Segmental Wall Research Articles

Analysis of canal discharge management through remodeled structure at Guddu Barrage

As vital hydraulic infrastructure, barrages and canals are crucial for agricultural irrigation in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Any deviation from the intended design discharge can significantly impact water resource management, leading to economic losses. The Ghotki Canal in Sindh faced challenges in receiving its allocated inflow, prompting an extension of the divide wall at Guddu Barrage to 589.59 ft. However, this extension inadvertently exacerbated the problem by reducing the Ghotki canal's inflow, resulting in a 166.7 ft gap between the original and extended divide wall segments. This study takes a unique approach, using a non-distorted physical model at a scale ratio of 1:85, to assess the influence of the divide wall gap across five scenarios, varying gap width and river flow rates from 100,000 to 500,000 cusecs. The findings highlighted the disruptive effects of the gap on flow regimes, notably affecting critical infrastructure such as the silt excluder and left pocket capacity. Alterations in the divide wall gap width predominantly impact the Ghotki Canal discharge while minimally affecting the Rainee Canal. Without a divide wall gap, the Ghotki Canal's head regulator draws 88% of the designated capacity, while the Rainee Canal consistently receives its total inflow share of 10,000 Cusecs. In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of structure remodeling in barrages for effective water resource management, emphasizing the need for nuanced approaches to optimize canal performance and sustain agricultural livelihoods and regional development.

MADR-Net: multi-level attention dilated residual neural network for segmentation of medical images

Medical image segmentation has made a significant contribution towards delivering affordable healthcare by facilitating the automatic identification of anatomical structures and other regions of interest. Although convolution neural networks have become prominent in the field of medical image segmentation, they suffer from certain limitations. In this study, we present a reliable framework for producing performant outcomes for the segmentation of pathological structures of 2D medical images. Our framework consists of a novel deep learning architecture, called deep multi-level attention dilated residual neural network (MADR-Net), designed to improve the performance of medical image segmentation. MADR-Net uses a U-Net encoder/decoder backbone in combination with multi-level residual blocks and atrous pyramid scene parsing pooling. To improve the segmentation results, channel-spatial attention blocks were added in the skip connection to capture both the global and local features and superseded the bottleneck layer with an ASPP block. Furthermore, we introduce a hybrid loss function that has an excellent convergence property and enhances the performance of the medical image segmentation task. We extensively validated the proposed MADR-Net on four typical yet challenging medical image segmentation tasks: (1) Left ventricle, left atrium, and myocardial wall segmentation from Echocardiogram images in the CAMUS dataset, (2) Skin cancer segmentation from dermoscopy images in ISIC 2017 dataset, (3) Electron microscopy in FIB-SEM dataset, and (4) Fluid attenuated inversion recovery abnormality from MR images in LGG segmentation dataset. The proposed algorithm yielded significant results when compared to state-of-the-art architectures such as U-Net, Residual U-Net, and Attention U-Net. The proposed MADR-Net consistently outperformed the classical U-Net by 5.43%, 3.43%, and 3.92% relative improvement in terms of dice coefficient, respectively, for electron microscopy, dermoscopy, and MRI. The experimental results demonstrate superior performance on single and multi-class datasets and that the proposed MADR-Net can be utilized as a baseline for the assessment of cross-dataset and segmentation tasks.

Isolated visceral manifestation of Buerger’s disease presenting as intestinal obstruction: a case report

Introduction and importance: Buerger’s disease is an uncommon segmental nonatherosclerotic vasculitis essentially affecting small to medium-sized arteries and veins of upper and lower extremities and can lead to limb amputation. Visceral vessel involvement is quite rare accounting for 2% of cases presenting with acute abdomen due to mesenteric ischemia. Moreover, isolated visceral involvement is even rare. Case presentation: A 42-year-old gentleman, a chronic smoker, presented with abdominal pain associated with nausea and vomiting and loose stool of 2 months duration. Magnetic resonance enterography revealed segmental circumferential wall thickening with stricture in the mid part of the jejunum with lymphadenopathy features of possible inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease). Furthermore, intraoperative surgical findings were also suggestive of Crohn’s disease. However, histologic findings were consistent with thromboangiitis obliterans. Discussion: Thromboangiitis obliterans can present with inflammatory vascular lesions without necrosis in the early stage to varying degrees of recanalisation, gangrene, and amputation in the late stage. It rarely involves the brain, heart, and abdominal viscera. The visceral involvement may be in the form of intestinal obstruction or mesenteric ischemia or can mimic Crohn’s in a background of smoking. Conclusion: This case report will help to learn more about the rarer intestinal presentation of intestinal Buerger’s disease. It can present with features of bowel ischemia, obstruction or Crohn’s. So, histology would play a pivotal role in differentiating the diagnostic dilemma.

