55 research outputs found
Il ruolo dell’ecografia trans-rettale (ETR) nella valutazione: confronto con ecografia sovrapubica e tomografia assiale computerizzata (TAC) e stadiazione dei tumori vescicali.
No full text[The role of trans-rectal echography (TRE) in the evaluation and staging of bladder tumors: comparison with suprapubic echography and computerized axial tomography (CAT)].
No full textTAU and CT are, after cystoscopy, the two most largely used methods in the diagnosis and the staging of the bladder tumors. TRUS is mostly used in the pathologies of the prostate and the seminal vesicles. 38 patients (34 M and 4 F) suffering from bladder cancer are included in this study in the period from July 1995 to January 1997. They are evaluated with TAU, TRUS and CT in order to evaluate the sensitivity and the specificity of TRUS in the diagnosis and the stadiation of bladder tumors. The patients included in this study are divided in two subgroups as patients having superficial and infiltrating tumors according to pathologic stage after TURB or radical cystoprostatectomy. Specificity and sensitivity values, overstaging and undestaging rates are calculated for each group. In the superficial tumors, TAU had a sensitivity and specificity of 72.2%, while with CT these values were respectively 70% and 75%; in the infiltrating tumors, TAU presented sensitivity of 65% and specificity of 70% while CT presented respectively 72.2% and 77.5%. With TRUS these values were 88.8% and 94.4% in the superficial tumors and 90% and 95% in the infiltrating tumors. The method with the highest overstaging rate was CT with 33.3% while the ones with the highest understaging rates were TAU and CT with 22.2%. The sensitivity with TRUS was 100% in a total of 29 infiltrating and superficial tumors of the trigone while it was only 55.5% in the tumors of the lateral walls and the dome. With TAU these values were respectively 82.7% and 22.2%, with CT respectively 79.3% and 44.4%. The specificity with TRUS was 100% for the tumors of the lateral walls and 77.7% of the dome; with TAU these values were respectively 75.8% and 55.5% with CT 75.8% and 77.7%. In conclusion, TRUS may be used with a high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis and the stadiation of infiltrating and superficial bladder tumors situated at the peritrigonal zone and in the diagnosis of tumors situated in other regions of the bladder
Reliability of venous diameter in the diagnosis of subclinical varicocele
No full textObjective: The diameters of the veins in the pampiniform plexus have been used to diagnose subclinical varicocele. But there are many cutoff points and some controversies about the diagnosis. These cause difficulty in the evaluation of the results of epidemiological and clinical studies. Our aim is to establish the reliability of vein diameters in the pampiniform plexus in the diagnosis of subclinical varicocele. Methods: Physical examination, scrotal gray scale ultrasonography (SU) and color Doppler ultrasonography (CDU) were performed to assess varicocele in 100 infertile patients without clinical varicocele (group I), 100 infertile patients with clinical left varicocele (group II), and 50 fertile men without clinical varicocele (group III) as a control group. The diameter of the veins in the pampiniform plexus was measured with SU. According to various cutoff points of venous diameter and CDU criteria, the diagnosis of varicocele was made. The highest mean venous diameters were calculated with and without varicocele in men whose diagnoses had been made with CDU. The results were correlated with each other and the control group. Results: According to venous diameter cutoff points, the varicocele ratio did not correlate with the CDU results (p 0.05) except for the left side of group II patients. We did not find an exact relation between the highest venous diameter in the men who have and those who do not have subclinical varicocele with CDU. The highest mean diameter was 2.17 +/- 0.34 (SD) mm for men who have subclinical varicocele and 2.00 +/- 0.31 mm for men who do not have subdinical varicocele by CDU (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our results indicate that venous diameters should not be used as diagnostic criteria for subdinical varicocele. Only the evaluation of venous diameter in varicocele should be used to document and quantify pathology, but it should not be used to establish the diagnosis. Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel
International multicentre study of candida auris infections
No full textBackground: Candida auris has emerged globally as a multi-drug resistant yeast and is commonly associated with nosocomial outbreaks in ICUs. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational multicentre study to determine the epidemiology of C. auris infections, its management strategies, patient outcomes, and infection prevention and control practices across 10 centres from five countries. Results: Significant risk factors for C. auris infection include the age group of 61–70 years (39%), recent history of ICU admission (63%), diabetes (63%), renal failure (52%), presence of CVC (91%) and previous history of antibiotic treatment (96%). C. auris was commonly isolated from blood (76%). Echinocandins were the most sensitive drugs. Most common antifungals used for treatment were caspofungin (40%), anidulafungin (28%) and micafungin (15%). The median duration of treatment was 20 days. Source removal was conductedin 74% patients. All-cause crude mortality rate after 30 days was 37%. Antifungal therapy was associated with a reduction in mortality (OR:0.27) and so was source removal (OR:0.74). Contact isolation precautions were followed in 87% patients. Conclusions: C. auris infection carries a high risk for associated mortality. The organism is mainly resistant to most azoles and even amphotericin-B. Targeted antifungal therapy, mainly an echinocandin, and source control are the prominent therapeutic approaches
Multilevel Memetic Hypergraph Partitioning With Greedy Recombination
No full textACM SIGEVO2022 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO 2022 -- 9 July 2022 through 13 July 2022 -- -- 181031The Hypergraph Partitioning (HGP) problem is a well-studied problem that finds applications in a variety of domains. In several application domains, such as the VLSI design and database migration planning, the quality of the solution is more of a concern than the running time of the algorithm. In this work, we introduce novel problem-specific recombination and mutation operators and develop a new multilevel memetic algorithm by combining these operators with kKaHyPar-E. The performance of our algorithm is compared with the state-of-the-art HGP algorithms on 150 real-life instances taken from the benchmark sets used in the literature. The experiments reveal that our algorithm outperforms all others, and finds the best solutions in 112, 115, and 125 instances in 2, 4, and 8 hours, respectively. © 2022 Owner/Author
Essays on corporate finance
No full textThis dissertation contains two chapters that are related with corporate finance and
law. Below are the individual abstracts for each chapter.
