Lunar Exploration Orbiter (LEO): Providing a Globally Covered, Highly Resolved, Integrated Geological, Geochemical and Gephysical Data Base of the Moon

The German initiative for the Lunar Exploration Orbiter (LEO) originated from the national conference “Exploration of our Solar System”, held in Dresden in November 2006. Major result of this conference was that the Moon is of high interest for the scientific community for various reasons, it is affordable to perform an orbiting mission to Moon and it insures technological and scientific progress necessary to assist further exploration activities of our Solar System. Based on scientific proposals elaborated by 50 German scientists in January 2007, a preliminary payload of 12 instruments was defined. Further analysis were initated by DLR in the frame of two industry contracts, to perform a phase-zero mission definition. The Moon, our next neighbour in the Solar System is the first choice to learn, how to work and live without the chance of immediate support from earth and to get prepared for further and farther exploration missions. We have to improve our scientific knowledge base with respect to the Moon applying modern and state of the art research tools and methods. LEO is planed to be launched in 2012 and shall orbit the Moon for about four years in a low altitude orbit

Freshwater ostracodes in Quaternary permafrost deposits from the Siberian Arctic

Ostracode analysis was carried out on samples from ice-rich permafrost deposits obtained on the BykovskyPeninsula (Laptev Sea).A composite pro file was investigated that covers most of a 38-m thick permafrostsequence and corresponds to the last ca.60 kyr of the Late Quaternary.The ostracode assemblages aresimilar to those known from European Quaternary lake deposits during cold stages.The ostracode habitatswere small,shallow,cold,oligotrophic pools located in low centred ice wedge polygons or in small ther-mokarst depressions.In total,15 taxa,representing 7 genera,were identi fied from 65 samples.The studiedsection is subdivided into six ostracode zones that correspond to Late Quaternary climatic and environ-mental stadial-interstadial variations established by other paleoenvironmental proxies:(1)cold and dryZyrianian stadial (58 53 kyr BP);(2)warm and dry Karginian interstadial (48 34 kyr BP);(3)transitionfrom the Karginian interstadial to the cold and dry Sartanian stadial (34 21 kyr BP);(4)transition fromthe Sartanian stadial to the warm and dry Late Pleistocene period,the Allerød (21 14 kyr BP);(5)transition from the Allerød to the warm and wet Middle Holocene (14 7 kyr BP);and (6)cool and wetLate Holocene (ca.3 kyr BP).The abundance and diversity of the ostracodes will be used as an additionalbioindicator for paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Siberian Arctic

The Use of Central Pathology Review With Digital Slide Scanning in Advanced-stage Mycosis Fungoides and Sezary Syndrome A Multi-institutional and International Pathology Study

Dermatology-oncolog

A New Maastrichtian-Paleocene Azolla Species from Bolivia, with a Comparison of the Global Record of Coeval Azolla Microfossils

A new heterosporous fern species, Azolla boliviensis sp. nov., is described from latest Maastrichtian (latest Cretaceous) to Paleocene (earliest Palaeogene) terrestrial sediments of the Eslabon and Flora Formations. Subandean belt, Bolivia. The species is represented by dissociated but abundantly co-preserved megasporocarps, megaspores, microsporangia, massulae and microspores. The genus consistently characterizes warm-climate lacustrine settings. Fossil Azolla is first identified around the Early to mid-Cretaceous but the genus apparently underwent dramatic radiation during the Late Cretaceous. Abundant Azolla remains in Bolivia add to this portrait of rapid geographic dispersal and diversification near the close of the Cretaceous. The ranges of many Azolla species span the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary and the potential of Azolla to withstand altered environmental conditions, such as periodic frost damage, drought, and salinity change, and its ability to undergo rapid vegetative regeneration in association with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial symbionts, suggest that the survival of this group was favoured during the adverse conditions of the end-Cretaceous event

Treatment of early‐stage mycosis fungoides: results from the PROspective Cutaneous Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (PROCLIPI) study*

BACKGROUND: The PROspective Cutaneous Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (PROCLIPI) Study is a prospective analysis of an international database and here we examine front-line treatments and quality-of-life in patients with newly diagnosed Mycosis Fungoides (MF). OBJECTIVES: a) differences in first-line approach according to the TNMB staging; b) parameters related to a first-line systemic approach; c) response rates and quality of life (QoL) measures. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 395 newly diagnosed patients with early-stage MF (IA-IIA) were recruited from 41 centers in 17 countries between 1/1/2015–31/12/2018 following central clinicopathological review. RESULTS: First-line therapy was skin directed therapy (SDT) (81.6%) whilst a smaller percentage (44 cases;11.1%) received systemic therapy. Expectant observation was 7.3%. In univariate analysis, the use of systemic therapy was significantly associated with higher clinical stage (IA: 6%; IB: 14%; IIA:20%; IA-IB vs IIA: p10: 15%; <=10: 7%; p=0.01) and folliculotropic MF (FMF) (24% vs 12%; p=0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated significant associations with the presence of plaques (T1b/T2b vs T1a/T2a: OR: 3.07) and FMF (OR: 2.82). The overall response rate (ORR) to first-line SDT was 73% whilst the ORR to first-line systemic treatments was lower (57%) (p=0.027). Health related QoL improved significantly in both patients with responsive and stable disease. CONCLUSIONS: Disease characteristics such as presence of plaques and FMF influence physician treatment choices and that SDT was superior to systemic therapy even in patients with such disease characteristics. Consequently, future treatment guidelines for early-stage MF need to address these issues