gives pros and cons for prototyping

Fat and protein production from 191.768 ewes and 11.259 goats, together with climatic variables were used to determine the threshold and response to heat stress (HS) in dairy sheep (Manchega) and goat (Florida) Spanish local populations. Models including the effects of herd-year of test day, number and stage of lactation, age of the animal at recording, prolificacy, milking time, animal and a regression (b) on the climatic variable that operates only after a certain threshold (To) were used. Average (Tave) and maximum temperature (Tmax) plus an index combining both temperature and humidity (THI) were used as climatic variables. The analyses were carried out for the whole population and for the highly producing (AP) animals (1.5 sd above average). To was lower for goats than for sheep around 10°C vs. 29 °C for Tmedia and Tmax, respectively. Small b values were observed for the whole sheep population, but a larger impact of HS was found for the AP animals. For these, b ranged between 6 (fat) and 16 (protein)g/°C. For the goat population, declines were similar for the global and AP data, but larger for fat%, ranging between 0.05 and 0.09% per unit of climatic variable.

Modern technologies enable users accessing services using multiple channels. In the service design phase, this poses additional requirements for high software adaptivity along different technical requirements and different user expectations. During execution, services are usually dynamically selected; this service selection phase requires the identification of the most suitable service along the context that characterizes the users in the time instant in which they send the service request. This paper focuses on the selection phase and it aims at providing a framework to define and manage the context in a general environment characterized by adaptivity and multichannel access. An example to demonstrate the suitability and feasibility of the framework is provided referring to the MAIS (Multichannel Adaptive Information Systems) architecture and considering services related to the tourism domain. The MAIS architecture aims at providing automatically and efficiently services with the appropriate features by choosing among many provider offerings.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a systolic ECG-gated high-pitch aortoiliac computed tomography (CT) angiography for planning transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI).

METHODS: Patients referred for TAVI underwent a combined CT imaging with retrospective, multiphasic ECG-gating of the heart and systolic ECG-gated high-pitch aortoiliac CT angiography. Consecutive patients were retrospectively included in this study group. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were assessed during the high-pitch ECG prediction phase. Aortic annulus area (AAA) was planimetrically quantified on both datasets. While only one moment of cardiac cycle was available for measurements in the high-pitch CT, the point of time in the multiphasic CT was chosen, where AAA yielded maximum size. Hypothetical prosthesis sizing was compared between multiphasic vs. high-pitch CT.

RESULTS: Among 61 patients (44.2 % men, mean age: 83.3 ± 5.5 years) average heart rate and HRV were 71.0 ± 13.4 bpm and 7.3 ± 8.5 bpm. 20 patients (32.7 %) had atrial fibrillation at the time of image acquisition. There was a strong correlation of AAA as derived from multiphasic vs. the high-pitch CT (r = 0.98). The difference in AAA was 10.5 ± 17.1mm (455.1 ± 83.0 mm for multiphasic vs. 444.5 ± 87.2 mm for high-pitch CT) and did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.08). Hypothetical prosthesis sizing showed an agreement in 55 of 61 patients (90.2 %). A sizing based on the high-pitch CT resulted in smaller prosthesis choice in 6 patients, all of them suffering from atrial fibrillation. Mean effective radiation dose was 10.9 ± 6.1 mSv for cardiac CTA and 4.1 ± 1.0 mSv for high-pitch CTA.

CONCLUSION: For patients with sinus rhythm, systolic high-pitch aortoiliac CTA provides adequate prosthesis size selection as compared with multiphasic ECG-gated cardiac CTA and may result in significantly reduced radiation exposition.