Pseudocystic metastases of carcinoma of the uterine cervix mimicking polycystic liver disease

Pseudocystic liver metastases are rare and mainly described in neuroendocrine or ovarian tumors. We report the case of a 46-year-old woman who presented with multiple hepatic metastases mimicking polycystic liver disease. Carcinoma of the uterine cervix had been diagnosed 9 years earlier, and initially treated by radiumtherapy and surgery. Although histological post mortem examination of the pseudocystic liver metastases was not characteristic, they were related to the uterine cervix carcinoma for the following reasons: no other primary tumor was discovered, especially carcinoid or ovarian tumors: immunostains were positive for epithelial cells and negative for the neuroendocrine panel: the cystic cerebellum metastasis had a typical histologic aspect. Uterine cervical carcinoma must thus be included in the list of tumors which may form cystic hepatic metastases.     

Technology adoption subsidies: An experiment with managers

We evaluate the impact of technology adoption subsidies on investment behavior in an individual choice experiment. In a laboratory setting professional managers are confronted with an intertemporal decision problem in which they have to decide whether or not to search for, and possibly adopt, a new technology. Technologies differ in the per-period benefits they yield, and their purchase price increases with the per-period benefits provided. We introduce a subsidy on the more expensive technologies (that also yield larger per-period benefits), and find that the subsidy scheme induces agents to search for and adopt these more expensive technologies even though the subsidy itself is too small to render these technologies profitable. We speculate that the result is driven by the positive connotation (affect) that the concept ‘subsidy’ invokes.     

Controlling droplet size variability of a digital lab-on-a-chip for improved bio-assay performance

Although several applications of electrowetting on dielectric digital lab-on-a-chips are reported in literature, there is still a lack of knowledge about the influence of operational and design parameters on the performance of an analytical assay. This paper investigates how droplet size variability, introduced by droplet dispensing and splitting, influences the assay performance with respect to repeatability and accuracy and presents a novel method to reduce this variability. Both a theoretical and experimental approach were followed. Monte Carlo simulations were applied to study the cumulative effect of the variability caused by different droplet manipulations on the final assay performance. It is shown that a highly controllable droplet generation and manipulation is achieved with respect to droplet size variability through an accurate control of actuation voltage, activation time, relaxation time, and electrode size. As a case study, it is illustrated that through optimization of these parameters a complete on-chip calibration curve is obtained for a d-glucose assay with an average CV-value of 2%. These new insights aim to bring the digital lab-on-a-chip technology closer to researchers in the field of diagnostics offering them a valuable and accessible alternative to standard analysis platforms.     

加固需求度评价在龙滩水电站左岸边坡加固 工程中的应用

 边坡加固效果的评价是边坡加固的关键环节之一,边坡加固效果的评价方法大致可分为两类：第一类是工程地质条件分析和岩石力学研究的定性或半稳定性方法,其不足在于在预测和评价准确度上很难得到保证;第二类是基于现场监测分析的定量评价方法,其缺点是在测点安装并作监测之后才有可能根据监测数据做出判断。加固需求度(DRD)是一种新提出的评价方法,由于可将基于工程地质条件岩石力学研究评价和基于现场监测的评价进行综合集成,发挥两类方法的长处并弥补各自的不足,具有独特优势。广西龙滩水电站左岸开挖形成的组合坡高达435 m,边坡的变形和稳定直接关系着工程建设的成败,以左岸A区边坡为例进行加固需求度评价的应用研究,结果表明其加固效果较好,与监测数据及现场调查的情况相符。     

Interface micromechanics of transverse sections from retrieved cemented hip reconstructions: an experimental and finite element comparison

In finite element analysis (FEA) models of cemented hip reconstructions, it is crucial to include the cement-bone interface mechanics. Recently, a micromechanical cohesive model was generated which reproduces the behavior of the cement-bone interface. The goal was to investigate whether this cohesive model was directly applicable on a macro level. From transverse sections of retrieved cemented hip reconstructions, two FEA-models were generated. The cement-bone interface was modeled with cohesive elements. A torque was applied and the cement-bone interface micromotions, global stiffness and stem translation were monitored. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate whether the cohesive model could be improved. All results were compared with experimental findings. That the original cohesive model resulted in a too compliant macromechanical response; the motions were too large and the global stiffness too small. When the cohesive model was modified, the match with the experimental response improved considerably.     

