Aggressive fibromatosis of the head and neck: a new classification based on a literature review over 40years (1968-2008)

Background: Fibromatosis is an aggressive fibrous tumor of unknown etiology that is, in some cases, lethal. Until now, there has been no particular classification for the head and neck. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to review the current literature in order to propose a new classification for future studies. Methods: An evidence-based literature review was conducted from the last 40years regarding aggressive fibromatosis in the head and neck. Studies that summarized patients' data without including individual data were excluded. Results: Between 1968 and 2008, 179 cases with aggressive fibromatosis of the head and neck were published. The male to female ratio was 91 to 82 with a mean age of 16.87years, and 57.32% of the described cases that involved the head and neck were found in patients under 11years. The most common localization was the mandible, followed by the neck. All together, 143 patients were followed up, and in 43 (30.07%), a recurrence was seen. Conclusion: No clear prognostic factors for recurrence (age, sex, or localization) were observed. A new classification with regard to hormone receptors and bone involvement could improve the understanding of risk factors and thereby assist in future studie

Der klassische Philologe Dr. Albert Müller

Aufsatz über den klassischen Philologen Albert Müller, der 1870-1874 das Gymnasium in Plön und 1874-1896 das Gymnasium und die Realschule in Flensburg leitete. Thematisch ist dieser angelehnt an Inhalte des Jahrbuches für Heimatkunde im Kreis Plön. Dieser Aufsatz liegt in erweiterter Form vor

Malignant minor salivary gland tumors: a retrospective study of 27 cases

Purpose: Malignant tumors of the intra-oral minor salivary glands are uncommon. The aim of this study was to give information concerning the clinical features of these tumors, the distribution of location, treatment opportunities, and outcome. Methods: Twenty-seven patients with malignant salivary gland tumors that were treated between January 1999 and December 2008 were evaluated retrospectively. Results: Of the 27 minor salivary gland carcinomas, 48.1% were adenoid cystic carcinomas (ACC), 29.7% mucoepidermoid carcinomas (MEC), 22.2% adenocarcinomas (ADCA). The most common first symptom was a painless swelling in 60% of the cases, with the second most common symptom being ulcers (28%). Four recurrences and two metastases were found. No recurrence was observed in ADCA. All four patients experiencing a recurrence developed it in the first 3years after treatment. Conclusion: Wide excision with a clinical margin of 1cm and in large tumors, positive surgical margins or perineural infiltration and postoperative radiotherapy (RT) can be recommended; but in order to give exact information concerning the possible benefit from postoperative RT, it needs large prospective multicenter studies. Long-term follow-up controls and in particularly longer than 5years in ACC including yearly chest X-rays should be offered to these patients because of late metastasis and recurrence

Jets of nuclear matter from high energy heavy ion collisions

The fluid dynamical model is used to study the reactions 20Ne+238U and 40Ar+40Ca at Elab=390 MeV/nucleon. The calculated double differential cross sections d²ð​/dΩdE exhibit sidewards maxima in agreement with recent experimental data. The azimuthal dependence of the triple differential distributions, to be obtained from an event-by-event analysis of 4π; exclusive experiments, can yield deeper insight into the collision process: Jets of nuclear matter are predicted with a strongly impact-parameter-dependent thrust angle θ​jet(b). NUCLEAR REACTIONS Ar+Ca, Ne+U, Elab=393 MeV/nucleon, fluid dynamics with thermal breakup, double differential cross sections, azimuthal dependence of triple differential cross sections, event-by-event thrust analysis of 4π exclusive experiments

Effects of Youth Mentoring on Depressive Symptoms of Single Mothers

Past evaluation studies of youth mentoring programs have focused solely on the children. While they are often the main recipient of the mentoring, effects on parents should not be neglected. Especially single mothers often face many challenges in their everyday life and might benefit from youth mentoring programs. In the present study we investigate whether youth mentoring programs can lower depressive symptoms in single mothers. The hypothesis was investigated using data of the youth mentoring program” biffy Berlin e.V. Big Friends for Youngsters”. The results showed a significant association between depressive symptoms and duration of the mentoring relationship while relevant covariates were controlled. In a follow-up analysis we explored whether reduced levels of stress might mediate the association and the data was in line with this idea. Implications for future studies are discussed