How CEUS improves gallbladder pathology evaluation. A comprehensive pictorial and review of the literature.

Gallbaldder disorders represent a prevalent pathology encounterd in daily practice, both in emergency and ambulatorysettings. Transabdominal ultrasound has a high accuracy for the diagnosis of gallstones and acute cholecystitis. Contrast enhancedultrasound (CEUS) can depict and characterized the vascular pattern in cases of inflammatory or malignant processes.In an emergency situation such as acute cholecystitis in patients with comorbidities, CEUS can acurate identify a gangrenouscholecystitis; subsequently the medical management can rely on this technique. The differential diagnosis of benign vs malignantpathology, in cases of segmental or diffuse wall thickening, can also benefit from CEUS. In this paper we aimed to discussand to illustrate the role of CEUS in gallbladder pathology.

Whole exome sequencing in young atrial fibrillation patients

Abstract Background Up to 10% of atrial fibrillation (Afib) patients develop the condition in the young age and in the absence of any related risk factors. Recent publications emphasized the importance of genetic testing in this population. However, the yield of the investigation is highly variable and ranges from 1 to 24% precents. Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of causative genetic variants in young Afib patients without risk factors and evaluate any structural changes of the heart. Methods We performed whole exome sequencing in 54 young (age of Afib onset less than 65 years) Afib patients without any Afib related risk factors (original cohort). Using ACMG guidelines we performed analysis of 349 previously described cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia associated genes. If a pathogenic (P) or likely pathogenic (LP) variant was found, a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) was performed to exclude any structural abnormalities of the heart. We also extracted 107 young Afib patients without any risk factors from UK Biobank (UK Biobank cohort) and performed analysis of the same genes in the subgroup. Results The prevalence of P and LP variants was 24% (13 cases) in the original cohort and 8% (9 cases) in the UK Biobank cohort (p=0.006). We observed variants in cardiac structural and developmental genes only in both cohorts (Table 1 and 2). In the original cohort there were nine (17%) patients with P and LP variant in TTN gene. Moreover, five patients were positive for the same TTN variant NM_001267550.2:c.13696C>T p.(Gln4566Ter). In six (46%) original cohort patients we observed structural changes of the heart on CMR – in five patients there was dilation of one or both ventricles and in one there was increased T1 mapping intensity of septal wall segments. Conclusions 1. There is a high prevalence of pathogenic and likely pathogenic causative genetic variants in young atrial fibrillation patients without any risk factors. 2. All variants are localized in cardiac structural or developmental genes only. 3. There is a high grade of structural changes of the heart observed on cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients with monogenic atrial fibrillation.Table 1.WES data in original cohortTable 2.WES data in UK Biobank cohort

VASOSPASTIC INFARCTION STARTED WITH PULSELESS ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY CARDIAC ARREST

Abstract We report the case of a 48–year–old female with a special history of ischemic heart disease. It started in 2021 with an acute anterior ST myocardial infarction: the coronary angiography showed subocclusive stenosis at the first tract of the left anterior descending (LAD), without other coronary stenoses. The patient was treated with primary PCI + DES; the echocardiogram showed EF 30% and akinesia of apex, intermediate segments of anterior wall and interventricular septum. During the same hospitalization the patient experienced recurrence of angina with transient ST elevation in the anterior and inferior leads; a control coronary angiography was unchanged. She was started on therapy with nitrates and diltiazem up to the tolerated dose, statin as well as antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy due to apical thrombus. She underwent ICD implantation in primary prevention in January 2022. During 2022, there were several accesses to the ED for vasospastic angina despite medical therapy at the maximum tolerated dose. In October 2023 the patient experienced an acute chest pain followed by cardiac arrest, pulseless electrical activity and acute cardiogenic shock. After resuscitation procedures, she underwent an emergency coronary angiography which showed excellent result of the previous PCI, as well as stenosis of the distal edge of the stent resolving after injection of i.c. nitrates. No arrhythmic events at ICD recording and continuous electrocardiographic monitoring in ICU were observed. Cardiac MRI showed areas of subendocardial LGE involving the apex, anterior, anterolateral and septal segments due to ischemic scar; we also observed areas of edema and LGE with an ischemic pattern at the infero–septal and inferior wall in toto, suggesting recent ischemia; EF was 31%. During hospitalization the patient experienced episodes of typical angina with poor response to medical therapy at the maximum tolerated dose. The current clinical case most likely points to acute myocardial infarction due to vasospasm of the right coronary artery with acute pump failure resulting in cardiac arrest and no specific recommendations exist in recent cardiologic guidelines on the strategy to adopt for this acute clinical setting. In the hypothesis of a vasospastic pathogenesis of the problem, counseling for modulation of the stellate ganglion was requested.

