bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Study of FBG-based optical sensors for thermal measurements in aerospace applications
Authors: Aimasso A. , Dalla Vedova M.D.L. , Maggiore P. , Quattrocchi G.
Published: June 2022

Optical fibers have revolutionized several technological sectors in recent decades, above all that of communication, and have also found many applications in the medical, lighting engineering, and infrastructural fields. In the aerospace field, many studies investigated the adoption of fiber optics considering the planned transition from fly-by-wire to fly-by-light flight controls. A significant feature of optical fiber is its ability to be used not only as a transmission medium but also as a basis for fiber-embedded sensors; one of the most prominent types is based on Bragg gratings (FBGs). FBGs can replace several traditional sensors, providing measures of temperature, vibrations, and mechanical deformation. Optical sensors provide many advantages over traditional, electrical-based sensors, including EMI insensitivity, ease of multiplexing on a single line, resilience to harsh environments, very compact sizes and global weight saving. Furthermore, punctual knowledge of the temperature field is essential to perform the thermal compensation of the optical sensors used for strain measurements. In this work, the authors analyzed the performance of thermal sensors based on FBGs to verify their stability, accuracy, and sensitivity to operating conditions. Two different methods of FBGs surface application have been considered (gluing with pre-tensioning vs. non-tensioned bonding). The results were then compared to those acquired using typical temperature sensors to determine the relationship between the observed temperature and the Bragg wavelength variation (i.e. the proportionality coefficient Kt). The effects on the proportionality coefficient Kt, arising from fiber pre-tensioning and thermal expansion of the structural support, were then evaluated by comparing the results obtained with the two bonding approaches.
Optical-Flow based Analysis for Range Hoods captured Flow Measurement
Authors: Tocci Tommaso , Capponi Lorenzo , Marsili Roberto , Chiavarini Francesco , Pirisinu Jacopo , Rossi Gianluca
Published: June 2022

The performance assessment of suction systems is a fundamental aspect in industrial field, and the quantitative estimation of their uptake is a still open challenge. This research proposes a measurement methodology for the quantitative evaluation of the steam uptake of a kitchen hood suction system through the definition of an uptake index, obtained by processing optical measurement using the Farnebäck dense optical-flow algorithm. The results and the uncertainty analysis show high reliability and consistency of the proposed approach.
On the robustness of microflown probe for the assessment of the vibro-acoustic signature: methodological and experimental aspects in a modal test environment
Authors: Carolis Simone De , Fabbiano Laura , Gaspari Antonella , Soria Leonardo , Carbone Giuseppe , D’Emilia Giulio , Vacca Gaetano
Published: June 2022

Potentialities of merging contact and noncontact measurement techniques for structural analyses are studied in this paper, to explore limits and advantages of classical and innovative techniques (accelerometers, Laser Doppler Vibrometer and microflowns pressure-velocity probes). The analysis refers to a previous experimental campaign, devoted to a specific test case in a modal analysis environment; this appears as a suitable and representative field of application for the goal of highlighting possible correlations to the benefit of a robust comparison among resulting indications coming from different transducers. Methodological suggestions, addressing future and more focused measurement campaign, post-processing algorithms and optimization procedures are provided in this paper. They will be used also for defining a more systematic experimental campaign to be carried in order to identify possible guidelines for both fusion of sensor indication and more complex structural characterization.
Genetic Algorithm-based control of the wake of a bluff body
Authors: Amico Enrico , Bari Domenico Di , Cafiero Gioacchino , Iuso Gaetano
Published: June 2022

This work reports on the application of a Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based approach to control the wake of a bluff body. The control is achieved through the actuation of four air jets placed along the edges of the model’s base. The dependence of the population size on the convergence of the genetic code was assessed, evidencing an increase of the number of elements in the population needed to learning more complex tasks. In this case, a sum of two sine waves is considered, where frequency and amplitude of each of the two sine waves are optimised.

It is demonstrated that the GA converges to a control law yielding values of the drag reduction up to 11.2% with respect to the natural case. The cost function has been defined as to minimise the drag coefficient, without accounting for the energy spent in the actuation.

The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) applied to the fluctuating pressure signals highlights the most relevant features of the wake. The results show that in the natural case nearly 80% of the modal energy is associated with the first mode. Conversely, the forced case features a more evenly distributed energy content across the POD modes.

