Contact line motion for partially wetting fluids

We study the flow close to an advancing contact line in the limit of small capillary number. To take into account wetting effects, both long and short-ranged contributions to the disjoining pressure are taken into account. In front of the contact line, there is a microscopic film corresponding to a minimum of the interaction potential. We compute the parameters of the contact line solution relevant to the matching to a macroscopic problem, for example a spreading droplet. The result closely resembles previous results obtained with a slip model

Management preferences in stage I non-seminomatous germ cell tumours of the testis: an investigation among patients, controls and oncologists.

Increasingly, treatment choices leading to the same survival outcome can be offered to cancer patients (e.g. mastectomy or conservative surgery in early breast cancer). Two approaches available for post-orchidectomy, stage I patients with non-seminomatous germ cell tumours of the testis (NSGCTT), particularly those at high risk of relapse, include immediate adjuvant chemotherapy (two courses) or surveillance, with chemotherapy (typically four courses) given only on relapse. The aim of this study was to investigate which approach patients prefer. Questionnaires were given to newly diagnosed NSGCTT patients, to patients with previous experience of the two options and to non-cancer controls, including specialist testicular tumour oncologists. Participants were asked to choose between immediate chemotherapy, surveillance or for the doctor to decide, at recurrence risk levels ranging from 10% to 90%. Questionnaires were returned by 207 subjects in nine different groups. The risk thresholds at which subjects' management preference changed, within apparently homogeneous groups, varied greatly, although at least one subject in each group selected adjuvant chemotherapy at the lowest (10%) level of risk. Subjects tended to favour options of which they had previous experience. Cancer patients wanted the doctor to decide more frequently than controls. The wide variability observed makes it difficult to predict which option an individual will select. Personality factors and personal circumstances, other than specific experience and knowledge, are obviously influential. Many patients would prefer their doctor to decide, but variability among oncologists is as great as that among their patients

Follow up after Primary Treatment of Soft Tissue Sarcoma: A Survey of Current Practice in the United Kingdom

Despite the clinical and financial implications, there is little evidence about how patients who have been treated for soft tissue sarcoma should be followed up. The purpose of this study was to determine current practice in the United Kingdom. 192 clinicians treating patients with soft tissue sarcoma were surveyed with a postal questionnaire enquiring about frequency and method of follow up and how patients would be followed up in each of 3 clinical scenarios: a patient with a trunk or extremity tumour at low risk of relapse; a patient with a trunk or extremity tumour at high risk of relapse; and a patient with a retroperitoneal or abdominal tumour. 155 (81%) clinicians responded. Clinic visits and X-rays were the most frequently used methods of follow up. Chest CT scans, local site imaging, and blood tests were used infrequently. The intensity and methods of follow up varied with each of the clinical scenarios. There was a seven-to-twenty fold variation in cost between the least and the most expensive regimes. Respondents were generally supportive of the development of the clinical trial in this area

Perioperative donor bone marrow infusion augments chimerism in heart and lung transplant recipients

Background.: We and others have demonstrated that a low level of donor cell chimerism was present for years after transplantation in tissues and peripheral blood of heart and lung recipients; it was associated, in the latter, with a lower incidence of chronic rejection. To augment this phenomenon, we initiated a trial combining simultaneous infusion of donor bone marrow with heart or lung allotransplantation. Methods.: Between September 1993 and January 1995, 15 nonconditioned patients received either heart (n = 10) or lung (n = 5) allografts concurrently with an infusion of unmodified donor bone marrow (3.0 × 108 cells/kg), and were maintained on an immunosuppressive regimen consisting of tacrolimus and steroids. Results.: There was no complication associated with the infusion of donor bone marrow. Chimerism was detectable in 73% of bone marrow-augmented patients up to the last sample tested. Of the 5 control recipients who did not receive bone marrow infusion, only 1 had detectable chimerism by flow on postoperative day 15, which dwindled to an undetectable level by postoperative day 36. None of the patients had evidence of donor-specific immune modulation by mixed lymphocyte reaction. Conclusions.: The combined infusion of donor bone marrow and heart or lung transplantation, without preconditioning of the recipient, is safe and is associated with an augmentation of donor cell chimerism. © 1995 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Introduction : screen Londons

