Peri-articular histiocytic sarcoma in Bernese Mountain Dogs : a retrospective investigation of the prevalence of this tumour in association with previously diseases joints

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Systematic investigation of the elastic proton-deuteron differential cross section at intermediate energies

To investigate the importance of three-nucleon forces (3NF) systematically over a broad range of intermediate energies, the differential cross sections of elastic proton-deuteron scattering have been measured at proton bombarding energies of 108, 120, 135, 150, 170 and 190 MeV at center-of-mass angles between $30^\circ$ and $170^\circ$. Comparisons with Faddeev calculations show unambiguously the shortcomings of calculations employing only two-body forces and the necessity of including 3NF. They also show the limitations of the latest few-nucleon calculations at backward angles, especially at higher beam energies. Some of these discrepancies could be partially due to relativistic effects. Data at lowest energy are also compared with a recent calculation based on \chipt

Proton-deuteron radiative capture cross sections at intermediate energies

Differential cross sections of the reaction $p(d,^3{\rm He})\gamma$ have been measured at deuteron laboratory energies of 110, 133 and 180 MeV. The data were obtained with a coincidence setup measuring both the outgoing $^3$He and the photon. The data are compared with modern calculations including all possible meson-exchange currents and two- and three- nucleon forces in the potential. The data clearly show a preference for one of the models, although the shape of the angular distribution cannot be reproduced by any of the presented models.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in EPJ

Wages in high-tech start-ups - do academic spin-offs pay a wage premium?

Due to their origin from universities, academic spin‐offs operate at the forefront of the technological development. Therefore, spin‐offs exhibit a skill‐biased labour demand, i.e. spin‐offs have a high demand for employees with cutting edge knowledge and technical skills. In order to accommodate this demand, spin‐offs may have to pay a relative wage premium compared to other high‐tech start‐ups. However, neither a comprehensive theoretical assessment nor the empirical literature on wages in start‐ups unambiguously predicts the existence and the direction of wage differentials between spin‐offs and non‐spin‐offs. This paper addresses this research gap and examines empirically whether or not spin‐offs pay their employees a wage premium. Using a unique linked employer‐employee data set of German high‐tech start‐ups, we estimate Mincer‐type wage regressions applying the Hausman‐Taylor panel estimator. Our results show that spin‐offs do not pay a wage premium in general. However, a notable exception from this general result is that spin‐offs that commercialise new scientific results or methods provide higher wages to employees with linkages to the university sector – either as university graduates or as student workers

Peri-articular histiocytic sarcoma and previous joint disease in Bernese Mountain Dogs

Background: Peri-articular histiocytic sarcoma (PAHS) occurs in dogs, including Bernese Mountain Dogs (BMD). An etiologic relationship with previous joint disease has not been documented. Hypothesis: Peri-articular histiocytic sarcoma in BMD will be more frequently encountered around previously diseased joints compared with normal joints. Animals: 920 European BMD. Methods: A retrospective study, in which data were obtained through an Internet questionnaire and from 2 veterinary pathology laboratories. Archived samples of hematoxylin-eosin (H&E) staining diagnosed PAHS and synovial cell sarcoma (SCS) were immunolabeled with CD18 and pancytokeratin. Descriptive, comparative, and actuarial statistics comprise the data analysis. Results: All primary synovial tumors were identified as PAHS based on their morphology, positive CD18, and negative pancytokeratin labeling. Joint disease was diagnosed in 226 BMD, of which 15 developed PAHS in a previously diseased joint and 3 in a nondiseased joint. Of the remaining 694 BMD without joint disease, 9 developed PAHS. The odds ratio for a dog with previous joint disease developing PAHS is calculated as 5.4 (95% CI: 2.312.5; P<.0001) compared with no previous joint problem. A significant association between previous joint disease and PAHS in the same joint was demonstrated for the left elbow (P=.016), right elbow (P=.006), right shoulder (P=.047), left and right stifle (P<.001), and left carpal joint (P=.010). Conclusions and Clinical Importance: The results of this study suggest a relation between previous joint disease and the development of PAHS in the same joint of European BMD. Owners of BMD should monitor dogs for peri-articular swellings, particularly around previously diseased joints

The effect of preprocessing on convolutional neural networks for medical image segmentation

In recent years, deep learning has become the leading method for medical image segmentation. While the majority of studies focus on developments of network architectures, several studies have shown that non-architectural factors also play a substantial role in performance improvement. An important factor is preprocessing. However, there is no agreement on which preprocessing steps work best for different applications. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of preprocessing on model performance. To this end, we conducted a systematic evaluation of 24 preprocessing configurations on three clinical application datasets (brain, liver, and knee). Different configurations of normalization, region of interest selection, bias field correction, and resampling methods were applied before training one convolutional neural network. Performance varied up to 64 percentage points between configurations within one dataset. Across the three datasets, different configurations performed best. In conclusion, to improve model performance, preprocessing should be tuned to the specific segmentation application