High FP Research Articles

Integration of family planning into the primary health care in Ethiopia: results from national assessment

BackgroundFamily planning (FP) is part of Ethiopia’s essential health service package. However, integrating FP into other health care services is a relatively new concept. Integrated service can minimize missed opportunities and allow health workers to provide FP services and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent, and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N) services simultaneously. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the levels of FP integration into maternal and child health (MCH) services at primary health care service delivery units in Ethiopia.MethodsThis was a facility-based cross-sectional study conducted from July to October 2022. We conducted a nationally representative survey of primary health care (PHC) facilities selected from seven regions and two-city administrations in Ethiopia to assess the current level of FP integration across four service delivery units (antenatal care unit, postnatal care unit, post-abortion care unit, and immunization unit) of the facilities. We collected data from selected health facilities through interview with health facility managers, healthcare providers in the selected service units, clients seeking health services, and extraction of data from facility records. We employed descriptive analysis, and categorized the degree of FP integration according to the FP information and services provided in the selected service delivery units.ResultsThis national FP integration survey included 122 health facilities (39 primary hospitals, 42 health centers, and 41 health posts) from seven regions and two city administrations. The study found a huge discrepancy regarding FP counselling given at ANC, PNC, PAC, and immunization service delivery units as reported by health care providers and clients. The proportion of PNC and immunization clients who received FP counselling was higher at health post compared to hospitals and health centers. Moreover, the proportion of PAC clients who received FP information was higher in primary hospitals compared to health centers.ConclusionData from facility records and provider interviews showed significant FP integration within ANC, PNC, and immunization units of PHC facilities. However, client exit interviews indicated low FP counselling integration. Facility records revealed few PNC and PAC clients received contraceptives in the past year. The study found high FP counselling and provision of at least one short- or long-acting contraceptive at PNC and PAC units. No facility offered contraceptives at immunization units, indicating missed FP integration opportunities.

Influence of Standalone and Ensemble Classifiers in Face Spoofing Detection using LBP and CNN Models

Background: Artificial intelligence has made significant contributions to facial recognition and biometric identification and is now being employed in a range of applications. Detecting facial spoofing, where someone attempts to pass as an authorized user to gain access to the system, is still difficult. Spoofing-attack-resistant face recognition systems demand efficient and effective solutions. A more stringent recognition system will result in higher false positives and false negatives, which makes such a system questionable for practical use. Eventually, the prominent deep-learning techniques were overtaken by CNN-based architecture. Objective: To analyse classifiers to identify the impact on spoof detection. The intent is not only to get the highest accuracy but also to find strategies to significantly reduce false positives and false negatives. Methods: Face image spoofing detection is implemented in this paper by extracting face embedding using the Local Binary Pattern (LBP) and the VGG16 CNN architecture. To classify real and spoof images, SVM, KNN, Decision Tree, and ensembles of classifier models are utilized. Results: The proposed three models obtained test accuracy of 98%, 94.48%, and 99% when applied to the custom dataset, while in the NUAA photography imposter dataset, they achieved 97%, 99%, and 100% and kept the FN and FP significantly low. Conclusion: Accessing human faces through smart gadgets from various resources is possible, leading to the possibility of spoof attacks. Although spoof detection methods persist, effective methods with high accuracy and low FN and FP are still required. The proposed ensemble techniques significantly outperform the existing classifiers with high accuracy, keeping FN and FP low.

Suppressing-accelerating effect of Nitrotetrazolium Blue chloride in boosting superconformal cobalt filling

Achieving cobalt superconformal (bottom-up) growth is significantly important. Electrochemical methods, including cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectra and EQCM-derived Coulomb-voltage curves, were used to confirm the suppressing influence of new suppressor Nitrotetrazolium Blue chloride (NBT). In situ Raman spectroscopy was used confirm that NBT can effectively adsorb on cobalt surface. Besides, EQCM-derived Coulomb-voltage illustrates that it is more beneficial for cobalt electrodeposition at high pH. The NBT effect on hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) was studied by LSV and chronoamperometry. Finite element simulation is used to investigate the accelerating effect of NBT on HER and convection. Suppressing-accelerating effect is proposed to illustrate effect of NBT. NBT can not only suppress the cobalt deposition but also can accelerate local convection by intensifying HER, which can in turn strengthen NBT adsorption. SEM analysis demonstrates that convection and NBT can refine grain. High-quality cobalt is achieved with low SDT values ranging from 24 μm to 45 μm and high FP values (75.4 % for 150 μm, 88.9 % for 100 μm and 87.2 % for 50 μm).