The analysis of the first two modes reveals that for both cases the wake is governed by the shedding phenomenon. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that regardless of the actuation conditions, the top-down shedding represents the most significant phenomenon for the wake dynamics.
Research on the Enhanced Preparation Process for Pellets with Sea Sand Vanadium Titanomagnetite Smelting in the Blast Furnace
Authors: Xing Zhen-xing , Liu Jin-Sheng , Huang Zhuang , Cheng Gong-Jin , Yang He , Xue Xiang-Xin
Published: June 2022

The sea sand vanadium titanomagnetite has coarse particles, small specific surface area, and great difficulty in agglomeration process. It is difficult for ironmaking enterprises to use it as an ironmaking raw material in large quantities. In this paper, the different methods were adopted to optimize the pellet performance indexes of sea sand vanadium titanomagnetite in order to increase the usage of SSO. The effects of adding ordinary iron ore powder, vanadia-titania fine powder and ball milling pretreatment of SSO on the preparation process of pellet were studied, and the performance indexes of pellet were analyzed. The results showed that the proportion of unground SSO in pellets was up to 40%. The experimental results provided some reference methods to improve the dosage of SSO.
The co-influence of hyaluronic acid and collagen on the development of an engineered annulus tissue model with bone marrow stromal cells
Authors: Chuah Yon Jin , Wu Yingnan , Chia Yan Qing , Cheong Mei Ling Shirlynn , Joshua Jun Jie Ng , Kang Yuejun , Hee Hwan Tak
Published: June 2022

Inveterbral disc degeneration is a significant musculoskeletal disease that brings huge burden of pain, disability, psychological and social consequences to the affected population worldwide with treatments that only alleviate the pain but does not address the underlying biological problems. For the past decades, tissue engineering of the disc has been investigated with annulus fibrosus (AF) been one of the complicated disc component to be engineered. With the limited source of annulus cells, bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have been frequently investigated as a potental cell candidate to develop an AF-like tissue which often require a multi-disciplinary effort to achieve. The extracellular matrix of AF is largely make up of collagen and proteoglycan which is still unclear how these matrix proteins could influence the BMSCs towards constructing a AF-like tissue. In this study, we adopted a coiled hydrogel microfiber that resembles the micro-architecture of the native AF tissue to encapsulate BMSCs and incorporated collagen type 1 and hyaluronic acid which later demonstrated that the co-presence of hyaluronic acid and collagen could potentially regulated AF-associated biomarkers and protease expression which are critical for later development of an engineered AF tissue construct.
Novel super junction technique used in AlGaN/GaN HEMT for high power applications
Authors: Arunraja A , Jayanthy S
Published: June 2022

In this paper, a novel super junction technique in AlGaN/GaN HEMT is proposed and analyzed. The novel super junction is capable of splitting the potential drops to two points rather than a single point in the lateral axis (channel axis). Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) physical simulator is used to investigate the proposed GaN HEMT. Analyses of the simulation results, shows that the breakdown voltage of proposed AlGaN/GaN HEMT with super junction is higher than that of a conventional device. Proposed device demonstrated a breakdown voltage improvement of 26%. This is due to the reduction of peak electric field using super junction and it is evidenced in the simulation. Further, the Johnson figure of merit (JFOM) is extracted. The JFOM of proposed and conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMT are 4.89 × 1012 V s−1 and 3.79 × 1012 V s−1, respectively. The JFOM in the proposed device is improved by 23%. This improvement is mainly due to the improvement of breakdown voltage rather than cut-off frequency. Overall, the proposed device is a promising candidate for high-power applications as it can withstand higher voltages without compromising the switching-frequency.
Assessment of mechanical properties of LM13 aluminum alloy hybrid metal matrix composites
Authors: Rajamanickam Arun Kumar , V C Uvaraja
Published: June 2022

Aluminium LM13 alloy based hybrid particulate composites have been processed by adding boron carbide (B4C) and titanium diboride (TiB2) particles. The wt% of titanium diboride (TiB2) is varied as 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and a constant 3 wt% of boron carbide is used to prepare the composites. Stir cast route is used to fabricate the composites. The microstructures of castings are examined using computer aided image analyzer. Vicker hardness, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and energy absorbed by the composites are examined and reported. The results show that uniform dispersion of TiB2 and B4C reinforcement phases in Al LM13 alloy. Micro hardness of composites enhanced upto 36.6% when compared to Al alloy reinforced with 3 wt% of B4C particles. Ultimate tensile strength of Al alloy is improved from 151 MPa to 192 MPa by reinforcing 15 wt% of titanium diboride particles. LM13 aluminium alloy hybrid particulate composites offers superior vicker hardness, yield strength, utlimate tensile strength and impact strength over LM13 aluminium alloy based single particle reinforced composites.
Visualization of dose distribution and basic study of dose estimation using plastic scintillator and digital camera
Authors: Yoshitani Hiroshi , Fujibuchi Toshioh , Anam Choirul
Published: June 2022

