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Time-dependent properties of human root dentin.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate the creep, stress relaxation and strain rate behavior of human root dentin under compressive loading. METHODS: Cylindrical root dentin samples of 3.5mm outer diameter, 1.5mm internal canal diameter and 6-10mm long were prepared from freshly extracted teeth. The samples were tested in a closed-loop servohydraulic testing machine at constant load or displacement, and varied strain rate. In vivo strain rates were estimated using strain gauges bonded to human teeth. RESULTS: A family of creep curves, determined at different loads within dentin's elastic region, was found to be consistent with a material having linear viscoelastic behavior. A positive correlation (r(2)=0.79, P<0.001) was found between creep rate and stress. Young's modulus (E) was found to be a function of the strain rate with rates of loading in the range 10-500,000Ns(-1). Loading at constant displacement showed stress to be a decreasing function of time (i.e. stress relaxation). SIGNIFICANCE: Dentin showed linear-viscoelastic behavior under various conditions of compressive loading. Time dependent properties of dentin should be taken into account in restorative dentistry.

Algorithms↗

MP3 compression of Doppler ultrasound signals.

The effect of lossy, MP3 compression on spectral parameters derived from Doppler ultrasound (US) signals was investigated. Compression was tested on signals acquired from two sources: 1. phase quadrature and 2. stereo audio directional output. A total of 11, 10-s acquisitions of Doppler US signal were collected from each source at three sites in a flow phantom. Doppler signals were digitized at 44.1 kHz and compressed using four grades of MP3 compression (in kilobits per second, kbps; compression ratios in brackets): 1400 kbps (uncompressed), 128 kbps (11:1), 64 kbps (22:1) and 32 kbps (44:1). Doppler spectra were characterized by peak velocity, mean velocity, spectral width, integrated power and ratio of spectral power between negative and positive velocities. The results suggest that MP3 compression on digital Doppler US signals is feasible at 128 kbps, with a resulting 11:1 compression ratio, without compromising clinically relevant information. Higher compression ratios led to significant differences for both signal sources when compared with the uncompressed signals.

Algorithms↗

Medical and conservative surgical management of postpartum hemorrhage.

Massive postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is a major cause of maternal mortality in the United Kingdom and worldwide. Life-threatening PPH occurs with a frequency of 1 in 1000 deliveries in the developed world. In the latest triennial Why Mothers Die: Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom (1997-1999), PPH was the fifth most common cause of maternal mortality. In this review, we discuss the role of medical management in primary PPH and the use of the "tamponade test" when such management fails. The less radical surgical options discussed include uterine compression sutures, uterine or internal iliac artery ligation, and arterial embolization, all of which have the advantage of potentially preserving reproductive function. Radical surgical options, including subtotal or total hysterectomy, are not discussed in this review. A systematic or algorithmic method of tackling the problem is described. The suggested management approach is likely to reduce maternal morbidity from bleeding, hysterectomies, and maternal deaths.

Arteries↗

Bulk characterization of pharmaceutical powders by low-pressure compression II: effect of method settings and particle size.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of punch and die diameter, sample size, compression speed, and particle size on two low-pressure compression-derived parameters; the compressed density and the Walker w parameter. The excellent repeatability of the low-pressure compression method allowed small effects of variations in punch and die diameter and sample size to be demonstrated on a high significance level. Changing the compression speed, however, did not cause a significant effect in the compressed density, whereas a decrease in w was seen. The effect of particle size was studied by compressing and tapping different grades of calcium carbonate, lactose, and microcrystalline cellulose. The low-pressure compression-derived parameters were compared to tapped densities and to Compressibility Indexes obtained by tapping volumetry. Even though the relationship between particle size and the low-pressure compression-derived parameters appeared to be more complicated, a similar trend was observed. It was concluded that the low-pressure compression method provides a useful alternative to the more sample-consuming methods providing flow-related information.

Algorithms↗

Short superstrings and the structure of overlapping strings.