Simultaneously improve the Purcell factor and internal quantum efficiency of light-emitting diodes via surface plasmon by metal conic structure

Recent advances in the development of surface plasmons (SPs) enhanced LED have provided a great opportunity to enhance either the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) or the spontaneous emission rate (SE) by employing specific metal structures. However, it is still challenging to simultaneously achieve high IQE and Purcell factor (Fp), which demonstrates the SE enhancement, without sacrificing the electrical performance of LEDs. Herein, we designed and investigated a conic metal structure applied to LEDs by comprehensively considering the electrical, optical, and data transmission performance of devices. Conic structures with various heights were implemented to investigate the variation trends of IQE and Fp with the structure design, accompanied by the planar structures as references. A more than five times increase in IQE and almost five times increase in Fp were demonstrated experimentally even with a coupling distance of 100 nm, by employing this conic structure. The theoretical analysis was verified by the experimental results and revealed the mechanism of high Fp and IQE toward high SP–photon coupling efficiency and initial IQE. This study provides a universal strategy to enhance the performance of luminous efficiency and modulation speed of LEDs without sacrificing electrical properties, making them viable for the integration of lighting, display, and communication.

The influence of leveler Brilliant Green on copper superconformal electroplating based on electrochemical and theoretical study

Finding proper additive to achieve copper superconformal electrodeposition is significantly important. Brilliant Green exhibits excellent suppressing ability to the copper electrodeposition according to electrochemical analysis. Meanwhile, 100 mg/L was selected as the optimum value based on the convection-dependent adsorption behavior analysis of Brilliant Green. The interaction among three different additives was also investigated by applying chronopotentiometry as well as Brilliant Green compete to absorb on the cathode surface with SPS. Besides, the introduction of Brilliant Green can improve the transport of cupric ions (Cu2+). The nucleation and growth of copper deposition is 3D diffusion-controlled instantaneous growth process at high overpotential but 3D diffusion-controlled mixing growth process at low overpotential. The synergistic suppressing mechanism was proposed to explain strong suppressing effect of BG on reduction of Cu2+ and the reaction pathways was studied theoretically. Copper interconnect layer with high FP values (80.52 % to 84.38 %) was obtained with low SDT (about 28 μm) after electroplating process was optimized. The surface morphology under the influence of Brilliant Green is compact and uniform and the grain size is reduced by Brilliant Green.

High Gain and Wideband Fabry-Perot Resonator Antenna Based on a Compact Single PRS Layer

In this paper, a wideband and high gain Fabry Perot Resonator Antenna (FPRA) is proposed. It is based on a synthesized compact single partially reflective surface (PRS) layer acting as a superstrate to a slot-coupled feed antenna, which acts as a radiating source element for the proposed design. The PRS is based on a 2-D printed unit cell, where the lower part is a simple circular ring Frequency Selective Surface (FSS), incorporated with a synthesized FSS unit cell, using an automated system through a VBA based interface established between CST Microwave studio and Matlab, and optimized using a binary genetic algorithm. This new FSS layer acts as the upper part of the proposed PRS layer and provided a positive phase gradient. It almost perfectly resembles that of the optimum PRS over the desired frequency range, with a relatively high reflection magnitude, which makes it a promising superstrate candidate for wideband and high gain FP resonator antennas. The fabricated prototype achieved an important performance in terms of impedance bandwidth with 42%, ranging from 11.32 to 17.35 GHz. In addition, the 3-dB gain bandwidth is 36 % from 11.68 to 16.78 GHz, with a maximum peak gain of 14.72 dB achieved at 16 GHz. Consistent and almost invariant radiation patterns are achieved over the Ku-band frequency band of interest. The experimental and simulated results are in good agreement, justifying the feasibility of the proposed design as a high gain and wideband FP resonator antenna.

