Salvage surgery for local failures after stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for early stage non-small cell lung cancer

markdownabstract__Introduction:__ The literature on surgical salvage, i.e. lung resections in patients who develop a local recurrence following stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), is limited. We describe our experience with salvage surgery in nine patients who developed a local recurrence following SABR for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). __Methods:__ Patients who underwent surgical salvage for a local recurrence following SABR for NSCLC were identified from two Dutch institutional databases. Complications were scored using the Dindo-Clavien-classification. __Results:__ Nine patients who underwent surgery for a local recurrence were identified. Median time to local recurrence was 22 months. Recurrences were diagnosed with CT- and/or 18FDG-PET-imaging, with four patients also having a pre-surgical pathological diagnosis. Extensive adhesions were observed during two resections, requiring conversion from a thoracoscopic procedure to thoracotomy during one of these procedures. Three patients experienced complications post-surgery; grade 2 (N = 2) and grade 3a (N = 1), respectively. All resection specimens showed viable tumor cells. Median length of hospital stay was 8 days (range 5-15 days) and 30-day mortality was 0 %. Lymph node dissection revealed mediastinal metastases in 3 patients, all of whom received adjuvant therapy. __Conclusions:__ Our experience with nine surgical procedures for local recurrences post-SABR revealed two grade IIIa complications, and a 30-day mortality of 0 %, suggesting that salvage surgery can be safely performed after SABR

On the equivalence of the Langevin and auxiliary field quantization methods for absorbing dielectrics

Recently two methods have been developed for the quantization of the electromagnetic field in general dispersing and absorbing linear dielectrics. The first is based upon the introduction of a quantum Langevin current in Maxwell's equations [T. Gruner and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 53, 1818 (1996); Ho Trung Dung, L. Kn\"{o}ll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 57, 3931 (1998); S. Scheel, L. Kn\"{o}ll, and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 58, 700 (1998)], whereas the second makes use of a set of auxiliary fields, followed by a canonical quantization procedure [A. Tip, Phys. Rev. A 57, 4818 (1998)]. We show that both approaches are equivalent.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, no figure

Lessons learned and paths forward for rabies dog vaccination in Madagascar: a case study of pilot vaccination campaigns in Moramanga District

Canine rabies causes an estimated 60,000 human deaths per year, but these deaths are preventable through post-exposure prophylaxis of people and vaccination of domestic dogs. Dog vaccination campaigns targeting 70% of the population are effective at interrupting transmission. Here, we report on lessons learned during pilot dog vaccination campaigns in the Moramanga District of Madagascar. We compare two different vaccination strategies: a volunteer-driven effort to vaccinate dogs in two communes using static point vaccination and continuous vaccination as part of routine veterinary services. We used dog age data from the campaigns to estimate key demographic parameters and to simulate different vaccination strategies. Overall, we found that dog vaccination was feasible and that most dogs were accessible to vaccination. The static-point campaign achieved higher coverage but required more resources and had a limited geographic scope compared to the continuous delivery campaign. Our modeling results suggest that targeting puppies through community-based vaccination efforts could improve coverage. We found that mass dog vaccination is feasible and can achieve high coverage in Madagascar; however, context-specific strategies and an investment in dog vaccination as a public good will be required to move the country towards elimination

Consistency of Network Traffic Repositories: An Overview

Traffc repositories with TCP/IP header information are very important for network analysis. Researchers often assume that such repositories reliably represent all traffc that has been flowing over the network; little thoughts are made regarding the consistency of these repositories. Still, for various reasons, the trafc capturing process may have missed packets. For certain kinds of analysis, for example loss measurements, such inconsistencies may lead to the wrong conclusions. This paper proposes an algorithm to detect such inconsistencies, using the idea of “fake gaps��?. A prototype has been developed, and used to test two well-known repositories: the WIDE and Simpleweb repositories. The paper shows that both repositories contain several inconsistencies

Consistency of Network Traffic Repositories: An Overview

Traffc repositories with TCP/IP header information are very important for network analysis. Researchers often assume that such repositories reliably represent all traffc that has been flowing over the network; little thoughts are made regarding the consistency of these repositories. Still, for various reasons, the trafc capturing process may have missed packets. For certain kinds of analysis, for example loss measurements, such inconsistencies may lead to the wrong conclusions. This paper proposes an algorithm to detect such inconsistencies, using the idea of “fake gaps”. A prototype has been developed, and used to test two well-known repositories: the WIDE and Simpleweb repositories. The paper shows that both repositories contain several inconsistencies

Functional characterization of eight human cytochrome P450 1A2 gene variants by recombinant protein expression

Inter-individual variability in cytochrome P450 (CYP)-mediated xenobiotic metabolism is extensive. CYP1A2 is involved in the metabolism of drugs and in the bioactivation of carcinogens. The objective of this study was to functionally characterize eight polymorphic forms of human CYP1A2, namely T83M, S212C, S298R, G299S, I314V, I386F, C406Y and R456H. cDNAs of these variants were constructed and coexpressed in Escherichia coli with human NADPH cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (CYPOR). All variants showed similar levels of apoprotein and holoprotein expression, except for I386F and R456H, which showed only apoprotein, and both were functionally inactive. The activity of CYP1A2 variants was investigated using 8 substrates, measuring 16 different activity parameters. The resulting heterogeneous activity data set was analyzed together with CYP1A2 wild-type (WT) form, applying multivariate analysis. This analysis indicated that variant G299S is substantially altered in catalytic properties in comparison with WT, whereas variant T83M is slightly but significantly different from the WT. Among CYP1A2 variants, out of the heterogeneous set of eight substrates, carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) was the most discriminative compound. In addition, R456 could be identified as an important residue for proper heme binding and stabilization. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved