Shock accelerated vortex ring

The interaction of a shock wave with a spherical density inhomogeneity leads to the development of a vortex ring through the impulsive deposition of baroclinic vorticity. The present fluid dynamics videos display this phenomenon and were experimentally investigated at the Wisconsin Shock Tube Laboratory's (WiSTL) 9.2 m, downward firing shock tube. The tube has a square internal cross-section (0.25 m x 0.25 m) with multiple fused silica windows for optical access. The spherical soap bubble is generated by means of a pneumatically retracted injector and released into free-fall 200 ms prior to initial shock acceleration. The downward moving, M = 2.07 shock wave impulsively accelerates the bubble and reflects off the tube end wall. The reflected shock wave re-accelerates the bubble (reshock), which has now developed into a vortex ring, depositing additional vorticity. In the absence of any flow disturbances, the flow behind the reflected shock wave is stationary. As a result, any observed motion of the vortex ring is due to circulation. The shocked vortex ring is imaged at 12,500 fps with planar Mie scattering.Comment: For Gallery of Fluid Motion 200

Optimization of pixel size and propagation distance in X-ray phase-contrast virtual histology

X-ray phase-contrast coupled to high-spatial resolution imaging systems provides a high sensitivity for distinguishing soft tissue structures in small samples, thus being suited for X-ray virtual histology. Propagation-based phase-contrast tomography can deliver a considerable gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at small pixel sizes when it is combined to a suitable phase retrieval filter. We optimized acquisition parameters, namely the propagation distance and the pixel size, with the aim of providing adequate spatial resolution and sensitivity for virtual histology of breast surgery specimens, scanned with a phase-contrast microtomography (mu CT) system employing a commercial sCMOS detector at the SYRMEP beamline of the Italian synchrotron facility Elettra (Trieste, Italy). A pathological breast tissue sample was embedded in paraffin and imaged using a polychromatic synchrotron beam at an average energy of 24 keV. The high numerical optical aperture of the imaging system enabled to adjust the pixel size to 1, 2.5 and 4 mu m. The scans were acquired at five sample-to-detector distances: 4.5, 150, 250, 500 and 1000 mm. SNR was measured in an homogeneous region portion of the mu CT image for each combination of pixel size and propagation distance. Experimental results were compared to a theoretical model taking into account the actual point spread function of the employed imaging system. The measured gain of SNR associated with the application of the phase-retrieval matched the predictions for large Fresnel numbers (N-F > 2). For each pixel size, an optimal range of propagation distances was found. Optimal mu CT reconstructions were then compared with their respective histopatological images, showing an excellent visibility of relevant structures. The optimization performed in this study will allow to select the most appropriate geometrical configurations for future acquisitions of virtual histology images of different specimens via phase-contrast microtomography

Risk mapping for the sustainable protection of cultural heritage in extreme changing environments

Cultural heritage is widely recognized to be at risk due to the impact of climate change and associated hazards, such as events of heavy rain, flooding, and drought. User-driven solutions are urgently required for sustainable management and protection of monumental complexes and related collections exposed to changes of extreme climate. With this purpose, maps of risk-prone areas in Europe and in the Mediterranean Basin have been produced by an accurate selection and analysis of climate variables (daily minimum and maximum temperature-Tn and Tx, daily cumulated precipitation-RR) and climate-extreme indices (R20mm, R95pTOT, Rx5 day, CCD, Tx90p) defined by Expert Team on Climate Change Detection Indices (ETCCDI). Maps are available to users via an interactive Web GIS (Geographic Information System) tool, which provides evaluations based on historical observations (high-resolution gridded data set of daily climate over Europe-E-OBS, 25 km) and climate projections (regional climate models-RCM, ~12 km) for the near and far future, under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. The tool aims to support public authorities and private organizations in the decision making process to safeguard at-risk cultural heritage. In this paper, maps of risk-prone areas of heavy rain in Central Europe (by using R20mm index) are presented and discussed as example of the outputs achievable by using the Web GIS tool. The results show that major future variations are always foreseen for the 30-year period 2071-2100 under the pessimistic scenario (RCP 8.5). In general, the coastal area of the Adriatic Sea, the Northern Italy, and the Alps are foreseen to experience the highest variations in Central Europe

Prognostic Implications of the Complement Protein C1q in Gliomas

The contribution of the complement system in the pathophysiology of brain cancers has been recently considered in light of its well-known involvement in carcinogenesis. Complement system represents an important component of the inflammatory response, which acts as a functional bridge between the innate and adaptive immune response. C1q, the first recognition subcomponent of the complement classical pathway, has recently been shown to be involved in a range of pathophysiological functions that are not dependent on complement activation. C1q is expressed in the microenvironment of various types of human tumors, including melanoma, prostate, mesothelioma, and ovarian cancers, where it can exert a protective or a harmful effect on cancer progression. Despite local synthesis of C1q in the central nervous system, the involvement of C1q in glioma pathogenesis has been poorly investigated. We, therefore, performed a bioinformatics analysis, using Oncomine dataset and UALCAN database in order to assess whether the expression of the genes encoding for the three chains of C1q (C1qA, C1qB, and C1qC) could serve as a potential prognostic marker for gliomas. The obtained results were then validated using an independent glioma cohort from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas datasets. Our bioinformatics analysis, coupled with immunohistochemistry and fluorescence microscopy, appears to suggest a positive correlation between higher levels of C1q expression and unfavorable prognosis in a diverse grade of gliomas

