Validation of the three-dimensional acquisition mode in positron emission tomography for the quantitation of [18F]fluoro-DOPA uptake in the human striata

Three-dimensional (3D) positron emission tomography (PET) is attractive for [18F]fluoro-DOPA studies, since the sensitivity improvement is maximal for radioactive sources located in central planes, which is usually the case for the human striata. However, the image quantitation in that mode must be assessed because of the nearly threefold increase in scattered coincidences. We report the results of [18F]fluoro-DOPA studies performed on six normal volunteers. Each one was scanned in the 3D and two-dimensional (2D) modes on the same tomograph. The quantitation in the 3D and 2D modes was compared for a Patlak graphical analysis with the occipital counts as the input function (Ki) and a striatooccipital ratio analysis. We find that, in 3D PET, a scatter correction is required to preserve the same quantitation as in 2D PET. When the 3D data sets are corrected for scatter, the quantitation of the [18F]fluoro-DOPA uptake, using the Patlak analysis, is similar in the 2D and 3D acquisition modes. Conversely, analysis of the striatooccipital ratio leads to higher values in 3D PET because of a better in-plane resolution. Finally, using the 3D mode, the dose injected to the subjects can be reduced by a factor greater than 1.5 without any loss in accuracy compared to the 2D mode.     

Modeling of the condyle elements within a biomechanical knee model

The development of a computational multibody knee model able to capture some of the fundamental properties of the human knee articulation is presented. This desideratum is reached by including the kinetics of the real knee articulation. The research question is whether an accurate modeling of the condyle contact in the knee will lead to reproduction of the complex combination of flexion/extension, abduction/adduction, and tibial rotation observed in the real knee. The model is composed by two anatomic segments, the tibia and the femur, whose characteristics are functions of the geometric and anatomic properties of the real bones. The biomechanical model characterization is developed under the framework of multibody systems methodologies using Cartesian coordinates. The type of approach used in the proposed knee model is the joint surface contact conditions between ellipsoids, representing the two femoral condyles, and points, representing the tibial plateau and the menisci. These elements are closely fitted to the actual knee geometry. This task is undertaken by considering a parameter optimization process to replicate experimental data published in the literature, namely that by Lafortune and his coworkers in 1992. Then kinematic data in the form of flexion/extension patterns are imposed on the model corresponding to the stance phase of the human gait. From the results obtained, by performing several computational simulations, it can be observed that the knee model approximates the average secondary motion patterns observed in the literature. Because the literature reports considerable inter-individual differences in the secondary motion patterns, the knee model presented here is also used to check whether it is possible to reproduce the observed differences with reasonable variations of bone shape parameters. This task is accomplished by a parameter study, in which the main variables that define the geometry of condyles are taken into account. It was observed that the data reveal a difference in secondary kinematics of the knee in flexion versus extension. The likely explanation for this fact is the elastic component of the secondary motions created by the combination of joint forces and soft tissue deformations. The proposed knee model is, therefore, used to investigate whether this observed behavior can be explained by reasonable elastic deformations of the points representing the menisci in the model.     

The Chick Chorioallantoic Membrane Model: A New In Vivo Tool to Evaluate Breast Cancer Stem Cell Activity

The high plasticity of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) allows them to differentiate and proliferate, specifically when xenotransplanted subcutaneously into immunocompromised mice. CSCs are highly tumorigenic, even when inoculated in small numbers. Thus, in vivo limiting dilution assays (LDA) in mice are the current gold standard method to evaluate CSC enrichment and activity. The chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) is a low cost, naturally immune-incompetent and reproducible model widely used to evaluate the spontaneous growth of human tumor cells. Here, we established a CAM-LDA assay able to rapidly reproduce tumor specificities—in particular, the ability of the small population of CSCs to form tumors. We used a panel of organotropic metastatic breast cancer cells, which show an enrichment in a stem cell gene signature, enhanced CD44⁺/CD24^−/low cell surface expression and increased mammosphere-forming efficiency (MFE). The size of CAM-xenografted tumors correlate with the number of inoculated cancer cells, following mice xenograft growth pattern. CAM and mice tumors are histologically comparable, displaying both breast CSC markers CD44 and CD49f. Therefore, we propose a new tool for studying CSC prevalence and function—the chick CAM-LDA—a model with easy handling, accessibility, rapid growth and the absence of ethical and regulatory constraints.     