Efficient estimation of extreme quantiles using adaptive kriging and importance sampling

This study considers an efficient method for the estimation of quantiles associated to very small levels of probability (up to O(10⁻⁹)), where the scalar performance function J is complex (eg, output of an expensive-to-run finite element model), under a probability measure that can be recast as a multivariate standard Gaussian law using an isoprobabilistic transformation. A surrogate-based approach (Gaussian Processes) combined with adaptive experimental designs allows to iteratively increase the accuracy of the surrogate while keeping the overall number of J evaluations low. Direct use of Monte-Carlo simulation even on the surrogate model being too expensive, the key idea consists in using an importance sampling method based on an isotropic-centered Gaussian with large standard deviation permitting a cheap estimation of small quantiles based on the surrogate model. Similar to AK-MCS as presented in the work of Schöbi et al., (2016), the surrogate is adaptively refined using a parallel infill criterion of an algorithm suitable for very small failure probability estimation. Additionally, a multi-quantile selection approach is developed, allowing to further exploit high-performance computing architectures. We illustrate the performances of the proposed method on several two to eight-dimensional cases. Accurate results are obtained with less than 100 evaluations of J on the considered benchmark cases.     

Receptor-mediated endocytosis of nanoparticles of various shapes

Cellular uptake through endocytosis is crucial for drug delivery and nanomedicine. However, the conditions under which passive endocytosis (i.e., not ATP driven) takes place are not well understood. We report MD simulations of the passive uptake of ligand-coated nanoparticles with varying size, shape, coverage, and membrane-binding strength. We find that the efficiency of passive endocytosis is higher for spherocylindrical particles than for spheres and that endocytosis is suppressed for particles with sharp edges.     

Aluminum for nonlinear plasmonics: resonance-driven polarized luminescence of Al, Ag, and Au nanoantennas

Resonant optical antennas are ideal for nanoscale nonlinear optical interactions due to their inherent strong local field enhancement. Indeed second- and third-order nonlinear response of gold nanoparticles has been reported. Here we compare the on- and off-resonance properties of aluminum, silver, and gold nanoantennas, by measuring two-photon photoluminescence. Remarkably, aluminum shows 2 orders of magnitude higher luminescence efficiency than silver or gold. Moreover, in striking contrast to gold, the aluminum emission largely preserves the linear incident polarization. Finally, we show the systematic resonance control of two-photon excitation and luminescence polarization by tuning the antenna width and length independently. Our findings point to aluminum as a promising metal for nonlinear plasmonics.     

Energy requirements for growth in relation to sexual size dimorphism in marsh harrier Circus aeruginosus nestlings

Food consumption was measured in six female and seven male hand-raised marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) nestlings. Females consumed on average 4,321 g and males consumed 3,571 g of food during the nestling stage from 0 to 36 d. Total consumption until 56 d was 6,960 g and 5,822 g for females and males, respectively. On the basis of Fisher's sex ratio theory, this food intake ratio of 0.46 (intake male/[intake male + female]) would explain the observed male-biased fledging sex ratio of 55% males in marsh harrier broods. Growth, gross energy intake, and metabolizable energy intake were measured, along with metabolism of the nestlings, enabling us to determine energy allocation. The assimilation quotient (Q = 0.72) did not differ systematically between the sexes. Differences in metabolic rates between males and females at 15 and 30 d of age were fully attributable to the difference in body mass. Sexual size dimorphism in marsh harriers (female body mass around 60 d of age is 1.28 times greater than male mass) did not fully explain the difference in food intake between male and female nestlings: an analysis of energy requirements for growth and body mass in 16 avian species shows that energy intake was less than proportional to the average body mass at release. The data presented in this study are in agreement with Fisher's theory of inverse proportionality between the sex-specific ratios of energy requirements for growth and of offspring numbers in the marsh harrier population.