Given a collection of strings S = [s1,...,sn] over an alphabet sigma, a superstring alpha of S is a string containing each si as a substring, that is, for each i, 1 < or = i < or = n, alpha contains a block of magnitude of si consecutive characters that match si exactly. The shortest superstring problem is the problem of finding a superstring alpha of minimum length. The shortest superstring problem has applications in both computational biology and data compression. The shortest superstring problem is NP-hard (Gallant et al., 1980); in fact, it was recently shown to be MAX SNP-hard (Blum et al., 1994). Given the importance of the applications, several heuristics and approximation algorithms have been proposed. Constant factor approximation algorithms have been given in Blum et al. (1994) (factor of 3), Teng and Yao (1993) (factor of 2 8/9), Czumaj et al. (1994) (factor of 2 5/6), and Kosaraju et al. (1994) (factor of 2 50/63). Informally, the key to any algorithm for the shortest superstring problem is to identify sets of strings with large amounts of similarity, or overlap. Although the previous algorithms and their analyses have grown increasingly sophisticated, they reveal remarkably little about the structure of strings with large amounts of overlap. In this sense, they are solving a more general problem than the one at hand. In this paper, we study the structure of strings with large amounts of overlap and use our understanding to give an algorithm that finds a superstring whose length is no more than 2 3/4 times that of the optimal superstring. Our algorithm runs in O(magnitude of S + n3) time, which matches that of previous algorithms. We prove several interesting properties about short periodic strings, allowing us to answer questions of the following form: Given a string with some periodic structure, characterize all the possible periodic strings that can have a large amount of overlap with the first string.

Algorithms↗

Measurement of pitch by subharmonic summation.

In order to account for the phenomenon of virtual pitch, various theories assume implicitly or explicitly that each spectral component introduces a series of subharmonics. The spectral-compression method for pitch determination can be viewed as a direct implementation of this principle. The widespread application of this principle in pitch determination is, however, impeded by numerical problems with respect to accuracy and computational efficiency. A modified algorithm is described that solves these problems. Its performance is tested for normal speech and "telephone" speech, i.e., speech high-pass filtered at 300 Hz. The algorithm out-performs the harmonic-sieve method for pitch determination, while its computational requirements are about the same. The algorithm is described in terms of nonlinear system theory, i.c., subharmonic summation. It is argued that the favorable performance of the subharmonic-summation algorithm stems from its corresponding more closely with current pitch-perception theories than does the harmonic sieve.

Algorithms↗

[Diagnostic strategies for pulmonary embolism and decision analysis].

Decision analysis has greatly benefited to the field of pulmonary embolism diagnosis, by allowing the theoretical assessment of potential novel strategies, which could in turn be validated in clinical trials. The adjunction of clinical probability assessment, plasma D-dimer measurement, and lower limb venous compression ultrasonography, to pulmonary scintigraphy and angiography in the diagnostic workup, results in a considerable reduction in the requirement for angiography. Moreover, these strategies are highly cost-effective, yielding cost savings without increasing morbidity or mortality. Such diagnostic algorithms are safe, as demonstrated by clinical outcome studies. Finally, spiral CTscan combined with D-dimer and ultrasonography could also prove highly cost-effective, and replace either pulmonary angiography, or even both lung scan and angiography, if ongoing studies confirm the promising preliminary results obtained with CTscan. However, such a conclusion awaits the validation of algorithms including CTscan by clinical outcome trials, in which the therapeutic decision would rest on the result of the spiral CTscan.

Angiography↗

Volumetric assessment of pulmonary nodules with ECG-gated MDCT.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to assess physiologic lung deformation and compression originating from cardiovascular motion and their subsequent impact on determining the volume of small pulmonary nodules throughout the cardiac cycle on ECG-gated MDCT. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Seventy-three small noncalcified pulmonary nodules were identified in 30 patients who underwent ECG-gated MDCT. The volume of each nodule was assessed throughout the cardiac cycle using computer-aided automatic segmentation algorithms, and the assessment was repeated three times. To ensure the validity of the subtle changes in volume that were detected, we determined the volume and signal attenuation in phantom data sets and patient nodules without temporal or spatial differentiation. Subsequently, nodules were assigned to pulmonary segments, and volume changes were correlated to cardiac phases, nodular location, and mean nodular size. Statistical multivariate tests were performed to evaluate significant patterns. RESULTS: The validity of significant measurements was proven in evaluated phantom data sets with a general tendency toward overestimating nodular volume (p = 0.492). Statistical evaluation of nodular signal attenuation confirmed true deformation and compression of nodules rather than partial volume effects as the reason for volume variations (p = 0.874). Differentiating pulmonary nodules in cardiac phases, pulmonary locations, and mean nodular volumes, we found that one single effect did not determine the amount of cardiovascular motion conveyed to pulmonary parenchyma and subsequently led to nodule deformation. Multivariate testing revealed statistically significant measures identifying patterns correlating variation in nodular volume with cardiac phase (p < 0.001), nodular location (p = 0.007), and mean nodular size (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Cardiovascular motion was disproportionately conveyed to various pulmonary segments and led to changes in the volume of pulmonary nodules, especially in small pulmonary nodules. A precise volumetric assessment was therefore possible only by identifying the underlying cardiac phase.