Radiation can be visualized using a scintillator and a digital camera. If the amount of light emitted by the scintillator increases with dose, the dose estimation can be obtained from the amount of light emitted. In this study, the basic performance of the scintillator and digital camera system was evaluated by measuring computed tomography dose index (CTDI). A circular plastic scintillator plate was sandwiched between polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantoms, and x-rays were irradiated to them while rotating the x-ray tube to confirm changes in light emission. In addition, CTDI was estimated from the amount of light emitted by the scintillator during the helical scan and compared with the value measured from dosimeter. The scintillator emitted light while changing its distribution according to the movement of the x-ray tube. The measured CTDIvol was 33.20 mGy, the CTDIvol estimated from the scintillation light was approximately 46 mGy, which was 40% larger. In particular, when the scintillator was directly irradiated, the dose was overestimated compared with the value measured from the dosimeter. This overestimation can be because of the reproducibility of the position and the difference between the sensitivity of the scintillator to detect light emission and the sensitivity of the dosimeter, and the non-uniformity of position sensitivity due to the wide-angle lens.
Mean Arc Distance (MAD): a quantity to compare trajectory 4π sampling in single target cranial stereotactic radiotherapy
Authors: MacDonald R Lee , Lincoln John , Church Cody , Thomas Christopher , Syme Alasdair
Published: June 2022

Purpose. C-arm linac-based radiotherapy has seen a recent interest in 4π methods of delivery using simultaneous rotations of couch and gantry to reduce doses to organs-at-risk (OARs) and increase dose compactness. While many methods use heuristics to generate trajectories that avoid OARs, combined with arbitrary trajectory restrictions to prevent oversampling, a quantity has not yet been developed to succinctly compare sampling of the 4π space for candidate trajectories as a surrogate for dosimetric compactness. Methods. Evenly spaced sampling points were distributed across a 4π sphere centred on isocentre. A metric, mean arc distance (MAD), was defined that quantifies the average arc distance between all sampling points and their nearest field in a radiotherapy trajectory. The relationship between isodose volume and MAD was examined in 2,047 plans: 900 unique trajectories of fixed port DCA plans, 900 unique trajectories of contiguous field DCA plans, 192 VMAT plans (eight volumes in four locations, each with six trajectories) in matRad with 5 VMAT plans repeated for validation in a clinical planning system, and 10 clinical VMAT cases replanned with five trajectories in a clinical treatment planning system. Results. All isodose volumes greater than 10% of the prescription dose decreased with decreasing MAD in all comparisons. In the range of 10% to 100% of the prescription dose, the rate of isodose volume decrease was exponential as a function of MAD in all comparisons. Reduction of absolute isodose volume is seen with increased 4π sampling, with larger target volumes exhibiting larger absolute reductions. Very low isodoses (0% to 10% of prescription) increased with decreasing MAD. Conclusions. MAD is a 4π sampling quantity useful in quantifying the decrease of isodose volume, relevant for sparing normal tissues. By quantifying this feature, candidate dynamic trajectories can be efficiently compared for 4π sampling. This quantity is explored here for single target cranial radiotherapy but may have applications to other radiotherapy treatment sites.
Urban soils in a historically industrial city: patterns of trace metals in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Authors: Maxim Alexandra , Bain Daniel J , Burgess Jonathan
Published: June 2022

The distribution of legacy heavy metals in industrial city soils is not well documented. Therefore, fundamental details such as the ‘background’ (i.e., non-road/non-dripline) concentration of trace metals in urban soils are uncertain. While there has been a strong focus on mapping lead contamination near roads and residences, these studies are generally not placed in the context of the urban background. In this study, ‘background’ distributions of urban relevant trace metals: arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc were mapped based on soil samples collected throughout Pittsburgh. Distinct spatial patterns were revealed: contamination is elevated in the eastern portion of the study area, driven by dominant wind patterns and historical coking activities in low-lying areas (paleochannels), areas subject to atmospheric temperature inversions that focus air contamination. The mixing analysis revealed spatial structures in contributions of industrial activities to metal soil contamination. In particular, regions enriched in cadmium relative to zinc (i.e., Zn:Cd<317) were located near historical coking operations, and areas enriched in lead relative to zinc (Pb:Zn>1) were located in areas with historical secondary lead smelters. These results suggest a comprehensive accounting of the trace metals concentrations in background soils has important implications for the assessment of exposure risk in populations residing in historically industrial areas. Relatively sparse sampling of background conditions in urban systems can indicate patterns of legacy contamination and attribute this contamination to historical sources.
Advantages of binary stochastic synapses for hardware spiking neural networks with realistic memristors
Authors: Sulinskas Karolis , Borg Mattias
Published: June 2022

Hardware implementing spiking neural networks (SNNs) has the potential to provide transformative gains in energy efficiency and throughput for energy-restricted machine-learning tasks. This is enabled by large arrays of memristive synapse devices that can be realized by various emerging memory technologies. But in practice, the performance of such hardware is limited by non-ideal features of the memristor devices such as nonlinear and asymmetric state updates, limited bit-resolution, limited cycling endurance and device noise. Here we investigate how stochastic switching in binary synapses can provide advantages compared with realistic analog memristors when using unsupervised training of SNNs via spike timing-dependent plasticity. We find that the performance of binary stochastic SNNs is similar to or even better than analog deterministic SNNs when one considers memristors with realistic bit-resolution as well in situations with considerable cycle-to-cycle noise. Furthermore, binary stochastic SNNs require many fewer weight updates to train, leading to superior utilization of the limited endurance in realistic memristive devices.
Two sparsities are better than one: unlocking the performance benefits of sparse–sparse networks
Authors: Hunter Kevin , Spracklen Lawrence , Ahmad Subutai
Published: June 2022

