High-contrast Ultrabroadband Frontend Source for High Intensity Few-Cycle Lasers

An ultrabroadband seed source for high-power, high-contrast OPCPA systems at 800 nm is presented. The source is based on post compression in a hollow-core fiber followed by crossed polarized waves (XPW) filtering and is capable of delivering 80$\mu$J, 5fs, CEP-stable (0.3rad RMS) pulses with excellent spectral and temporal qualit

High-contrast 10-fs OPCPA-based Front-End for the Apollon-10PW laser (Orale)

International audienceWe present a high-contrast 10-fs Front-End for Ti:sapphire PW-lasers within the Apollon-10PW project. This injector uses OPCPA pumped at 100 Hz by Yb-based CPA chain. Combination of OPCPA and XPW permits a >10 12 contrast ratio

Fostering savings by commitment: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment at The Small Enterprise Foundation in South Africa

We studied the effects of a pilot project that strengthened savings incentive mechanisms. The project was established by The Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF), a leading microfinance institution based in South Africa. The program introduced a savings stimulus in the form of a Goal Card: clients subscribing to this (non-coercive) tool were required to identify a savings goal and to commit to regular payments to reach it. The experiment had a quasi-natural approach as it was implemented by SEF in non-randomly selected locations. Difference-in-differences estimates show improved savings habits among those of the foundation's customers who were involved in the program, compared to the counterfactual that are identified using propensity score matching. The effect of the program manifested in its second semester, suggesting a persistent change of habits but a slow accumulation of savings. We conclude that asking microcredit customers to identify a savings goal and commit to a regular savings amount to achieve it is a promising savings incentive mechanism

Judicial disagreement need not be political: dissent on the Estonian Supreme Court

I investigate the non-unanimous decisions of judges on the Estonian Supreme Court. I argue that since judges on the court enjoy high de jure independence, dissent frequently, and are integrated in the normal judicial hierarchy, the Estonian Supreme Court is a crucial case for the presumption that judicial disagreement reveals policy preferences. I analyse dissenting opinions using an ideal point response model. Examining the characteristics of cases which discriminated with respect to the recovered dimension, I show that this dimension cannot be interpreted as a meaningful policy dimension, but instead reflects disagreement about the proper scope of constitutional redress

VBL: Virtual Biophysics Lab

VBL (Virtual Biophysics Lab) is a computational project to develop a basic numerical model of tumor spheroids. This paper is a status report that describes the structure of the code that implements the model, and the progress made up to February 2008, and also some recent results in modeling the effects of radiations on cells in a bioreactor

A quantitative study on the growth variability of tumour cell clones in vitro

Objectives: In this study, we quantify the growth variability of tumour cell clones from a human leukemia cell line. Materials and methods: We have used microplate spectrophotometry to measure the growth kinetics of hundreds of individual cell clones from the Molt3 cell line. The growth rate of each clonal population has been estimated by fitting experimental data with the logistic equation. Results: The growth rates were observed to vary among different clones. Up to six clones with a growth rate above or below the mean growth rate of the parent population were further cloned and the growth rates of their offsprings were measured. The distribution of the growth rates of the subclones did not significantly differ from that of the parent population thus suggesting that growth variability has an epigenetic origin. To explain the observed distributions of clonal growth rates we have developed a probabilistic model assuming that the fluctuations in the number of mitochondria through successive cell cycles are the leading cause of growth variability. For fitting purposes, we have estimated experimentally by flow cytometry the maximum average number of mitochondria in Molt3 cells. The model fits nicely the observed distributions of growth rates, however, cells in which the mitochondria were rendered non functional (rho-0 cells) showed only a 30% reduction in the clonal growth variability with respect to normal cells. Conclusions: A tumor cell population is a dynamic ensemble of clones with highly variable growth rate. At least part of this variability is due to fluctuations in the number of mitochondria.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figure

Efficient cross polarized wave generation for compact, energy-scalable, ultrashort laser sources

International audienceThe generation of high contrast and ultrashort laser pulses via a compact and energy-scalable cross polarized wave filter is presented. The setup incorporates a waveguide spatial filter into a single crystal XPW configuration, enabling high energy and high intensity transmission, efficient contrast enhancement and pulse shortening at the multi-mJ level. Excellent XPW conversion of up to 33% (global efficiency: 20%, intensity transmission: 40%) led to an output energy of 650 ?J for an input of 3.3 mJ. Additionally, efficient conversion under specific input phase conditions, allowed pulse shortening from 25 fs to 9.6 fs, indicating the prospective application of this setup as a high energy, ultrabroad laser source. © 2010 Optical Society of America

A gallotannin-rich fraction from Caesalpinia spinosa (Molina) Kuntze displays cytotoxic activity and raises sensitivity to doxorubicin in a leukemia cell line

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Enhancement of tumor cell sensitivity may help facilitate a reduction in drug dosage using conventional chemotherapies. Consequently, it is worthwhile to search for adjuvants with the potential of increasing chemotherapeutic drug effectiveness and improving patient quality of life. Natural products are a very good source of such adjuvants.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The biological activity of a fraction enriched in hydrolysable polyphenols (P2Et) obtained from <it>Caesalpinia spinosa </it>was evaluated using the hematopoietic cell line K562. This fraction was tested alone or in combination with the conventional chemotherapeutic drugs doxorubicin, vincristine, etoposide, camptothecin and taxol. The parameters evaluated were mitochondrial depolarization, caspase 3 activation, chromatin condensation and clonogenic activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that the P2Et fraction induced mitochondrial depolarization, activated caspase 3, induced chromatin condensation and decreased the clonogenic capacity of the K562 cell line. When the P2Et fraction was used in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs at sub-lethal concentrations, a fourfold reduction in doxorubicin inhibitory concentration 50 (IC₅₀) was seen in the K562 cell line. This finding suggested that P2Et fraction activity is specific for the molecular target of doxorubicin.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that a natural fraction extracted from <it>Caesalpinia spinosa </it>in combination with conventional chemotherapy in combination with natural products on leukemia cells may increase therapeutic effectiveness in relation to leukemia.</p