ARRHYTHMOGENIC RIGHT VENTRICULAR CARDIOMYOPATHY AND CARDIAC SARCOIDOSIS: THE GREY ZONE

Abstract Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is a rare multisystem disorder characterized by granulomatous infiltration of the myocardium, whose clinical manifestations can be extremely heterogeneus. We report the case of a 47–year–old man with a previous diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVD). In history he had a marked arrhythmic pattern with multiple episodes of sustained ventricular arrhythmias, biventricular disfunction (LVEF 37%, RVEF 32%) and extensive biventricular transmural late–gadolinium enhancement (greater than 50%) at cardiac RMN. At EKG epsilon wave mainly seen in precordial leads. In November 2022 he was implanted with bicameral defibrillator and in March 2023 he underwent ablation procedure for ventricular tachycardia with RF with endo–epicardial approach. In May 2023 he arrived at our Centre for acute decompensated heart failure. At restored hemodynamic stability, screening for the possible inclusion in transplant list was started. Right heart catheterization (RHC) showed low cardiac index with no pulmonary hypertension. Chest CT unexpectedly showed the presence of multiple micronodules with perilymphatic distribution with confluent appearance compatible with pulmonary sarcoidosis. In consideration of this result, the transplant program was temporarily postponed and investigations for possible cardiac involvement of an inflammatory nature were started. 18F–FDG PET–CT showed pulmonary, splenic, lymphonodal and especially cardiac uptake in the mid–distal segment of the lateral wall of the left ventricle and in the inferior–apical site suspicious for inflammatory pathology. Unfortunately, both lymphonodal and cardiac biopsies were inconclusive because of insufficient material. Nevertheless, the clinical scenario satisfied the Japanese criteria for possible CS; therefore, treatment with prednisone 1 mg/kg was started and a 18F–FDG PET–CT was planned after 3 months of steroid therapy. CS can disguise as a phenocopy of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy because of several common characteristics, especially arrhythmic presentation. Due to these similarities, a careful overall evaluation of each patient with ARVD is mandatory as several transplant centers have reported cases of CS in explanted heart with a pretransplant misdiagnosis of ARVD or dilated cardiomiopathy. Performing a chest CT in all ARVD patients as part of transplant screening may be considered.

“A BROKEN TRANSPLANTED HEART”: A CASE OF TAKOTSUBO SYNDROME IN A HEART TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT

Abstract 75–year–old female patient went to the emergency department for oppressive chest pain radiating to the left arm and dyspnea, developed after an argument with family members. The patient underwent heart transplant in 2010 because of chronic ischemic heart disease. In history: systemic arterial hypertension, former smoking, dyslipidemia, and chronic renal failure. At blood tests: TnIHS 78.4 ng/L (<29 ng/L), CK–MB 1.9 microg/L, PROBNP–NT 43,000 pg/ml, creatinine 2 mg/dL. ECG showed inverted T waves in DI, AVL and V4 to V6 (fig 1). Transthoracic echocardiography was remarkable for a moderate reduction in systolic function (EF 38%), akinesia of apical portion, mid–segment of the IVS and mid–segment of posterior wall. Coronarography showed epicardial coronaries free of angiographically significant lesions. We decided to not perform ventriculography to avoid worsening renal function. At clinical stabilization, the patient underwent cardiac MRI with evidence of hypokinesia of the mid–ventricular segments with preserved global systolic function and hypo/akinesia of right ventricular apex with endocavitary thrombosis. Tissue characterization images were compatible with the presence of diffuse phlogistic involvement of the left ventricular myocardium (most evident at the mid–ventricular segments), in the absence of areas of myocardial necrosis. On pre–dimission echocardiogram, global left ventricular systolic function appeared markedly improved (auto EF 52%). DISCUSSION Our case is a rare case of Takotsubo syndrome (TS) in a transplanted heart. While TS accounts for 1–2% of all ACS in the general population, there is no precise data on its prevalence in heart transplant recipients. Although the pathophysiological mechanism underlying TS is still debated, there is evidence of hyperactivation of the sympathetic system with excessive catecholamine release. What is particular in our clinical case is that transplanted heart is denervated (because of resection of the post–ganglionic neural axons), although in some patients there is progressive reinnervation starting around the second year. Myocardial scintigraphy with iodine–123 meta iodobenzylguanidine can be used to study reinnervation. In our case, the presence of typical angor may be a clinical indicator of reinnervation, as many transplant patients present with CAV in the absence of chest pain.

