Changing patterns in diagnostic strategies and the treatment of blunt injury to solid abdominal organs

Background: In recent years there has been increasing interest shown in the nonoperative management (NOM) of blunt traumatic injury. The growing use of NOM for blunt abdominal organ injury has been made possible because of the progress made in the quality and availability of the multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scan and the development of minimally invasive intervention options such as angioembolization. Aim: The purpose of this review is to describe the changes that have been made over the past decades in the management of blunt trauma to the liver, spleen and kidney. Results: The management of blunt abdominal injury has changed considerably. Focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) examination has replaced diagnostic peritoneal lavage as diagnostic modality in the primary survey. MDCT scanning with intravenous contrast is now the gold standard diagnostic modality in hemodynamically stable patients with intra-abdominal fluid detected with FAST. One of the current discussions in the l erature is whether a whole body MDCT survey should be implemented in the primary survey. Conclusions The progress in imaging techniques has contributed to NOM being currently the treatment of choice for hemodynamically stable patients. Angioembolization can be used as an adjunct to NOM and has increased the succe

Characterization of indeterminate spleen lesions in primary CT after blunt abdominal trauma: potential role of MR imaging

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for characterization of indeterminate spleen lesions in primary computed tomography (CT) of patients with blunt abdominal trauma. Twenty-five consecutive patients (8 female, 17 male, mean age 51.6 ± 22.4 years) with an indeterminate spleen lesion diagnosed at CT after blunt abdominal trauma underwent MRI with T2- and T1-weighted images pre- and post-contrast material administration. MRI studies were reviewed by two radiologists. Age, gender, injury mechanism, injury severity score (ISS), management of patients, time interval between CT and MRI, and length of hospital stay were included into the analysis. Patient history, clinical history, imaging, and 2-month clinical outcome including review of medical records and telephone interviews served as reference standard. From the 25 indeterminate spleen lesions in CT, 11 (44 %) were traumatic; nine (36 %) were non-traumatic (pseudocysts, n = 5; hemangioma, n = 4) and five proven to represent artifacts in CT. The ISS (P  0.05). The MRI features ill-defined lesion borders, variable signal intensity on T1- and T2-weighted images depending on the age of the hematoma, focal contrast enhancement indicating traumatic pseudoaneurysm, perilesional contrast enhancement, and edema were most indicative for traumatic spleen lesions. As compared with CT (2/25), MRI (5/25) better depicted thin subcapsular hematomas as indicator of traumatic spleen injury. In conclusion, MRI shows value for characterizing indeterminate spleen lesions in primary CT after blunt abdominal trauma

Clusterix-Like BigData DBMS

AbstractCommercial OLAP systems are economically unavailable for organizations with limited financial capabilities. Analytical processing of large amounts of data in these organizations can be accomplished using open-source software systems on a cost-effective cluster platform. Previously created Clusterix-like DBMS using a regular query processing plan is not efficient enough. Therefore, research on such systems was developed with a focus on a full load of processor cores and using the GPU acceleration (systems Clusterix-N, N—from new) up to the development of a system comparable in efficiency to the open-source system Spark, which is currently considered the most promising. The development methodology was based on the constructive system modeling methodology.</jats:p

Assessment of Energy Efficiency Projects at Russian Mining Enterprises within the Framework of Sustainable Development

The mining industry is a basic sector of the Russian economy. Sustainable Development Goals appear in the strategies of mining companies and are ensured, inter alia, by increasing the energy efficiency of enterprises and plants within their structure through the implementation of projects. The lack of generally accepted criteria for assessing energy efficiency determines the need to develop a methodology that would allow taking into account the contribution of the results of projects of different scales and levels of implementation to improve the energy efficiency of the mining enterprise and the company as a whole. The purpose of the study is to develop a methodology for the comprehensive assessment of projects aimed at improving the energy efficiency of mining enterprises in the context of sustainable development. The research method is based on establishing a logical relationship between the goals of sustainable development, the principles of the &ldquo;energy trilemma&rdquo;, criteria and results of the implementation of projects aimed at improving the energy efficiency of the mining enterprise, taking into account the systematization of these projects. The authors develop a methodology for assessing projects related to the energy efficiency of mining enterprises. The methodology is based on a two-level system of criteria: the first-level criteria characterize the degree of realization of project objectives in accordance with the goals of sustainable development and the principles of the &ldquo;energy trilemma&rdquo;. The first-level criteria consist of the following: economic efficiency, ecological performance, reliability and safety, and flexibility. The second-level criteria characterize the economic results of the project based on the assessment of its economic efficiency. In order to provide a comprehensive economic assessment of various project outcomes, a set of indicators is proposed. The assessment of this methodology has been tested using the example of projects implemented at the mining enterprise &ldquo;Albazinsky GOK&rdquo; (mining and processing complex). Implementation of a comprehensive project, including the transition to a centralized power supply source, installation of a wind generator, photovoltaic installation, and energy storage system, will allow the enterprise to reduce CO2 emissions by 100% and increase the flexibility of the enterprise&rsquo;s power system by 33%. The economic effect will amount to RUB 1252.5 mln (due to savings on electricity costs). The obtained results can be used by managers of mining companies to select and assess projects aimed at improving energy efficiency

On the Condition of Covering Completeness in Associative Steganography

Abstract Previously, the completeness of the coverage was considered by the authors as an interpretation of a kind of logical interpretation of the criterion of perfect secrecy by K. Shannon – one of the necessary conditions that the concept of associative steganography should satisfy. The article shows that in reality, the completeness of coverage is a completely independent condition for ensuring the required level of data protection when analyzing scenes. It should not be associated with the criterion of K. Shannon.</jats:p