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Mucocele of the apendix is a rare clinical and pathological entity with a higher incidence in the female population, and non-specific symptomatology that includes more diagnoses including neoplastic and non-neoplastic causes of the apendix dilation and mucin proliferation. With obtained numerous variations in symptomatology, clinical picture, intraoperative presentation, surgical treatment and histopathological findings, the aim of this paper is an inspection into current knowledge of this disease, its histopathological characteristics, differential diagnosis and current treatment modalities. We present a patient with a clinical picture of the acute abdomen and numerous comorbidities. Ultrasound diagnostics indicated the presence of thin-walled dilatation of the small intestine, especially in the lower right quadrant, as well as the presence of free fluid in the peritoneal cavity. Apendectomy and removal of the mucocele and resection of the gangrenous sigmoid colon according to Hartmann were done. A definitive histopathological finding suggests ischemic colitis and retention mucocele of the apendix with normal mucosa. Histopathologically, four types of mucocele apendixes are distinguished, namely the retention mucinous cyst, mucosal hyperplasia, mucinous cystadenoma and mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. Surgical treatment is the method of choice in treating these tumors, either open or laparoscopic. Imperative is the preservation of the integrity of the entire mucocele, due to the possible dissemination of contents of the cyst and the subsequent development of pseudomyxoma peritonei.

The cytotoxic activity of ligands (O,O′-dialkyl esters of S,S-ethylenediamine-N,N'-di-(3,3′-1H-indol-3yl)propionic acid dihydrochloride (alkyl = ethyl, propyl, butyl, pentyl) and corresponding palladium(II) complexes were determined against human and murine colorectal cancer cells (HCT116 and CT26) and compared to the activities of cisplatin. All tested compounds showed a dose-dependent cytotoxic activity toward used cell lines. According to IC50 values for cytotoxic activities of tested compounds, complex of Pd(II) ion with O,O′-diethyl ester of S,S-ethylenediamine-N,N'-di-(3,3′-1H-indol-3yl) propionic acid dihydrochloride showed significantly, six times higher cytotoxic activity against HC116 cell line, than cisplatin. The interactions of the complexes with calf thymus DNA were analyzed by absorption and emission spectral studies (ethidium bromide displacement studies). The high values of DNA-binding constants (Kb) indicate the good binding affinity for all investigated complexes toward DNA. During the examination of competitive reactions with ethidium bromide, the results showed that complexes can replace ethidium bromide bound DNA and interact with DNA. The molecular docking simulations were applied for better understanding of inhibitory activity of palladium(II) complexes. The obtained values of free binding energies and constants of inhibition also show that the complex of Pd(II) ion with O,O′-diethyl ester of S,S-ethylenediamine-N,N'-di-(3,3′-1H-indol-3yl)propionic acid dihydrochloride has the best inhibitory effect on DNA molecules.

SWIR imaging bears considerable advantages over visible-light (color) and thermal images in certain challenging propagation conditions. Thus, the SWIR imaging channel is frequently used in multi-spectral imaging systems (MSIS) for long-range surveillance in combination with color and thermal imaging to improve the probability of correct operation in various day, night and climate conditions. Integration of deep-learning (DL)-based real-time object detection in MSIS enables an increase in efficient utilization for complex long-range surveillance solutions such as border or critical assets control. Unfortunately, a lack of datasets for DL-based object detection models training for the SWIR channel limits their performance. To overcome this, by using the MSIS setting we propose a new cross-spectral automatic data annotation methodology for SWIR channel training dataset creation, in which the visible-light channel provides a source for detecting object types and bounding boxes which are then transformed to the SWIR channel. A mathematical image transformation that overcomes differences between the SWIR and color channel and their image distortion effects for various magnifications are explained in detail. With the proposed cross-spectral methodology, the goal of the paper is to improve object detection in SWIR images captured in challenging outdoor scenes. Experimental tests for two object types (cars and persons) using a state-of-the-art YOLOX model demonstrate that retraining with the proposed automatic cross-spectrally created SWIR image dataset significantly improves average detection precision. We achieved excellent improvements in detection performance in various variants of the YOLOX model (nano, tiny and x).

Many modern-day technologies rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) for navigation and location services. Although, in some instances GPS it is not always the most preferred method especially in places where the coverage is lacking, and where privacy is a concern. In the last few years, alternative technologies to GPS systems have been developed and are available not only to enterprises but to consumers as well. This paper presents an idea on how a convoy of vehicles can establish and maintain a leader-follower connection between themselves by utilizing Computer Vision Technology and Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) via wireless low-power networks. The proposed system is to consists of three vehicles, a leader vehicle being controlled by an operator via Bluetooth, and two follower vehicles equipped with DFRobots' Romero V2, BLE Boards, and XBee modules for RSSI navigation. The computer vision system will utilize ZED Stereo Camera for image processing and the Robotic Operating System (ROS). The system will be independent of GPS allowing the operation in environments where GPS is unavailable or unpermitted. The proposed system can be utilized in surveillance missions, rescue missions, and it can serve as a backup to other leader-follower systems.

