Local treatment failure after globe-conserving therapy for choroidal melanoma.

Local treatment failure after globe-conserving therapy for choroidal melanoma is a surgical complication with significant morbidity to the vision and eye. Few reports in the literature have addressed this complication exclusively. A review of the published literature with reference to local treatment failure in the management of choroidal melanoma was performed to make known the potential differences in failure rates between treatment modalities and methods. A search of the literature regarding local treatment failure was performed to identify relevant studies using combinations of the following keywords on PubMed: uveal melanoma, choroidal melanoma, local recurrence, local failure, endoresection, gamma knife, radiotherapy, helium, iodine, proton, palladium, ruthenium, trans-scleral resection, transpupillary thermotherapy. Further studies were found by searching the text and references of previously identified studies for articles reporting local treatment failure rates in choroidal melanoma. Among the 49 studies identified, the local treatment failure rate ranged from 0% to 55.6%, with follow-up ranging from 10 to 150 months. The two most widely used forms of radiation therapy, iodine-125 and ruthenium-106 brachytherapy, were both associated with a local recurrence rate of 9.6%. The weighted-average of treatment failure in all radiation therapies was 6.15% compared with 18.6% in surgical and 20.8% in laser therapies. Rates of local treatment failure for globe-conserving therapy of choroidal melanoma varied widely between modalities and between centres using similar modalities. Radiation therapy overall resulted in lower local treatment failures compared with surgical or transpupillary thermotherapy

Structure and correlation effects in semiconducting SrTiO₃

We have investigated the effects of structure change and electron correlation on SrTiO₃ single crystals using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We show that the cubic to tetragonal phase transition at 105 K is manifested by a charge transfer from in-plane (dyz and dzx) bands to out-of-plane (dxy) band, which is opposite to the theoretical predictions. Along this second-order phase transition, we find a smooth evolution of the quasiparticle strength and effective masses. The in-plane band exhibits a peak-dip-hump lineshape, indicating a high degree of correlation on a relatively large (170 meV) energy scale, which is attributed to the polaron formation

Complications of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy in dogs and cats receiving corticosteroid treatment

BACKGROUND: Corticosteroid treatment is commonly required in veterinary patients for treatment of inflammatory, immune‐mediated, neurologic, and neoplastic diseases, which also may require assisted enteral nutrition via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG). OBJECTIVE: To evaluate complications associated with PEG use in dogs and cats receiving corticosteroid treatment. ANIMALS: Forty‐two animals were included in the study: 12 dogs and 2 cats in the steroid group and 26 dogs and 2 cats in the control group. METHODS: Medical records, between January 2006 and March 2015, were reviewed. Patients were included if the PEG tube was in use for at least 24 hours and if complete medical records were available. Patients were assigned to the control group if they were not treated with corticosteroids during PEG use or to the steroid group if they had received corticosteroids during PEG tube use. Complications were classified as minor, moderate, and major in severity. Maximum severity complication rate was compared between groups. RESULTS: The general prevalence of complications was found to be similar between groups (P = .306), but in the steroid group, 43% of the cases developed a major severity complication compared with 18% of the control group (P = .054). CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Owners of dogs and cats receiving corticosteroids, in which PEG is planned, should be counseled about possible complications beyond those associated with PEG tube usage alone

A Framework for Specifying and Monitoring User Tasks

Knowledge about user task execution can help systems better reason about when to interrupt users. To enable recognition and forecasting of task execution, we develop a novel framework for specifying and monitoring user task sequences. For task specification, our framework provides an XML-based language with tags inspired by regular expressions. For task monitoring, our framework provides an event handler that manages events from any instrumented application and a monitor that observes a user's transitions within and among specified tasks. The monitor supports multiple active tasks and multiple instances of the same task. The use of our framework will enable systems to consider a user's position within a task model when reasoning about when to interrupt

