We present a method to simulate fluid flow on evolving surfaces, e.g., an oil film on a water surface. Given an animated surface (e.g., extracted from a particle‐based fluid simulation) in ...three‐dimensional space, we add a second simulation on this base animation. In general, we solve a partial differential equation (PDE) on a level set surface obtained from the animated input surface. The properties of the input surface are transferred to a sparse volume data structure that is then used for the simulation. We introduce one‐way coupling strategies from input properties to our simulation and we add conservation of mass and momentum to existing methods that solve a PDE in a narrow‐band using the Closest Point Method. In this way, we efficiently compute high‐resolution 2D simulations on coarse input surfaces. Our approach helps visual effects creators easily integrate a workflow to simulate material flow on evolving surfaces into their existing production pipeline.
We present a robust and efficient method for the two‐way coupling between particle‐based fluid simulations and infinitesimally thin solids represented by triangular meshes. Our approach is based on a ...hybrid method that combines a repulsion force approach with a continuous intersection handling to guarantee that no penetration occurs. Moreover, boundary conditions for the tangential component of the fluid's velocity are implemented to model the different slip conditions. The proposed method is particularly useful for dynamic surfaces, like cloth and thin shells. In addition, we demonstrate how standard fluid surface reconstruction algorithms can be modified to prevent the calculated surface from intersecting close objects. For both the two‐way coupling and the surface reconstruction, we take into account that the fluid can wet the cloth. We have implemented our approach for the bidirectional interaction between liquid simulations based on Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and standard mesh‐based cloth simulation systems.
We present a robust and efficient method for the two‐way coupling between particle‐based fluid simulations and infinitesimally thin solids represented by triangular meshes. Our approach is based on a hybrid method that combines a repulsion force approach with a continuous intersection handling to guarantee that no penetration occurs.
The cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase 10A (PDE10) has been mostly studied as a therapeutic target for certain psychiatric and neurological conditions, although a potential role in tumorigenesis has ...not been reported. Here we show that PDE10 is elevated in human colon tumor cell lines compared with normal colonocytes, as well as in colon tumors from human clinical specimens and intestinal tumors from Apc(Min/+) mice compared with normal intestinal mucosa, respectively. An isozyme and tumor-selective role of PDE10 were evident by the ability of small-molecule inhibitors and small interfering RNA knockdown to suppress colon tumor cell growth with reduced sensitivity of normal colonocytes. Stable knockdown of PDE10 by short hairpin RNA also inhibits colony formation and increases doubling time of colon tumor cells. PDE10 inhibition selectively activates cGMP/cGMP-dependent protein kinase signaling to suppress β-catenin levels and T-cell factor (TCF) transcriptional activity in colon tumor cells. Conversely, ectopic expression of PDE10 in normal and precancerous colonocytes increases proliferation and activates TCF transcriptional activity. These observations suggest a novel role of PDE10 in colon tumorigenesis and that inhibitors may be useful for the treatment or prevention of colorectal cancer.
Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) is a data-driven and model-free decomposition technique. It is suitable for revealing spatio-temporal features of both numerically and experimentally acquired data. ...Conceptually, DMD performs a low-dimensional spectral decomposition of the data into the following components: the modes, called DMD modes, encode the spatial contribution of the decomposition, whereas the DMD amplitudes specify their impact. Each associated eigenvalue, referred to as DMD eigenvalue, characterizes the frequency and growth rate of the DMD mode. In this paper, we demonstrate how the components of DMD can be utilized to obtain temporal and spatial information from time-dependent flow fields. We begin with the theoretical background of DMD and its application to unsteady flow. Next, we examine the conventional process with DMD mathematically and put it in relationship to the discrete Fourier transform. Our analysis shows that the current use of DMD components has several drawbacks. To resolve these problems we adjust the components and provide new and meaningful insights into the decomposition: we show that our improved components capture the spatio-temporal patterns of the flow better. Moreover, we remove redundancies in the decomposition and clarify the interplay between components, allowing users to understand the impact of components. These new representations, which respect the spatio-temporal character of DMD, enable two clustering methods that segment the flow into physically relevant sections and can therefore be used for the selection of DMD components. With a number of typical examples, we demonstrate that the combination of these techniques allows new insights with DMD for unsteady flow.