Adult intussusception is a rare entity which is distinct from paediatric cases in incidence, aetiology, and management. It represents 5% of all intussusceptions and is the cause of 1% of all intestinal obstructions, 0,08% of all abdominal surgeries and 0,003-0,02% of all hospital admissions. Ileocolic intussusception in adults is a unique variant in which nearly 100% of cases have a malignant lead point. In our report, we described a case of a patient with ileocecal intussusception caused by a rare type of the gastrointestinal tumor. The female patient was admitted to hospital for occasional pain in the lower right quadrant of the abdomen followed by abdominal discomfort and appearance of blood in the stool. The result of CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis showed a tumor mass and intussusception at the ileocecal junction, which was confirmed peroperatively. Open right hemicolectomy was performed adhering to oncological principles. The final pathologic diagnosis indicated the gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the ileocecal valvе. The diagnosis of intussusception in adults is delicate, and timely surgical treatment can be vital. Patients with the palpable abdominal mass, digestive tract obstruction, gastrointestinal bleeding, or lead point computed tomography must undergo a surgical examination. Given a high risk of malignancy, primary surgical resection using oncologic principles presents the best option for the treatment of ileocecal intussusception in adults.

With technology advancements and the prices of electronic components reducing over the last fifteen years, many devices and systems that would have been proprietary only for large companies or industry giants are becoming an everyday household item. Various areas of technology have been benefiting from this but one of the biggest is the Internet of Things (IoT).With the prevalence of IoT, it has been integrated into houses, small businesses, farms, agriculture, building automation, etc. and the user population is now a resource to the industry as they complete personal projects. Within any project there are always limitations, this might be a limited time, limited funds, limited distance, or limitations of the devices being used. This study proposes to evaluate two low-powered networks, Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT)and Long-Range Wide-Area Network(LoRaWAN), in different environments with the goal of understanding where the signal propagation is better and what distances can be reached despite obstructions. Distances and signal propagations, when measured by the manufacturers are often evaluated in ideal conditions which is rarely the case when utilized in the field. This creates a gap in the deployment and the end-users are frequently faced with diminished performances. As IoT is predominantly employed in urban and rural areas this study will focus on those two settings by testing the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)at various distances. The evaluation testing of the two systems showed each system performing more consistently in rural areas but neither had 100% coverage at any locations.

With Internet of Things (IoT) gaining presence throughout different industries a lot of new technologies have been introduced to support this undertaking. Implications on one such technology, wireless systems allowed for the use of different communication methods to achieve the goal of transferring data reliably, with more cost efficiency and over longer distances. Anywhere from a single house with only a few IoT devices such as a smart light bulb or a smart thermostat connected to the network, all the way to a complex system that can control power grids throughout countries, IoT has been becoming a necessity in everyday lives. This paper presents an overview of the devices, systems and wireless technologies used in different IoT architectures (Healthcare, Vehicular Networks, Mining, Learning, Energy, Smart Cities, Behaviors and Decision Making), their upbringings and challenges to this date and some foreseen in the future.

Thin-walled cylindrical shells are commonly used in numerous branches of industry. Since they are subjected to axial load, the most common cause of their failure is buckling. This paper provides numerical analysis and experimental verification of the buckling of the thin-walled aluminium alloy cylindrical shell with special regard to the influence of dent, positioned in the middle of the shell. Numerical simulation was performed using ANSYS 16.2, and experimental verification was performed by means of hydraulic press Armavir, PSU-50, which was used to subject the specimen to the increasing axial load until the occurrence of buckling. Comparing the results it was concluded that there is significant decrease of the buckling resistance if compared the values of the specimen with no dent, and the specimen with 2 mm deep dent. On the contrary, resistance of the 2 mm and 4 mm dented specimen is quite similar. Position and shape of the deformations occurred due to buckling are matching if experimental and numerical results are compared.