Differences in gut microbiota composition of laying hen lines divergently selected on feather pecking

ABSTRACTFeather pecking (FP), a damaging behavior where laying hens peck and pull at feathers of conspecifics, is multifactorial and has been linked to numerous behavioral and physiological characteristics. The gut microbiota has been shown to influence host behavior and physiology in many species, and could therefore affect the development of damaging behaviors, such as FP. Yet, it is unknown whether FP genotypes (high FP [HFP] and low FP [LFP] lines) or FP phenotypes (i.e., individuals differing in FP, feather peckers and neutrals) differ in their gut microbiota composition. Therefore, we identified mucosa-associated microbiota composition of the ileum and cecum at 10 and 30 wk of age. At 30 wk of age, we further identified luminal microbiota composition from combined content of the ileum, ceca, and colon. FP phenotypes could not be distinguished from each other in mucosa-associated or luminal microbiota composition. However, HFP neutrals were characterized by a higher relative abundance of genera of Clostridiales, but lower relative abundance of Lactobacillus for the luminal microbiota composition compared to LFP phenotypes. Furthermore, HFP neutrals had a higher diversity and evenness for the luminal microbiota compared to LFP phenotypes. FP genotypes could not be distinguished from each other in mucosa-associated microbiota composition. Yet, FP genotypes could be distinguished from each other in luminal microbiota composition. HFP birds were characterized by a higher relative abundance of genera of Clostridiales, but lower relative abundance of Staphylococcus and Lactobacillus compared to LFP birds. Furthermore, HFP birds had a higher diversity and evenness for both cecal mucosa-associated and luminal microbiota compared to LFP birds at adult age. In conclusion, we here show that divergent selection on FP can (in)directly affect luminal microbiota composition. Whether differences in microbiota composition are causal to FP or a consequence of FP remains to be elucidated.

The Role of Tryptophan-Kynurenine in Feather Pecking in Domestic Chicken Lines.

Research into the role of tryptophan (TRP) breakdown away from the serotonergic to the kynurenine (KYN) pathway by stimulating the brain-endocrine-immune axis system interaction has brought new insight into potential etiologies of certain human behavioral and mental disorders. TRP is involved in inappropriate social interactions, such as feather-destructive pecking behavior (FP) in birds selected for egg laying. Therefore, our goal was to determine the effect of social disruption stress on FP and the metabolism of the amino acids TRP, phenylalanine (PHE), tyrosine (TYR), their relevant ratios, and on large neutral amino acids which are competitors with regard to their transport across the blood-brain barriers, at least in the human system, in adolescent birds selected for and against FP behavior. We used 160 laying hens selected for high (HFP) or low (LFP) FP activity and an unselected control line (UC). Ten pens with 16 individuals each (4 HFP birds; 3 LFP birds; 9 UC birds) were used. At 16 weeks of age, we disrupted the groups twice in 5 pens by mixing individuals with unfamiliar birds to induce social stress. Blood plasma was collected before and after social disruption treatments, to measure amino acid concentrations. Birds FP behavior was recorded before and after social disruption treatments. HFP birds performed significantly more FP and had lower KYN/TRP ratios. We detected significantly higher FP activity and significantly lower plasma PHE/TYR ratios and a trend to lower KYN/TRP ratios in socially disrupted compared to control pens. This might indicate that activating insults for TRP catabolism along the KYN axis in laying hens differs compared to humans and points toward the need for a more detailed analysis of regulatory mechanisms to understand the role of TRP metabolism for laying hen immune system and brain function.

Physical approach for a quantitative analysis of the phytosterols in free phytosterol-oil blends by X-ray Rietveld method.

