Aliquoting structure for centrifugal microfluidics based on a new pneumatic valve

We present a new microvalve that can be monolithically integrated in centrifugally driven lab-on-a-chip systems. In contrast to existing operation principles that use hydrophobic patches, geometrically defined capillary stops or siphons, here we present a pneumatic principle. It needs neither additional local coatings nor expensive micro sized geometries. The valve is controlled by the spinning frequency and can be switched to be open when the centrifugal pressure overcomes the pneumatic pressure inside an unvented reaction cavity. We designed and characterized valves ranging in centrifugal burst pressure from 6700 Pa to 2100 Pa. Based on this valving principle we present a new structure for aliquoting of liquids. We experimentally demonstrated this by splitting 105 muL volumes into 16 aliquots with a volume CV of 3 %

What Physiological Changes and Cerebral Traces Tell Us about Adhesion to Fiction During Theater-Watching?

Live theater is typically designed to alter the state of mind of the audience. Indeed, the perceptual inputs issuing from a live theatrical performance are intended to represent something else, and the actions, emphasized by the writing and staging, are the key prompting the adhesion of viewers to fiction, i.e., their belief that it is real. This phenomenon raises the issue of the cognitive processes governing access to a fictional reality during live theater and of their cerebral underpinnings. To get insight into the physiological substrates of adhesion we recreated the peculiar context of watching live drama in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment, with simultaneous recording of heart activity. The instants of adhesion were defined as the co-occurrence of theatrical events determined a priori by the stage director and the spectators’ offline reports of moments when fiction acted as reality. These data served to specify, for each spectator, individual fMRI time-series, used in a random-effect group analysis to define the pattern of brain response to theatrical events. The changes in this pattern related to subjects’ adhesion to fiction, were investigated using a region of interest analysis. The results showed that adhesion to theatrical events correlated with increased activity in the left BA47 and posterior superior temporal sulcus, together with a decrease in dynamic heart rate variability, leading us to discuss the hypothesis of subtle changes in the subjects’ state of awareness, enabling them to mentally dissociate physical and mental (drama-viewing) experiences, to account for the phenomenon of adhesion to dramatic fiction

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms after daclizumab therapy in MS

Currently, 12 cases (including our patient) of autoimmune encephalitis/encephalopathy after daclizumab therapy in MS are known worldwide and led to voluntary withdrawal of marketing authorization for daclizumab by the manufacturer Biogen (press release from European Medicines Agency, 07.03.2018). Our findings suggest that early recognition of DRESS even with CNS manifestations and swift treatment with steroids and/or plasma exchange are essential to improve the longterm outcome

Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms after daclizumab therapy in MS

Currently, 12 cases (including our patient) of autoimmune encephalitis/encephalopathy after daclizumab therapy in MS are known worldwide and led to voluntary withdrawal of marketing authorization for daclizumab by the manufacturer Biogen (press release from European Medicines Agency, 07.03.2018). Our findings suggest that early recognition of DRESS even with CNS manifestations and swift treatment with steroids and/or plasma exchange are essential to improve the longterm outcome

Chiral perturbation theory - Success and challenge

Chiral perturbation theory is the effective field theory of the strong interactions at low energies. We will give a short introduction to chiral perturbation theory for mesons and will discuss, as an example, the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the pion. These have recently been extracted from an experiment on radiative $\pi^+$ photoproduction from the proton ($\gamma p\to \gamma \pi^+ n$) at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. Next we will turn to the one-baryon sector of chiral perturbation theory and will address the issue of a consistent power counting scheme. As examples of the heavy-baryon framework we will comment on the extraction of the axial radius from pion electroproduction and will discuss the generalized polarizabilities of the proton. Finally, we will discuss two recently proposed manifestly Lorentz-invariant renormalization schemes and illustrate their application in a calculation of the nucleon electromagnetic form factors.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, invited talk given at the Symposium 20 Years of Physics at the Mainz Microtron MAMI, 20 - 22 October 2005, Mainz, German

Patterns of language and auditory dysfunction in 6-year-old children with epilepsy

In a previous study we reported difficulty with expressive language and visuoperceptual ability in preschool children with epilepsy and otherwise normal development. The present study analysed speech and language dysfunction for each individual in relation to epilepsy variables, ear preference, and intelligence in these children and described their auditory function. Twenty 6-year-old children with epilepsy (14 females, 6 males; mean age 6:5 y, range 6 y–6 y 11 mo) and 30 reference children without epilepsy (18 females, 12 males; mean age 6:5 y, range 6 y–6 y 11 mo) were assessed for language and auditory ability. Low scores for the children with epilepsy were analysed with respect to speech-language domains, type of epilepsy, site of epileptiform activity, intelligence, and language laterality. Auditory attention, perception, discrimination, and ear preference were measured with a dichotic listening test, and group comparisons were performed. Children with left-sided partial epilepsy had extensive language dysfunction. Most children with partial epilepsy had phonological dysfunction. Language dysfunction was also found in children with generalized and unclassified epilepsies. The children with epilepsy performed significantly worse than the reference children in auditory attention, perception of vowels and discrimination of consonants for the right ear and had more left ear advantage for vowels, indicating undeveloped language laterality

Cognitive function of idiopathic childhood epilepsy

Most children with epilepsy are of normal intelligence. However, a significant subset will have temporary or permanent cognitive impairment. Factors that affect cognitive function are myriad and include the underlying neuropathology of the epilepsy, seizures, epileptiform discharges, psychosocial problems, age at seizure onset, duration of epilepsy, and side effects associated with antiepileptic drugs. This review article discusses cognitive function in children with idiopathic epilepsy and the effects of antiepileptic drugs on cognitive function in children

The dawn of the dead : (improbable) art after aI-zombie apocalypse

In recent years there has been growing interest in artificial neural networks (ANNs) which are quickly becoming the primary device for machine learning. Used for finding patterns in large data sets, ANNs were also recently employed in many artistic contexts: as tools for artists, semi-independent creators of content, and even as invisible "critics" which / who predict our aesthetic preferences. The aim of this paper is to speculate about the disruptive effect of these ‘alien agencies’ on the (modernist) aesthetic regime of art centred around the notion of autonomy. The author examines how neural networks and connectionist epistemologies may potentially affect the most common ways of producing, circulating, and valorising art. He claims that the possibility of automatizing creativity and art criticism may lead to the emergence of a new aesthetic regime based on forms of dynamic, distributed and probabilistic governance