PID auf Aneuploidie des Embryos?

Definition of problem

At least in some cases, testing for aneuploidy as part of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) can be medically useful for pregnancy care. The current legal situation in Germany seems to not generally exclude PGD to detect a maldistribution of chromosomes in an embryo, but testing would require approval by a PGD ethics committee on a case-by-case basis and a well-reasoned application by the concerned woman. This article examines ethically and legally whether fundamental reasons prevent PGD commissions from admitting requests to perform aneuploidy tests as part of PGD.

Arguments

Three constellations – each with differing ethical implications – can be distinguished in which testing for aneuploidy could be considered or could occur: Testing for aneuploidy can (i) be the main reason for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which in itself is not medically indicated; (ii) IVF is done as infertility treatment in which case PGD and aneuploidy testing could be done additionally; or (iii) PGD with IVF is indicated in order to prevent a congenital disease or chromosomal aberration leading to a diagnosis of aneuploidy as an incidental or additional finding. Ethical arguments which could lead to a general rejection of aneuploidy testing are the prevention of discrimination against people with aneuploidy, as well as the protection of embryos. These concerns oppose constellation (i), but do not apply to (ii) and (iii). Yet there are at least three ethical arguments in favour of an admissibility of a request for aneuploidy testing: the “good practice” of IVF, the duty to the emerging child and the parent’s right to have a voice in the discussion.

Conclusion

Aneuploidy testing as part of PGD is not ruled out by legal or ethical reasons and should be openly discussed by the relevant German ethics commissions.

     

A New Research Infrastructure for Investigating Flow Hydraulics and Process Equipment at Critical Fluid Properties

An optimized equipment design for natural gas processing and liquefaction plants becomes increasingly difficult with changing process conditions: Particularly low values of surface tension create rising challenges on the design of phase separators and column internals. The TERESA test rig at HZDR was designed to allow the investigation of multiphase thermohydraulics and phase separator performance under critical fluid properties in industrial dimensions. A versatile pipe test section is available in DN200 and equipment internals may be tested in a sectional DN300/DN500 test separator. The applied test fluid shows a high vapor-liquid density difference between 1470 and 940 kg m⁻³, viscosity as low as 0.12 mm²s⁻¹, and surface tension down to 1.3 mN m⁻¹. Volumetric liquid and vapor flow rates may be varied up to 9 and 530 m³h⁻¹ in the test rig, respectively.     

冷能利用片冰机海水淡化动态仿真

介绍了一种新型的冷冻海水淡化技术。到2019年末,液化天然气（LNG）生产能力已达4.3亿吨/年。LNG从再气化过程中释放出的巨大冷能量可用于冷冻脱盐过程,以最大限度地降低总能耗。本文采用HYSYS软件设计并仿真了利用LNG冷能的片冰机冷冻海水淡化（FD）过程。采用片冰机上的制冰桶作为海水结晶器,主要是由于其连续制冰和除冰无热源。利用gPROMS软件建立了冻结段的动态模型并进行了仿真。结果表明,用1kg当量液化天然气冷能可获得1.9~2.1kg的冰融水,该混合工艺的制冷剂泵功率能耗为3.725Wh/100kg,可忽略不计。     

Approximate variational inference based on a finite sample of Gaussian latent variables

Variational methods are employed in situations where exact Bayesian inference becomes intractable due to the difficulty in performing certain integrals. Typically, variational methods postulate a tractable posterior and formulate a lower bound on the desired integral to be approximated, e.g. marginal likelihood. The lower bound is then optimised with respect to its free parameters, the so-called variational parameters. However, this is not always possible as for certain integrals it is very challenging (or tedious) to come up with a suitable lower bound. Here, we propose a simple scheme that overcomes some of the awkward cases where the usual variational treatment becomes difficult. The scheme relies on a rewriting of the lower bound on the model log-likelihood. We demonstrate the proposed scheme on a number of synthetic and real examples, as well as on a real geophysical model for which the standard variational approaches are inapplicable.     

