Asymptotic mapping class groups of Cantor manifolds and their finiteness properties

We prove that the infinite family of asymptotic mapping class groups of surfaces of defined by Funar--Kapoudjian and Aramayona--Funar are of type $F_\infty$, thus answering questions of Funar-Kapoudjian-Sergiescu and Aramayona-Vlamis. As it turns out, this result is a specific instance of a much more general theorem which allows to deduce that asymptotic mapping class groups of Cantor manifolds, also introduced in this paper, are of type $F_\infty$, provide the underlying manifolds satisfy some general hypotheses. As important examples, we will obtain $F_\infty$ asymptotical mapping class groups that contain, respectively, the mapping class group of every compact surface with non-empty boundary, the automorphism group of every free group of finite rank, or infinite families of arithmetic groups. In addition, for certain types of manifolds, the homology of our asymptotic mapping class groups coincides with the stable homology of the relevant mapping class groups, as studied by Harer and Hatcher--Wahl.Comment: With an appendix by Oscar Randal-Williams. (v3: Rewritten introduction to include more motivation.) 63 pages, 7 figure

CONTRAST-ENHANCED ULTRASOUND MONITORING OF PERFUSION CHANGES IN HEPATIC NEUROENDOCRINE METASTASES AFTER SYSTEMIC VERSUS SELECTIVE ARTERIAL 177LU/90Y-DOTATOC AND 213BI-DOTATOC RADIOPEPTIDE THERAPY

Radiopeptide therapy with beta emitter labeled 177Lu/90Y- DOTA(0)-Phe(1)-Tyr(3)-octreotide (DOTATOC) and more recently also alpha emitting 213Bi-DOTATOC are promising new treatments for neuroendocrine tumors. No early predictors for treatment response have been recognized and tumor-shrinkage after radiation therapy appears slowly. In some solid tumors a decline in tumor perfusion was found predictive of final treatment response but the gold standard multiphase computed tomography (CT) has a high radiation burden. Therefore we evaluated the ability of contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to evaluate tumor perfusion as a response criteria. Materials and Methods: 14 patients with hepatic neuroendocrine tumor (NET) metastases were enrolled in the retrospective study. Eleven patients were treated with beta-emitting 177Lu/90Y-DOTATOC, either intravenous (i.v.) (n = 5) or intra-arterial (i.a.) (n = 6) and three patients received alpha-emitting 213Bi-DOTATOC (i.a.). CEUS and contrast-enhanced CT (CE-CT) were performed before and 3 months after treatment. Results: CE-CT and CEUS presented comparable results in the baseline study and in the assessment of perfusion changes due to the different treatment regimes. A therapy related decrease in tumor perfusion is an early predictor of longterm morphologic response. Conclusion: CEUS is a cheap, ubiquitary available and radiation free technique which showed comparable results for perfusion and diameter of liver metastases compared to CE-CT. Intensity reduction in an arterial phase CEUS can be seen as a positive sign indicating long term tumor response to treatment. Therefore CEUS may be considered as an imaging modality for monitoring early treatment after focal alpha and beta targeted therapy.JRC.E.5-Nuclear chemistr

Utilidad de la electrocardiografía en la clínica veterinaria de animales de compañía

The electrocardiography is a diagnostic tool for the veterinary clinic of companion animals. In patients with cardiologic signs is the best non invasive means to evaluate the electric activity of the heart. It allows us to evaluate the present of arrhythmias, the pre-surgical state, assess the anaesthetic risk and check the pharmacologic treatments in cardiac patients amongst other. The objective of the present work was to illustrate the advantage of the electrocardiographic assess in canine and felíne patients, and its limitations and contraindications as well.La electrocardiografía es una herramienta diagnóstica de utilidad básica en la clínica veterinaria de animales de compañía. En pacientes con signos clínicos cardiológicos constituye la mejor alternativa diagnóstica para evaluar la actividad eléctrica del corazón de forma no invasiva El electrocardiograma permite demostrar la presencia de arritmias, colabora en la evaluación prequirúrgica y en la valoración del riesgo anestésico, ayuda a monitorear los tratamientos farmacológicos de pacientes cardiópatas, sugiere la presencia de sobrecargas camerales atriales y ventriculares cardíacas y complementa el diagnóstico en patologías de origen metabólico y endócrino. El objetivo del presenta trabajo es mostrar las distintas ventajas que presenta la evaluación electrocardiográfica en pacientes caninos y felinos, así como las límitaciones y contraindicaciones que presenta su estudio

X-Treme beamline at SLS: X-ray magnetic circular and linear dichroism at high field and low temperature

X-Treme is a soft X-ray beamline recently built in the Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institut in collaboration with Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. The beamline is dedicated to polarization-dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopy at high magnetic fields and low temperature. The source is an elliptically polarizing undulator. The end-station has a superconducting 7 T-2 T vector magnet, with sample temperature down to 2 K and is equipped with an in situ sample preparation system for surface science. The beamline commissioning measurements, which show a resolving power of 8000 and a maximum flux at the sample of 4.7 x 10(12) photons s(-1), are presented. Scientific examples showing X-ray magnetic circular and X-ray magnetic linear dichroism measurements are also presented

