On Inverse Scattering at a Fixed Energy for Potentials with a Regular Behaviour at Infinity

We study the inverse scattering problem for electric potentials and magnetic fields in \ere^d, d\geq 3, that are asymptotic sums of homogeneous terms at infinity. The main result is that all these terms can be uniquely reconstructed from the singularities in the forward direction of the scattering amplitude at some positive energy.Comment: This is a slightly edited version of the previous pape

L^p boundedness of the wave operator for the one dimensional Schroedinger operator

Given a one dimensional perturbed Schroedinger operator H=-(d/dx)^2+V(x) we consider the associated wave operators W_+, W_- defined as the strong L^2 limits as s-> \pm\infty of the operators e^{isH} e^{-isH_0} We prove that the wave operators are bounded operators on L^p for all 1<p<\infty, provided (1+|x|)^2 V(x) is integrable, or else (1+|x|)V(x) is integrable and 0 is not a resonance. For p=\infty we obtain an estimate in terms of the Hilbert transform. Some applications to dispersive estimates for equations with variable rough coefficients are given.Comment: 26 page

Inverse Scattering at a Fixed Quasi-Energy for Potentials Periodic in Time

We prove that the scattering matrix at a fixed quasi--energy determines uniquely a time--periodic potential that decays exponentially at infinity. We consider potentials that for each fixed time belong to $L^{3/2}$ in space. The exponent 3/2 is critical for the singularities of the potential in space. For this singular class of potentials the result is new even in the time--independent case, where it was only known for bounded exponentially decreasing potentials.Comment: In this revised version I give a more detailed motivation of the class of potentials that I consider and I have corrected some typo

N-Heterocyclic carbene iron complexes catalyze the ring-opening polymerization of lactide.

Poly(lactic acid), PLA, which holds great promise as a biodegradable substitute of fossil resource-derived polyolefins, is industrially produced by the ring-opening polymerization of lactide using a potentially harmful tin catalyst. Based on mechanistic insights into the reaction of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) iron complexes with carbonyl substrates, we surmised and demonstrate here that such complexes are excellent catalysts for the bulk polymerization of lactide. We show that an iron complex with a triazolylidene NHC ligand is active at lactide/catalyst ratios of up to 10 000 : 1, produces polylactide with relatively high number-average molecular weights (up to 50 kg mol-1) and relatively narrow dispersity (Đ ∼ 1.6), and features an apparent polymerization rate constant k app of up to 8.5 × 10-3 s-1, which is more than an order of magnitude higher than that of the industrially used tin catalyst. Kinetic studies and end-group analyses support that the catalytically active species is well defined and that the polymerization proceeds via a coordination-insertion mechanism. The robustness of the catalyst allows technical grade lactide to be polymerized, thus offering ample potential for application on larger scale in an industrially relevant setting

Small-Energy Analysis for the Selfadjoint Matrix Schroedinger Operator on the Half Line

The matrix Schroedinger equation with a selfadjoint matrix potential is considered on the half line with the most general selfadjoint boundary condition at the origin. When the matrix potential is integrable and has a first moment, it is shown that the corresponding scattering matrix is continuous at zero energy. An explicit formula is provided for the scattering matrix at zero energy. The small-energy asymptotics are established also for the corresponding Jost matrix, its inverse, and various other quantities relevant to the corresponding direct and inverse scattering problems.Comment: This published version has been edited to improve the presentation of the result

Airway complications after lung transplantation: risk factors, prevention and outcome

PURPOSE: Anastomotic complications following lung transplantation (LuTx) have been described in up to 15% of patients. Challenging to treat, they are associated with high morbidity and a mortality rate of 2-5%. The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of complications in a consecutive series of bronchial anastomosis after LuTx at our center and to delineate the potential risk factors. METHODS: Between 1992 and 2007, 441 bronchial anastomoses were performed in 235 patients. Indications for transplantation were cystic fibrosis (35.7%) emphysema (28.1%) pulmonary fibrosis (12.8%) and pulmonary hypertension (7.7%). There were 206 sequential bilateral and 28 single transplants including lobar engraftments in 20 cases. The donor bronchus was shortened to the plane of the lobar carina including the medial wall of the intermediate bronchus. Peribronchial tissue was left untouched. Anastomosis was carried out using a continuous absorbable running suture (PDS 4/0) at the membranous and interrupted sutures at the cartilaginous part. Six elective surveillance bronchoscopies were done monthly during the first half-year post-LuTx, with detailed assessment of the pre- and post-anastomotic airways. RESULTS: One-year survival since 2000 was 90.5%. In all 441 anastomoses performed, no significant dehiscence was observed. In one patient, a small fistula was detected and closed surgically on postoperative day five. Fungal membranes were found in 50% of the anastomoses at 1 month and in 14% at 6 months. Discrete narrowing of the anastomotic lumen without need for intervention was found in 4.9% of patients at 1 month and in 2.4% at 6 months. Age, cytomegalovirus status, induction therapy, immunosuppressive regimen, ischemic time, and ventilation time had no influence on bronchial healing. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically relevant bronchial anastomotic complications after LuTx can be avoided by use of a simple standardized surgical technique. Aggressive antibiotic and antifungal therapy might play an important supportive rol

