Demand response of medical freezers in a Business Park Microgrid

This paper presents a demand response (DR) framework that utilizes the flexibility inherent to the thermodynamic behavior of four groups of independently-controlled medical freezers in a privately-owned business park microgrid that contains rooftop photovoltaics (PV). The optimization objectives may be chosen from the following 3 options: minimizing electricity exchanges with the public grid; minimizing costs by considering prices and RES availability; and minimizing peak load. The proposed DR framework combines thermodynamic models with automated, genetic-algorithm-based optimization, resulting in demonstrable benefits in terms of cost, energy efficiency, and peak power reduction for the consumer, local energy producer, and grid operator. The resulting optimal DR schedules of the freezers are compared against unoptimized, business-as-usual scenarios with- and without PV. Results show that flexibility can be harnessed from the thermal mass of the freezers and their contents, improving the cost- and energy performance of the system with respect to the business-as-usual scenarios.</p

Tailoring the excitation of localized surface plasmon-polariton resonances by focusing radially-polarized beams

We study the interaction of focused radially-polarized light with metal nanospheres. By expanding the electromagnetic field in terms of multipoles, we gain insight on the excitation of localized surface plasmon-polariton resonances in the nanoparticle. We show that focused radially-polarized beams offer more opportunities than a focused plane wave or a Gaussian beam for tuning the near- and far-field system response. These results find applications in nano-optics, optical tweezers, and optical data storage.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Radiotherapy for patients with ledderhose disease:long-term effects, side effects and patient-rated outcome

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term effects of radiotherapy for patients with Ledderhose disease. METHODS: Questionnaires were sent to all patients with Ledderhose disease who had been treated with radiotherapy at our centre between 2008 and 2017 and who consented to participate. Radiotherapy was performed with orthovolt or electrons in two separate courses of five daily fractions of 3 Gy. The questionnaires addressed items such as pain from Ledderhose disease (Brief Pain Inventory), quality of life (EURO-QOL-5D-5L), long-term side effects, and patients' levels of satisfaction with the effect of treatment. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were used to analyse the results. RESULTS: A total of 102 feet were irradiated in 67 patients (28 men, 39 women). Radiotherapy resulted in significant pain reduction: the mean pain score prior to radiotherapy, collected retrospectively, was 5.7 and 1.7 at time of assessment (p-value<0.001). The following pain response scores were reported: progressive pain (0%), no change (22%; 22 feet), partial pain response (37%; 38 feet) and complete pain response (absence of pain) (41%; 42 feet). Seventy-eight percent of patients were satisfied with the treatment effect and 57% did not consider radiotherapy burdensome. The scores for societal perspective (0.856) and patients' perspective on quality of life (82.3) were each comparable to the reference values from the Dutch population in the same age category (0.857 and 80.6, respectively). The most commonly reported residual long-term side effect was dryness of the skin (n=10; 15%). CONCLUSION: Radiotherapy for Ledderhose disease results in long-term pain reduction in the majority of patients and has limited side effects. The treatment is well tolerated, patients feel satisfied, and quality of life is comparable to the reference population

Foreseeing the future of mutualistic communities beyond collapse

International audienc

Predictors of undergoing multivisceral resection, margin status and survival in Dutch patients with locally advanced colorectal cancer

Background: The aim of this nationwide observational study was to evaluate factors associated with multivisceral resection (MVR), margin status and overall survival in locally advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). Material and methods: Patients with (y)pT4, cM0 CRC between 2006 and 2017 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Cox-proportional hazards modelling was used for survival analysis, stratified for T4a and T4b. Annual hospital volume cut-off was 75 for colon and 40 for rectal resections. Results: A total of 11.930 patients were included and 2410 patients (20.2%) underwent MVR. Factors associated with MVR for colon and rectal cancer besides cT4 category were more recent diagnosis (OR 3.61, CI 95% 3.06–4.25 (colon) and OR 2.72, CI 95% 1.82–4.08 (rectum)) and high hospital volume (OR 1.20, CI 95% 1.05–1.38 (colon) and OR 2.17, CI 95% 1.55–3.04 (rectum)). Patients ≥70 year were less likely to undergo MVR for colon cancer (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.70–0.90). Risk factors for incomplete resection were cT4 (OR 3.08, CI 95% 2.35–4.04 (colon) and OR 1.82, CI 95% 1.13–2.94 (rectum)) and poor/undifferentiated tumors (OR 1.41, CI 95% 1.14–1.72 (colon) and OR 1.69, CI 95% 1.05–2.74 (rectum)). More recent diagnosis was independently associated with less incomplete resections in colon cancer (OR 0.58, CI 95% 0.40–0.76). Independent predictors of survival were age, resection margin, nodal status and adjuvant chemotherapy, but not MVR. Conclusion: Treatment of locally advanced CRC with MVR at population level was influenced by year of diagnosis and hospital volume. Margin status in colon cancer improved substantially over time.</p

MPath2PN - Translating Metabolic Pathways into Petri Nets

We propose MPath2PN, a tool which automatically translates metabolic pathways, as described in the major biological databases, into corresponding Petri net representations. The aim is to allow for a systematic reuse, in the setting of metabolic pathways, of the variety of tools existing for Petri net analysis and simulation. The current prototype implementation of MPath2PN inputs the KEGG description of a metabolic pathway and produces two Petri nets, mainly differing for the treatment of ubiquitous substances. Such Petri nets are represented using PNML, a standard format for many Petri net tools. We are extending the tool by considering further formats for metabolic pathways in input and for Petri nets in output. MPath2PN is part of a more general project aimed at developing an integrated framework which should offer the possibility of automatically querying databases for metabolic pathways, producing corresponding Petri net models and performing analysis and simulation on them by means of various tools

NKG2D ligand tumor expression and association with clinical outcome in early breast cancer patients: an observational study.

BACKGROUND: Cell surface NKG2D ligands (NKG2DL) bind to the activating NKG2D receptor present on NK cells and subsets of T cells, thus playing a role in initiating an immune response. We examined tumor expression and prognostic effect of NKG2DL in breast cancer patients. METHODS: Our study population (n = 677) consisted of all breast cancer patients primarily treated with surgery in our center between 1985 and 1994. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue was immunohistochemically stained with antibodies directed against MIC-A/MIC-B (MIC-AB), ULBP-1, ULBP-2, ULBP-3, ULBP-4, and ULBP-5. RESULTS: NKG2DL were frequently expressed by tumors (MIC-AB, 50% of the cases; ULBP-1, 90%; ULBP-2, 99%; ULBP-3, 100%; ULBP-4, 26%; ULBP-5, 90%) and often showed co-expression: MIC-AB and ULBP-4 (p = 0.043), ULBP-1 and ULBP-5 (p = 0.006), ULBP-4 and ULBP-5 (p < 0.001). MIC-AB (p = 0.001) and ULBP-2 (p = 0.006) expression resulted in a statistically significant longer relapse free period (RFP). Combined expression of these ligands showed to be an independent prognostic parameter for RFP (p < 0.001, HR 0.41). Combined expression of all ligands showed no associations with clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated for the first time that NKG2DL are frequently expressed and often co-expressed in breast cancer. Expression of MIC-AB and ULBP-2 resulted in a statistically significant beneficial outcome concerning RFP with high discriminative power. Combination of all NKG2DL showed no additive or interactive effect of ligands on each other, suggesting that similar and co-operative functioning of all NKG2DL can not be assumed. Our observations suggest that among driving forces in breast cancer outcome are immune activation on one site and tumor immune escape on the other site.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are