Pediatric abdominal masses: diagnostic accuracy of diffusion weighted MRI

Purpose

To retrospectively identify apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of pediatric abdominal mass lesions, to determine whether measured ADC of the lesions and signal intensity on diffusion-weighted (DW) images allow discrimination between benign and malignant mass lesions.

Materials and Methods

Approval for this retrospective study was obtained from the institutional review board. Children with abdominal mass lesions, who were examined by DW magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were included in this study. DW MR images were obtained in the axial plane by using a non breath-hold single-shot spin-echo sequence on a 1.5-T MR scanner. ADCs were calculated for each lesion. ADC values were compared with Mann–Whitney U test. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine cut-off values for ADC. The results of visual assessment on b800 images and ADC map images were compared with chi-square test.

Results

Thirty-one abdominal mass lesions (16 benign, 15 malignant) in 26 patients (15 girls, 11 boys, ranging from 2 days to 17 years with 6.9 years mean) underwent MRI. Benign lesions had significantly higher ADC values than malignant ones (P<.001). The mean ADCs of malignant lesions were 0.84±1.7×10⁻³ mm²/s, while the mean ADCs of the benign ones were 2.28±1.00×10⁻³ mm²/s. With respect to cutoff values of ADC: 1.11×10⁻³ mm²/s, sensitivity and negative predictive values were 100%, specificity was 78.6% and positive predictive value was 83.3%. For b800 and ADC map images, there were statistically significant differences on visual assessment. All malignant lesions had variable degrees of high signal intensity whereas eight of the 16 benign ones had low signal intensities on b800 images (P<.001). On ADC map images, all malignant lesions were hypointense and most of the benign ones (n=11, 68.7%) were hyperintense (P<.001).

Conclusion

DW imaging can be used for reliable discrimination of benign and malignant pediatric abdominal mass lesions based on considerable differences in the ADC values and signal intensity changes.     

A generalized Weiszfeld method for the multi-facility location problem

An iterative method is proposed for the K facilities location problem. The problem is relaxed using probabilistic assignments, depending on the distances to the facilities. The probabilities, that decompose the problem into K single-facility location problems, are updated at each iteration together with the facility locations. The proposed method is a natural generalization of the Weiszfeld method to several facilities.     

Convergence of a finite difference method for the time-fractional diffusion equation with concentrated capacity

We investigate the convergence of difference scheme for the time-fractional differential equation with fractional derivative of an order with the coefficient at the time derivative containing Dirac delta distribution. Convergence order of is proved. A numerical example demonstrates the theoretical results. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Semi-interpenetrating polymer networks toward sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membranes for high concentration direct methanol fuel cell

Semi-IPNs were constructed by forming the crosslinking networks via the reaction between BPPO and diamine cross-linkers to overcome the dimensional swelling and methanol-permeation issues of SPEEK.     

Partial Oxidation as a Rational Approach to Kinetic Control in Bioinspired Magnetite Synthesis

Biological systems show impressive control over the shape, size and organization of mineral structures, which often leads to advanced physical properties that are tuned to the function of these materials. Such control is also found in magnetotactic bacteria, which produce—in aqueous medium and at room temperature—magnetite nanoparticles with precisely controlled morphologies and sizes that are generally only accessible in synthetic systems with the use of organic solvents and/or the use of high‐temperature methods. The synthesis of magnetite under biomimetic conditions, that is, in water and at room temperature and using polymeric additives as control agents, is of interest as a green production method for magnetic nanoparticles. Inspired by the process of magnetite biomineralization, a rational approach is taken by the use of a solid precursor for the synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles. The conversion of a ferrous hydroxide precursor, which we demonstrate with cryo‐TEM and low‐dose electron diffraction, is used to achieve control over the solution supersaturation such that crystal growth can be regulated through the interaction with poly‐(α,β)‐dl ‐aspartic acid, a soluble, negatively charged polymer. In this way, stable suspensions of nanocrystals are achieved that show remanence and coercivity at the size limit of superparamagnetism, and which are able to align their magnetic moments forming strings in solution as is demonstrated by cryo‐electron tomography.     

Compact Laws of the Iterated Logarithm for B-Valued Random Variables with Two-Dimensional Indices

Let be a real separable Banach space and {X, X _{n, m}; (n, m) N ²} B-valued i.i.d. random variables. Set . In this paper, the compact law of the iterated logarithm, CLIL(D), for B-valued random variables with two-dimensional indices ranging over a subset D of N ² is studied. There is a gap between the moment conditions for CLIL(N ¹) and those for CLIL(N ²). The main result of this paper fills this gap by presenting necessary and sufficient conditions for the sequence to be almost surely conditionally compact in B, where, for 0, 1 r 2, N ^r (, ) = {(n, m) N ²; n m n exp{(log n) ^r–1 (n)}} and (·) is any positive, continuous, nondecreasing function such that (t)/(log log t) is eventually decreasing as t , for some > 0.     

邻井距离随钻电磁探测系统的设计与实现

虚拟二维激光雷达是激光雷达扩展应用的组成部分,可以结合3D场景点云特征进行二维激光雷达扫描障碍物模拟。提出根据光线传导特征建立积分方程得到了在多障碍物场景下的激光雷达图生成的解析解,利用AutoCAD与Visual C#联合编程的方法进行了虚拟激光雷达的实现。最后,实验结果与真实二维激光雷达比对,虚拟激光雷达能从3D场景中准确提取物体的位置和距离信息。