Predictive significance of magnetic resonance imaging at 4 months of adjusted age in infants after a perinatal neurologic insult

The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the predictive significance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed at 4 months of corrected age in 60 neonates after a perinatal neurologic insult. Follow-up ranged from 2 to 5 years of chronological age. MRI examination was normal in 10; isolated external hydrocephalus was found in 15 infants. Twenty-three of these infants developed normally. Focal or multifocal lesions were shown in 6 infants, of whom 2 developed normally. Diffuse brain involvement was present in 29 cases as atrophy (n = 18), leukomalacia (n = 5), basal ganglia lesions (n = 3), and delayed myelination (n = 3). All but 4 infants showed neurologic impairment. MRI performed at 4 months of adjusted age is of prognostic significance in neonates who suffer a moderate or mild neurologic insult.     

Advanced magneto-transport characterization of LPE-grown Hg1-xCdx Te by quantitative mobility spectrum analysis

We report the development, optimization, and testing of an advanced quantitative mobility spectrum analysis (QMSA) technique for determining free electron and hole densities and mobilities from field-dependent Hall and resistivity data. Application to temperature-dependent data for a series of 25 LPE-grown n-type and p-type Hg_1−xCd_xTe samples confirms that the fully automated procedure yields accurate and reliable results for all classes of samples, and also has greater sensitivity to minority carrier concentrations than previous mixed-conduction analysis methods. The QMSA is found to be a suitable standard tool for the routine electrical characterization of semiconductor materials and devices.     

Comparison between eosinophilic markers in induced sputum and blood in asthmatic patients

BACKGROUND: The usefulness and safety of the analysis of blood inflammatory markers in asthma are widely recognized. Recently, the analysis of induced sputum has been proposed as a safe, non-invasive tool in the study of airway inflammation in asthma. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to test whether sputum analysis is more useful than blood analysis in the evaluation of airway inflammation in untreated and treated asthmatic patients. METHODS: Twelve untreated patients with mild to moderate asthma underwent a methacholine challenge test, sputum induction and blood sampling. A group of 14 normal subjects was also evaluated for baseline comparison. The same evaluation was repeated after 3 months of budesonide treatment. Before and after treatment, we tested the relationship of eosinophilic markers in induced sputum and blood with clinical and functional data. We also compared eosinophilic markers in induced sputum with the same markers in blood. RESULTS: Untreated patients showed a significant relationship between sputum eosinophils and symptom score, and between sputum eosinophilic cationic protein and symptom score, FEV1 and PD20FEV1. No relationship between blood eosinophilic markers and clinical or functional data was observed. In budesonide-treated patients, both sputum and blood eosinophils were significantly lower than in untreated patients, but eosinophil decrease was greater in sputum than in blood. Sputum eosinophilic proteins were also significantly lower in treated patients, whereas serum eosinophilic proteins were low at baseline and remained unchanged after treatment. Sputum eosinophilic markers were lower in normal subjects than in both untreated and treated patients, while blood eosinophils, but not serum eosinophilic cationic protein, were lower in normals than in untreated patients. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of induced sputum is more useful than the analysis of blood in the evaluation of asthma severity and of the effect of glucocorticoid treatment in patients with mild to moderate asthma.     

Downlink cross‐layer scheduling strategies for long‐term evolution and long‐term evolution‐advanced systems

The most recent trend in the Information and Communication Technology world is toward an ever growing demand of mobile heterogeneous services that imply the management of different quality of service requirements and priorities among different type of users. The long‐term evolution (LTE)/LTE‐advanced standards have been introduced aiming to cope with this challenge. In particular, the resource allocation problem in downlink needs to be carefully considered. Herein, a solution is proposed by resorting to a modified multidimensional multiple‐choice knapsack problem modeling, leading to an efficient solution. The proposed algorithm is able to manage different traffic flows taking into account users priority, queues delay, and channel conditions achieving quasi‐optimal performance results with a lower complexity. The numerical results show the effectiveness of the proposed solution with respect to other alternatives. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of an integrated environmental monitoring system to an incineration plant

