Parkinson’s disease: evolution of cognitive impairment and CSF Aβ₁−₄₂ profiles in a prospective longitudinal study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the evolution of cognitive impairment in relation to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) profiles of amyloid-β (Aβ), total-Tau and phosphorylated-Tau in Parkinson’s disease (PD). METHODS: Prospective, longitudinal, observational study up to 10 years with follow-up every 2  years. We assessed CSF profiles in 415 patients with sporadic PD (median age 66; 63% men) and 142 healthy controls (median age 62; 43% men). RESULTS: Patients with PD with low CSF Aβ₁−₄₂ levels at baseline were more often cognitively impaired than patients with intermediate and high Aβ₁−₄₂ levels. Sixty-seven per cent of the patients with low Aβ₁−₄₂ levels at baseline and normal cognition developed cognitive impairment during follow-up, compared with 41% and 37% of patients having intermediate and high CSF Aβ₁−₄₂ levels. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression revealed that patients with low CSF Aβ₁−₄₂ levels at baseline developed cognitive impairment more frequently and earlier during follow-up. CONCLUSION: We conclude that in patients with sporadic PD, low levels of Aβ₁−₄₂ are associated with a higher risk of developing cognitive impairment earlier in the disease process at least in a subgroup of patients

Hybrid Hydrogen Home Storage for Decentralized Energy Autonomy

As the share of distributed renewable power generation increases, high electricity prices and low feed-in tariff rates encourage the generation of electricity for personal use. In the building sector, this has led to growing interest in energy self-sufficient buildings that feature battery and hydrogen storage capacities. In this study, we compare potential technology pathways for residential energy storage in terms of their economic performance by means of a temporal optimization model of the fully self-sufficient energy system of a single-family building, taking into account its residential occupancy patterns and thermal equipment. We show for the first time how heat integration with reversible solid oxide cells (rSOCs) and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) in high-efficiency, single-family buildings could, by 2030, enable the self-sufficient supply of electricity and heat at a yearly premium of 52% against electricity supplied by the grid. Compared to lithium-ion battery systems, the total annualized cost of a self-sufficient energy supply can be reduced by 80% through the thermal integration of LOHC reactors and rSOC systems

A vision-based trajectory controller for autonomous cleaning robots

Gerstmayr L, Röben F, Krzykawski M, Kreft S, Venjakob D, Möller R. A vision-based trajectory controller for autonomous cleaning robots. In: Dillmann R, Beyerer J, Stiller C, Zöllner JM, Gindele T, eds. Autonome Mobile Systeme 2009. Informatik Aktuell. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer; 2009: 65-72

Recombination Enhanced Surface Expansion of Clusters in Intense Soft X Ray Laser Pulses

We studied the nanoplasma formation and explosion dynamics of single large xenon clusters in ultrashort, intense x-ray free-electron laser pulses via ion spectroscopy. The simultaneous measurement of single-shot diffraction images enabled a single-cluster analysis that is free from any averaging over the cluster size and laser intensity distributions. The measured charge state-resolved ion energy spectra show narrow distributions with peak positions that scale linearly with final ion charge state. These two distinct signatures are attributed to highly efficient recombination that eventually leads to the dominant formation of neutral atoms in the cluster. The measured mean ion energies exceed the value expected without recombination by more than an order of magnitude, indicating that the energy release resulting from electron-ion recombination constitutes a previously unnoticed nanoplasma heating process. This conclusion is supported by results from semiclassical molecular dynamics simulations