Clinical relevance of soluble c-erbB-2 for patients with metastatic breast cancer predicting the response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy

Concentrations of soluble c-erbB-2 were determined in the sera of 64 patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer receiving second-line hormone or chemotherapy in comparison to 35 breast cancer patients without detectable recurrent disease and 17 healthy blood donors. The sera of non-metastatic breast cancer patients contained s-erbB-2 concentrations similar to those of healthy blood donors. Patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer had significantly higher values of s-erbB-2 in comparison to patients with non-disseminated disease (mean: 59.6 vs. 11.6 U/ml; p = 0.022). A significant correlation was observed between s-erbB-2 serum levels and serum LDH concentrations (p < 0.001), levels of alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.001), and the presence of hepatic metastasis (p = 0.001). Time to tumor progression was significantly shorter in patients with s-erbB-2 levels above 40 U/ml (mean: 23.4 vs. 56.7 months; p = 0.002). Furthermore, breast cancer patients with hepatic metastasis and those with elevated s-erbB-2 serum levels above 40 U/ml had limited response to hormone or chemotherapy. Non-responders had significantly higher s-erbB-2 levels (mean: 270.3, range: 42-500 U/ml;) compared with the responder group (mean: 23.1, range: 0-149 U/ml; p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis indicated that elevated s-erbB-2 serum levels above 40 U/ml independently predicted an unfavorable response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy in patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer. Copyright (C) 2002 S. KargerAG, Basel

Two candidate brown dwarf companions around core helium-burning stars

Hot subdwarf stars of spectral type B (sdBs) are evolved, core helium-burning objects. The formation of those objects is puzzling, because the progenitor star has to lose almost its entire hydrogen envelope in the red-giant phase. Binary interactions have been invoked, but single sdBs exist as well. We report the discovery of two close hot subdwarf binaries with small radial velocity amplitudes. Follow-up photometry revealed reflection effects originating from cool irradiated companions, but no eclipses. The lower mass limits for the companions of CPD-64$^{\circ}$481 ($0.048\,M_{\rm \odot}$) and PHL\,457 ($0.027\,M_{\rm \odot}$) are significantly below the stellar mass limit. Hence they could be brown dwarfs unless the inclination is unfavourable. Two very similar systems have already been reported. The probability that none of them is a brown dwarf is very small, 0.02%. Hence we provide further evidence that substellar companions with masses that low are able to eject a common envelope and form an sdB star. Furthermore, we find that the properties of the observed sample of hot subdwarfs in reflection effect binaries is consistent with a scenario where single sdBs can still be formed via common envelope events, but their low-mass substellar companions do not survive.Comment: accepted to A&

Low temperature acoustic properties of amorphous silica and the Tunneling Model

Internal friction and speed of sound of a-SiO(2) was measured above 6 mK using a torsional oscillator at 90 kHz, controlling for thermal decoupling, non-linear effects, and clamping losses. Strain amplitudes e(A) = 10^{-8} mark the transition between the linear and non-linear regime. In the linear regime, excellent agreement with the Tunneling Model was observed for both the internal friction and speed of sound, with a cut-off energy of E(min) = 6.6 mK. In the non-linear regime, two different behaviors were observed. Above 10 mK the behavior was typical for non-linear harmonic oscillators, while below 10 mK a different behavior was found. Its origin is not understood.Comment: 1 tex file, 6 figure

Lattice-mismatch-induced granularity in CoPt-NbN and NbN-CoPt superconductor-ferromagnet heterostructures: Effect of strain

The effect of strain due to lattice mismatch and of ferromagnetic (FM) exchange field on superconductivity (SC) in NbN-CoPt bilayers is investigated. Two different bilayer systems with reversed deposition sequence are grown on MgO (001) single crystals. While robust superconductivity with high critical temperature (T_c ~ 15.3 K) and narrow transition width DelT_c ~ 0.4 K) is seen in two types of CoPt-NbN/MgO heterostructures where the magnetic anisotropy of CoPt is in-plane in one case and out-of-plane in the other, the NbN-CoPt/MgO system shows markedly suppressed SC response. The reduced SC order parameter of this system, which manifests itself in Tc, temperature dependence of critical current density J_c (T), and angular (Phi) variation of flux-flow resistivity Rho_f is shown to be a signature of the structure of NbN film and not a result of the exchange field of CoPt. The Rho_f (H,T,Phi) data further suggest that the domain walls in the CoPt film are of the Neel type and hence do not cause any flux in the superconducting layer. A small, but distinct increase in the low-field critical current of the CoPt-NbN couple is seen when the magnetic layer has perpendicular anisotropy.Comment: 9 figure

Feature Nets: behavioural modelling of software product lines

Software product lines (SPL) are diverse systems that are developed using a dual engineering process: (a)family engineering defines the commonality and variability among all members of the SPL, and (b) application engineering derives specific products based on the common foundation combined with a variable selection of features. The number of derivable products in an SPL can thus be exponential in the number of features. This inherent complexity poses two main challenges when it comes to modelling: Firstly, the formalism used for modelling SPLs needs to be modular and scalable. Secondly, it should ensure that all products behave correctly by providing the ability to analyse and verify complex models efficiently. In this paper we propose to integrate an established modelling formalism (Petri nets) with the domain of software product line engineering. To this end we extend Petri nets to Feature Nets. While Petri nets provide a framework for formally modelling and verifying single software systems, Feature Nets offer the same sort of benefits for software product lines. We show how SPLs can be modelled in an incremental, modular fashion using Feature Nets, provide a Feature Nets variant that supports modelling dynamic SPLs, and propose an analysis method for SPL modelled as Feature Nets. By facilitating the construction of a single model that includes the various behaviours exhibited by the products in an SPL, we make a significant step towards efficient and practical quality assurance methods for software product lines