Adult↗

Osseous integration of calcium phosphate in osteoporotic vertebral fractures after kyphoplasty: initial results from a clinical and experimental pilot study.

INTRODUCTION: This study evaluated the radiological changes at the bone-cement interface of calcium phosphate cement (CPC) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) 12 months after kyphoplasty. In a pilot experiment, we additionally performed a histomorphometric analysis in osteopenic foxhounds to analyze the process of osseous integration of CPC and PMMA. METHODS: Twenty postmenopausal female patients with 46 vertebral compression fractures (VCF) were treated by kyphoplasty, utilizing CPC (N=28) or PMMA (N=18) for intravertebral stabilization. After a 12-month follow-up, we measured the density changes of border voxels at the bone-cement interface by computed tomography (CT) using dedicated software algorithms. We defined the border-voxel density (BVD) as a parameter of cement resorption at the interface. We also investigated the bone-implant interface in three osteopenic foxhounds by histomorphometry 3, 6, and 12 months after cement implantation. RESULTS: Twelve months after kyphoplasty, only CPC showed a significant decrease of the BVD compared to PMMA (p<0.01), indicating a slow progress of resorption at the interface. Histomorphometry of the dog vertebrae showed near total bone coverage of CPC implants, whereas the PMMA surface exhibited only 30% direct bone contact (p<0.01). We also observed a time-dependent increase in the number of discernable osteons close to the interface of CPC, but no bone tissue within PMMA (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The decrease of the BVD 12 months after kyphoplasty may indicate osseous integration of CPC by: (1) the ingrowth of bone tissue and (2) osteonal penetration close to the interface.

Animals↗

The influence of a metastable structure in plasmid primer RNA on antisense RNA binding kinetics.

Replication of the ColE1 group plasmids is kinetically regulated by the interaction between plasmid-encoded primer RNA II and antisense RNA I. The binding is dependent on alternative RNA II conformations, formed during the transcription, and effectively inhibits the primer function within some time interval. In this paper, the folding pathways for the wild type and copy number mutants of ColE1 RNA II are studied using simulations by a genetic algorithm. The simulated pathways reveal a transient formation of a metastable structure, which is stabilized by copy number mutations. The folding kinetics of the proposed conformational transitions is calculated using a model of a multistep refolding process with elementary steps of double-helical stem formation or disruption. The approximation shows that the lifetime of the metastable structure is relatively long and is considerably increased in the mutants, resulting in a delay of the formation of the stable RNA II structure, which is the most sensitive to the inhibition by the antisense RNA I. Thus the effect of copy number mutations can be interpreted as a compression of the time window of effective inhibition due to an increased time spent by the RNA II in the metastable state. The implications of metastable foldings in RNA functioning are discussed.

Algorithms↗

A systems approach for data compression and latency reduction in cortically controlled brain machine interfaces.

This paper suggests a new approach for data compression during extracutaneous transmission of neural signals recorded by high-density microelectrode array in the cortex. The approach is based on exploiting the temporal and spatial characteristics of the neural recordings in order to strip the redundancy and infer the useful information early in the data stream. The proposed signal processing algorithms augment current filtering and amplification capability and may be a viable replacement to on chip spike detection and sorting currently employed to remedy the bandwidth limitations. Temporal processing is devised by exploiting the sparseness capabilities of the discrete wavelet transform, while spatial processing exploits the reduction in the number of physical channels through quasi-periodic eigendecomposition of the data covariance matrix. Our results demonstrate that substantial improvements are obtained in terms of lower transmission bandwidth, reduced latency and optimized processor utilization. We also demonstrate the improvements qualitatively in terms of superior denoising capabilities and higher fidelity of the obtained signals.

Action Potentials↗

Multidimensional dot-matrices.

A generalization of the dot-matrix of similarity for n sequences is proposed. For the visualization of the n-dimensional dot-matrix, the n projections onto the plane passing through the main diagonal and each of the n axes of Euclidean space En are displayed. The projection is compressed so that the points at the coordinates (xi, sigma j not equal to ixj/(n - 1)) are depicted on the plane. The common regions of similarity are revealed as segments of straight lines parallel to the main diagonal. An algorithm for the n-dimensional dot-matrix calculation of time of the order of O[n*L2 + n*(L2p)2] is suggested where L is the mean length of sequence and p is the stringency parameter of the order of 10(-6). The method is illustrated for the family of plant phenylalanine ammonia-lyase genes.

Algorithms↗

Median neuropathy at the wrist: diagnostic utility of clinical findings and an automated electrodiagnostic device.

