Presence of ophthalmopathy in all cases of Basedow disease?

BACKGROUND: With the advent of newer chemical peels, there is now a wide range of peeling agents that can be applied on specific patients. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to closely examine the more common chemical peeling agents at different concentrations. METHODS: The study methods were carried out by thoroughly cleansing the skin surface with acetone. Different concentrations of the chemical peels were applied on different skin areas (2 x 2 cm each) and left on the skin for 15 minutes: phenol-Bakers, 25%, 50%, 75%, 88%; trichloroacetic acid, 25%, 50%, 75%; glycolic acid, 50%, 70%; and pyruvic acid, 50%, 100%. Serial biopsies were taken from each peeling site at 1, 7, and 21 days post-peel. Biopsies were then evaluated for epidermal changes, inflammation, and collagen deposition. RESULTS: The results show that Bakers phenol peel caused the most inflammation and nonspecific reaction, and in addition, a proportionate amount of new collagen deposition. Plus, increasing concentrations of phenol and TCA caused increasing amount of epidermal sloughing and inflammation after 1 day post-peel. The extent of reaction from the phenol and TCA was directly proportional to the collagen deposition at 21 days. CONCLUSIONS: The glycolic acid and pyruvic acid caused minimal nonspecific reaction. However, the collagen deposition caused by the glycolic acid and pyruvic acid was disproportionately increased suggesting a direct stimulatory effect by the two agents.     

Experiences on enhancing data collection in large networks

We improve and validate TICP [C. Barakat, M. Malli, N. Nonaka, TICP: Transport Information Collection Protocol, Annals of Telecommunications 61 (1–2) (2006) 167–192], our TCP-friendly reliable transport protocol to collect information from a large number of Internet entities. A collector machine sends probes to a set of information sources that reply by sending back their reports. TICP adapts the sending rate of probes in a way similar to TCP for the purpose of avoiding network congestion and keeps requesting reports until they are well received. In a first part of this work, we add to TICP a mechanism to cluster information sources in order to smooth the variation of network conditions during the collection session and to ensure an efficient handling of congestion at network bottlenecks. Simulations in ns-2 and PlanetLab experiments prove the outperformance of TICP over non-adaptive solutions and the interest of the clustering mechanism in shortening the duration of the collection session and in decreasing the ratio of lost packets. In a second part, we adapt TICP to collect several packets of information from each data source. By the means of simulations, we compare the performance obtained by TICP to that obtained when using parallel short-lived TCP connections. Our main observation is that TICP yields shorter collection sessions due to its inherent multiplexing capability and that it avoids parallel Slow Start phases. Finally, in a last part, we study the impact of delegating collection to some proxy collectors. We explain our method for delegation and we show by simulations that for a judicious choice of proxy collectors, one can decrease considerably the collection session duration.     

Shapes and sizes of different mammalian cerebella. A study in quantitative comparative neuroanatomy

Nine fetal kittens sustained removal of the left frontal cortex during the last third of gestation (E 43-55) and were compared to animals sustaining a similar lesion postnatally (P 8-14) as well as to intact littermates. Beginning after 6 months of age, the animals' visual field and depth perception were assessed. In addition, pupil size as well as eye alignment were measured. On two visual field tests the fetal-lesioned cats showed test dependent decrements for some angles of vision. In terms of depth perception, only the prenatal-lesioned animals showed a higher binocular threshold; they also showed ocular misalignment which may have contributed to their depth perception impairment. Moreover, these animals had a larger ipsilateral pupil. The neonatal-lesioned animals were like normal cats for all tests and measurements. We conclude that, as for the tests reported in the preceding paper, the outcome for visual related behaviors of a prenatal frontal cortical lesion in the cat is also worse than that of a similar lesion sustained neonatally. Dysgenetic anatomical changes of the visual system induced indirectly by the frontal lesion are proposed as a possible explanation for these age-at-lesion differences. Based on the present work as well as on the literature, we propose the existence of an "optimal developmental period" for the best behavioral and anatomical outcome of perinatal brain lesions. We argue that this concept fits contemporary data and can better explain the different age-at-lesion effects of brain injury across animals species than the "Kennard Principle" (or "infant-lesion effect").     

Morphological gradient based adapted selective filter for removal of Rician noise from magnetic resonance images

Feature/edge-preserving noise removal techniques have a strong potential in several application domains including medical image processing. Magnetic resonance (MR) images have a tendency to gain Rician noise during acquisition. In this article, we have presented genetic algorithms based adapted selective non-local means (GASNLM) filter-based scheme for noise suppression of MR images while preserving the image features as much as possible. We have applied GASNLM filter with optimal parameter values for different frequency image regions to remove the noise. Filter parameter values are optimized by genetic algorithm (GA). A change in NLM filter known as selective weight matrix is also proposed to preserve the image features. The results prove soundness of the method. We have compared results with many well known and latest techniques, and the improvements are discussed.     

Thyroid follicles in the head-kidney of teleosts

One view of the aims and objectives of continuing education is presented. Problems in the form of educational material and access to present educational opportunities are outlined together with some suggestions for overcoming these problems. Self evaluation is emphasised as an important means of maintaining educational standards rather than "re-licensure". Several new approaches are presented which attempt to increase access and acceptability in continuing education.     

