Stadtpilot: First Fully Autonomous Test Drives in Urban Traffic

The Stadtpilot project aims at autonomous driving on Braunschweig's inner city ring road. For this purpose, an autonomous vehicle called "Leonie" has been developed. In October 2010, after two years of research, "Leonie's" abilities were presented in a public demonstration. This vehicle is one of the first worldwide to show the ability of driving autonomously in real urban traffic scenarios. This paper describes the legal issues and the homologation process for driving autonomously in public traffic in Braunschweig, Germany. It also dwells on the Safety Concept, the system architecture and current research activities

Radiotherapy for hormone-sensitive prostate cancer with synchronous low burden of distant metastases.

PURPOSE The DEGRO Expert Commission on Prostate Cancer has revised the indication for radiation therapy of the primary prostate tumor in patients with synchronous distant metastases with low metastatic burden. METHODS The current literature in the PubMed database was reviewed regarding randomized evidence on radiotherapy of the primary prostate tumor with synchronous low metastatic burden. RESULTS In total, two randomized trials were identified. The larger study, the STAMPEDE trial, demonstrated an absolute survival benefit of 8% after 3 years for patients with low metastatic burden treated with standard of care (SOC) and additional radiotherapy (RT) (EQD2 ≤ 72 Gy) of the primary tumor. Differences in the smaller Horrad trial were not statistically significant, although risk reduction in the subgroup (< 5 bone metastases) was equal to STAMPEDE. The STOPCAP meta-analysis of both trials demonstrated the benefit of local radiotherapy for up to 4 bone lesions and an additional subanalysis of STAMPEDE also substantiated this finding in cases with M1a-only metastases. CONCLUSION Therefore, due to the survival benefit after 3 years, current practice is changing. New palliative SOC is radiotherapy of the primary tumor in synchronously metastasized prostate cancer with low metastatic burden (defined as ≤ 4 bone metastases, with or without distant nodes) or in case of distant nodes only detected by conventional imaging

Statement from the DEGRO working group prostate cancer

Aim: To provide an overview on the available treatments to prevent and reduce gynecomastia and/or breast pain caused by antiandrogen therapy for prostate cancer. Methods: The German Society of Radiation Oncology (DEGRO) expert panel summarized available evidence published and assessed the validity of the information on efficacy and treatment-related toxicity. Results: Eight randomized controlled trials and one meta-analysis were identified. Two randomized trials demonstrated that prophylactic radiation therapy (RT) using 1 × 10 Gy or 2 × 6 Gy significantly reduced the rate of gynecomastia but not breast pain, as compared to observation. A randomized dose-finding trial identified the daily dose of 20 mg tamoxifen (TMX) as the most effective prophylactic dose and another randomized trial described that daily TMX use was superior to weekly use. Another randomized trial showed that prophylactic daily TMX is more effective than TMX given at the onset of gynecomastia. Two other randomized trials described that TMX was clearly superior to anastrozole in reducing the risk for gynecomastia and/or breast pain. One comparative randomized trial between prophylactic RT using 1 × 12 Gy and TMX concluded that prophylactic TMX is more effective compared to prophylactic RT and furthermore that TMX appears to be more effective to treat gynecomastia and/or breast pain when symptoms are already present. A meta-analysis confirmed that both prophylactic RT and TMX can reduce the risk of gynecomastia and/or breast pain with TMX being more effective; however, the rate of side effects after TMX including dizziness and hot flushes might be higher than after RT and must be taken into account. Less is known regarding the comparative effectiveness of different radiation fractionation schedules and more modern RT techniques. Conclusions: Prophylactic RT as well as daily TMX can significantly reduce the incidence of gynecomastia and/or breast pain. TMX appears to be an effective alternative to RT also as a therapeutic treatment in the presence of gynecomastia but its side effects and off-label use must be considered

Selective recognition of the di/trimethylammonium motif by an artificial carboxycalixarene receptor

Chemical tools that recognise post-translational modifications have promising applications in biochemistry and in therapy. We report a simple carboxycalixarene that selectively binds molecules containing di/trimethylammonium moieties in isolation, in cell lysates and when incorporated in histone peptides. Our findings reveal the potential of using carboxycalixarene-based receptors to study epigenetic regulation

Author Correction:Study of 300,486 individuals identifies 148 independent genetic loci influencing general cognitive function

Christina M. Lill, who contributed to analysis of data, was inadvertently omitted from the author list in the originally published version of this article. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the article

Simulation of SVPWM Based Multivariable Control Method for a DFIG Wind Energy System

This paper deals with a variable speed device toproduce electrical energy on a power network based on adoubly-fed induction machine used in generating mode(DFIG) in wind energy system by using SVPWM powertransfer matrix. This paper presents a modeling and controlapproach which uses instantaneous real and reactive powerinstead of dq components of currents in a vector controlscheme. The main features of the proposed model comparedto conventional models in the dq frame of reference arerobustness and simplicity of realization. The sequential loopclosing technique is adopted to design a multivariable controlsystem including six compensators for a DFIG wind energysystem to capture the maximum wind power and to inject therequired reactive power to the generator. In this paperSVPWM method is used for better controlling of converters.It also provides fault ride through method to protect theconverter during a fault. The time-domain simulation of thestudy system is presented by using MATLAB Simulink to testthe system robustness, to validate the proposed model and toshow the enhanced tracking capability