Liver Resections for Metastases from Intraabdominal Leiomyosarcoma

This paper discusses liver resection for intraabdominal leiomyosarcoma metastases as a therapy for carefully selected patients. Of the 83 hepatectomies performed from 1992 to 1996, five were resections for liver metastases due to intraabdominal leiomyosarcoma, in 3 patients. The surgical indication was single liver metastases, without any evidence of extrahepatic disease. No mortality occurred during surgery and the longest survival was 38 months. We concluded that liver resection for leiomyosarcoma metastases can be performed, allowing a long term survival in an occasional patient

Rapid tranquillisation for agitated patients in emergency psychiatric rooms: a randomised trial of midazolam versus haloperidol plus promethazine

OBJECTIVE: To compare two widely used drug treatments for people with aggression or agitation due to mental illness. DESIGN: Pragmatic, randomised clinical trial. SETTING: Three psychiatric emergency rooms in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. SUBJECTS: 301 aggressive or agitated people. INTERVENTIONS: Open treatment with intramuscular midazolam or intramuscular haloperidol plus promethazine. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients tranquil or sedated at 20 minutes. Secondary outcomes: patients tranquil or asleep by 40, 60, and 120 minutes; restrained or given extra drugs within 2 hours; severe adverse events; another episode of agitation or aggression; needing extra visits from doctor during first 24 hours; overall antipsychotic load in first 24 hours; and not discharged by two weeks

Systematical study of the optical potential for systems like A+ 58Ni from sub-barrier data analyses

Elastic scattering differential cross sections were measured for the 28Si158Ni system at sub-barrier energies. The corresponding nuclear potential was compared with earlier results of systems like A158Ni. The present data also allowed the determination of the 28Si nuclear density through an unfolding method. The experimentally extracted 28Si density values are compared with those previously obtained for the 4,6He, 12C, 16,18O nuclei. We present a critical discussion of the absolute precision obtained for the density parameters extracted from the data analyses

Global and consistent analysis of the heavy-ion elastic scattering and fusion processes

We have developed a model for the nuclear interaction which is based on the effects of the Pauli nonlocality. In earlier works, we have successfully used this interaction to describe the elastic scattering for several systems in a very wide energy range. In the present work, we have checked the validity of the same interaction in the description of about 2500 fusion cross section data for 165 different systems. By introducing only one energyand system-independent effective parameter, the nonlocal model describes the global behavior of the fusion process with good precision

Precise nuclear matter densities from heavy-ion collisions

An unfolding method is proposed to extract ground-state nuclear matter densities from heavy-ion elastic scattering data analyses at low (sub-barrier) and intermediate energies. The consistency of the results is fully checked. The method should be of value in determining densities for exotic nuclei

Numerical and experimental characterisation of polylactic acid (PLA) processed by additive manufacturing (AM): bending and tensile tests

In additive manufacturing (AM), one of the most popular procedures is material extrusion (MEX). The materials and manufacturing parameters used in this process have a significant impact on a printed product’s quality. The purpose of this work is to investigate the effects of infill percentage and filament orientation on the mechanical properties of printed structures. For this reason, the characterisation of polylactic acid (PLA) was done numerically using the finite element method and experimentally through mechanical tests. The experiments involved three-point bending and tensile tests. The results showed that mechanical performance is highly dependent on these processing parameters mainly when the infill percentage is less than 100%. The highest elastic modulus was exhibited for structures with filament align at 0◦ and 100% infill, while the lowest one was verified for specimen filament aligned at 0◦ and 30% infill. The results demonstrated that the process parameters have a significant impact on mechanical performance, particularly when the infill percentage is less than 100%. Structures with filament aligned at 0◦ and 100% infill showed the maximum elastic modulus, whereas specimens with filament oriented at 0◦ and 30% infill showed the lowest. The obtained numerical agreement indicated that an inverse method based only on the load–displacement curve can yield an accurate value for this material’s elastic modulus.National Innovation Agency (ANI) for MSc grant of Mariana Salgueiro nº POCI-01-0247- FEDER-039733 and Portuguese Foundations for Science and Technology. This project was co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through SI&IDT Projects in the framework of co-hosting—Competitiveness and Internationalisation Operational Programme (CIOP)—COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020, with the National Innovation Agency (ANI) as the Intermediate Partner. Fabio Pereira acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UIDB/04033/2020. Mariana Salgueiro and Andrea Zille acknowledge the European Commission and the National Innovation Agency (ANI) for the financial support through the project “ARCHKNIT: Innovative smart textile interfaces for architectural applications”, Ref.: POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039733. This project was co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through SI&IDT Projects in the framework of co-hosting—Competitiveness and Internationalisation Operational Programme (CIOP)—COMPETE 2020, Portugal 2020, with the National Innovation Agency (ANI) as the Intermediate Partner. Nuno Dourado acknowledges FCT for the conceded financial support through the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2019 and “Programa bilateral de Portugal com a Tunísia”. Charii Fakher acknowledges the « Fondation pour la Recherche Scientifique” for the conceded financial support through “Programa bilateral de Portugal com a Tunísia”

Determination of the 12C nuclear density through heavy-ion elastic scattering experiments

Precise elastic scattering differential cross sections have been measured for the 12C158Ni,208Pb systems at sub-barrier energies. The corresponding bare potentials have been determined at interaction distances larger than the respective barrier radii, and the results have been compared with those from an early extensive systematics for the nuclear potential. The present data have been combined with others for the 12C 112C,208Pb systems at intermediate energies, in order to extract the 12C ground-state nuclear density through an unfolding method

The usefulness of serum adenosine deaminase 2 (ADA2) activity in adults for the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis

AbstractRapid diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains an obstacle for therapy of tuberculosis (TB). Adenosine deaminase isoform 2 (ADA2) is produced by activated macrophages and has been used for diagnosis of TB from extra-pulmonary sites. However, few studies adequately address whether serum ADA2 activity is useful for diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). We prospectively measured serum ADA2 activity in 110 patients with pulmonary disease (65 cases with active PTB and 45 cases with other respiratory diseases) and 78 healthy volunteers (eight with tuberculin skin test positive). The serum ADA2 for the diagnosis of PTB had the sensitivity of 36·9%, the specificity of 84·5%, the positive predictive value of 10·9% and the negative predictive value of 96·2%. We concluded that serum ADA2 activity is neither useful to diagnosis of active PTB nor to differentiate from other respiratory diseases

Influence of the meso-substituents of zinc porphyrins in dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency with improved performance under short periods of white light illumination

The sensitization activity of four zinc metalloporphyrin dyes: meso-tetrakis(4-pyridyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (a), meso-triphenyl-(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (b), meso-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (c) and meso-tripyridyl(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrinato Zn(II) (d) is reported here, in terms of current-potential curve, open-circuit potential, fill factor, and overall solar energy conversion efficiency which have been evaluated under 100 mW/cm2 light intensity and their performances compared to the benchmark N719 (di-tetrabutylammonium cis-bis(isothiocyanato)bis(2,2′-bipyridyl-4,4′-dicarboxylato) ruthenium(II)). This work focus the structural aspects of dyes with anchoring groups using TiO2-based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs), which includes pyridyl and carboxyphenyl acid groups and argue how the combination of both anchoring groups, in the same structure, may allow relevant optimization of DSSCs performance in the near future. Also, a noticeable improvement in the photovoltaic performance of all dyes, reaching a maximum increase from 25% to 69% in the overall DSSC efficiency under short periods of white light illumination is discussed.publishe