Selection of Bifurcated Grafts' Dimensions during Aorto-Iliac Vascular Reconstruction Based on Their Hemodynamic Performance.

During the vascular surgical reconstruction of aorto-iliac occlusive/aneurysmal disease, bifurcated grafts are used where vascular surgeons intra-operatively select the size and the relative lengths of the parent and daughter portions of the graft. Currently, clinical practice regarding the selection of the most favorable geometric configuration of the graft is an understudied research subject: decisions are solely based on the clinical experience of the operating surgeon. This manuscript aims to evaluate the hemodynamic performance of various diameters, D, of bifurcated aortic grafts and relate those with proximal/distal part length ratios (the angle φ between the limbs is used as a surrogate marker of the main body-to-limb length ratio) in order to provide insights regarding the effects of different geometries on the hemodynamic environment.

Priorities for Mediterranean marine turtle conservation and management in the face of climate change.

As climate-related impacts threaten marine biodiversity globally, it is important to adjust conservation efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Translating scientific knowledge into practical management, however, is often complicated due to resource, economic and policy constraints, generating a knowledge-action gap. To develop potential solutions for marine turtle conservation, we explored the perceptions of key actors across 18 countries in the Mediterranean.

The Effect of Blood Rheology and Inlet Boundary Conditions on Realistic Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms under Pulsatile Flow Conditions.

Background: The effects of non-Newtonian rheology and boundary conditions on various pathophysiologies have been studied quite extensively in the literature. The majority of results present qualitative and/or quantitative conclusions that are not thoroughly assessed from a statistical perspective.

Methods: The finite volume method was employed for the numerical simulation of seven patient-specific abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Spatial heterogeneity and temporal stability characterize future climatic refugia in Mediterranean Europe.

Climate plays a major role in shaping biodiversity patterns over time and space, with ongoing changes leading to the reorganization of ecosystems, which challenges conservation initiatives. Identifying areas that could serve as possible climate change refugia for future biodiversity is, thus, critical for both conservation and management. Here, we identify potential future climatic refugia within the Euro-Mediterranean biome, which is a global biodiversity hotspot, while accounting for multiple emission climate change projections over the next 50 years.

Bayesian estimation of subset threshold autoregressions: short-term forecasting of traffic occupancy.

Traffic management authorities in metropolitan areas use real-time systems that analyze high-frequency measurements from fixed sensors, to perform short-term forecasting and incident detection for various locations of a road network. Published research over the last 20 years focused primarily on modeling and forecasting of traffic volumes and speeds. Traffic occupancy approximates vehicular density through the percentage of time a sensor detects a vehicle within a pre-specified time interval.

Split bootstrap hierarchical modeling of antibiotics abuse in China.

In the 1990s, China experienced a high degree of antibiotics abuse, which resulted in increased drug resistance. As a result, the World Health Organization introduced a program for children under the age of 5 years who had an acute respiratory tract infection. We analyze the data pertaining to the treatment provided by doctors in several hospitals in China in order to understand the relationships in the data.

Alternative methods for virtual heart transplant-Size matching for pediatric heart transplantation with and without donor medical images available.

Background: Listed pediatric heart transplant patients have the highest solid-organ waitlist mortality rate. The donor-recipient body weight (DRBW) ratio is the clinical standard for allograft size matching but may unnecessarily limit a patient's donor pool. To overcome DRBW ratio limitations, two methods of performing virtual heart transplant fit assessments were developed that account for patient-specific nuances.

A robust approach for exploring hemodynamics and thrombus growth associations in abdominal aortic aneurysms.

Longitudinal studies of vascular diseases often need to establish correspondence between follow-up images, as the diseased regions may change shape over time. In addition, spatial data structures should be taken into account in the statistical analyses to avoid inferential errors. This study investigates the association between hemodynamics and thrombus growth in abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) while emphasizing on the abovementioned methodological issues.

Accounting for exhaust gas transport dynamics in instantaneous emission models via smooth transition regression.

Collecting and analyzing high frequency emission measurements has become very usual during the past decade as significantly more information with respect to formation conditions can be collected than from regulated bag measurements. A challenging issue for researchers is the accurate time-alignment between tailpipe measurements and engine operating variables. An alignment procedure should take into account both the reaction time of the analyzers and the dynamics of gas transport in the exhaust and measurement systems.

The role of geometric parameters in the prediction of abdominal aortic aneurysm wall stress.

Objective: To study the correlation between peak wall stress (PWS) and abdominal aorta aneurysm (AAA) geometric parameters in the presence of intraluminal thrombus (ILT).

Design: Computational study using finite element analysis.

Material: AAA models were created by three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of in vivo acquired computed tomography (CT) images from 19 patients.

Growth in high risk infants <1500 g birthweight during the first 5 weeks.

Background: Growth of very low birthweight (VLBW) infants is used to monitor nutrition and intrauterine velocity is taken as the desired goal.

Aim: We hypothesised that beside nutrition growth failure is caused by disease severity.

Methods: Prospective longitudinal study of 45 VLBW infants undergoing intensive care, mechanical ventilation was used as proxy to disease severity.

Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in central Tunisia: spatio temporal dynamics.

Background: Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) is endemic in many rural areas of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region where different transmission patterns of the disease have been described. This study was carried out in a region located in Central Tunisia and aimed to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics of the disease from 1999 to 2004.

Methods: Incident ZCL cases were defined by clinical diagnosis, confirmed by a positive skin test and/or parasitological examination.