Uncommon branching pattern of the hepatic arteries in a living donor: a case report and brief literature review

Numerous variations of the hepatic arteries are common in surgical patients. We present a 35-year-old woman who was admitted to our department in order to assess possibility of becoming living donor. Preoperative computed tomography scan revealed anomalous branching pattern of the hepatic arteries. In this case right posterior sectoral artery has been given off by the greater pancreatic artery, left hepatic artery has been replaced by the artery arising from the left gastric artery and double segment 4 branches have been observed. To the best of our knowledge, this pattern has not been described in the literature, yet

Model of Enterpreneurship and Social-cultural and Market Orientation of Small Business Owners in Poland

In the development of SMEs in Poland crucial meaning is legislation, steadily adapted to EU regulations, especially to the European Charter for Small Enterprises. Research conducted in Poland by many authors provide data for doing so, to confirm the hypothesis that among small businesses a vital role in shaping their work situation did not continue to play the market mechanisms and orientations, but mainly socio-cultural factors.W rozwoju MŚP w Polsce podstawowe znaczenie mają również uregulowania prawne, systematycznie dostosowywane do regulacji unijnych, zwłaszcza zaś do Europejskiej Karty Małych Przedsiębiorstw. Badania prowadzone w Polsce przez wielu autorów dostarczają danych ku temu, by potwierdzić tezę, że wśród drobnych przedsiębiorców decydującą rolę w kształtowaniu ich sytuacji pracy odgrywają nadal nie mechanizmy i orientacje rynkowe, ale przede wszystkim czynniki społeczno-kulturowe

Porphyrin Layers at Cu/Au(111)–Electrolyte Interfaces: In Situ EC-STM Study

The coadsorption of porphyrin molecules (TMPyP: tetra(N-methyl-4-pyridyl)-porphyrin), sulfate anions and copper on a Au(111) electrode was investigated by the use of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and in situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy. With decreasing electrode potential the following sequence of surface phases was found: (I) an ordered $$\left( {\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 7 } \right)R19.1^\circ - {\text{S}}{{\text{O}}_4}^{{2 - }}$$ structure on the unreconstructed Au(111)-(1 × 1) surface; (II) a disordered SO42−-layer on the still unreconstructed Au(111)-(1 × 1); (III) a $$\left( {\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3 } \right)R30^\circ$$ coadsorption structure of 2/3 ML Cu and 1/3 ML SO42−; (IV) a completed 1 ML Cu covered by a layer of mobile, i.e. not imaged, SO42− anions, moreover, a coadsorption layer of disordered porphyrin molecules and still mobile SO42− anions; (V) overpotentially deposited Cu-multilayers terminated by the well known Moire-type modulated $$\left( {\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 7 } \right)R19.1^\circ - {\text{S}}{{\text{O}}_4}^{{2 - }}$$ structure (similar to bulk Cu(111)) and covered by a dense layer of flat lying TMPyP molecules showing a growing square as well as hexagonally ordered arrangement, and at even more negative potential values and low Cu concentrations in the solution (VI) a pseudomorphic underpotentially deposited Cu-monolayer covered by a $$\left( {\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 7 } \right)R19.1^\circ - {\text{S}}{{\text{O}}_4}^{{2 - }}$$ layer and a dense, ordered porphyrin layer ontop. The formation of the various phases is driven by the potential dependent surface charge density and the resultant electrostatic interaction with the respective ions. A severe imbalance between the copper deposition and desorption current in the CV spectra suggests also the formation of CuTMPyP-metalloporphyrin on the surface which diffuses into the bulk solution

Phonon and Elastic Instabilities in MoC and MoN

We present several results related to the instability of MoC and MoN in the B1 (sodium chloride) structure. These compounds were proposed as potential superconductors with moderately high transition temperatures. We show that the elastic instability in B1-structure MoN, demonstrated several years ago, persists at elevated pressures, thus offering little hope of stabilizing this material without chemical doping. For MoC, another material for which stoichiometric fabrication in the B1-structure has not proven possible, we find that all of the cubic elastic constants are positive, indicating elastic stability. Instead, we find X-point phonon instabilities in MoC (and in MoN as well), further illustrating the rich behavior of carbo-nitride materials. We also present additional electronic structure results for several transition metal (Zr, Nb and Mo) carbo-nitride systems and discuss systematic trends in the properties of these materials. Deviations from strict electron counting dependencies are apparent.Comment: 5 pages and 4 trailing figures. Submitted to PR

Towards a representative reference for MRI-based human axon radius assessment using light microscopy

