Oscillating thromboemboli within the extracranial internal carotid artery demonstrated by ultrasonography in patients with acute cardioembolic stroke

BACKGROUND: Gunshot wounds to the kidney have been managed traditionally by surgical exploration. Concerns over increased nephrectomy rates and unnecessary explorations have placed this method under scrutiny. Selective renal exploration based on solid clinical and radiographic criteria may be a safer alternative and deserves evaluation. METHODS: The medical records of 52 consecutive patients with renal gunshot wounds, who were managed between September 1994 and August 1995 by a protocol of selective exploration, were reviewed. Renal injuries were explored only if they involved the hilum or were accompanied by signs of continued bleeding. Main outcome measures were the numbers of kidneys lost, as well as the morbidity and mortality related to the management of the renal injury. RESULTS: Three patients died from associated injuries shortly after admission. Fifteen patients suffered complications but only two had complications directly associated with the renal injury. Thirty-two patients underwent renal exploration and 17 of them required nephrectomy for major renovascular or parenchymal trauma (grade IV and V). Renal exploration was successfully avoided in the remaining 20 patients. No kidneys were lost unnecessarily as a result of this policy. CONCLUSION: Mandatory exploration of all gunshot wounds to the kidney is not necessary. Injuries that produce stable peripheral haematomas do not require exploration.     

Isotope scrambling in the formation of cyanopolyynes by laser ablation of carbon particles in liquid acetonitrile

Cyanopolyynes, H(CC)_nCN (n = 3–6), were formed by laser ablation of carbon particles in liquid acetonitrile. The molecules were separated according to the size n and characterized by UV absorption spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy in combination with gas-chromatographic separation, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. For the study of nascent carbon cluster distribution during the growth of the long carbon chain molecules, isotopomer distribution was analyzed by NMR spectroscopy for the product molecules. Two cyanopolyynes of HC₇N and HC₉N were isolated from solutions after laser ablation of isotope-enriched carbon powder (99% ¹³C) in liquid acetonitrile, CH₃CN, of natural isotopic abundance (1.1% ¹³C). With the observed chemical shift, δ, and spin–spin coupling constants, J_CH and J_CC, spectral simulation was made to determine relative abundance of possible isotopomeric forms for HC₉N. We found that the isotope of ¹²C, mostly from solvent molecules, contributes substantially for the part of carbon in the cyano group, –CN, in HC₉N. The isotopomer distribution observed for the sequence of H–CC–CC– was fairly explainable by a binomial, random distribution of the two carbon isotopes of ¹²C and ¹³C, reducing the concentration of ¹³C to 76–55%.     

Development of an active targeting liposome encapsulated with high-density colloidal gold for transmission electron microscopy

Active targeting of the liposome is an attractive strategy for drug delivery and in vivo bio-imaging. We previously reported the specific accumulation of Sialyl Lewis X (SLX) liposome to inflamed tissue in arthritic model mice or tumor-bearing mice. SLX-liposome encapsulation with fluorescent substances allows for the visualization of these liposomes by the time-dependent transvascular accumulation of fluorescent signals in the histological sections. In the present study, we developed a new SLX-liposome encapsulated with colloidal gold for transmission electron microscopic observation. We herein describe the characterization of the colloidal gold-loaded SLX-liposomes and demonstrate its specific targeting to the endothelial cells of tumor blood vessels in tumor-bearing mice.     

Diagnosis of middle cerebral artery stenosis by transcranial color-coded real-time sonography

BACKGROUND & PURPOSE: This study was performed to determine the usefulness of transcranial color-coded real-time sonography (TCCS) in detecting stenosis in the horizontal portion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA). METHODS: Using TCCS and the incident angle correction technique, we measured the peak-systolic flow velocity in bilateral MCAs in 45 consecutive patients in whom cerebral angiography was carried out within 1 week before or after TCCS. Three patients had a stenosis of 75% or greater and four had a unilateral occlusion of the extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) (the ICS and ICO groups, respectively). Eight patients had a stenosis of 50% or greater (one bilateral and seven unilateral) (the M1S group). Four patients had unilateral distal occlusion of the horizontal portion of the MCA (the M1O group). Twenty-six patients had no significant extra- or intracranial stenosis on the ipsilateral or contralateral side (the control group). RESULTS: Mean peak-systolic flow velocity on the affected side was 83.0 +/- 20.8 cm/s in the ICS group, 59.8 +/- 23.2 cm/s in the ICO group, and 62.3 +/- 33.7 cm/s in the M1O group. In the control group, the mean peak-systolic flow velocity was 116.0 +/- 31.5 cm/s. In the M1S group, however, the mean peak-systolic flow velocity (334.2 +/- 35.7 cm/s) on the affected side always exceeded 180 cm/s (mean value +/- 2 SD in the control group), and was significantly higher than that in the other groups. The mean peak-systolic flow velocity in the M1S group increased with the grade of stenosis. CONCLUSION: The M1S group members could easily be distinguished from the other group members by their peak-systolic flow velocity in excess of 180 cm/s. Measurement of the peak-systolic flow velocity of the MCA by TCCS may help to identify a significant stenosis in the horizontal portion of the MCA.     

