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The maximum diameter measurement of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), which depends on orthogonal and axial cross-sections or maximally inscribed spheres within the AAA, plays a significant role in the clinical decision making process. This study aims to build a total of 21 morphological parameters from longitudinal CT scans and analyze their correlations. Furthermore, this work explores the existence of a "master curve" of AAA growth, and tests which parameters serve to enhance its predictability for clinical use.

106 CT scan images from 25 Korean AAA patients were retrospectively obtained. We subsequently computed morphological parameters, growth rates, and pair-wise correlations, and attempted to enhance the predictability of the growth for high-risk aneurysms using non-linear curve fitting and least-square minimization.

An exponential AAA growth model was fitted to the maximum spherical diameter, as the best representative of the growth among all parameters (r-square 0.94) and correctly predicted to 15 of 16 validation scans based on a 95% confidence interval. AAA volume expansion rates were highly correlated (r=0.75) with thrombus accumulation rates.

The exponential growth model using spherical diameter provides useful information about progression of aneurysm size and enables AAA growth rate extrapolation during a given surveillance period.

The exponential growth model using spherical diameter provides useful information about progression of aneurysm size and enables AAA growth rate extrapolation during a given surveillance period.The actual speed behaviour when drivers approach a curve is very relevant to assess the road design and safety but is mostly overlooked in the scientific literature. Most research into curve driving behaviour is focussed at the behaviour inside the curve, although the speed selection is done before curve entry. The main objective of this research is to identify which freeway characteristics play a role in driving speed selection. High Frequency Floating Car Data, detailed reconstruction of the curves and their surroundings, as well as three dimensional sight distance analysis, were used to analyse individual speed profiles on 153 Dutch freeway curves. By defining the positions where the acceleration approaches 0 m/s2 before and after a curve starts, the positions when the driver started and stopped decelerating upon curve entry were defined. Further correlation and regression analysis of those positions revealed that the radius of the curve is indeed a main explaining variable, as well as the speed driven before deceleration starts. Sight distances and cross section characteristics play a further role in determining the position where deceleration starts. Deceleration ends at approximately 135 m after curve start, and the speed in a curve is also correlated with the deflection angle and length of a curve. Sight distances do not play a role in selecting the speed in a curve based on this research. Overall, the findings indicate a non-constant nature and variability of speed behaviour upon curve entry. This can be used for safer freeway curve design and to assess traffic safety based on actual speed behaviour.Work zones are established to provide a safe environment for all road users and road workers. However, based on the statistics, they can be considered as crash prone zones due to changes in the road alignments and the posted speed limits. In this driving simulator study, we aimed at investigating the safety impacts of a newly proposed system composed of graphical and animation-based variable message signs (VMSs) in the state of Qatar. The proposed VMS condition was compared with a control condition that was designed following the Qatar Work Zone Traffic Management Guide. A total of seventy subjects were invited to participate in the experiment voluntarily. Study results showed that in the VMS condition, drivers reduced their traveling speeds in advanced compared to the control condition. Drivers' traveling speed in the VMS condition was significantly reduced by 6.3 and 11.1 km/h on the leftmost and the second leftmost lanes, respectively. Next, the results uncovered that the proposed system motivated drivers to initiate early lane changing maneuvers, i.e., 150 m earlier than the control condition. Finally, the VMS condition was effective in stimulating drivers to keep larger headways with a merging vehicle. In sum, the proposed VMS system outperformed the control condition in terms of speed reduction, early merging, and higher headways between the through and the merging vehicle.This study examined the field effectiveness of General Motors advanced driver assistance and headlighting systems. A total of 8,311,707 Model Year 2013-2019 vehicles were matched to police-reported crashes from 12 states. The quasi-induced exposure method was used to compare system-relevant and system-irrelevant (control) crash counts for equipped and unequipped vehicles. Logistic regression was used to adjust for ten covariates. Results indicated fusion/radar Automatic Emergency Braking, camera Automatic Emergency Braking, and Forward Collision Alert systems reduced rear-end striking crashes by 45%, 38%, and 20%, respectively. When restricting data to crashes in which someone in the General Motors striking vehicle was injured, these reductions were elevated to 59%, 54%, and 31%, respectively, providing evidence of additional crash mitigation benefits. Similarly, the Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning and Lane Departure Warning (alone) systems provided 12% and 10% reductions in lane departure crasheevaluated, as well as identify untapped system opportunities for moving toward a zero crashes vision.Limitations of historical crash data and the advantages of surrogate measures of safety have already been stressed by various authors. To describe nearness-to-collision, mostly time-based indicators are applied, and there is a consensus among researchers that speed-related indicators are needed to account for the severity dimension. There have been attempts to fit bivariate Extreme Value models to predict the number of crashes, however modeling crash frequency together with severity has received much less attention. The aim of this paper is to apply Extreme Value models to various pairs of temporal and speed-related indicators in order to investigate the dependence structure between them as well as to construct probability based risk levels and examine them in relation to severity levels. Bivariate threshold excess models were fitted to a dataset of left-turning and straight moving vehicle interactions recorded in a signalized intersection. The dependence structure between variable pairs were thoroughly investigated; it was concluded that temporal and speed related indicators were found independent, which means that road users getting close to each other in time does not necessarily come with high speeds. Therefore these indicators should be combined in order to properly predict severity; a temporal indicator on its own is not enough to make inferences about the severity of events. Using the calculated joint probability of events risk levels were constructed illustrating the events of equal probability.Fenoldopam is an approved drug used to treat hypotension. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate an LC-MS method to quantify fenoldopam and its major metabolites fenoldopam-glucuronide and fenoldopam-sulfate in plasma and apply the method to a pharmacokinetic study in rats. A Waters C18 column was used with 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid in water as the mobile phases to elute the analytes. A positive-negative switching method was performed in a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer using Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) mode. A one-step protein precipitation using methanol and ethyl acetate was successfully applied for plasma sample preparation. The method was validated following the FDA guidance. The results show that the LLOQ of fenoldopam, fenoldopam-glucuronide and fenoldopam-sulfate is 0.98, 9.75 and 0.98 nM, respectively. The intraday and interday variance is less than 8.4% and the accuracy is between 82.5 and 116.0 %. The extraction recovery for these three analytes ranged from 81.3 ± 4.1% to 113.9 ± 13.2%. There was no significant matrix effect and no significant degradation under the experimental conditions. PK studies showed that fenoldopam was rapidly eliminated (t1/2 = 0.63 ± 0.24 h) from the plasma and glucuronide is the major metabolite. This method was suitably selective and sensitive for pharmacokinetic and phase II metabolism studies.

