Decision making in uncertain times: what can cognitive and decision sciences say about or learn from economic crises?

B.M. was supported by a Visiting Scholar Award from the British Academy and Grant ME 3717/2 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the priority program ‘New Frameworks of Rationality’ (SPP 1516)

Mapping the unknown: The spatially correlated multi-armed bandit

We introduce the spatially correlated multi-armed bandit as a task coupling function learning with the explorationexploitation trade-off. Participants interacted with bi-variate reward functions on a two-dimensional grid, with the goal of either gaining the largest average score or finding the largest payoff. By providing an opportunity to learn the underlying reward function through spatial correlations, we model to what extent people form beliefs about unexplored payoffs and how that guides search behavior. Participants adapted to assigned payoff conditions, performed better in smooth than in rough environments, and—surprisingly—sometimes performed equally well in short as in long search horizons. Our modeling results indicate a preference for local search options, which when accounted for, still suggests participants were best-described as forming local inferences about unexplored regions, combined with a search strategy that directly traded off between exploiting high expected rewards and exploring to reduce uncertainty about the spatial structure of rewards

A computational fluid dynamic investigation of inhomogeneous hydrogen flame acceleration and transition to detonation

Gas explosions in homogeneous reactive mixtures have been widely studied both experimentally and numerically. However, in practice and industrial applications, combustible mixtures are usually inhomogeneous and subject to vertical concentration gradients. Limited studies have been conducted in such context which resulted in limited understanding of the explosion characteristics in such situations. The present numerical investigation aims to study the dynamics of Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) in inhomogeneous hydrogen/air mixtures and examine the effects of obstacle blockage ratio in DDT. VCEFoam, a reactive density-based solver recently assembled by the authors within the frame of OpenFOAM CFD toolbox has been used. VCEFoam uses the Harten–Lax–van Leer–Contact (HLLC) scheme fr the convective fluxes contribution and shock capturing. The solver has been verified by comparing its predictions with the analytical solutions of two classical test cases. For validation, the experimental data of Boeck et al. (1) is used. The experiments were conducted in a rectangular channel the three different blockage ratios and hydrogen concentrations. Comparison is presented between the predicted and measured flame tip velocities. The shaded contours of the predicted temperature and numerical Schlieren (magnitude of density gradient) will be analysed to examine the effects of the blockage ratio on flame acceleration and DDT

Multisource energy conversion in plants with soft epicuticular coatings

Living plants have recently been exploited for unusual tasks such as energy conversion and environmental sensing. Yet, using plants as small-scale autonomous energy sources is often impeded by multicable and -electrode installations on the plants. Moreover, insufficient power outputs for steadily driving even low-power electronics made a realization challenging. Here, we show that plants, by a modification of the leaf epicuticular region can be transformed into cable-free, fully plant-enabled integrated devices for multisource energy conversion. In detail, leaf contact electrification caused by wind-induced inter-leaf tangency is magnified by a transparent elastomeric coating on one of two interacting leaves. This enables converting wind energy into harvestable electricity. Further, the same plant is used as an unmatched Marconi-antenna for multi-band radio frequency (RF) energy conversion. This enables the use of the same plant as a complementary multi-energy system with augmented power output if both sources are used simultaneously. In combination, we observed over 1000% enhanced energy accumulation respective to single source harvesting in the specific application case and common plants like ivy could power a commercial sensing platform wirelessly transmitting environmental data. This shows that living plants have potential to autonomously supply application-oriented electronics while maintaining the positive environmental impact by their intrinsic sustainability and benefits such as O-2 production, CO2 fixation, self-repair, and many more

Systematische Fehler durch Phosphat- und Sulfatgehalte in Human- und Kontrollseren bei der atomabsorptionsspektrometrischen Calcium-Bestimmung

