Since the metabolic activity of the colonic flora plays a definite role in colon cancer and an increased incidence of this disease is reported after cholecystectomy, we studied the metabolic activity of the colonic flora in a group of postcholecystectomy patients and matched controls by measuring, as representative end products of the bacterial metabolism, their fecal bile acids (BA), fecal 3-methylindole (SK) and indole (IN), and respiratory methane and hydrogen. Patients had significantly higher SK and lower IN, and, among BA, higher lithocholic (LCA) and chenodeoxycholic acid concentrations and LCA/deoxycholic acid ratio in the stools than controls. Similar differences from controls were reported for colon cancer. Comparable bacterial metabolic activities are thus operative in the large bowel of postcholecystectomized and colon cancer patients. This supports the biological plausibility of the association of cholecystectomy and colon cancer.

No abstract

COP Entrainment ratio Ejector refrigeration Ejector efficiencies a b s t r a c tThis paper studies the influence of working fluids over the performance of heat driven ejector refrigeration systems performance by using a lumped parameter model. The model used has been selected after a comparison of different models with a set of experimental data available in the literature. The effect of generator, evaporator and condenser temperature over the entrainment ratio and the COP has been investigated for different working fluids in the typical operating conditions of low grade energy sources. The results show a growth in performance (the entrainment ratio and the COP) with a rise in the generator and evaporator temperature and a decrease in the condenser temperature. The working fluids have a great impact on the ejector performance and each refrigerant has its own range of operating conditions. R134a is found to be suitable for low generator temperature (70e100 C), whereas the hydrocarbons R600 is suitable for medium generator temperatures (100e130 C) and R601 for high generator temperatures (130e180 C). i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 5 8 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 5 4 e1 7

No abstract

No abstract

The paper deals with the metrological characterization of provided. In absence of it no reliability universally assessed a stereo-vision based measurement system for the inspection of can be attributed to measured data, neither a serious automotive rubber profiles in an industrial plant. The comparison of the stated result can be made with a reference characterization of the class of such measurement systems value or other measurement results of the same physical introduces new challenges, both for the unavailability of reference quantity. Then efforts are justified to address the issue of measurement instruments andfor the complexity ofthe measurement giving methods that provides a quantitative indication of the system itselfthat does not allow a straightforward application ofthe standard procedures for the uncertainty evaluation. After a uncertainty of the results. This task could be accomplished description of the measurement system, the characterization is through suitable parameters. The accuracy is frequently presented in terms of evaluation of the dependencies of systematic adopted for characterizing an optical measuring system effects and uncertainties on known and expected influence although its definition is not universally accepted. As quantities. With this aim, several experimental results are reported example it can be defined either as the maximum among [9] and commented.or as the standard deviation of [10] the displacements Keywords -Contact-less measurement, machine vision, automotive registered between the nominal 3D world-coordinates (x or y profile, uncertainty evaluation, image processing or z) of test points of some non-coplanar objects and their reconstruction from measured data. Finally the evaluation of

An image based system implementing a well-known diagnostic method is disclosed for the automatic detection of melanomas as support to clinicians. The software procedure is able to recognize automatically the skin lesion within the digital image, measure morphological and chromatic feature, carry out a suitable classification for the detection of structural dermoscopic criteria provided by the 7-Point Check. Statistical techniques are introduced and adopted for border detection, feature extraction and classification as well as the resulting diagnostic score are described with reference to a large image set of pigmented lesions.

Epiluminescence microscopy (ELM) is a non invasive technique used to enhance visualization of microscopic structures of pigmented lesions for the early detection of melanoma. The 7 point check list is a diagnostic method that requires the identification of only seven dermoscopic criteria, defining the image through the use of algorithms. This paper describes an experimental automated diagnosis set up of melanocytic skin lesions through an image processing methodology focused on finding the presence of different epiluminescence parameters. In this paper the image processing set up allows the automatic detection of some specific dermoscopic criteria. We analyze the blue whitish veil, the regression, and the irregular streaks. The procedure developed was tested by considering a set of about 200 ELM images. A good concordance between ELM 7 point checklist parameters detected and the new method of image processing was achieved by kappa analysis. Although ELM doesn't substitute histological evaluation, it could be a reliable instrument to enhance clinical accuracy of skin pigmented lesions diagnosis.