Serum Biochemical Phenotypes in the Domestic Dog

The serum or plasma biochemical profile is essential in the diagnosis and monitoring of systemic disease in veterinary medicine, but current reference intervals typically take no account of breed-specific differences. Breed-specific hematological phenotypes have been documented in the domestic dog, but little has been published on serum biochemical phenotypes in this species. Serum biochemical profiles of dogs in which all measurements fell within the existing reference intervals were retrieved from a large veterinary database. Serum biochemical profiles from 3045 dogs were retrieved, of which 1495 had an accompanying normal glucose concentration. Sixty pure breeds plus a mixed breed control group were represented by at least 10 individuals. All analytes, except for sodium, chloride and glucose, showed variation with age. Total protein, globulin, potassium, chloride, creatinine, cholesterol, total bilirubin, ALT, CK, amylase, and lipase varied between sexes. Neutering status significantly impacted all analytes except albumin, sodium, calcium, urea, and glucose. Principal component analysis of serum biochemical data revealed 36 pure breeds with distinctive phenotypes. Furthermore, comparative analysis identified 23 breeds with significant differences from the mixed breed group in all biochemical analytes except urea and glucose. Eighteen breeds were identified by both principal component and comparative analysis. Tentative reference intervals were generated for breeds with a distinctive phenotype identified by comparative analysis and represented by at least 120 individuals. This is the first large-scale analysis of breed-specific serum biochemical phenotypes in the domestic dog and highlights potential genetic components of biochemical traits in this species

Multiple buoyancy driven flows in a vertical cylinder heated from below

The structure of axisymmetric buoyancy-driven convection in a vertical cylinder heated from below is probed by finite element solution of the Boussinesq equations coupled with computed-implemented perturbation techniques for detecting and tracking multiple flows and for determining flow stability. Results are reported for fluids with Prandtl number of one and for cylinders with aspect ratio (Lambda) (defined as the height to radius of the cylinder) between 0.5 and 2.25. Extensive calculations of the neutral stability curve for the static solution and of the nonlinear motions along the bifurcating flow families show a continuous evolution of the primary cellular motion from a single toroidal cell to two and three cells nested radially in the cylinder, instead of the sharp transitions found for a cylinder with shear-free sidewalls. The smooth transitions in flow structure with Rayleigh number and lambda are explained by nonlinear connectivity between the first two bifurcating flow families formed either by a secondary bifurcation point for Lambda or = Lambda * approximately 0.80 or by a limit point for Lambda Lambda *. The transition between these two modes may be described by the theory of multiple limit point bifurcation

Self-compensation in manganese-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors

We present a theory of interstitial Mn in Mn-doped ferromagnetic semiconductors. Using density-functional theory, we show that under the non-equilibrium conditions of growth, interstitial Mn is easily formed near the surface by a simple low-energy adsorption pathway. In GaAs, isolated interstitial Mn is an electron donor, each compensating two substitutional Mn acceptors. Within an impurity-band model, partial compensation promotes ferromagnetic order below the metal-insulator transition, with the highest Curie temperature occurring for 0.5 holes per substitutional Mn.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Pickoff and spin-conversion quenchings of ortho-positronium in oxygen

The quenching processes of the thermalized ortho-positronium(o-Ps) on an oxygen molecule have been studied by the positron annihilation age-momentum correlation techinique(AMOC). The Doppler broadening spectrum of the 511 keV gamma-rays from the 2gamma annihilation of o-Ps in O_2 has been measured as a function of the o-Ps age. The rate of the quenching, consisting of the pickoff and the spin-conversion, is estimated from the positron lifetime spectrum. The ratio of the pickoff quenching rate to the spin-conversion rate is deduced from the Doppler broadening of the 511 keV gamma-rays from the annihilation of the o-Ps. The pickoff parameter ^1Z_eff, the effective number of the electrons per molecule which contribute to the pickoff quenching, for O_2 is determined to be 0.6 +- 0.4. The cross-section for the elastic spin-conversion quenching is determined to be (1.16 +- 0.01) * 10^{-19} cm^2.Comment: 4 pages with 5 eps figures, LaTeX2e(revtex4

Finite element implementation of state variable-based viscoplasticity models

The implementation of state variable-based viscoplasticity models is made in a general purpose finite element code for structural applications of metals deformed at elevated temperatures. Two constitutive models, Walker's and Robinson's models, are studied in conjunction with two implicit integration methods: the trapezoidal rule with Newton-Raphson iterations and an asymptotic integration algorithm. A comparison is made between the two integration methods, and the latter method appears to be computationally more appealing in terms of numerical accuracy and CPU time. However, in order to make the asymptotic algorithm robust, it is necessary to include a self adaptive scheme with subincremental step control and error checking of the Jacobian matrix at the integration points. Three examples are given to illustrate the numerical aspects of the integration methods tested