Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance and Multiple Myeloma in Older Adults

Multiple myeloma (MM) and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) are plasma cell disorders of aging. The landscape of the diagnosis and management of MM and MGUS are rapidly changing. This article provides an updated understanding of the clinical presentation, evaluation, diagnosis, and management of older adults with MM and MGUS. Because most oncology providers are not formally trained in geriatric medicine, geriatricians play a key role in providing oncologists with a broader understanding of patient health status in the hope of improving outcomes for older adults with MM

Using AI/expert system technology to automate planning and replanning for the HST servicing missions

This paper describes a knowledge-based system that has been developed to automate planning and scheduling for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Servicing Missions. This new system is the Servicing Mission Planning and Replanning Tool (SM/PART). SM/PART has been delivered to the HST Flight Operations Team (FOT) at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) where it is being used to build integrated time lines and command plans to control the activities of the HST, Shuttle, Crew and ground systems for the next HST Servicing Mission. SM/PART reuses and extends AI/expert system technology from Interactive Experimenter Planning System (IEPS) systems to build or rebuild time lines and command plans more rapidly than was possible for previous missions where they were built manually. This capability provides an important safety factor for the HST, Shuttle and Crew in case unexpected events occur during the mission

Lenalidomide before and after Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma

Although multiple myeloma remains incurable outside of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, novel agents made available only in the last few decades have nonetheless tremendously improved the landscape of myeloma treatment. Lenalidomide, of the immunomodulatory class of drugs, is one of those novel agents. In the non-transplant and relapsed/refractory settings, lenalidomide clearly benefits patients in terms of virtually all meaningful outcomes including overall survival. Data supporting the usage of lenalidomide as part of treatment approaches incorporating high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell support (ASCT) are less mature as pertains to such long-term outcomes and toxicity, and lenalidomide is not currently approved by regulatory agencies for use in the context of ASCT in either the United States or Europe. That said, relatively preliminary efficacy data describing lenalidomide as a component of ASCT-based treatment approaches to MM are indeed promising, and consequently lenalidomide's role in ASCT-based treatment strategies is growing. In this review we summarize existing data that pertains to lenalidomide in the specific context of ASCT, and we share our thoughts on how our own group applies these data to approach this complex issue clinically

Bayesian estimation for selective trace gas detection

We present a Bayesian estimation analysis for a particular trace gas detection technique with species separation provided by differential diffusion. The proposed method collects a sample containing multiple gas species into a common volume, and then allows it to diffuse across a linear array of optical absorption detectors, using, for example, high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavities. The estimation procedure assumes that all gas parameters (e.g. diffusion constants, optical cross sections) are known except for the number population of each species, which are determined from the time-of-flight absorption profiles in each detector

Localization and Anomalous Transport in a 1-D Soft Boson Optical Lattice

We study the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensed atoms in a 1-D optical lattice potential in a regime where the collective (Josephson) tunneling energy is comparable with the on-site interaction energy, and the number of particles per lattice site is mesoscopically large. By directly imaging the motion of atoms in the lattice, we observe an abrupt suppression of atom transport through the array for a critical ratio of these energies, consistent with quantum fluctuation induced localization. Directly below the onset of localization, the frequency of the observed superfluid transport can be explained by a phonon excitation but deviates substantially from that predicted by the hydrodynamic/Gross-Pitaevskii equations.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Transitionless quantum drivings for the harmonic oscillator

Two methods to change a quantum harmonic oscillator frequency without transitions in a finite time are described and compared. The first method, a transitionless-tracking algorithm, makes use of a generalized harmonic oscillator and a non-local potential. The second method, based on engineering an invariant of motion, only modifies the harmonic frequency in time, keeping the potential local at all times.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure. Submitted for publicatio

Electronic properties of GaAs surfaces etched in an electron cyclotron resonance source and chemically passivated using P2S5P2S5

Photoreflectance has been used to study the electronic properties of (100) GaAs surfaces exposed to a Cl2/ArCl2/Ar plasma generated by an electron cyclotron resonance source and subsequently passivated by P2S5.P2S5. The plasma etch shifts the Fermi level of p-GaAsp-GaAs from near the valence band to midgap, but has no effect on n-GaAs.n-GaAs. For ion energies below 250 eV, post-etch P2S5P2S5 chemical passivation removes the surface etch damage and restores the electronic properties to pre-etch conditions. Above 250 eV, the etch produces subsurface defects which cannot be chemically passivated. Auger electron spectroscopy shows that etching increases As at the GaAs/oxide interface, while passivation reduces it. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69373/2/APPLAB-73-1-114-1.pd

Economies of visibility as a moderator of feminism: ‘Never mind Brexit. Who won Legs‐it!’