High pressure cell for neutron reflectivity measurements up to 2500 bar

The design of a high pressure (HP) cell for neutron reflectivity experiments is described. The cell can be used to study solid-liquid interfaces under pressures up to 2500 bar (250 MPa). The sample interface is based on a thick silicon block with an area of about 14 cm(2). This area is in contact with the sample solution which has a volume of only 6 cm(3). The sample solution is separated from the pressure transmitting medium, water, by a thin flexible polymer membrane. In addition, the HP cell can be temperature-controlled by a water bath in the range 5-75°C. By using an aluminum alloy as window material, the assembled HP cell provides a neutron transmission as high as 41%. The maximum angle of incidence that can be used in reflectivity experiments is 7.5°. The large accessible pressure range and the low required volume of the sample solution make this HP cell highly suitable for studying pressure-induced structural changes of interfacial proteins, supported lipid membranes, and, in general, biomolecular systems that are available in small quantities, only. To illustrate the performance of the HP cell, we present neutron reflectivity data of a protein adsorbate under high pressure and a lipid film which undergoes several phase transitions upon pressurization.     

The Price of Anarchy in Network Creation Games Is (Mostly) Constant

We study the price of anarchy and the structure of equilibria in network creation games. A network creation game is played by n players {1,2,…,n}, each identified with a vertex of a graph (network), where the strategy of player i, i=1,…,n, is to build some edges adjacent to i. The cost of building an edge is α>0, a fixed parameter of the game. The goal of every player is to minimize its creation cost plus its usage cost. The creation cost of player i is α times the number of built edges. In the SumGame variant, the usage cost of player i is the sum of distances from i to every node of the resulting graph. In the MaxGame variant, the usage cost is the eccentricity of i in the resulting graph of the game. In this paper we improve previously known bounds on the price of anarchy of the game (of both variants) for various ranges of α, and give new insights into the structure of equilibria for various values of α. The two main results of the paper show that for α>273?n all equilibria in SumGame are trees and thus the price of anarchy is constant, and that for α>129 all equilibria in MaxGame are trees and the price of anarchy is constant. For SumGame this answers (almost completely) one of the fundamental open problems in the field—is price of anarchy of the network creation game constant for all values of α?—in an affirmative way, up to a tiny range of α.     

Examining the dimensionality of genuine multipartite entanglement

Entanglement in high-dimensional many-body systems plays an increasingly vital role in the foundations and applications of quantum physics. In the present paper, we introduce a theoretical concept which allows to categorize multipartite states by the number of degrees of freedom being entangled. In this regard, we derive computable and experimentally friendly criteria for arbitrary multipartite qudit systems that enable to examine in how many degrees of freedom a mixed state is genuine multipartite entangled.     

Privacy-enhanced architecture for smart metering

The recent deployment of smart grids promises to bring numerous advantages in terms of energy consumption reduction in both homes and businesses. A more transparent and instantaneous measurement of electricity consumption through smart meters utilization leads to an enhancement in the ability of monitoring, controlling and predicting energy usage. Nevertheless, it also has associated drawbacks related to the privacy of customers, since such management might reveal their personal habits, which electrical appliances they are using at each moment, whether they are at home or not, etc. In this work, we present a privacy-enhanced architecture for smart metering aimed at tackling this threat by means of encrypting individual measurements while allowing the electricity supplier to access the aggregation of the corresponding decrypted values.     

Figure-ground separation by cue integration

This letter presents an improved cue integration approach to reliably separate coherent moving objects from their background scene in video sequences. The proposed method uses a probabilistic framework to unify bottom-up and top-down cues in a parallel, "democratic" fashion. The algorithm makes use of a modified Bayes rule where each pixel's posterior probabilities of figure or ground layer assignment are derived from likelihood models of three bottom-up cues and a prior model provided by a top-down cue. Each cue is treated as independent evidence for figure-ground separation. They compete with and complement each other dynamically by adjusting relative weights from frame to frame according to cue quality measured against the overall integration. At the same time, the likelihood or prior models of individual cues adapt toward the integrated result. These mechanisms enable the system to organize under the influence of visual scene structure without manual intervention. A novel contribution here is the incorporation of a top-down cue. It improves the system's robustness and accuracy and helps handle difficult and ambiguous situations, such as abrupt lighting changes or occlusion among multiple objects. Results on various video sequences are demonstrated and discussed. (Video demos are available at http://organic.usc.edu:8376/ approximately tangx/neco/index.html .).