Solidifying system of democracy in the Central and Eastern European new EU members

The paper examines the requirements of an effective and legitimized democratic political system in the process of transition. The analysis and the conclusions are based on the Hungarian experience, which can carefully be applied to all Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Special focus is given to the relationship of legal certainty and the efficiency of the democratic system, to the tension between legalism and managerialism and to the characteristics of civil society organizations. In the conclusion special features of the transitional countries are pointed out

Extracellular Vesicles in Musculoskeletal Pathologies and Regeneration

The incidence of musculoskeletal diseases is steadily increasing with aging of the population. In the past years, extracellular vesicles (EVs) have gained attention in musculoskeletal research. EVs have been associated with various musculoskeletal pathologies as well as suggested as treatment option. EVs play a pivotal role in communication between cells and their environment. Thereby, the EV cargo is highly dependent on their cellular origin. In this review, we summarize putative mechanisms by which EVs can contribute to musculoskeletal tissue homeostasis, regeneration and disease, in particular matrix remodeling and mineralization, pro-angiogenic effects and immunomodulatory activities. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) present the most frequently used cell source for EV generation for musculoskeletal applications, and herein we discuss how the MSC phenotype can influence the cargo and thus the regenerative potential of EVs. Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal progenitor cells (iMPs) may overcome current limitations of MSCs, and iMP-derived EVs are discussed as an alternative strategy. In the last part of the article, we focus on therapeutic applications of EVs and discuss both practical considerations for EV production and the current state of EV-based therapies

Upregulated Glucose Metabolism Correlates Inversely with CD8(+) T-cell Infiltration and Survival in Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Antibodies that block T-cell–regulatory checkpoints have recently emerged as a transformative approach to cancer treatment. However, the clinical efficacy of checkpoint blockade depends upon inherent tumor immunogenicity, with variation in infiltrating T cells contributing to differences in objective response rates. Here, we sought to understand the molecular correlates of tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TIL) in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), using a systems biologic approach to integrate publicly available omics datasets with histopathologic features. We provide evidence that links TIL abundance and therapeutic outcome to the regulation of tumor glycolysis by EGFR and HIF, both of which are attractive molecular targets for use in combination with immunotherapeutics

Flux-tunable heat sink for quantum electric circuits

© 2018 The Author(s). Superconducting microwave circuits show great potential for practical quantum technological applications such as quantum information processing. However, fast and on-demand initialization of the quantum degrees of freedom in these devices remains a challenge. Here, we experimentally implement a tunable heat sink that is potentially suitable for the initialization of superconducting qubits. Our device consists of two coupled resonators. The first resonator has a high quality factor and a fixed frequency whereas the second resonator is designed to have a low quality factor and a tunable resonance frequency. We engineer the low quality factor using an on-chip resistor and the frequency tunability using a superconducting quantum interference device. When the two resonators are in resonance, the photons in the high-quality resonator can be efficiently dissipated. We show that the corresponding loaded quality factor can be tuned from above 10 5 down to a few thousand at 10 GHz in good quantitative agreement with our theoretical model

Fuzzy Implications: Some Recently Solved Problems

In this chapter we discuss some open problems related to fuzzy implications, which have either been completely solved or those for which partial answers are known. In fact, this chapter also contains the answer for one of the open problems, which is hitherto unpublished. The recently solved problems are so chosen to reflect the importance of the problem or the significance of the solution. Finally, some other problems that still remain unsolved are stated for quick reference

Wandering near the red edge: photometric observations of three cool ZZ Ceti stars

We summarize our findings on three cool ZZ Ceti type pulsating white dwarfs. We determined eight independent modes in HS 0733+4119, of which seven are new findings. For GD 154, we detected two new eigenmodes, and the recurrence of the pulsational behaviour first observed in 1977. We discuss that GD 154 does not only vary its pulsations between a multiperiodic and a quasi-monoperiodic phase, but there are also differences between the relative amplitudes of the near-subharmonics observed in the latter phase. In the complex pulsator, Ross 808, we compared the pre- and post Whole Earth Telescope campaign measurements, and determined two new frequencies besides the ones observed during the campaign. Studying these stars can contribute to better understanding of pulsations close to the empirical ZZ Ceti red edge. All three targets are in that regime of the ZZ Ceti instability strip where short-term amplitude variations or even outbursts are likely to occur, which are not well-understood theoretically.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Novel experimental setup for megahertz X-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell at the High Energy Density (HED) instrument of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL)

The high-precision X-ray diffraction setup for work with diamond anvil cells (DACs) in interaction chamber 2 (IC2) of the High Energy Density instrument of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser is described. This includes beamline optics, sample positioning and detector systems located in the multipurpose vacuum chamber. Concepts for pump-probe X-ray diffraction experiments in the DAC are described and their implementation demonstrated during the First User Community Assisted Commissioning experiment. X-ray heating and diffraction of Bi under pressure, obtained using 20 fs X-ray pulses at 17.8 keV and 2.2 MHz repetition, is illustrated through splitting of diffraction peaks, and interpreted employing finite element modeling of the sample chamber in the DAC