Adsorption of copper from water using TiO-modified activated carbon derived from orange peels and date seeds: Response surface methodology optimization.

This study evaluated the application and efficiency of modified activated carbon in the removal of copper (Cu) from synthetic aquatic samples. The surface of activated carbon derived from orange peel (AC-OP) and date seeds (AC-DS) have been modified by Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO NPs) (1:10 wt% mixing ratio) and used in a series of experiments designed by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) incorporating Central Composite Design (CCD). The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) test demonstrated that the modification has increased the surface area of AC-OP from 2.

Critical Factors to Approach the Emergency Online Teaching Due to the COVID-19.

This study analyzed the critical factors to approach the emergency online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic in a business school in Latin America. The data were collected through a semi-structured online questionnaire administered to 94 full-time and part-time faculty members. The study identified 10 critical factors for the successful implementation of emergency online teaching.

Microbleeds in the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes Trial: Stroke, mortality, and treatment interactions.

Objective: To characterize cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) in lacunar stroke patients in the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes (SPS3) trial and to assess their relationship with recurrent stroke and death, and response to assigned treatment.

Methods: SPS3 is a randomized, clinical trial conducted between 2003 and 2011. Patients with recent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-documented lacunar infarcts were randomly assigned in a factorial design to target levels of systolic blood pressure (130-149mmHg vs <130mmHg; open label) and to antiplatelet treatment (aspirin/clopidogrel vs aspirin/placebo; double-blinded).

A case of astroblastoma: Radiological and histopathological characteristics and a review of current treatment options.

Background: Astroblastoma is a rare neuroepithelial tumor that often originates in the cerebral hemisphere of children and young adults. Diagnosis of this obscure neoplasm can be difficult because these tumors are so infrequently encountered and share common radiological and neuropathological features of other glial neoplasms. As such, it should be included in the differential diagnosis of astrocytoma and ependymoma if the clinical and radiographic features suggest it.

Persistent trigeminal artery communicating with a fetal posterior communicating artery: A case report.

A persistent trigeminal artery (PTA) is the most common carotid-vertebrobasilar anastomosis. PTA variants terminating on cerebellar arteries instead of the basilar artery have been reported previously. We present the first case of a PTA communicating with a fetal posterior communicating artery identified on a magnetic resonance angiogram.

Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor arising from the trigeminal nerve in an adult.

A 30-year-old male presented with left facial pain and numbness. Initial MRI demonstrated an enhancing mass involving the left trigeminal nerve. Follow-up imaging showed interval growth with erosion of the sphenoid body.

A case of Jacobsen syndrome with multifocal white matter lesions.

Jacobsen syndrome is a rare disorder caused by partial deletions of the long arm of chromosome 11. The phenotype is variable with involvement of multiple organ systems, resulting in congenital heart defects, blood dyscrasias, and impaired growth. We describe a case of a 30-year-old man with multiple ophthalmic manifestations and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that was remarkable for multiple T2-hyperintense subcortical white matter lesions.

Relationship Between Epilepsy and Colpocephaly in Baboons (Papio hamadryas).

Brain MRI scans revealed various occipital horn variants in a pedigreed baboon colony consisting of Papio hamadryas anubis and its hybrids. We retrospectively characterized these variants and evaluated their relationships to epilepsy phenotypes and scalp EEG findings. MRI scans (3D, T1-weighted) from 208 baboons (female, 134 female; male, 74; age [mean ± 1 SD], 16 ± 5 y) were reviewed; 139 (67%) of these animals also underwent scalp EEG previously.

Morphological classification of penetrating artery pontine infarcts and association with risk factors and prognosis: The SPS3 trial.

Background: Pontine infarcts are common and often attributed to small vessel disease ("small deep infarcts") or basilar branch atherosclerosis ("wedge shaped"). A well-described morphological differentiation using magnetic resonance images has not been reported. Furthermore, whether risk factors and outcomes differ by morphology, or whether infarct morphology should guide secondary prevention strategy, is not well characterized.

Intrinsic Resting-State Functional Connectivity in the Human Spinal Cord at 3.0 T.

Purpose: To apply resting-state functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to map functional connectivity of the human spinal cord.

Materials And Methods: Studies were performed in nine self-declared healthy volunteers with informed consent and institutional review board approval. Resting-state functional MR imaging was performed to map functional connectivity of the human cervical spinal cord from C1 to C4 at 1 × 1 × 3-mm resolution with a 3.

Vertebrobasilar ectasia in patients with lacunar stroke: the secondary prevention of small subcortical strokes trial.

Background: The clinical implications of vertebrobasilar ectasia (VBE) in patients with cerebral small-artery disease are not well defined. We investigated whether VBE is associated with recurrent stroke, major hemorrhage, and death in a large cohort of patients with recent lacunar stroke.

Methods: Maximum diameters of the vertebral and basilar arteries were measured by magnetic resonance angiography and computed tomographic angiography in 2621 participants in the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes trial.

Vaccine schedule compliance among very low birth weight infants in Lima, Peru.

Objective: There is little information about vaccine schedule compliance in very-low-birth-weight infants in developing countries. The aim of the study was to describe the compliance with the vaccine schedule among this population in Lima, Peru.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study in four hospitals in Lima in infants with a birth-weight of less than 1500 g, followed from birth up to 12 months of age every 2 weeks.