Loans and Leaving: Migration and the Expansion of Microcredit in Cambodia

Over the last decade, the expansion of microfinance institutions (MFIs) has dramatically shifted the availability of credit across the developing world. This recent development provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between household labor migration and access to and use of formal credit. Both theories of migration and the expectations of formal credit providers have suggested that labor migration and credit are substitute solutions to the demand for capital in the developing world, with the implication that greater access to formal financial services may stem migration out of rural places. Using household survey data from Cambodia, an MFI-saturated country, we find that households using formal credit and households with greater access to formal credit are more likely to have labor migrants than households without access. This association persists across size of loan, purpose of loan, remittances behavior, and for domestic migrations. These findings complicate our understanding of the relationship between credit and migration, and call for a greater recognition of the importance of context in framing migration behavior

Causes of evolutionary divergence in prostate cancer

Data Availability: Components of the PPCG data set can be accessed through different portals in accordance with the required level of data protection for each data type. The main data constituents, and respective modes of access, are listed in detail in the companion manuscript by GM Jakobsdottir [ref. 19].A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv:2503.13189v1 [q-bio.GN], https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13189 . It has not been certified by peer review. Submission history: From: Emre Esenturk [v1] Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:00:02 UTC (818 KB).Code Availability: Codes are available to reviewers. Open-source repository will be made available at the time of publication.Cancer progression involves the sequential accumulation of genetic alterations that cumulatively shape the tumour phenotype. In prostate cancer, tumours can follow divergent evolutionary trajectories that lead to distinct subtypes, but the causes of this divergence remain unclear. While causal inference could elucidate the factors involved, conventional methods are unsuitable due to the possibility of unobserved confounders and ambiguity in the direction of causality. Here, we propose a method that circumvents these issues and apply it to genomic data from 829 prostate cancer patients. We identify several genetic alterations that drive divergence as well as others that prevent this transition, locking tumours into one trajectory. Further analysis reveals that these genetic alterations may cause each other, implying a positive-feedback loop that accelerates divergence. Our findings provide insights into how cancer subtypes emerge and offer a foundation for genomic surveillance strategies aimed at monitoring the progression of prostate cancer.Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO), which is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) as a ‘Severo Ochoa’ Centre of Excellence (ref. CEX2019000891-S). Both A.F.-S. and G.M. also received support from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grants PID2019-111356RA-I00 and PID2023-151298OB-I00 (MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033). Additionally, A.F.-S. was awarded a fellowship from La Caixa Foundation (ID 100010434; LCF/BQ/DR21/11880009). V.J.G. acknowledges infrastructure backing from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC-1215–20014). V.M.H. received support from the Petre Foundation via the University of Sydney Foundation (Australia). H.H.H. is supported by project grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (142246, 152863, 152864, 159567 and 438793). This work was also funded by NHMRC project grants 1104010 (C.M.H., N.M.C.) and 1047581 (C.M.H., N.M.C.), as well as through a federal grant from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing awarded to the Epworth Cancer Centre, Epworth Hospital (N.M.C., C.M.H.). We acknowledge further financial support from Australian Prostate Cancer Research and the University of Melbourne, Australia. M.L. received funding from National Cancer Institute grants P50CA211024, P01CA265768, R01 CA259200, from the U.S.A. Department of Defense (DoD) grants PC160357 and PC200390, as well as from the Prostate Cancer Foundation (22CHAL05). Additional support for SAPCS analytical costs came from the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Award R01CA285772-01 and a U.S. Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) Challenge Award (2023CHAL4150). Genomic sequencing and investigation of Southern African Prostate Cancer Study (SAPCS) data received funding from the U.S. Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Prostate Cancer Research Program (PCRP), which included an Idea Development Award (PC200390, TARGET Africa) and HEROIC Consortium Awards (PC210168 and PC230673, HEROIC PCaPH Africa1K). R.M. and A.T.P. are supported by The Lorenzo and Pamela Galli Medical Research Trust, and A.T.P. also holds an Investigator Grant (2026643) from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). B.P. is the recipient of a Victorian Health and Medical Research Fellowship awarded by the Victoria State Government, Australia. K.D.S. is funded by The Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant nos. NNF20OC0059410, NNF21OC0071712), The Danish Cancer Society (grant no. R352-A20573), and Independent Research Fund Denmark (grant no. 9039-00084B). J.R. acknowledges support from a CIHR Project Grant (grant no. PJT-162410) and an Investigator Award from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), which is itself funded by the Government of Ontario. Work at the University of Konstanz was supported by the university and an Exploration Grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim Foundation to A.J.G. J.W. received grants from the Danish Cancer Society (#R147-A9843, #R374-A22518), the Danish Council for Independent Research (#8020-00282, #3101-00177A), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (#NNF200C0060141), and Sygeforsikringen Danmark (#2022-0198). A.L. is supported by Cancer Research UK (C57899/A25812), The John Fell Fund (0012782), the Health Technology Assessment (NIHR 131233), and the John Black Charitable Foundation (TRANSLATE Triallinked biobank). Y-J.L. receives funding from Orchid, Prostate Cancer Research UK & Movember (MA-CT20-011, RIA22-ST2-006) and Cancer Research UK (C16420/A18066). A full list of funding organizations for the Pan Prostate Cancer Group is provided in a companion manuscript [ref. 19: to be published as supplementary material in due course]