Peer Reviewe

RBM20-related cardiomyopathy: current understanding and future options

Splice regulators play an essential role in the transcriptomic diversity of all eukaryotic cell types and organ systems. Recent evidence suggests a contribution of splice-regulatory networks in many diseases, such as cardiomyopathies. Adaptive splice regulators, such as RNA-binding motif protein 20 (RBM20) determine the physiological mRNA landscape formation, and rare variants in the RBM20 gene explain up to 6% of genetic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) cases. With ample knowledge from RBM20-deficient mice, rats, swine and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), the downstream targets and quantitative effects on splicing are now well-defined and the prerequisites for corrective therapeutic approaches are set. This review article highlights some of the recent advances in the field, ranging from aspects of granule formation to 3D genome architectures underlying RBM20-related cardiomyopathy. Promising therapeutic strategies are presented and put into context with the pathophysiological characteristics of RBM20-related diseases

42 Pierwotne chłoniaki kości (PChK)

Pierwotne chłoniaki kości (PChK) stanowią 3% wszystkich złośliwych nowotworów kości oraz 4–5% wszystkich chłoniaków pozawęzłowych. Pierwsze przypadki opisane zostały przez Oberlinga w 1928 r.MateriałW latach 1982–1998 leczono w Centrum Onkologii – Instytucie w Warszawie 12 chorych z rozpoznaniem PChK. Grupę stanowiło 8 kobiet i 4 mężczyzn w wieku 20–69 lat (śr. 46,4 lat). Rozpoznanie mikroskopowe ustalono na podstawie badania materiału operacyjnego lub biopsyjnego. U 6 chorych rozpoznano chłoniaka o średniej złośliwości z komórek B i u jednego chorego chłoniaka o wysokiej złośliwości z komórek T. W 10 przypadkach ustalono stopień zaawansowania IEA i w 2- II EA. Lokalizacja zmian nowotworowych: u 4 chorych zmiany w kościach (w tym u 3 pojedyncze i u 1 wieloogniskowe), u 8 chorych nacieki nowotworowe tkanek miękkich.MetodaZastosowane leczenie: tylko operacyjne – 2 chorych; tylko chemioterapia – 1 chory; tylko radioterapia – 1 chory; u 3 chorych chemioterapia z następową radioterapią; u 4 chorych operacja chemio- i radioterapia oraz u jednego chorego operacja i radioterapia. Dawki leczenia napromienianiem wahały się od 40 do 50 Gy/T.Wyniki11 chorych żyje; 1 chora zmarła w trakcie leczenia z powodu progresji procesu nowotworowego. Przeżycie wolne od choroby od 6 miesięcy do 13 lat (średnio 65,5 miesięcy).WnioskiRzadkość występowania PChK, mała liczebność grup chorych, różnorodna histopatologia, różny stopień zaawansowania i schematy postępowania leczniczego oceniane w badaniach retrospektywnych powodują trudności w ustalaniu odpowiedniego sposobu leczenia

45 Rola radioterapii w kompleksowym leczeniu chorych na szpiczaka

W latach 1995–1998 W Klinice Nowotworów Układu Chłonnego Centrum Onkologii w Warszawie leczono 94 chorych na szpiczaka mnogiego, w tym 39 kobiet i 55 mężczyzn. Rozpiętość wieku wynosiła 23–84 lata (średnia 60,3). U chorych zastosowano radioterapię paliatywną jako jeden z elementów leczenia skojarzonego. Dwóch chorych z rozpoznaniem szpiczaka izolowanego (postać pozakostna: 1. krtań 2. nosogardło) napromieniano radykalnie stosując radioterapię jako samodzielną metod leczenia.Wyłącznie systemowo leczono 18 chorych (programem MP,VAD).W radioterapii paliatywnej stosowano różne frakcjonowania: 1×500 cGy/T, 10×300 cGy, 20×200 cGy/T.W jednym przypadku napromieniano chorą na górną połowę ciała (UHBI) podając dawkę całkowitą 600 cGy/t. Wszyscy chorzy otrzymywali leczenie wspomagające preparatami z grupy bisosfonianów lub Calcytonienę. Przed radioterapią u dwóch chorych wykonano ortopedyczne zespolenie dokonywanych złamań patologicznych: kości ramiennych, kości udowych.Wszyscy chorzy odpowiedzieli na zastosowane leczenie: dwóch chorych z rozpoznaniem Plascocytoma solitare uzyskało CR z 2-letnim okresem przeżycia. Wszyscy chorzy poddani napromienianiu paliatywnemu odnieśli znakomity efekt ustąpienia lub znacznego zmniejszenia dolegliwości bólowych