Signature extension for sun angle, volume 1

The author has identified the following significant results. Within a restricted zenith sun angle range of 35 - 50 degrees, it was empirically observed that canopy reflectance is mainly Lambertian. Reflectance changes with crop stage were simple shifts in scale in the sun angle range. It was noted that sun angle variations depend on canopy characteristics. Effects of the vegetative canopy were most pronounced at the larger solar zenith angles (20 %). The linear sun angle correction coefficients demonstrate a dependency on both crop stage (15-20 %) and crop type (10-20 %). The use of canopy reflectance modeling allowed for the generation of a simulated data set over an extremely broad envelope of sun angles

Signature extension for sun angle, volume 2

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Excitation of Single Quasiparticles in a Small Superconducting Al Island Connected to Normal-Metal Leads by Tunnel Junctions

We investigate the dynamics of individual quasiparticle excitations on a small superconducting aluminum island connected to normal metallic leads by tunnel junctions. We find the island to be free of excitations within the measurement resolution. This allows us to show that the residual heating, which typically limits experiments on superconductors, has an ultralow value of less than 0.1 aW. By injecting electrons with a periodic gate voltage, we probe electron-phonon interaction and relaxation down to a single quasiparticle excitation pair, with a measured recombination rate of 16 kHz. Our experiment yields a strong test of BCS theory in aluminum as the results are consistent with it without free parameters.Peer reviewe

Gründe für Therapieverzögerung und -abbruch bei altersabhängiger Makuladegeneration

Background. Critical prerequisites for successful therapy of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nvAMD) are an early initiation and continuous monitoring; however, delays in starting therapy and non-medically indicated discontinuation of therapy are frequent, which limits therapy efficacy and, thus, visual outcomes. Objective. To identify the reasons for delay in therapy and non-medically indicated termination of therapy. Material and methods. Patients who had started a new therapy (starters) and those who independently terminated therapy (dropouts) were interviewed by telephone with a specific, standardized questionnaire. Results were summarized descriptively. Results. A total of 100 starters and 55 dropouts were interviewed. The mean therapy delay was 22 (+/- 28 SD) days. This was mainly due to the time until the decision to see an ophthalmologist was made. Main reasons for dropping out were: transportation issues (27%), poor general health (25%) and the assumption that there is no benefit from therapy (11%). Of the patients who dropped out 63% would have liked to continue therapy. Conclusion. There is potential for improvement in nvAMD management regarding therapy start as well as therapy maintenance. Sensitizing for initial nvAMD symptoms is important as is reduction of barriers to therapy maintenance, since most therapy dropouts would like to continue the therapy

Penalties through XPM crosstalk in a switched long haul standard fiber WDM system based on normalized transmission sections

For the first time penalties due to XPM crosstalk have been measured by switching neighbouring channels in a long distance 16*10 Gb/s ASK NRZ system based on standard single mode fibre (SMF) links with dispersion optimized transmission sections

Low-dose metronomic chemotherapy as an efficient treatment option in metastatic breast cancer—results of an exploratory case–control study

Purpose!#!There is growing interest in low-dose metronomic chemotherapy (LDMC) in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). In this retrospective case-control analysis, we compared the efficacy of LDMC and conventional chemotherapy (CCT) in MBC.!##!Methods!#!Each LDMC patient receiving oral cyclophosphamide (CTX) (50 mg daily) and methotrexate (MTX) (2.5 mg every other day) was matched with two controls who received CCT. Age, number of chemotherapy lines and metastatic sites as well as hormone receptor (HR) status were considered as matching criteria. Primary endpoint was disease control rate longer than 24 weeks (DCR). Secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), duration of response (DoR) and subgroup analyses using the matching criteria.!##!Results!#!40 cases and 80 controls entered the study. 30.0% patients with LDMC and 22.5% patients with CCT showed DCR (p = 0.380). The median PFS was 12.0 weeks in both groups (p = 0.218) and the median DoR was 31.0 vs. 20.5 weeks (p = 0.383), respectively. Among younger patients, DCR was 40.0% in LDMC vs. 25.0% in the CCT group (p = 0.249). DCR was achieved in 33.3% vs. 26.2% non-heavily pretreated patients (p = 0.568) and in 36.0% vs. 18.0% patients without multiple metastases (p = 0.096), respectively. In the HR-positive group, 30.0% LDMC vs. 28.3% CCT patients showed DCR (p = 1.000). Among triple-negative patients, DCR was achieved in 30.0% LDMC and 5.0% CCT patients (p = 0.095).!##!Conclusions!#!We demonstrated a similar efficacy of LDMC compared to CCT in the treatment of MBC. Thus, LDMC may be a valuable treatment option in selected MBC patients