This study investigates and compares the thermal phase transition and crystallization characteristics of a commercial food grade free phytosterol blend (FP) with a stigmasterol analytical standard (SS), the FP behavior in a food model system after its addition to high oleic sunflower oil (HOSO). The properties of the FP:HOSO blends were studied by differential scanning calorimetry, solid content, crystal morphology, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The Rietveld method (RM) was applied associated with the XRD measurements to support phase analysis and the study of crystallinity degree. The materials were also characterized by means of chemical composition, such as fatty acids and triacylglycerol profiles, for HOSO, and phytosterol profile, for FP. Regarding phase behavior and crystallinity properties, FP has very similar characteristics to SS. The thermal behavior of FP:HOSO blends has two characteristic peaks, one from FP and the other from HOSO. The similarity reported in the literature between the diffraction pattern of FP and pure phytosterols is a positive characteristic for FP. A high FP concentration resulted in high supersaturation and thus the formation of small crystals. The incorporation of HOSO reduced of the large agglomeration of FP crystals and the dispersion crystalline aggregates (spherulites) of FP crystals. The application of RM in FP:HOSO blends to quantify the crystalline and amorphous phases was successfully used. The application has provided the expected value for these phases, according to the same experimental mass ratio of the blends, thereby validating the applicability of this approach in this type of material.

Cumulative Score Based on Preoperative Fibrinogen and Pre-albumin Could Predict Long-term Survival for Patients with Resectable Gastric Cancer

Background: To investigate the prognostic significance of the cumulative score based on preoperative fibrinogen and pre-albumin (FP score) in patients with gastric cancer after radical gastrectomy.Methods: Baseline characteristics, preoperative fibrinogen and pre-albumin levels were retrospectively reviewed in patients who underwent radical gastrectomy. The optimal cut-off values for fibrinogen and pre-albumin were defined as 4.0 g/L and 230.0 mg/L, respectively. Patients with elevated fibrinogen (≥ 4.0 g/L) and decreased pre-albumin (< 230.0 mg/L) levels were allocated an FP score of 2, those with only one of these two abnormalities were assigned a score of 1, and those with neither of the two abnormalities were allocated a score of 0. The prognostic value was examined by univariate and multivariate regression analyses.Results: The preoperative FP score was significantly correlated with age, tumor size, fibrinogen level, pre-albumin level and white blood cell count. No significant differences based on sex, tumor location, degree of differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph node status, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage or adjuvant chemotherapy were identified between the groups. In addition, univariate survival analysis revealed that a high preoperative FP score was significantly associated with unfavorable disease-free survival (DFS) [hazard ratio (HR), 1.482; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.222-1.796; P < 0.001] and overall survival (OS) (HR, 1.623; 95% CI, 1.315-2.002; P < 0.001). Moreover, after adjusting for other factors, a high preoperative FP score remained an independent predictor for impaired DFS (HR, 1.434; 95% CI, 1.177-1.747; P < 0.001) and OS (HR, 1.413; 95% CI, 1.136-1.758; P = 0.002) in multivariate Cox regression analysis.Conclusions: The preoperative FP score significantly predicts long-term survival for gastric cancer patients who have undergone radical gastrectomy.

Linking Regional Winter Sea Ice Thickness and Surface Roughness to Spring Melt Pond Fraction on Landfast Arctic Sea Ice