In principle, sparse neural networks should be significantly more efficient than traditional dense networks. Neurons in the brain exhibit two types of sparsity; they are sparsely interconnected and sparsely active. These two types of sparsity, called weight sparsity and activation sparsity, when combined, offer the potential to reduce the computational cost of neural networks by two orders of magnitude. Despite this potential, today’s neural networks deliver only modest performance benefits using just weight sparsity, because traditional computing hardware cannot efficiently process sparse networks. In this article we introduce Complementary Sparsity, a novel technique that significantly improves the performance of dual sparse networks on existing hardware. We demonstrate that we can achieve high performance running weight-sparse networks, and we can multiply those speedups by incorporating activation sparsity. Using Complementary Sparsity, we show up to 100× improvement in throughput and energy efficiency performing inference on FPGAs. We analyze scalability and resource tradeoffs for a variety of kernels typical of commercial convolutional networks such as ResNet-50 and MobileNetV2. Our results with Complementary Sparsity suggest that weight plus activation sparsity can be a potent combination for efficiently scaling future AI models.
Electric bicycles sharing: opportunities and environmental impacts
Authors: Kontar Wissam , Ahn Soyoung , Hicks Andrea
Published: June 2022

Electric bicycles (E-bikes) are an emerging transportation technology with the potential to replace other available modes. In this work, we investigate the ability of an E-bike sharing program to compete with different modes of transportation and the resulting use-phase environmental impacts. A survey study on users of an E-bike program in Madison, Wisconsin was conducted to reveal modal shifts before and after access to the program’s membership. An environmental investigation based on well-to-wheel life cycle analysis, coupled with mode choice modeling reveals the users of this technology, the underlying modal shifts triggered by its usage, and the cascading environmental implications. The analysis reveals E-bike’s ability in attracting users, which translates into beneficial environmental impacts across five studied categories: energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission, particulate matter, sulfate and nitrate emissions. We further explore the implications of trip distance on the ability of E-bikes to compete with other modes of transportation, and the resultant environmental impacts. Finally, the electricity generation scheme is analyzed to showcase the dependency between environmental benefits of E-bike and the energy infrastructure it is operating under.
Introducing ‘Environmental Research: Climate’—a new journal devoted to understanding the causes, consequences and solutions of climate variability and change
Authors: Diffenbaugh Noah S
Published: June 2022

Environmental Research: Climate is a new open-access journal focused on the causes, consequences and solutions of climate variability and change. The field of climate research is at a critical juncture, driven by a broad and heterogeneous community that is seeking to respond to both the rapidly changing climate system and the rapidly evolving needs of society to manage climate-related risks. While there are already many journals publishing research in different areas of this broad field, Environmental Research: Climate aims to fill a unique role by convening the multidisciplinary communities working across the full scope of causes, consequences and solutions, in a fully Open Access publishing venue. The inaugural Editorial Board comprises a broad array of backgrounds, expertise and perspectives that span the physical, biogeochemical and human dimensions that shape climate and its impacts. The Editorial Board is committed to fair, ethical, transparent editorial practices, and the journal offers a suite of modern publishing features that will enhance the journal experience for authors, reviewers and readers. Through these practices and features, Environmental Research: Climate aims to provide the climate research community with a single publishing venue that is sufficiently broad, focused and open to deeply and comprehensively probe the causes, consequences and solutions of climate variability and change—and in doing so coalesce and catalyze the next era of climate research.
Robust identification of temporal biomarkers in longitudinal omics studies
Authors: Metwally Ahmed A , Zhang Tom , Wu Si , Kellogg Ryan , Zhou Wenyu , Contrepois Kevin , Tang Hua , Snyder Michael
Published: June 2022

Motivation

Longitudinal studies increasingly collect rich ‘omics’ data sampled frequently over time and across large cohorts to capture dynamic health fluctuations and disease transitions. However, the generation of longitudinal omics data has preceded the development of analysis tools that can efficiently extract insights from such data. In particular, there is a need for statistical frameworks that can identify not only which omics features are differentially regulated between groups but also over what time intervals. Additionally, longitudinal omics data may have inconsistencies, including non-uniform sampling intervals, missing data points, subject dropout and differing numbers of samples per subject.

