Confluent drawing is a technique that allows some non-planar graphs to be visualized in a planar way. This approach merges edges together, drawing groups of them as single tracks, similar to train tracks. In the general case, producing confluent drawings automatically has proven quite difficult. We introduce the biclique edge cover graph that represents a graph G as an interconnected set of cli...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the feasibility, efficiency, and safety of no-touch switching bipolar (SB) and switching monopolar (SM) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) using ex vivo bovine livers. MATERIALS AND METHODS A pork loin cube was inserted as a tumor mimicker in the bovine liver block; RFA was performed using the no-touch technique in the SM (group A1; 10 minutes, n = 10, group A2; 15 minutes, n...

We tested the hypothesis that manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), an antioxidant enzyme, regulates the proliferative potential of confluent human fibroblasts. Normal human skin (AG01522) and lung (WI38, CCL-75) fibroblasts kept in confluence (>95% G(0)/G(1)) showed a significant decrease in their capacity to re-enter the proliferation cycle after 40-60 days. The inhibition of re-entry was a...

Results are obtained about the existence and behavior of hereditarily weakly confluent maps of continua onto the unit circle S1. A simple and useful necessary and sufficient condition is given for a map of a continuum, X, onto S1 to be hereditarily weakly confluent (HWC). It is shown that when X is arcwise connected, an HWC map of X onto S1 is monotone with arcwise connected fibers. A number of...

BACKGROUND Infection of pancreatic necrosis is a life-threatening complication during the course of acute pancreatitis. In critically ill patients, surgical or extended endoscopic interventions are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Minimally invasive procedures on the other hand are often insufficient in patients suffering from large necrotic areas containing solid or purulent mater...

Cigarette smoke is a major environmental air pollutant that injures airway epithelium and incites subsequent diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The lesion that smoke induces in airway epithelium is still incompletely understood. Using a LIVE/DEAD cytotoxicity assay, we observed that subconfluent cultures of bronchial epithelial cells derived from both human and monkey air...

The possibility that contact inhibition of growth in cultures of human diploid cells is influenced by the effects of cell crowding on nutrient uptake by the cells was investigated. Two human lung cell lines were compared, the diploid line MRC-5 and the heteroploid line L-132. In pre-confluent cultures the ability of these 2 cell types to accumulate amino acids was very similar. Post-confluent L...