660 research outputs found
Bowel obstruction: Comparison between multidetector-row CT axial and coronal planes
No full textAcute obstruction of bowel is a common reason for presentation to the emergency department. Causes of obstruction are multiple (tumorous, inflammatory, postoperative, or congenital), but the clinical presentation is usually not specific. The abdominal radiographs are sometimes inconclusive, and cause of obstruction is rarely detected. Computed tomography (CT) has been shown to be useful in revealing the site and the cause of obstruction. Although radiologists are skilled in the interpretation of CT scans in the axial plane, the development of multidetector-row CT coupled with fast reconstruction hardware and software has stimulated interest in viewing abdomen in coronal plane. In the evaluation of small bowel obstruction, coronal plane serves as a useful adjunct for the identification of the point of transition from dilated to decompressed bowel. On the other hand, in the evaluation of large bowel obstruction, coronal planes could replace axial images in the evaluation of the site and cause of obstruction, although the best values of confidence level in the diagnosis are reached when interpreting axial combined with coronal images
Online resources for mathematics in the scientific virtual reference desk
No full textThe present work briefly describes the Virtual Reference Desk for mathematics elaborated during the time I worked at the CERN Library (European Laboratory for Particle Physics or Laboratoire européen pour la physique des particules) in Geneva. This instrument is dedicated to the CERN librarians, with whom I have shared important moments of my professional career. In particular, I would like to gratefully acknowledge their valuable co-operation and assistance during our time spent working together. The Web metasource is comprised of three directories, annotated and interrelated with dual application: The first is intended as a work tool for librarians working in mathematics libraries, but above all for librarians of high energy physics, who more often than not must turn to mathematics and the use of mathematical applications and models for the physical sciences and in particular particle physics. The second is an on-line resource for mathematics; that is, a Virtual Reference Desk for the community of mathematicians, with whom I have been collaborating for some twenty years at the University of Padova. The bibliographical instrument is born from the need to have at our disposal a scientific Virtual Reference Desk created according to the needs of those working in physics and mathematics libraries – a tool which is comprised of materials collected during years of work as much as material available on-line through the use of new technologies
Intervista con Antonella De Robbio, Responsabile del Settore Progetti e Biblioteca Digitale del Centro d'Ateneo per le Biblioteche CAB dell' Università di Padova e Referente per il diritto d'autore del Sistema Bibliotecario di Ateneo
No full textThe interview with Antonella De Robbio – manager of the “Project Sector and Digital Library” for CAB (Centro di Ateneo per le Biblioteche) of the University of Padua and copyright expert for Sistema Bibliotecario di Ateneo – was published in Pinali news.
Antonella De Robbio answered the following questions:
1) How to deal with the issues of author’s intellectual and economic rights in the context of scientific publishing and digital library?
2) What is the influence of the digital approach on the traditional ways to create and disseminate scientific communication?
3) In your opinion, can the experiences of University Press and the Open Archives represent the path to follow in order to overcome the paradox that a scientific author is also the user of his publisher?
4) Which are the outcomes of the fight between copyright and copyleft?
5) Which of these approaches are more suitable to label the metaphor of the “Society of Knowledge”
Literacy in Neapolitan Women's Convents in the Middle Ages and the Contribution of Digital Archives on Monasterium.Net
No full textAntonella Ambrosio seeks a viable way of carrying out research on this topic: the palaeographic analysis of the few available sources using a multidisciplinary approach that combines diplomatics, archival, and historical research. This approach ensures the appropriate contextualization of the source both historically and culturally. In "Literacy in Neapolitan Women's Convents: An Example of Female Handwriting in a Late Fifteenth-Century Accounts Ledger", Ambrosio provides a case study, analysing a single piece of handwriting evidence. The source is an accounts ledger from the Dominican convent of Santi Pietro e Sebastiano compiled in the second half of the fifteenth century, from 1485 to 1496. Using an analytical approach, the author has identified the handwriting of a particular (anonymous) nun from the convent; Ambrosio studies the script the nun used and formulates hypotheses about her cultural background and how she learned to write. The palaeographic analysis is fully contextualized thanks to the reconstruction of the old convent archive, a reconstruction helped by using digital technologies now accessible online at Monasterium.net. As Ambrosio's work demonstrates, technological advances may aid codicological work but careful palaeographic analysis is necessary to ascertain the participation of female scribes. In this case we witness the scribal development of a nun who began with a basic knowledge of writing and who went on to perform her practical task not well but adequately for the purpose
Multidetector-row computed tomograpy of focal liver lesions treated by radiofrequency ablation: Spectrum of findings at long-term follow-up
