Acute phase of stroke

Ictus treatment requires an urgent, coordinated, multidisciplinary effort be carried out. Pharmacological treatment of an acute phase of Ictus is another step in an integrated treatment of our patients. The author will concentrate on the specific pharmacological treatment indicated to care for acute Ictus without dealing with the standard support care nor with the treatment of the most usual complications.     

Pressure-driven electronic phase transition in the high-pressure phase of nitrogen-rich 1H-tetrazoles

High-energy-density materials (HEDMs) require new design rules collected from experimental and theoretical results and a proposed mechanism. One of the targeted systems is the nitrogen-rich compounds as precursors for possible polymeric nitrogen or its counterpart in a reasonable pressure range. 1H-tetrazole (CH₂N₄) with hydrogen bonds was studied under pressure by both diffraction and spectroscopy techniques. The observed crystal structure phase transition and hydrogen bond-assisted electronic structure anomaly were confirmed by first-principles calculation. The rearrangement of the hydrogen bonds under pressure elucidates the bonding interactions of the nitrogen-rich system in local 3D chemical environments, allowing the discovery and design of a feasible materials system to make new-generation high-energy materials.

Combined high pressure in situ spectra with first-principles calculations, a possible hydrogen-bond assisted phase transition was proposed in tetrazole.     

Quantitative phase spectroscopy

Quantitative phase spectroscopy is presented as a novel method of measuring the wavelength-dependent refractive index of microscopic volumes. Light from a broadband source is filtered to an ~5 nm bandwidth and rapidly tuned across the visible spectrum in 1 nm increments by an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). Quantitative phase images of semitransparent samples are recovered at each wavelength using off-axis interferometry and are processed to recover relative and absolute dispersion measurements. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by (i) spectrally averaging phase images to reduce coherent noise, (ii) measuring absorptive and dispersive features in microspheres, and (iii) quantifying bulk hemoglobin concentrations by absolute refractive index measurements. Considerations of using low coherence illumination and the extension of spectral techniques in quantitative phase measurements are discussed.     

Fusing speed and phase information for vascular segmentation of phase contrast MR angiograms

This paper presents a statistical approach to aggregating speed and phase (directional) information for vascular segmentation of phase contrast magnetic resonance angiograms (PC-MRA). Rather than relying on speed information alone, as done by others and in our own work, we demonstrate that including phase information as a priori knowledge in a Markov random field (MRF) model can improve the quality of segmentation. This is particularly true in the region within an aneurysm where there is a heterogeneous intensity pattern and significant vascular signal loss. We propose to use a Maxwell-Gaussian mixture density to model the background signal distribution and combine this with a uniform distribution for modelling vascular signal to give a Maxwell-Gaussian-uniform (MGU) mixture model of image intensity. The MGU model parameters are estimated by the modified expectation-maximisation (EM) algorithm. In addition, it is shown that the Maxwell-Gaussian mixture distribution (a) models the background signal more accurately than a Maxwell distribution, (b) exhibits a better fit to clinical data and (c) gives fewer false positive voxels (misclassified vessel voxels) in segmentation. The new segmentation algorithm is tested on an aneurysm phantom data set and two clinical data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method can provide a better quality of segmentation when both speed and phase information are utilised.     

Gonadotropin in follicular phase in women with luteal phase defect.

Serum FSH and LH in women with luteal phase defect were measured. Their serum FSH and LH were lower than those in normal women and higher than those in women with amenorrhea. Administration of clomiphene citrate to the women with luteal phase defect were effective in 2/3 of the cases. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a relative deficiency of FSH during the follicular phase results in diminished follicular development and subsequent inadequate corpus luteum maintenance.     

非动脉期高强化的肝胆期低信号肝硬化结节富血供转变危险因子

目的 观察钆塞酸二钠(Gd-EOB-DTPA)增强MRI示非动脉期高强化(APHE)的肝胆期(HBP)低信号肝硬化结节发生富血供转变的危险因子.方法 回顾性分析64例接受2次及以上Gd-EOB-DTPA增强MR扫描的慢性乙型肝炎、肝硬化患者,首诊MRI检出83个非APHE的HBP低信号结节;根据随访期间增强MRI所示动...     

Structured illumination quantitative phase microscopy for enhanced resolution amplitude and phase imaging

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is an established microscopy technique typically used to image samples at resolutions beyond the diffraction limit. Until now, however, achieving sub-diffraction resolution has predominantly been limited to intensity-based imaging modalities. Here, we introduce an analogue to conventional SIM that allows sub-diffraction resolution, quantitative phase-contrast imaging of optically transparent objects. We demonstrate sub-diffraction resolution amplitude and quantitative-phase imaging of phantom targets and enhanced resolution quantitative-phase imaging of cells. We report a phase accuracy to within 5% and phase noise of 0.06 rad.OCIS codes: (180.0180) Microscopy, (100.6640) Superresolution, (030.0030) Coherence and statistical optics     

Blastic phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a clonal stem cell disorder, inevitably evolves into a blastic phase that is very resistant to treatment. Recent developments of a better understanding of molecular changes in CML have led to highly effective targeted therapy that can induce molecular remissions, many of which are long-lasting. It is expected that these approaches will eventually improve treatment of the blastic phase of this disease, the molecular changes during its evolution to blastic phase, and the potential for therapeutic interventions. We review the molecular biology and evolution of treatment of the blastic phase of CML.