Operations on integral lifts of K(n)

This very rough sketch is a sequel to arXiv:1808.08587; it presents evidence that operations on lifts of the functors K(n) to cohomology theories with values in modules over valuation rings of local number fields, indexed by Lubin-Tate groups of such fields, are extensions of the groups of automorphisms of the indexing group laws, by the exterior algebras on the normal bundle to the orbits of the group laws in the space of lifts.Comment: \S 2.0 hopefully less cryptic. To appear in the proceedings of the 2015 Nagoya conference honoring T Ohkawa. Comments very welcome

Synchronized and Desynchronized Phases of Exciton-Polariton Condensates in the Presence of Disorder

Condensation of exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities takes place despite in plane disorder. Below the critical density the inhomogeneity of the potential seen by the polaritons strongly limits the spatial extension of the ground state. Above the critical density, in presence of weak disorder, this limitation is spontaneously overcome by the non linear interaction, resulting in an extended synchronized phase. This mechanism is clearly evidenced by spatial and spectral studies, coupled to interferometric measurements. In case of strong disorder, several non phase-locked (independent) condensates can be evidenced. The transition from synchronized phase to desynchronized phase is addressed considering multiple realizations of the disorder.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures,corrected typos, added figure

Engineering the spatial confinement of exciton-polaritons in semiconductors

We demonstrate the spatial confinement of electronic excitations in a solid state system, within novel artificial structures that can be designed having arbitrary dimensionality and shape. The excitations under study are exciton-polaritons in a planar semiconductor microcavity. They are confined within a micron-sized region through lateral trapping of their photon component. Striking signatures of confined states of lower and upper polaritons are found in angle-resolved light emission spectra, where a discrete energy spectrum and broad angular patterns are present. A theoretical model supports unambiguously our observations

Long-term survival and transmission of INI1-mutation via nonpenetrant males in a family with rhabdoid tumour predisposition syndrome

Rhabdoid tumour predisposition syndrome (RTPS) is a rare syndrome caused by inheritance of a mutated INI1 gene for which only two multigeneration families have been reported. To further characterise the genotype and phenotype of RTPS, we present a third family in which at least three cousins developed an atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumour (AT/RT) at a young age. Two of these patients showed unusual long survival, and one of these developed an intracranial meningioma and a myoepithelioma of the lip in adulthood. Mutation analysis of INI1 revealed a germline G>A mutation in the donor splice site of exon 4 (c.500+1G>A) in the patients and in their unaffected fathers. This mutation prevents normal splicing and concomitantly generates a stop codon, resulting in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. Biallelic inactivation of INI1 in the tumours, except for the meningioma, was confirmed by absence of nuclear INI1-protein staining. The myoepithelioma of one of the patients carried an identical somatic rearrangement in the NF2 gene as the AT/RT, indicating that both tumours originated from a common precursor cell. In conclusion, this study demonstrates for the first time transmission of a germline INI1-mutation in a RTPS family via nonpenetrant males, long-term survival of two members of this family with an AT/RT, and involvement of INI1 in the pathogenesis of myoepithelioma

Quantised Vortices in an Exciton-Polariton Fluid

One of the most striking quantum effects in a low temperature interacting Bose gas is superfluidity. First observed in liquid 4He, this phenomenon has been intensively studied in a variety of systems for its amazing features such as the persistence of superflows and the quantization of the angular momentum of vortices. The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in dilute atomic gases provided an exceptional opportunity to observe and study superfluidity in an extremely clean and controlled environment. In the solid state, Bose-Einstein condensation of exciton polaritons has now been reported several times. Polaritons are strongly interacting light-matter quasi-particles, naturally occurring in semiconductor microcavities in the strong coupling regime and constitute a very interesting example of composite bosons. Even though pioneering experiments have recently addressed the propagation of a fluid of coherent polaritons, still no conclusive evidence is yet available of its superfluid nature. In the present Letter, we report the observation of spontaneous formation of pinned quantised vortices in the Bose-condensed phase of a polariton fluid by means of phase and amplitude imaging. Theoretical insight into the possible origin of such vortices is presented in terms of a generalised Gross-Pitaevskii equation. The implications of our observations concerning the superfluid nature of the non-equilibrium polariton fluid are finally discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Women's views of continuity of information provided during and after pregnancy: A qualitative interview study

Straightforward transfer of care from pregnancy to the postpartum period is associated with health benefits and is desired by women worldwide. Underpinning this transfer of care is the sharing of information between healthcare professionals and the provision of consistent information to women. In this qualitative study, two aspects of continuity of information were examined; first the information passed on from midwife to health visitor regarding a woman and her baby before the health visitor meets the woman postnatally and second, the consistency of information received by women from these two healthcare professionals (the main healthcare providers during and after pregnancy in England). To be eligible for the study, women had to have had a baby in England within 12 months prior to the interview. Participants also needed to be able to read and speak English and be over 18 years old. Recruitment of participants was via word of mouth and social media. Twenty-nine mothers were interviewed of whom 19 were first time mothers. The interviews took place in the summer and autumn of 2016 and were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis. Two overarching themes were identified: not feeling listened to and information inconsistencies. Women reported little experience of midwives and health visitors sharing information about their care, forcing women to repeat information. This made women feel not listened to and participants recommended that healthcare professionals share information; prioritising information about labour, mental health, and chronic conditions. Women had mixed experiences regarding receiving information from midwives and health visitors, with examples of both consistent and inconsistent information received. To avoid inconsistent information, joint appointments were recommended. Findings from this study clearly suggest that better communication pathways need to be developed and effectively implemented for midwives and health visitors to improve the care that they provide to women