On the interaction between knowledge and social commitments in multi-agent systems

Both knowledge and social commitments have received considerable attention in Multi-Agent Systems (MASs), specially for multi-agent communication. Plenty of work has been carried out to define their semantics. However, the relationship between social commitments and knowledge has not been investigated yet. In this paper, we aim to explore such a relationship from the semantics and model checking perspectives with respect to CTLK logic (an extension of CTL logic with modality for reasoning about knowledge) and CTLC logic (an extension of CTL with modalities for reasoning about commitments and their fulfillments). To analyze this logical relationship, we simply combine the two logics in one new logic named CTLKC. The purpose of such a combination is not to advocate a new logic, but only to express and figure out some reasoning postulates merging both knowledge and commitments as they are currently defined in the literature. By so doing, we identify some paradoxes in the new logic showing that simply combining current versions of commitment and knowledge logics results in a logical language that violates some fundamental intuitions. Consequently, we propose CTLKC⁺, a new logic that fixes the identified paradoxes and allows us to reason about social commitments and knowledge simultaneously in a consistent manner. Furthermore, we address the problem of model checking CTLKC⁺ by reducing it to the problem of model checking GCTL^?, a generalized version of CTL^? with action formulae. By doing so, we directly benefit from CWB-NC, the model checker of GCTL^?. Using this reduction, we also prove that the computational complexity of model checking CTLKC⁺ is still PSPACE-complete for concurrent programs as the complexity of model checking CTLK and CTLC separately.     

Crosslinking reactions of ethylene vinyl silane copolymers at processing temperatures

The crosslinking reactions of ethylene vinyltrimethoxy silane (EVS) copolymers at processing temperatures have been studied. Samples were heated in inert atmosphere with or without water at 130–350°C. The crosslinking reactions were followed by determination of the gel content and by analyzing the structural changes using FT-IR. As expected, no gel could be observed in pure EVS after treatment in nitrogen, whereas 30% was obtained if the nitrogen was presaturated with water. Addition of a catalyst, dibutyltindilaurate, increased the reaction rate considerably and a final gel content of 70–75% was obtained above 300°C. In contrast, neither water nor catalyst was needed for the formation of gel in a terpolymer of EVS containing butylacrylate as well. During heat treatment the acrylate units formed carboxylic acid, and blends of EVS and an ethylene acrylic acid (EAA) copolymer were therefore used as a model to study the reactions in detail. Despite absence of water these blends started to form gel at low temperatures, 150–200°C. This could mainly be related to internal production of water due to reaction between carboxylic groups leading to anhydride. Both cyclic and noncyclic anhydrides were detected by FT-IR analysis. A larger amount of EAA in the EVS–EAA blend increased the rate of gel formation and decreased the onset temperature, but no corresponding change in the formation of noncyclic anhydride was observed. Another kind of crosslink, formed by reaction between carboxylic acid and silanol groups, can possibly be one explanation to this behavior.     

Indexing moving objects for directions and velocities queries

Moving object databases are required to support different types of queries with a large number of moving objects. New types of queries namely directions and velocity queries (DV queries), are to be supported and covered. The TPR-tree and its successors are efficient indexes that support spatio-temporal queries for moving objects. However, neither of them support the new DV queries. In this paper, we propose a new index for moving objects based on the TPR*-tree, named Direction and Velocity of TPR*-tree or DV-TPR*-tree, in order to build data a structure based on the spatial, direction and velocity domains. DV-TPR*-tree obtains an ideal distribution that supports and fulfils the new query types (DV queries). Extensive performance studies show that the query performance of DV-TPR*-tree outperforms the TPR-tree and its successors.     

Fast Extraction of High‐quality Crease Surfaces for Visual Analysis

We present a novel algorithm for the efficient extraction and visualization of high‐quality ridge and valley surfaces from numerical datasets. Despite their rapidly increasing popularity in visualization, these so‐called crease surfaces remain challenging to compute owing to their strongly nonlinear and non‐orientable nature, and their complex boundaries. In this context, existing meshing techniques require an extremely dense sampling that is computationally prohibitive. Our proposed solution intertwines sampling and meshing steps to yield an accurate approximation of the underlying surfaces while ensuring the geometric quality of the resulting mesh. Using the computation power of the GPU, we propose a fast, parallel method for sampling. Additionally, we present a new front propagation meshing strategy that leverages CPU multiprocessing. Results are shown for synthetic, medical and fluid dynamics datasets.     

State space formulation to viscoelastic fluid flow of magnetohydrodynamic free convection through a porous medium

Summary In this work we formulate the state space approach for one-dimensional problems of viscoelastic magnetohydrodynamic unsteady free convection flow through a porous medium past an infinite vertical plate. Laplace transform techniques are used. The resulting formulation is applied to a thermal shock problem and to a problem for the flow between two parallel fixed plates both without heat sources. Also a problem with a distribution of heat sources is considered. A numerical method is employed for the inversion of the Laplace transforms. Numerical results are given and illustrated graphically for the problem considered.Notation C specific heat at constant pressure - g acceleration due to gravity - density - time - u velocity component parallel to the plate - H _x induced magnetic field - x, y coordinates system - T temperature distribution - T _o temperature of the plate - T temperature of the fluid away from the plate - ₀ limiting viscosity at small rates to shear - v _o ^* / - v _m magnetic diffusivity - Alfven velocity - ^* coefficient of volume expansion - thermal conductivity - ^* thermal diffusivity - G Grashof number - Pr Prandtl number - L some characteristic length - k _o the elastic constant - K permeability of the porous medium