Purpose
The treatment landscape in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) has evolved dramatically in recent years. Within the German guideline committee for RCC we evaluated current medical ...treatments and gave recommendations.
Methods
A systematic review of published evidence for medical treatment of mRCC was performed (July 2016–August 2019) to cover the duration from last guideline update in 2016. Evidence was graded according to SIGN (
http://www.sign.ac.uk/pdf/sign50.pdf
). Recommendations were made on the basis of a nominal group work with consensus approach and included patient advocates and shareholder of the German RCC treatment landscape. Each recommendation was graded according to its strength as strong recommendation (A) or recommendation (B). Expert statements were given, where appropriate.
Results
Strong first-line recommendations (IA) exist for axitinib + pembrolizumab (all risk categories) and ipilimumab + nivolumab (intermediate or poor risk only). Axitinib + avelumab is a recommended first-line treatment across patients with any risk category (IB). In patients who are not candidates for immune check point inhibitor (ICI) combinations, targeted agents should be offered as an alternative treatment. Subsequent treatment after ICI-based combinations remain ill-defined and no standard of care can be formulated.
Conclusion
ICI-based combinations are the first-line standard of care and should be considered accordingly. There is an unmet medical need for pivotal studies that define novel standards in patients with failure of ICI-based combinations.
For the rendering of multiple scattering effects in participating media, methods based on the diffusion approximation are an extremely efficient alternative to Monte Carlo path tracing. However, in ...sufficiently transparent regions, classical diffusion approximation suffers from non‐physical radiative fluxes which leads to a poor match to correct light transport. In particular, this prevents the application of classical diffusion approximation to heterogeneous media, where opaque material is embedded within transparent regions. To address this limitation, we introduce flux‐limited diffusion, a technique from the astrophysics domain. This method provides a better approximation to light transport than classical diffusion approximation, particularly when applied to heterogeneous media, and hence broadens the applicability of diffusion‐based techniques. We provide an algorithm for flux‐limited diffusion, which is validated using the transport theory for a point light source in an infinite homogeneous medium. We further demonstrate that our implementation of flux‐limited diffusion produces more accurate renderings of multiple scattering in various heterogeneous datasets than classical diffusion approximation, by comparing both methods to ground truth renderings obtained via volumetric path tracing.
For the rendering of multiple scattering effects in participating media, methods based on the diffusion approximation are an extremely efficient alternative to Monte Carlo path tracing. However, in sufficiently transparent regions, classical diffusion approximation suffers from non‐physical radiative fluxes which leads to a poor match to correct light transport. In particular, this prevents the application of classical diffusion approximation to heterogeneous media, where opaque material is embedded within transparent regions. To address this limitation, we introduce flux‐limited diffusion, a technique from the astrophysics domain. This method provides a better approximation to light transport than classical diffusion approximation, particularly when applied to heterogeneous media, and hence broadens the applicability of diffusion‐based techniques.
We present a direct raytracing method for implicitly described fluid surfaces that takes into account the effects of capillary solid coupling at the boundaries. The method is independent of the ...underlying fluid simulation method and solely based on distance fields. We make use of the closed-form solution of the meniscus shape at the fluid interface to achieve the effect of surface tension exerted by the solid object. The shape of the liquid at these boundaries is influenced by various physical properties such as the force of gravity and the affinity between the liquid and the solid material. We generate contact angles at the boundaries without the need for computationally intensive small-scale simulation. At render time, we combine the closed-form solution for a small-scale effect with the numerical solution of a large-scale simulation. Our method is applicable for any implicit representation of the fluid surface and does not require an explicit extraction of the surface geometry. Therefore, it is especially useful for particle-based simulations. Furthermore, the solution is guaranteed to yield the correct contact angle and, for certain scenarios, it delivers the entirely correct solution throughout the interface; even in general scenarios, it yields plausible results. As for an example, we implemented and tested the proposed method in the setting of a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) fluid simulation.