The current role of touch imprint cytology in sentinel lymph node intra-operatory examination

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Predictors of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Early Recurrence in Patients Treated with Surgical Resection or Ablation Treatment: A Single-Center Experience

Introduction: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most diagnosed malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with poor overall survival despite available curative treatments. One of the most crucial factors influencing survival in HCC is recurrence. The current study aims to determine factors associated with early recurrence of HCC in patients with BCLC Stage 0 or Stage A treated with surgical resection or local ablation. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 58 consecutive patients diagnosed with HCC within BCLC Stage 0 or Stage A and treated either by surgical resection or local ablation with maximum nodule diameter 20 mm (HR 4.5, 95% C.I. 3.9–5.1), platelet count 2 (HR 2.7, 95% C.I. 2.2–3.3). Discussion and Conclusions: Our results are in line with the current literature. Male gender and tumor nodule dimension are the main risk factors associated with early HCC recurrence. Platelet count and other combined scores can be used as predictive tools for early HCC recurrence, although more studies are needed to define cut-offs

THE CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL AND PROGNOSTIC SIGNIFICANCES OF C1Q EXPRESSION IN GLIOMAS: A BIOINFORMATICS ANALYSIS

Introduction. The complement system represents an important component of the inflammatory response and acts as a functional bridge between the innate and adaptive immune response. The contribution of the complement component C1q in the pathophysiology of brain cancers has been recently considered in light of its well-known involvement in carcinogenesis. Brain malignancies arise from cells of the CNS and are classified according to the tissue of phylogenetic origin. Gliomas represent the most common and aggressive form of brain tumours in adults. They derive from glial cells that help to support the functions of the other main brain cells type, the neurons (1). These are a heterogeneous group of diseases with multiple subtypes (1, 2). Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and fatal form of a primary brain tumour, accounting for approximately 60% of all glioma cases (3), whereas grade-II and -III gliomas are the second most common type of glioma in adults (~30%) (3). C1q molecule, together with other complement components, can be locally produced within the CNS by microglia and astrocytes, rendering it an attractive player in primary brain tumour development (4). The role of C1q in gliomas microenvironment is still poorly characterized and it is still quite puzzling whether it exerts a beneficial or a harmful activity for cancer progression. In the present study we performed a bioinformatics analysis aimed at investigating if C1q can serve as a potential prognostic marker for gliomas. Methods. The expression levels of C1qA, C1qB and C1qC genes in gliomas were analysed using Oncomine analysis. Available genomics data from The Cancer Genome Atlas project was used for Kaplan–Meier survival analysis to generate survival probability plots, using UALCAN analysis. Results. From the analysis performed on several data- sets using Oncomine, we showed a significantly higher mRNA expression levels for C1qA, C1qB and C1qC chains were detected in gliomas (different histotypes and grades) as compared to normal brain tissue (Fig. 1). We observed a positive correlation between the mRNA expression of C1qA, C1qB and C1qC mRNA poly- peptide chains and the unfavorable prognosis only in gliomas grade-II and -III, where the survival probability is indeed reduced (P <0.05) (Fig. 2). No correlation was observed in glioblastoma multiforme (Fig. 2). By immu- nohistochemical approaches we detected a high depo- sition of C1q in the tumor microenvironment of both in grade-II and -III gliomas and in GBMs examined (Fig. 3a glioma, 3b glioblastoma multiforme; 20x Magnification). Moreover, in double immunocytochemical experiments we demonstrated that CD68 positive infiltrating cells are actively synthesizing C1q in the tumor micro-envi- ronment. CD68 expression is characteristic of tumor- associated macrophages, whose enrichment in glioma has been associated with poor prognosis (5). Conclusion. In our study C1q expression was significantly correlated with poor survival probability in gliomas grade-II and -III while this is not the case for GBM. These data altogether underline how complex, multifaceted and still poorly understood is the role C1q can exert on tumor progression, and how the very same molecule can differentially affect the outcome depending on the biological context it comes to act

On the reproducibility and repeatability of laser absorption spectroscopy measurements for δ2H and δ18O isotopic analysis

The aim of this study was to analyse the reproducibility of off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS)-derived δ2H and δ18O measurements on a set of 35 water samples by comparing the performance of four laser spectroscopes with the performance of a conventional mass spectrometer under typical laboratory conditions. All samples were analysed using three different schemes of standard/sample combinations and related data processing to assess the improvement of results compared with mass spectrometry. The repeatability of the four OA-ICOS instruments was further investigated by multiple analyses of a sample subset to evaluate the stability of δ2H and δ18O measurements. Results demonstrated an overall agreement between OA-ICOS-based and mass spectrometry-based measurements for the entire dataset. However, a certain degree of variability existed in precision and accuracy between the four instruments. There was no evident bias or systematic deviations from the mass spectrometer values, but random errors, which were apparently not related to external factors, significantly affected the final results. Our investigation revealed that analytical precision ranged ±from ±0.56‰ to ±1.80‰ for δ2H and from ±0.10‰ to ±0.27‰ for δ18O measurements, with a marked variability among the four instruments. The overall capability of laser instruments to reproduce stable results with repeated measurements of the same sample was acceptable, and there were general differences within the range of the analytical precision for each spectroscope. Hence, averaging the measurements of three identical samples led to a higher degree of accuracy and eliminated the potential for random deviations

DRAFT 03

DRAFT 03, a magazine published about work and thoughts of students and staff of Interiors

Innovative consolidating products for stone materials: field exposure tests as a valid approach for assessing durability

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