Removing Objects From Neural Radiance Fields

Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) are emerging as a ubiquitous scene representation that allows for novel view synthesis. Increasingly, NeRFs will be shareable with other people. Before sharing a NeRF, though, it might be desirable to remove personal information or unsightly objects. Such removal is not easily achieved with the current NeRF editing frameworks. We propose a framework to remove objects from a NeRF representation created from an RGBD sequence. Our NeRF inpainting method leverages recent work in 2D image inpainting and is guided by a userprovided mask. Our algorithm is underpinned by a confidence based view selection procedure. It chooses which of the individual 2D inpainted images to use in the creation of the NeRF, so that the resulting inpainted NeRF is 3D consistent. We show that our method for NeRF editing is effective for synthesizing plausible inpaintings in a multi-view coherent manner, outperforming competing methods. We validate our approach by proposing a new and still-challenging dataset for the task of NeRF inpainting

Prognostic significance of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in malignant pleural mesothelioma

Background: Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a morphologic transdifferentiation of carcinomas, conferring increased tumour invasiveness, but may also be applied to the epithelioid versus sarcomatoid histotype of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Herein, we correlated proteins of a putative MPM-EMT axis, including periostin, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), integrin beta1, phosphatase and tensin homologue (PTEN), integrin-linked kinase (ILK), p21 and p27, with clinico-pathologic parameters, in particular overall survival (OS). Patients and Methods: A retrospective cohort of 352 mostly untreated patients with MPM was investigated by immunohistochemistry of a tissue microarray. Protein expression intensities were semi-quantitatively scored from 0 to 3 in their respective compartments, including peritumoural stroma as well as tumour cell plasma membrane, cytoplasm or nucleus. Data were correlated with histotype and survival outcome. Results: A total of 32% of the tumours were diagnosed as epithelioid, 13% as sarcomatoid and 55% as biphasic histotype. High expression of membranous EGFR and integrin beta1 as well as nuclear p27 correlated with the epithelioid and high expression of cytoplasmic tumoural and stromal periostin with the sarcomatoid histotype. The median survival time of the 128 patients with complete follow-up data was 11.7 months. Univariate survival analysis revealed age, epithelioid histotype and any therapy as prognosticators for better OS. High expression of cytoplasmic PTEN or ILK as well as high expression of nuclear p21 or p27 correlated with increased, whereas high expression of cytoplasmic periostin with decreased OS (all p values <0.05). Multivariate Cox regression revealed any treatment, low cytoplasmic periostin and high cytoplasmic PTEN as independent prognosticators for better OS. Conclusion: Activation of periostin-triggered EMT is associated with the sarcomatoid histotype and has an impact on shorter survival of MPM patients. Finally, only the high expression of PTEN and the low expression of cytosolic periostin could be shown to be independent prognostic factors for longer O

Entanglement Creation in Low-Energy Scattering

We study the entanglement creation in the low-energy scattering of two particles in three dimensions, for a general class of interaction potentials that are not required to be spherically symmetric. The incoming asymptotic state, before the collision, is a product of two normalized Gaussian states. After the scattering the particles are entangled. We take as a measure of the entanglement the purity of one of them. We provide a rigorous explicit computation, with error bound, of the leading order of the purity at low-energy. The entanglement depends strongly in the difference of the masses. It takes its minimum when the masses are equal, and it increases rapidly with the difference of the masses. It is quite remarkable that the anisotropy of the potential gives no contribution to the leading order of the purity, on spite of the fact that entanglement is a second order effect.Comment: The paper has been edited and some comments have been adde

Smoking prevention intervention with school classes in university hospital by thoracic surgeon und pulmonologist. The Zurich prevention project

Smoking prevention in schoolchildren to inform and prevent smoking initiation has been widely studied; however, the potential effect of interventions provided in a hospital setting is unknown. An intervention program named "Schoolchildren smoking prevention in the hospital" was developed in which the health aspects of smoking and its individual consequences were presented in an interactive informational event provided by a thoracic surgeon and a pulmonologist. We aimed to assess the feasibility and the short-term effect of smoking-related knowledge improvement in schoolchildren in a hospital setting. Scholars of 45 classes in Canton of Zurich in Switzerland filled in an anonymous 5-item questionnaire with questions on general knowledge about smoking. The answers were evaluated in this prospective observational cohort study. The primary endpoint was to compare the knowledge improvement by interpretation of answers before-and-after the smoking prevention intervention. Additionally, the performance of children was compared after setting up an overall score and specific subgroups according to gender and school-level. Between Jan 2010, and Oct 2019, schoolchildren aged 10 to 16 years participated in this intervention program and completed the questionnaire before (N = 1270) and after (N = 1264) the intervention. The amount of correctly answered questions increased from 40% (±20) before to 81% (±17), p < 0·0001 after the educational session. An intervention program on health effects of smoking provided by lung specialists in the hospital is feasible, well received, leads to a substantial increase of knowledge, and hopefully can be further explored in the development of smoking prevention programs for schoolchildren. Keywords: Adolescent; BASEC, Business Administration System for Ethics Committees; CI, Confidence interval; IQR, Interquartile range; OR, Odds radio; RCT, Randomized control trial; SD, Standard deviation; Schoolchildren; Smoking adverse effects; Smoking cessation interventions; Tobacco smoking prevention; i.e, Id est