Inflammation plays a crucial role in the progression of atherosclerotic plaques. The aim of the study was to investigate serum levels and expression of Interleukin-33 (IL-33) and ST2 receptor in atherosclerotic plaques and to analyze correlation with the type of the carotid plaques in patients with carotid disease.This study included 191 consecutive patients submitted for carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Preoperative serum levels of IL-33 and soluble ST2 (sST2) were measured. Atherosclerotic plaques obtained during surgery were initially histologically classified and immunohistochemical analyzes of IL-33, IL-33R, CD68 and alpha-SMA expression was performed. Ultrasound assessment of the level of carotid stenosis in each patient was performed prior to carotid surgery. Demographic and clinical data such as gender, age, smoking status, blood pressure, glycaemia, hemoglobin and creatinine levels, and comorbidities were collected and the comparisons between variables were statistically evaluated.Serum levels of IL-33 (35.86 ± 7.93 pg/ml vs.12.29 ± 1.8 pg/ml, p 0.05) and sST2 (183 ± 8.03 pg/ml vs. 122.31 ± 15.89 pg/ml, p 0.05) were significantly higher in the group of CEA patients vs. healthy subjects. We demonstrated abundant tissue expression of IL-33 and ST2 in atherosclerotic carotid artery lesions. The levels of IL-33 and IL-33R expression were significantly higher in vulnerable plaques and significantly correlated with the degree of inflammatory cells infiltration in these plaques (R = 0.579, p = 0.049). Immunohistochemical analysis also revealed that cells responsible for IL-33 expression are not only mononuclear cells confined to inflammatory atherosclerotic lesions, but also smooth muscle cells which gained phenotypic characteristics of foam cells and were loaded with lipid droplets.The obtained results confirm the importance of IL-33/ST2 axis in the process of atherosclerosis, and indicate its ambiguous function in immune response, whether as proinflammatory cytokine in advanced atherosclerotic lesions, or as profibrotic, in early lesions.

Carotid atherosclerosis may be associated with neurosymptoms including cerebral infarction. IL-10 exerts atheroprotective effects, but its role in carotid disease is not fully defined. We aimed to investigate serum IL-10 levels in patients undergoing endarterectomy and their relation to the degree of carotid stenosis, plaque types and neurosymptoms. Two hundred consecutive patients with atherosclerotic carotid stenosis and 29 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Plaque types were classified according to AHA criteria. Serum IL-10 levels were determined by ELISA. Patients undergoing endarterectomy had significantly higher circulating IL-10 levels (18.7 ± 3.2 pg/ml) in comparison with healthy controls (7.2 ± 1.8pg/ml; P =0.0001) and IL- 10 has good discriminatory efficacy between these two groups (ROC curve, AUC = 0.723, P=0.0001). Patients with < 70% and those with > 70% of carotid stenosis did not differ in terms of age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors except hypertension, neurosymptoms and AHA plaque types. Circulating IL-10 levels differed significantly among patients with different carotid plaque types (P = 0.002). Patients with uncomplicated plaques had significantly higher serum levels of IL-10 (23.0 ± 6.1 pg/ml) compared to those with complicated plaques (13.0 ±1.4 pg/ml, P=0.035) and IL-10 can differentiate patients between these two groups (ROC curve, AUC = 0.413, P= 0.035). Our findings reveal an important role for IL-10 in carotid atherosclerosis. IL-10 might be a potential biomarker in discriminating patients with carotid disease from healthy controls. Decreased serum levels of IL-10 are related to complicated carotid plaques.

In Salian and Ripuarian Code affatomia represented a bilateral legal transaction that was aimed at changing of the scoped of heirs determined by the customs, at least insofar being applied in the absence of biological descendants only. However, almost all further similarities in the field cease at this point. The form for using affatomia with Ripuarian Franks was much simpler than the one with the Salian Franks. Unlike the Salian Franks, affatomia could by all odds be used by Ripuarian Franks spouses in determining each other for a heir. Legal nature of the Salian Franks affatomia is most similar to the mancipatio familiae type of will in the Roman law (which does not mean it emerged from this law), while its form in the Ripuarian Code is much closer to testamentary adoption. As with Ripuarian Franks, affatomia seems to have definitely produced legal effects only after the death of the disposant, while its legal effects with the Salian Code performed inter vivos. Contemporary authors are trying to designate the legal nature of legal affairs from the early development of human and legal civilization through modern institutes that represent the completion of their evolutionary path. Taking the inheritance contract of the German or Swiss law, or the future assets donation of the French law, for example, and then comparing them to affatomia and thinx is an anachronism. This is evident by the fact that the legal nature of these ancient Germanic institutes can not be viewed unilaterally, but always through a combination of those institutes which we know today as adoption, gift or mixed donation with retention of different modalities for the transferor or the testator (usually usufruct). In this sense, if we are looking for a inheritance agreement in the Middle Ages, the contract in which a person determines other person for his/her universal or singular successor in the modern sense, we will certainly not find one. However, if within this institute we see bilateral legal transaction whose subject is the future legacy or exactly specified legal issue from legacy, which aims to voluntarily change the law and customs of the established circuit of heirs, who partially performed legal effects among the living, and partly in case of death, the one that differs from the legacy through its irreversibility, we will then find its roots with the Franks and the Langobards, while its first clear shapes and forms we will find as early as XIII century. If we start from this initial premise, bearing in mind that different nations in different historical epochs attained a certain level of cultural, economic and legal emancipation, it is possible to draw another conclusion. It is the fact that disposal of assets in case of death, which meant some form of approval of the one in whose favour assets were disposed (what we would call today a bilateral legal transaction), has always preceded legacy as a unilateral legal transaction. Further on, it means that affatomia and thinx, as well as Morgengabe, can be considered roots in Germanic contractual inheritance law. But if we follow the development of an idea, abstracting the inevitable differences, Babylonian nudunu, Islamic vassijet, donatio mortis causa (from Babylon, through the Spartan and Roman law, to the Mirror of the Saxons), Vergabungen of the Schwabenspiegel, especially the Roman mancipatio familiae last will, can all equally be regarded as the roots of the contractual inheritance.

