Motion of a droplet for the Stochastic mass conserving Allen-Cahn equation

We study the stochastic mass-conserving Allen-Cahn equation posed on a smoothly bounded domain of R2 with additive, spatially smooth, space-time noise. This equation describes the stochastic motion of a small almost semicircular droplet attached to domain's boundary and moving towards a point of locally maximum curvature. We apply It^o calculus to derive the stochastic dynamics of the center of the droplet by utilizing the approximately invariant manifold introduced by Alikakos, Chen and Fusco [2] for the deterministic problem. In the stochastic case depending on the scaling, the motion is driven by the change in the curvature of the boundary and the stochastic forcing. Moreover, under the assumption of a su ciently small noise strength, we establish stochastic stability of a neighborhood of the manifold of boundary droplet states in the L2- and H1-norms, which means that with overwhelming probability the solution stays close to the manifold for very long time-scales

Targeting the MET oncogene by concomitant inhibition of receptor and ligand via an antibody-“decoy” strategy

MET, a master gene sustaining "invasive growth," is a relevant target for cancer precision therapy. In the vast majority of tumors, wild-type MET behaves as a "stress-response" gene and relies on the ligand (HGF) to sustain cell "scattering," invasive growth and apoptosis protection (oncogene "expedience"). In this context, concomitant targeting of MET and HGF could be crucial to reach effective inhibition. To test this hypothesis, we combined an anti-MET antibody (MvDN30) inducing "shedding" (i.e., removal of MET from the cell surface), with a "decoy" (i.e., the soluble extracellular domain of the MET receptor) endowed with HGF-sequestering ability. To avoid antibody/decoy interaction-and subsequent neutralization-we identified a single aminoacid in the extracellular domain of MET-lysine 842-that is critical for MvDN30 binding and engineered the corresponding recombinant decoyMET (K842E). DecoyMET(K842E) retains the ability to bind HGF with high affinity and inhibits HGF-induced MET phosphorylation. In HGF-dependent cellular models, MvDN30 antibody and decoyMET(K842E) used in combination cooperate in restraining invasive growth, and synergize in blocking cancer cell "scattering." The antibody and the decoy unbridle apoptosis of colon cancer stem cells grown in vitro as spheroids. In a preclinical model, built by orthotopic transplantation of a human pancreatic carcinoma in SCID mice engineered to express human HGF, concomitant treatment with antibody and decoy significantly reduces metastatic spread. The data reported indicate that vertical targeting of the MET/HGF axis results in powerful inhibition of ligand-dependent MET activation, providing proof of concept in favor of combined target therapy of MET "expedience.

Optimal Placement of Micro-services Chains in a Fog Infrastructure

Fog computing emerged as a novel approach to deliver micro-services that support innovative applications. This paradigm is consistent with the modern approach to application development, that leverages the composition of small micro-services that can be combined to create value-added applications. These applications typically require the access from distributed data sources, such as sensors located in multiple geographic locations or mobile users. In such scenarios, the traditional cloud approach is not suitable because latency constraints may not be compatible with having time-critical computations occurring on a far away data-center; furthermore, the amount of data to exchange may cause high costs imposed by the cloud pricing model. A layer of fog nodes close to application consumers can host pre-processing and data aggregation tasks that can reduce the response time of latency-sensitive elaboration as well as the traffic to the cloud data-centers. However, the problem of smartly placing micro-services over fog nodes that can fulfill Service Level Agreements is far more complex than in the more controlled scenario of cloud computing, due to the heterogeneity of fog infrastructures in terms of performance of both the computing nodes and inter-node connectivity. In this paper, we tackle such problem proposing a mathematical model for the performance of complex applications deployed on a fog infrastructure. We adapt the proposed model to be used in a genetic algorithm to achieve optimized deployment decisions about the placement of micro-services chains. Our experiments prove the viability of our proposal with respect to meeting the SLA requirements in a wide set of operating conditions

Antismoking campaigns’ perception and gender differences: a comparison among EEG Indices

Human factors’ aim is to understand and evaluate the interactions between people and tasks, technologies, and environment. Among human factors, it is possible then to include the subjective reaction to external stimuli, due to individual’s characteristics and states of mind. These processes are also involved in the perception of antismoking public service announcements (PSAs), the main tool for governments to contrast the first cause of preventable deaths in the world: tobacco addiction. In the light of that, in the present article, it has been investigated through the comparison of different electroencephalographic (EEG) indices a typical item known to be able of influencing PSA perception, that is gender. In order to investigate the neurophysiological underpinnings of such different perception, we tested two PSAs: one with a female character and one with a male character. Furthermore, the experimental sample was divided into men and women, as well as smokers and nonsmokers. The employed EEG indices were the mental engagement (ME: the ratio between beta activity and the sum of alpha and theta activity); the approach/withdrawal (AW: the frontal alpha asymmetry in the alpha band); and the frontal theta activity and the spectral asymmetry index (SASI: the ratio between beta minus theta and beta plus theta). Results suggested that the ME and the AW presented an opposite trend, with smokers showing higher ME and lower AW than nonsmokers. The ME and the frontal theta also evidenced a statistically significant interaction between the kind of the PSA and the gender of the observers; specifically, women showed higher ME and frontal theta activity for the male character PSA. This study then supports the usefulness of the ME and frontal theta for purposes of PSAs targeting on the basis of gender issues and of the ME and the AW and for purposes of PSAs targeting on the basis of smoking habits

Postoperative laryngeal symptoms in a general surgery setting. Clinical study.

