Fingering convection induced by atomic diffusion in stars: 3D numerical computations and applications to stellar models

Iron-rich layers are known to form in the stellar subsurface through a combination of gravitational settling and radiative levitation. Their presence, nature and detailed structure can affect the excitation process of various stellar pulsation modes, and must therefore be modeled carefully in order to better interpret Kepler asteroseismic data. In this paper, we study the interplay between atomic diffusion and fingering convection in A-type stars, and its role in the establishment and evolution of iron accumulation layers. To do so, we use a combination of three-dimensional idealized numerical simulations of fingering convection, and one-dimensional realistic stellar models. Using the three-dimensional simulations, we first validate the mixing prescription for fingering convection recently proposed by Brown et al. (2013), and identify what system parameters (total mass of iron, iron diffusivity, thermal diffusivity, etc.) play a role in the overall evolution of the layer. We then implement the Brown et al. (2013) prescription in the Toulouse-Geneva Evolution code to study the evolution of the iron abundance profile beneath the stellar surface. We find, as first discussed by Th\'eado et al. (2009), that when the concurrent settling of helium is ignored, this accumulation rapidly causes an inversion in the mean molecular weight profile, which then drives fingering convection. The latter mixes iron with the surrounding material very efficiently, and the resulting iron layer is very weak. However, taking helium settling into account partially stabilizes the iron profile against fingering convection, and a large iron overabundance can accumulate. The opacity also increases significantly as a result, and in some cases ultimately triggers dynamical convection.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap

Using Financial Tools to Protect the Rule of Law: Internal and External Challenges

This contribution aims to elucidate some problematic aspects of the financial tools (such as the Conditionality Regulation, Recovery and Resilience Facility and other measures), used by the EU to ensure compliance with the rule of law. It draws attention to certain legal conundrums which challenge the functional effectiveness of these tools both within the Union (the internal dimension) and in the Union’s relations with non-EU actors (the external dimension)

RECURRENT GLIOBLASTOMA MANAGEMENT USING STEREOTACTIC RADIOSURGERY AND SYSTEMIC TREATMENT

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary malignant tumor of the central nervous system in adults. Dismal survival rates and poor prognosis for recurrent GBM patients still remains a challenging problem. Despite aggressive initial treatment, above 100 % GBM patients have development of recurrent diseases. Management of GBM recurrence is still debatable. The multimodality approaches using combination of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), cytostatic agents (Тemozolomide (TMZ)) and antiangiogenic therapy (bevacizumab (BEV)) are often beneficial for such patients and may achieve survival improving. Aim of research: to assess the efficacy and toxicity of combination therapy approach using stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and systemic treatment (chemotherapy and antiangiogenic therapy) in glioblastoma multiforme recurrence treatment. Materials and methods: at the State Institution “Institute of Neurosurgery named after acad. A.P. Romodanov of NAMS of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Ukraine) 21 patients (pts) with GBM recurrence were treated (8 females and 11 men; median age at time of diagnosis 52.4 (29.7–69.3) from January 2014 till December 2017. The initial surgical treatment as gross total tumor resection was performed in 12 pts (57.1 %), subtotal resection – 5 pts (23.9 %), biopsy – 4 pts (19 %). 12 pts (57.1 %) were MGMT methylated and 9 pts (42.9 %) were MGMT unmethylated. In all cases adjuvant radiation therapy (60 Gy in 30 fractions) were used, 12 pts of them (57.1 %) – in combination with TMZ followed by 6-12 courses of chemotherapy (TMZ) according Stupp protocol. Recurrent disease was treated by SRS followed by TMZ + BEV. SRS was performed by means of “Trilogy” LINAC (“Varian”, USA) with a median dose and fractions of 19.2 Gy (range, 12.0–36.0) in 1 to 5 fractions. Results: median survival after initial diagnosis was 18.3 months, and 1- and 2-year survival rates of 85.7 % (18 from 21 pts) and 38.1 % (8 from 21 pts) respectively. The median survival from the time of recurrence treatment was 8.3 months. The 6‐ and 12‐months overall survival from SRS were 95.2 % (20 from 21 pts) and 23.8 % (5 from 21 pts), respectively. Adverse radiation effects were noted in 6 (28.6 %) pts and were controlled with corticosteroids. Adverse events grade 1-2 related to the systemic therapy included hematological complications, fatigue, hypertension and proteinuria were observed in 23.8 % (5 from 21 pts) without the occurrence of grade 3 events. Conclusion: recurrent GBM management using combination of SRS, chemotherapy and antiangiogenic therapy is a promising multimodal treatment approach providing survival improving whereas appropriate toxicity ratio. Further studies of combined treatment of GBM relapse are needed