From Transition Systems to Variability Models and from Lifted Model Checking Back to UPPAAL

Variational systems (system families) allow effective building of many custom system variants for various configurations. Lifted (family-based) verification is capable of verifying all variants of the family simultaneously, in a single run, by exploiting the similarities between the variants. These algorithms scale much better than the simple enumerative “brute-force” way. Still, the design of family-based verification algorithms greatly depends on the existence of compact variability models (state representations). Moreover, developing the corresponding family-based tools for each particular analysis is often tedious and labor intensive.In this work, we make two contributions. First, we survey the history of development of variability models of computation that compactly represent behavior of variational systems. Second, we introduce variability abstractions that simplify variability away to achieve efficient lifted (family-based) model checking for real-time variability models. This reduces the cost of maintaining specialized family-based real-time model checkers. Real-time variability models can be model checked using the standard UPPAAL. We have implemented abstractions as syntactic source-to-source transformations on UPPAAL input files, and we illustrate the practicality of this method on a real-time case study.Both authors are supported by The Danish Council for Independent Research under a Sapere Aude project, VARIETE

Cavitation of Electrons Bubbles in Liquid Helium Below saturation Pressure

We have used a Hartree-type electron-helium potential together with a density functional description of liquid $^4$He and $^3$He to study the explosion of electron bubbles submitted to a negative pressure. The critical pressure at which bubbles explode has been determined as a function of temperature. It has been found that this critical pressure is very close to the pressure at which liquid helium becomes globally unstable in the presence of electrons. It is shown that at high temperatures the capillary model overestimates the critical pressures. We have checked that a commonly used and rather simple electron-helium interaction yields results very similar to those obtained using the more accurate Hartree-type interaction. We have estimated that the crossover temperature for thermal to quantum nucleation of electron bubbles is very low, of the order of 6 mK for $^4$He.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figure

Elastic response of [111]-tunneling impurities

We study the dynamic response of a [111] quantum impurity, such as lithium or cyanide in alkali halides, with respect to an external field coupling to the elastic quadrupole moment. Because of the particular level structure of a eight-state system on a cubic site, the elastic response function shows a biexponential relaxation feature and a van Vleck type contribution with a resonance frequency that is twice the tunnel frequency $\Delta/\hbar$. This basically differs from the dielectric response that does not show relaxation. Moreover, we show that the elastic response of a [111] impurity cannot be reduced to that of a two-level system. In the experimental part, we report on recent sound velocity and internal friction measurements on KCl doped with cyanide at various concentrations. At low doping (45 ppm) we find the dynamics of a single [111] impurity, whereas at higher concentrations (4700 ppm) the elastic response rather indicates strongly correlated defects. Our theoretical model provides a good description of the temperature dependence of $\delta v/v$ and $Q^{-1}$ at low doping, in particular the relaxation peaks, the absolute values of the amplitude, and the resonant contributions. From our fits we obtain the value of the elastic deformation potential $\gamma_t=0.192$ eV.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

Отказоустойчивый вентильный электро-привод для гибридного транспортного средства

Выпускная квалификационная работа содержит 79 страниц, 10 рисунка, 30 таблиц, 24 источников. Ключевые слова: гибридное транспортное средство, отказоустойчивый вентильный электропривод, математическая модель вентильного двигателя, неполнофазный режим работы, обрыв фазы двигателя, отказ ключа преобразователя частоты. Был проведён обзор аккумуляторов, обоснован выбор ёмкости аккумуляторной батареи. Цель работы – разработка отказоустойчивого вентильного электропривода для гибридного транспортного средства, обеспечение алгоритма восстановления работоспособности. Выпускная квалификационная работа выполнена в текстовом редакторе Microsoft Office Word 2010 с использованием пакетов: Microsoft Visio 2010, Matlab Simulink.Final qualifying work consists of 79 pages, 10 figure, 30 tables, 24 sources. Key words: hybrid vehicle, failover the valve actuator, the mathematical model of the brushless DC motor, open-phase mode, output phase loss, failure of a key of the frequency Converter. A review was undertaken of batteries and justifies the choice of battery capacity. The work purpose – development of fault-tolerant brushless drive for a hybrid vehicle, provision of algorithm restore functionality. Final qualifying work is executed in a text editor Microsoft Office Word 2010 packages: Microsoft Visio 2010, Matlab Simulink

Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation with KamLAND: Evidence of Spectral Distortion

We present results of a study of neutrino oscillation based on a 766 ton-year exposure of KamLAND to reactor anti-neutrinos. We observe 258 \nuebar\ candidate events with energies above 3.4 MeV compared to 365.2 events expected in the absence of neutrino oscillation. Accounting for 17.8 expected background events, the statistical significance for reactor \nuebar disappearance is 99.998%. The observed energy spectrum disagrees with the expected spectral shape in the absence of neutrino oscillation at 99.6% significance and prefers the distortion expected from \nuebar oscillation effects. A two-neutrino oscillation analysis of the KamLAND data gives \DeltaMSq = 7.9$^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\times10^{-5}$ eV$^2$. A global analysis of data from KamLAND and solar neutrino experiments yields \DeltaMSq = 7.9$^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\times10^{-5}$ eV$^2$ and \ThetaParam = 0.40$^{+0.10}_{-0.07}$, the most precise determination to date.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Phys.Rev.Letter