Clinical, Epidemiologic, Histopathologic and Molecular Features of an Unexplained Dermopathy

BACKGROUND: Morgellons is a poorly characterized constellation of symptoms, with the primary manifestations involving the skin. We conducted an investigation of this unexplained dermopathy to characterize the clinical and epidemiologic features and explore potential etiologies. METHODS: A descriptive study was conducted among persons at least 13 years of age and enrolled in Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) during 2006-2008. A case was defined as the self-reported emergence of fibers or materials from the skin accompanied by skin lesions and/or disturbing skin sensations. We collected detailed epidemiologic data, performed clinical evaluations and geospatial analyses and analyzed materials collected from participants' skin. RESULTS: We identified 115 case-patients. The prevalence was 3.65 (95% CI = 2.98, 4.40) cases per 100,000 enrollees. There was no clustering of cases within the 13-county KPNC catchment area (p = .113). Case-patients had a median age of 52 years (range: 17-93) and were primarily female (77%) and Caucasian (77%). Multi-system complaints were common; 70% reported chronic fatigue and 54% rated their overall health as fair or poor with mean Physical Component Scores and Mental Component Scores of 36.63 (SD = 12.9) and 35.45 (SD = 12.89), respectively. Cognitive deficits were detected in 59% of case-patients and 63% had evidence of clinically significant somatic complaints; 50% had drugs detected in hair samples and 78% reported exposure to solvents. Solar elastosis was the most common histopathologic abnormality (51% of biopsies); skin lesions were most consistent with arthropod bites or chronic excoriations. No parasites or mycobacteria were detected. Most materials collected from participants' skin were composed of cellulose, likely of cotton origin. CONCLUSIONS: This unexplained dermopathy was rare among this population of Northern California residents, but associated with significantly reduced health-related quality of life. No common underlying medical condition or infectious source was identified, similar to more commonly recognized conditions such as delusional infestation

Communications for AnyPLACE: A smart metering platform with management and control functionalities

Recent developments under the term Smart Grid change how users consume electricity and interact with the power grid. Smart metering and energy management are developments that transform the yet passive energy consumer to a participant that is actively involved in the energy market by using variable energy tariffs or by demand-response services. But such functionality demands a platform that integrates all smart devices in the users property, connects to external services and electricity providers, and has interfaces that provide information and control to the user. AnyPLACE will develop such platform. Based on the latest legislation in the European member states, it will incorporate smart meters and create links to external service providers. Furthermore, it connects the devices in the property of the end-user in order to be able to fully monitor and control the energy consumption. This paper presents the AnyPLACE idea and the problems that are solved on the communications aspect. It provides an in-depth analysis of current European legislation in the context of smart metering and provides the requirements that need to be realized by the platform. Additionally, it proposes a strategy to create a solution that can be used in any place of Europe. The paper also incorporates the security and privacy requirements in different domains and sketches a solution and architecture to fulfill these by incorporating existing open source implementations as provided by the openHAB project

PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS ON TRANSPIRATION COOLING IN RAMJETS AND SCRAMJETS

Transpiration cooling systems are a promising approach to handle the high wall temperatures and heat loads generated in supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets). The German Aerospace Center DLR has developed and set up a versatile test bench to investigate the applicability of transpiration cooling systems in scramjets and the phenomena resulting out of the interaction between such a cooling system, optional shock generators like wedge shaped struts and hot gas main flow. In the publication at hand, the developed test bench and its components are presented in detail, as well as a performance analysis for it based on preliminary experiments using gas sampling and optical Schlieren investigations. Further research and planned experiments are discussed and concretized

50 JAHRE PRÜFSTANDSKOMPLEX M11 IN LAMPOLDSHAUSEN – FORSCHUNG FÜR RAUMFAHRTANTRIEBE VON MORGEN

Am Prüfstandskomplex M11 des Instituts für Raumfahrtantriebe am DLR-Standort Lampoldshausen, der 1966 errichtet wurde, werden grundlagenorientierte Forschungsaktivitäten und schubkammerrelevante Technologieentwicklungsarbeiten für Raketen- und Staustrahlantriebe durchgeführt. In diesen 50 Jahren wurden wesentliche Erkenntnisse in den vielfältigen Arbeitsbereichen erworben, was durch eine Vielzahl an Publikationen belegt ist. Heutzutage fokussieren sich die Arbeiten auf Brennkammerprozessentwicklungen für fortschrittliche grüne Treibstoffe. Diese Veröffentlichung gibt einen kurzen Überblick über die Geschichte des Prüfstandskomplexes und einen kurzen Einblick in aktuelle Aktivitäten