INTRODUCTION: Vocal cord injuries (VI), postoperative hoarseness (PH), dysphonia (DN), dysphagia (DG) and sore throat (ST) are common complications after general anesthesia; there is actually a lack of consensus to support the proper timing for post-operative laryngoscopy that is reliable to support the diagnosis of laryngeal or vocal fold lesions after surgery and there are no valid studies about the entity of laryngeal trauma in oro-tracheal intubation. Aim of our study is to evaluate the statistical relation between anatomic, anesthesiological and surgical variables in the case of PH, DG or impaired voice register. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 50 patients (30 thyroidectomies, 8 videolaparoscopic cholecistectomies, 2 right emicolectomies, 2 left emicolectomies, 1 gastrectomy, 1 hemorrhoidectomy, 1 nefrectomy, 1 diagnostic videothoracoscopy, 1 superior right lung lobectomy, 1 appendicectomy, 1 incisional hernia repair, 1 low anterior rectal resection, 1 radical hysterectomy) underwent clinical evaluation and direct laryngoscopy before surgery, within 6 hours, after 72 hours and after 30 days, to evaluate motility and breathing space, phonatory motility, true and false vocal folds and arytenoids oedema. We evaluated also mean age (56.6 ± 3.6 years), male:female ratio (1:1.5), cigarette smoke (20%), atopic comorbidity (17/50 = 34%), Mallampati class (32% 1, 38% 2, 26% 3, 2% 4), mean duration of intubation (159 minutes, range 50 - 405 minutes), Cormack-Lehane score (34% 1, 22% 2, 22% 3, 2% 4), difficult intubation in 9 cases (18%). No complication during the laryngoscopy were registered. We investigated the statistic relationship between pre and intraoperative variables and laryngeal symptoms and lesions. RESULTS: In our experience, statistically significant relations were found in prevalence of vocal folds oedema in smokers (p < 0.005), self limiting DG and DN in younger patients (p < 0.005) and in thyroidectomy (p < 0.01), DG after thyroidectomy (p < 0.01). The short preoperative use of steroids and antihistaminic to prevent allergic reactions appears not related to reduction or prevention of DN, DG, PH and ST. No statistical relation in incidence of postoperative complications was found for the prolonged intubation, gastro-esophageal reflux, BURP manoeuvre (backward upward right sided pressure) and Mallampati and Cormack-Lehane class more than 2, maintenance with sevoflurane 2% and use of stilet. CONCLUSIONS: Direct laryngoscopy is essential for the detection of arytenoid lesions after orotracheal intubation for general anesthesia. In our opinion, a part of temporary post-operative DN or PH is due to monolateral or bilateral arytenoids oedema, secondary to prolonged or difficult orotracheal intubation, valuable with laryngoscopy 72 hours after surgery. Is necessary to adjunct these complications in the surgical informed consensus scheme

Frontal brain asymmetries as effective parameters to assess the quality of audiovisual stimuli perception in adult and young cochlear implant users

How is music perceived by cochlear implant (CI) users? This question arises as "the next step" given the impressive performance obtained by these patients in language perception. Furthermore, how can music perception be evaluated beyond self-report rating, in order to obtain measurable data? To address this question, estimation of the frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) alpha activity imbalance, acquired through a 19-channel EEG cap, appears to be a suitable instrument to measure the approach/withdrawal (AW index) reaction to external stimuli. Specifically, a greater value of AW indicates an increased propensity to stimulus approach, and vice versa a lower one a tendency to withdraw from the stimulus. Additionally, due to prelingually and postlingually deafened pathology acquisition, children and adults, respectively, would probably differ in music perception. The aim of the present study was to investigate children and adult CI users, in unilateral (UCI) and bilateral (BCI) implantation conditions, during three experimental situations of music exposure (normal, distorted and mute). Additionally, a study of functional connectivity patterns within cerebral networks was performed to investigate functioning patterns in different experimental populations. As a general result, congruency among patterns between BCI patients and control (CTRL) subjects was seen, characterised by lowest values for the distorted condition (vs. normal and mute conditions) in the AW index and in the connectivity analysis. Additionally, the normal and distorted conditions were significantly different in CI and CTRL adults, and in CTRL children, but not in CI children. These results suggest a higher capacity of discrimination and approach motivation towards normal music in CTRL and BCI subjects, but not for UCI patients. Therefore, for perception of music CTRL and BCI participants appear more similar than UCI subjects, as estimated by measurable and not self-reported parameters

Analysis of an Inverse Problem Arising in Photolithography

We consider the inverse problem of determining an optical mask that produces a desired circuit pattern in photolithography. We set the problem as a shape design problem in which the unknown is a two-dimensional domain. The relationship between the target shape and the unknown is modeled through diffractive optics. We develop a variational formulation that is well-posed and propose an approximation that can be shown to have convergence properties. The approximate problem can serve as a foundation to numerical methods.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figur

Herpes Simplex Esophagitis in Immunocompetent Host: A Case Report

Introduction. Herpes simplex esophagitis is well recognized in immunosuppressed subjects, but it is infrequent in immunocompetent patients. We present a case of HSE in a 53-year-old healthy man. Materials and Methods. The patient was admitted with dysphagia, odynophagia, and retrosternal chest pain. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy revealed minute erosive area in distal esophagus and biopsies confirmed esophagitis and findings characteristic of Herpes Simplex Virus infection. Results. The patients was treated with high dose of protonpump inhibitor, sucralfate, and acyclovir, orally, with rapid resolution of symptoms. Discussion. HSV type I is the second most common cause of infectious esophagitis. The majority of symptomatic immunocompetent patients with HSE will present with an acute onset of esophagitis. Endoscopic biopsies from the ulcer edges should be obtained for both histopathology and viral culture. In immunocompetent host, HSE is generally a self-limited condition. Conclusions. HSE should be suspected in case of esophagitis without evident cause, even if the patient is immunocompetent. When the diagnosis of HSE is confirmed, careful history and assessment for an immune disorder such as HIV infection is crucial, to look for underlying immune deficiency