scholarly journals A new method for accurate platelet thrombi volume measurement using a confocal microscope

ACTA IMEKO ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Denise De Zanet ◽  
Monica Battiston ◽  
Elisabetta Lombardi ◽  
Ruben Specogna ◽  
Francesco Trevisan ◽  
...  

<p class="Abstract">The accuracy of quantitative measurements represents an essential pre-requisite to the characterization and definition of the complex dynamic phenomena occurring in the field of cell biology. In research projects that involve the induction of blood coagulation under flow in microfluidic artificial channels, thrombus volume is an important quantity for estimation as a significant index related to the individual thrombotic risk profile. Concerning its importance in the early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, the estimated thrombus volume should reflect and represent reality. In 3D confocal microscopy, systematic errors can arise from distortions of the axial distance, whose accurate calibration remains a challenge. As a result, the 3D reconstructions show a noticeable axial elongation, and the volume measurements are thus overestimated. In this paper, a 400-600 % volume overestimation is demonstrated, and a new easy to use and automatic calibration procedure is outlined for this specific microfluidic and optical context. The adaptive algorithm proposed leads to the automatic compensation of the elongation error and to the accurate thrombus volume measurement. The method has been calibrated using fluorescent beads of known volume, validated with groups of several distinct platelets and finally applied on platelet thrombi.</p>

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. H. Christie ◽  
Christopher F. Sharpley

Aim. The measurement of the volume of the prostate gland can have an influence on many clinical decisions. Various imaging methods have been used to measure it. Our aim was to conduct the first systematic review of their accuracy. Methods. The literature describing the accuracy of imaging methods for measuring the prostate gland volume was systematically reviewed. Articles were included if they compared volume measurements obtained by medical imaging with a reference volume measurement obtained after removal of the gland by radical prostatectomy. Correlation and concordance statistics were summarised. Results. 28 articles describing 7768 patients were identified. The imaging methods were ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging (US, CT, and MRI). Wide variations were noted but most articles about US and CT provided correlation coefficients that lay between 0.70 and 0.90, while those describing MRI seemed slightly more accurate at 0.80-0.96. When concordance was reported, it was similar; over- and underestimation of the prostate were variably reported. Most studies showed evidence of at least moderate bias and the quality of the studies was highly variable. Discussion. The reported correlations were moderate to high in strength indicating that imaging is sufficiently accurate when quantitative measurements of prostate gland volume are required. MRI was slightly more accurate than the other methods.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-187
Author(s):  
E. S. Burt

Why does writing of the death penalty demand the first-person treatment that it also excludes? The article investigates the role played by the autobiographical subject in Derrida's The Death Penalty, Volume I, where the confessing ‘I’ doubly supplements the philosophical investigation into what Derrida sees as a trend toward the worldwide abolition of the death penalty: first, to bring out the harmonies or discrepancies between the individual subject's beliefs, anxieties, desires and interests with respect to the death penalty and the state's exercise of its sovereignty in applying it; and second, to provide a new definition of the subject as haunted, as one that has been, but is no longer, subject to the death penalty, in the light of the worldwide abolition currently underway.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-42
Author(s):  
Елена Старовойтенко

Персонологическая интерпретация текстов предполагает реализацию общенаучных, а также специфических для персонологии, герменевтических установок, к которым относятся: установка на интерпретацию текста как исследование, установка на разнообразие герменевтических действий с текстом, установка на выявление неисследованных содержаний текста, установка на творческое постижение тайн текста, установка на целостное отношение к личности и "Я" автора текста, установка на выявление способности автора быть "практикующим феноменологом", установка на определение места изучаемого текста в континууме текстовых репрезентаций "личности", установка на соотнесение своего понимания текста с другими интерпретациями и их интеграцию, установка на раскрытие сущности авторской "идеи личности", возможное только в единстве интерпретаций, установка на построение и применение герменевтической модели, определяющей процедуру интерпретации как исследования и творчества, установка на определение места проделанного герменевтического поиска в культуре познания и жизни личности, установка на интерпретацию различных видов "текстов личности". Personological interpretation of texts suggests the implementation of the general scientific and also hermeneutical settings specific for Personology which include the setting of the interpretation of the text as a research, setting of a variety of hermeneutical actions with the text, setting to identify unexplored contents of the text, setting of the creative comprehension of the mysteries of the text, setting of the integrity of the attitude of the individual and the "I" of the author of the text, setting to reveal the author's ability to be "practicing phenomenologist", setting of the definition of the place in the text in the continuum of textual representations of the "personality", setting in the correlation of the understanding of the text with other interpretations and their integration, setting of the disclosure of the author's "ideas person" is possible only in the unity of interpretation, setting of the construction and usage of hermeneutical models defining the procedure for the interpretation of both studies and work, the setting to determine the place of hermeneutical research in culture and knowledge of a person's life, setting of the interpretation of various types of "texts of the individual."


