This paper summarizes information about breast MRI to be provided to women and referring physicians. After listing contraindications, procedure details are described, stressing the need for correct ...scheduling and not moving during the examination. The structured report including BI-RADS® categories and further actions after a breast MRI examination are discussed. Breast MRI is a very sensitive modality, significantly improving screening in high-risk women. It also has a role in clinical diagnosis, problem solving, and staging, impacting on patient management. However, it is not a perfect test, and occasionally breast cancers can be missed. Therefore, clinical and other imaging findings (from mammography/ultrasound) should also be considered. Conversely, MRI may detect lesions not visible on other imaging modalities turning out to be benign (false positives). These risks should be discussed with women before a breast MRI is requested/performed. Because breast MRI drawbacks depend upon the indication for the examination, basic information for the most important breast MRI indications is presented. Seventeen notes and five frequently asked questions formulated for use as direct communication to women are provided. The text was reviewed by
Europa Donna–The European Breast Cancer Coalition
to ensure that it can be easily understood by women undergoing MRI.
Key Points
•
Information on breast MRI concerns advantages/disadvantages and preparation to the examination
•
Claustrophobia, implantable devices, allergic predisposition, and renal function should be checked
•
Before menopause, scheduling on day 7–14 of the cycle is preferred
•
During the examination, it is highly important that the patient keeps still
•
Availability of prior examinations improves accuracy of breast MRI interpretation
Objectives
This study was conducted in order to investigate COVID-19 vaccine influence on unilateral axillary lymph nodes, comparing nodal basal features with their characteristics after the first ...and second vaccination dose.
Methods
Ninety-one volunteer employees from our center who participated in the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccination campaign were prospectively recruited. A total of three axillary ultrasound evaluations of the ipsilateral vaccinated arm were performed: before vaccination, the week after the first dose and the week after the second dose. The following findings were recorded: the total number of visible nodes, the maximum measurements of the diameter and cortex, Bedi’s classification, and color Doppler evaluation. The collected data were compared using paired-sample Student’s
t
-test for quantitative continuous variables and Wilcoxon rank-sum test for ordinal variables. Additional analyses were performed after classifying patients according to the previous history of COVID-19 disease. Differences among both groups were evaluated with the Mann–Whitney U test. Variables with a
p
value < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results
Comparative analyses between the three US examinations showed a statistically significant augmentation of total visible nodes, maximum diameter, cortical thickness, grade of Bedi’s classification, and Doppler signal (
p
< 0.001). Analyses between patients with and without previous COVID-19 infection showed a higher lymph node response in naïve patients compared to those who were previously infected.
Conclusions
According to our results, both doses of COVID-19 vaccine induced an increase of all axillary lymph node parameters with statistically significant differences, especially in coronavirus-naïve patients.
Key Points
• Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine induces a high incidence of ipsilateral axillary lymphadenopathy.
• US scan identified an increase of all lymph nodes parameters, especially in coronavirus-naïve patients.
Various studies have evaluated the use of electronic devices to automatically record the grazing behavior of dairy cows. Linking individual grazing behavior of dairy cows with the modifications in ...grazing behavior across the grazing session through the use of automatically registered indicators, would allow the development of decision-making tools in grazing management. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the use of the activity level (AL) recorded with an accelerometer during the grazing-down process of a pasture grazed by dairy cows as a possible criterion for decision-making related to grazing management. A completely randomized design was used to evaluate the AL of dairy cows in two contrasting pasture-based dairy production systems: A pasture-based system with high concentrate supplementation level and high herbage mass (HM), using high-yielding dairy cows (GRAZSUP), and a pasture-based system with minimal concentrate supplementation level and medium HM, using Holstein New Zealand strain (GRAZ). Pre-grazing HM was higher in GRAZSUP than in GRAZ (+750 kg DM ha.sup.-1), while forage removed was higher in GRAZ than in GRAZSUP (+1.9 kg DM cow.sup.-1 d.sup.-1). Although the production system influenced the characteristics of the pasture and the ingestive behavior of the dairy cows, when AL was evaluated as the proportion of the initial AL recorded at a time-point of the grazing-down process, there were no differences in each of the times evaluated. In conclusion, AL of grazing dairy cows was significantly affected during the grazing-down process, reflecting the modifications in grazing behavior across grazing session. Key words: Grazing behavior, grazing management, grazing time, herbage mass, Lifecorder PLUS.
SaBRe: load-time selective binary rewriting Arras, Paul-Antoine; Andronidis, Anastasios; Pina, Luís ...
International journal on software tools for technology transfer,
04/2022, Letnik:
24, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Binary rewriting consists in disassembling a program to modify its instructions. However, existing solutions suffer from shortcomings in terms of soundness and performance. We present
SaBRe
, a ...load-time system for selective binary rewriting.
SaBRe
rewrites specific constructs—particularly system calls and functions—when the program is loaded into memory, and intercepts them using plugins through a simple API. We also discuss the theoretical underpinnings of disassembling and rewriting. We developed two backends—for x86_64 and RISC-V—which were used to implement three plugins: a fast system call tracer, a multi-version executor, and a fault injector. Our evaluation shows that
SaBRe
imposes little overhead, typically below 3%.
