High-resolution electrophoretic simulations: performance characteristics of one-dimensional simulators

Three comprehensive one-dimensional simulators were used on the same PC to simulate the dynamics of different electrophoretic configurations, including two migrating hybrid boundaries, an isotachophoretic boundary and the zone electrophoretic separation of ten monovalent anions. Two simulators, SIMUL5 and GENTRANS, use a uniform grid, while SPRESSO uses a dynamic adaptive grid. The simulators differ in the way components are handled. SIMUL5 and SPRESSO feature one equation for all components, whereas GENTRANS is based on the use of separate modules for the different types of monovalent components, a module for multivalent components and a module for proteins. The code for multivalent components is executed more slowly compared to those for monovalent components. Furthermore, with SIMUL5, the computational time interval becomes smaller when it is operated with a reduced calculation space that features moving borders, whereas GENTRANS offers the possibility of using data smoothing (removal of negative concentrations), which can avoid numerical oscillations and speed up a simulation. SPRESSO with its adaptive grid could be employed to simulate the same configurations with smaller numbers of grid points and thus is faster in certain but not all cases. The data reveal that simulations featuring a large number of monovalent components distributed such that a high mesh is required throughout a large proportion of the column are fastest executed with GENTRANS.

HLA-A*3101 and carbamazepine-induced hypersensitivity reactions in Europeans

Carbamazepine causes various forms of hypersensitivity reactions, ranging from maculopapular exanthema to severe blistering reactions. The HLA-B*1502 allele has been shown to be strongly correlated with carbamazepine-induced Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS-TEN) in the Han Chinese and other Asian populations but not in European populations.

The future of aortic surgery in Europe

At least every ten years, each specialty should reflect upon its past, its present and its future, in order to be able to reconfirm the direction in which it is headed, to adopt suggestions from inside and outside and, consequently, to improve. As such, the aim of this manuscript is to provide the interested reader with an overview of how aortic surgery and (perhaps more accurately) aortic medicine has evolved in Europe, and its present standing; also to provide a glimpse into the future, trying to disseminate the thoughts of a group of people actively involved in the development of aortic medicine in Europe, namely the Vascular Domain of the European Association of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS).