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On-detector digital electronics in high-energy physics (HEP) experiments is increasingly being implemented by means of static random access memory (SRAM)-based field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), due to their reconfigurability, fast data processing, and transfer. Radiation-induced single-event upsets (SEUs) in the configuration hinder the correct operation, since they may alter the programmed routing paths and logic functions. In most data acquisition systems, data from clustered front-end modules are aggregated by a single board, which then transmits data to off-detector electronics for acquisition and triggering. In this work, we present a novel scrubber capable of correcting radiation-induced upsets in the configuration of SRAM-based FPGAs by majority voting across clustered modules. We designed it for the Aerogel Ring Imaging CHerenkov (ARICH) counter of the Belle II experiment at the KEK Laboratory, Tsukuba, Japan. We discuss the architecture of the system and its implementation in a Virtex-5 FPGA, in the aggregator board, for correcting the configuration of up to six Spartan-6 LX45 FPGAs, on pertaining front-end modules. We discuss results from neutron irradiation tests at the TRIGA reactor of the Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, which show that our solution corrects an average of 6.2 k upsets in each target FPGA before the failure of the scrubber. Moreover, with respect to the Xilinx soft error mitigation (SEM) controller, our design improved the mean time before failure of data readout by 30%.

OBJECTIVES The primary objective was to investigate the clinical presentation, hormonal dysfunction, imaging characteristics and natural history of RCCs that were managed conservatively. Secondary objective was to identify factors associated with cyst progression. METHODS A retrospective review of patients with the clinical diagnosis of RCC-identified from word search from radiology reports that were followed up from January 1999 to March 2019 was performed. The demographics, clinical data, radiological features and outcomes were reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS 105 patients were identified with a median follow up of 6 years. 68 patients (64.8%) were managed conservatively from diagnosis till last follow up while 37 patients (35.2%) underwent surgery, with 26 operated at time of diagnosis and 11 operated upon monitoring. For patients managed conservatively from diagnosis till last follow up, incidental finding was the most common presentation. 19.1% had either one or more axes of hormonal dysfunction, with hypogonadism and hypocortisolemia being the commonest ones. Imaging features were variable. 66.2% of patients had T2W hyperintensity on MRI. Pathognomonic feature of intracystic nodule was present in only 14.7% of patients. Among the 79 patients with repeated MRI imaging (68 from conservative group and 11 from surgical group), 32.9% of patients developed cyst progression while 67.1% had either static disease or regression in size of RCC. Median time to progression of cyst was 14 months. Longer median follow up duration and presence of pituitary stalk displacement at presentation were associated with cyst progression. Only one patient developed new endocrine dysfunction. CONCLUSION 2/3 of the RCCs had static disease or even regression in the size of the cyst. They rarely gave rise to additional endocrine dysfunction by adopting observant approach. Cyst progression was demonstrated in 1/3 of patients. Conservative treatment remained a reasonable treatment for patients without significant symptoms.

This study investigated the prognosis of coronary microvascular disease (CMD) as determined by stress perfusion cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with ischemic symptoms but without significant coronary artery disease (CAD).Patients with CMD have poorer prognosis with various cardiac diseases. The myocardial perfusion reserve index (MPRI) derived from noninvasive stress perfusion CMR has been established to diagnose microvascular angina with a threshold MPRI 1.4. The prognosis of CMD as determined by MPRI is unknown.Chest pain patients without epicardial CAD or myocardial disease from January 2009 to December 2017 were retrospectively included from 3 imaging centers in Hong Kong (HK). Stress perfusion CMR examinations were performed using either adenosine or adenosine triphosphate. Adequate stress was assessed by achieving splenic switch-off sign. Measurement of MPRI was performed in all stress perfusion CMR scans. Patients were followed for major adverse cardiovascular events defined as all-cause death, acute coronary syndrome (ACS), epicardial CAD development, heart failure hospitalization and non-fatal stroke.A total of 218 patients were studied (mean age 59 ± 12 years; 49.5% male) and the average MPRI of that cohort was 1.56 ± 0.33. Females and a history of hyperlipidemia were predictors of lower MPRI. Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) occurred in 15.6% of patients during a median follow-up of 5.5 years (interquartile range: 4.6 to 6.8 years). The optimal cutoff value of MPRI in predicting MACE was found with a threshold MPRI ≤1.47. Patients with MPRI ≤1.47 had three-fold increased risk of MACE compared with those with MPRI1.47 (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.58 to 6.25; p = 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression after adjusting for age and hypertension demonstrated that MPRI was an independent predictor of MACE (HR: 0.10; 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.34; p 0.001).Stress perfusion CMR-derived MPRI is an independent imaging marker that predicts MACE in patients with ischemic symptom and no overt CAD over the medium term.

