Jose Torres

Summary. We have analysed the influence of higher-order eye aberrations in binocular visual performance under mesopic conditions, measuring the aberrations in both eyes (with a Wasca aberrometer) of 35 emmetropic observers. Binocular visual performance was checked with two functions: binocular summation for contrast sensitivity function (CSF) and maximum disparity, a parameter that characterizes stereopsis. The results show that binocular summation

Prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis relies on clinical suspicion leading to systematic transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUSGB). Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) allows for targeted biopsy of suspicious areas of the prostate instead of random 12-core biopsy. This method has been shown to be more accurate in detecting significant PCa. However, the precise spatial accuracy of cognitive targeting is unknown. Consecutive patients undergoing mpMRI-targeted TRUSGB with cognitive registration (MRTB-COG) followed by robot-assisted radical prostatectomy were included in the present analysis. The regions of interest (ROIs) involved by the index lesion reported on mpMRI were subsequently targeted by two experienced urologists using the cognitive approach. The 27 ROIs were used as spatial reference. Mapping on radical prostatectomy specimen was used as reference to determine true-positive mpMRI findings. Per core correlation analysis was performed. Forty patients were included. Overall, 40 index lesions involving 137 ROIs (mean ROIs per index lesion 3.43) were identified on MRI. After correlating these findings with final pathology, 117 ROIs (85 %) were considered as true-positive lesions. A total of 102 biopsy cores directed toward such true-positive ROIs were available for final analysis. Cognitive targeted biopsy hit the target in 82 % of the cases (84/102). The only identified risk factor for missing the target was an anterior situated ROI (p = 0.01). In experienced hands, cognitive MRTB-COG allows for an accuracy of 82 % in hitting the correct target, given that it is a true-positive lesion. Anterior tumors are less likely to be successfully targeted.

Abstract Penile carcinomas are infrequent in the USA and Europe, but fairly frequent in some geographical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The vast majority of tumors are squamous cell carcinoma, which disseminate in a loco regional manner to intrapenile ...

ABSTRACT The aim of the present work is the characterization of the S8898–128–02 Avalanche PhotoDiode array (APDs) from Hamamatsu Photonics. This work includes the implementation of a readout system as well as electronic noise estimation in APDs under several conditions varying integration times and clock frequencies.

ABSTRACT This contribution shows how to perform Time of Flight (TOF) measurements in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems using low-cost Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device with a resolution better than 100 ps. This is achieved with a proper management of the FPGA internal resources and with an extremely careful device calibration process including both temperature and voltage compensation. The results of system calibration and different time measurements between multiple channels are presented.

In the field of engineering, guidelines and computerisation are important to facilitate the resolution of complex problems. Engineers apply computer techniques of distributed problem solving (DPS) to design and simulation tasks, such as in industrial manufacture (e.g., simulation of aircraft, modelling of structures and mass customization). An important application of these and other computer-aided techniques is the design and manufacture

Disability after traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) results from physical trauma and from "secondary mechanisms of injury" such as low metabolic energy levels, oxidative damage and lipid peroxidation. In order to prove if early metabolic reactivation is a better therapeutic option than antioxidant therapy in the acute phase of TSCI, spinal cord contusions were performed in adult rats using a well-characterized weight drop technique at thoracic 9 level. After TSCI, pyrophosphate of thiamine or non-degradable cocarboxylase (NDC) enzyme was used to maintain energy levels, antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase and catalase (ANT) were used to decrease oxidative damage and methylprednisolone (MP), which has both therapeutic properties, was used as a control. Rats were divided into one sham group and six with TSCI; one of them received no treatment, and the rest were treated with NDC, MP, NDC + MP, NDC + ANT or ANT. The ANT group decreased lactate and creatine phosphokinase levels and increased the amount of preserved tissue (morphometric analysis) as well as functional recovery (Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan or BBB motor scale). In contrast, NDC treatment increased lipid peroxidation, measured through thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels, as well as spinal cord tissue destruction and functional deficit. Early metabolic reactivation after a TSCI may be deleterious, while natural early metabolic inhibition may not be a…

The 90's could be characterized as a decade in which both de- veloped and emerging countries have suffered important episodes of exchange rate instability; some of these episodes have resulted in ex- change rate devaluations and others, in important exchange rate de- preciations. This paper focuses on the study of devaluation and reva- luation expectation in the crawling band system adopted by Venezuela from 1996 until the first of 2002. We use a Binary Dependent Varia- ble Model (Logit Method) to estimate the readjustment probability, in which the dependent variable is calculated from two different methods:

ABSTRACT Coincidence time measurements with SiPMs have shown to be suitable for PET/MR systems. The present study is based on 3×3 mm2 SiPMs, LSO crystals and a conditioning signal electronic circuit. A Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD) is used to digitalize the signals and a TDC FPGA-implemented is employed for fine time measurements. TDC capability allows processing the arrival of multiple events simultaneously, measuring times under 100 ps. The complete set-up for time measurements results on a resolution of 892±41 ps for a pair of detectors. The details of such implementation are exposed and the trade-offs of each configuration are discussed.

The 90's could be characterized as a decade in which both de- veloped and emerging countries have suffered important episodes of exchange rate instability; some of these episodes have resulted in ex- change rate devaluations and others, in important exchange rate de- preciations. This paper focuses on the study of devaluation and reva- luation expectation in the crawling band system adopted by Venezuela from 1996 until the first of 2002. We use a Binary Dependent Varia- ble Model (Logit Method) to estimate the readjustment probability, in which the dependent variable is calculated from two different methods:

MoO3 thin films were prepared in this work by evaporating an MoO3 target using a CO2 laser operating on a continuous wave mode. The samples were grown at different laser light intensities. They were characterized through X-ray diffraction and transmittance measurements in the visible spectrum. The optical properties of the material were determined from the simulation of the experimental transmittance

... Oven Rock cave and Basil Minns Bluehole cave were dominated by crustaceans (cf. Yager and Spokane, 1997). ... CrossRef, CSA. Kamp, G. 1993. Intracellular reactions controlling environmental anaerobiosis in the marine annelid Arenicola marina, a fresh look at old pathways. ...

This article studies international tourist flows to Spain using data panel techniques. Most standard models only include income and relative cost of living as the main explanatory variables of the international tourism demand. By contrast, we show that geographic distance, interpreted ...

This article studies international tourist flows to Spain using data panel techniques. Most standard models only include income and relative cost of living as the main explanatory variables of the international tourism demand. By contrast, we show that geographic distance, interpreted ...

As in vitro study was carried out to determine whether testosterone directly inhibits the secretion of pituitary vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). A study was also conducted to elucidate the repercussions of treatment with 10(-6) M testosterone of monolayer cultures in the size and proliferation rate of pituitary VIP-immunoreactive cells, using double immunocytochemical labelling for proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and VIP. Testosterone decreased the in vitro release of VIP from pituitary cells. It also decreased the percentage of pituitary VIP-immunoreactive and PCNA- and VIP-immunoreactive cells and decreased the size of the cellular and nuclear areas of these cells. Our results suggest that the inhibition of pituitary VIP secretion induced by testosterone could be exerted at pituitary level and that testosterone could act as a modulator of the proliferation rate of rat pituitary VIP-immunoreactive cells.