Inflammatory mechanisms play an important role in both atherosclerosis and stroke. There are several inflammatory peripheral blood count markers associated with carotid artery stenosis degree, symptomatic carotid artery lesions and carotid artery stent restenosis that reported in previous studies. However, the prognostic role of the blood cell counts and their ratios in predicting in-hospital and long-term outcomes in patients undergoing carotid artery stenting (CAS) has not been comprehensively investigated. selleck kinase inhibitor Systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) proved its' efficiency in patients with solid tumors and its' role was rarely examined in cardiovascular disorders and stroke. The current study evaluated the effect of this novel risk index on in-hospital and long-term outcomes in a large patient population who underwent CAS.

A total of 732 patients with carotid artery stenosis who underwent CAS were enrolled to the study. SII was calculated using the following formula neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio×total plain these patients.

SII was independently associated with in-hospital and long-term clinical outcomes in patients undergoing CAS. Immune and inflammation status, as assessed easily and quickly using SII, has a good discriminative value in these patients.

The subjective nature of fatigue may contribute to inconsistencies in prevalence rates for post-stroke fatigue. More objective performance fatigue measures may offer a more reliable construct of fatigue. Our goal was to establish test-retest reliability of fatigability in stroke during 6-minute walk (6MW) testing. Relationships between post-stoke fatigability and other constructs were assessed.

Twenty-three hemiparetic stroke survivors underwent two 6MW tests with portable metabolic monitoring performed at least 48 hours apart. Fatigability was defined as ratio of change in walking speed to distance covered during the 6MW. 6MW oxygen consumption (VO

), peak aerobic capacity (VO

peak), walking speed over-ground, dynamic gait index, fatigue, falls efficacy, and BMIwere measured.

Fatigability was highly correlated between both 6MW trials (ICC=0.99, p<0.001) with no significant difference between trials (0.08, p=0.48). The strongest correlation was between fatigability and 6MW VO

trial 1 and 2 (r=0.92, p<0.001 and r=0.95, p<0.001, respectively). Moderate-to-strong relationships were observed between fatigability for 6MW and fastest-comfortable walking speed (r=-0.82 and -0.77), self-selected walking speed (r=-7.8 and -0.78), 6MW walking speed (r=-0.80 and 0.80, VO

peak (r=-0.47 and -0.48) (p<0.001), and DGI (r=-0.70 and -0.68, p<0.001).

This study establishes test-retest reliability for an objective measure of fatigue in stroke-related disability. The strong correlations between fatigability and other functional measures also provides insight into the contributors underlying fatigability in this population.

URL http//www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier NCT01322607.

URL http//www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier NCT01322607.