Objectives Whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) is recommended by the International Myeloma Working Group for all patients with asymptomatic myeloma and solitary plasmacytoma and by the UK NICE guidance for all patients with suspected myeloma. Some centres unable to offer WB-MRI offer low-dose whole-body CT (WB-CT). There are no studies comparing interobserver agreement and disease detection of contemporary WB-MRI (anatomical imaging and DWI) versus WB-CT. Our primary aim is to compare the interobserver agreement between WB-CT and WB-MRI in the diagnosis of myeloma. Methods Consecutive patients with newly diagnosed myeloma imaged with WB-MRI and WB-CT were prospectively reviewed. For each body region and modality, two experienced and two junior radiologists scored disease burden with final scores by consensus. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), median scores, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Spearman’s correlation coefficients were calculated. Results There was no significant difference in overall observer scores between WB-MRI and WB-CT (p = 0.87). For experienced observers, interobserver agreement for WB-MRI was superior to WB-CT overall and for each region, without overlap in whole-skeleton confidence intervals (ICC 0.98 versus 0.77, 95%CI 0.96–0.99 versus 0.45–0.91). For inexperienced observers, although there is a trend for a better interobserver score for the whole skeleton on WB-MRI (ICC 0.95, 95%CI 0.72–0.98) than on WB-CT (ICC 0.72, 95%CI 0.34–0.88), the confidence intervals overlap. Conclusions WB-MRI offers excellent interobserver agreement which is superior to WB-CT for experienced observers. Although the overall burden was similar across both modalities, patients with lower disease burdens where MRI could be advantageous are not included in this series. Key Points • Whole-body MRI is recommended by the International Myeloma Working Group for patients with multiple myeloma and solitary plasmacytoma and by the NICE guidance for those with suspected multiple myeloma. • Some centres unable to offer whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) offer low-dose whole-body CT (WB-CT). • This prospective study demonstrates that contemporary WB-MRI (with anatomical sequences and DWI) provides better interobserver agreement in assessing myeloma disease burden for the whole skeleton and across any individual body region in myeloma patients when compared with low-dose whole-body CT. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00330-019-06281-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Incorporation of point-of-care ultrasound in the undergraduate medical curriculum is of great importance to ensure early exposure and safe use of the modality. We aimed to assess the students' learning experiences following implementing an ultrasound module in the medical curriculum at the University of Hong Kong. Medical students in semester 6 (n = 221) were enrolled in the module in 2018. It consisted of 1 hour of didactic lecture, followed by 3 hours of hands-on session. The students had the opportunity to enroll into a four-week Special Study Module to further practice their skills. The students had access to an e-learning platform to assist in their learning. Outcome measures include task-based performance, quizzes, feedback, and round-table discussion to assess the learning experiences. The module was highly rated by over 90% of students (response rate of 96%). Students practiced on peer subject on upper abdominal scanning. Post-training assessment showed an increment of 16% in their understanding of the modality. Students were motivated to enroll into the Special Study Module, where they were trained and became proficient with Focused Assessment with Sonography with Trauma. More than 86% of the students found the e-learning platform easy to use and assisted the training session. Round-table discussion suggested more simulated clinical cases to be added and expansion of future modules. Ultrasound module was successfully implemented into the undergraduate medical curriculum at the University of Hong Kong through new pedagogical approaches. This integration was highly rated by the medical students with improved awareness and better understanding of point-of-care ultrasound.