Study of the polymerization of 1-octadecene with different rnetallocene catalysts

Summary 1-Octadecene (C18) was polymerized by using different metallocene catalysts. The rac-Et(Ind)₂ZrC1₂/MAO (I) and rac-Me₂Si(Ind)₂ZrC1₂/MAO (III) presented the highest activity as compared with ra-Et(2-Me-Ind)₂ZrCl₂/MAO (II) and Ph₂C(Flu)(Cp)ZrC1₂/MAO (IV) catalysts. Catalyst IV produced polymers with highest molecular weights. The microstructure of the polymers was determined by ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy. Catalyst systems I, II and III produced isotactic polymers while catalyst IV produced polymers with mainly syndiotactic structures but with large amount of stereoregular error. Received: 21 June 2002/Revised version: 4 November 2002/ Accepted: 4 November 2002     

Improved Accuracy of High-Order WENO Finite Volume Methods on Cartesian Grids

We propose a simple modification of standard weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) finite volume methods for Cartesian grids, which retains the full spatial order of accuracy of the one-dimensional discretization when applied to nonlinear multidimensional systems of conservation laws. We derive formulas, which allow us to compute high-order accurate point values of the conserved quantities at grid cell interfaces. Using those point values, we can compute a high-order flux at the center of a grid cell interface. Finally, we use those point values to compute high-order accurate averaged fluxes at cell interfaces as needed by a finite volume method. The method is described in detail for the two-dimensional Euler equations of gas dynamics. An extension to the three-dimensional case as well as to other nonlinear systems of conservation laws in divergence form is straightforward. Furthermore, similar ideas can be used to improve the accuracy of WENO type methods for hyperbolic systems which are not in divergence form. Several test computations confirm the high-order accuracy for smooth nonlinear problems.     

A Distributed O(1)-Approximation Algorithm for the Uniform Facility Location Problem

We investigate a metric facility location problem in a distributed setting. In this problem, we assume that each point is a client as well as a potential location for a facility and that the opening costs for the facilities and the demands of the clients are uniform. The goal is to open a subset of the input points as facilities such that the accumulated cost for the whole point set, consisting of the opening costs for the facilities and the connection costs for the clients, is minimized. We present a randomized distributed algorithm that computes in expectation an ${\mathcal {O}}(1)$ -approximate solution to the metric facility location problem described above. Our algorithm works in a synchronous message passing model, where each point is an autonomous computational entity that has its own local memory and that communicates with the other entities by message passing. We assume that each entity knows the distance to all the other entities, but does not know any of the other pairwise distances. Our algorithm uses three rounds of all-to-all communication with message sizes bounded to $\mathcal{O}(\log(n))$ bits, where n is the number of input points. We extend our distributed algorithm to constant powers of metric spaces. For a metric exponent ?≥1, we obtain a randomized ${\mathcal {O}}(1)$ -approximation algorithm that uses three rounds of all-to-all communication with message sizes bounded to $\mathcal{O}(\log(n))$ bits.     

Spray drying conditions and encapsulating composition effects on formation and properties of sodium diclofenac microparticles

This paper reports the preparation and characterization of sustained release sodium diclofenac microparticles by spray drying. Aqueous dispersions of ethyl cellulose (Surelease®) and Eudragit RS 30 D® were evaluated as controlled release polymers. The product properties (product moisture, size distribution, particle morphology, flow properties, total drug load, in-vitro dissolution studies, and encapsulating efficiency) were determined as a function of inlet temperature of the spray drying, the feed flow rate and composition of the microencapsulating formulation. In general, lower values of the product moisture content were observed at higher drying temperatures. The spray-dried product was composed mainly by rounded-shape and multi-size particles. The mean particle diameters of the Eudragit based microparticles tended to be slight bigger than the Surelease based microparticles. The spray dried microparticles showed delayed drug dissolution rates, sustaining the drug release for several hours. These findings confirm the feasibility of the spray drying for preparation of microparticles with sustained release properties. The physical and chemical properties of the microparticles can be changed by varying the spray drying parameters as well as the microencapsulating formulation.     

Electrodialytic extraction of Cu,Pb and Cl from municipal solid waste incineration fly ash suspended in water

The possibility of using fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) in, for example, concrete is considered. MSWI fly ash, however, has too high a concentration of heavy metals, which may cause leaching problems during use or problems with waste handling at the end of the lifetime of the concrete. The Cl content in MSWI fly ash is also too high and will cause corrosion problems in reinforced concrete. The possibility of removing some of the unwanted heavy metals (Cu and Pb) together with Cl from an MSWI fly ash suspended in water using an electrodialytic separation method was investigated. The removal of Pb and Cu was found to be highly pH dependent and the highest contents removed were 41 and 90%, respectively. The Cu concentration of the ash decreased from 2200 to 860 mg kg^?1 but the Pb concentration increased from 8560 to 16 800 mg kg^?1, showing that Pb is mainly found in the ash fraction that is least soluble. Hence electrodialytic treatment of the ash suspended in water is not a solution to improve the ash quality in terms of Pb. The water‐soluble Cl content per unit weight of the original ash was 12.4%. The removal of water‐soluble Cl was efficient and >98% of Cl was removed (calculated on the basis of mean initial and final concentrations). This result indicates that electrodialytic extraction may be a method that can be used for the removal of Cl from ash prior to its utilization in concrete. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Impedance of a porous electrode with an axial gradient of concentration