Faster CNN-based vehicle detection and counting strategy for fixed camera scenes

Automatic detection and counting of vehicles in a video is a challenging task and has become a key application area of traffic monitoring and management. In this paper, an efficient real-time approach for the detection and counting of moving vehicles is presented based on YOLOv2 and features point motion analysis. The work is based on synchronous vehicle features detection and tracking to achieve accurate counting results. The proposed strategy works in two phases; the first one is vehicle detection and the second is the counting of moving vehicles. Different convolutional neural networks including pixel by pixel classification networks and regression networks are investigated to improve the detection and counting decisions. For initial object detection, we have utilized state-of-the-art faster deep learning object detection algorithm YOLOv2 before refining them using K-means clustering and KLT tracker. Then an efficient approach is introduced using temporal information of the detection and tracking feature points between the framesets to assign each vehicle label with their corresponding trajectories and truly counted it. Experimental results on twelve challenging videos have shown that the proposed scheme generally outperforms state-of-the-art strategies. Moreover, the proposed approach using YOLOv2 increases the average time performance for the twelve tested sequences by 93.4% and 98.9% from 1.24 frames per second achieved using Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (F R-CNN ) and 0.19 frames per second achieved using the background subtraction based CNN approach (BS-CNN ), respectively to 18.7 frames per second.

     

Integrity analysis of authenticated encryption based on stream ciphers

We study the security of authenticated encryption based on a stream cipher and a universal hash function. We consider ChaCha20-Poly1305 and generic constructions proposed by Sarkar, where the generic constructions include 14 AEAD (authenticated encryption with associated data) schemes and 3 DAEAD (deterministic AEAD) schemes. In this paper, we analyze the integrity of these schemes both in the standard INT-CTXT (integrity of ciphertext) notion and in the RUP (releasing unverified plaintext) setting called INT-RUP notion. We present INT-CTXT attacks against 3 out of the 14 AEAD schemes and 1 out of the 3 DAEAD schemes. We then show INT-RUP attacks against 1 out of the 14 AEAD schemes and the 2 remaining DAEAD schemes. Next, we consider ChaCha20-Poly1305 and show that it is provably secure in the INT-RUP notion. Finally, we show that the remaining 10 AEAD schemes are provably secure in the INT-RUP notion.     

Probing the Superconducting Gap from Tunneling Conductance on NdFeAsO<Subscript>0.7</Subscript> with <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis><Subscript>C</Subscript>=51 K

We report the tunneling spectroscopy of an iron-based oxypnictide NdFeAsO_0.7 with T _C=51 K, measured by a mechanical point contact technique. Mainly two kinds of tunneling spectra have been observed reproducibly. One is tunneling conductance displaying sharp superconducting gap peaks at 6.0±1.0 mV, in which hump (or kink) structures are also observed at 20–30 mV. Another is that showing dominantly the larger superconducting gap Δ _L with sharp conductance peaks at 14±1.0 meV, in which the trace of a smaller gap (Δ _S=5–7 meV) is simultaneously observed. Our results give direct evidence for the existence of multiple gaps in the quasiparticle excitation spectrum of this multiband system, although the origin of the hump at 20–30 mV is still unclear.     

Plant life management activities of LWR plants in Japan

Plant life management activities of Japanese LWR plants have been conducted since the early 1990s by the utilities and MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry) cooperatively. In Japan, where the regulatory practices are different from those in the US, there is neither law nor regulation that prescribes a licensed plant life for nuclear power plants. When an annual inspection is completed without any problem, the next cycle of operation would be permitted and this cycle can be repeated. However, it is generally known that mechanical components and structures deteriorate as they get older. So, we consider it very important to evaluate the long-term integrity of major systems, structures and components of old nuclear power plants. Japanese plant life management study consists of two parts. Both parts of the study were carried out confirming the integrity for the long-term operation of the three oldest Japanese LWR plants: Tsuruga Power Station Unit No.1 (BWR), Mihama Power Station Unit No.1 (PWR) and Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station Unit No.1 (BWR). The Part 1 study was conducted for the purpose of obtaining an outlook for long-term safety operation and was completed in 1996. The Part 2 study was conducted ensuring the plant integrity for the long-term operation in terms of, not only safety, but also reliability. The results of the Part 2 study were made public in February, 1999. Then, the recommended maintenance items were to be added to the existing maintenance programs of the three LWR plants.