Images in cardiovascular medicine. Mitral valve varix.

International audienceA 39-year-old man presented with atypical angina and hemoptysis. This soldier traveled regularly to the Middle-East and Africa. Initial clinical examination was within normal limits, as were also the ECG, biochemistry, and hematologic blood samples..

Varus inclination of the proximal tibia or the distal femur does not influence high tibial osteotomy outcome

We have analysed retrospectively the influence of different sources of knee deformity on failure of closing wedge high tibial valgus osteotomy (HTO). Preoperative frontal plane varus deformities of the lower extremity, distal femur and proximal tibia, and medial convergence of the knee joint line were assessed on a standard whole leg radiograph in 76 patients. Using the logistic regression model, the probability of survival for HTO was 77% (SD 4%) at 10-years follow-up. Varus deformity of the lower extremity ( 3 degrees ) were identified as preoperative risk factors for conversion to arthroplasty (P = 0.03 and P = 0.006). We found no evidence that varus inclination of the proximal tibia or distal femur influences long-term survival of HTO

An Assessment of Technology Adoptability in Sugarcane Burning Smoke Plume Mitigation

The adverse health effects of sugarcane burning emissions on surrounding communities are well documented. Sugarcane farmers in Louisiana, a major sugarcane producing state with 385,000 acres dedicated to sugarcane farming throughout, attempt to mitigate the effects of burn emissions by estimating the characteristics of the resultant smoke plume using meteorological variables as parameters. The current mitigation method designed by the LSU AgCenter, the American Sugar Cane League, and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry is a manual process requiring the tedious look-up of atmospheric variables from multiple sources and physically drawing a predicted smoke plume on a paper map, leaving room for human error. Because of the manual properties of this program and similar programs in other sugarcane producing states, the questions arise - why is technology not being utilized to improve it? And if the appropriate technology did exist, would they want to use it? Previous agriculture technology adoption research focuses mostly on the adoption of precision agriculture techniques and the computer/Internet, while the focus of this study is the adoptability of a new online application developed to replace the manual mitigation process. The question is shifting from - do farmers own a computer/Internet? to - how are they using it and what motivates them to use certain applications? The distributed survey assessed which characteristics of Louisiana sugarcane farmers and farms are related to the adoptability of the new application. The survey questions asked for demographic information, behaviors and attitudes related to technology, and behaviors and attitudes related to their community, including their level of participation in the currently used manual mitigation program. The correlations found between these variables and the likelihood of adopting the new online application provide insight into what drives a farmer to use technological tools such as this one and if this is an industry space that would welcome additional applications that are similarly designed

Design and Prototyping of New 4, 5 and 6 Degrees of Freedom Parallel Manipulators Based on the Copying Properties of the Pantograph Linkage

International audienceIn this paper, a new family of parallel manipulators called PAMINSA 1 is proposed. The particularity of these manipulators is the decoupling of displacements in the horizontal plane from its translation along the vertical axis. The advantages of such an approach are discussed, and a prototype is presented. The positioning errors of the moving platform taking into account the elasticity of links are determined and the performances of such a design are shown

Stretching and compression of laser pulses by means of high efficiency volume diffractive gratings with variable period in photo-thermo-refractive glass

High efficiency reflective volume Bragg gratings with chirped gratings recorded in photo-thermo-refractive glass having an absolute diffraction efficiency exceeding 95% in transmitting and reflecting modes are used to stretch and/or compress ultrashort laser pulses with high efficiency. Robustness, compactness, thermal and laser stability along with placement of multiple elements in the same space provides femtosecond laser system with high efficiency of stretching and re-compression of femtosecond pulses