Chapter 1: Do Patent Lawsuits Cause M&A? An Experiment Using Uncertain Lawsuits
I investigate whether there exists a causal relation between result of a patent lawsuit
and alleged infringer's subsequent M&A activity. I find that if the court gives an infringement
decision, then the infringer sharply increases spending on focused M&A and decreases on
diversifying M&A. Moreover, the infringer specifically acquires targets that have substitute
patents so that it can redesign its products or form a shield against future lawsuits. Patent
motivated acquisition channel is new to our literature and different than the traditional
knowledge transfer channel. For the experiment, I hand collect detailed data on all patent
lawsuits that were appealed to Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). In this
court, decisions are given by majority in randomly assigned 3 judge panels. In a setting that
resembles regression discontinuity design, I use only the lawsuits where there was a dissenting
judge (i.e, decision was given by 2 to 1). Since CAFC is the only appellate court for patents
and has federal jurisdiction, my experiment is not subject to endogeneity problem stemmed
from court selection. This is the first paper to use dissenting judge lawsuits for identification
strategy. The same approach be can be generalized to other types of litigations.
Chapter 2: Do Uncertainties in Bankruptcy Law Affect Optimal Loan Contracts? A
Quasi Natural Experiment
I investigate whether uncertainties in bankruptcy procedures shape financial contracting in the U.S. syndicated loan market. Utilizing a novel hand-collected data set, I exploit
the application of substantive consolidation procedure in the U.S. bankruptcy courts. This
procedure has two unique features. First, it removes seniorities granted in the original con-
tracts, resulting unexpected huge losses on unsecured bank loans. Second, there is consensus
among practitioners that its application is unpredictable since there is no specific provision
in the U.S. Code. I find that after exposure, lenders transmit this shock to other clients as
requiring collateral more often in their new loans. Moreover, if exposed lenders issue new
unsecured loans, then they demand higher interest rate and tighter covenants, even control-
ling for bank capitalization, borrower and time fixed effects. To my knowledge, this is the
first paper to show that uncertainties in the bankruptcy procedures provide an important
friction in the loan market. Furthermore, this work complements the previous literature by
providing a new channel for the determinants of optimal financial contracts. Results of this
paper are also important for policy makers, who want to ease bank lending standards.Item withdrawn by Laura Spradlin ([email protected]) on 2014-06-30T15:31:10Z
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Nonstandard Errors
No full textIn statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants
Complete upper urinary tract obstruction caused by penetrating pellet injury of the ureterintroduction
No full textUreteral injuries due to gunshots are tend to be misdiagnosed because of concomitant vascular and intraabdominal organ wounds. Our case is a 23-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital with multiple abdominal gunshot wounds. Laboratory findings showed worsening anemia, and the computed tomography (CT) scan showed multiple lead bullets inside the abdomen and retroperitoneum. Patient was then taken to the operation room for laparatomy. There were many intestinal injuries and also a stable retroperitoneal hematoma. There was no ureteral injury mentioned in the operation note or the initial CT report. Two weeks after this operation, the patient developed significant urine leakage from the abdominal wounds. Ureteral J stent placement was our first choice of treatment. This was complicated with a late ureteral obstruction. The final treatment was an ureteroureterostomy. Diagnosing ureteral injuries due to traumatic causes can be hard in most of the cases. Physicians should consider early evaluation of the patient for ureteral leakage if there is suspicion about ureteral injury
The activity and discussion points of #Circumcision through Twitter; a microblogging platform
No full textCircumcision in hemophilia: A cost-effective method using a novel device
No full textBackground/Purpose: The authors conducted a prospective clinical study to see whether the need for and the cost of factor substitution after circumcision can be reduced using a novel device for bloodless circumcision in boys with hemophilia
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