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
Francisco Xavier Morales

The problem of identity is an issue of contemporary society that is not only expressed in daily life concerns but also in discourses of politics and social movements. Nevertheless, the I and the needs of self-fulfillment usually are taken for granted. This paper offers thoughts regarding individual identity based on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. From this perspective, identity is not observed as a thing or as a subject, but rather as a “selfillusion” of a system of consciousness, which differentiates itself from the world, event after event, in a contingent way. As concerns the definition  of contents of self-identity, the structures of social systems define who is a person, how he or she should act, and how much esteem he or she should receive. These structures are adopted by consciousness as its own identity structures; however, some social contexts are more relevant for self-identity construction than others. Moral communication increases the probability that structure appropriation takes place, since the emotional element of identity is linked to the esteem/misesteem received by the individual from the interactions in which he or she participates.


Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Mastracci

In this paper, the author examines public service as depicted in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS). First, she shows how slaying meets the economist’s definition of a public good, using the BtVS episode “Flooded” (6.04). Second, she discusses public service motivation (PSM) to determine whether or not Buffy, a public servant, operates from a public service ethic. Relying on established measures and evidence from shooting scripts and episode transcripts, the author concludes Buffy is a public servant motivated by a public service ethic. In this way, BtVS informs scholarship on public service by broadening the concept of PSM beyond the public sector; prompting one to wonder whether it is located in a sector, an occupation, or in the individual. These conclusions allow the author to situate Buffy alongside other idealized public servants in American popular culture.


Author(s):  
Ursula Renz

This chapter discusses the implications of Spinoza’s concept of individual bodies, as introduced in the definition of individuum in the physical digression. It begins by showing that this definition allows for an extremely wide application of the term; accordingly, very different sorts of physical entities can be described as Spinozistic individuals. Given the quite distinct use of the terms divisibilis and indivisibilis in his metaphysics, however, the chapter argues that the physical concept of individuality is not universally applied in the Ethics but reserved for physical or natural-philosophical considerations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the problem of collective individuals. It is argued that, while societies or states are described as individual bodies, they do not constitute individual group minds in the strict sense of the term for Spinoza. This in turn indicates that minds are not individuated in the same way as bodies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malin Indremo ◽  
Richard White ◽  
Thomas Frisell ◽  
Sven Cnattingius ◽  
Alkistis Skalkidou ◽  
...  

AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the validity of the Gender Dysphoria (GD) diagnoses in the Swedish National Patient Register (NPR), to discuss different register-based definitions of GD and to investigate incidence trends. We collected data on all individuals with registered GD diagnoses between 2001 and 2016 as well as data on the coverage in the NPR. We regarded gender confirming medical intervention (GCMI) as one proxy for a clinically valid diagnosis and calculated the positive predictive value (PPV) for receiving GCMI for increasing number of registered GD diagnoses. We assessed crude and coverage-adjusted time trends of GD during 2004–2015 with a Poisson regression, using assigned sex and age as interaction terms. The PPV for receiving GCMI was 68% for ≥ 1 and 79% for ≥ 4 GD-diagnoses. The incidence of GD was on average 35% higher with the definition of ≥ 1 compared to the definition of ≥ 4 diagnoses. The incidence of GD, defined as ≥ 4 diagnoses increased significantly during the study period and mostly in the age categories 10–17 and 18–30 years, even after adjusting for register coverage. We concluded that the validity of a single ICD code denoting clinical GD in the Swedish NPR can be questioned. For future research, we propose to carefully weight the advantages and disadvantages of different register-based definitions according to the individual study’s needs, the time periods involved and the age-groups under study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Svanholm ◽  
E Viitasara ◽  
H Carlerby