Results

In this work, we developed OmicsLonDA, a statistical method that provides robust identification of time intervals of temporal omics biomarkers. OmicsLonDA is based on a semi-parametric approach, in which we use smoothing splines to model longitudinal data and infer significant time intervals of omics features based on an empirical distribution constructed through a permutation procedure. We benchmarked OmicsLonDA on five simulated datasets with diverse temporal patterns, and the method showed specificity greater than 0.99 and sensitivity greater than 0.87. Applying OmicsLonDA to the iPOP cohort revealed temporal patterns of genes, proteins, metabolites and microbes that are differentially regulated in male versus female subjects following a respiratory infection. In addition, we applied OmicsLonDA to a longitudinal multi-omics dataset of pregnant women with and without preeclampsia, and OmicsLonDA identified potential lipid markers that are temporally significantly different between the two groups.

Availability and implementation

We provide an open-source R package (https://bioconductor.org/packages/OmicsLonDA), to enable widespread use.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Improving candidate Biosynthetic Gene Clusters in fungi through reinforcement learning
Authors: Almeida Hayda , Tsang Adrian , Diallo Abdoulaye Baniré
Published: June 2022

Motivation

Precise identification of Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs) is a challenging task. Performance of BGC discovery tools is limited by their capacity to accurately predict components belonging to candidate BGCs, often overestimating cluster boundaries. To support optimizing the composition and boundaries of candidate BGCs, we propose reinforcement learning approach relying on protein domains and functional annotations from expert curated BGCs.

Results

The proposed reinforcement learning method aims to improve candidate BGCs obtained with state-of-the-art tools. It was evaluated on candidate BGCs obtained for two fungal genomes, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus nidulans. The results highlight an improvement of the gene precision by above 15% for TOUCAN, fungiSMASH and DeepBGC; and cluster precision by above 25% for fungiSMASH and DeepBCG, allowing these tools to obtain almost perfect precision in cluster prediction. This can pave the way of optimizing current prediction of candidate BGCs in fungi, while minimizing the curation effort required by domain experts.

Availability and implementation

https://github.com/bioinfoUQAM/RL-bgc-components.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
A unifying network modeling approach for codon optimization
Authors: Karaşan Oya , Şen Alper , Tiryaki Banu , Cicek A Ercument
Published: June 2022

Motivation

Synthesizing genes to be expressed in other organisms is an essential tool in biotechnology. While the many-to-one mapping from codons to amino acids makes the genetic code degenerate, codon usage in a particular organism is not random either. This bias in codon use may have a remarkable effect on the level of gene expression. A number of measures have been developed to quantify a given codon sequence’s strength to express a gene in a host organism. Codon optimization aims to find a codon sequence that will optimize one or more of these measures. Efficient computational approaches are needed since the possible number of codon sequences grows exponentially as the number of amino acids increases.

Results

We develop a unifying modeling approach for codon optimization. With our mathematical formulations based on graph/network representations of amino acid sequences, any combination of measures can be optimized in the same framework by finding a path satisfying additional limitations in an acyclic layered network. We tested our approach on bi-objectives commonly used in the literature, namely, Codon Pair Bias versus Codon Adaptation Index and Relative Codon Pair Bias versus Relative Codon Bias. However, our framework is general enough to handle any number of objectives concurrently with certain restrictions or preferences on the use of specific nucleotide sequences. We implemented our models using Python’s Gurobi interface and showed the efficacy of our approach even for the largest proteins available. We also provided experimentation showing that highly expressed genes have objective values close to the optimized values in the bi-objective codon design problem.

Availability and implementation

http://alpersen.bilkent.edu.tr/NetworkCodon.zip.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Decreased taste sensitivity to sucrose in dopamine D3 receptor mutant mice
Authors: Sun Huiling , Li Jinrong , Yan Junbao , Sun Bo , Wei Xiaojing , Song Lin , Yan Jianqun
Published: June 2022

Dopamine plays a key role in food rewards and sweet-taste stimulation. We examined the basis for behavioral responses to sweet taste in dopamine D3 receptor-deficient (D3−/−) mice by determining whether the absence of D3 receptors affects the sensitivity to dilute sucrose solutions. In experiment 1, we measured the intensity generalization threshold of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) to a 0.2 M sucrose solution. Results showed that the generalization thresholds were 0.025–0.05 M in D3−/− mice and 0.0025–0.005 M in wild-type (WT) mice. In experiment 2, we found that D3−/− and WT mice had similar capabilities to form and extinguish CTAs. Since the intensity generalization threshold is mainly due to a combination of sweet-taste sensitivity and the robust nature of CTA formation, the results showed that taste sensitivity to sucrose in D3−/− mice was lower than that in WT mice. In experiment 3, to test whether the peripheral sensory signaling may also be affected by the disruption of the dopamine D3 receptors, the mRNA expression levels of sweet-taste-related proteins in taste buds of D3−/− mice were determined. The T1R1 and BDNF mRNA expression levels in D3−/− mice were higher than the controls, whereas T1R2, T1R3, α-gustducin, and TRPM5 mRNA were similar. These findings suggest that disruption of dopamine D3 receptor-mediated signaling decreases the sweet-taste sensitivity and alters the mRNA expression levels of some taste-related molecules.
A concise history of echocardiography: timeline, pioneers, and landmark publications
Authors: Fraser Alan G , Monaghan Mark J , van der Steen Antonius F W , Sutherland George R
Published: June 2022

