AIM OF THE STUDY: To produce an empirical estimate of the nature and magnitude of the error produced by incorrect timing quality of life (QoL) measurements in patients receiving chemotherapy.DESIGN: In a multicentre trial, 283 patients were randomized to receive either docetaxel (T) or sequential methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (MF). The QoL was assessed at baseline and before each treatment using

Background: Diffusion-weighted imaging plays a key role in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of breast tumors. However, it remains unclear how to interpret single diffusion encoding with respect to its link with tissue microstructure. The purpose of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to use tensor-valued diffusion encoding to investigate the underlying microstructure of invasive ductal ca

Biomicrofluidic devices and organ-on-a-chip (OOC) systems with integrated membranes are often fabricated from two different thermoplastic materials but bonding of such dissimilar thermoplastics remains challenging to manufacture at scale. Here, we present a method to bond poly(methylmethacrylate) layers to a polyethylene terephthalate porous membrane to create membrane-based microfluidic devices f

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women. Although the prognosis generally is good, a substantial number of patients still suffer from relapse, emphasizing the need for novel treatments. Smac mimetics were developed to facilitate cell death by blocking inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). It has been suggested that TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) c

The car is one of the most expensive household consumer goods, yet there is a limited understanding of its private (internal) and social (external) cost per vehicle-km, year, or lifetime of driving. This paper provides an overview of 23 private and ten social cost items, and assesses these for three popular car models in Germany for the year 2020. Results confirm that motorists underestimate the f

The hot erosion of turbine tip and the maintenance of tip reliability and service times have always been great challenges for researchers. This work presents a novel design of a tip wall with the internal surface fitted with delta-winglet vortex generator pairs (DVGP). Various spacing of DVGP is considered to study the influence of spacing on the internal tip heat transfer and flow behavior in the

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are industrial chemicals resistant to degradation and have been shown to have adverse effects on reproductive health in wildlife and humans. Although regulations have reduced their levels, they are still ubiquitously present and pose a global concern. Here, we studied a cohort of 185 women aged 21–43 years with a median of 2 years of infertility who were seekin

To meet stringent emissions regulations on soot emissions, it is critical to further advance the fundamental understanding of in-cylinder soot formation and oxidation processes. Among several optical techniques for soot quantification, diffuse back-illumination extinction imaging (DBI-EI) has recently gained traction mainly due to its ability to compensate for beam steering, which if not addressed

In recent years, panintestinal capsule endoscopy (PCE) with double-headed capsules has been used to perform complete, single-sitting exploration of both small bowel and colon in different clinical conditions. Double-headed capsules for colonic examination (CCE) have been exploited first in this setting, followed by newer generations of capsules (i.e. PillCam Crohn, PCC) specifically engineered for

OBJECTIVE: This analysis aimed to compare failure to rescue (FTR) after pancreatoduodenectomy across the Atlantic. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: FTR, or mortality after development of a major complication, is a quality metric originally created to compare hospital results. FTR has been studied in North American and Northern European patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). However, a direct comp

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple common breast cancer susceptibility variants. Many of these variants have differential associations by estrogen receptor (ER) status, but how these variants relate with other tumor features and intrinsic molecular subtypes is unclear. Methods: Among 106,571 invasive breast cancer cases and 95,762 controls of European ances

BACKGROUND: Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) has an excellent prognosis, and recurrence is rare in patients with no evidence of disease (NED) after initial treatment. Despite this, several guidelines recommend long and costly follow-up, with limited evidence of improved patient outcomes. This study aims to examine the value of follow-up in patients with NED after treatment for PTC, by determining th

Individuals are expected to avoid mating with relatives as inbreeding can reduce offspring fitness, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. This has led to the widespread assumption that selection will favour individuals that avoid mating with relatives. However, the strength of inbreeding avoidance is variable across species and there are numerous cases where related mates are not avoided. H

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra excited at the π∗-resonance of the nitrogen molecule are presented. Well-resolved vibrational excitations in the electronic ground state, and in the 3σg-11πg1a1Πg state are observed. The spectra are analyzed within the Kramers-Heisenberg formalism, and the importance of lifetime-vibrational interference effects is highlighted. In addition, strongly disso

This paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in antiThis paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in anti

We report multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock and relativistic configuration interaction calculations on the thallium (Tl) electron affinity, as well as on the excited energy levels arising from the ground configuration of Tl-. The results are compared with the available experimental values and further validated by extending the study to its homologous, lighter element, indium (In), belonging to

In the prospect of realizing bulk superconductivity in a topological insulator, metal-doped Bi2Se3 has been investigated with increased interest, where the Cu-, Sr-, and Nb-doped systems appear particularly promising. It is generally assumed that metal intercalation into the van der Waals (vdW) gap is responsible for the superconductivity. We have investigated the local structure of Nb in samples

The treatment of intershell interactions remains a major challenge in the theoretical description of strongly correlated materials. Most previous approaches considered the influence of intershell interactions at best in a static fashion, neglecting dynamic effects. In this paper, we propose a slave-rotor method that goes beyond this approximation by incorporating the effect of intershell interacti