INTRODUCTION In spring 2017, the first case of bovine anthrax in 20 years in Switzerland occurred in the canton of Jura. Carcasses of anthrax-deceased animals should not be opened due to the formation of highly resistant spores bearing the risk of environmental contamination and aerosolization. Nevertheless, in the course of this local outbreak, one sick cow from the affected farm, whose blood repeatedly tested negative for Bacillus anthracis, was necropsied after euthanasia under special biosafety precautions at the Institute of Animal Pathology, Vetsuisse-Faculty Bern. Necropsy revealed ventral edema, fetal death, necro-hemorrhagic placentitis and necrotizing iliac lymphadenitis. Bacillus anthracis was isolated only from placenta and altered lymph node. The biosafety measures taken during and after necropsy prevented a contamination of the necropsy environment, which was proven with bacteriological swabs. This case shows that anthrax may elicit unspecific symptoms mimicking other diseases, and veterinarians must be aware of these non-septicemic cases.

Multicenter clinical trials that use positron emission tomography (PET) imaging frequently rely on stable bias in imaging biomarkers to assess drug effectiveness. Many well-documented factors cause variability in PET intensity values. Two of the largest scanner-dependent errors are scanner calibration and reconstructed image resolution variations. For clinical trials, an increase in measurement error significantly increases the number of patient scans needed. We aim to provide a robust quality assurance system using portable PET/computed tomography “pocket” phantoms and automated image analysis algorithms with the goal of reducing PET measurement variability. A set of the “pocket” phantoms was scanned with patients, affixed to the underside of a patient bed. Our software analyzed the obtained images and estimated the image parameters. The analysis consisted of 2 steps, automated phantom detection and estimation of PET image resolution and global bias. Performance of the algorithm was tested under variations in image bias, resolution, noise, and errors in the expected sphere size. A web-based application was implemented to deploy the image analysis pipeline in a cloud-based infrastructure to support multicenter data acquisition, under Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The automated detection algorithm localized the phantom reliably. Simulation results showed stable behavior when image properties and input parameters were varied. The PET “pocket” phantom has the potential to reduce and/or check for standardized uptake value measurement errors.

Accurate simulation within virtual environments is a prerequisite of using these environments for training tasks. This accuracy has been shown to be a function of the fidelity in many senses. Virtual Reality (VR) has been used to aid in numerous training tasks through the implementation of pedagogical processes via the medium of serious games. This paper considers a complex motor task and whether VR is able to be used as a training environment for this task. Additionally we consider whether augmented virtuality improves task performance. The task being analysed is participant ability in a clay pigeon shooting simulator. Specifically, we evaluate if the type of training being presented influences the performance of participants in this task. VR affords the ability to provide supplementary information which is not typically available in a real-world equivalency. This paper presents a between-subjects repeated measures experiment to identify if the type of training being presented influences performance measures in the motor task. Clay pigeon shooting is considered to be a difficult sport as it requires depth-perception, lead calculation and accurate timing from the shooter. This paper shows that different types of training presented to a participant (N=31) can influence their performance in this task, and that this skill development propagates into future repeated measures. It is also shown that training for this type of task, which is frame-critical, can be deployed with success into the safer environment of VR.

Purpose- Paper aims to give empirical evidence on the impact of control of corruption on happiness as a proxy of social progress by collecting panel data for 59 countries over the period 2007-2016. Methodology- Initial as well as extended model that controls for government consumption are estimated using linear static and dynamic panel data estimators. In order to test for the sensitivity of the results and to estimate short- and long-run coefficients, panel ARDL framework is employed. Findings- The results of linear static and dynamic panel data estimators indicate the significant positive impact of control of corruption on happiness in both, initial and extended models. ARDL model reports a significant relationship between control of corruption and happiness in initial and extended model only in the long-run. Conclusion- The convergence process from corrupt to hones politics is complex and is likely to be achieved only in the long-run period.

One of the main challenges of future industrial systems is to flexibly (re)deploy control applications on hardware controllers - a feature that is missing in most state of the art automation systems. Due to the heterogeneous structure of control systems, e.g. different standards and hardware, a silver bullet architecture for flexible deployment seems to be infeasible. Instead we propose an abstract architecture covering different concrete reconfiguration system architectures along with a taxonomy for design decisions for the realization of such a system. The capability of the abstract architecture is demonstrated by mapping three fundamentally different concrete reconfiguration system architectures and is verified on an industrial use case of a logistic system of an aluminum cold rolling plant.

The paper considers a problem of feature matching and object detection in two images using brute-force matchers. The proposed framework exploited several concurrent algorithms for feature detection and descriptor extraction, such as ORB (Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF), BRISK (Binary Robust Invariant Scalable Keypoints), SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) and SURF (Speeded-Up Robust Features). The feature matching is accomplished by the Brute-Force approach combined with the k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm. The obtained matches are utilized by the robust RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) method for estimating the transformation between two consecutive images. Therefore, the RANSAC method is employed to improve the outliers removal. The proposed algorithm is designed and implemented using OpenCV library. Its effectiveness and quality are verified through analyses of its execution speed and accuracy of the feature matching.

The paper treats a design of the mobile robot motion framework based on Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). This approach relies on laser range-finder measurements and safety regions described around the detected obstacles. The controller optimization involves both actuator and environment constraints excluding safety regions. The safe motion of the mobile robot using the proposed framework is provided in unknown static and dynamic environments. Stability issue of the used closed-loop motion control system is guaranteed employing direct Lyapunov method. The simulation setup was conducted using a 2D simulator (Stage) in the Robot Operating System (ROS) environment. The obtained results through different scenarios demonstrates that proposed NMPC-based framework approach ensures smooth trajectories from start to the goal point.

The optimal bowel preparation strategy to minimise the risk of anastomotic leak is yet to be determined. This study aimed to determine whether oral antibiotics combined with mechanical bowel preparation (MBP+Abx) was associated with a reduced risk of anastomotic leak when compared to mechanical bowel preparation alone (MBP) or no bowel preparation (NBP).

Laparoscopy has now been implemented as a standard of care for elective colonic resection around the world. During the adoption period, studies showed that conversion may be detrimental to patients, with poorer outcomes than both laparoscopic completed or planned open surgery. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether laparoscopic conversion was associated with a higher major complication rate than planned open surgery in contemporary, international practice.

Abstract Ulcerative colitis (UC) represents chronic inflammation of the large intestine. Immune response plays an important role in disease genesis and progression. Activated leukocytes secrete several cytokines that actively regulate the inflammatory response in UC. The aim of this study was to determine levels of cytokines IL-17, IL-27, IFN-γ and TGF-β in patients with UC and to test them as biomarkers for disease. The blood samples of 24 patients with ulcerative colitis without previous treatment and 37 healthy individuals were analyzed. Serum levels of IL-17, IL-27, IFN-γ and TGF-β were measured using sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits. Serum levels of IL-17, IL-27, IFN-γ and TGF-β were increased in patients with UC, compared to healthy controls (p=0.022; p=0.001; p=0.001; and p=0.002; respectively). Ratios of cytokines IL-27/IL-17, IFN-γ/TGF-β and IL-17/TGF-β were significantly higher in group of patients with UC (p=0.002; p=0.002; p=0.003; respectively). Serum value of TGF-β higher than 20 pg/ml presents a highly sensitive and specific marker for UC. We believe that increased production and predominance of immunosupressive TGF-β may represent compensatory mechanism for ongoing pro-inflammatory processes in UC.