In Tuscany, Italy, New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (NDM-CRE) have increased since November 2018. Between November 2018 and October 2019, 1,645 samples ...were NDM-CRE-positive: 1,270 (77.2%) cases of intestinal carriage, 129 (7.8%) bloodstream infections and 246 (14.9%) infections/colonisations at other sites.
were prevalent (1,495; 90.9%), with ST147/NDM-1 the dominant clone. Delayed outbreak identification and response resulted in sustained NDM-CRE transmission in the North-West area of Tuscany, but successfully contained spread within the region.
This paper presents a time-domain, Moving Target Indication (MTI) processing formulation for detecting slow-moving personnel behind walls. The proposed time-domain MTI processing formulation consists ...of change detection and automatic target recognition algorithms. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the MTI processing formulation using data collected by an impulse-based, low-frequency, ultra-wideband radar. In this paper, we describe our radar system and algorithms used for the automatic detection of moving personnel. We also analyze the false alarm and detection rate of four operational scenarios of personnel walking inside wood and cinderblock buildings.
The War Inside Books Innocenti, Roberto; Viaggi, Luana
Bookbird,
10/2009, Letnik:
47, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Acclaimed artist and illustrator, Roberto Innocenti, writes about his experience as a child growing up in Italy during World War II, as well as his thoughts about representing war in books for ...children.
The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has recently developed the Recursive Side-lobe Minimization (RSM) technique (patent pending). The technique is integrated with a standard back-projection algorithm ...to form synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images with significant reduction in side-lobes and noise. We have achieved significant improvements in noise reduction by applying the RSM technique to our Ultrawideband (UWB) Synchronous Impulse Reconstruction (SIRE) forward-looking radar. This paper presents the application of the RSM technique using data from a side-looking airborne SAR system from SRI International. We describe the RSM technique, the SAR data processing, compare the baseline and RSM SAR images, and quantify the image quality in term of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the statistical distribution of the image pixels to show that significant improvement achieved using the RSM technique.
Uncertainty associated to analytical results is an issue of major interest for the whole analytical community. A large effort has been made to improve analytical techniques and procedures aimed to ...achieve a well characterized uncertainty associated with analysis. However, it is becoming increasingly recognised that uncertainty deriving from sampling and subsampling can even dominate the global uncertainty budget. A study on subsampling activities on different soil typologies has been performed by granulometry determinations. The differences between sieving methodologies based on both wet and dry mode have been studied. Subsampling is approached by replicated measurements providing a quantitative assessment of the distribution heterogeneity, a suitable method validation scheme and an empirical determination of uncertainty.
A test target simulator (TTS) based on a fiber-optic delay line (FODL) has been designed for realistic testing and characterizing of wideband pulsed Doppler radars. The TTS can simulate one or two ...targets at different radar cross sections (RCS's), different Doppler, and different ranges in the presence of uncorrelated noise or interference. With one target, clutter and multipath effects can also be simulated. In a closed-loop test of a pulsed Doppler radar transceiver, the variable control of the RCS can be used to test the radar's dynamic range. Simulating two targets and varying the range and Doppler of each target in the closed-loop test can evaluate the radar's range and Doppler resolution, respectively.< >
The functional organization of the parieto-frontal system is crucial for understanding cognitive-motor behavior and provides the basis for interpreting the consequences of parietal lesions in humans ...from a neurobiological perspective. The parieto-frontal connectivity defines some main information streams that, rather than being devoted to restricted functions, underlie a rich behavioral repertoire. Surprisingly, from macaque to humans, evolution has added only a few, new functional streams, increasing however their complexity and encoding power. In fact, the characterization of the conduction times of parietal and frontal areas to different target structures has recently opened a new window on cortical dynamics, suggesting that evolution has amplified the probability of dynamic interactions between the nodes of the network, thanks to communication patterns based on temporally-dispersed conduction delays. This might allow the representation of sensory-motor signals within multiple neural assemblies and reference frames, as to optimize sensory-motor remapping within an action space characterized by different and more complex demands across evolution.
•Propose a method for quantitative evaluation of tractography algorithm performances.•Investigate the effect of the tractography method on connectivity estimation.•Study white matter bottleneck ...configurations in an ex-vivo macaque brain.•Provide a 59-areas tracer-based connectivity matrix and parcellation for the macaque.
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Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) tractography is a non-invasive tool to probe neural connections and the structure of the white matter. It has been applied successfully in studies of neurological disorders and normal connectivity. Recent work has revealed that tractography produces a high incidence of false-positive connections, often from “bottleneck” white matter configurations. The rich literature in histological connectivity analysis studies in the macaque monkey enables quantitative evaluation of the performance of tractography algorithms. In this study, we use the intricate connections of frontal, cingulate, and parietal areas, well established by the anatomical literature, to derive a symmetrical histological connectivity matrix composed of 59 cortical areas. We evaluate the performance of fifteen diffusion tractography algorithms, including global, deterministic, and probabilistic state-of-the-art methods for the connectivity predictions of 1711 distinct pairs of areas, among which 680 are reported connected by the literature. The diffusion connectivity analysis was performed on a different ex-vivo macaque brain, acquired using multi-shell DW-MRI protocol, at high spatial and angular resolutions. Across all tested algorithms, the true-positive and true-negative connections were dominant over false-positive and false-negative connections, respectively. Moreover, three-quarters of streamlines had endpoints location in agreement with histological data, on average. Furthermore, probabilistic streamline tractography algorithms show the best performances in predicting which areas are connected. Altogether, we propose a method for quantitative evaluation of tractography algorithms, which aims at improving the sensitivity and the specificity of diffusion-based connectivity analysis. Overall, those results confirm the usefulness of tractography in predicting connectivity, although errors are produced. Many of the errors result from bottleneck white matter configurations near the cortical grey matter and should be the target of future implementation of methods.