Abstract Background Previous research has indicated that migrants risk facing inequities both internationally and in Sweden; integration policies are therefore important to study. How health is described in policies affects how health interventions are approached. A discourse analysis offers a way of understanding how health is framed within the integration policies of the Establishment Program. The aim was to critically analyse the health discourses used in Swedish and European Union (EU) integration policies. Methods A critical discourse analysis, inspired by Fairclough, was performed on integration policies related to Sweden, on local, regional, national and the EU level. The policies of the Establishment Program, which focuses on newly arrived migrants (refugees, persons of subsidiary protection and their relatives who arrived through family reunification), were chosen for the analysis, and 17 documents were analysed in total. Results The analysis of the documents showed that although no definition of health was presented, health discourses were expressed in the form of the medicalization of health and the individualization of health. This not only by the terminology used, but also in how the healthcare sector was considered responsible for any health related issue and how individual health behaviours were of focus in interventions to promote health. Conclusions A pathogenic approach to health was visible in the policies and individual disease prevention was the main health focus. The results showed similarities to previous research highlighting how a particular understanding of health in a neoliberal context is formed. Key messages Health as a resource is missing in the integration policy documents. Viewing health as an individual quality puts the responsibility of promoting health on the individual.


Author(s):  
Wolfram Malter ◽  
Bo Jan Bachmann ◽  
Barbara Krug ◽  
Martin Hellmich ◽  
Max Zinser ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The current methods for calculating the ideal implant volume for breast reconstruction are based on pre- or intraoperative volume measurements of the existing breast volume and do not take into account the individual breast density of the woman. This study aims is to identify objective parameters that can help to improve the optimal implant selection. Materials and methods This retrospective analysis includes 198 breast cancer patients who underwent mastectomy. Breast densities (ACR) measured in mammography and MRI were compared with the removed breast tissue weight and volume of the implants used. In addition, the resected weight was compared directly with the implant volume to calculate a mathematical function. Results There was no significant correlation between the ACR values and the resected weights [correlation coefficient: mammography:− 0.117 (p = 0.176), MRI − 0.033 (p = 0.756)]. A negative correlation between the implant volumes and both imaging methods could be demonstrated [correlation coefficient: mammography − 0.268; p = 0.002; MRI was − 0.200 (p = 0.055)]. A highly significant correlation between the resected weights and the implant volumes (correlation coefficient 0.744; p < 0.001) was observed. This correlation corresponds to a power function (y = 34.71 x0.39), in which any resected weight can be used for the variable x to calculate the implant volume. Conclusion We were able to show that there is a significant correlation between the resected breast tissue and the implant volume. With our novel potency function, the appropriate implant volume can be calculated for any resected weight making it easier for the surgeon to choose a fitting implant in a simple and more objective manner.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 183-200
Author(s):  
Nizan Shaked

Abstract Art and Value: Art’s Economic Exceptionalism in Classical, Neoclassical and Marxist Economics reveals the irreconcilable differences between the Marxist economic definition of the term ‘value’ and its other uses in relation to the art object. It corrects the faulty assumption, symptomatic of a capitalist worldview, that rare or historic objects bear intrinsic value. Beech’s analysis of art’s value-form is critical to unpacking the double ontological condition of art as both an object of collective symbolic value and as a hoard of monetary value, since the two operate in mutually exclusive spheres, yet function to constitute one another. The book can help us understand the capitalist sleight of hand that allows art to flicker between two forms of being, making profit appear as value, and value appear as significance (and vice versa), the toggling between the two facilitating the transfer of commonly-held symbolic value in support of the individual accumulation of wealth.


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