Peritoneal carcinomatosis from a small bowel carcinoid tumour

BACKGROUND: Peritoneal carcinomatosis from a gastrointestinal carcinoid tumour is rare and the long-term management and prognosis have not been clearly defined. The natural history is different from gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma, although its capacity to invade regional lymph nodes and generate distal metastasis can make the management more complex. Whilst the development of carcinomatosis is uncommonly reported, it may be higher than expected. CASE PRESENTATION: A 63 years-old woman underwent emergency surgery in 1993 for right iliac fossa pain and a mass that was found to be an ileal carcinoid tumour. Over the next ten years, further surgery was required for disseminated disease with peritoneal carcinomatosis and liver metastasis. Systemic chemotherapy had little effect, although Somatostatin was used effectively to relieve symptoms caused by the disseminated disease (flushing and diarrhoea). CONCLUSION: Peritoneal carcinomatosis from carcinoid tumours is not well documented in the literature. Aggressive surgery must be performed in order to control the disease since chemotherapy has not been reported to be effective. With repeated surgery long-term survival can be achieved in these patients

Implementing a Mobile Application for Street Lighting Evaluation

Nowadays, energy consumption is on the rise. This is not sustainable in the long run. The highest energy use in Town Councils takes place in street lighting installations. In order to help in this problem, we present a mobile service to evaluate the electrical consumption of these infrastructures. This new tool is able to make an estimation of energy demand of installations; on an easy and intuitive way thanks to an evaluation methodology which reduces the need of a large list of parameters used by other programs. As a result, the developed application also gives users the opportunity to compare the efficiency of the installation evaluated with others previously evaluated to increase energy efficiency. The application was tested with two different experiments to ensure its correct running and to evaluate both the estimation accuracy and usability

Mobile Usability: An Experiment to Check Whether Current Mobile Devices are Ready to Support Frames and iFrames

Frames have traditionally been identified as a usability issue in websites for computers. Literature points out that they may also be a problem for mobile websites but no studies have been carried out to prove it. Since mobile devices have changed a lot in recent years, it is necessary to check whether frames are still a problem for those devices. In this paper we have performed an experiment with twenty-two mobile devices, to test whether the content can be showed in their browsers, as well as their behavior with different configuration of frames and iframes and whether behavior of bookmarks and the back button is correct or not. The results show that frames and iframes should be avoided in mobile devices because they can cause many problems, which are explained in detail in this paper

ACTIVATION OF THE HYPOTHALAMIC– PITUITARY–ADRENAL AXIS INDUCES THE DIFFERENTIAL RELEASE OF PRO– INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES IN BALB/C MICE

Physiological processes are associated with interactions between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, which communicate through neurotransmitters, hormones and cytokines. The key to this communication is the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis which can be activated by stress and pro–inflammatory cytokines. We have investigated the effects of acute and chronic stress on the release of pro–inflammatory cytokines through activation of the HPA axis. Accordingly, BALB/c mice were exposed to acute stress through the single application of bi–frontal electrical stimulation (ESa, 20V/10 mA/0.05s) and the effect produced by a single i.p. dose of Lipopolysacharide (LPS) (250 μg/100g). Chronic stress was (ESc) induced by applying the electrical stimulus to the animals in the same way for 7 consecutive days, as well as the effects of ascending LPS administration over 7 days (35–250 μg/100g i.p./day). Following stimulation, the levels of pro–inflammatory cytokines and corticosterone were quantified by ELISA. Unlike LPS that provoked an increase in TNF–α, IL–1β, IL–6, and corticosterone levels, acute electrical stress did not induce any change in the levels of pro–inflammatory cytokines or corticosterone. In contrast, chronic ESc stress produced an increase in the levels of TNF–α, while in the animals treated with LPS the IL–6 levels increased. These data suggest that the response of the HPA axis to stress depends on the duration, intensity and etiology of the stress agent, also suggest a suitable model for the evaluation of drugs with potential effect on inflammatory stress

ACTIVATION OF THE HYPOTHALAMIC– PITUITARY–ADRENAL AXIS INDUCES THE DIFFERENTIAL RELEASE OF PRO– INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES IN BALB/C MICE

Physiological processes are associated with interactions between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, which communicate through neurotransmitters, hormones and cytokines. The key to this communication is the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis which can be activated by stress and pro–inflammatory cytokines. We have investigated the effects of acute and chronic stress on the release of pro–inflammatory cytokines through activation of the HPA axis. Accordingly, BALB/c mice were exposed to acute stress through the single application of bi–frontal electrical stimulation (ESa, 20V/10 mA/0.05s) and the effect produced by a single i.p. dose of Lipopolysacharide (LPS) (250 μg/100g). Chronic stress was (ESc) induced by applying the electrical stimulus to the animals in the same way for 7 consecutive days, as well as the effects of ascending LPS administration over 7 days (35–250 μg/100g i.p./day). Following stimulation, the levels of pro–inflammatory cytokines and corticosterone were quantified by ELISA. Unlike LPS that provoked an increase in TNF–α, IL–1β, IL–6, and corticosterone levels, acute electrical stress did not induce any change in the levels of pro–inflammatory cytokines or corticosterone. In contrast, chronic ESc stress produced an increase in the levels of TNF–α, while in the animals treated with LPS the IL–6 levels increased. These data suggest that the response of the HPA axis to stress depends on the duration, intensity and etiology of the stress agent, also suggest a suitable model for the evaluation of drugs with potential effect on inflammatory stress

