Highly birefringent, low-loss liquid crystals for terahertz applications

With growing interest in switchable devices for the THz frequency range, there is a strong demand for liquid crystals (LC) exhibiting both a high birefringence and a low absorption. We present the refractive index and absorption coefficient of the liquid crystal mixtures 1852 and 1825 in the frequency range between 0.2 and 2.5 THz. Both mixtures are designed specifically for high birefringence Δn of 0.32 and 0.38, respectively, in the THz region. In addition, they show low absorption coefficients for both ordinary and extraordinary polarization. This low absorbance in combination with the high birefringence makes these LCs particularly well suited for applications in switchable devices for THz optics.M. Reuter, N. Vieweg, B. M. Fischer, M. Mikulicz, M. Koch, K. Garbat and R. Dabrowsk

Estimating Distributed Representation Performance in Disaster-Related Social Media Classification

This paper examines the effectiveness of a range of pre-trained language representations in order to determine the informativeness and information type of social media in the event of natural or man-made disasters. Within the context of disaster tweet analysis, we aim to accurately analyse tweets while minimising both false positive and false negatives in the automated information analysis. The investigation is performed across a number of well known disaster-related twitter datasets. Models that are built from pre-trained word embeddings from Word2Vec, GloVe, ELMo and BERT are used for performance evaluation. Given the relative ubiquity of BERT as a standout language representation in recent times it was expected that BERT dominates results. However, results are more diverse, with classical Word2Vec and GloVe both displaying strong results. As part of the analysis, we discuss some challenges related to automated twitter analysis including the fine-tuning of language models to disaster-related scenarios

The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer consensus statement on immunotherapy for the treatment of prostate carcinoma.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy and second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States. In recent years, several new agents, including cancer immunotherapies, have been approved or are currently being investigated in late-stage clinical trials for the management of advanced prostate cancer. Therefore, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a multidisciplinary panel, including physicians, nurses, and patient advocates, to develop consensus recommendations for the clinical application of immunotherapy for prostate cancer patients. To do so, a systematic literature search was performed to identify high-impact papers from 2006 until 2014 and was further supplemented with literature provided by the panel. Results from the consensus panel voting and discussion as well as the literature review were used to rate supporting evidence and generate recommendations for the use of immunotherapy in prostate cancer patients. Sipuleucel-T, an autologous dendritic cell vaccine, is the first and currently only immunotherapeutic agent approved for the clinical management of metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The consensus panel utilized this model to discuss immunotherapy in the treatment of prostate cancer, issues related to patient selection, monitoring of patients during and post treatment, and sequence/combination with other anti-cancer treatments. Potential immunotherapies emerging from late-stage clinical trials are also discussed. As immunotherapy evolves as a therapeutic option for the treatment of prostate cancer, these recommendations will be updated accordingly

\u3ci\u3eSnowedOut Atlanta\u3c/i\u3e: Examining digital emergence on facebook during a crisis

Individuals in emergencies form spontaneous, emergent groups to respond and recover. With the rise of social media use in crises, academics and professionals must be aware of how groups digitally coordinate emergent response efforts. This paper examines digital emergence through the case of SnowedOut Atlanta, a Facebook group formed during the 2014 ice storms in Atlanta. The posts and actions of the group members are in line with those of traditional emergent groups. For example, group members shared informational, material, and emotional support. The findings also provide implications for practitioners and insight into the communication of such groups. In particular, emergency managers have an opportunity to seek out and partner with these types of groups in future similar events

Ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices: mimicking condensed matter physics and beyond

We review recent developments in the physics of ultracold atomic and molecular gases in optical lattices. Such systems are nearly perfect realisations of various kinds of Hubbard models, and as such may very well serve to mimic condensed matter phenomena. We show how these systems may be employed as quantum simulators to answer some challenging open questions of condensed matter, and even high energy physics. After a short presentation of the models and the methods of treatment of such systems, we discuss in detail, which challenges of condensed matter physics can be addressed with (i) disordered ultracold lattice gases, (ii) frustrated ultracold gases, (iii) spinor lattice gases, (iv) lattice gases in "artificial" magnetic fields, and, last but not least, (v) quantum information processing in lattice gases. For completeness, also some recent progress related to the above topics with trapped cold gases will be discussed.Comment: Review article. v2: published version, 135 pages, 34 figure

IgG antibody responses to Plasmodium falciparum merozoite antigens in Kenyan children have a short half-life

BACKGROUND: Data suggest that antibody responses to malaria parasites merozoite antigens are generally short-lived and this has implications for serological studies and malaria vaccine designs. However, precise data on the kinetics of these responses is lacking. METHODS: IgG1 and IgG3 responses to five recombinant Plasmodium falciparum merozoite antigens (MSP-119, MSP-2 type A and B, AMA-1 ectodomain and EBA-175 region II) among Kenyan children were monitored using ELISA for 12 weeks after an acute episode of malaria and their half-lives estimated using an exponential decay model. RESULTS: The responses peaked mainly at week 1 and then decayed rapidly to very low levels within 6 weeks. Estimation of the half-lives of 40 IgG1 responses yielded a mean half-life of 9.8 days (95% CI: 7.6-12.0) while for 16 IgG3 responses it was 6.1 days (95% CI: 3.7-8.4), periods that are shorter than those normally described for the catabolic half-life of these antibody subclasses. CONCLUSION: This study indicates antibodies against merozoite antigens have very short half-lives and this has to be taken into account when designing serological studies and vaccines based on the antigens

Overlapping expression patterns and differential transcript levels of phosphate transporter genes in arbuscular mycorrhizal, Pi-fertilised and phytohormone-treated Medicago truncatula roots

A microarray carrying 5,648 probes of Medicago truncatula root-expressed genes was screened in order to identify those that are specifically regulated by the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus Gigaspora rosea, by Pi fertilisation or by the phytohormones abscisic acid and jasmonic acid. Amongst the identified genes, 21% showed a common induction and 31% a common repression between roots fertilised with Pi or inoculated with the AM fungus G. rosea, while there was no obvious overlap in the expression patterns between mycorrhizal and phytohormone-treated roots. Expression patterns were further studied by comparing the results with published data obtained from roots colonised by the AM fungi Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices, but only very few genes were identified as being commonly regulated by all three AM fungi. Analysis of Pi concentrations in plants colonised by either of the three AM fungi revealed that this could be due to the higher Pi levels in plants inoculated by G. rosea compared with the other two fungi, explaining that numerous genes are commonly regulated by the interaction with G. rosea and by phosphate. Differential gene expression in roots inoculated with the three AM fungi was further studied by expression analyses of six genes from the phosphate transporter gene family in M. truncatula. While MtPT4 was induced by all three fungi, the other five genes showed different degrees of repression mirroring the functional differences in phosphate nutrition by G. rosea, G. mosseae and G. intraradices