Our aim, in editing the ‘London Issue’ of this journal, is to contribute to a conversation between scholars of British cinema and television, London historians and scholars of the cinematic city. In 2007, introducing the themed issue on ‘Space and Place in British Cinema and Television’, Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley observed that it would have been possible to fill the whole journal with essays about the representation of London. This issue does just that, responding to the increased interest in cinematic and, to a lesser extent, televisual, Londons, while also demonstrating the continuing fertility of the paradigms of ‘space and place’ for scholars of the moving image1. It includes a wide range of approaches to the topic of London on screen, with varying attention to British institutions of the moving image – such as Channel Four or the British Board of Film Classification – as well as to concepts such as genre, narration and memory. As a whole, the issue, through its juxtapositions of method and approach, shows something of the complexity of encounters between the terms ‘London’, ‘cinema’ and ‘television’ within British film and television studies

Meta-analysis of randomized phase II trials to inform subsequent phase III decisions

BACKGROUND: If multiple Phase II randomized trials exist then meta-analysis is favorable to increase statistical power and summarize the existing evidence about an intervention's effect in order to help inform Phase III decisions. We consider some statistical issues for meta-analysis of Phase II trials for this purpose, as motivated by a real example involving nine Phase II trials of bolus thrombolytic therapy in acute myocardial infarction with binary outcomes. METHODS: We propose that a Bayesian random effects logistic regression model is most suitable as it models the binomial distribution of the data, helps avoid continuity corrections, accounts for between-trial heterogeneity, and incorporates parameter uncertainty when making inferences. The model also allows predictions that inform Phase III decisions, and we show how to derive: (i) the probability that the intervention will be truly beneficial in a new trial, and (ii) the probability that, in a new trial with a given sample size, the 95% credible interval for the odds ratio will be entirely in favor of the intervention. As Phase II trials are potentially optimistic due to bias in design and reporting, we also discuss how skeptical prior distributions can reduce this optimism to make more realistic predictions. RESULTS: In the example, the model identifies heterogeneity in intervention effect missed by an I-squared of 0%. Prediction intervals accounting for this heterogeneity are shown to support subsequent Phase III trials. The probability of success in Phase III trials increases as the sample size increases, up to 0.82 for intracranial hemorrhage and 0.79 for reinfarction outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The choice of meta-analysis methods can influence the decision about whether a trial should proceed to Phase III and thus need to be clearly documented and investigated whenever a Phase II meta-analysis is performed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1745-6215-15-346) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

‘Stick that knife in me’: Shane Meadows’ children

This article brings Shane Meadows’ Dead Man's Shoes (2004) into dialogue with the history of the depiction of the child on film. Exploring Meadows’ work for its complex investment in the figure of the child on screen, it traces the limits of the liberal ideology of the child in his cinema and the structures of feeling mobilised by its uses – at once aesthetic and sociological – of technologies of vision

Cassini encounters with hot flow anomaly-like phenomena at Saturn's bow shock

Crossings of Saturn´s magnetopause made by the Cassini spacecraft on 12, 13 and 17 March 2006 are analysed. During this period Cassini´s trajectory was approximately parallel to the magnetopause boundary given by a model of the surface. Magnetic field and electron data are used to identify excursions into the magnetosheath bounded by crossings of the magnetopause current layer. Minimum variance analysis of the magnetic field vector measurements is used to determine the normal to the boundary for each crossing. The normals corresponding to the crossings oscillate about an average orientation that is consistent with the unperturbed normal predicted by the surface model. This reveals the presence of regular boundary waves with a direction of propagation found to be within 24° of Saturn´s rotational equator. Two categories of boundary wave are identified: the first with a period of the order of hours, and the second with a period of 45±9 min. Based on the propagation direction and a comparison of magnetospheric and magnetosheath magnetic fields, we conclude that both types of wave were driven by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The observed boundary perturbations are consistent with a superposition of different types of surface wave activity.Fil: Masters, A.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Arridge, C. S.. University College London; Estados UnidosFil: Dougherty, M. K.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Bertucci, Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciónes Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; ArgentinaFil: Billingham, L.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Schwartz, S. J.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Jackman, C. M.. Imperial College London; Reino UnidoFil: Bebesi, Z.. Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics; HungríaFil: Coates, A. J.. University College London; Estados UnidosFil: Thomsen, M. F.. Los Alamos National Laboratory; Estados Unido