2,663 research outputs found
Patchy sticky hard spheres: analytical study and Monte Carlo simulations
We consider a fluid of hard spheres bearing one or two uniform circular
adhesive patches, distributed so as not to overlap. Two spheres interact via a
``sticky'' Baxter potential if the line joining the centers of the two spheres
intersects a patch on each sphere, and via a hard sphere potential otherwise.
We analyze the location of the fluid-fluid transition and of the percolation
line as a function of the size of the patch (the fractional coverage of the
sphere's surface) and of the number of patches within a virial expansion up to
third order and within the first two terms (C0 and C1) of a class of closures
Cn hinging on a density expansion of the direct correlation function. We find
that the locations of the two lines depend sensitively on both the total
adhesive coverage and its distribution. The treatment is almost fully
analytical within the chosen approximate theory. We test our findings by means
of specialized Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and find the main qualitative
features of the critical behaviour to be well captured in spite of the low
density perturbative nature of the closure. The introduction of anisotropic
attractions into a model suspension of spherical particles is a first step
towards a more realistic description of globular proteins in solution.Comment: 47 pages, 18 figures, to appear on J. Chem. Phy
Concentrated suspensions of Brownian beads in water: dynamic heterogeneities trough a simple experimental technique
Concentrated suspensions of Brownian hard-spheres in water are an epitome for
understanding the glassy dynamics of both soft materials and supercooled
molecular liquids. From an experimental point of view, such systems are
especially suited to perform particle tracking easily, and, therefore, are a
benchmark for novel optical techniques, applicable when primary particles
cannot be resolved. Differential Variance Analysis (DVA) is one such novel
technique that simplifies significantly the characterization of structural
relaxation processes of soft glassy materials, since it is directly applicable
to digital image sequences of the sample. DVA succeeds in monitoring not only
the average dynamics, but also its spatio-temporal fluctuations, known as
dynamic heterogeneities. In this work, we study the dynamics of dense
suspensions of Brownian beads in water, imaged through digital
video-microscopy, by using both DVA and single-particle tracking. We focus on
two commonly used signatures of dynamic heterogeneities: the dynamic
susceptibility, , and the non-Gaussian parameter, . By direct
comparison of these two quantities, we are able to highlight similarities and
differences. We do confirm that and provide qualitatively
similar information, but we find quantitative discrepancies in the scalings of
characteristic time and length scale on approaching the glass transition.Comment: The original publication is available at http://www.scichina.com and
http://www.springerlink.com
http://engine.scichina.com/publisher/scp/journal/SCPMA/doi/10.1007/s11433-019-9401-x?slug=abstrac
Combined laparoscopic pyelolithotomy and endoscopic pyelolithotripsy for staghorn calculi. Long-term follow-up results from a case series
Purpose: Staghorn renal stones are a challenging field in urology. Due to their high recurrence rates, particularly those associated with an infective process, a complete removal is the ultimate goal in their management. We report our experience with a combined approach of laparoscopic pyelolithotomy and endoscopic pyelolithotripsy, the stone clearance rate, and long-term, follow-up outcomes.
Methods: From June 2012 to October 2014, nine adult patients with large staghorn renal calculi (mean size, 7.2 cm; range, 6.2–9.0 cm) underwent a combined laparoscopic and endoscopic approach. The technique comprised laparoscopic pyelolithotomy and holmium-YAG laser stone fragmentation with the use of a flexible cystoscope introduced through a 12 mm trocar.
Results: The average operative time was 140 min (range, 90–190 min). The mean estimated hemoglobin loss was 0.6 mmol/l (range 0.5–0.7 mmol/l). None of the patients required an open- surgery conversion. The mean hospital stay was 4 days (range, 2–6 days). A computed tomography urogram control at 6 months of follow up did not show any stone recurrence.
Conclusions: Laparoscopic pyelolithotomy combined with endoscopic pyelolithotripsy could be a therapeutic option in cases where mini-invasive procedures, that is, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, ureteroscopic lithotripsy, and percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) have failed. This technique has a high stone-clearance rate (75–100%) comparable with open surgery and PCNL. However, it could be technically demanding and should be performed by skilled laparoscopy surgeons
A numerical study of a binary Yukawa model in regimes characteristic of globular proteins in solutions
The main goal of this paper is to assess the limits of validity, in the
regime of low concentration and strong Coulomb coupling (high molecular
charges), for a simple perturbative approximation to the radial distribution
functions (RDF), based upon a low-density expansion of the potential of mean
force and proposed to describe protein-protein interactions in a recent
Small-Angle-Scattering (SAS) experimental study. A highly simplified Yukawa
(screened Coulomb) model of monomers and dimers of a charged globular protein
(-lactoglobulin) in solution is considered. We test the accuracy of the
RDF approximation, as a necessary complementary part of the previous
experimental investigation, by comparison with the fluid structure predicted by
approximate integral equations and exact Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. In the
MC calculations, an Ewald construction for Yukawa potentials has been used to
take into account the long-range part of the interactions in the weakly
screened cases. Our results confirm that the perturbative first-order
approximation is valid for this system even at strong Coulomb coupling,
provided that the screening is not too weak (i.e., for Debye length smaller
than monomer radius). A comparison of the MC results with integral equation
calculations shows that both the hypernetted-chain (HNC) and the Percus-Yevick
(PY) closures have a satisfactory behavior under these regimes, with the HNC
being superior throughout. The relevance of our findings for interpreting SAS
results is also discussed.Comment: Physical Review E, in press (2005
Towards Generating Executable Metamorphic Relations Using Large Language Models
peer reviewedMetamorphic testing (MT) has proven to be a successful solution to automating
testing and addressing the oracle problem. However, it entails manually
deriving metamorphic relations (MRs) and converting them into an executable
form; these steps are time-consuming and may prevent the adoption of MT. In
this paper, we propose an approach for automatically deriving executable MRs
(EMRs) from requirements using large language models (LLMs). Instead of merely
asking the LLM to produce EMRs, our approach relies on a few-shot prompting
strategy to instruct the LLM to perform activities in the MT process, by
providing requirements and API specifications, as one would do with software
engineers. To assess the feasibility of our approach, we conducted a
questionnaire-based survey in collaboration with Siemens Industry Software, a
worldwide leader in providing industry software and services, focusing on four
of their software applications. Additionally, we evaluated the accuracy of the
generated EMRs for a Web application. The outcomes of our study are highly
promising, as they demonstrate the capability of our approach to generate MRs
and EMRs that are both comprehensible and pertinent for testing purposes
Markers of neurodevelopmental impairments in early-onset psychosis
Background: The aim of this study was to assess the association between the clinical and neurobiological markers of neurodevelopmental impairments and early-onset schizophrenia
spectrum psychosis.
