A highly stable and fully tunable open microcavity platform at cryogenic temperatures

Open-access microcavities are a powerful tool to enhance light–matter interactions for solid-state quantum and nanosystems and are key to advance applications in quantum technologies. For this purpose, the cavities should simultaneously meet two conflicting requirements—full tunability to cope with spatial and spectral inhomogeneities of a material and highest stability under operation in a cryogenic environment to maintain resonance conditions. To tackle this challenge, we have developed a fully tunable, open-access, fiber-based Fabry–Pérot microcavity platform that can be operated under increased noise levels in a closed-cycle cryostat. It comprises custom-designed monolithic micro- and nanopositioning elements with up to mm-scale travel range that achieve a passive cavity length stability at low temperature of only 15 pm rms in a closed-cycle cryostat and 5 pm in a more quiet flow cryostat. This can be further improved by active stabilization, and even higher stability is obtained under direct mechanical contact between the cavity mirrors, yielding 0.8 pm rms during the quiet phase of the closed-cycle cryocooler. The platform provides the operation of cryogenic cavities with high finesse and small mode volume for strong enhancement of light–matter interactions, opening up novel possibilities for experiments with a great variety of quantum and nanomaterials

Spinning of Endless Bioactive Silicate Glass Fibres for Fibre Reinforcement Applications

Bioactive glasses have been used for many years in the human body as bone substitute. Since bioactive glasses are not readily available in the form of endless thin fibres with diameters below 20 µm, their use is limited to mainly non-load-bearing applications in the form of particles or granules. In this study, the spinnability of four bioactive silicate glasses was evaluated in terms of crystallisation behaviour, characteristic processing temperatures and viscosity determined by thermal analysis. The glass melts were drawn into fibres and their mechanical strength was measured by single fibre tensile tests before and after the surface treatment with different silanes. The degradation of the bioactive glasses was observed in simulated body fluid and pure water by recording the changes of the pH value and the ion concentration by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry; further, the glass degradation process was monitored by scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, first in vitro experiments using murine pre-osteoblast cell line MC3T3E1 were carried out in order to evaluate the interaction with the glass fibre surface. The results achieved in this work show up the potential of the manufacturing of endless bioactive glass fibres with appropriate mechanical strength to be applied as reinforcing fibres in new innovative medical implants

ICoNIK: Generating Respiratory-Resolved Abdominal MR Reconstructions Using Neural Implicit Representations in k-Space

Motion-resolved reconstruction for abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains a challenge due to the trade-off between residual motion blurring caused by discretized motion states and undersampling artefacts. In this work, we propose to generate blurring-free motion-resolved abdominal reconstructions by learning a neural implicit representation directly in k-space (NIK). Using measured sampling points and a data-derived respiratory navigator signal, we train a network to generate continuous signal values. To aid the regularization of sparsely sampled regions, we introduce an additional informed correction layer (ICo), which leverages information from neighboring regions to correct NIK's prediction. Our proposed generative reconstruction methods, NIK and ICoNIK, outperform standard motion-resolved reconstruction techniques and provide a promising solution to address motion artefacts in abdominal MRI

SLFN11 and ATR as targets for overcoming cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer cells

The levels and activities of the DNA/RNA helicase schlafen11 (SLFN11) and the serine/threonine-protein kinase ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR) may determine cancer cell sensitivity to DNA damaging agents, including platinum drugs. Here, we studied the roles of SLFN11 and ATR in cisplatin resistance of ovarian cancer using cell lines displaying acquired or intrinsic cisplatin resistance. W1CR, the cisplatin-resistant subline of W1 ovarian cancer cells, displayed reduced SLFN11 levels. HDAC inhibition using entinostat returned an epigenetic downregulation of SLFN11 in W1CR cells, caused SLFN11 re-expression and re-sensitized these cells to cisplatin. Moreover, entinostat also sensitized intrinsically resistant EFO21 ovarian cancer cells to cisplatin by upregulating SLFN11. However, SLFN11 was not involved in cisplatin resistance in all other cell models. Thus, SLFN11 expression is not a general cisplatin resistance marker in ovarian cancer. In contrast, inhibition of the DNA damage repair master regulator ATR using sub-toxic concentrations of elimusertib sensitized parental cell lines as well as intrinsically resistant EFO21 cells to cisplatin, and fully reversed acquired cisplatin resistance in cisplatin-adapted sublines W1CR, A2780cis, and KuramochirCDDP2000. Mechanisms underlying ATR-mediated cisplatin resistance differed between the cell lines and included CHK1/WEE1 signaling and induction of homologous recombination. In conclusion, SLFN11 and ATR are involved in ovarian cancer cisplatin resistance. Although our data identify ATR as key target for tackling cisplatin resistance in ovarian cancer, future studies are needed to identify biomarkers that indicate, which individual ovarian cancers benefit from SLFN11 re-activation and/or ATR inhibition

Spinning of Endless Bioactive Silicate Glass Fibres for Fibre Reinforcement Applications

Bioactive glasses have been used for many years in the human body as bone substitute. Since bioactive glasses are not readily available in the form of endless thin fibres with diameters below 20 mu m, their use is limited to mainly non-load-bearing applications in the form of particles or granules. In this study, the spinnability of four bioactive silicate glasses was evaluated in terms of crystallisation behaviour, characteristic processing temperatures and viscosity determined by thermal analysis. The glass melts were drawn into fibres and their mechanical strength was measured by single fibre tensile tests before and after the surface treatment with different silanes. The degradation of the bioactive glasses was observed in simulated body fluid and pure water by recording the changes of the pH value and the ion concentration by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry; further, the glass degradation process was monitored by scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, first in vitro experiments using murine pre-osteoblast cell line MC3T3E1 were carried out in order to evaluate the interaction with the glass fibre surface. The results achieved in this work show up the potential of the manufacturing of endless bioactive glass fibres with appropriate mechanical strength to be applied as reinforcing fibres in new innovative medical implants