Clinical findings have limited value in predicting electrophysiologically confirmed median neuropathy at the wrist (MNW). To determine the value of clinical findings and an automated electrophysiologic neurodiagnostic device (AEND) in diagnosing MNW, we studied two groups of 75 consecutive patients (an initial group and a validation group, 150 total) referred to an academic electrophysiology laboratory for upper extremity complaints. The definitive standard for MNW was the neurologist's diagnosis after formal clinical and electrodiagnostic evaluation. The neurologist was blinded to the results of the AEND (NC-Stat, NeuroMetrix, Inc). In the validation group, the AEND yielded a distal motor latency (DML) in 97% of hands with a conventional motor response, and the correlation of the AEND DML with the conventional DML was 0.94 (P < 0.001). Of 248 symptomatic hands, the neurologist diagnosed 117 (47%) with MNW. At 90% specificity, the AEND DML had a sensitivity of 86% for MNW. Age, body mass index, sensory symptoms in digits 1 to 3, and nocturnal awakening were independent clinical predictors of MNW. Each 1-msec increase in the adjusted AEND DML was independently associated with an OR of 298 (95% confidence interval, 40 to 2233) for MNW. Each 1-msec increase in the F-wave latency was independently associated with an OR of 2.6 (95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 4.9) for MNW. Compared with a model based solely on clinical variables, an algorithm including symptom variables plus the AEND DML had an odds ratio for correct diagnostic classification of 6.3 (95% confidence interval, 3.8 to 12.3). The sensitivity at 90% specificity improved from 40% for the clinical model to 86% for the model with DML. A practical method for integrating clinical and electrophysiologic findings to assess the risk of MNW was proposed. This method correctly stratified 79% of control and MNW patients into very low- and high-risk groups, respectively. We concluded that MNW diagnosis is significantly improved with an AEND.

Adult↗

Deformation analyses in cell and developmental biology. Part II--Mechanical experiments on cells.

This study employs the finite element approach developed in Part I to analyze mechanical experiments on cells. It views cells as axisymmetric membrane structures containing a body of incompressible material, and models the mechanical contact between a cell and the loading apparatus by a contact algorithm. Since the method is valid for analyzing axisymmetric shell-like bodies with arbitrary shapes, it treates various mechanical experiments on cells in a unified manner. For demonstration purposes, three commonly used mechanical experiments on cells are considered; the compression experiment; the suction (micropipette aspiration) experiment; and the magnetic particle experiment. Based on an estimate of the mechanical property data for unfertilized sea urchin eggs, this analysis method predicts the responses for all three experiments using the same assumptions and approximations. This parallel treatment gives a broad basis for data correlation with experiments. The method also provides insights into mechanical experiments not offered by other approximate methods. For example, it gives the distributions of tensions and stretches on the cell cortex, and suggests the role of friction in the suction experiment.

Animals↗

Morphometric texture analysis of spinal trabecular bone structure assessed using orthogonal radiographic projections.

The measurement of bone microstructure as well as bone mineral density may improve the estimation of bone strength. Cubic specimens (N = 26, 12 mm X 12 mm X 12 mm) of human cadaver vertebrae were cut along three orthogonal anatomic orientations, i.e., superior-inferior (SI), medial-lateral (ML), and anterior-posterior (AP). Contact radiographs of the bone cubes along all three orientations were obtained and then digitized by a laser scanner with pixel size of 50 microns x 50 microns. The specimens were tested in compression along the 3 orthogonal orientations and the Young's modulus (YM) was calculated for each direction. Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) was used to obtain a measure of trabecular bone mineral density (BMD). Global gray level thresholding and local thresholding algorithms were used to extract the trabecular bone network. Apparent trabecular bone fraction (ABV/TV), mean intercept length (I.TH), mean intercept separation (I.SP), and number of nodes (N.ND) were measured from the extracted trabecular network. Fractal dimension (Fr.D) of the trabecular bone texture was also measured. Paired t-tests showed that the mean values of each texture parameter (except ABV/TV) and of YM along the SI direction were significantly different (p < 0.05) from those along the ML and AP direction. However, the mean values along the ML and AP directions were not significantly different. Multivariate regression of YM as a function of the texture parameters and BMD showed that without adjusting for the effect of BMD, YM was significantly explained by all the texture parameters (R2 = 0.2-0.6). When BMD was included in the regression, although the variations in YM of ML, AP, and SI orientations could be explained by BMD alone, some of the texture parameters did improve the overall prediction of the biomechanical properties, while, some parameters such as ABV/TV and Fr.D in the ML orientation showed a more significant overall effect in explaining mechanical strength than did BMD. In conclusion, trabecular texture parameters correlated significantly with BMD and YM. Trabecular texture parameters from projectional radiographs reflect the anisotropy of trabecular structure. Quantitative radiographic assessment of trabecular structure using fine-detail radiography can potentially improve the estimation of bone strength.