Belle II is a new-generation B-factory experiment, dedicated to exploring new physics beyond the standard model of elementary particles in the flavor sector. Belle II started data-taking in April 2018, using a synchronous data acquisition (DAQ) system based on pipelined trigger flow control. The Belle II DAQ system is designed to handle a 30-kHz trigger rate with approximately 1% of dead time, under the assumption of a raw event size of 1 MB. The DAQ system is reliable, and the overall data-taking efficiency reached 84.2% during the run period of January 2020–June 2020. The current readout system cannot be operated in the terms of ten years from the viewpoint of DAQ maintainability; meanwhile, the readout system is obstructing high-speed data transmission. A solution involving a peripheral component interconnect (PCI)-express-based readout module with high data throughput of up to 100 Gb/s was adopted to upgrade the Belle II DAQ system. We particularly focused on the design of firmware and software based on this new generation of readout board, called PCIe40, with an Altera Arria 10 field-programmable gate array chip. The 48-Gb transceiver (GBT) serial links, PCI-express hard IP-based direct memory access (DMA) architecture, interface of timing and trigger distribution system, and slow control system were designed to integrate with the current Belle II DAQ system. This article describes the performances accomplished during the data readout and slow control tests conducted using a test bench and a demonstration performed using on-site front-end electronics, specifically involving Belle II TOP and KLM subdetectors.

We thank the KEKB group for the excellent operation of the accelerator, the KEK cryogenics group for the efficient operation of the solenoid, the KEK computer group and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) computing group for strong computing support, and the National Institute of Informatics and Science Information NETwork 5 (SINET5) for valuable network support. We acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and the Tau-Lepton Physics Research Center of Nagoya University; the Australian Research Council including Grants No. DP180102629, No. DP170102389, No. DP170102204, No. DP150103061, and No. FT130100303; the Austrian Science Fund (FWF); the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Contracts No. 11435013, No. 11475187, No. 11521505, No. 11575017, No. 11675166, and No. 11705209; the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Grant No. QYZDJ-SSW-SLH011; the CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics (CCEPP); the Shanghai Pujiang Program under Grant No. 18PJ1401000; the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under Contract No. LTT17020; the Carl Zeiss Foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Excellence Cluster Universe, and the VolkswagenStiftung; the Department of Science and Technology of India; the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of Italy; the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea under Grants No. 2015H1A2A1033649, No. 2016R1D1A1B01010135, No. 2016K1A3A7A09005 603, No. 2016R1D1A1B02012900, No. 2018R1A2B3003 643, No. 2018R1A6A1A06024970, and No. 2018R1D1 A1B07047294; the Radiation Science Research Institute, Foreign Large-size Research Facility Application Supporting project, the Global Science Experimental Data Hub Center of theKorea Institute of Science and Technology Information and KREONET/GLORIAD; the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the National Science Center; the Grant of the Russian Federation Government, Agreement No. 14.W03.31.0026; the Slovenian Research Agency; Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Spain; the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan; and the United States Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

A survey was carried out to examine the attitudes of veterinarians in Taiwan towards animal welfare issues and current systems related to animal protection. The respondents were asked to express the extent to which they agreed with the importance of the Five Freedoms and relevant education in animal welfare. The survey was sent to 889 veterinarians and the response rate was 34%. According to the findings, veterinarians in Taiwan consider that current animal protection laws in Taiwan, and their relevant systems, are unable to protect animals effectively. They mostly have an uncertain attitude towards the statement that animal welfare can upgrade their professional abilities or enhance their image, in that they have a relative lack of awareness of animal welfare as well as also lacking further understanding of the importance and influence of animal welfare. However, many veterinarians strongly support the content of ‘The Five Freedoms’ and relevant training of animal welfare and ethics. Instead of denying the necessity and importance of the relevant issues, we consider that some veterinarians lack confidence in animal welfare merely because of a lack of relevant training. The results of the survey indicate that providing veterinarians with professional education of animal welfare is the first step which brooks no delay.

Background 18F–fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography with computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) has been employed to define radiotherapy targets using a threshold based on the standardised uptake value (SUV), and has been described for use in cervical cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the concordance between the metabolic tumour volume (MTV) measured on FDG PET/CT and the anatomical tumour volume (ATV) measured on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (T2W-MRI); and compared with the functional tumour volume (FTV) measured on diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) in cervical cancer, taking the T2W-ATV as gold standard. Methods Consecutive newly diagnosed cervical cancer patients who underwent FDG PET/CT and DW-MRI were retrospectively reviewed from June 2013 to July 2017. Volumes of interest was inserted to the focal hypermetabolic activity corresponding to the cervical tumour on FDG PET/CT with automated tumour contouring and manual adjustment, based on SUV 20%–80% thresholds of the maximum SUV (SUVmax) to define the MTV20–80, with intervals of 5%. Tumour areas were manually delineated on T2W-MRI and multiplied by slice thickness to calculate the ATV. FTV were derived by manually delineating tumour area on ADC map, multiplied by the slice thickness to determine the FTV(manual). Diffusion restricted areas was extracted from b0 and ADC map using K-means clustering to determine the FTV(semi-automated). The ATVs, FTVs and the MTVs at different thresholds were compared using the mean and correlated using Pearson’s product-moment correlation. Results Twenty-nine patients were evaluated (median age 52 years). Paired difference of mean between ATV and MTV was the closest and not statistically significant at MTV30 (−2.9cm3, −5.2%, p = 0.301). This was less than the differences between ATV and FTV(semi-automated) (25.0cm3, 45.1%, p

