A greenprint for sustainable contraceptive research and development

Contraceptives are critical for women’s health and quality of life. Being able to determine the timing, spacing and number of children benefits women, men and their families. With the world population expected to reach 10 billion by the end of the century, it is important that our research and development (R&D) agenda for contraceptives reflect both our concern for women’s health and preventing unintended pregnancy and disease and well as our concern for the environment. | In November 2011, the Reproductive Health Technologies Project and the Population Council convened a small meeting of reproductive and environmental health experts to develop a conceptual framework for a green contraceptive R&D agenda. This “greenprint,” the result of that meeting, starts to lay out our vision for a green contraceptive R&D agenda, describes the challenges and opportunities for pursuing this agenda, and provides ideas for next steps

Can texture analysis of pre-immunotherapy CT imaging predict clinical outcomes for patients with advanced NSCLC treated with Nivolumab?

e20720 Background: Targeted therapies are ineffective in most NSCLC patients and response rates remain 1.5). Fifteen additional texture features trended toward statistical significance with p-values from .05 to .10. In all, 26 out of the 92 texture features showed significant association or trended toward significance with duration of OS. Conclusions: This preliminary study suggests that texture features on pre-immunotherapy CT imaging may help in predicting OS duration for patients with advanced NSCLC treated with Nivolumab monotherapy. We are in the process of validating a multivariate predictive model. Future directions include expansion of this study across the full database, survival analyses and correlation of texture features with tissue biology

The Hydrosphere section of the Helmholtz Alliance on Remote Sensing and Earth System Dynamics: Enhancing the understanding of hydrological processes by remote sensing

The Earth system comprises a multitude of processes that are intimately meshed through complex interactions. In times of accelerated global change, the understanding and quantification of these processes is of primary importance. Spaceborne remote sensing sensors are predestined to produce information products at the global scale. The Helmholtz Alliance will therefore complement the high degree of innovation in radar remote sensing technology and will establish a unique chain from satellite technology, mission operation to information extraction and integration into local, regional and global measurements and models. The overall goal of hydrosphere-related activities is to enhance the understanding of hydrological processes by satellite data