The manufacturing process in thermoset-based carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) usually requires a curing stage where the material is transformed from a gel state to a monolithic solid state. ...During the curing process, micro-residual stresses are developed in the material due to the different chemical–thermal–mechanical properties of the fiber and of the polymer, reducing the mechanical performance of the composite material compared to the nominal performance. In this study, computational micromechanics is used to analyze the micro-residual stresses development and to predict its influence on the mechanical performance of a pre-impregnated unidirectional CFRP made of T700-fibers and an aeronautical grade epoxy. The numerical model of a representative volume element (RVE) was developed in the commercial software Abaqus® and user-subroutines are used to simulate the thermo-curing process coupled with the mechanical constitutive model. Experimental characterization of the bulk resin properties and curing behavior was made to setup the models. The higher micro-residual stresses occur at the thinner fiber gaps, acting as triggers to failure propagation during mechanical loading. These micro-residual stresses achieve peak values above the yield stress of the resin 55 MPa, but without achieving damage. These micro-residual stresses reduce the transverse strength by at least 10%, while the elastic properties remain almost unaffected. The numerical results of the effective properties show a good agreement with the macro-scale experimentally measured properties at coupon level, including transverse tensile, longitudinal shear and transverse shear moduli and strengths, and minor in-plane and transverse Poisson’s ratios. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the thermal expansion coefficient, chemical shrinkage, resin elastic modulus and cure temperature. All these parameters change the micro-residual stress levels and reduce the strength properties.
•Satisfaction surveys in a multi-specialty genitourinary oncology practice.•Over 70% of patients and physicians were “extremely satisfied” with telemedicine.•High satisfaction among all components of ...the telemedicine encounter.•Patients and physicians were comfortable discussing sensitive topics about cancer.•Technological barriers were associated with lower overall satisfaction scores.
The rapid expansion of telemedicine has presented a challenge for the care of patients with genitourinary malignancies. We sought to assess patient and physician perspectives on the use of telemedicine for genitourinary cancer care.
We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study of patients who had telemedicine visits with urology, medical oncology, or radiation oncology for management of genitourinary malignancies from July-August 2020. Patients and physicians each received a questionnaire regarding the telemedicine experience. Responses were scored on a 5-point Likert scale. The primary outcomes of the study were patient and physician satisfaction.
Of the 115 patients who enrolled, we received 96 patient responses and 46 physician responses. Overall, 77% of patients and 70% of physicians reported being “extremely satisfied” with the telemedicine encounter. Satisfaction was high among all components of the encounter including patient-physician communication, counseling, shared decision making, time spent, timeliness and efficiency, and convenience. Additionally, 78% of patients and 85% of physicians “strongly agreed” that they were able to discuss sensitive topics about cancer care as well as they could at an in-person visit. Nine telemedicine visits (9%) encountered technological barriers. Technological barriers were associated with lower overall satisfaction scores among both patients and physicians (p ≤ 0.01).
We observed high levels of patient and physician satisfaction for telemedicine visits for management of genitourinary malignancies. Technological barriers were encountered by 9% of patients and were associated with decreased satisfaction.
Hydrogels for load-bearing biomedical applications, such as soft tissue replacement, are required to be tough and biocompatible. In this sense, alginate-methacrylate hydrogels (H-ALGMx) are well ...known to present modulable levels of elasticity depending on the methacrylation degree; however, little is known about the role of additional structural parameters. In this work, we present an experimental-computational approach aimed to evaluate the effect of the molecular conformation and electron density of distinct methacrylate groups on the mechanical properties of photocrosslinked H-ALGMx hydrogels. Three alginate-methacrylate precursor macromers (ALGMx) were synthesized: alginate-glycidyl methacrylate (ALGM1), alginate-2-aminoethyl methacrylate (ALGM2), and alginate-methacrylic anhydride (ALGM3). The macromers were studied by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (
H-NMR), and density functional theory method (DFT) calculations to assess their molecular/electronic configurations. In parallel, they were also employed to produce H-ALGMx hydrogels, which were characterized by compressive tests. The obtained results demonstrated that tougher hydrogels were produced from ALGMx macromers presenting the C=C reactive bond with an outward orientation relative to the polymer chain and showing free rotation, which favored in conjunction the covalent crosslinking. In addition, although playing a secondary role, it was also found that the presence of acid hydrogen atoms in the methacrylate unit enables the formation of supramolecular hydrogen bonds, thereby reinforcing the mechanical properties of the H-ALGMx hydrogels. By contrast, impaired mechanical properties resulted from macromer conditions in which the C=C bond adopted an inward orientation to the polymer chain accompanied by a torsional impediment.
Abstract
Quantum dots based on CdTe and Copper or Silver doped CdTe were used for antifungal against
C. albicans
and
C. tropicalis
by microdilution method protocol by CLSI. Pure and doped QDs were ...characterized by UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy which showed sizes between 7.1 and 15.9 nm. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy was carried out to determinate the metal doping in the QDs. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) was obtained. The pure QDs fungicidal effect at 500 mg l
−1
but 10 mg l
−1
of 10% Copper doped QDs show fungicidal for both yeast.
During the first hours after the allocation of a grazing strip (first grazing session, GS), dairy cows eat most of the daily dry matter (DM) available. There are few studies that analyze how the ...grazing-down process changes the characteristics of the pasture during the first GS. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two pre-grazing herbage masses (HM; medium herbage mass (MHM) and high herbage mass (HHM) on the DM disappearance, grazing behavior of dairy cows, and the residual nutritive value of a pasture during the first GS. Two groups of twelve dairy cows were used to evaluate the grazing-down process, during a period of 62 days. The pre-grazing HM modified the bite rate, bite mass, and dry matter intake during the first GS. The pre-grazing HM affected the process of herbage disappearance of the pasture, especially during the first 60 min of the GS. The nutrient selection differential for acid detergent fiber was greater for HHM compared with MHM (0.93 vs. 0.86). In conclusion, pre-grazing HM affects the structural characteristics and the residual nutritive value of the pasture. The grazing process in the first GS was modified by the HM, affecting the defoliation and the DM disappearance rate of the pasture.
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