An integrated environmental monitoring system is an innovative approach which allows remarkable understanding of impacts due to a contamination source. Here we report results from environmental monitoring near a typical Italian incinerator plant. By means of mathematical dispersion models, zones of maximum pollutant depositions were determined; according to these simulations, a defined monitoring network was established. Heavy metals, chosen as environmental indicators, showed a wide flux range in gas emissions from the incinerator, over different sampling years. In particular, emissions in the year 2000 were marked by high Pb and Cd concentrations. Correspondingly, soil samples also exhibited a greater concentration of the same metals in 2000, than in previous years. Principal component analysis allowed a better visualisation of these similarities, also showing an interesting correlation between heavy metals observed both in gas emissions and in soil samples. Soil distant from the incinerator was found to be less affected by heavy metal contamination. Also atmospheric wet and dry depositions indicated a significant dependence on distance from incinerator, though extremely variable metal fluxes were registered during different months. Finally, vegetation samples, seasonal or evergreen, did not provide evidence of a significant heavy metal enrichment, apart from an apparent dependence on contamination source distance.     

Wind action on regular and irregular tall buildings: Higher order moment statistical analysis by HFFB and SMPSS measurements

In this paper the results of experimental tests in a boundary layer wind tunnel aimed at direct comparison of the two main methods used to estimate the wind loads acting on tall buildings are presented. The tests were performed on two different models of tall buildings: a regular one with a prismatic shape; an irregular one whose external shape was inspired by that of Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong. The two models have the same square footprint and height. The two methods used to measure the wind effects were: the high frequency force balance, which allows to directly measure the global base reactions (two forces in the plane of the base, the two overturning moments and the torsional moment around the vertical axis); the synchronous multi-pressure sensing system, which measures the pressure in several points on the surface of the model, and allows, by means of numerical integration, to estimate both the floor loads and the base reactions. In order to perform a comparison between the results obtained by the high frequency force balance and synchronous multi-pressure sensing system a statistical analysis of the results was carried out; in particular, higher order moments were investigated. Moreover the spectra and the correlation structure of the loads were studied.     

Single address space implementation in distributed systems

With reference to a distributed context consisting of computers connected by a local area network, we present the organization of a memory management system giving physical support to a uniform, persistent vision of storage according to a single address space paradigm. Our system implements a two‐layer storage hierarchy in which the distributed secondary memory stores the valid data items and the primary memory supports a form of data caching, for fast processor access. The proposed system defines a small, powerful set of operations that allow application programs to exert explicit control over the memory management activities at the levels of physical storage allocation, data migration across the network, and the data movements between the secondary memory and the primary memory. The system, that has been implemented in prototype form, is assessed from a number of viewpoints. We show that the storage requirements of the information for memory management are negligible. Moreover, the number of messages necessary to determine the network location of a given data item is low and independent of both the network size and the past movements of this data item in the distributed storage.Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mapping Apennines river paths along different hydrological conditions from satellite images: A description of the method and potential applications

Climate change is producing large impacts on rivers, amplifying hydrological extremes. Prolonged drought periods result in dramatic stress for river biota and associated processes due to low discharge, reducing the interactions between rivers and their lateral environments or leading to hydrological intermittency. New quantitative methods are needed, to correlate discharge with the available riverine habitats. In this work we have mapped the wet surface and paths of two stretches of the Taro and Trebbia Apennine rivers, analyzing satellite images from periods with contrasting discharge. The considered stretches are critical due to different human pressures (large water withdrawals for agriculture and industrial use) and are particularly vulnerable to further, climate-driven discharge reductions. The produced images offer multiple possibilities to extract qualitative and quantitative information at the whole stretch scales, including habitat reduction along with decreasing discharge, threshold discharge limiting lateral interactions, or the evaluation of longitudinal river continuity. We discuss the limitation and the potentialities of the method and the maps produced in terms of possible application in the field of river geomorphology, ecology, the definition of ecological river flow, risk assessment, and river management.