Multiscaling behavior of braided channel networks: An alternative formulation of Taylor's law variate transformations.

Braided channel networks exhibit a complex interplay between spatial and temporal dynamics. Their behavior is characterized by both simple and multiscaling patterns, and the mechanisms underlying the stochastic processes associated with this dynamics remain incompletely understood. Leveraging Taylor's pioneering work [Nature (London) 189, 732 (1961)NATUAS0028-083610.

Purcell's swimmers in pairs.

We investigate the effects of hydrodynamic interactions between microorganisms swimming at low Reynolds numbers, treating them as a control system. We employ Lie brackets analysis to examine the motion of two neighboring three-link swimmers interacting through the ambient fluid in which they propel themselves. Our analysis reveals that the hydrodynamic interaction has a dual consequence: on one hand, it diminishes the system's efficiency; on the other hand, it dictates that the two microswimmers must synchronize their motions to attain peak performance.

Growth of a flexible fibre in a deformable ring.

We study the equilibrium configurations related to the growth of an elastic fibre in a confining flexible ring. This system represents a paradigm for a variety of biological, medical, and engineering problems. We consider a simplified geometry in which initially the container is a circular ring of radius .

The Role of Internalized Transphobia, Loneliness, and Social Support in the Psychological Well-Being of a Group of Italian Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youths.

Although transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) youth represent a highly resilient community capable of successfully overcoming adverse life circumstances, they still face social stigma that negatively impacts their health, being at risk of developing negative feelings toward their own TGNC identity (i.e., internalized transphobia).

Electromagnetic induction imaging: signal detection based on tuned-dressed optical magnetometry.

A recently introduced tuning-dressed scheme makes a Bell and Bloom magnetometer suited to detect weak variations of a radio-frequency (RF) magnetic field. We envisage the application of such innovative detection scheme as an alternative (or rather as a complement) to RF atomic magnetometers in electromagnetic-induction-imaging apparatuses.

A New Score to Assess the Perioperative Period of the Cancer Patient Undergoing Non-Palliative Elective Surgery: A Retrospective Evaluation of a Case Report by PERIDIA Score.

The complexity of cancer patients and the use of advanced and demolitive surgical techniques frequently need post-operatory ICU hospitalization. To increase safety and to select the best medical strategies for the patient, a multidisciplinary team has performed a new peri-operatory assessment, arising from evidence-based literature data. Verifying that most of the cancer patients, admitted to the intensive care unit, undergo major surgery with localizations in the supramesocolic thoraco-abdominal area, the team focused the attention on supramesocolic peridiaphragmatic cancer surgery.

Nematic shells: new insights in topology- and curvature-induced effects.

Within the framework of continuum theory, we draw a parallel between ferromagnetic materials and nematic liquid crystals confined on curved surfaces, which are both characterized by local interaction and anchoring potentials. We show that the extrinsic curvature of the shell combined with the out-of-plane component of the director field gives rise to chirality effects. This interplay produces an effective energy term reminiscent of the chiral term in cholesteric liquid crystals, with the curvature tensor acting as a sort of anisotropic helicity.

Cooling a spherical nematic shell.

Within the framework of Landau-de Gennes theory for nematic liquid crystals, we study the temperature-induced isotropic-nematic phase transition on a spherical shell under the assumption of degenerate tangential anchoring. Below a critical temperature, a thin layer of nematic coating a microscopic spherical particle exhibits nonuniform textures due to the geometrical frustration. We find the exact value of the critical threshold for the temperature and determine exactly the nematic textures at the transition by means of a weakly nonlinear analysis.

Cellular analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid to narrow differential diagnosis of checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis in metastatic melanoma.

Background: The diagnosis of check-point inhibitor-related pneumonitis (CIP) relies on radiological and clinical patterns which are not specific and can mimic other conditions (cancer progression, infectious diseases or interstitial pneumonitis). Cell pattern analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is well-known to support the diagnosis of interstitial lung disease; nevertheless, this analysis is somewhat performed and not required by immune-toxicity management guidelines for CIP.

Methods: We performed BAL analysis in 5 metastatic melanoma (MM) patients who developed CIP among 112 patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors.

Spontaneous helical flows in active nematics lying on a cylindrical surface.

Within the framework of the two-dimensional Ericksen-Leslie model, we explore the effect of geometric confinement on the spontaneous flow of active nematic gels. The nematic particles are assumed to flow on a cylindrical surface, while a degenerate tangential anchoring is enforced. Using the linear approximation of the motion equations, we show that there is a close interplay among extrinsic curvature, flow, director alignment, and activity.

Influence of the extrinsic curvature on two-dimensional nematic films.

Nematic films are thin fluid structures, ideally two dimensional, endowed with an in-plane degenerate nematic order. In this paper we examine a generalization of the classical Plateau problem to an axisymmetric nematic film bounded by two coaxial parallel rings. At equilibrium, the shape of the nematic film results from the competition between surface tension, which favors the minimization of the area, and the nematic elasticity, which instead promotes the alignment of the molecules along a common direction.

