereas the T/E ratios as well as the androsterone, etiocholanolone and 5 alpha-androstanediol delta(13)C-values returned to the baseline 15 h after the second T administration, a decrease of the 5 beta-androstanediol delta-values could be detected for over 40 h. This suggests that measurements of 5 beta-androstanediol delta-values allow the detection of a testosterone ingestion over a longer post-administration period than other T metabolites delta(13)C-values or than the usual T/E ratio approach.

A stratified approach for modeling the distribution of a threatened ant species in the Swiss National Park

We present models predicting the potential distribution of a threatened ant species, Formica exsecta Nyl., in the Swiss National Park ( SNP). Data to fit the models have been collected according to a random-stratified design with an equal number of replicates per stratum. The basic aim of such a sampling strategy is to allow the formal testing of biological hypotheses about those factors most likely to account for the distribution of the modeled species. The stratifying factors used in this study were: vegetation, slope angle and slope aspect, the latter two being used as surrogates of solar radiation, considered one of the basic requirements of F. exsecta. Results show that, although the basic stratifying predictors account for more than 50% of the deviance, the incorporation of additional non-spatially explicit predictors into the model, as measured in the field, allows for an increased model performance (up to nearly 75%). However, this was not corroborated by permutation tests. Implementation on a national scale was made for one model only, due to the difficulty of obtaining similar predictors on this scale. The resulting map on the national scale suggests that the species might once have had a broader distribution in Switzerland. Reasons for its particular abundance within the SNP might possibly be related to habitat fragmentation and vegetation transformation outside the SNP boundaries.

Iowa Water Pollution Control Works and Drinking Water Facilities Financing Programs (Joint Programs of the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources), Independent Auditor's Reports Financial Statements and Supplemental Information Schedule of Findings, June 30, 2003

State Agency Audit Report

Assessment of terrestrial small mammals and a record of the critically endangered shrew Crocidura wimmeri in Banco National Park (Cote d'Ivoire)

This study investigated the small mammal community of the periurban Banco National Park (34 km(2)), Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, using identical numbers of Sherman and Longworth traps. We aimed to determine the diversity and distribution of rodents and shrews in three different habitats: primary forest, secondary forest and swamp. Using 5014 trap-nights, 91 individuals were captured that comprised seven rodent and four shrew species. The trapping success was significantly different for each species, i.e., the Longworth traps captured more soricids (31/36 shrews), whereas the Sherman traps captured more murids (37/55 mice). The most frequent species was Praomys cf. rostratus, followed by Crocidura buettikoferi, Hybomys trivirgatus and Crocidura jouvenetae. Indices of species richness (S) and diversity (H') were greatest in primary forest, followed by secondary forest and swamp. - Several expected species, such as Crocidura obscurior, were not found, whereas we captured four specimens of the critically endangered (IUCN 2012) Wimmer's shrew Crocidura wimmeri, a species that has vanished from its type locality, Adiopodoume. Therefore, Banco National Park represents an important sanctuary, not only for plants, birds and primates, but also for other small forest vertebrates.

Department of Natural Resources - Special Investigation of The Lewis and Clark State Park in Onawa, July 1st, 2001 through November 30, 2004

Other Audit Reports - Special Investigation

Automated Segmentation of Cerebral Vasculature with Aneurysms in 3DRA and TOF-MRA using Geodesic Active Regions: an Evaluation Study

Purpose: To evaluate the suitability of an improved version of an automatic segmentation method based on geodesic active regions (GAR) for segmenting cerebral vasculature with aneurysms from 3D X-ray reconstruc-tion angiography (3DRA) and time of °ight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) images available in the clinical routine.Methods: Three aspects of the GAR method have been improved: execution time, robustness to variability in imaging protocols and robustness to variability in image spatial resolutions. The improved GAR was retrospectively evaluated on images from patients containing intracranial aneurysms in the area of the Circle of Willis and imaged with two modalities: 3DRA and TOF-MRA. Images were obtained from two clinical centers, each using di®erent imaging equipment. Evaluation included qualitative and quantitative analyses ofthe segmentation results on 20 images from 10 patients. The gold standard was built from 660 cross-sections (33 per image) of vessels and aneurysms, manually measured by interventional neuroradiologists. GAR has also been compared to an interactive segmentation method: iso-intensity surface extraction (ISE). In addition, since patients had been imaged with the two modalities, we performed an inter-modality agreement analysis with respect to both the manual measurements and each of the two segmentation methods. Results: Both GAR and ISE di®ered from the gold standard within acceptable limits compared to the imaging resolution. GAR (ISE, respectively) had an average accuracy of 0.20 (0.24) mm for 3DRA and 0.27 (0.30) mm for TOF-MRA, and had a repeatability of 0.05 (0.20) mm. Compared to ISE, GAR had a lower qualitative error in the vessel region and a lower quantitative error in the aneurysm region. The repeatabilityof GAR was superior to manual measurements and ISE. The inter-modality agreement was similar between GAR and the manual measurements. Conclusions: The improved GAR method outperformed ISE qualitatively as well as quantitatively and is suitable for segmenting 3DRA and TOF-MRA images from clinical routine.