Effects of Youth Mentoring on Depressive Symptoms of Single Mothers

Past evaluation studies of youth mentoring programs have focused solely on the children. While they are often the main recipient of the mentoring, effects on parents should not be neglected. Especially single mothers often face many challenges in their everyday life and might benefit from youth mentoring programs. In the present study we investigate whether youth mentoring programs can lower depressive symptoms in single mothers. The hypothesis was investigated using data of the youth mentoring program” biffy Berlin e.V. Big Friends for Youngsters”. The results showed a significant association between depressive symptoms and duration of the mentoring relationship while relevant covariates were controlled. In a follow-up analysis we explored whether reduced levels of stress might mediate the association and the data was in line with this idea. Implications for future studies are discussed

Body Burden of Dichlorodiphenyl Dichloroethene (DDE) and Childhood Pulmonary Function

Longitudinal studies have shown that early life exposure to dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethene (DDE) can lead to growth reduction during childhood and adolescence. In addition, DDE exposure has been linked to respiratory tract infections and an increased risk of asthma in children. Our aim was to understand the relationships between DDE exposure and pulmonary function in children, and, particularly, whether associations are mediated by the height of the children. We used data from an environmental epidemiologic study conducted in central Germany in children aged 8-10 years. The pulmonary function (forced vital capacity, FVC, and forced expiratory volume in one second, FEV1) were measured in three consecutive years. Blood DDE levels were measured at 8 and 10 years. We used linear mixed models for repeated measurements and path analyses to assess the association between blood levels of DDE and pulmonary function measurements. All models were adjusted for confounders. Linear mixed approaches and modelling concurrent effects showed no significant associations. The path analytical models demonstrated that DDE measured at eight years had significant, inverse, indirect, and total effects on FVC at ten years (n = 328; −0.18 L per μg/L of DDE) and FEV1 (n = 328; −0.17 L per μg/L of DDE), mediated through effects of DDE on height and weight. The DDE burden reduces pulmonary function through its diminishing effects on height and weight in children. Further studies are required to test these associations in other samples, preferably from a region with ongoing, high DDT application

Energy-Minimizing, Symmetric Discretizations for Anisotropic Meshes and Energy Functional Extrapolation

Self-adjoint differential operators often arise from variational calculus on energy functionals. In this case, a direct discretization of the energy functional induces a discretization of the differential operator. Following this approach, the discrete equations are naturally symmetric if the energy functional was self-adjoint, a property that may be lost when using standard difference formulas on nonuniform meshes or when the differential operator has varying coefficients. Low order finite difference or finite element systems can be derived by this approach in a systematic way and on logically structured meshes they become compact difference formulas. Extrapolation formulas used on the discrete energy can then lead to higher oder approximations of the differential operator. A rigorous analysis is presented for extrapolation used in combination with nonstandard integration rules for finite elements. Extrapolation can likewise be applied on matrix-free finite difference stencils. In our applications, both schemes show up to quartic order of convergence

Implicitly extrapolated geometric multigrid on disk-like domains for the gyrokinetic Poisson equation from fusion plasma applications

In the context of Tokamak fusion plasma, the gyrokinetic Poisson equation has to be solved on disk-like domains which correspond to the poloidal cross-section of the Tokamak geometry. In its simpliest form, this cross section takes a circular form but deformed geometries were found to be advantageous and are more realistic. We propose a taylored solver for the gyrokinetic Poisson equation on disklike geometries described by curvilinear coordinates. Our solver also copes with an anisotropic, locally refined mesh to model the edge part of the Tokamak and a rapidly dropping density profile. Multigrid methods can achieve optimal complexity for many problems and are among the most efficient solvers for elliptic model problems. Multigrid methods for geometries described by curvilinear coordinates are however less common. We present a taylored geometric multigrid algorithm using optimized line smoothers to enable parallel scalability. We propose an implicit extrapolation scheme for our algorithm to increase the order of convergence by using nonstandard numerical integration rules for P1 finite elements. We also use problem-specific finite differences, which numerically show the same order of convergence as their finite elements' counterpart, enabling a matrix-free implementation with a low memory footprint