Leveraging Deep Learning for Automated Reconstruction of Indoor Unstructured Elements in Scan-to-BIM

Abstract. Achieving automatic 3D reconstruction for indoor scenes is extremely useful in the field of scene understanding. Building information modeling (BIM) models are essential for lowering project costs, assisting in building planning and renovations, as well as improving building management efficiency. However, nearly all current available scan-to-BIM approaches employ manual or semi-automatic methods. These approaches concentrate solely on significant structured objects, neglecting other unstructured elements such as furniture. The limitation arises from challenges in modeling incomplete point clouds of obstructed objects and capturing indoor scene details. Therefore, this research introduces an innovative and effective reconstruction framework based on deep learning semantic segmentation and model-driven techniques to address these limitations. The proposed framework utilizes wall segment recognition, feature extraction, opening detection, and automatic modeling to reconstruct 3D structured models of point clouds with different room layouts in both Manhattan and non-Manhattan architectures. Moreover, it provides 3D BIM models of actual unstructured elements by detecting objects, completing point clouds, establishing bounding boxes, determining type and orientation, and automatically generating 3D BIM models with a parametric algorithm implemented into the Revit software. We evaluated this framework using publicly available and locally generated point cloud datasets with varying furniture combinations and layout complexity. The results demonstrate the proposed framework's efficiency in reconstructing structured indoor elements, exhibiting completeness and geometric accuracy, and achieving precision and recall values greater than 98%. Furthermore, the generated unstructured 3D BIM models keep essential real-scene characteristics such as geometry, spatial locations, numerical aspects, various shapes, and orientations compared to literature methods.

Bending behavior of segmental precast diaphragm walls using bolted sleeve joints

AbstractTo study the bending behavior of segmental precast diaphragm walls using bolted sleeve joints, 2 full size specimens were tested. Both BC and EC specimens were connected using bolts with steel sleeves as positioner. BC specimen was consisted of two fully RC plates while EC specimen had precast holes in the concrete walls for lightweight treatment. Ultimate strengths, deformations, strains and failure modes were obtained from the test results. Finite element models were developed using ABAQUS and verified against the test results. The verified finite element models were used to further analyze the stress state of specimens under different loading. It indicated that the bolted sleeve joint exhibited good bearing capacity and bending stiffness. The lightweight treatment in the concrete part had minor effect and the design requirement could be satisfied.

An experimental methodology for the calibration of indoor building environment models using thermal point clouds and CFD simulation

ABSTRACT This paper presents an experimental methodology employing thermal point clouds (TPCs) of indoor spaces to develop and calibrate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models for simulating indoor building environments. TPCs, captured at various time intervals, provide geometry and surface temperatures of the space envelope are crucial for initial and final contrast parameters in model calibration. Segments from TPCs of interior surfaces serve as ground truth for calibrating theoretical CFD models. This involves adjusting boundary conditions to approximate real surface temperature distributions on selected walls. The innovative calibration approach incorporates automatic wall segmentation processes, enabling comparison between in-situ measured and simulated values. A case study assesses the similarity between real thermal orthoimages and CFD simulations, employing qualitative and quantitative analysis with a convergence criterion. Results validate the methodology, highlighting the need for further automation of manual processes.

