silicon dioxide or silica is the earth’s most abundant mineral. the primary pulmonary illness attributable to silica exposure is silicosis, which is observed in three forms: classic, accelerated and acute. a case of silicosis is presented in this article who has been working in a stone-cutting plant. he had suffered from symptoms of silicosis one year after employment in this plant (acute form)...

A stepping-stone connection has always been assumed as an intrusion since the first research on stepping-stone connections twenty years ago. However, not all stepping-stone connections are malicious. This paper proposes an enhanced stepping-stone detection (SSD) technique which is capable to identify legitimate connections from stepping-stone connections. Stepping-stone connections are identifi...

The time-dependent traveling salesman problem (TDTSP) asks for a shortest Hamiltonian tour in directed graph where (asymmetric) arc-costs depend on the time arc is entered. With traffic data abundantly available, methods to optimize routes with respect travel times are widely desired. This holds particular problem, which corner stone of logistic planning. In this paper, we devise column-generat...

CONTEXT The role of protein components of pancreatic secretions has been controversial in pancreatic stone formation. OBJECTIVE To study the lithogenic role of pancreatic stone protein and lactoferrin in stone formation in chronic pancreatitis. PATIENTS Pancreatic stones were collected from 13 patients with alcoholic (n=6) and nonalcoholic (n=7) chronic calcified pancreatitis. MAIN OUTCOM...

BACKGROUND It remains controversial as to whether active stone removal should be performed in patients with poor performance status because of their short life expectancy and perioperative risks. Our objectives were to evaluate treatment outcomes of active stone removal in patients with poor performance status and to compare life prognosis with those managed conservatively. METHODS We retrosp...

Soil liquefaction has been observed worldwide during recent major earthquakes with induced effects responsible for much of the damage, disruption of function, and considerable replacement expenses for structures. The phenomenon has not been documented in recent time with such damage in Italian context before the recent Emilia-Romagna Earthquake (May 2012). The main lateral spreading and vertica...

PURPOSE Several factors determine the success of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (SWL) for kidney stones: stone size, stone location within the collecting system, stone type, and the SWL machine used. It has been suggested that stone radiodensity, as determined either by plain radiography or computed tomography attenuation values, may be an independent predictor of SWL success. We examined...

Purpose To evaluate the impact of various computed tomography scan-based parameters of renal stones on the outcome of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL). Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective study of patients who underwent ESWL for renal stones (sized 5-20 mm) from January 2013 to December 2016. We evaluated body mass index, location of the stone, skin-to-stone distanc...

Objectives: Percutaneous nephrolithotomy on staghorn calculi is challenging for urologists because it is difficult to remove all of the stones. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the associated factors of stone-free rate after primary percutaneous nephrolithotomy on staghorn calculi in a large series of patients at a single, tertiary referral, endourologic stone center. Methods: We colle...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) for distal ureteric calculi (DUC) and to determine variables that could affect the outcome results. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between April 2004 and February 2008, 100 patients with a solitary DUC were treated with in situ ESWL using a lithotripter (Lithostar Plus, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany). The outcome of treatme...