When the impedance is measured on a battery, an inductive impedance is often observed in a high frequency range. This inductance is frequently related to the cell geometry and electrical leads. However, certain authors claimed that this inductance is due to the concentration distribution of reacting species through the pores of battery electrodes. Their argument is based on a paper in which a fundamental error was committed. Hence, the impedance is re-calculated on the basis of the same principle. The model shows that though the diffusion process plays an outstanding role, the overall reaction rate is never completely limited by this process. The faradaic impedance due to the concentration distribution is capacitive. Therefore, the inductive impedance observed on battery systems cannot be, by any means, attributed to the concentration distribution inside the pores. Little frequency distribution is found and the impedance is close to a semi-circle. Therefore depressed impedance diagrams in porous electrodes without forced convection cannot be ascribed to either a Warburg nor a Warburg-de Levie behaviour.Nomenclature A D¦C¦ (mole cm s^–1) - B j+K¦C¦ (mole cm s^–1) - b Tafel coefficient (V^–1) - C(x) Concentration ofS in a pore at depthx (mole cm^–3) - C ₀ Concentration ofS in the solution bulk (mole cm^–3) - C C(x) change under a voltage perturbation (mole cm^–3) - ¦C¦ Amplitude of C (mole cm^–3) - D Diffusion coefficient (cm² s^–1) - E Electrode potential (V) - E Small perturbation inE namely a sine-wave signal (V) - ¦E¦ Amplitude of E(V) - F Faraday constant (96500 A s mol^–1) - F(x) Space separate variable forC - f Frequency in Hz (s^–1) - g(x) KC(x)¦E¦(mole cm s^–1) - I Apparent current density (A cm^–2) - I _st Steady-state current per unit surface of pore aperture (A cm^–2) - j Imaginary unit [(–1)^1/2] - K Pseudo-homogeneous rate constant (s^–1) - K Potential derivative ofK, dK/dE (s^–1 V^–1) - K ^* Heterogeneous reaction rate constant (cm s^–1) - L Pore depth (cm) - n Reaction order - P Reaction product - p Parameter forF(x), see Equation 13 - q Parameter forF(x), see Equation 13 - R _e Electrolyte resistance (ohm cm) - R _p Polarization resistance per unit surface of pore aperture (ohm cm²) - R _t Charge transfer resistance per unit surface of pore aperture (ohm cm²) - S Reacting species - S _a Total surface of pore apertures (cm²) - S ₀ Geometrical surface area - S _p Developed surface area of porous electrode per unit volume (cm² cm^–3) - s Concentration gradient (mole cm^–3 cm^–1) - t Time - U Ohmic drop - x Distance from pore aperture (cm) - Z Faradaic impedance per unit surface of pore aperture (ohm cm²) - Z _x Local impedance per unit pore length (ohm cm³) - z Charge transfer number - Porosity - Thickness of Nernst diffusion layer - Penetration depth of reacting species (cm) - Penetration depth of a.c. signal determined by the potential distribution (cm) - Electrolyte (solution) resistivity (ohm cm) - ₀ Flow of S at the pore aperture (mole cm² s^–1) - Angular freqeuncy of a.c. signal, 2f(s^–1) - Integration constant     

Towards adaptive learning with improved convergence of deep belief networks on graphics processing units

In this paper we focus on two complementary approaches to significantly decrease pre-training time of a deep belief network (DBN). First, we propose an adaptive step size technique to enhance the convergence of the contrastive divergence (CD) algorithm, thereby reducing the number of epochs to train the restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) that supports the DBN infrastructure. Second, we present a highly scalable graphics processing unit (GPU) parallel implementation of the CD-k algorithm, which boosts notably the training speed. Additionally, extensive experiments are conducted on the MNIST and the HHreco databases. The results suggest that the maximum useful depth of a DBN is related to the number and quality of the training samples. Moreover, it was found that the lower-level layer plays a fundamental role for building successful DBN models. Furthermore, the results contradict the pre-conceived idea that all the layers should be pre-trained. Finally, it is shown that by incorporating multiple back-propagation (MBP) layers, the DBNs generalization capability is remarkably improved.