This article utilizes economies of visibility to interpret how two UK women political leaders’ bodies are constructed in the press, online and by audience responses across several media platforms via a multimodal analysis. We contribute politicizing economies of visibility, lying at the intersection of politics of visibility and economies of visibility, as a possible new modality of feminist politics. We suggest this offers a space where feminism can be progressed. Analysis illustrates how economies of visibility moderate feminism and tie women leaders in various ways to their bodies; commodities constantly scrutinized. The study surfaces how media insist upon femininity through appearance from women leaders, serving to moderate power and feminist potential. We consider complexities attached to public consumption of powerful women's constructions, set up in opposition, where sexism is visible and visceral. This simultaneously fortifies moderate feminism and provokes feminism. The insistence on femininity nevertheless disrupts, through an arousal of audible and commanding feminist voices, to reconnect with the political project of women's equality

Quantum Quenches in Extended Systems

We study in general the time-evolution of correlation functions in a extended quantum system after the quench of a parameter in the hamiltonian. We show that correlation functions in d dimensions can be extracted using methods of boundary critical phenomena in d+1 dimensions. For d=1 this allows to use the powerful tools of conformal field theory in the case of critical evolution. Several results are obtained in generic dimension in the gaussian (mean-field) approximation. These predictions are checked against the real-time evolution of some solvable models that allows also to understand which features are valid beyond the critical evolution. All our findings may be explained in terms of a picture generally valid, whereby quasiparticles, entangled over regions of the order of the correlation length in the initial state, then propagate with a finite speed through the system. Furthermore we show that the long-time results can be interpreted in terms of a generalized Gibbs ensemble. We discuss some open questions and possible future developments.Comment: 24 Pages, 4 figure

Scheduling science on television: A comparative analysis of the representations of science in 11 European countries

While science-in-the-media is a useful vehicle for understanding the media, few scholars have used it that way: instead, they look at science-in-the-media as a way of understanding science-in-the-media and often end up attributing characteristics to science-in-the-media that are simply characteristics of the media, rather than of the science they see there. This point of view was argued by Jane Gregory and Steve Miller in 1998 in Science in Public. Science, they concluded, is not a special case in the mass media, understanding science-in-the-media is mostly about understanding the media (Gregory and Miller, 1998: 105). More than a decade later, research that looks for patterns or even determinants of science-in-the-media, be it in press or electronic media, is still very rare. There is interest in explaining the media’s selection of science content from a media perspective. Instead, the search for, and analysis of, several kinds of distortions in media representations of science have been leading topics of science-in-the-media research since its beginning in the USA at the end of the 1960s and remain influential today (see Lewenstein, 1994; Weigold, 2001; Kohring, 2005 for summaries). Only a relatively small amount of research has been conducted seeking to identify factors relevant to understanding how science is treated by the mass media in general and by television in particular. The current study addresses the lack of research in this area. Our research seeks to explore which constraints national media systems place on the volume and structure of science programming in television. In simpler terms, the main question this study is trying to address is why science-in-TV in Europe appears as it does. We seek to link research focussing on the detailed analysis of science representations on television (Silverstone, 1984; Collins, 1987; Hornig, 1990; Leon, 2008), and media research focussing on the historical genesis and current political regulation of national media systems (see for instance Hallin and Mancini, 2004; Napoli, 2004; Open Society Institute, 2005, 2008). The former studies provide deeper insights into the selection and reconstruction of scientific subject matters, which reflect and – at the same time – reinforce popular images of science. But their studies do not give much attention to production constraints or other relevant factors which could provide an insight into why media treat science as they do. The latter scholars inter alia shed light on distinct media policies in Europe which significantly influence national channel patterns. However, they do not refer to clearly defined content categories but to fairly rough distinctions such as information versus entertainment or fictional versus factual. Accordingly, we know more about historical roots and current practices of media regulation across Europe than we do about the effects of these different regimes on the provision of specific content in European societies