A Role for the Gastrointestinal Tract in Sodium Dysregulation Associated with the Salt Sensitive Phenotype in the Dahl S Rat

Introduction: Salt sensitive hypertension in the Dahl S rat (SS) has traditionally been attributed to elevated renal sodium reabsorption, largely mediated by the renal epithelial sodium channel (ENaC). Considering the role of ENaC in the distal colon epithelium in sodium absorption in the gastrointestinal tract, we hypothesized that the salt sensitive phenotype of SS rats may in part be attributable to increased absorption of sodium in the distal colon. Methods: Adult male SS and its control, the SR rats (12-14wo), were administered either low sodium diet (LS; 0.3% NaCl, Teklad) or moderately high sodium diet (HS; 2.0% NaCl, Teklad) ad libitum for two weeks. At endpoint, fecal samples were collected, dried for 72 hours at 70°C, weighed, and homogenized in deionized water. Fecal levels of sodium per gram of dry fecal weight were measured using flame photometry. Segments of distal colon wall were dissected and mounted in the Ussing chamber filled with warm, oxygenated Kreb’s solution containing D-glucose. Amiloride hydrochloride, a selective ENaC inhibitor, was applied to the tissue apical side in increasing concentrations (0-100μM) at 10-minute intervals. Total ionic currents (Isc, A) were measured under voltage clamp and presented as change from baseline. Results: We observed significantly lower fecal sodium levels in the SS compared to SR rats on LS diet (p<0.05), and a similar trend in fecal sodium levels between the SS and SR on HS diet (P=0.1). This was associated with significantly elevated amiloride-sensitive current in the distal colon of SS compared to the SR on LS and HS diets (p<0.01 and p<0.0001, respectively). Conclusion: Elevated amiloride-sensitive sodium current in the distal colon of SS rats is associated with decreased fecal sodium levels. This suggests increased sodium absorption in the SS rats and proposes a role for the gastrointestinal tract in sodium dysregulation associated with the salt sensitive phenotype in Dahl S rats. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

From across the globe – traumatic injuries are an international concern at the US-Mexico border wall

IntroductionSocio-economic and political events of recent years have caused a significant increase in immigrants attempting to illegally cross the United States (US)-Mexico border. While a 30-foot border wall separates the...

Raster‐to‐Graph: Floorplan Recognition via Autoregressive Graph Prediction with an Attention Transformer

AbstractRecognizing the detailed information embedded in rasterized floorplans is at the research forefront in the community of computer graphics and vision. With the advent of deep neural networks, automatic floorplan recognition has made tremendous breakthroughs. However, co‐recognizing both the structures and semantics of floorplans through one neural network remains a significant challenge. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework Raster‐to‐Graph, which automatically achieves structural and semantic recognition of floorplans. We represent vectorized floorplans as structural graphs embedded with floorplan semantics, thus transforming the floorplan recognition task into a structural graph prediction problem. We design an autoregressive prediction framework using the neural network architecture of the visual attention Transformer, iteratively predicting the wall junctions and wall segments of floorplans in the order of graph traversal. Additionally, we propose a large‐scale floorplan dataset containing over 10,000 real‐world residential floorplans. Our autoregressive framework can automatically recognize the structures and semantics of floorplans. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework, showing significant improvements on all metrics. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations indicate that our framework outperforms existing state‐of‐the‐art methods. Code and dataset for this paper are available at: https://github.com/HSZVIS/Raster-to-Graph.

3D variation of shortened salt walls from the Moroccan Atlas: Influence of salt inclusions and suprasalt sedimentary wedges

We present a field study of salt ridges and minibasins of the Moroccan High Atlas near Rich that shows the along- and across-strike variability of such structures. Salt walls evolved from halokinesis during Jurassic rifting, to shortening during Cenozoic orogeny. Salt wall segments exhibit variable degrees of welding due primarily to the local presence of intrasalt inclusions (basalt and gabbro) rather than orientation with respect to the shortening or position along the ridge. Flanking Jurassic minibasins may be upright and symmetric or tilted; tilting may have started during halokinesis but was largely acquired during shortening. Minibasins tilt away from welded diapiric segments towards inclusion-rich segments, indicating differential diapir rise. The structure of the central parts of the salt walls differs from the lateral terminations. While the central parts are relatively simple with aperture or welding governed by the inclusions, many salt walls end buried by suprasalt sedimentary wedges. These perched wedges were not arched upward during diapir squeezing but were unexpectedly folded into synclines. The folding was formed by the flanking minibasin tilting in one limb and by inhomogeneous diapir rise and lateral salt escape in the other, thus defining a new modality of roof and shoulder folding above salt diapirs.

