Effectiveness of adjuvant radiotherapy in patients with oropharyngeal and floor of mouth squamous cell carcinoma and concomitant histological verification of singular ipsilateral cervical lymph node metastasis (pN1-state) - A prospective multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial using a comprehensive cohort design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Modern radiotherapy plays an important role in therapy of advanced head and neck carcinomas. However, no clinical studies have been published addressing the effectiveness of postoperative radiotherapy in patients with small tumor (pT1, pT2) and concomitant ipsilateral metastasis of a single lymph node (pN1), which would provide a basis for a general treatment recommendation.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>The present study is a non-blinded, prospective, multi-center randomized controlled trial (RCT). As the primary clinical endpoint, overall-survival in patients receiving postoperative radiation therapy vs. patients without adjuvant therapy following curative intended surgery is compared. The aim of the study is to enroll 560 adult males and females for 1:1 randomization to one of the two treatment arms (irradiation/no irradiation). Since patients with small tumor (T1/T2) but singular lymph node metastasis are rare and the amount of patients consenting to randomization is not predictable in advance, all patients rejecting randomization will be treated as preferred and enrolled in a prospective observational study (comprehensive cohort design) after giving informed consent. This observational part of the trial will be performed with maximum consistency to the treatment and observation protocol of the RCT. Because the impact of patient preference for a certain treatment option is not calculable, parallel design of RCT and observational study may provide a maximum of evidence and efficacy for evaluation of treatment outcome. Secondary clinical endpoints are as follows: incidence and time to tumor relapse (locoregional relapse, lymph node involvement and distant metastatic spread), Quality of life as reported by EORTC (QLQ-C30 with H&N 35 module), and time from operation to orofacial rehabilitation. All tumors represent a homogeneous clinical state and therefore additional investigation of protein expression levels within resection specimen may serve for establishment of surrogate parameters of patient outcome.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The inherent challenges of a rare clinical condition (pN1) and two substantially different therapy arms would limit the practicality of a classical randomized study. The concept of a Comprehensive Cohort Design combines the preference of a randomized study, with the option of careful data interpretation within an observational study.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00964977</p

Curved CMOS sensor: characterization of the first fully functional prototype

Many are the optical designs that generate curved focal planes for which field flattener must be implemented. This generally implies the use of more optical elements and a consequent loss of throughput and performances. With the recent development of curved sensor this can be avoided. This new technology has been gathering more and more attention from a very broad community, as the potential applications are multiple: from low-cost commercial to high impact scientific systems, to mass-market and on board cameras, defense and security, and astronomical community. We describe here the first concave curved CMOS detector developed within a collaboration between CNRS-LAM and CEA-LETI. This fully-functional detector 20Mpix (CMOSIS CMV20000) has been curved down to a radius of R_c =150mm over a size of 24x32mm^2. We present here the methodology adopted for its characterization and describe in detail all the results obtained. We also discuss the main components of noise, such as the readout noise, the fixed pattern noise and the dark current. Finally we provide a comparison with the at version of the same sensor in order to establish the impact of the curving process on the main characteristics of the sensor

Curved sensors: experimental performance of CMOS prototypes and wide field related imagers

The emergence of curved sensors technologies opens a new way to design compact high-performance optical systems. Recent progress on the French activity on curved sensors are presented in terms of optical performance and experimental results. The existing prototypes are demonstrated at TRL4, for VIS and SWIR domains. We present the roadmap jointly developed by CEA and CNRS to reach a higher TRL either on the performance of the devices or on the mass production processes. We present the results obtained on two demonstrators

Curved CMOS sensor: characterization of the first fully functional prototype

Many are the optical designs that generate curved focal planes for which field flattener must be implemented. This generally implies the use of more optical elements and a consequent loss of throughput and performances. With the recent development of curved sensor this can be avoided. This new technology has been gathering more and more attention from a very broad community, as the potential applications are multiple: from low-cost commercial to high impact scientific systems, to mass-market and on board cameras, defense and security, and astronomical community. We describe here the first concave curved CMOS detector developed within a collaboration between CNRS-LAM and CEA-LETI. This fully-functional detector 20Mpix (CMOSIS CMV20000) has been curved down to a radius of R_c =150mm over a size of 24x32mm^2. We present here the methodology adopted for its characterization and describe in detail all the results obtained. We also discuss the main components of noise, such as the readout noise, the fixed pattern noise and the dark current. Finally we provide a comparison with the at version of the same sensor in order to establish the impact of the curving process on the main characteristics of the sensor

A database of naturally occurring human urinary peptides and proteins for use in clinical applications

Owing to its availability, ease of collection and correlation with (patho-) physiology, urine is an attractive source for clinical proteomics. However, the lack of comparable datasets from large cohorts has greatly hindered development in this field. Here we report the establishment of a high resolution proteome database of naturally occurring human urinary peptides and proteins - ranging from 800-17,000 Da - from over 3,600 individual samples using capillary electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry, yielding an average of 1,500 peptides per sample. All processed data were deposited in an SQL database, currently containing 5,010 relevant unique urinary peptides that serve as classifiers for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases, including kidney and vascular diseases. Of these, 352 have been sequenced to date. To demonstrate the applicability of this database, two examples of disease diagnosis were provided: For renal damage diagnosis, patients with a specific renal disease were identified with high specificity and sensitivity in a blinded cohort of 131 individuals. We further show definition of biomarkers specific for immunosuppression and complications after transplantation (Kaposi's sarcoma). Due to its high information content, this database will be a powerful tool for the validation of biomarkers for both renal and non-renal diseases

Aménagement de plans focaux pour l'imagerie haute résolution et l'observation de la terre : optiques freeform et détecteurs courbes