Non-invasive assessment of axon radii via MRI bears great potential for clinical and neuroscience research as it is a main determinant of the neuronal conduction velocity. However, there is a lack of representative histological reference data at the scale of the cross-section of MRI voxels for validating the MRI-visible, effective radius (reff). Because the current gold standard stems from neuroanatomical studies designed to estimate the bulk-determined arithmetic mean radius (rarith) on small ensembles of axons, it is unsuited to estimate the tail-weighted reff. We propose CNN-based segmentation on high-resolution, large-scale light microscopy (lsLM) data to generate a representative reference for reff. In a human corpus callosum, we assessed estimation accuracy and bias of rarith and reff. Furthermore, we investigated whether mapping anatomy-related variation of rarith and reff is confounded by low-frequency variation of the image intensity, e.g., due to staining heterogeneity. Finally, we analyzed the error due to outstandingly large axons in reff. Compared to rarith, reff was estimated with higher accuracy (maximum normalized-root-mean-square-error of reff: 8.5 %; rarith: 19.5 %) and lower bias (maximum absolute normalized-mean-bias-error of reff: 4.8 %; rarith: 13.4 %). While rarith was confounded by variation of the image intensity, variation of reff seemed anatomy-related. The largest axons contributed between 0.8 % and 2.9 % to reff. In conclusion, the proposed method is a step towards representatively estimating reff at MRI voxel resolution. Further investigations are required to assess generalization to other brains and brain areas with different axon radii distributions

Synthesis of Fluorine-18 Functionalized Nanoparticles for use as in vivo Molecular Imaging Agents

Nanoparticles containing fluorine-18 were prepared from block copolymers made by ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Using the fast initiating ruthenium metathesis catalyst (H_2IMes)(pyr)_2(Cl)_2Ru=CHPh, low polydispersity amphiphilic block copolymers were prepared from a cinnamoyl-containing hydrophobic norbornene monomer and a mesyl-terminated PEG-containing hydrophilic norbornene monomer. Self-assembly into micelles and subsequent cross-linking of the micelle cores by light-activated dimerization of the cinnamoyl groups yielded stable nanoparticles. Incorporation of fluorine-18 was achieved by nucleophilic displacement of the mesylates by the radioactive fluoride ion with 31% incorporation of radioactivity. The resulting positron-emitting nanoparticles are to be used as in vivo molecular imaging agents for use in tumor imaging

Risk measures for direct real estate investments with non-normal or unknown return distributions

The volatility of returns is probably the most widely used risk measure for real estate. This is rather surprising since a number of studies have cast doubts on the view that volatility can capture the manifold risks attached to properties and corresponds to the risk attitude of investors. A central issue in this discussion is the statistical properties of real estate returns—in contrast to neoclassical capital market theory they are mostly non-normal and often unknown, which render many statistical measures useless. Based on a literature review and an analysis of data from Germany we provide evidence that volatility alone is inappropriate for measuring the risk of direct real estate. We use a unique data sample by IPD, which includes the total returns of 939 properties across different usage types (56% office, 20% retail, 8% others and 16% residential properties) from 1996 to 2009, the German IPD Index, and the German Property Index. The analysis of the distributional characteristics shows that German real estate returns in this period were not normally distributed and that a logistic distribution would have been a better fit. This is in line with most of the current literature on this subject and leads to the question which indicators are more appropriate to measure real estate risks. We suggest that a combination of quantitative and qualitative risk measures more adequately captures real estate risks and conforms better with investor attitudes to risk. Furthermore, we present criteria for the purpose of risk classification

Quantum numbers of the X(3872)X(3872) state and orbital angular momentum in its ρ0Jψ\rho^0 J\psi decay

Angular correlations in $B^+\to X(3872) K^+$ decays, with $X(3872)\to \rho^0 J/\psi$, $\rho^0\to\pi^+\pi^-$ and $J/\psi \to\mu^+\mu^-$, are used to measure orbital angular momentum contributions and to determine the $J^{PC}$ value of the $X(3872)$ meson. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector. This determination, for the first time performed without assuming a value for the orbital angular momentum, confirms the quantum numbers to be $J^{PC}=1^{++}$. The $X(3872)$ is found to decay predominantly through S wave and an upper limit of $4\%$ at $95\%$ C.L. is set on the fraction of D wave.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure

Observation of two new Ξb−\Xi_b^- baryon resonances

Two structures are observed close to the kinematic threshold in the $\Xi_b^0 \pi^-$ mass spectrum in a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb experiment. In the quark model, two baryonic resonances with quark content $bds$ are expected in this mass region: the spin-parity $J^P = \frac{1}{2}^+$ and $J^P=\frac{3}{2}^+$ states, denoted $\Xi_b^{\prime -}$ and $\Xi_b^{*-}$. Interpreting the structures as these resonances, we measure the mass differences and the width of the heavier state to be $m(\Xi_b^{\prime -}) - m(\Xi_b^0) - m(\pi^{-}) = 3.653 \pm 0.018 \pm 0.006$ MeV$/c^2$, $m(\Xi_b^{*-}) - m(\Xi_b^0) - m(\pi^{-}) = 23.96 \pm 0.12 \pm 0.06$ MeV$/c^2$, $\Gamma(\Xi_b^{*-}) = 1.65 \pm 0.31 \pm 0.10$ MeV, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The width of the lighter state is consistent with zero, and we place an upper limit of $\Gamma(\Xi_b^{\prime -}) < 0.08$ MeV at 95% confidence level. Relative production rates of these states are also reported.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure