Quantum-informed plasmonics for strong coupling: the role of electron spill-out

The effect of nonlocality on the optical response of metals lies at the forefront of research in nanoscale physics and, in particular, quantum plasmonics. In alkali metals, nonlocality manifests predominantly as electron density spill-out at the metal boundary, and as surface-enabled Landau damping. For an accurate description of plasmonic modes, these effects need be taken into account in the theoretical modelling of the material. The resulting modal frequency shifts and broadening become particularly relevant when dealing with the strong interaction between plasmons and excitons, where hybrid modes emerge and the way they are affected can reflect modifications of the coupling strength. Both nonlocal phenomena can be incorporated in the classical local theory by applying a surface-response formalism embodied by the Feibelman parameters. Here, we implement surface-response corrections in Mie theory to study the optical response of spherical plasmonic--excitonic composites in core--shell configurations. We investigate sodium, a jellium metal dominated by spill-out, for which it has been anticipated that nonlocal corrections should lead to an observable change in the coupling strength, appearing as a modification of the width of the mode splitting. We show that, contrary to expectations, the influence of nonlocality on the anticrossing is minimal, thus validating the accuracy of the local response approximation in strong-coupling photonics

Performance evaluation of a medium access control protocol for a distributed ARQ scheme in cooperative wireless networks

A performance evaluation of a medium access control protocol for a distributed ARQ scheme in cooperative wireless networks is presented in this paper. The protocol under evaluation is the Persistent Relay Carrier Sensing Multiple Access protocol (PRCSMA). The protocol was designed to be easily integrated in standard IEEE 802.11 networks in order to increase their performance and to extend coverage. The main goals of this paper are to present and to discuss the performance evaluation of the PRCSMA under different network configurations. Computer simulations demonstrate the robustness of the protocol under different scenarios.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Analisis Marketing Pada Pizza Hut Delivery

Pizza Hut and PHD actually are in the same company. Pizza Hut is focusing their business in restaurant, serve their customer directly on the table and also take away orders.Running their business in some period they bring new great idea to grab more markets and excellence service, they built PHD. PHD is focusing their business on delivery pizza. They didnt provide table and restaurant, they provide only small kiosk or outlet, accept all customers orders by phone or website and send them to customers address as mentioned on the orders list. They help customers well. They put easy way to order to their customers mind set. PHD make their customer happy and feel easy

Massive Uterine Leiomyoma in a Patient with Friedreich's Ataxia: Is There a Possible Association?

A possible association between Friedreich's ataxia (FA) and neoplastic development has been recognized. FA patients have low frataxin levels and insufficient response to oxidative stress. In these patients fibroblasts are characterized by a high rate of mutations. Herein, a case of a 39-year-old woman with FA tetraplegia, who was admitted in our department with intestinal obstruction due to a huge uterine tumor, is described. An abdominal CT revealed a huge intra-abdominal mass originating from the right cornu of the uterus. Tumor excision and adhesionlysis were performed. The histological examination of the tumor revealed a leiomyoma. FA patients seem to present with a variety of neoplasms uncommon for their young age. This is the first report of a leiomyoma originating from the genital system in a female patient with FA tetraplegia. Therefore it is important to identify neoplasms at an early stage in patients with FA and start immediate therapy

The Integrated Behavioural Model for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: a systematic review of behavioural models and a framework for designing and evaluating behaviour change interventions in infrastructure-restricted settings.

BACKGROUND: Promotion and provision of low-cost technologies that enable improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices are seen as viable solutions for reducing high rates of morbidity and mortality due to enteric illnesses in low-income countries. A number of theoretical models, explanatory frameworks, and decision-making models have emerged which attempt to guide behaviour change interventions related to WASH. The design and evaluation of such interventions would benefit from a synthesis of this body of theory informing WASH behaviour change and maintenance. METHODS: We completed a systematic review of existing models and frameworks through a search of related articles available in PubMed and in the grey literature. Information on the organization of behavioural determinants was extracted from the references that fulfilled the selection criteria and synthesized. Results from this synthesis were combined with other relevant literature, and from feedback through concurrent formative and pilot research conducted in the context of two cluster-randomized trials on the efficacy of WASH behaviour change interventions to inform the development of a framework to guide the development and evaluation of WASH interventions: the Integrated Behavioural Model for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (IBM-WASH). RESULTS: We identified 15 WASH-specific theoretical models, behaviour change frameworks, or programmatic models, of which 9 addressed our review questions. Existing models under-represented the potential role of technology in influencing behavioural outcomes, focused on individual-level behavioural determinants, and had largely ignored the role of the physical and natural environment. IBM-WASH attempts to correct this by acknowledging three dimensions (Contextual Factors, Psychosocial Factors, and Technology Factors) that operate on five-levels (structural, community, household, individual, and habitual). CONCLUSIONS: A number of WASH-specific models and frameworks exist, yet with some limitations. The IBM-WASH model aims to provide both a conceptual and practical tool for improving our understanding and evaluation of the multi-level multi-dimensional factors that influence water, sanitation, and hygiene practices in infrastructure-constrained settings. We outline future applications of our proposed model as well as future research priorities needed to advance our understanding of the sustained adoption of water, sanitation, and hygiene technologies and practices