Summary Background While the chronic inflammation related to autoimmune diseases is known to be associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, much less is known about cerebrovascular risks. Objectives The present population-based, age- and sex-matched follow-up study was undertaken to investigate the risks of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and ischaemic stroke in patients with dermatomyositis (DMS). Methods In total 907 patients with DMS were enrolled and compared with a non-DMS control group consisting of 4535 age- and sex-matched, randomly sampled subjects without DMS. The AMI-free and ischaemic stroke-free survival curves were generated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate the DMS-associated risks of AMI and ischaemic stroke. Results During the 2-year follow-up period, 14 patients with DMS (1·5%) and 18 patients in the non-DMS control group (0·4%) suffered AMIs. The crude hazard ratio (HR) for suffering an AMI in patients with DMS compared with subjects in the non-DMS group was 3·96 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1·97–7·96, P = 0·0001], while the adjusted HR was 3·37 (95% CI 1·67–6·80, P = 0·0007), after taking into account demographic characteristics and cardiovascular comorbidities. During the same follow-up period, 46 patients (5·1%) and 133 subjects in the control group (2·9%) developed ischaemic strokes. The crude HR for developing an ischaemic stroke in patients with DMS compared with subjects in the non-DMS group was 1·78 (95% CI 1·27–2·49, P = 0·0007), and the adjusted HR was 1·67 (95% CI, 1·19–2·34, P = 0·0028). Conclusions These findings suggest that DMS is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events.

In recent years, because of to the fast growing of internet and digital multi-media, new image compression algorithms are needed to reduce the transferring bandwidth and the decay of image quality. Joint Photo Expert Graphic (JPEG) extended range (XR) is a new standard for still image compression. Compared to previous standards, it provides better image quality and plentiful pixel format. However, the better image quality often comes with the higher computation complexity. In this study, the authors propose a hardware–software co-design architecture for JPEG XR encoder. For photo overlap transform (POT), and photo core transform (PCT), the complicated parts of JPEG XR, the authors propose new algorithms which eliminate data dependency in the basic filters of POT and PCT so that operations can be executed in parallel. The processing rate of the new algorithms is much faster. The authors also demonstrate a basic filter with multiple functions, which can be time-shared by POT and PCT; the hardware cost can be therefore reduced. Moreover, a memory saving scheme is proposed. Therefore the proposed architecture is suitable for stand-alone application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In our co-design, POT and PCT are implemented in hardware and then mapped to field programmable gate array (FPGA), whereas the other procedures of JPEG XR such as quantisation are executed by ARM926-EJ processor. The overall performance of our hardware architecture is 50 fps for 4:4:4 HDTV format at 166 MHz.

A new WDM-PON scheme with real-time monitoring based on a time-sharing method is proposed. It uses an optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) to monitor multiple ports by integrating an optical switch (OSW) with a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) at the optical line terminal (OLT) site. Each downstream signal and its corresponding monitoring signal are separated by m times the free-space range (FSR) of an array waveguide grating (AWG). A bit error rate (BER) test in 2.5 Gb/s × 27 km is performed with and without turning on the OTDR. A small power penalty of 0.7 dB is observed compared to the back-to-back measurement.

Vascular leiomyoma is a benign soft tissue tumour with a predilection for middle-aged women. It is most often seen in the extremities, particularly in the lower leg. The typical lesion is a small, slow-growing subcutaneous nodule. These tumours are often unexpected or preoperatively confused with other soft tissue tumours including low-grade sarcomas, leading to wide surgical excision. This may partly be due to the relatively few studies delineating the characteristic imaging features of this entity. Here, the imaging findings of a case of vascular leiomyoma in the ankle are presented. Literature review of the magnetic resonance imaging findings of published reports and series of vascular leiomyomas of the extremities is also performed.