The Arctic sea ice cover has decreased strongly in extent, thickness, volume and age in recent decades. The melt season presents a significant challenge for sea ice forecasting due to uncertainty associated with the role of surface melt ponds in ice decay at regional scales. This study quantifies the relationships of spring melt pond fraction (fp) with both winter sea ice roughness and thickness, for landfast first-year sea ice (FYI) and multiyear sea ice (MYI). In 2015, airborne measurements of winter sea ice thickness and roughness, as well as high-resolution optical data of melt pond covered sea ice, were collected along two ~5.2 km long profiles over FYI- and MYI-dominated regions in the Canadian Arctic. Statistics of winter sea ice thickness and roughness were compared to spring fp using three data aggregation approaches, termed object and hybrid-object (based on image segments), and regularly spaced grid-cells. The hybrid-based aggregation approach showed strongest associations because it considers the morphology of the ice as well as footprints of the sensors used to measure winter sea ice thickness and roughness. Using the hybrid-based data aggregation approach it was found that winter sea ice thickness and roughness are related to spring fp. A stronger negative correlation was observed between FYI thickness and fp (Spearman rs = −0.85) compared to FYI roughness and fp (rs = −0.52). The association between MYI thickness and fp was also negative (rs = −0.56), whereas there was no association between MYI roughness and fp. 47% of spring fp variation for FYI and MYI can be explained by mean thickness. Thin sea ice is characterized by low surface roughness allowing for widespread ponding in the spring (high fp) whereas thick sea ice has undergone dynamic thickening and roughening with topographic features constraining melt water into deeper channels (low fp). This work provides an important contribution towards the parameterizations of fp in seasonal and long-term prediction models by quantifying linkages between winter sea ice thickness and roughness, and spring fp.

P3.13-037 Deep Learning System for Lung Nodule Detection

Ever since its first success in large scale image recognition problem, deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have shown their capabilities in solving many challenging visual perceptual tasks, such as image classification, segmentation, object detection. In some cases, DCNNs have already achieved near-human performance. In medical image analysis, DCNNs have also been successfully applied to lesion detection, segmentation, and diagnosis. The power of DCNN lies in its ability to learn a hierarchical representation of raw input data, without hand-crafted features. The focus of this study was to improve the performance of DCNN in automatic detection of pulmonary nodule on CT scan. In particular, nodules whose size is less than 4mm were considered. A total of 171 scans were collected at Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University, which was first process by the proposed DCNN system (12Sigma). The detection results were then carefully reviewed by an experienced physician, all false positives and missed nodules were manually labeled. To refine the system, all false positives and true nodules of sizes 4mm and under were selected. The data set was randomly split into training and test sets, where the training set consists of 90% (154 scans) and the test set consists of 10% of data (17 scans). Fig 1 shows the FROC curves on the test set before and after re-training. Overall, the detection sensitivity improved at all false positive levels, but the improvement was most significant at low FP rate region. For example, when FP is 0.5 per scan, the detection sensitivity increased from 0.36 to 0.49. This improvement suggests that, even with limited data, the deep neural network can learn from its mistakes and be easily tuned to be more sensitive to small nodules. We believe that when more data is collected, more significant improve in high FP rate region will be observed.

Gravitational wave production from preheating: parameter dependence

Parametric resonance is among the most efficient phenomena generating gravitational waves (GWs) in the early Universe. The dynamics of parametric resonance, and hence of the GWs, depend exclusively on the resonance parameter q. The latter is determined by the properties of each scenario: the initial amplitude and potential curvature of the oscillating field, and its coupling to other species. Previous works have only studied the GW production for fixed value(s) of q. We present an analytical derivation of the GW amplitude dependence on q, valid for any scenario, which we confront against numerical results. By running lattice simulations in an expanding grid, we study for a wide range of q values, the production of GWs in post-inflationary preheating scenarios driven by parametric resonance. We present simple fits for the final amplitude and position of the local maxima in the GW spectrum. Our parametrization allows to predict the location and amplitude of the GW background today, for an arbitrary q. The GW signal can be rather large, as h2ΩGW(fp) ≲ 10−11, but it is always peaked at high frequencies fp ≳ 107 Hz. We also discuss the case of spectator-field scenarios, where the oscillatory field can be e.g. a curvaton, or the Standard Model Higgs.

