OBJECTIVE To describe the technical nuances of multimodal transseptal-transsphenoid surgery for pituitary tumors using a combination of microneurosurgery, neuroendoscopy, and electromagnetic neuronavigation. MATERIALS AND METHODS A transnasal approach to the sella is performed endoscopically and widely exposed by an otolaryngologic surgeon. Surgery is next performed by the neurosurgeon with microscope and neuronavigation for microsurgical resection of pituitary tumors. Neuroendoscope is also used at the end of surgery to confirm tumor resection and inspect operative site. During surgery, the patient's head, angle and height of the microscope, and position of the table are repositionable to allow for multiple angle views. Abdominal fat harvested prior to the procedure is used to ensure cerebrospinal fluid seal. RESULTS The senior author (KIA) has used the combined approach with 84 consecutive patients. Radical resection was achieved in 66 patients, subtotal in 11, and partial in 7. There were no perioperative complications. Six patients experienced postoperative transient diabetes insipidus. The pituitary gland and stalk were preserved in all cases. Visual symptoms were improved in 78% and endocrinological symptoms in 56% of cases. CONCLUSION This combined approach is safe and effective. It increases the efficacy and radicality of surgical resection, helps to preserve the pituitary gland, and improves and resolves preoperatively altered patient hormonal function and impaired vision. It also reduces complications, provides less postoperative pain and discomfort, reduces the surgery time, and enables a shorter hospital-stay.

No abstract available.

On September 9-12, 2019, I traveled to Beijing, China for the World Congress of Neurosurgery. I was eager to attend the biggest event of my profession for two reasons. One was my nomination for second vice-president of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS). The second reason was to learn about Chinese culture for the first time in my life. I was honored to be elected for an officer position of the WFNS and I tremendously enjoyed the grandiosity of the Great Wall of China (Figure 1), the Forbidden City, and Summer Palace; I also enjoyed trying authentic Chinese food.

Background. The most common cause of early death in acute myocardial infarction with ST elevation are malignant heart rhythm disorders, generally occurring in the first four hours of myocardial infarction. The incidence of ventricular fibrillation is greatest in the early stage of the myocardial infarction, and sudden cardiac deaths occur most often in outpatient conditions. Case reports. This paper presents a patient whose first manifestation of coronary artery disease was myocardial infarction with ST elevation complicated by early ventricular fibrillation. Rapid measures of cardiopulmonal resuscitation enabled quick establishment of normal sinus rhythm. Primary percutaneous intervention was performed, with revascularization of artery responsible for acute myocardial infarction. In order to reduce ischemic brain damage, therapeutic hypothermia was applied since the patient was presented in post-reanimation coma. Conclusion. Better treatment of patients with cardiac arrest in outpatient conditions and faster revascularization of the infarct artery are crucial for a reduction of mortality in acute myocardial infarction.

Recent trends in the development of autonomous vehicles focus on real-time processing of vast amounts of data from various sensors. The data can be acquired using multiple cameras, lidars, ultrasonic sensors, and radars to collect useful information about the state of the traffic and the surroundings. Significant computational power is required to process the data fast enough, and this is even more pronounced in vehicles that not only assist the driver but are capable of fully autonomous driving. This article proposes speed and accuracy improvement of traffic sign detection and recognition in high-definition images, based on focusing on different regions of interest in traffic images. These regions are determined with efficient and parallelized preprocessing of every traffic image, after which convolutional neural network is applied for detection and recognition in parallel on graphics processing units. We employed different “You Only Look Once” (YOLO) architectures as baseline detectors, due to their speed, straightforward architecture, and high accuracy in general object detection tasks. Several preprocessing procedures were proposed, to achieve real-time performance requirement. Our experiments using a large-scale traffic sign dataset show that we can achieve real-time detection in high-definition images with high recognition accuracy.

In the article we determine the suitability of the phytocenose as a basic unit for determining soil susceptibility to mechanized logging. A total of 90 measurements of skid trail profiles were taken on a 13.9 km long sample transect. The forest infrastructure studied was categorized into primary and secondary skid trails, trails intended for CTL harvesting and undocumented trails. The following indicators were determined on the profiles: tyre track depth, trail width, trail slope, amount of rock present, presence of roots and road category. The deepest ruts were found in Blechno-Fagetum (6.9 cm), followed by Galio rotundifolii-Abietetum (6.4 cm) and Hacquetio-Fagetum (5.6 cm), while the shallowest ruts were found in Omphalodo-Fagetum (5.3 cm). The deepest ruts were found on primary skid trails (7.0 cm), followed by secondary skid trails (5.8 cm), while the shallowest ruts were found on skid trails used by CTL technology and on undocumented trails (1.9 cm). No significant difference in track depth was found between the four individual phytosociological units, but more extensive research should be conducted in the future.