Volume Rendering of Angiographic Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography in Fovea Plana and Normal Foveal Pit

This paper aims to study adaptative vascular arrangements in idiopathic fovea plana with volume-rendered optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). A retrospective review of two cases of idiopathic fovea plana (mean age: 26.5 years) and two age-matched controls imaged with OCTA was conducted using spectral-domain OCTA (RTVue XR Avanti, Optovue, Inc., Fremont, CA) equipped with the AngioVue software. Both en face OCTA slabs and OCTA b scans were processed through Fiji software (http://fiji.sc; software version 2.0.0-rc-68/1.52e), and then extracted as image sequences for volume rendering reconstructions using the ImageVis3D volume rendering system (3.1.0 release). Eyes with idiopathic fovea plana demonstrated a regular superficial vascular plexus connecting to a single vascular monolayer representing the deeper vascular plexuses. At this location, several vertical short path connections were demonstrated, in contraposition with normal eyes where short path connections were infrequently observed. Advances in three-dimensional OCTA reconstruction increase the understanding of vascular connections and arrangement in retinal plexuses and possible anatomical variations that cannot be detected with conventional two-dimensional b scans.

The Structure of the Interbank Market in Kenya

This chapter discusses the evolution of the network structure of Kenya’s overnight market. It applies several measurements derived from network theory to uncover some key microstructure characteristics and the nature of the interbank market segmentation. An important issue is to understand what opportunities and challenges the structure of the interbank network presents for liquidity management and stability of the banking system. The results reveal a fragmented market, consisting of local clusters with hub-like and periphery banks. These features seem to become more prominent with time. Although the interbank structure is largely incomplete (density of about 0.25), each bank can be linked to all other banks in the network in no more than three steps. While this may imply that the core potentially provides an efficient shortcut for most peripheral banks for accessing liquidity in the network, the short-path length suggests that contagion can also spread with ease.

An Efficient Procedure for Inserting Buffers to Generate Robust Berth Plans in Container Terminals

Uncertainty is an inevitable aspect of seaside operations in container terminals. Operators therefore need to find robust plans that can resist the impact of uncertainties. Instead of solving a stochastic berth allocation problem, this paper proposes an efficient procedure for inserting buffers into baseline berth plans to strengthen the schedule stability. Such a method is highly versatile and compatible with various solutions to berth allocation problem with different objectives. Numerical results obtained by using simulation on a representative set of instances of the problem are reported; these indicate that the proposed procedure not only increases the flexibility of operations with minor loss of resource utilization but also addresses the impact of service priority. Hence, the contribution in this paper will provide a short path that bridges the gap between berth allocation problem in deterministic and stochastic circumstances.

Farmed Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata) by-Products Valorization: Viscera Oil ω-3 Enrichment by Short-Path Distillation and In Vitro Bioactivity Evaluation

This study shows a pilot scale protocol aimed to obtain an omega 3-enriched oil after the processing of farmed gilthead sea bream viscera (SBV); this was oil was tested in vitro for bioactivity, attesting to the possibility to turn waste into profit The quality of the oil, in terms of requirements for animal and human consumption, was assessed by determining some chemical parameters, such as peroxide value (PV), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), ρ-anisidine (ρ-AV) content, total oxidation value (TOTOX), and phospholipids and free fatty acid (%), both in crude viscera oil (CVO) and refined viscera oil (RVO). Among the extraction conditions, the higher CVO yields were obtained at 60 °C for 10 min (57.89%) and at 80 °C for 10 min (67.5%), and the resulting oxidation levels were low when utilizing both extraction conditions. RVO, obtained from CVO extracted at 60 °C, showed the highest quality on the basis of the assessed parameters. The ethyl esters of the total fatty acid (TFA) contents extracted from RVO were enriched in the ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid fraction (PUFAE) up to almost 56% via short path distillation (SPD). Antioxidant activities and adipogenic properties were tested in vitro. PUFAE protected 3T3 L1 cells from oxidative stress and exerted an anti-adipogenic effect in Dicentrarchus labrax pre-adipocytes, attesting to the beneficial properties for both farmed fish and human health. These results could stimulate the adoption of solutions aimed to recover and utilize aquaculture by-products at a higher scale, turning “waste into profit” and indicating a strategy to reach more sustainable business models in aquaculture resource utilization according to the principles of the circular economy.