No full textOBJECTIVE: To assess serial changes in liver tumors after percutaneous radiofrequency ablation at follow-up multidetector-row computed tomography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients with 65 malignant lesions underwent multidetector-row computed tomography immediately, 1 month and every 3 months, up to a maximum of 15 months after radiofrequency ablation. The computed tomography (CT) appearance of the treated lesions (non-enhanced attenuation, enhancement pattern, shape and size) was assessed at each follow-up. The relationship between each CT finding and the treatment outcome was evaluated by χ test (P < 0.05). RESULTS: No significant differences were found in lesion shape and in non-enhanced CT attenuation between successfully and unsuccessfully treated lesions, whereas over time change of lesion size was significantly different. The no enhancement and nodular enhancement pattern prevalence was significantly (P < 0.0001) different between successfully and unsuccessfully treated lesions, whereas non-nodular enhancement pattern did not show any relationship with the treatment outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Lesion size increase and nodular enhancement pattern resulted significantly related to the treatment failure
Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and small bowel pathology: Comparison between wireless capsule endoscopy and multidetector-row CT enteroclysis
No full textObscure gastrointestinal bleeding is defined as bleeding of unknown origin, that persists or recurs after negative conventional barium contrast studies and upper and lower tract endoscopy. The causes of such a bleeding frequently arise in the small bowel, and they are represented by mucosal vascular abnormalities, neoplasms and other conditions such as Crohn's disease, Meckel's diverticulum, and vasculitis. Conventional barium contrast studies and push enteroscopy allow only a limited small bowel examination; moreover, intraoperative endoscopy may be inconclusive, since the small bowel is difficult to evaluate given its length and tortuous course. In the same way, angiographic diagnosis is stricktly related to the activity rate of hemorrhage. Wireless capsule endoscopy and multidetector-row CT enteroclysis are two recently developed minimally invasive techniques that may provide a complete small bowel examination, the first offering a direct visualization of the mucosal aspect, the second allowing evaluation of mural and extramural pathologies. This review is an update of the technique and clinical application of capsule endoscopy and multidetector-row CT enteroclysis in patients suffering from obscure small bowel bleeding
Preoperative T and N Staging of Colorectal Cancer: Accuracy of Contrast-enhanced Multi–Detector Row CT Colonograph—Initial Experience1
No full textPURPOSE: To evaluate the accuracy of contrast material–enhanced multi– detector
row computed tomographic (CT) colonography for preoperative staging of colorectal
cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-one patients with colorectal carcinoma underwent
preoperative contrast-enhanced multi– detector row CT colonography.
Images were obtained in the arterial (start delay of 35 seconds) and portal venous
(start delay of 70 seconds) phases. The arterial phase was focused on the suspected
region of neoplasm, whereas the venous phase included the whole abdomen and
pelvis. Two radiologists independently evaluated the depth of tumor invasion into
the colorectal wall (T) and regional lymph node involvement (N) on transverse CT
images alone and in combination with multiplanar reformations (MPRs). Disagreements
were resolved by means of consensus. CT findings were compared with
pathologic results, which served as the reference standard. Sensitivity, specificity,
accuracy, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were assessed.
Differences in accuracy for T and N staging were assessed by using the McNemar
test.
RESULTS: In T staging, overall accuracy was 73% when transverse images were
evaluated alone and 83% when they were evaluated in combination with MPRs. This
difference was not significant. N staging was associated with an overall accuracy of
59% with transverse images alone and 80% with combined transverse and MPR
images (P .01).
CONCLUSION: Contrast-enhanced multi– detector row CT colonography is an
accurate technique for preoperative local staging of colorectal tumors
Literacy in Neapolitan Women’s Convents: An Example of Female Handwriting in a Late Fifteenth-Century Accounts Ledger
No full textThis paper is about a research i on the literacy and writing skills of Neapolitan sisters in medieval convents, due to the lack of adequate historical study of such nuns and the extremely complex nature of the documentary sources. Surviving evidence is scattered far and wide, and the old convent archives have been dispersed. Given the state of the survivals, Antonella Ambrosio seeks a viable way of carrying out research on this topic: the palaeographic analysis of the few available sources using a multidisciplinary approach that combines diplomatics, archival, and historical research. This approach ensures the appropriate contextualization of the source both historically and culturally. In ‘Literacy in Neapolitan Women’s Convents: An Example of Female Handwriting in a Late Fifteenth-Century Accounts Ledger’, Ambrosio provides a case study, analysing a single piece of handwriting evidence. The source is an accounts ledger from the Dominican convent of Santi Pietro e Sebastiano compiled in the second half of the fifteenth century, from 1485 to 1496. Using an analytical approach, the author has identified the handwriting of a particular (anonymous) nun from the convent; Ambrosio studies the script the nun used and formulates hypotheses about her cultural background and how she learned to write. The palaeographic analysis is fully contextualized thanks to the reconstruction of the old convent archive, a reconstruction helped by using digital technologies now accessible online at Monasterium.net. As Ambrosio’s work demonstrates, technological advances may aid codicological work but careful palaeographic analysis is necessary to ascertain the participation of female scribes. In this case we witness the scribal development of a nun who began with a basic knowledge of writing and who went on to perform her practical task not well but adequately for the
purpose
- …