Hydrodynamic theory for nematic shells: The interplay among curvature, flow, and alignment.

We derive the hydrodynamic equations for nematic liquid crystals lying on curved substrates. We invoke the Lagrange-Rayleigh variational principle to adapt the Ericksen-Leslie theory to two-dimensional nematics in which a degenerate anchoring of the molecules on the substrate is enforced. The only constitutive assumptions in this scheme concern the free-energy density, given by the two-dimensional Frank potential, and the density of dissipation which is required to satisfy appropriate invariance requirements.

Nematic liquid crystals in a spatially step-wise magnetic field.

We study the molecular reorientation induced by a textured external field in a nematic liquid crystal (nLC). In particular, we consider an infinitely wide cell with strong planar anchoring boundary conditions, subjected to a spatially periodic piecewise magnetic field. In the framework of the Frank's continuum theory, we use the perturbation analysis to study in detail the field-induced splay-bend Fréedericksz transition.

Fibrous lung tumor: a peculiar case.

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) of the pleura and the lung is an uncommon spindle cell neoplasm arising from the visceral pleura in the majority of the cases. However there are some extrapleural sites including the lung. Current considerations were raised by a peculiar recent case: an 81-year-old female, no smoker, presented with undefined left thoracic pain.

Parity of the weak Fréedericksz transition.

Motivated by the recent experimental findings by Kumar et al. (Phys. Rev.

Surface free energies for nematic shells.

We propose a continuum model to describe the molecular alignment in thin nematic shells. By contrast with previous accounts, the two-dimensional free energy, aimed at describing the physics of thin films of nematics deposited on curved substrates, is not postulated, but it is deduced from the conventional three-dimensional theories of nematic liquid crystals. Both the director and the order-tensor theories are taken into account.

Extrinsic curvature effects on nematic shells.

When nematic liquid crystals are constrained to a curved surface, the geometry induces distortions in the molecular orientation. The mechanisms of the geometrical frustration involve the intrinsic as well as the extrinsic geometry of the underlying substrate. We show that the nematic elastic energy promotes the alignment of the flux lines of the nematic director towards geodesics and/or lines of curvature of the surface.

Curved cutter stapler for the application of bronchial sutures in anatomic pulmonary resections: the clinical experience of 139 cases.

Objectives: One of the fundamental steps in an anatomical pulmonary resection is the main and lobar bronchus suture. Nowadays, two different types of staplers are on the market: the linear TA stapler for open surgery (Tyco Healthcare Group LP, Norwalk, CT, USA), which is based on a 'guillotine' mechanism, sewing, but not cutting the bronchus, and the endoscopic linear stapler which both cuts and sews. This study aimed to fill the void in the use of an instrument used to staple and cut at the same time in 'open' thoracic surgery, eliminating the need for a scalpel: the curved cutter stapler (Contour Curved Cutter Stapler; Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.

Periodic splay-twist Fréedericksz transition for nematics confined between two concentric cylinders.

This paper derives theoretical results for the periodic splay-twist Fréedericksz transition in nematic liquid crystals confined between two infinite concentric cylinders. The calculation of Lonberg and Meyer [Phys. Rev.

Mechanically induced Helfrich-Hurault effect in lamellar systems.

Layered phases are a common pattern of self-organization for several soft materials. These phases undergo buckling instability when subjected to dilatative strain: beyond a critical threshold, layers, initially flat, exhibit a periodical undulation. By using a continuum model, in a finite deformation framework, an expression for the critical threshold is provided, which differs from that predicted by the Helfrich-Hurault theory and yet it reverts to it in a thick specimen limit.

Axial-symmetry breaking in constrained membranes.

We study the equilibrium shapes of a lipid membrane, attached to a fixed circular substrate. We show how the weakening of the boundary conditions is able to break the axial symmetry of the optimal equilibrium configuration. We derive the critical threshold of the symmetry-breaking transition, and obtain the analytical expression of the free-energy minimizers in the quasi-planar approximation.

Inclusion-induced boundary layers in lipid vesicles.

The equilibrium shapes of lipid vesicles are perturbed by rigid inclusions. In a two-dimensional vesicle, that may also model a cylindrically elongated tubule, the shape modifications can be determined analytically, and turn out to be significant even far from the inclusion. On the contrary, previous numerical work has given evidence that in the three-dimensional case the shape perturbations decay quite rapidly and are negligible a few inclusion radii away.

Bulk and surface biaxiality in nematic liquid crystals.

Nematic liquid crystals possess three different phases: isotropic, uniaxial, and biaxial. The ground state of most nematics is either isotropic or uniaxial, depending on the external temperature. Nevertheless, biaxial domains have been frequently identified, especially close to defects or external surfaces.