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RationaleQualitatively, FLAIR MR imaging is sensitive to the detection of hippocampal sclerosis (HS). Quantitative analysis of T2 maps provides a useful objective measure and increased sensitivity over visual inspection of T2-weighted scans. We aimed to determine whether quantification of normalised FLAIR is as sensitive as T2 mapping in detection of HS.MethodDual echo T2 and FLAIR MR images were retrospectively analysed in 27 patients with histologically confirmed HS and increased T2 signal in ipsilateral hippocampus and 14 healthy controls. Regions of interest were manually segmented in all hippocampi aiming to avoid inclusion of CSF. Hippocampal T2 values and measures of normalised FLAIR Signal Intensity (nFSI) were compared in healthy and sclerotic hippocampi.ResultsHS was identified on T2 values with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. HS was identified on nFSI measures with 60% sensitivity and 93% specificity.ConclusionT2 mapping is superior to nFSI for identification of HS.

Given the contradiction between limited network resources and massive user demands in Internet of vehicles, an intelligent vehicular edge computing network architecture was proposed to achieve the comprehensive cooperation and intelligent management of network resources. Based on this architecture, a joint optimization scheme of task offloading and service caching was furtherly devised, which formulated an optimization problem about how to offload tasks and allocate computation and cache resources. In view of the dynamics, randomness and time variation of vehicular networks, an asynchronous distributed reinforcement learning algorithm was employed to obtain the optimal task offloading and resource management policy. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves significant performance improvement in comparison with the other schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the epidemiological and morphological characteristics of coronary plaque in diabetic patients with symptomatic coronary heart disease (CHD) by dual-source computed tomography (DSCT)., Materials and Methods: From June 2013 to December 2014, 267 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were examined by DSCT. Plaque type, distribution, as well as extent and obstructive characteristics were determined for each segment., Results: A total of 225 patients were included in the final study. Among the 225 cases, patients with calcium score >10 accounted for 76.9%. With the increase in calcium score, the number of obstructive stenoses increased from 17 (22.7%) to 150 (66.4%) segments, and non-obstructive stenosis decreased from 58 (77.3%) to 76 (33.6%) segments. A total of 862 (3.8±3.0 per patient) plaques were detected, of which 448 (52%) were calcified plaque, 272 (32%) mixed plaques and 142 (16%) soft plaques. Regarding the stenosis type, there were significantly more mild (54%), followed by moderate (26%) and severe stenosis (20%); 152 (67.6%) patients had .2 vascular lesions, while 73 (32.4%) patients with single diseased vessel. 190 (84.40%) patients with atherosclerotic plaque were located in left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery, 146 (64.9%) patients in right coronary artery (RCA), 114 (50.7%) patients in left circumflex (LCX) coronary artery. The most common site of all detected plaques was the proximal segment of the LAD (18.7%)., Conclusion: DSCT showed that coronary arteries of diabetic patients with symptomatic CHD were more prone to calcification. There was more non-obstructive than obstructive lumen narrowing; obstructive stenosis and calcification score was positively correlated; coronary plaques were widely distributed, and mainly located in multiple diseased vessels.

Fulvic Acid-Bentonite (FA-BENT) complex was prepared using coprecipitation method, and basic properties of the complex and sorption properties of fluorine at different environmental conditions were studied. XRD results showed that the d₀₀₁ spacing of FA- BENT complex had no obvious change compared with the raw bentonite, although the diffraction peak intensity of smectite in FA-BENT complex reduced, and indicated that FA mainly existed as a coating on the external surface of bentonite. Some functional groups (such as C==O, −OH, etc. ) of FA were observed in FA-BENT FTIR spectra, thus suggesting ligand exchange-surface complexation between FA and bentonite. Higher initial pH values of the reaction system were in favor of the adsorption of fluorine onto FA-BENT, while the equilibrium capacity decreased with the increase of pH at initial pH ≥ 4.50. The adsorption of fluorine onto FA-BENT was also affected by ionic strength, and the main reason might be the "polarity" effect. The adsorption of fluorine onto FA-BENT followed pseudo-second-order kinetic model and was controlled by chemical process ( R² = 0.999 2). Compared with the Freundlich model, Langmuir model was apparently of a higher goodness of fit (R² > 0.994 9) for absorption of fluorine onto FA-BENT. Thermodynamic parameters indicated that the adsorption process of fluorine was an spontaneously endothermic reaction, and was an entropy-driven process (ΔH 32.57 kJ · mol⁻¹, ΔS 112.31 J · (mol · K)⁻¹, ΔG −0.65- −1.76 kJ · mol⁻¹).