Echocardiography is less than 70 years old, and many major advances have occurred within living memory, but already some pioneering contributions may be overlooked. In order to consider what circumstances have been common to the most successful innovations, we have studied and here provide a timeline and summary of the most important developments in transthoracic and transoesophageal ultrasound imaging and Doppler techniques, as well as in intravascular ultrasound and imaging in paediatric cardiology. The entries are linked to a comprehensive list of first publications and to a collection of first-hand historical accounts published by early investigators. Review of the original manuscripts highlights that it is difficult to establish unequivocal precedence for many new imaging methods, since engineers were often working independently but simultaneously on similar problems. Many individuals who are prominently linked with particular developments were not the first in their field. Developments in echocardiography have been highly dependent on technological advances, and most likely to be successful when engineers and clinicians were able to collaborate with open exchange between centres and disciplines. As with many other new medical technologies, initial responses were sceptical and introduction into clinical practice required persistence and substantial energy from the first adopters. Current developments involve advances in software as much as in equipment, and progress will depend on continuing collaborations between engineers and clinical scientists, for example to identify unmet needs and to investigate the clinical impact of particular imaging approaches.
Regional longitudinal strain patterns according to left ventricular hypertrophy in the general population
Authors: Frimodt-Møller Katrine Emilie , Olsen Flemming Javier , Biering-Sørensen Sofie Reumert , Lassen Mats Christian Højbjerg , Møgelvang Rasmus , Schnohr Peter , Jensen Gorm , Gislason Gunnar , Marcus Gregory Maurice , Biering-Sørensen Tor
Published: June 2022

Aims

A pattern of reduced basal longitudinal strain (BLS) is often observed with left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (LVH). Whether this pattern is associated with poor outcome is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of regional longitudinal strain according to LV geometry.

Methods and results

We investigated participants in the 4th Copenhagen City Heart Study who had an echocardiogram with speckle tracking performed. Participants were stratified according to the presence of LVH (LV mass index ≥116 g/m2 for men and ≥96 g/m2 for women). The outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) defined as a composite of myocardial infarction, heart failure, and/or cardiovascular death. The study population consisted of 1090 participants. Mean LVEF was 60% and 160 (15%) had LVH. During a median follow-up of 14.7 years, there were 137 events. Both BLS and midventricular strain, but not apical strain, became incrementally impaired in the spectrum from normal to hypertensives subjects without LVH, and to participants with hypertension and LVH. After multivariable adjustment, BLS and midventricular strain were independently associated with MACE in participants with LVH (BLS: HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.00–1.17, P = 0.041; midventricular strain: HR 1.10, 95% CI 1.00–1.21, P = 0.041) but not in participants without LVH (BLS: HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.90–1.01, P = 0.13; midventricular strain: HR 0.97, 95% CI 0.91–1.03, P = 0.36).

Conclusion

BLS and midventricular strain, but not apical strain, become incrementally impaired in the spectrum from normal geometry to LVH, and are independently associated with MACE in participants with LVH.
Apple Watch is useful in demonstrating coffee-triggered atrial fibrillation with a very short duration: a case report
Authors: Itoh Akira
Published: June 2022

Background

Although there are many negative reports on coffee consumption and the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF), several factors are involved in the metabolism of caffeine, and it is possible that the response to caffeine changes with age. We present a case in which Apple Watch was useful in detecting very brief paroxysmal AF that was thought to be triggered by coffee consumption.

Case summary

The patient was a man in his early 60s. He often drank a cup of coffee after breakfast. At some point, after drinking coffee and commuting to work, he noticed palpitations. He got an Apple Watch, and when he recorded his electrocardiogram when the symptoms occurred, he found that he had AF. During the following month, the frequency of AF was examined in relation to whether coffee was consumed in the morning. Twenty days of 28 days, coffee was consumed, and of these, AF was observed on 8 days (40%). In the 8 days when he did not drink coffee, there was no AF. For the next 28 days, the coffee was changed to decaffeinated coffee and the frequency of AF was examined. AF was observed on 5 of the 24 days when decaffeinated coffee was consumed (21%). AF did not occur on the 4 days when decaffeinated coffee was not consumed.

Discussion

These results may indicate that AF was significantly more common on days when coffee was consumed. In the case of frequent but short-lasting AF, it is worth considering whether coffee consumption may be a trigger.
Progressive cervical tumour in an HIV-patient: giant pseudoaneurysm of the carotid artery: a case report
Authors: Fraund-Cremer Sandra , Bernd Rouven , Cremer Jochen , Rusch Rene
Published: June 2022

Background

Aneurysms of the extracranial carotid artery are a rare entity and correspond to <1% of all arterial aneurysms.