Adult↗

Validation of an adaptive signal enhancer in intraoperative somatosensory evoked potentials monitoring.

The conventional approach of ensemble averaging in intraoperative somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) monitoring requires more than 500 trials to extract a reliable waveform for neurologic diagnosis. Previous studies showed that an adaptive signal enhancer (ASE) could increase the signal-to-noise ratio of input signals. This study assessed the accuracy and efficiency of the ASE in the extraction of neurologic normal human and abnormal rat SEP. Cortical and subcortical SEP were taken from 16 subjects undergoing scoliosis surgery. SEP extracted by ASE were compared with those obtained with 500-trial averaging in terms of peak latency, amplitude, and waveforms using correlation coefficients. An animal study composed of 18 rats was used to test the ASE in detecting abnormal SEP changes due to spinal cord compression. The results demonstrate the accuracy of ASE by showing very high correlations between ASE-processed SEP and ensemble averaging-processed SEP in waveforms, peak latencies, and amplitudes. The results also show the efficiency of the ASE in extracting SEP waveforms from 50 input trials, which provided waveforms of sufficiently high quality and latency/amplitude measurements equivalent to those obtained in 500 trials of conventional ensemble averaging. Because of its fast extraction ability, adaptive signal enhancement could be an appropriate alternative to conventional ensemble averaging in intraoperative spinal cord monitoring.

Adolescent↗

Effect of particle size and compression force on compaction behavior and derived mathematical parameters of compressibility.

PURPOSE: To analyze the influence of inherent densification and deformation properties of paracetamol on the mathematical parameters derived from Heckel, Walker, Kawakita, and Adams equations and to correlate these with single particle nominal fracture strength and bulk compression parameters using confined compression on a fully instrumented rotary tablet press. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Force-displacement data were captured during in-die compression for four different particle size fractions (150-250, 300-450, 500-650, and 700-1,000 microm) of paracetamol each at compression force of 5.2, 8.6, and 17.3 kN. Nominal single particle fracture strength was obtained by micro tensile testing. RESULTS: Apparent mean yield pressure (Py) from Heckel analysis was significantly affected by the applied pressure, and was influenced by elastic energy and Young's modulus. The single particle fracture strength correlated to parameters obtained from Heckel, Walker, Kawakita, and Adams equations. Results obtained from bulk compression and single particle measurements were consistent with, and polynomially related to Py, Kawakita (1/b), and Adams parameter (tau0'). CONCLUSIONS: Values of Py, 1/b, and tau0' obtained from Heckel, Kawakita, and Adams equations, respectively, can be interpreted as a measure of single particle nominal fracture strength during confined compression loading. Walker and Adams parameters were less affected, than Heckel and Kawakita parameters, by the applied pressure.

Acetaminophen↗

Preliminary study in differential contrast echography.

Microbubble-based contrast agents have backscattering properties that differ greatly from those of soft tissues. These agents exhibit nonlinear scattering properties in response to incident acoustic energy, causing harmonic components in reflected energy. Even in linear scattering conditions, an important difference is observed in the frequency dependence of their backscatter coefficient, when compared to that of tissues. In this situation, any such differential behaviour can be exploited by imaging instrumentation to enhance the detection of agent-containing vessels against background tissue. The resulting B-mode image brightness (or pixel level) can thus be the representation of a local parameter computed from radio frequency (rf) signal processing of the raw echoes. The object of this article is to report on parametric imaging studies performed with Sonovue (formerly code named BR1, Bracco Research SA), aimed at assessing the contrast-enhancing potential of spectral rf signal processing. The technique used, termed here "differential contrast echography" (DCE), is applicable in real-time B-mode imaging. It is based on an on-line subtractive approach, using dual-channel signal processing to implement differential filtering and demodulation. In this preliminary work, DCE was implemented off-line, on rf echo signals digitised from commercial B-mode scanners. Data acquisition, DCE processing and complete B-mode image reconstruction were programmed on a personal computer. The images presented were produced from test phantoms as well as animal phased array scanning. The phantom included a flow channel, background scattering material, fixed echogenic targets and echo-free regions. Animal scanning was performed on rabbit liver. The results obtained from DCE show promising contrast-enhancing properties. The regions containing no contrast agent are significantly suppressed from the image, preferentially leaving the regions perfused by the contrast agent. This property was favourable to experimenting with image-overlay presentations, superimposing colour-coded DCE imaging with standard log-compressed grey-scale B-mode, in a way analogous to duplex imaging combining colour Doppler and B-mode.

Algorithms↗