OBJECTIVES To describe the thickness of mesorectal fat in local Chinese population and its impact on rectal cancer staging. DESIGN Case series. SETTING Two local regional hospitals in Hong Kong. PATIENTS Consecutive patients referred for multidisciplinary board meetings from January to October 2012 were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Reports of cases that had undergone staging magnetic resonance imaging for histologically proven rectal cancer were retrospectively retrieved and reviewed by two radiologists. All magnetic resonance imaging examinations were acquired with 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging. Measurements were made by agreement between the two radiologists. The distance in mm was obtained in the axial plane at levels of 5 cm, 7.5 cm, and 10 cm from the anal verge. Four readings were obtained at each level, namely, anterior, left lateral, posterior, and right lateral positions. RESULTS A total of 25 patients (16 males, 9 females) with a median age of 69 (range, 38-84) years were included in the study. Mean thickness of the mesorectal fat at 5 cm, 7.5 cm, and 10 cm from the anal verge was 3.1 mm (standard deviation, 3.0 mm), 9.8 mm (5.3 mm), and 11.8 mm (4.2 mm), respectively. The proportions of patients with mean mesorectal fat thickness of

Based on the first prototype, a newly modified trigger multiplexer module (merger) is under development for the Central Drift Chamber (CDC) detector which will be used in the future Belle II experiment. The features of modified merger circuit board include two Arria II FPGAs, four 3.125G optical modules and one 6.25G optical module for data transmission. The modified circuit board of merger was made and the data-link testing with Aurora protocol between the merger and the main trigger system (UT3) has been performed. Simple data reduction scheme within mergers and the schedule of the production plan will also be included here.

There are a multitude of applications using modern tablet computers for vision testing that are accessible to ophthalmology patients. While these may be of potential future benefit, they are often unsupported by scientific assessment. This report investigates the pertinent physical characteristics behind one of the most common highest specification tablet computers with regard to its capacity for vision testing. We demonstrate through plotting of a gamma curve that it is feasible to produce a precise programmable range of central luminance levels on the device, even with varying background luminance levels. It may not be possible to display very low levels of contrast, but carefully using the gamma curve information allows a reasonable range of contrast sensitivity to be tested. When the screen is first powered on, it may require up to 15 min for the luminance values to stabilize. Finally, luminance of objects varies towards the edge of the screen and when viewed at an angle. However, the resulting effective contrast of objects is less variable. Details of our assessments are important to developers, users and prescribers of tablet clinical vision tests. Without awareness of such findings, these tests may never reach satisfactory levels of clinical validity and reliability.

Wire bonding technology has been the mainstream for stacked die packages for over five years. Yet, based on current design rule, the package body size increases with respect to the number of dice stacked in the package. Furthermore, the electrical performance is greatly dependant to the wire length. By applying Vertical Circuit Interconnection technology, VCI, the package footprint can be reduced to offer relatively smaller package size. As such, the electrical performance is enhanced due to shorter signal transmitting length. The concept of VCI technology is to replace wire bond by conductive glue, which vertically connects electric pads from strum to strum inside the die stack. Besides the standard assembly process flow, such as die attach, molding, singulation, three new process stages ─ parylene coating, laser ablation and conductive glue dispensing, are introduced to replace wire bonding after die attach process. Two test vehicles, tier stack and pyramid stack structure, were discussed in the report. Open / short test and reliability performance were examined post assembly. The packages delivered by VCI technology can be an alternative choice in small package as it offers competitive cost and performance to those by WB technology.

[1] We present THEMIS observations of the near-Earth plasma sheet that permit us to assess the geometrical structure of the magnetotail prior to dipolarization. Latitudinal profiles of the magnetic field were obtained by five spacecraft simultaneously around the magnetic equator at a distance of XGSM ∼ −10 RE in the premidnight for two events. It is found that the strength of normal magnetic field Bz was increased with a distance from the magnetic equator, which differs considerably from the standard magnetic field model. Instead, the observation can be explained by a magnetic field model that has a minimum in the equatorial field strength (minimum B), as required from the force-balanced magnetotail model with steady earthward convection. Moreover, the analyses showed that the feature of minimum B sustained continuously for ∼20 min before dipolarization onsets.