Increased x-ray attenuation in malignant vs. benign mediastinal nodes in an orthotopic model of lung cancer

PURPOSEStaging of lung cancer is typically performed with fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography-computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT); however, false positive PET scans can occur due to inflammatory disease. The CT scan is used for anatomic registration and attenuation correction. Herein, we evaluated x-ray attenuation (XRA) within nodes on CT and correlated this with the presence of malignancy in an orthotopic lung cancer model in rats.METHODS1×106 NCI-H460 cells were injected transthoracically in six National Institutes of Health nude rats and six animals served as controls. After two weeks, animals were sacrificed; lymph nodes were extracted and scanned with a micro-CT to determine their XRA prior to histologic analysis.RESULTSMedian CT density in malignant lymph nodes (n=20) was significantly higher than benign lymph nodes (n=12; P = 0.018). Short-axis diameter of metastatic lymph nodes was significantly different than benign nodes (3.4 mm vs. 2.4 mm; P = 0.025). Area under the curve for malignancy was higher for density-based lymph node analysis compared with size measurements (0.87 vs. 0.7).CONCLUSIONXRA of metastatic mediastinal lymph nodes is significantly higher than benign nodes in this lung cancer model. This suggests that information on nodal density may be useful when used in combination with the results of FDG-PET in determining the likelihood of malignant adenopath

Solar UV Photooxidation as Pretreatment for Stripping Voltammetric Trace Metal Analysis in River Water

The application of solar ultraviolet radiation as sample pretreatment or preparation step in stripping voltammetric analysis of trace metals in presence of low levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) natural water samples (river water) was studied. River water samples were collected from downstream of Warnow river (Germany) and acidified to pH of 2±0.2 (by addition of 1 mL of ultrapure 65% HNO3 per liter sample). Furthermore, 100 μL/L of hydrogen peroxide solution (ultrapure, 30% H2O2) was added to the samples as photochemical reaction initiator. The samples were transferred to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and irradiated with solar radiation of UV-A intensity of 3.6 mW/m2 for six hours, and the concentrations of Zn, Cd, Pb, and Cu were determined by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). The comparison of the values with the results obtained for the original untreated sample and artificial UV-treated one proved that solar UV radiation can be applied to the digestion of dissolved organic carbon in trace metal analysis in natural waters like river water, lake waters, well waters, and so forth

H/D Isotope Effects on Redox-Switching of DNA Self-Assembled Monolayers Observed by EQCM and Cyclic Voltammetry

An electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) was employed to study the interactions of hexammine ruthenium(III) (RuHex) and hexammine cobalt(III) (CoHex) with a mixed self-assembled monolayer of single-stranded DNA and 6-mercapto-1-hexanol (ssDNA/MCH SAM) immobilized on gold electrodes. When the buffer medium was switched to deuterium oxide (D2O) from normal water (H2O), we observed a pronounced H/D kinetic isotope effect where a consistent shift of up to 400 mV was seen for the reduction peak potential of CoHex but not with RuHex. This was attributed to a 2400-fold change of the apparent reaction rate constant. Though there was a dramatic increase in the EQCM frequency response at a millisecond time scale in the presence of both redox indicators, compared to the signal observed in a low ionic strength buffer (10 mM tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris)/H2SO4 at pH 7.5), a 10 Hz decrease in the frequency shift was observed upon switching from H2O to D2O-based buffer medium. The hydrogen bond network within the ssDNA layer seems to amplify the H/D isotope effect with CoHex. Amplified isotope effects may play a role in living systems. The mechanisms of recently reported H/D isotope effects in medicinal and biochemistry are still widely unclear. Voltammetric and EQCM studies of H/D isotope effects can provide a platform to investigate amplified isotope effects not only with DNA layers, but probably also with proteins and small organic molecules and may be useful for studies of cell proliferation, as well as drug testing

Solar UV-treatment of water samples for stripping-voltammetric determination of trace heavy metals in Awash river, Ethiopia

We report about testing a new mobile and sustainable water sample digestion method in a preliminary field trial in Ethiopia. In order to determine heavy metals at the ultra-trace level by stripping voltammetric techniques in water samples from Awash River, we applied our new method of solar UV-assisted sample pretreatment to destroy the relevant interfering dissolved organic matter. The field tests revealed that 24 h of solar UV irradiation were sufficient to achieve the same sample pretreatment results as with classic digestion method based on intense and hard UV. Analytical results of this study suggest that both a hydroelectric power station and agrichemical applications at Koka Lake have increased the levels of the investigated metals zinc, cadmium, lead, copper, cobalt, nickel, and uranium