Methods: A sample of 36 patients with early-onset schizophrenia spectrum psychosis was compared to a control sample of 36 patients with migraine. We assessed early childhood neurodevelopmental milestones using a modified version of the General Developmental Scale, general intellectual ability using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised or Leiter International Performance Scale–Revised for patients with speech and language abnormalities, and neurological soft signs with specific regard to subtle motor impairment.
Results: Subjects with early-onset psychosis had a higher rate of impaired social development (P=0.001), learning difficulties (P=0.04), enuresis (P=0.0008), a lower intelligence quotient
(P,0.001), and subtle motor impairments (P=0.005) than control subjects.
Conclusion: We suggest that neurodevelopment in early-onset psychosis is characterized by a global impairment of functional and adaptive skills that manifests from early childhood, rather
than a delay or limitation in language and motor development. The current evidence is based on a small sample and should be investigated in larger samples in future research.
Keywords: early-onset psychosis, early-onset schizophrenia, neurodevelopment, social cognition, intellectual disabilitie
Single step multiple genotyping by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, for evaluation of minor histocompatibility antigens in patients submitted to allogeneic stem cell transplantation from HLA-matched related and unrelated donor
The outcome of patients underwent to allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo- SCT) is closely related to graft versus host disease (GvHD) and graft versus leukemia (GvL) effects which can be mediated by mHAgs. 23 mHAgs have been identified and reported to be differently correlated with GVHD or GVL and the aim of this work was develop a method to genotype the mHAgs described so far. For this study we used MALDI-TOF iPLEX Gold Mass Array technology. We tested 46 donor/recipient matched pairs that underwent allo-SCT because of Philadelphia positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (n=29) or Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n=17). Our data show that sibling pairs had a lesser number of mHAgs mismatches compared to MUD pairs. Notably, donor/recipient genomic mismatch on DPH1 was correlated with an increased risk of acute GvHD and LB-ADIR-1R mismatch on graft versus host direction was correlated with a better RFS with no increase of GvHD risk. Our work provides a simple, accurate and highly automatable method for mHAgs genotyping and suggest the role of mHAgs in addressing the immune reaction between donor and host
Neither hereditary periodic fever nor periodic fever, aphthae, pharingitis, adenitis: Undifferentiated periodic fever in a tertiary pediatric center
AIM: To describe the frequency and clinical characteristics of patients with undifferentiated periodic fever (UPF) and to investigate whether a clinical classification of UPF based on the PRINTO-Eurofever score can help predicting the response to treatment and the outcome at follow-up. METHODS: Clinical and therapeutic information of patients with recurrent fever who presented at a single pediatric rheumatology center from January 2006 through April 2016 were retrospectively collected. Patients with a clinical suspicion of hereditary periodic fever (HPF) syndrome and patients with clinical picture of periodic fever, aphthae, pharingitis, adenitis (PFAPA) who were refractory to tonsillectomy underwent molecular analysis of five HPF-related genes: MEFV (NM_000243.2), MVK (NM_000431.3), TNFRSF1A (NM_001065.3), NLRP3 (NM_001079821.2), NLRP12 (NM_001277126.1). All patients who had a negative genetic result were defined as UPF and further investigated. PRINTO-Eurofever score for clinical diagnosis of HPF was calculated in all cases. RESULTS: Of the 221 patients evaluated for periodic fever, twelve subjects with a clinical picture of PFAPA who were refractory to tonsillectomy and 22 subjects with a clinical suspicion of HPF underwent genetic analysis. Twenty-three patients (10.4%) resulted negative and were classified as UPF. The median age at presentation of patients with UPF was 9.5 mo (IQR 4-24). Patients with UPF had a higher frequency of aphthae (52.2% vs 0%, P = 0.0026) and musculoskeletal pain (65.2% vs 18.2%, P = 0.0255) than patients with genetic confirmed HPF. Also, patients with UPF had a higher frequency of aphthous stomatitis (52.2% vs 10.7%, P < 0.0001), musculoskeletal pain (65.2% vs 8,0%, P < 0.0001), and abdominal pain (52.2% vs 4.8%, P < 0.0001) and a lower frequency of pharyngitis (56.6% vs 81.3%, P = 0.0127) compared with typical PFAPA in the same cohort. Twenty-one of 23 patients with UPF (91.3%) received steroids, being effective in 16; 13 (56.2%) were given colchicine, which was effective in 6. Symptoms resolution occurred in 2 patients with UPF at last follow-up. Classification according to the PRINTO-Eurofever score did not correlate with treatment response and prognosis. CONCLUSION: UPF is not a rare diagnosis among patients with periodic fever. Clinical presentation place UPF half way on a clinical spectrum between PFAPA and HPF. The PRINTO-Eurofever score is not useful to predict clinical outcome and treatment response in these patients
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