Demographic Imbalances Resulting From the Bring-Your-Own-Device Study Design

Digital health technologies, such as smartphones and wearable devices, promise to revolutionize disease prevention, detection, and treatment. Recently, there has been a surge of digital health studies where data are collected through a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) approach, in which participants who already own a specific technology may voluntarily sign up for the study and provide their digital health data. BYOD study design accelerates the collection of data from a larger number of participants than cohort design; this is possible because researchers are not limited in the study population size based on the number of devices afforded by their budget or the number of people familiar with the technology. However, the BYOD study design may not support the collection of data from a representative random sample of the target population where digital health technologies are intended to be deployed. This may result in biased study results and biased downstream technology development, as has occurred in other fields. In this viewpoint paper, we describe demographic imbalances discovered in existing BYOD studies, including our own, and we propose the Demographic Improvement Guideline to address these imbalances

Therapeutic implications of improved molecular diagnostics for rare CNS-embryonal tumor entities: results of an international, retrospective study

International audienceAbstract BACKGROUND Only few data are available on treatment-associated behavior of distinct rare CNS-embryonal tumor entities previously treated as “CNS-primitive neuroectodermal tumors” (CNS-PNET). Respective data on specific entities, including CNS neuroblastoma, FOXR2 activated (CNS NB-FOXR2), and embryonal tumor with multi-layered rosettes (ETMR) are needed for development of differentiated treatment strategies. METHODS Within this retrospective, international study, tumor samples of clinically well-annotated patients with the original diagnosis of CNS-PNET were analyzed using DNA methylation arrays (n=307). Additional cases (n=66) with DNA methylation pattern of CNS NB-FOXR2 were included irrespective of initial histological diagnosis. Pooled clinical data (n=292) were descriptively analyzed. RESULTS DNA methylation profiling of “CNS-PNET” classified 58(19%) cases as ETMR, 57(19%) as HGG, 36(12%) as CNS NB-FOXR2, and 89(29%) cases were classified into 18 other entities. Sixty-seven (22%) cases did not show DNA methylation patterns similar to established CNS tumor reference classes. Best treatment results were achieved for CNS NB-FOXR2 patients (5-year PFS: 63%±7%, OS: 85%±5%, n=63), with 35/42 progression-free survivors after upfront craniospinal irradiation (CSI) and chemotherapy. The worst outcome was seen for ETMR and HGG patients with 5-year PFS of 18%±6% and 22%±7%, and 5-year OS of 24%±6% and 25%±7%, respectively. CONCLUSION The historically reported poor outcome of CNS-PNET patients becomes highly variable when tumors are molecularly classified based on DNA methylation profiling. Patients with CNS NB-FOXR2 responded well to current treatments and a standard-risk-CSI based regimen may be prospectively evaluated. The poor outcome of ETMR across applied treatment strategies substantiates the necessity for evaluation of novel treatments

Anatomie von Kommunikationsrollen. Methoden zur Identifizierung von Akteursrollen in gerichteten Netzwerken.

