1,181 research outputs found
Minimal Elastographic Modeling of Breast Cancer for Model Based Tumour Detection in a Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET) System
Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET) is a non-invasive breast cancer screening technology that images the surface motion of a breast under harmonic mechanical actuation. A new approach capturing the dynamics and characteristics of tumor behavior is presented. A simple mechanical model of the breast is used to identify a transfer function relating the input harmonic actuation to the output surface displacements using imaging data of a silicone phantom. Areas of higher stiffness cause significant changes of damping and resonant frequencies as seen in the resulting Bode plots. A case study on a healthy and tumor silicone breast phantom shows the potential for this model-based method to clearly distinguish cancerous and healthy tissue as well as correctly predicting the tumor position
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The Beagle landing site in Isidis Planitia
The Mars probe Beagle 2 will land in Isidis Planitia. This region satisfies the engineering constraints and has evidence for particularly volatile-rich subsoil. Isidis provides a suitable place for the lander to search for H2O and organic matter
Power, norms and institutional change in the European Union: the protection of the free movement of goods
How do institutions of the European Union change? Using an institutionalist approach, this article highlights the interplay between power, cognitive limits, and the normative order that underpins institutional settings and assesses their impact upon the process of institutional change. Empirical evidence from recent attempts to reinforce the protection of the free movement of goods in the EU suggests that, under conditions of uncertainty, actors with ambiguous preferences assess attempts at institutional change on the basis of the historically defined normative order which holds a given institutional structure together. Hence, path dependent and incremental change occurs even when more ambitious and functionally superior proposals are on offer
Impaired visual short-term memory capacity is distinctively associated with structural connectivity of the posterior thalamic radiation and the splenium of the corpus callosum in preterm-born adults
Preterm birth is associated with an increased risk for lasting changes in both the cortico-thalamic system and attention; however, the link between cortico-thalamic and attention changes is as yet little understood. In preterm newborns, cortico-cortical and cortico-thalamic structural connectivity are distinctively altered, with increased local clustering for cortico-cortical and decreased integrity for cortico-thalamic connectivity. In preterm-born adults, among the various attention functions, visual short-term memory (vSTM) capacity is selectively impaired. We hypothesized distinct associations between vSTM capacity and the structural integrity of cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical connections, respectively, in preterm-born adults. A whole-report paradigm of briefly presented letter arrays based on the computationally formalized Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) was used to quantify parameter vSTM capacity in 26 preterm- and 21 full-term-born adults. Fractional anisotropy (FA) of posterior thalamic radiations and the splenium of the corpus callosum obtained by diffusion tensor imaging were analyzed by tract-based spatial statistics and used as proxies for cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical structural connectivity. The relationship between vSTM capacity and cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical connectivity, respectively, was significantly modified by prematurity. In full-term-born adults, the higher FA in the right posterior thalamic radiation the higher vSTM capacity; in preterm-born adults this FA-vSTM-relationship was inversed. In the splenium, higher FA was correlated with higher vSTM capacity in preterm-born adults, whereas no significant relationship was evident in full-term-born adults. These results indicate distinct associations between cortico-thalamic and cortico-cortical integrity and vSTM capacity in preterm-and full-term-born adults. Data suggest compensatory cortico-cortical fiber re-organization for attention deficits after preterm delivery
Supergravity and the jet quenching parameter in the presence of R-charge densities
Following a recent proposal, we employ the AdS/CFT correspondence to compute
the jet quenching parameter for N=4 Yang-Mills theory at nonzero R-charge
densities. Using as dual supergravity backgrounds non-extremal rotating branes,
we find that the presence of the R-charges generically enhances the jet
quenching phenomenon. However, at fixed temperature, this enhancement might or
might not be a monotonically increasing function of the R-charge density and
depends on the number of independent angular momenta describing the solution.
We perform our analysis for the canonical as well as for the grand canonical
ensemble which give qualitatively similar results.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures; v3: clarifying comments added, references added,
version to appear in JHE
Calibration of the length of a chain of single gold atoms
Using a scanning tunneling microscope or mechanically controllable break
junctions it has been shown that it is possible to control the formation of a
wire made of single gold atoms. In these experiments an interatomic distance
between atoms in the chain of ~3.6 Angstrom was reported which is not
consistent with recent theoretical calculations. Here, using precise
calibration procedures for both techniques, we measure length of the atomic
chains. Based on the distance between the peaks observed in the chain length
histogram we find the mean value of the inter-atomic distance before chain
rupture to be 2.6 +/- 0.2 A . This value agrees with the theoretical
calculations for the bond length. The discrepancy with the previous
experimental measurements was due to the presence of He gas, that was used to
promote the thermal contact, and which affects the value of the work function
that is commonly used to calibrate distances in scanning tunnelling microscopy
and mechanically controllable break junctions at low temperatures.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
A first-principles approach to electrical transport in atomic-scale nanostructures
We present a first-principles numerical implementation of Landauer formalism
for electrical transport in nanostructures characterized down to the atomic
level. The novelty and interest of our method lies essentially on two facts.
First of all, it makes use of the versatile Gaussian98 code, which is widely
used within the quantum chemistry community. Secondly, it incorporates the
semi-infinite electrodes in a very generic and efficient way by means of Bethe
lattices. We name this method the Gaussian Embedded Cluster Method (GECM). In
order to make contact with other proposed implementations, we illustrate our
technique by calculating the conductance in some well-studied systems such as
metallic (Al and Au) nanocontacts and C-atom chains connected to metallic (Al
and Au) electrodes. In the case of Al nanocontacts the conductance turns out to
be quite dependent on the detailed atomic arrangement. On the contrary, the
conductance in Au nanocontacts presents quite universal features. In the case
of C chains, where the self-consistency guarantees the local charge transfer
and the correct alignment of the molecular and electrode levels, we find that
the conductance oscillates with the number of atoms in the chain regardless of
the type of electrode. However, for short chains and Al electrodes the even-odd
periodicity is reversed at equilibrium bond distances.Comment: 14 pages, two-column format, submitted to PR
Endothelial and Inflammation Biomarker Profiles at Diagnosis Reflecting Clinical Heterogeneity and Serving as a Prognostic Tool For Treatment Response in Two Independent Cohorts of Patients With Juvenile Dermatomyositis
Objective: Juvenile dermatomyositis (DM) is a heterogeneous systemic immune-mediated vasculopathy. This study was undertaken to 1) identify inflammation/endothelial dysfunctionârelated biomarker profiles reflecting disease severity at diagnosis, and 2) establish whether such biomarker profiles could be used for predicting the response to treatment in patients with juvenile DM. Methods: In total, 39 biomarkers related to activation of endothelial
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