Le besoin en haute performance en termes de qualité image, résolution et champ de vue accroît la complexité et le budget masse/volume des instruments optiques. Ces contraintes impactent toutes les applications: l’astronomie, la défense, les missions spatiales, la médecine, les objectifs d’appareil photos et caméras, les smartphones, les drones. Afin de résoudre cette problématique dans les instruments d’observation astronomique, je considère deux technologies : les optiques freeform et les détecteurs courbes, qui offrent une nouvelle ère pour le design de systèmes optiques.L’augmentation de la taille des télescopes en orbite basse est nécessaire pour atteindre une observation planétaire à haute résolution spatiale, ce qui implique des systèmes d’imagerie complexes et de grand plans focaux. L’utilisation de systèmes d’imagerie homothétiques aux satellites à défilement Spot et Pleiades mènerait à des dimensions de plans focaux prohibitifs, tout particulièrement pour des missions en infrarouge nécessitant un cryostat. Deux télescopes optiques sont présentés, ils utilisent un module de segmentation composé de miroirs freeform qui permet de réduire considérablement la dimension du plan focal. Les capteurs courbes permettent réduire de manière considérable la complexité des imageurs et des spectromètres en corrigeant directement l'aberration de courbure de champ en plan focal. Je présente des études comparatives sur des systèmes optiques grand champ depuis des champs de vue astronomiques jusqu’à celui du Fishseye, ainsi que les résultats obtenus avec nos deux prototypes d’objectif grand champ utilisant les premiers capteurs courbes CMOS visibles full-frame.The need of high performance in terms of image quality, high resolution and wide field of view increases the complexity and the volume/mass budget of telescopes and their instruments. Such constraints concern also a wide range of applications: astronomy, defense and surveillance, space missions, biomedical imaging, camera objectives, smartphones, drones. To overcome these issues in astronomical instruments, I consider two technologies: freeform optics and curved sensors, offering a new era for the design of optical systems.Increasing the size of low-orbiting space telescopes is necessary to reach high resolution observation of planets, which implies more complex imaging systems and large focal planes. The use of homothetic imaging systems as Spot and Pleiades pushbroom satellites would lead to prohibitive large linear focal plane dimensions, especially for infrared missions requiring a cryostat. Two optical telescopes are presented, they use an image segmentation made of freeform mirrors which allows to reduce significantly the size of the focal plane. Curved sensors enable to reduce drastically the complexity of imagers and spectrometers by correcting the field curvature aberration directly in the focal plane. I present comparative studies on wide field optical designs from astronomical to Fisheye instruments and the results obtained with our two wide field imaging prototypes using the first visible full-frame CMOS curved sensors

Beitrag zur Auswertung von Ballon-Experimenten zu den Ausbreitungsfunktionen von detonierenden Wasserstoff-Luft-Gemischen mit Anwendungsfällen

The purpose of this study is to investigate transient pressure loads from hydrogen combustion. Specially, the study relates to the analysis of the pressure timehistoryof detonating hydrogen-air-mixtures from balloon experiments. The study has shown that measured pressure time-functions can be reproduced by numerical simulations with the detonation code DET. Furthermore, it was shown that edges and corners focus detonation waves in real enclosures with obstacles which significantly increase pressure loads from normally reflected detonation waves

Innovative focal plane design for large space telescope using freeform mirrors

International audienceIncreasing the size of low‐orbiting space telescopes is necessary to attain high‐resolution imaging for Earth or planetary science, which implies bigger and more complex imaging systems in the focal plane. The use of homothetic imaging systems such as the Spot and Pleiades push‐broom satellites would lead to prohibitive linear focal plane dimensions, especially for IR missions requiring large‐volume cryostat. We present two optical TMA telescopes using an image‐segmentation module based on astronomical image slicer technology developed for integral field spectroscopy, made of a set of freeform mirrors defined by Zernike polynomials. Each telescope has a linear 1.1 degrees field of view; the first one considers a matrix detector and the second one considers several linear TDI detectors currently used in space missions. We demonstrate that such systems provide efficient optical quality over the full field and offer a substantial gain in terms of volume of the focal plane arrays. (C) 2017 Optical Society of Americ

Probabilistische Zuverlässigkeits- und Risikountersuchung der Photovoltaik-Wasserstoff-Brennstoffzellen-Demonstrationsanlage PHOEBUS Jülich

The probabilistic reliability and risk analysis o£ the Photovoltaic-Hydrogen-Fuel Cell-Demonstration-Facility PHOEBUS Juelich, provides comprehensive information on the essential accidents in such plants. The result for PHOEBUS is a high safety level which, in principle, is based upon passively safe components (storage tanks, pipes) and highly reliable safety measures (gas supervision, leak disconnection, active venting system). The hazardous potential of the facility is given by inadvertant hydrogen release with possible explosions, where small releases are controled already by the natural venting. The study has shown that event sequences with hydrogen release from the high pressure storage tanks outside with subsequent explosion ofthe evolved hydrogen-air mixture dominate theenvironmentral risk which is low in total though. Major contributions are also provided by uncontroled hydrogen releases within the experimental hall and an emergency corridor. Operation errors are expected to be rare due to the high degree of automation ofthe plant and, even then, play an insignificant role. The consequences of processing errors are limited to the immediate area of the respective components. An extension is highly unlikely due to the protection measures.The study characterizes the accidents investigated by their frequency of occurence, by the amount of hydrogen released, and by the consequences of possible explosions, basically site damages with jeopardization of people. The individual risk arising by this facility is as low as 1,0 $\cdot$ 10$^{-5}$/a and is restricted to its immediate neighborhood (radius approx. 200 m). Severe earthquakes accompanied by a largerange destruction of most buildings are lying for the site Juelich with 1,0 $\cdot 10$^{-5}$/a in a comparable frequency range