Limitations of Diagnosis of Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction Using the Values of Strain, Twist and Untwist in Patients With Myocardial Infarction of Various Localization.

To compare capabilities for diagnosing regional and global myocardial dysfunction using the values of longitudinal and circular strain, left ventricular (LV) torsion and untwisting in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) of various locations. Patients included in the study (n=121) were divided into three groups: patients with unstable angina (n=30), patients with anterior MI (n=45), and patients with inferior MI (n=46). Clinical, laboratory and instrumental test were performed, including echocardiography. For a quantitative analysis of LV contractility, the maximum systolic peaks of regional and global longitudinal and circular strain, systolic and diastolic rotation, LV torsion and untwisting were measured. Anterior MI was characterized by injury of the LV apical segments, while inferior MI was characterized by injury of the basal segments. In anterior MI, the longitudinal strain was reduced less than 14.5% and circular strain less than 19.3% in the apical segment of the LV anteroseptal wall (ASW). In akinesia of the LV ASW apical segment, longitudinal and circular strains were reduced less than 10%. The magnitude of the circular strain of the LV ASW apical segment (diagnostic threshold 19.3%, sensitivity (Se) 87%, specificity (Sp) 90%) was superior to that of the longitudinal strain as a diagnostic marker for regional ischemic dysfunction in anterior MI. The magnitude of the circular strain of the basal segment of the LV inferior wall in inferior MI has a greater diagnostic value for identifying regional systolic dysfunction than the value of the longitudinal strain of this LV segment. The diagnostic threshold was 17.3%, Se 79%, Sp 80%. A decrease in the circular strain of the LV ASW less than 19.3% in the LV apical segment is more specific (Sp 90%) for diagnosing regional systolic dysfunction in anterior MI than a decrease in longitudinal strain. A circular strain value of less than 17.3% in the basal segment of the LV inferior wall is more specific (Sp 80%) than the longitudinal strain of this segment for diagnosing regional systolic dysfunction in inferior MI. Predominant injury to the LV apex in anterior MI can cause systolic and diastolic myocardial dysfunction, which is manifested by a decrease in LV circular deformation, torsion and untwisting.

Dependency between local carotid arterial stiffness and the presence of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid basin in hypertensive patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Aim. To assess the impact of atherosclerotic plaque (ASP) on the local arterial stiffness of the common carotid arteries (CCA) in patients with stage II hypertension (HTN) in combination with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials and methods. The study included 37 patients with stage II HTN and T2DM (mean age 60.4 ± 10.7; 66.7 % male). Patients were divided into two groups: 20 individuals with ASP and <50 % stenosis in the carotid basin, 17 without ASP. The study involved a clinical examination, body weight and percentage of adipose tissue (AT) measurements, analysis of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism laboratory parameters, echocardiography, CCA ultrasound examination with the determination of local stiffness and intima-media complex thickness (IMT). Statistical analysis was performed, significant differences were considered at p < 0.05. Results. The whole-body AT percentage <39.51 % increases the odds ratio (OR) of ASP by 6 times (p = 0.02), an exceeding compliance coefficient (CC) over 0.68 mm2/kPa – by 12.7 times (p = 0.02), right CCA-IMT of over 639 µm – by 1.012 times (p = 0.001), and the factors are mutually reinforcing in the multivariate models and independent of age, sex, body mass index, and glycated hemoglobin level. Ascending aorta dilatation of over 3.34 cm increases the OR of ASP by 11.6 times (p = 0.0107); the factor is enhanced after adjusting for elevated total cholesterol levels over >6.35 mmol/l (p = 0.036) and independent of age and sex. A greater left CCA diameter of more than 8.59 mm (p < 0.019) and right CCA diameter of more than 8.1 mm (p < 0.0001) increases the OR of ASP by 3.7 times (p = 0.001) and 6.6 times (p = 0.0013), respectively, the factor influence increases after adjusting for elevated total cholesterol levels over >6.35 mmol/l (p = 0.031) and it is also unaffected by age and sex. Conclusions. In individuals with stage II HTN and T2DM, the presence of CA atherosclerosis with stenosis up to 50 % is associated with a significantly increased CCA and ascending aorta diameter, a decreased percentage of AT, and an increased compliance coefficient of plaque-free wall segments.