Electron beams traversing spherical nanoparticles: analytic and numerical treatment

We present an analytic, Mie-theory based solution for the energy-loss and the photon-emission probabilities in the interaction of spherical nanoparticles with electrons passing nearby and through them, in both cathodoluminescence (CL) and electron energy-loss spectroscopies (EELS). In particular, we focus on the case of penetrating electron trajectories, for which the complete fully electrodynamic and relativistic formalism has not been reported as yet. We exhibit the efficiency of this method in describing collective excitations in matter through calculations for a dispersive and lossy system, namely a sphere described by a Drude permittivity, and discuss possible complications when computing contributions from higher-order modes. Subsequently, we use the analytic solution to corroborate the implementation of electron-beam sources in a state-of-the-art numerical method methods. We show that the two approaches produce spectra in good mutual agreement, and demonstrate the versatility of DGTD via simulations of spherical nanoparticles characterized by surface roughness. The possibility of simultaneously employing both kinds of calculations (analytic and numerical) facilitates a better understanding of the rich optical response of nanophotonic architectures excited by fast electron beams.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

2q37 deletions in patients with an albright hereditary osteodystrophy phenotype and PTH resistance

Pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) is a rare endocrine disorder derived from the defective activation of the cAMP pathway by the parathyroid hormone secondary to GNAS molecular defects. PHP subtypes are defined by the presence/absence of specific clinical/biochemical features. PHP1A is characterized by resistance to multiple hormones with features of Albright hereditary osteodystrophy (AHO), while pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (PPHP) is characterized by AHO in the absence of PTH resistance. Small subsets of PHP and PPHP patients without known molecular defects have been re-diagnosed as being affected by the brachydactyly-mental retardation syndrome (BDMR), also known as the AHO-like syndrome. This study aimed to analyse 24 PHP1A and 51 PPHP patients without a molecular diagnosis for the presence of BDMR-associated 2q37 deletions to improve the differential diagnosis and to identify features that might help to avoid a misdiagnosis. Molecular investigations identified 4 deletions in 4 unrelated patients. The affected patients showed a combination of the most pathognomonic AHO features. Of note, 3 of the patients also displayed mild PTH resistance, and none of the patients developed ectopic ossifications. Our work confirmed the rarity of the misdiagnosis of BDMR in PHP patients through the identification of 4 patients bearing a 2q37 deletion in a cohort of 73 PHP patients (5.3%). Three patients with the deletion presented a PHP1A phenotype in the absence of any BDMR-specific findings. Further studies on larger case series are needed to elucidate the overlap between these clinical entities and to allow the early identification of patients

Improved Molecular Diagnosis of McCune-Albright Syndrome and Bone Fibrous Dysplasia by Digital PCR

McCune-Albright syndrome (MAS) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by the association of endocrine and nonendocrine anomalies caused by somatic activating variants of GNAS. The mosaic state of variants makes the clinical presentation extremely heterogeneous depending on involved tissues. Biological samples bearing a low level of mosaicism frequently lead to false-negative results with an underestimation of causative molecular alterations, and the analysis of biopsies is often needed to obtain a molecular diagnosis. To date, no reliable analytical method for the noninvasive testing of blood is available. This study was aimed at validating a novel and highly sensitive technique, the digital PCR (dPCR), to increase the detection rate of GNAS alterations in patients with a clinical suspicion of MAS and, in particular, in blood. We screened different tissues (blood, bone, cutis, ovary, and ovarian cyst) collected from 54 MAS patients by different technical approaches. Considering blood, Sanger was unable to detect mutations, the allele-specific PCR and the co-amplification at lower denaturation temperature had a 9.1% and 18.1% detection rate, respectively, whereas the dPCR reached a 37.8% detection rate. In conclusion, the dPCR resulted in a cost-effective, reliable, and rapid method allowing the selective amplification of low-frequency variants and able to improve GNAS mutant allele detection, especially in the blood