In primates, different cortical areas send axons of different diameters into comparable tracts, notably the corpus callosum (Tomasi S, Caminiti R, Innocenti GM. 2012. Areal differences in diameter ...and length of corticofugal projections. Cereb Cortex. 22:1463-1472). We now explored if an area also sends axons of different diameters to different targets. We find that the parietal area PEc sends thicker axons to area 4 and 6, and thinner ones to the cingulate region (area 24). Areas 4 and 9, each sends axons of different diameters to the nucleus caudatus, to different levels of the internal capsule, and to the thalamus. The internal capsule receives the thickest axon, followed by thalamus and nucleus caudatus. The 2 areas (4 and 9) differ in the diameter and length of axons to corresponding targets. We calculated how diameter determines conduction velocity of the axons and together with pathway length determines transmission delays between different brain sites. We propose that projections from and within the cerebral cortex consist of a complex system of lines of communication with different geometrical and time computing properties.
A vascularized fibula graft (VFG) is the vascular autograft most frequently used to restore large segmental long bone defects, particularly in the upper limb. Because the use of a vascularized fibula ...involves an operation in an uninvolved extremity with potential morbidity, it is important to document that this type of reconstruction is successful in restoring function to the humerus. However, the long-term results of VFG after intercalary resection of the humeral diaphysis for bone tumors are still unknown.
(1) What was the complication rate of reconstruction? (2) What was the functional result after surgical treatment, as assessed by the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) score, the American Shoulder and Elbow Society (ASES) score, and Constant score? (3) What was the survivorship of these grafts free from revision and graft removal at 5, 10, and 15 years?
Between 1987 and 2021, 127 patients were treated at our institution with en bloc resection for a primary malignant or an aggressive benign bone tumor of the humerus; we excluded patients treated with extra-articular resection or amputation. Of those, 14% (18 of 127) were treated with intercalary resection of the humeral diaphysis for primary bone tumors and reconstruction with VFG, with or without a bulk allograft, and were analyzed in this retrospective study. Generally, our indications for reconstruction with VFG are intercalary resection of the humerus for primary malignant or aggressive benign bone tumors in patients with long life expectancy and high functional demands, in whom adequate bone stock of the proximal and distal epiphysis can be preserved. In 13 patients, VFG was used alone, whereas in five patients, a massive allograft was used. Our policy was to use VFG combined with a massive allograft in patients undergoing juxta-articular joint-sparing resections in which proximal osteotomy was performed close to the anatomic neck of the humerus to obtain more stable fixation and better tendinous reattachment of the rotator cuff and deltoid. All 18 patients who were treated with a VFG were available for follow-up at a minimum of 2 years (median follow-up 176 months, range 26 to 275 months), and although three have not been seen in the past 5 years and are not known to have died, they had 172, 163, and 236 months of follow-up, and were included. The median age at surgery was 25 years (range 2 to 63 years), the median humeral resection length was 15 cm (range 8 to 21 cm), and the median fibular length was 16 cm (range 12 to 23 cm). Complications and functional scores were ascertained by chart review that was performed by an individual not involved in patient care. Functional results were assessed with the MSTS score (range 0 to 30), the ASES score (range 0 to 100), and the Constant score (range 0% to 100%). Survivorship was estimated using a Kaplan-Meier survivorship estimator, which was suitable because there were few deaths in this series.
Seven patients underwent a revision procedure (one radial nerve transient palsy because of screw impingement, four nonunions in three patients with one humeral head avascular necrosis, treatment for screw-related pain in one patient, and two VFG fractures), and one patient underwent VFG removal. Donor site complications were observed in four patients (one ankle valgus deformity and three claw toes-the first toe in two patients and the other toes in the third). At the final clinical control, at a median follow-up of 176 months (range 26 to 275 months), the median MSTS score was 30 of 30 (range 28 to 30), the median ASES score was 98.3 (range 93 to 100), and the median Constant score was 93.5% (range 79% to 100%). Revision-free survival was 71% (95% CI 53% to 96%) at 5 years and 57% (95% CI 37% to 88%) at 10 and 15 years; VFG removal-free survival was 94% (95% CI 83% to 100%) at 5, 10, and 15 years.
VFG appears to be an effective reconstructive option after humeral intercalary resection for primary bone tumors. These are complex procedures and should be performed by an experienced team of surgeons who recognize that complications may occur frequently in the first years after the procedure. The frequency of mechanical complications observed in the first 5 years postoperatively may be lessened by using long spanning-plate fixation, and if successful, this reconstruction provides a long-term, durable reconstruction with excellent functional results.
Level IV, therapeutic study.
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