Letter to the editor: Pending challenges in passenger contact tracing in air transport – a German perspective

Peer Reviewe

Whole brain radiation therapy alone versus radiosurgery for patients with 1–10 brain metastases from small cell lung cancer (ENCEPHALON Trial): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Conventional whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) has been established as the treatment standard in patients with cerebral metastases from small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), however, it has only modest efficacy and limited prospective data is available for WBRT as well as local treatments such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Methods/design: The present single-center prospective randomized study, conducted at Heidelberg University Hospital, compares neurocognitive function, as objectively measured by significant deterioration in Hopkins Verbal Learning Test – Revised total recall at 3 months. Fifty-six patients will be randomized to receive either SRS of all brain metastases (up to ten lesions) or WBRT. Secondary endpoints include intracranial progression (local tumor progression and number of new cerebral metastases), extracranial progression, overall survival, death due to brain metastases, local (neurological) progression-free survival, progression-free survival, changes in other cognitive performance measures, quality of life and toxicity. Discussion: Recent evidence suggests that SRS might be a promising treatment option for SCLC patients with brain metastases. The present trial is the first to prospectively investigate the treatment response, toxicity and neurocognition of WBRT and SRS in SCLC patients. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03297788 . Registered September 29, 2017

Simultaneous Operation of Three Laser Systems at the FLASH Photoinjector

The free-electron laser facility FLASH at DESY (Hamburg,Germany) operates two undulator beamlines simultaneously. Both undulator beamlines are driven by a common linear superconducting accelerator with a beam energy of up to 1.25 GeV. The superconducting technology allows the acceleration of trains of several hundred micro second spaced bunches with a repetition rate of 10 Hz. A fastkickers-septum system is installed to distribute one part ofthe electron bunch train to FLASH1 and the other part to FLASH2 keeping the full 10 Hz repetition rate for both beamlines. In order to deliver different beam properties to each beamline, the FLASH photoinjector uses two independent laser systems to generate different bunch pattern and bunch charges. One laser serves the FLASH1 beamline, the other the FLASH2 beamline. A third laser with adjustable laser pulse duration is used to generate ultra-short bunches for single spike lasing

FLASH Photoinjector Laser Systems

The free-electron laser facility FLASH at DESY (Hamburg, Germany) operates two undulator beamlines simultaneously for FEL operation and a third for plasma acceleration experiments (FLASHForward). The L-band superconducting technology allows accelerating fields of up to 0.8 ms in length at a repetition rate of 10 Hz (burst mode). A fast kicker-septum system picks one part of the 1 MHz electron bunch train and kicks it to the second beamline such that two beamlines are operated simultaneously with the full repetition rate of 10 Hz. The photoinjector operates three laser systems. They have different pulse durations and transverse shapes and are chosen to serve best for the given user experiment in terms of electron bunch charge, bunch compression, and bunch pattern. It is also possible to operate the laser systems on the same beamline to provide specific double pulses for certain type of experiments

Comparative analysis of clinics, pathologies and immune responses in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice infected with Streptobacillus moniliformis

Streptobacillus (S.) moniliformis is a rat-associated zoonotic pathogen that occasionally causes disease in other species. We investigated the working hypothesis that intranasal infection might lead to different immune responses in C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice associated with distinct pathologies. This study confirmed with 75% mortality the known high susceptibility of C57BL/6 mice to Streptobacillus moniliformis infection in comparison to BALB/c mice which did not develop signs of disease. Main pathologies in C57BL/6 mice were purulent to necrotizing lymphadenitis and pneumonia. Significant seroconversion was recorded in surviving mice of both strains. Differentiation of IgG-subclasses revealed mean ratios of IgG2b to IgG1 below 0.5 in sera of all mice prior to infection and of BALB/c mice post infection. In contrast, C57BL/6 mice had a mean IgG2b/IgG1 ratio of 2.5 post infection indicating a Th1 immune response in C57BL/6 versus a Th2 response in BALB/c mice. Evaluation of different sentinel systems revealed that cultural and serological investigations of these animals might not be sufficient to detect infection. In summary, an intranasal S. moniliformis infection model in C57BL/6 mice leading to purulent to necrotizing inflammations in the lung, the lymph nodes and other organs associated with a Th1 immune response is described