(Invited) New Lithium-Conducting Ionic Liquids and Their Polymer Electrolytes

In PEM Fuel Cells, Ionic liquids i.e. Proton-conducting Ionic Liquids, PILs, behave as proton-conducting materials to increase PEMFC operating temperature. Based on primary, secondary or tertiary ammoniums, they are ‘self-sufficient’ i.e. they don´t require any additional acids to perform the electrochemical reactions. Thus macroporous membranes have been successfully filled by PILs. Alternatively, PILs can be too associated to proton-conducting ionomers e.g. Nafion® or high performance based ionomers beforehand turned into their ammonium form in order to avoid molecular acid release. In the first case, high mechanical strength can be obtained while the swelling of PFSA ionomers by PILs increase markedly the proton-conductivity at the anhydrous state but strongly decrease the membrane mechanical strength. While PILs are self-sufficient in electrochemical conversion (FC), usual Li-ion battery ILs based on quaternary ammonium require conversely adding a lithium salt. The well-known advantages of ILs vs liquid solvents e.g. high Fp and high sub-ambient conductivities are partly compensated by the compulsory addition of the salt, which increases the viscosity and also the electrolyte cost. Oligoethers i.e. oligo(oxyethylene) or oligo-PEO) end-capped by 1, 2 or 3 salt moieties doesn’t match the performances of classical ionic liquids, in terms of sub-ambient conductivities but they both provide the lithium salt function and a solvating ability. This presentation will focus on new lithium-conducting oligomeric ionic liquids consisting of several oligoether chain lengths end-capped by organic perfluorinated anions. Their intrinsic ionic conductivities and those of related POE blends will be reported as well as their cationic transference numbers. Both classical ILs and oligomeric lithium-conducting ionic liquids degrading the electrolyte mechanical performances, they don´t allow thinning the polymer electrolyte films. A special attention will be paid to the reinforcement of ILs based polymer electrolytes.

Achieving Optimal Clinical Outcomes in Ultrasound-Guided Central Venous Catheterizations of the Internal Jugular Vein After a Simulation-Based Training Program for Novice Learners

The aim of this study was to determine the number of ultrasound-guided (USG) central venous catheterization (CVC) of the internal jugular vein (IJV) residents had to perform, after a simulation-based training program, to achieve optimal clinical outcomes. We conducted a single-center, prospective, observational study in the medical intensive care unit of a university-affiliated teaching hospital. Residents participated in a formal training program, consisting of a simulation-based workshop and 5 supervised USG CVC insertions on patients. Subsequent USG CVC of the IJV performed by residents during their rotation were assessed. Data on the overall success (OS), first pass success (FP) and mechanical complication (MC) rates were serially collected over 2 years, spanning 4 cohorts of residents. Thirty-two residents performed a total of 337 USG CVC of the IJV. Residents had previously performed an average of 9 CVC via the landmark technique. None had performed USG CVC before. Results showed that residents improved in their OS, FP, and MC rates as they performed more USG CVC. Residents needed to perform 7 USG CVCs to achieve optimal clinical outcomes of high OS and FP as well as low MC rates. There was a significant improvement in OS, FP, and MC rates for the eighth and subsequent USG CVCs compared with the first 7 USG CVCs (82% vs. 99% [P < 0.001], 70% vs. 92% [P < 0.001] and 11% vs. 0%, respectively). After a formal training program consisting of a simulation-based workshop and 5 supervised USG CVCs on critically ill adults, residents were able to achieve optimal clinical outcomes after performing 7 procedures.

A new 2.5D representation for lymph node detection using random sets of deep convolutional neural network observations.

Automated Lymph Node (LN) detection is an important clinical diagnostic task but very challenging due to the low contrast of surrounding structures in Computed Tomography (CT) and to their varying sizes, poses, shapes and sparsely distributed locations. State-of-the-art studies show the performance range of 52.9% sensitivity at 3.1 false-positives per volume (FP/vol.), or 60.9% at 6.1 FP/vol. for mediastinal LN, by one-shot boosting on 3D HAAR features. In this paper, we first operate a preliminary candidate generation stage, towards -100% sensitivity at the cost of high FP levels (-40 per patient), to harvest volumes of interest (VOI). Our 2.5D approach consequently decomposes any 3D VOI by resampling 2D reformatted orthogonal views N times, via scale, random translations, and rotations with respect to the VOI centroid coordinates. These random views are then used to train a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier. In testing, the CNN is employed to assign LN probabilities for all N random views that can be simply averaged (as a set) to compute the final classification probability per VOI. We validate the approach on two datasets: 90 CT volumes with 388 mediastinal LNs and 86 patients with 595 abdominal LNs. We achieve sensitivities of 70%/83% at 3 FP/vol. and 84%/90% at 6 FP/vol. in mediastinum and abdomen respectively, which drastically improves over the previous state-of-the-art work.