Atomic Carbon in Galaxies

We present new measurements of the ground state fine-structure line of atomic carbon at 492 GHz in a variety of nearby external galaxies, ranging from spiral to irregular, interacting and merging types. In comparison with CO(1-0), the CI(1-0) intensity stays fairly comparable in the different environments, with an average value of the ratio of the line integrated areas in Kkm/s of CI(1-0)/CO(1-0) = 0.2 +/- 0.2. However, some variations can be found within galaxies, or between galaxies. Relative to CO lines, CI(1-0) is weaker in galactic nuclei, but stronger in disks, particularly outside star forming regions. Also, in NGC 891, the CI(1-0) emission follows the dust continuum at 1.3mm extremely well along the full length of the major axis where molecular gas is more abundant than atomic gas. Atomic carbon therefore appears to be a good tracer of molecular gas in external galaxies, possibly more reliable than CO. Atomic carbon can contribute significantly to the thermal budget of interstellar gas. Cooling due to C and CO amounts typically to 2 x 10^{-5} of the FIR continuum or 5% of the CII line. However, C and CO cooling reaches 30% of the gas total, in Ultra Luminous InfraRed Galaxies, where CII is abnormally faint. Together with CII/FIR, the emissivity ratio CI(1-0)/FIR can be used as a measure of the non-ionizing UV radiation field in galaxies.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figure

Altered MRP is associated with multidrug resistance and reduced drug accumulation in human SW-1573 cells.

We have analysed the contribution of several parameters, e.g. drug accumulation, MDR1 P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) and topoisomerase (topo) II, to drug resistance in a large set of drug-resistant variants of the human non-small-cell lung cancer cell line SW-1573 derived by selection with low concentrations of doxorubicin or vincristine. Selection with either drug nearly always resulted in MDR clones. The resistance of these clones could be explained by reduced drug accumulation and was associated with a decrease rather than an increase in the low MDR1 mRNA level. To test whether a decrease in MDR1 mRNA indirectly affected resistance in these cells, we introduced a MDR1-specific hammerhead ribozyme into wild-type SW-1573 cells. Although this led to a substantial reduction in MDR1 mRNA, it did not result in resistance. In all resistant clones we found an altered form of the multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP), migrating slightly slower during SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis than MRP in parental cells. This altered MRP was also present in non-P-gp MDR somatic cell hybrids of the SW-1573 cells, demonstrating a clear linkage with the MDR phenotype. Treatment of crude cellular membrane fractions with N-glycanase, endoglycosidase H or neuraminidase showed that the altered migration of MRP on SDS-PAGE is due to a post-translational modification. There was no detectable difference in sialic acid content. In most but not all doxorubicin-selected clones, this MDR phenotype was accompanied by a reduction in topo II alpha mRNA level. No reduction was found in the clones selected with vincristine. We conclude from these results that selection of the SW-1573 cell line for low levels of doxorubicin or vincristine resistance, predominantly results in MDR with reduced drug accumulation associated with the presence of an altered MRP protein. This mechanism can be accompanied by other resistance mechanisms, such as reduced topo II alpha mRNA in case of doxorubicin selection

Use of archival versus newly collected tumor samples for assessing PD-L1 expression and overall survival : an updated analysis of KEYNOTE-010 trial

Background: In KEYNOTE-010, pembrolizumab versus docetaxel improved overall survival (OS) in patients with programmed death-1 protein (PD)-L1-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A prespecified exploratory analysis compared outcomes in patients based on PD-L1 expression in archival versus newly collected tumor samples using recently updated survival data. Patients and methods: PD-L1 was assessed centrally by immunohistochemistry (22C3 antibody) in archival or newly collected tumor samples. Patients received pembrolizumab 2 or 10 mg/kg Q3W or docetaxel 75 mg/m2 Q3W for 24 months or until progression/intolerable toxicity/other reason. Response was assessed by RECIST v1.1 every 9 weeks, survival every 2 months. Primary end points were OS and progression-free survival (PFS) in tumor proportion score (TPS) 50% and 1%; pembrolizumab doses were pooled in this analysis. Results: At date cut-off of 24 March 2017, median follow-up was 31 months (range 23-41) representing 18 additional months of follow-up from the primary analysis. Pembrolizumab versus docetaxel continued to improve OS in patients with previously treated, PD-L1-expressing advanced NSCLC; hazard ratio (HR) was 0.66 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57, 0.77]. Of 1033 patients analyzed, 455(44%) were enrolled based on archival samples and 578 (56%) on newly collected tumor samples. Approximately 40% of archival samples and 45% of newly collected tumor samples were PD-L1 TPS 50%. For TPS 50%, the OS HRs were 0.64 (95% CI: 0.45, 0.91) and 0.40 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.56) for archival and newly collected samples, respectively. In patients with TPS 1%, OS HRs were 0.74 (95% CI: 0.59, 0.93) and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.48, 0.73) for archival and newly collected samples, respectively. In TPS 50%, PFS HRs were similar across archival [0.63 (95% CI: 0.45, 0.89)] and newly collected samples [0.53 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.72)]. In patients with TPS 1%, PFS HRs were similar across archival [0.82 (95% CI: 0.66, 1.02)] and newly collected samples [0.83 (95% CI: 0.68, 1.02)]. Conclusion: Pembrolizumab continued to improve OS over docetaxel in intention to treat population and in subsets of patients with newly collected and archival samples