This paper presents a design of a decentralized fault detection and isolation (FDI) filter by means of an overlapping decentralized estimation algorithm based on a consensus strategy. An efficient solution to the FDI problem can be obtained by an adequate system decomposition into overlapping subsystems and the construction of local FDI estimators aimed at achieving the desired performance. The general aspects and properties of a consensus based estimator are described in the first part of the paper. An applicability of such an estimator to an FDI problem in a large scale system is discussed next. Namely, a case study related to the detection of fire dissymmetry in a thermal power plant boiler is presented, including the process description and identification procedure, comparison between the results obtained by local and decentralized estimators and conclusions concerning their validity.

Tese arquivada ao abrigo da Portaria nº 227/2017 de 25 de julho In this thesis we study crucial problems within complex, large scale, networked control systems and mobile sensor networks. The ¯rst one is the problem of decomposition of a large-scale system into several interconnected subsystems, based on the imposed information structure constraints. After associating an intelligent agent with each subsystem, we face with a problem of formulating their local estimation and control laws and designing inter-agent communication strategies which ensure stability, desired performance, scalability and robustness of the overall system. Another problem addressed in this thesis, which is critical in mobile sensor networks paradigm, is the problem of searching positions for mobile nodes in order to achieve optimal overall sensing capabilities. Novel, overlapping decentralized state and parameter estimation schemes based on the consensus strategy have been proposed, in both continuous-time and discrete-time. The algorithms are proposed in the form of a multi-agent network based on a combination of local estimators and a dynamic consensus strategy, assuming possible intermittent observations and communication faults. Under general conditions concerning the agent resources and the network topology, conditions are derived for the stability and convergence of the algorithms. For the state estimation schemes, a strategy based on minimization of the steady-state mean-square estimation error is proposed for selection of the consensus gains; these gains can also be adjusted by local adaptation schemes. It is also demonstrated that there exists a connection between the network complexity and e±ciency of denoising, i.e., of suppression of the measurement noise in°uence. Several numerical examples serve to illustrate characteristic properties of the proposed algorithm and to demonstrate its applicability to real problems. Furthermore, several structures and algorithms for multi-agent control based on a dynamic consensus strategy have been proposed. Two novel classes of structured, overlapping decentralized control algorithms are presented. For the ¯rst class, an agreement between the agents is implemented at the level of control inputs, while the second class is based on the agreement at the state estimation level. The proposed control algorithms have been illustrated by several examples. Also, the second class of the proposed consensus based control scheme has been applied to decentralized overlapping tracking control of planar formations of UAVs. A comparison is given with the proposed novel design methodology based on the expansion/contraction paradigm and the inclusion principle. Motivated by the applications to the optimal mobile sensor positioning within mobile sensor networks, the perturbation-based extremum seeking algorithm has been modifed and extended. It has been assumed that the integrator gain and the perturbation amplitude are time varying (decreasing in time with a proper rate) and that the output is corrupted with measurement noise. The proposed basic, one dimensional, algorithm has been extended to two dimensional, hybrid schemes and directly applied to the planar optimal mobile sensor positioning, where the vehicles can be modeled as velocity actuated point masses, force actuated point masses, or nonholonomic unicycles. The convergence of all the proposed algorithms, with probability one and in the mean square sense, has been proved. Also, the problem of target assignment in multi-agent systems using multi-variable extremum seeking algorithm has been addressed. An algorithm which e®ectively solves the problem has been proposed, based on the local extremum seeking of the specially designed global utility functions which capture the dependance among di®erent, possibly con°icting objectives of the agents. It has been demonstrated how the utility function parameters and agents' initial conditions impact the trajectories and destinations of the agents. All the proposed extremum seeking based algorithms have been illustrated with several simulations.