Influence of Gd/Ba Composition on Superconducting Properties of BaHfO3 doped Gd1+xBa2-xCu3Oy films

In order to investigate an influence of Gd/Ba substitution x in Gd1+xBa2-xCu3Oy (GdBCO) on superconducting properties and microstructures of BaHfO3 (BHO) in GdBCO films, we fabricated the films on IBAD-MgO substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method. As a result, the number density of BHO nanorods were decreased from 2000 to 1100/μm2 with increasing x up to x = 0.07. If x > 0.07, the density of BaHfO3 nanorods were almost the same with 2000/μm2. Tcs of the BaHfO3 doped films were improved from 88.0 to 90.6 K with increasing x. In addition, the films with x from 0.07 to 0.12 showed high pinning force density Fp, especially the x = 0.10 films shows high Fp = 23.0 GN/m3 at 77 K in B//c.

In vitro cell culture, platelet adhesion tests and in vivo implant tests of plasma-polymerized para-xylene films

Plasma-polymerized para-xylene (PPX) was developed in a previous study by adjusting the process parameters: pulse frequency of the power supply (ωp) and para-xylene monomer flow rate (fp). All the obtained PPX films exhibit an amorphous structure and present hydrophobicity (water contact angle ranging from 98.5° to 121.1°), higher film growth rate and good fibroblast cell proliferation. In this study, in vitro tests (fibroblast cell compatibility and platelet adhesion) and an in vivo animal study were performed by using PPX deposited industrial-grade silicone sheets (IGS) and compared with medical-grade silicone ones (MS), which were commonly manufactured into catheters or drainage tubes in clinical use.The results reveal that PPX deposited at high ωp or high fp, in comparison with MS, exhibit better cell proliferation and clearly shows less cell adhesion regardless of ωp and fp. PPX also exhibit a comparatively lower level of platelet adhesion than MS. In the animal study, PPX-coated IGS result in similar local tissue responses at 3, 7 and 28 days (short-term) and 84 days (long-term) after subcutaneous implantation the abdominal wall of rodents compared with respective responses to MS. These results suggest that PPX-coated industrial-grade silicone is one alternative to high cost medical-grade silicone.

Magnetic resonance imaging in the preoperative assessment of patients with primary breast cancer: systematic review of diagnostic accuracy and meta-analysis

To estimate the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting additional lesions and contralateral cancer not identified using conventional imaging in primary breast cancer. We have conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses to estimate diagnostic accuracy indices and the impact of MRI on surgical management. Fifty articles were included (n = 10,811 women). MRI detected additional disease in 20% of women and in the contralateral breast in 5.5%. The summary PPV of ipsilateral additional disease was 67% (95% CI 59-74%). For contralateral breast, the PPV was 37% (95% CI 27-47%). For ipsilateral lesions, MRI devices ≥1.5 Tesla (T) had higher PPV (75%, 95% CI 64-83%) than MRI with <1.5 T (59%, 95% CI 53-71%). Similar results were found for contralateral cancer, PPV 40% (95% CI 29-53%) and 19% (95% CI 8-39%) for high- and low-field equipments, respectively. True positive MRI findings prompted conversion from wide local excision (WLE) to more extensive surgery in 12.8% of women while in 6.3% this conversion was inappropriate. MRI shows high diagnostic accuracy, but MRI findings should be pathologically verified because of the high FP rate. Future research on this emerging technology should focus on patient outcome as the primary end-point.

Is “X”-WAS the Future for All of Epidemiology?

Is “X”-WAS the Future for All of Epidemiology?