There are indications in the literature that delaying the period between ovarian superestimulation and ovum pick up (OPU) would induce follicles to a condition of initial atresia, which could be ...beneficial to oocyte development. In this work, we compared three protocols for OPU and in vitro production (IVP) of embryos, in Nellore cattle. Nellore cows (n = 18) were randomly allocated in three groups: Group 1 (OPU), Group 2 Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and OPU and Group 3 (FSH deprivation and OPU). Three OPUs were performed, and the animals were switched to a different group each time (crossover), in such a way that at the end of the experiment all cows received the 3 protocols. At random stage of the oestrous cycle (D-2), all follicles ≥ 6 mm were aspirated to induce a new follicular wave 2 days afterwards (D0). In Group 1, OPU was performed on D2 and oocytes were processed to IVP. In Group 2, starting on D0, cows were superstimulated (FSH, Folltropin®, 30 mg administered daily, i.m., during three consecutive days, total dose = 180 mg), and 6 h after the last FSH dose, they received exogenous luteinizing hormone (LH) (12.5 mg, i.m., Lutropin®, D3). The OPU was performed 6 h after LH administration, i.e. 12 h after the last dose of FSH. Animals in Group 3 received the same treatment as those in Group 2, except that LH was administered 42 h after the last dose of FSH, and OPU occurred 6 h later. Therefore, in this group, follicles were deprived of FSH at 48 h. Both cleavage and blastocyst rates were similar (p > 0.05, anova) among oocytes from Groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively: 77.4% (144/185) and 42.70% (79/185); 75.54% (105/139) and 31.65% (44/139); 63.52% (101/159) and 33.33% (53/159). However, hatched blastocyst rate was higher (p < 0.01) in Group 1 (30.27%, 56/185) when compared with Group 2 (11.51%, 16/139) or 3 (15.72%, 25/159). It is concluded that, contrary to previous work on European breeds (Bos taurus), ovarian superstimulation associated with deprivation of FSH and OPU (Group 3) did not increase IVP of Nellore embryos (Bos indicus). On the contrary, the highest hatched blastocyst rates were observed in oocytes from non-superstimulated cows.
To evaluate the development of functional impairment and disability in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Sixty-three patients with definite RA with mean disease duration of about 1 year were followed ...for 5 years. Joint inflammation was evaluated with an active joint count, and radiographic changes in hands and feet with the Larsen method. Functional impairment of particular joint systems was assessed with a performance index, Signals of Functional Impairment Index, and disability with the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ).
During the observation time the disease activity decreased, and the radiographic changes of hands and feet increased significantly. Joint replacement in 10 hips, 1 knee, and 1 shoulder were performed in 9 patients after median 43 months. At study start almost half the patients had impaired hand function, mostly affecting finger flexion and pincer grip. The most marked deterioration of joint function had occurred already after 2 years in metatarsophalangeal joints (55%), elbow joints (35%), ankle joints (30%), shoulder joints (28%), and hip joints (25%). The median HAQ level at study start was 0.8, and the median change of HAQ over 5 years was 0.1. (not significant). The progression of dysfunction was not linear but followed a highly variable course over the years. Patients with higher HAQ scores at study end could be correctly classified in 75% of the cases by the 3 factors, baseline HAQ score, female sex, and a low educational level. Presence of a replaced joint did not contribute significantly, but patients with joint replacement tended to be more disabled.
Functional outcome of RA after about 6 years of disease was fairly good. Functional impairment of different joints had progressed, but most patients were still mildly disabled. A subgroup of 9 patients had a worse disease course with rapidly progressing large joint destruction.
The TITAN on-line ion trapping facility at TRIUMF is dedicated to precision experiments with short-lived radioactive isotopes, among them mass measurements. A new approach is to breed the ions into ...high charge states using an electron-beam ion trap. To counter any increases in energy spread caused by charge breeding, a cooler Penning trap is being developed. Sympathetic cooling mechanisms utilizing electrons and initially cold protons will be investigated. Details of the setup as well as the current status are reported.
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