A self-expanding esophageal nitinol stent was implanted under fluoroscopic guidance in 40 patients with malignant esophageal strictures and clinically significant dysphagia. The strictures were caused by squamous cell carcinoma (n = 14), adenocarcinoma (n = 12), recurrent anastomotic carcinoma (n = 8), and mediastinal tumors (n = 6). Eight stents were balloon dilated to maximum diameter immediatel

We report the self-compression of linearly and circularly polarized light pulses down to the few-cycle regime by self-guided beam propagation of intense 38-fs pulses in different gases with uniform density and with a pressure gradient.

In this paper, we review the optimization and characterization of a high-order harmonic generation (HHG) source for application in coherence imaging, and the use of this light source in a digital in-line holography setup. The high-order harmonic beam is generated by focusing a powerful infrared beam into an Ar gas cell. The length of the cell and the focusing parameters are optimized to maximize t

We investigate the performance of the recently introduced 'd-scan' technique for the characterization of ultrashort laser pulses by comparing it with a well-established technique (SPIDER). Good agreement is obtained from the two different measurements.

The energy spectra of electrons produced in multiphoton ionization of rare gases display a large number of peaks corresponding to the absorption of much more than a minimum number of photons required to ionize the atom. A retarding-potential method has been used to analyze the energy of electrons produced in the multiphoton ionization of He, Ne, and Xe at 1064 and 532 nm in a broad range of laser

We present experiments, supported by time-dependent Schrödinger simulations, on the dynamics of Helium bound states after an attosecond excitation in the presence of a strong infrared laser field.

Skeletal development is heterogeneous. Throughout growth, bone size is more maturationally advanced than the mineral being accrued within its periosteal envelope; before puberty, appendicular growth is more rapid than axial growth; during puberty, appendicular growth slows and axial growth accelerates. We studied women with differing age of onset of anorexia nervosa to determine whether this tempo

Introduction: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have persistent platelet activation and an increased risk of thrombotic events, which cannot be accounted for by traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Factor (F)XII has a potentially important role in thrombus formation and is triggered by activated platelets. We therefore asked whether the contact system is involved in inflammation

Datalog has emerged as a powerful tool for expressing staticprogram analyses. Program analysis researchers have builtnontrivial code bases in Datalog, but tool support for workingwith Datalog itself has been lacking. In this paper, weintroduce MetaDL, a language extension to Datalog thatenables source-level Datalog program analysis within Datalog.We describe several program analyses implemented in

The aim of this study was to compare interstitial laser thermotherapy with excision of a liver tumour. A dimethylhydrazine-induced adenocarcinoma was transplanted (implanted if not stated otherwise) into the left lateral lobe of the rat liver, and treatment was performed 8 days later. In the main experiment, rats were treated with resection of the tumour-bearing robe or underwent interstitial lase

Hypoglycaemia (low plasma glucose) is a serious and potentially fatal complication of insulin-treated diabetes. In healthy individuals, hypoglycaemia triggers glucagon secretion, which restores normal plasma glucose levels by stimulation of hepatic glucose production. This counterregulatory mechanism is impaired in diabetes. Here we show in mice that therapeutic concentrations of insulin inhibit g

High-content real-time imaging of hormone secretion in tissues or cell populations is a challenging task, which is unlikely to be resolved directly, despite immense translational value. We approach this problem indirectly, using compensatory endocytosis, a process that closely follows exocytosis in the cell, as a surrogate read-out for secretion. The tissue is immobilized in an open-air perifusion

We demonstrate a dispersion-free split mirror interferometric autocorrelator suitable for measuring pulses with durations from hundreds of attoseconds to tens of femtoseconds and spectral content from the near-UV to near-IR.

We present a simple experimental setup that makes possible the measurement of the beam section at focus under full-power conditions. We demonstrate that a 1.5-TW laser system can be focused down to a 13.5-μm-diameter spot using conventional lens focalization, thus achieving laser intensities of up to 1018 W/cm2.

OBJECTIVE: To study if the follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR) variant asparagine/serine in amino acid 680 (N680S) can predict hypersensitivity to gonadotropins in women undergoing assisted reproduction.PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study, 586 women undergoing their first in-vitro fertilisation treatment were enroled, and their FSHR N680S genetic variant was analysed. The ma