The Effect of the Third Dimension on Rough Surfaces Formed by Sedimenting Particles in Quasi-Two-Dimensions

The roughness exponent of surfaces obtained by dispersing silica spheres into a quasi-two-dimensional cell is examined. The cell consists of two glass plates separated by a gap, which is comparable in size to the diameter of the beads. Previous work has shown that the quasi-one-dimensional surfaces formed have two distinct roughness exponents in two well-defined length scales, which have a crossover length about 1cm. We have studied the effect of changing the gap between the plates to a limit of about twice the diameter of the beads.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to IJMP

A simulation framework for UAV sensor fusion

Proceedings of: 5th International Conference, HAIS 2010, San Sebastián, Spain, June 23-25, 2010.he behavior recognition is one of the most prolific lines of research in recent decades in the field of computer vision. Within this field, the majority of researches have focused on the recognition of the activities carried out by a single individual, however this paper deals with the problem of recognizing the behavior of a group of individuals, in which relations between the component elements are of great importance. For this purpose it is exposed a new representation that concentrates all necessary information concerning relations peer to peer present in the group, and the semantics of the different groups formed by individuals and training (or structure) of each one of them. The work is presented with the dataset created in CVBASE06 dealing the European handballThis work was supported in part by Projects ATLANTIDA, CICYT TIN2008-06742- C02-02/TSI, CICYT TEC2008-06732-C02-02/TEC, SINPROB, CAM CONTEXTS S2009/TIC-1485 and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.Publicad

Detrended fluctuation analysis as a statistical tool to monitor the climate

Detrended fluctuation analysis is used to investigate power law relationship between the monthly averages of the maximum daily temperatures for different locations in the western US. On the map created by the power law exponents, we can distinguish different geographical regions with different power law exponents. When the power law exponents obtained from the detrended fluctuation analysis are plotted versus the standard deviation of the temperature fluctuations, we observe different data points belonging to the different climates, hence indicating that by observing the long-time trends in the fluctuations of temperature we can distinguish between different climates.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to JSTA

Functional Assessment of Variants Associated with Wolfram Syndrome

Wolfram Syndrome (WS) is a heterogeneous multisystem neurodegenerative disorder with two allelic variations in addition to a separate subtype known as WS type 2. The wide phenotypic spectrum of WS includes diabetes mellitus and optic atrophy which is often accompanied by diabetes insipidus, deafness, urological and neurological complications in combination or in isolation. To date, the understanding of the genotype phenotype relationship in this complex syndrome remains poorly understood. In this study we identified and explored the functionality of rare and novel variants in the two causative WS genes WFS1 and CISD2 by assessing the effects of the mutations on the encoded proteins Wolframin and ERIS, in a cohort of 12 patients with autosomal recessive WS, dominant WS and WS type 2. The identified pathogenic variants included missense changes, frameshift deletions and insertions in WFS1 and an exonic deletion in CISD2 which all altered the respective encoded protein in a manner that did not correlate to the phenome previously described. These observations suggest the lack of genotype phenotype correlation in this complex syndrome and the need to explore other molecular genetic mechanisms. Additionally, our findings highlight the importance of functionally assessing variants for their pathogenicity to tackle the problem of increasing variants of unknown significance (VUS) in the public genetic databases

Granular Assembly of α-Synuclein Leading to the Accelerated Amyloid Fibril Formation with Shear Stress

α-Synuclein participates in the Lewy body formation of Parkinson's disease. Elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanism of the amyloid fibril formation is crucial not only to develop a controlling strategy toward the disease, but also to apply the protein fibrils for future biotechnology. Discernable homogeneous granules of α-synuclein composed of approximately 11 monomers in average were isolated in the middle of a lag phase during the in vitro fibrillation process. They were demonstrated to experience almost instantaneous fibrillation during a single 12-min centrifugal membrane-filtration at 14,000×g. The granular assembly leading to the drastically accelerated fibril formation was demonstrated to be a result of the physical influence of shear force imposed on the preformed granular structures by either centrifugal filtration or rheometer. Structural rearrangement of the preformed oligomomeric structures is attributable for the suprastructure formation in which the granules act as a growing unit for the fibril formation. To parallel the prevailing notion of nucleation-dependent amyloidosis, we propose a double-concerted fibrillation model as one of the mechanisms to explain the in vitro fibrillation of α-synuclein, in which two consecutive concerted associations of monomers and subsequent oligomeric granular species are responsible for the eventual amyloid fibril formation

Postoperative outcomes in oesophagectomy with trainee involvement

BACKGROUND: The complexity of oesophageal surgery and the significant risk of morbidity necessitates that oesophagectomy is predominantly performed by a consultant surgeon, or a senior trainee under their supervision. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of trainee involvement in oesophagectomy on postoperative outcomes in an international multicentre setting. METHODS: Data from the multicentre Oesophago-Gastric Anastomosis Study Group (OGAA) cohort study were analysed, which comprised prospectively collected data from patients undergoing oesophagectomy for oesophageal cancer between April 2018 and December 2018. Procedures were grouped by the level of trainee involvement, and univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to compare patient outcomes across groups. RESULTS: Of 2232 oesophagectomies from 137 centres in 41 countries, trainees were involved in 29.1 per cent of them (n = 650), performing only the abdominal phase in 230, only the chest and/or neck phases in 130, and all phases in 315 procedures. For procedures with a chest anastomosis, those with trainee involvement had similar 90-day mortality, complication and reoperation rates to consultant-performed oesophagectomies (P = 0.451, P = 0.318, and P = 0.382, respectively), while anastomotic leak rates were significantly lower in the trainee groups (P = 0.030). Procedures with a neck anastomosis had equivalent complication, anastomotic leak, and reoperation rates (P = 0.150, P = 0.430, and P = 0.632, respectively) in trainee-involved versus consultant-performed oesophagectomies, with significantly lower 90-day mortality in the trainee groups (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Trainee involvement was not found to be associated with significantly inferior postoperative outcomes for selected patients undergoing oesophagectomy. The results support continued supervised trainee involvement in oesophageal cancer surgery

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised