Recent years have witnessed an ever-mounting interest in the research of sparse representation. The framework, Sparse Representation-based Classification (SRC), has been widely applied as a classifier in numerous domains, among which Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) target recognition is really challenging because it still is an open problem to interpreting the SAR image. In this paper, SRC is utilized to classify a 10-class moving and stationary target acquisition and recognition (MSTAR) target, which is a standard SAR data set. Before the classification, the sizes of the images need to be normalized to maintain the useful information, target and shadow, and to suppress the speckle noise. Specifically, a preprocessing method is recommended to extract the feature vectors of the image, and the feature vectors of the test samples can be represented by the sparse linear combination of basis vectors generated by the feature vectors of the training samples. Then the sparse representation is solved by l 1 -norm minimization. Finally, the identities of the test samples are inferred by the reconstructive errors calculated through the sparse coefficient. Experimental results demonstrate the good performance of SRC. Additionally, the average recognition rate under different feature spaces and the recognition rate of each target are discussed.

In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, it was feasible in 60% of the subjects to measure left renal blood flow using intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography. The interobserver and intraobserver reproducibility of renal blood flow measurements was good to excellent.

Iatrogenic diversion of the inferior vena cava (IVC) into the left atrium (LA) is usually reported as a rare complication following large posteroinferior atrial septal defect (ASD) surgery. It may cause acute or chronic hypoxemia, and other potentially life-threatening complications such as stroke. We present a case in which the ASD patch straddled the IVC entrance diagnosed immediately by transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during the period of patient separated from cardiopulmonary bypass, avoiding the related complications. Our report further underlines the important role of TEE to monitor and guide ASD surgical management, especially secundum ASD with inferior extension or inferior sinus venosus defects, for the early diagnosis of iatrogenic surgical errors.

In the presence of a large patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), aortic co-arctation (CoA) cannot be diagnosed clinically because PDA masks the clinical features. This condition impedes the identification of CoA by transthoracic echcocardiography. However, the closure of PDA can result in a severe clinical condition that causes a patient with undiagnosed CoA to suffer from shock and multi-organ failure. In this article, a case of PDA was presented, in which transesophageal echocardiography provided full information that could be used as reference to identify and define CoA during PDA ligation surgery.

Chloral hydrate has been long used as a safe sedative and hypnotic drug in humans. However, reports on its cardiovascular adverse effects have been published from time to time. The present study was undertaken to use Rhesus monkeys as a model to define the dose regiment of chloral hydrate at which cardiac arrhythmias can be induced and the consequences of the cardiac events. Male Rhesus monkeys of 2-3 years old were intravenously infused with chloral hydrate starting at 50 mg/kg with an increasing increment of 25 mg/kg until the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias. In addition, a traditional up-and-down dosing procedure was applied to define a single dose level at which cardiac arrhythmias can be induced. The data obtained showed that when the sequentially escaladed dose reached 125 mg/kg, cardiac arrhythmias occurred in all monkeys tested. The single effective dose to cause cardiac arrhythmias calculated from the crossover analysis was 143 ± 4 mg/kg. This value would be equivalent to 68.6 ± 1.9 mg/kg for children and 46.4 ± 1.3 mg/kg for adults in humans. Under either multiple or single dose condition, cardiac arrhythmias did not occur before 40 min after the onset of anesthesia induced by chloral hydrate. Cardiac arrhythmias were recovered without help at the end of the anesthesia in most cases, but also continued after the regain of consciousness in some cases. The cardiac arrhythmias were accompanied with compromised cardiac function including suppressed fractional shortening and ejection fraction. This study thus suggests that cautions need to be taken when chloral hydrate is used above certain levels and beyond a certain period of anesthesia, and cardiac arrhythmias induced by chloral hydrate need to be closely monitored because compromised cardiac function may occur simultaneously. In addition, patients with cardiac arrhythmias induced by chloral hydrate should be monitored even after they are recovered from the anesthesia.

Transluminal balloon valvuloplasty was used to treat congenital pulmonary valve stenosis is 12 patie nts and ao rtic valve stenosis in 3 patients, aged 22 months to 18 years The ri ght ventricular press ure grad ient decreased from 87.8 土 30.33mmHg to 16.99mmHg(P < 0. 0 1) immediate ly after the procedure for pulmonary valve stenosisThe procedure s uccess rate was 92 %( 11 / 12) and the case which fai!ed was one, due to mild dysplastic pulmonary valveThe pressure grad ient across the aortic valve before percutaneous balloon ao rti c valvuloplasty we re 220, 103 , 119mmHg, decreased to 64 , 69 , 96mmHg aft er the proce dure Percutaneous transluminal balloon valvuloplasty was effective in the treatment of congenital pulmonary and aortic valve stenosis

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Background: Postoperative sore throat is one of the most common complications associated with endotracheal intubation. It has been reported that intra-cuff application of lidocaine could reduce its incidence and severity. In the present study, we would like to investigate the safety and efficacy of intra-cuff use of tetracaine, one of the most commonly used topical anesthetic, on prevention of postoperative sore throat. Methods: Female patients (age from 18-60 years) undergoing gynecological surgery under general anesthesia were included. Assigned randomly, the patients received one of the following cuff inflation media: air, 0.9% saline, 2% lidocaine or 1% tetracaine (N=25 in each group). The cuff was inflated with minimal occlusive volume technique. Intra-cuff pressure was measured with a manometer. The primary outcome was the severity of postoperative sore throat, assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS) at 6 hours after extubation. The secondary outcomes included the incidences of complications during emergence of anesthesia and extubation, such as tube intolerance, coughing, restlessness, hoarseness, and laryngospasm, as well as the VAS scores for sore throat at 24 and 48 hours after extubation. The safety and efficacy were further tested by pathological examination of tracheal mucosa after 4-hour intubation in animal study and measurement of diffused anesthetic via the cuff wall in in vitro study, respectively. Results: There was no difference in volume of inflation medium, or intra-cuff pressure between groups. Tetracaine significantly reduced the severity of postoperative sore throat during the 48-hour postoperative observation period, compared with lidocaine (P<0.05) or air (P<0.01). There were also fewer patients with tube intolerance, coughing, restlessness and hoarseness in tetracaine group, compared with lidocaine group (P<0.05) or air group (P<0.01). No abnormality was found in tracheal mucosa pathology and tetracaine diffused via the cuff wall continuously. Conclusions: Our study showed that inflating the cuff with tetraciane is safe and effective in preventing tube-induced emergence phenomena.