Case summary

A 58-year-old male with known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection presented in the emergency department with a massive cervical tumour on the right side of the neck and a severe occipital pain. Contrast computed tomography demonstrated a pseudoaneurysm of the proximal right internal carotid artery (ICA). Open surgery of the ICA was performed with reconstruction of the posterior vessel wall, embolectomy of the ICA, and anterior pericardial patch reconstruction. After an uneventful postoperative course, the patient was readmitted 4 weeks later with a right retrobulbous haematoma caused by a carotid cavernous fistula. Therefore a coil-embolization of the fistula and finally of the distal right carotid artery was performed.

Discussion

In patients with a proven HIV infection, the occurrence of a vasculopathy in the extra- or intracranial carotid artery is significantly increased and the second most common site after the lower extremities. In patients with progredient neck swelling it should be considered in the differential. Surgical therapy is the preferred treatment strategy in the extracranial aneurysm type, especially in this patient collective.
A rare case of common arterial trunk with coarctation of the aorta: a case report
Authors: Abdelaal Mohamed , Dedieu Nathalie
Published: June 2022

Background

A common arterial trunk is a relatively uncommon type of congenital heart defect. The anomaly is caused by an incomplete conotruncal septation. Arch anomalies, such as interruption, are associated with 10–20% of cases. We present a rare case of common arterial trunk with coarctation of the aorta and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).

Case summary

A term baby who was discovered to have a murmur on examination, for evaluation of the murmur an echocardiography was performed on Day 2 of life, which revealed the diagnosis of a common arterial trunk and coarctation of the aorta. The baby was given prostaglandin and intubated. Due to his poor general condition, he underwent an emergency pulmonary artery branch banding. He needed another 5 days in the intensive care unit to be stabilized before undergoing full repair.

Discussion

Our patient has a common arterial trunk with a tricuspid competent truncal valve. The trunk is subdivided further into ascending aorta and main pulmonary artery. The pulmonary artery provided two branches and a PDA that connected to the descending aorta. The aortic branching pattern was as usual, there was an area of tight coarctation and posterior shelf just after the origin of the left subclavian artery before the descending aorta–PDA junction. The presence of coarctation may be considered as the left side of the spectrum of morphological changes toward the formation of aortic arch interruption (Type 4 Van Praagh).
Systemic leak capillary syndrome with myocardial involvement and cardiogenic shock: a case report
Authors: Garatti Laura , Wu Maddalena Alessandra , Ammirati Enrico , Sacco Alice
Published: June 2022

Background

Systemic capillary leak syndrome (SCLS) is a potentially fatal disorder characterized by relapses of hypovolemic shock episodes.

Case Summary

We present a case of a 58-year-old man who presented to the Emergency Department with a history of recurrent episodes of syncope in the last hours. A few days before medical contact the patient complained of sore throat, fever, and flu-like symptoms. He was initially admitted with a diagnosis of suspected myopericarditis. Forty-eight hours later, the haemodynamic status suddenly deteriorated to a mixed cardiogenic and shock; an endomyocardial biopsy showed localized inflammatory infiltrates and areas of necrosis of cardiomyocytes with positive viral search for parvovirus B19 (PVB19), therefore the patient was treated with methylprednisolone pulses. Based on the concurrent presence of the typical triad of hypotension, hypoalbuminaemia, and haemoconcentration we suspected systemic leak capillary syndrome potentially triggered by the PVB19 infection with acute myocarditis. The clinical conditions further deteriorated with rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury: we started continuous veno-venous haemofiltration adding a cytokines adsorber. In the following hours, we observed a significant clinical improvement. The patient was discharged 1 month later and 5 months after discharge he experienced a new attack of SCLS, this time without myocardial involvement and with prompt symptoms resolution.

Conclusion

Systemic capillary leak syndrome is a potentially fatal disorder: early recognition of this entity and prompt initiation of supportive therapy are warranted, therefore, it is paramount that an emergency physician thinks of SCLS in patients with signs of cardiogenic shock and the classical triad of hypotension, hypoalbuminia, and haemoconcentration.
Clinical utility of antifungal susceptibility testing
Authors: McCarty Todd P , Luethy Paul M , Baddley John W , Pappas Peter G
Published: June 2022

Invasive fungal diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality, in particular affecting immunocompromised patients. Resistant organisms are of increasing importance, yet there are many notable differences in the ability to both perform and interpret antifungal susceptibility testing compared with bacteria. In this review, we will highlight the strengths and limitations of resistance data of pathogenic yeasts and moulds that may be used to guide treatment and predict clinical outcomes.
Medical data formatting to improve physician interpretation speed in the Military Healthcare System
Authors: Peterson Jacob E
Published: June 2022

Objective

The purpose of this project was to improve ease and speed of physician comprehension when interpreting daily laboratory data for patients admitted within the Military Healthcare System (MHS).