Control of Localized Multiple Excitation Dark States in Waveguide QED

Subradiant excited states in finite chains of two-level quantum emitters coupled to a one-dimensional reservoir are a resource for superior photon storage and controlled photon manipulation. Typically, states storing multiple excitations exhibit fermionic correlations and are thus characterized by an anti-symmetric wavefunction, which makes them hard to prepare experimentally. Here we identify a class of quasi-localized dark states with up to half of the qubits excited, which appear for lattice constants that are an integer multiple of the guided-mode wavelength. They allow for a high-fidelity preparation and minimally invasive read out in state-of-the-art setups. In particular, we suggest an experimental implementation using a coplanar wave-guide coupled to superconducting transmon qubits on a chip. As free space and intrinsic losses are minimal, virtually perfect dark states can be achieved even for a low number of qubits, enabling fast preparation and manipulation with high fidelity.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure

Metasurface Holographic Optical Traps for Ultracold Atoms

We propose metasurface holograms as a novel platform to generate optical trap arrays for cold atoms with high fidelity, efficiency, and thermal stability. We developed design and fabrication methodologies to create dielectric, phase-only metasurface holograms based on titanium dioxide. We experimentally demonstrated optical trap arrays of various geometries, including periodic and aperiodic configurations with dimensions ranging from 1D to 3D and the number of trap sites up to a few hundred. We characterized the performance of the holographic metasurfaces in terms of the positioning accuracy, size and intensity uniformity of the generated traps, and power handling capability of the dielectric metasurfaces. Our proposed platform has great potential for enabling fundamental studies of quantum many-body physics, and quantum simulation and computation tasks. The compact form factor, passive nature, good power handling capability, and scalability of generating high-quality, large-scale arrays also make the metasurface platform uniquely suitable for realizing field-deployable devices and systems based on cold atoms

Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome: Prevalence and Cognitive Performance. A cross-sectional study

Background Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome (MCR) is a predementia stage where slow gait speed and subjective memory complaints are present. The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of MCR and assess its relationship with sociodemographic factors and chronic conditions. Methods This is a secondary analysis of the SABE Colombia study conducted in 2015. The analytic sample consisted of 17·577 participants. After determining MCR prevalence, logistic regression was performed to examine the correlates of MCR. Findings The prevalence of MCR was 10·71 %. The median age was 71 years and women composed 74·63 % of the MCR group. After adjusting for confounding variables MCR was associated with increasing age (OR 1·69, CI 1·43 - 1·92), no or low education (OR 1·99, CI 1·67- 2·37), MMSE (OR 0·93, CI 0·91 - 0·95) and chronic conditions such as mental disorders (OR 1·36, CI 1·11-1·67), history of myocardial infarction (OR 1·24, CI 1·04 - 1·47), hypertension (OR 1·23, CI 1·08 - 1·40) and diabetes (OR 1.18, CI 1.01 – 1.37). Interpretation This study found a prevalence of 10·71 % of MCR in Colombian older adults. Additionally, MCR was associated with chronic conditions and sociodemographic factors identified in prior studies. These results increase the awareness of a novel predementia stage whose identification can be performed by clinicians in the outpatient clinic, minimizing the cost of a full neuropsychologic evaluation performed in a memory clinic.publishedVersio

Synthesis and characterization of extremely small gold nanoshells, and comparison of their photothermal conversion capacity with gold nanorods

The current methods for preparing gold nanoshells (AuNSs) produce shells with a diameter of approximately 40 nm or larger, with a relatively large polydispersity. However, AuNSs with smaller diameters and more monodispersity are better suited for biomedical applications. In this work, we present a modified method for the preparation of AuNSs, based on the use of sacrificial silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). We customized the Lee–Meisel method to prepare small and monodisperse AgNPs that were used as sacrificial nanoparticles to prepare extremely small monodispersed AuNSs with an average diameter from 17 to 25 ± 4 nm. We found that these AuNSs are faceted, and that the oxidized silver likely dissolves out of the nanoparticles through some of the facets on the AuNSs. This leads to a silver oxide plug on the surface of the AuNSs, which has not been reported before. The smaller AuNSs, prepared under the best conditions, absorb in the near infrared region (NIR) that is appropriate for applications, such as photothermal therapy or medical imaging. The AuNSs showed absorption peaks in the NIR similar to those of gold nanorods (AuNRs) but with better photothermal capacity. In addition, because of their negative charge, these AuNSs are more biocompatible than the positively charged AuNRs. The synthesis of small, monodisperse, stable and biocompatible nanoparticles, like the ones presented in this work, is of prime importance in biomedical applications.The current methods for preparing gold nanoshells (AuNSs) produce shells with a diameter of approximately 40 nm or larger, with a relatively large polydispersity. However, AuNSs with smaller diameters and more monodispersity are better suited for biomedical applications. In this work, we present a modified method for the preparation of AuNSs, based on the use of sacrificial silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). We customized the Lee–Meisel method to prepare small and monodisperse AgNPs that were used as sacrificial nanoparticles to prepare extremely small monodispersed AuNSs with an average diameter from 17 to 25 ± 4 nm. We found that these AuNSs are faceted, and that the oxidized silver likely dissolves out of the nanoparticles through some of the facets on the AuNSs. This leads to a silver oxide plug on the surface of the AuNSs, which has not been reported before. The smaller AuNSs, prepared under the best conditions, absorb in the near infrared region (NIR) that is appropriate for applications, such as photothermal therapy or medical imaging. The AuNSs showed absorption peaks in the NIR similar to those of gold nanorods (AuNRs) but with better photothermal capacity. In addition, because of their negative charge, these AuNSs are more biocompatible than the positively charged AuNRs. The synthesis of small, monodisperse, stable and biocompatible nanoparticles, like the ones presented in this work, is of prime importance in biomedical applications