Die Identifizierung von generalisierbaren Akteursrollen in sozialen Systemen ist seit jeher ein zentrales Anliegen der Sozialwissenschaften. Dies gilt insbesondere für die Identifizierung von Kommunikationsrollen, um die überaus komplexen Prozesse der interpersonalen und massenmedialen Kommunikation systematisch zu beschreiben und zu verstehen. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt auf, welche theoretischen und methodischen Überlegungen bei der Operationalisierung von Akteursrollen in gerichteten Netzwerken zu berücksichtigen sind. Basierend auf einer netzwerkanalytischen Betrachtung werden zum einen Unzulänglichkeiten in bestehenden Operationalisierungen von Kommunikationsrollen aufgezeigt und zum anderen neue Konzepte vorgeschlagen. Die diskutierten Konzepte lassen sich zwei unterschiedlichen Ansätzen zuordnen. Einerseits können Mikrostrukturen wie dyadische und triadische Ego Rollen als Basis für die Operationalisierung verwendet werden und andererseits kann man von der Gesamtstruktur des Netzwerks ausgehen. Für den ersten Fall werden unterschiedliche Aggregationsregeln diskutiert, welche eine Anwendung in komplexeren Netzwerken ermöglichen. Beim zweiten Ansatz, der Berücksichtigung der Gesamtstruktur, werden die Eignung unterschiedlicher Zentralitätsmaße, das Konzept des Blockmodelling und die hierarchische Strukturanalyse besprochen. Zwecks Anschaulichkeit beschränkt sich dieser Beitrag auf Rollen in Kommunikationsnetzwerken. Die vorgestellten Konzepte sind jedoch auch auf andere Netzwerke übertragbar, die aus gerichteten Beziehungen bestehen. ----------------------------------------------------------- The identification of generalizable roles in social systems has been one of the most central issues in social science ever since. Particularly in the field of interpersonal communication, the notion of communication roles has been used to describe and better understand the complex processes in social groups and society. This contribution identifies the theoretical and methodological concepts that have to be considered when roles in directed networks are operationalized. Based on a network analytic approach and critically evaluating the shortcomings of some widely used models, this study aims to propose new concepts for the operationalization of communication roles. These concepts can be divided into two distinctive approaches. One possibility is to use microstructures like dyadic and triadic communication roles as basic units. For this approach, different aggregation rules are discussed which are necessary for their application in more complex networks. The second approach takes the overall structure of a network into ac-count and identifies different roles by applying centrality measures, blockmodelling or hierarchical structure analysis tools. For illustrative reasons, this study limits its focus on the operationalization of communication roles as a prominent object in social science research. The concepts presented, however, are applicable for directed graphs in general

Overview of the KoRIA Facility for Rare Isotope Beams

The Korea Rare Isotope Accelerator, currently referred to as KoRIA, is briefly presented. The KoRIA facility is aimed to enable cutting-edge sciences in a wide range of fields. It consists of a 70 kW isotope separator on-line (ISOL) facility driven by a 70 MeV, 1 mA proton cyclotron and a 400 kW in-flight fragmentation (IFF) facility. The ISOL facility uses a superconducting (SC) linac for post-acceleration of rare isotopes up to about 18 MeV/u, while the SC linac of IFF facility is capable of accelerating uranium beams up to 200 MeV/u, 8 p mu A and proton beams up to 600 MeV, 660 mu A. Overall features of the KoRIA facility are presented with a focus on the accelerator design.close5

Science and technology roadmap for graphene, related two-dimensional crystals, and hybrid systems

We present the science and technology roadmap for graphene, related two-dimensional crystals, and hybrid systems, targeting an evolution in technology, that might lead to impacts and benefits reaching into most areas of society. This roadmap was developed within the framework of the European Graphene Flagship and outlines the main targets and research areas as best understood at the start of this ambitious project. We provide an overview of the key aspects of graphene and related materials (GRMs), ranging from fundamental research challenges to a variety of applications in a large number of sectors, highlighting the steps necessary to take GRMs from a state of raw potential to a point where they might revolutionize multiple industries. We also define an extensive list of acronyms in an effort to standardize the nomenclature in this emerging field

Search for Bs0→μ+μ−B^{0}_{s} \to \mu^{+}\mu^{-} and B0→μ+μ−B^{0} \to \mu^{+}\mu^{-} decays in pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 7 TeV

A search for the rare decays B(s) to dimuons and B0 to dimuons is performed in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV, with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.14 inverse femtobarns, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. In both cases, the number of events observed after all selection requirements is consistent with expectations from background and standard-model signal predictions. The resulting upper limits on the branching fractions are B(B(s) to mu^+ mu^-) < 1.9 10^-8 and B(B0 to mu^+ mu^-) < 4.6 10^-9, at 95% confidence level.A search for the rare decays B(s) to dimuons and B0 to dimuons is performed in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV, with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.14 inverse femtobarns, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. In both cases, the number of events observed after all selection requirements is consistent with expectations from background and standard-model signal predictions. The resulting upper limits on the branching fractions are B(B(s) to mu^+ mu^-) < 1.9 10^-8 and B(B0 to mu^+ mu^-) < 4.6 10^-9, at 95% confidence level