Case Report: A Case of Severe Clinical Deterioration in a Patient With Multiple Sclerosis

Tumefactive multiple sclerosis (MS) is a rare variant of MS that may lead to a rapidly progressive clinical deterioration requiring a multidisciplinary diagnostic workup. Our report describes the diagnostic and therapeutic approach of a rare and extremely severe course of MS. A 51-year-old man with an 8-year history of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) was admitted with a subacute progressive left lower limb weakness and deterioration of walking ability. After extensive investigations including repeated MRI, microbiological, serological, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) studies, and finally brain biopsy, the diagnosis of a tumefactive MS lesion was confirmed. Despite repeated intravenous (IV) steroids as well as plasma exchanges and IV foscarnet and ganciclovir owing to low copy numbers of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) DNA in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, the patient did not recover. The clinical presentation of tumefactive MS is rare and variable. Brain biopsy for histopathological workup should be considered in immunocompromised patients with rapidly progressive clinical deterioration with brain lesions of uncertain cause

One, two, three: portable sample size in agricultural research

Determination of sample size (the number of replications) is a key step in the design of an observational study or randomized experiment. Statistical procedures for this purpose are readily available. Their treatment in textbooks is often somewhat marginal, however, and frequently the focus is on just one particular method of inference (significance test, confidence interval). Here, we provide a unified review of approaches and explain their close interrelationships, emphasizing that all approaches rely on the standard error of the quantity of interest, most often a pairwise difference of two means. The focus is on methods that are easy to compute, even without a computer. Our main recommendation based on standard errors is summarized as what we call the 1-2-3 rule for a difference of two treatment means

Gesundheit und Medien

Reifegerste D, Baumann E. Gesundheit und Medien. In: Schorb B, Hartung-Griemberg A, Dallmann C, eds. Grundbegriffe Medienpädagogik. 6th ed. München: kopaed; 2017: 125-128

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 1 - Executive Summary

The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2s^-1. This report is the Executive Summary (Volume I) of the four volume Reference Design Report. It gives an overview of the physics at the ILC, the accelerator design and value estimate, the detector concepts, and the next steps towards project realization.The International Linear Collider (ILC) is a 200-500 GeV center-of-mass high-luminosity linear electron-positron collider, based on 1.3 GHz superconducting radio-frequency (SCRF) accelerating cavities. The ILC has a total footprint of about 31 km and is designed for a peak luminosity of 2x10^34 cm^-2s^-1. This report is the Executive Summary (Volume I) of the four volume Reference Design Report. It gives an overview of the physics at the ILC, the accelerator design and value estimate, the detector concepts, and the next steps towards project realization

ILC Reference Design Report Volume 4 - Detectors

This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics.This report, Volume IV of the International Linear Collider Reference Design Report, describes the detectors which will record and measure the charged and neutral particles produced in the ILC's high energy e+e- collisions. The physics of the ILC, and the environment of the machine-detector interface, pose new challenges for detector design. Several conceptual designs for the detector promise the needed performance, and ongoing detector R&D is addressing the outstanding technological issues. Two such detectors, operating in push-pull mode, perfectly instrument the ILC interaction region, and access the full potential of ILC physics