The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of vibroacoustic stimulation (VAS) on computerized cardiotocography short-term variability (STV) and approximate entropy (ApEn) in both low- and high-risk pregnancies. VAS was performed on 121 high- and 95 low-risk pregnancies after 10 minutes of continuous quiet, while their FHR parameters were monitored and recorded by cCTG analysis. Fetal hear...

Virtual appliances (VAs) are ready-to-use virtual machine images that are configured for specific purposes in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds. This paper evaluates the integrity of software packages installed on realworld VAs through the use of a software whitelist-based framework. Analysis of 151 Amazon VAs using this framework shows that there is significant variance in the software...

Rackoff’s small witness property for the coverability problem is the standard means to prove tight upper bounds in vector addition systems (VAS) and many extensions. We show how to derive the same bounds directly on the computations of the VAS instantiation of the generic backward coverability algorithm. This relies on a dual view of the algorithm using ideal decompositions of downwards-closed ...

BACKGROUND Duplication of vas deferens is a very rare congenital anomaly with only a few cases reported in the literature. Injury to vas deferens is a recognized complication during hernia surgery and the possibilities of injury may increase with lack of awareness of this anomaly. CASE REPORT A-31-year old gentleman with unilateral duplication of vas deferens that was diagnosed during right s...

Among rat peripheral tissues examined, Ins(1,4,5)P(3) receptor binding is highest in the vas deferens, with levels about 25% of those of the cerebellum. We have purified the InsP(3) receptor binding protein from rat vas deferens membranes 600-fold. The purified protein displays a single 260 kDa band on SDS/PAGE, and the native protein has an apparent molecular mass of 1000 kDa, the same as in c...

BACKGROUND It has been argued that visual analog scales (VASs) elicit an individual's measurable value function. The theoretical link between an individual's measurable value function v(.) and his or her von Neumann-Morgenstem utility function u(.) appears to provide a justification for transforming VAS scores into standard gamble (SG) utilities. However, VAS scores have been found to be subjec...

OBJECTIVE We wanted to assess the relationship between pain and the prostate volume during transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS Between July and September 2006, 71 patients scheduled for TRUS biopsy of the prostate were considered for inclusion to this study. These patients underwent periprostatic neurovascular bundle block with lidocaine prior to biopsy. Pain wa...

PURPOSE To investigate the efficacy of a novel anesthetic technique called iliohypogastric nerve block (INB) for pain control in patients undergoing prostate biopsy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 59 consecutive patients who underwent transrectal ultrasound guided prostates biopsies were included in the study. Patients were randomized into four groups: (1) control, no method of anesthesia w...

The aim of this study was to find the cut-off points on the visual analogue scale (VAS) to distinguish among mild, moderate, and severe pain, in relation to the following: pain-related interference with functioning; verbal description of the VAS scores; and latent class analysis for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. A total of 456 patients were included. Pain was assessed using the VA...

BACKGROUND Although intravenous morphine titration is widely used to obtain rapid and complete postoperative pain relief, the relationship between measurement of pain and morphine requirements varies, and the evolution of pain during titration is poorly understood. METHODS Intravenous morphine titration was administered as a bolus of 2 (body weight < or = 60 kg) or 3 mg (body weight > 60 kg) ...