Usformer: A small network for left atrium segmentation of 3D LGE MRI

Left atrial (LA) fibrosis plays a vital role as a mediator in the progression of atrial fibrillation. 3D late gadolinium-enhancement (LGE) MRI has been proven effective in identifying LA fibrosis. Image analysis of 3D LA LGE involves manual segmentation of the LA wall, which is both lengthy and challenging. Automated segmentation poses challenges owing to the diverse intensities in data from various vendors, the limited contrast between LA and surrounding tissues, and the intricate anatomical structures of the LA. Current approaches relying on 3D networks are computationally intensive since 3D LGE MRIs and the networks are large. Regarding this issue, most researchers came up with two-stage methods: initially identifying the LA center using a scaled-down version of the MRIs and subsequently cropping the full-resolution MRIs around the LA center for final segmentation. We propose a lightweight transformer-based 3D architecture, Usformer, designed to precisely segment LA volume in a single stage, eliminating error propagation associated with suboptimal two-stage training. The transposed attention facilitates capturing the global context in large 3D volumes without significant computation requirements. Usformer outperforms the state-of-the-art supervised learning methods in terms of accuracy and speed. First, with the smallest Hausdorff Distance (HD) and Average Symmetric Surface Distance (ASSD), it achieved a dice score of 93.1% and 92.0% in the 2018 Atrial Segmentation Challenge and our local institutional dataset, respectively. Second, the number of parameters and computation complexity are largely reduced by 2.8x and 3.8x, respectively. Moreover, Usformer does not require a large dataset. When only 16 labeled MRI scans are used for training, Usformer achieves a 92.1% dice score in the challenge dataset. The proposed Usformer delineates the boundaries of the LA wall relatively accurately, which may assist in the clinical translation of LA LGE for planning catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Lateral hysteretic behavior of precast concrete shear walls with unjointed vertical distribution bars and opening

Precast concrete shear walls with unjointed vertical distribution bars have desirable lateral resistance compared with cast in situ concrete shear walls and much less construction cost as no sleeve splicing joint is needed. However, the influence of opening in the precast panels on their lateral hysteretic behavior has not been fully investigated. This study presents the results of cyclic loading tests of three full size precast concrete shear walls with unjointed vertical bars and opening. The test results showed that these shear walls had similar failure modes as a cast in situ concrete shear wall, such as cracking in the corners of the opening and the concrete and steel bars crushing at the bottom corners of the shear walls. The peak load of the positive and negative loading cycles and the stiffness of the unjointed shear wall with a window opening were 14.6%, 4.3% and 1.3%, respectively, smaller and the ductility ratio was 37.6% higher, than an otherwise the same cast in situ shear wall. The lateral stiffness of the unjointed shear wall with a door opening was 35% smaller than that of the one with a window opening, due to the stiffness contribution of the wall segment underneath the window opening. The development of the longitudinal strains of concrete and steel strain along the height of the wall limbs generally met the plane section assumption. However, those next to the vertical joint interface were affected by the development length of the shear force after the bedding mortar cracked under tension. The determination of the development length needs to consider the influence of the stiffness of the link beam and the wall segment underneath the opening.

Artificial neural network assisted the design of subwavelength-grating waveguides for nanoparticles optical trapping.

In this work, we propose artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the optical forces on particles with a radius of 50 nm and inverse-design the subwavelength-grating (SWG) waveguides structure for trapping. The SWG waveguides are applied to particle trapping due to their superior bulk sensitivity and surface sensitivity, as well as longer working distance than conventional nanophotonic waveguides. To reduce the time consumption of the design, we train ANNs to predict the trapping forces and to inverse-design the geometric structure of SWG waveguides, and the low mean square errors (MSE) of the networks achieve 2.8 × 10-4. Based on the well-trained forward prediction and inverse-design network, an SWG waveguide with significant trapping performance is designed. The trapping forces in the y-direction achieve-40.39 pN when the center of the particle is placed 100 nm away from the side wall of the silicon segment, and the negative sign of the optical forces indicates the direction of the forces. The maximum trapping potential achieved to 838.16 kBT in the y-direction. The trapping performance in the x and z directions is also quite superior, and the neural network model has been further applied to design SWGs with a high trapping performance. The present work is of significance for further research on the application of artificial neural networks in other optical devices designed for particle trapping.