Materials and Methods

A JavaScript program was created to convert the laboratory data obtained via the outpatient electronic medical record (EMR) into a “fishbone diagram” format that is familiar to most physicians. Using a balanced crossover design, 35 internal medicine trainees and staff at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth were asked to complete timed comprehension tests for laboratory data sets formatted in the outpatient EMR’s format and in fishbone diagram format. The number of responses per second and error rate per response were measured for each format. Participants were asked to rate relative ease of use for each format and indicate which format they preferred.

Results

Comprehension speed increased 37% (6.28 seconds per interpretation) with the fishbone diagram format with no observed increase in errors. Using a Likert scale of 1–5 (1 being hard, 5 easy), participants indicated the new format was easier to use (4.14 for fishbone vs 2.14 for table) with 89% expressing preference for the new format.

Discussion

The publically available web application that converts tabular lab data to fishbone diagram format is currently used 10 000–12 000 times per month across the MHS, delivering significant benefit to the enterprise in terms of time saved and improved physician experience.

Conclusions

This study supports the use of fishbone diagram formatting for laboratory data for inpatients within the MHS.
Evaluation of Pretreatment and Extraction Parameters for the Analysis of Fentanyl in Hair Using Statistical Design of Experiments (DoE)
Authors: Spear Brianna , DeCaprio Anthony P
Published: June 2022

Optimal methods for hair analysis are often debated. Previous work in this laboratory demonstrated that the statistical technique known as Design of Experiments (DoE) is useful for such optimization. DoE evaluates both the individual roles and the combinatorial associations among multiple independent variables (i.e., hair pretreatment parameters) and a dependent variable (i.e., drug recovery from hair). In this study, hair externally contaminated with fentanyl underwent decontamination with combinations of parameters based on a 24 fractional factorial block design DoE matrix. The parameters of interest included aqueous wash solvent (1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or water), organic wash solvent (dichloromethane or methanol), number of consecutive washes (one or three), sequence of washes (aqueous first or organic first) and wash time (30 s or 30 min). The optimal method for decontaminating fentanyl from the hair surface was found to be one 30-min wash with dichloromethane followed by one 30-min wash with water. Pretreatment parameters were optimized with a 23 full factorial DoE matrix using authentic hair reference material (HRM), which consisted of pooled drug user hair diluted to a known concentration of fentanyl with drug-free hair. The factors of interest were extraction solvent/sample weight ratio (12.5 or 25 µL/mg), hair particle size (pulverized or 1 mm segments) and extraction time (2 or 24 h). The most effective pretreatment method for fentanyl consisted of pulverizing the hair prior to a 2-h extraction in a 25 µL/mg extraction solvent volume/sample weight ratio. Finally, using the optimized pretreatment methods, fentanyl containing authentic HRM was extracted using aqueous base, solvent and enzymatic hair extraction methods, where it was determined that the aqueous base technique was most effective for recovery of fentanyl. These experiments further demonstrate the value of DoE and authentic HRM in method development for forensic hair analysis.
Patient-centered Care and Integrated Practice Units: Embracing the Breast Care Continuum
Authors: Paluch Jeremy , Kohr Jennifer , Squires Amanda , Loving Vilert
Published: June 2022

Patient-centered care is a health care approach optimized for the needs of the patient. As patients have sought more autonomy in recent years, this model has been more frequently adopted. Breast radiologists aspiring to advance patient-centered care should seek greater ownership of the breast diagnostic imaging and intervention workflows, helping their patients navigate the complex breast care landscape with patients’ preferences taken into account. Applying this approach to breast radiology will increase patient satisfaction and compliance while also limiting wasted health care dollars, unnecessary diagnostic delays, and overall confusion. Herein, the benefits of patient-centered breast radiology are discussed, and numerous suggestions and case examples are provided to help readers reshape their practice toward the priorities of their patients.
BI-RADS 3 Assessment on MRI: A Lesion-Based Review for Breast Radiologists
Authors: Nguyen Derek L , Myers Kelly S , Oluyemi Eniola , Mullen Lisa A , Panigrahi Babita , Rossi Joanna , Ambinder Emily B
Published: June 2022

Unlike mammography and US, limited data exist to establish well-defined criteria for MRI findings that have a ≤2% likelihood of malignancy. Therefore, determining which findings are appropriate for a BI-RADS 3 assessment on MRI remains challenging and variable among breast radiologists. Emerging data suggest that BI-RADS 3 should be limited to baseline MRI examinations (or examinations with less than two years of prior comparisons) performed for high-risk screening and only used for masses with all of the typical morphological and kinetic features suggestive of a fibroadenoma or dominant enhancing T2 hypointense foci that is distinct from background parenchymal enhancement and without suspicious kinetics. This article presents an updated discussion of BI-RADS 3 assessment (probably benign) for breast MRI using current evidence.