Patterns of Pathomorphological Changes in Acute Necrotizing Pancreatitis

Acinar necrosis is the basic microscopic sign of acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP). Microcirculation disorder is one of the major factors in the pathogenesis and morphogenesis of ANP besides free radicals and damage of enzymatic origin. This study is dedicated to the description of microscopic changes in the pancreatic stroma in ANP, which leads to destruction of the exocrine pancreas with a putative mechanism of endocrine function preservation. This study has been carried out on histological samples of pancreas from 224 patients with ANP. Histological staining was performed with hematoxylin-eosin (H&E), Masson, Gomori methods, and PAS. Microscopy was performed with magnifications of 40×, 100×, and 400×. Vascular endothelial desquamation, stasis, and sludge are typical changes in microcirculation observed in early stages of ANP. Initially, parietal circular intravascular microthrombosis accompanied by endothelial desquamation as early as stromal swelling occurs with no detectable necrosis. Residual stroma appears between areas of necrosis and intact pancreatic tissue. Mucoid swelling is first seen in the perivascular spaces extending to the parenchyma and changing into fibrinoid imbibition causing further necrosis. Reticulin argyrophilic backbone surrounding the pancreatic acini and small ducts decompose. Pancreatic structures, which may be preserved in necrotic tissue, include nerves, major ducts, and Langerhans islets

SegmATRon: Embodied Adaptive Semantic Segmentation for Indoor Environment

This paper presents an adaptive transformer model named SegmATRon for embodied image semantic segmentation. Its distinctive feature is the adaptation of model weights during inference on several images using a hybrid multicomponent loss function. We studied this model on datasets collected in the photorealistic Habitat and the synthetic AI2-THOR Simulators. We showed that obtaining additional images using the agent's actions in an indoor environment can improve the quality of semantic segmentation. The code of the proposed approach and datasets are publicly available at https://github.com/wingrune/SegmATRon.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Bringing Earthbags to the People – A New, Democratic Approach to Sustainable Building

Earthbag technology builds safe, appealing, and cost-effective structures out of ordinary soil. Stronger, cheaper, and less harmful to the environment than conventional building techniques like brick and cement, Earthbag technology is generally considered the most promising of sustainable building techniques. But despite widespread support among environmental groups and eco-builders, this method is shunned by governments and remains virtually unknown to everyday building professionals and the public. This paradigm, however, is changing in Nepal, where a catastrophic 2015 earthquake flattened much of the housing stock. Good Earth Nepal, a non-profit organization, has pioneered a three-pronged approach designed to overcome resistance to sustainable building and to, for the first time, make Earthbag technology accessible to the masses

Innovation and investment safety as the condition for neo-industrial development

The paper suggests considering neo-industrial development that is represented as alternative to post-industrialism from the perspective of provision of innovation and investment safety of the country. Authors make an effort to determine economic and institutional backgrounds and criteria of safety of innovation and investment activities. Specification of categorical framework used in researched sphere was conducted; in particular, it was suggested to consider innovation and investment safety the key part of national economic safety. On the basis of regression analysis the appraisal of relation between the size of internal expenditures for research and development and living standards in the country was held - it has demonstrated rather weak relation between researched variables during a short period of time. In addition, the work formulates the key problems in the sphere of innovation and investment safety in Russia and suggests proposals on their solution.peer-reviewe

Aligning individual brains with Fused Unbalanced Gromov-Wasserstein

Individual brains vary in both anatomy and functional organization, even within a given species. Inter-individual variability is a major impediment when trying to draw generalizable conclusions from neuroimaging data collected on groups of subjects. Current co-registration procedures rely on limited data, and thus lead to very coarse inter-subject alignments. In this work, we present a novel method for inter-subject alignment based on Optimal Transport, denoted as Fused Unbalanced Gromov Wasserstein (FUGW). The method aligns cortical surfaces based on the similarity of their functional signatures in response to a variety of stimulation settings, while penalizing large deformations of individual topographic organization. We demonstrate that FUGW is well-suited for whole-brain landmark-free alignment. The unbalanced feature allows to deal with the fact that functional areas vary in size across subjects. Our results show that FUGW alignment significantly increases between-subject correlation of activity for independent functional data, and leads to more precise mapping at the group level

Complexity problem in immunology

The article discusses the problem of immune response complexity, found in functional unity of regulatory systems, cooperation of immunocompetent cells, connection and regulation of specific and non-specific defence mechanisms, association of immune, routine laboratory and clinical parameters under normal and pathological conditions. The article reviews the influence of disease combinations, their comprehensive treatment on immunopathology, and the corrector effects. To reproduce natural mechanisms of homeostasis regulation, complex, blocking immunotherapy of diseases is suggested