The differentiation of fibre- and drug type Cannabis seedlings by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and chemometric tools

Cannabis cultivation in order to produce drugs is forbidden in Switzerland. Thus, law enforcement authorities regularly ask forensic laboratories to determinate cannabis plant's chemotype from seized material in order to ascertain that the plantation is legal or not. As required by the EU official analysis protocol the THC rate of cannabis is measured from the flowers at maturity. When laboratories are confronted to seedlings, they have to lead the plant to maturity, meaning a time consuming and costly procedure. This study investigated the discrimination of fibre type from drug type Cannabis seedlings by analysing the compounds found in their leaves and using chemometrics tools. 11 legal varieties allowed by the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture and 13 illegal ones were greenhouse grown and analysed using a gas chromatograph interfaced with a mass spectrometer. Compounds that show high discrimination capabilities in the seedlings have been identified and a support vector machines (SVMs) analysis was used to classify the cannabis samples. The overall set of samples shows a classification rate above 99% with false positive rates less than 2%. This model allows then discrimination between fibre and drug type Cannabis at an early stage of growth. Therefore it is not necessary to wait plants' maturity to quantify their amount of THC in order to determine their chemotype. This procedure could be used for the control of legal (fibre type) and illegal (drug type) Cannabis production.

Dynamic estimation of three-dimensional cerebrovascular deformation from rotational angiography

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of detecting and quantifying 3D cerebrovascular wall motion from a single 3D rotational x-ray angiography (3DRA) acquisition within a clinically acceptable time and computing from the estimated motion field for the further biomechanical modeling of the cerebrovascular wall. Methods: The whole motion cycle of the cerebral vasculature is modeled using a 4D B-spline transformation, which is estimated from a 4D to 2D + t image registration framework. The registration is performed by optimizing a single similarity metric between the entire 2D + t measured projection sequence and the corresponding forward projections of the deformed volume at their exact time instants. The joint use of two acceleration strategies, together with their implementation on graphics processing units, is also proposed so as to reach computation times close to clinical requirements. For further characterizing vessel wall properties, an approximation of the wall thickness changes is obtained through a strain calculation. Results: Evaluation on in silico and in vitro pulsating phantom aneurysms demonstrated an accurate estimation of wall motion curves. In general, the error was below 10% of the maximum pulsation, even in the situation when substantial inhomogeneous intensity pattern was present. Experiments on in vivo data provided realistic aneurysm and vessel wall motion estimates, whereas in regions where motion was neither visible nor anatomically possible, no motion was detected. The use of the acceleration strategies enabled completing the estimation process for one entire cycle in 5-10 min without degrading the overall performance. The strain map extracted from our motion estimation provided a realistic deformation measure of the vessel wall. Conclusions: The authors' technique has demonstrated that it can provide accurate and robust 4D estimates of cerebrovascular wall motion within a clinically acceptable time, although it has to be applied to a larger patient population prior to possible wide application to routine endovascular procedures. In particular, for the first time, this feasibility study has shown that in vivo cerebrovascular motion can be obtained intraprocedurally from a 3DRA acquisition. Results have also shown the potential of performing strain analysis using this imaging modality, thus making possible for the future modeling of biomechanical properties of the vascular wall.

Three-dimensional morphological analysis of intracranial aneurysms: a fully automated method for aneurysm sac isolation and quantification

Morphological descriptors are practical and essential biomarkers for diagnosis andtreatment selection for intracranial aneurysm management according to the current guidelinesin use. Nevertheless, relatively little work has been dedicated to improve the three-dimensionalquanti cation of aneurysmal morphology, automate the analysis, and hence reduce the inherentintra- and inter-observer variability of manual analysis. In this paper we propose a methodologyfor the automated isolation and morphological quanti cation of saccular intracranial aneurysmsbased on a 3D representation of the vascular anatomy.