Newsletter Networks in the Feminist History and Archives Movement

This article examines how networks have been critical to the construction of feminist histories. The author examines the publication Matrices: A Lesbian/Feminist Research Newsletter (1977–1996), to argue that a feminist network mode can be traced through the examination of small-scale print newsletters that draw on the language and function of networks. Publications such as Matrices emerge into wide production and circulation in the 1970s alongside feminist community archives, and newsletters and archives work together as interconnected social movement technologies. Newsletters enabled activist-researchers writing feminist histories to share difficult-to-access information, resources, and primary sources via photocopying and other modes of print reproduction.  Looking from the present, the author examines how network thinking has been a feature of feminist activism and knowledge production since before the Internet, suggesting that publications such as Matrices are part of a longer history of networked communications media in feminist contexts

Surgical cytoreduction and hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy for thymic tumours with pleural spread is effective on survival: results from the multicentre German hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy study

OBJECTIVES Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy (HITOC) is effective on survival for patients with pleural metastatic thymic tumours. METHODS Multicentre, retrospective analysis of patients with stage IVa thymic tumours treated with surgical resection and HITOC. Primary end point was overall survival, secondary end points were recurrence-/progression-free survival and morbidity/mortality. RESULTS A total of n = 58 patients (thymoma, n = 42; thymic carcinoma, n = 15; atypical carcinoid of the thymus, n = 1) were included, who had primary pleural metastases (n = 50; 86%) or pleural recurrence (n = 8; 14%). Lung-preserving resection (n = 56; 97%) was the preferred approach. Macroscopically complete tumour resection was achieved in n = 49 patients (85%). HITOC was performed with cisplatin alone (n = 38; 66%) or in combination with doxorubicin (n = 20; 34%). Almost half of the patients (n = 28; 48%) received high-dose cisplatin > 125 mg/m2 body surface area. Surgical revision was required in 8 (14%) patients. In-hospital mortality rate was 2%. During follow-up, tumour recurrence/progression was evident in n = 31 (53%) patients. Median follow-up time was 59 months. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 95%, 83% and 77%, respectively. Recurrence/progression-free survival rates were 89%, 54% and 44%, respectively. Patients with thymoma had significantly better survival compared to patients with thymic carcinoma (P-value ≤0.001). CONCLUSIONS Promising survival rates in patients with pleural metastatic stage IVa in thymoma (94%) and even in thymic carcinoma (41%) were achieved. Surgical resection and HITOC is safe and effective for treatment of patients with pleural metastatic thymic tumours stage IVa

Hyperthermic Intrathoracic Chemotherapy (HITOC) after Cytoreductive Surgery for Pleural Malignancies—A Retrospective, Multicentre Study

In the context of quality assurance, the objectives were to describe the surgical treatment and postoperative morbidity (particularly renal insufficiency). A retrospective, multicentre study of patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with cisplatin-based HITOC was performed. The study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation (GZ: RI 2905/3-1)). Patients (n = 350) with malignant pleural mesothelioma (n = 261; 75%) and thymic tumours with pleural spread (n = 58; 17%) or pleural metastases (n = 31; 9%) were analyzed. CRS was accomplished by pleurectomy/decortication (P/D: n = 77; 22%), extended P/D (eP/D: n = 263; 75%) or extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP: n = 10; 3%). Patients received cisplatin alone (n = 212; 61%) or cisplatin plus doxorubicin (n = 138; 39%). Low-dose cisplatin (≤125 mg/m2 BSA) was given in 67% of patients (n = 234), and high-dose cisplatin (>125 mg/m2 BSA) was given in 33% of patients (n = 116). Postoperative renal insufficiency appeared in 12% of the patients (n = 41), and 1.4% (n = 5) required temporary dialysis. Surgical revision was necessary in 51 patients (15%). In-hospital mortality was 3.7% (n = 13). Patients receiving high-dose cisplatin were 2.7 times more likely to suffer from renal insufficiency than patients receiving low-dose cisplatin (p = 0.006). The risk for postoperative renal failure is dependent on the intrathoracic cisplatin dosage but was within an acceptable range

Establishing a Mental Health Surveillance in Germany: Development of a framework concept and indicator set

In the course of the recognition of mental health as an essential component of population health, the Robert Koch Institute has begun developing a Mental Health Surveillance (MHS) system for Germany. MHS aims to continuously report data for relevant mental health indicators, thus creating a basis for evidence-based planning and evaluation of public health measures. In order to develop a set of indicators for the adult population, potential indicators were identified through a systematic literature review and selected in a consensus process by international and national experts and stakeholders. The final set comprises 60 indicators which, together, represent a multidimensional public health framework for mental health across four fields of action. For the fifth field of action ‘Mental health promotion and prevention’ indicators still need to be developed. The methodology piloted proved to be practicable. Strengths and limitations will be discussed regarding the search and definition of indicators, the scope of the indicator set as well as the participatory decision-making process. Next steps in setting up the MHS will be the operationalisation of the single indicators and their extension to also cover children and adolescents. Given assured data availability, the MHS will contribute to broadening our knowledge on population mental health, supporting a targeted promotion of mental health and reducing the disease burden in persons with mental disorders