Respiratory syncytial virus-associated hospitalizations in pre-mature infants in Lima, Peru.

We conducted a prospective cohort study in four hospitals in Lima, Peru in infants with a birth weight ≤ 1,500 g followed from birth hospital discharge up to 1 year of age to determine the incidence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) hospitalizations. We enrolled 222 infants from March of 2009 to March of 2010: 48 infants with a birth weight < 1,000 g and 174 infants with a birth weight of 1,000-1,500 g (birth weight = 1,197 ± 224 g; gestational age = 30.1 ± 2.

Clinical correlates of infarct shape and volume in lacunar strokes: the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes trial.

Background And Purpose: Infarct size and location are thought to correlate with different mechanisms of lacunar infarcts. We examined the relationship between the size and shape of lacunar infarcts and vascular risk factors and outcomes.

Methods: We studied 1679 participants in the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Stroke trial with a lacunar infarct visualized on diffusion-weighted imaging.

Lacunar strokes in patients with diabetes mellitus: risk factors, infarct location, and prognosis: the secondary prevention of small subcortical strokes study.

Background And Purpose: Diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor for lacunar strokes. Few data are available regarding patient features, infarct location, and recurrent vascular events for patients with diabetes mellitus with lacunar stroke.

Methods: We compared features at study entry and prognosis during 3.

Imaging spectrum of facial nerve lesions.

The facial nerve is affected by a wide variety of pathologies, including congenital, traumatic, inflammatory, and neoplastic conditions. Imaging plays a vital role in the diagnosis of these pathologies. The facial nerve has a complex anatomy and course.

Developmental and extracellular matrix-remodeling processes in rosiglitazone-exposed neonatal rat cardiomyocytes.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of rosiglitazone (Avandia(®)) on gene expression in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes.

Materials & Methods: Myocytes were exposed to rosiglitazone ex vivo. The two factors examined in the experiment were drug exposure (rosiglitazone and dimethyl sulfoxide vs dimethyl sulfoxide), and length of exposure to drug (½ h, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, 6 h, 8 h, 12 h, 18 h, 24 h, 36 h and 48 h).

Clinical-MRI correlations in a multiethnic cohort with recent lacunar stroke: the SPS3 trial.

Background: Neuroimaging manifestations of small vessel disease are heterogeneous, and correlation with patient features has not been adequately characterized.

Aim: Our goal was to correlate magnetic resonance imaging findings with clinical features in a large multiethnic cohort with recent lacunar stroke.

Methods: Patient characteristics were correlated with neuroimaging results in the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Stroke study participants.

Contractility assessment in enzymatically isolated cardiomyocytes.

The use of enzymatically isolated cardiac myocytes is ubiquitous in modern cardiovascular research. Parallels established between cardiomyocyte shortening responses and those of intact tissue make the cardiomyocyte an invaluable experimental model of cardiac function. Much of our understanding regarding the fundamental processes underlying heart function is owed to our increasing capabilities in single-cell stimulation and direct or indirect observation, as well as quantitative analysis of such cells.

Introduction of non-linear elasticity models for characterization of shape and deformation statistics: application to contractility assessment of isolated adult cardiocytes.

Background: We are exploring the viability of a novel approach to cardiocyte contractility assessment based on biomechanical properties of the cardiac cells, energy conservation principles, and information content measures. We define our measure of cell contraction as being the distance between the shapes of the contracting cell, assessed by the minimum total energy of the domain deformation (warping) of one cell shape into another. To guarantee a meaningful vis-à-vis correspondence between the two shapes, we employ both a data fidelity term and a regularization term.

Image processing techniques for assessing contractility in isolated neonatal cardiac myocytes.

We describe a computational framework for the quantitative assessment of contractile responses of isolated neonatal cardiac myocytes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on a practical and accessible method for the assessment of contractility in neonatal cardiocytes. The proposed methodology is comprised of digital video recording of the contracting cell, signal preparation, representation by polar Fourier descriptors, and contractility assessment.

The Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes (SPS3) study.

Background: Small subcortical strokes, also known as lacunar strokes, comprise more than 25% of brain infarcts, and the underlying vasculopathy is the most common cause of vascular cognitive impairment. How to optimally prevent stroke recurrence and cognitive decline in S3 patients is unclear. The aim of the Secondary Prevention of Small Subcortical Strokes study (Trial registration: NCT00059306) is to define strategies for reducing stroke recurrence, cognitive decline, and major vascular events.

Structure enhancement diffusion and contour extraction for electron tomography of mitochondria.

The interpretation and measurement of the architectural organization of mitochondria depend heavily upon the availability of good software tools for filtering, segmenting, extracting, measuring, and classifying the features of interest. Images of mitochondria contain many flow-like patterns and they are usually corrupted by large amounts of noise. Thus, it is necessary to enhance them by denoising and closing interrupted structures.

Image processing techniques for assessing contractility in isolated adult cardiac myocytes.

We describe a computational framework for the comprehensive assessment of contractile responses of enzymatically dissociated adult cardiac myocytes. The proposed methodology comprises the following stages: digital video recording of the contracting cell, edge preserving total variation-based image smoothing, segmentation of the smoothed images, contour extraction from the segmented images, shape representation by Fourier descriptors, and contractility assessment. The different stages are variants of mathematically sound and computationally robust algorithms very well established in the image processing community.