Luxury sandwiches versus the fight against climate change

De rij voor de vers-belegde broodjes was lang. We schuifelden vooruit, de meeste mensen hielden met hun ene hand een dienblad vast en drukten met hun andere een telefoon tegen hun oor. Ik hoorde driftige zinnetjes in het Frans, Engels, Duits en Bahasa Indonesisch. Op deze klimaatconferentie, in het Zwitserse Davos, leek iedereen te gehaast om een lunchpauze te nemen

Luxury sandwiches versus the fight against climate change

De rij voor de vers-belegde broodjes was lang. We schuifelden vooruit, de meeste mensen hielden met hun ene hand een dienblad vast en drukten met hun andere een telefoon tegen hun oor. Ik hoorde driftige zinnetjes in het Frans, Engels, Duits en Bahasa Indonesisch. Op deze klimaatconferentie, in het Zwitserse Davos, leek iedereen te gehaast om een lunchpauze te nemen

My sustainability tip: don't read glossy magazines

Het was avond. De straatlantaarns schenen geel licht door het raam in onze woonkamer terwijl mijn partner en ik hardop droomden over een ander huis. Het moest in of dichtbij de stad liggen, graag met een tuin voor de peuter erbij. We moesten er kunnen schrijven (ik) en vergaderingen kunnen leiden (hij). Oh, en met een ruime keuken – zou zo’n kookeiland niet mooi zijn?<br/

My sustainability tip: don't read glossy magazines

Het was avond. De straatlantaarns schenen geel licht door het raam in onze woonkamer terwijl mijn partner en ik hardop droomden over een ander huis. Het moest in of dichtbij de stad liggen, graag met een tuin voor de peuter erbij. We moesten er kunnen schrijven (ik) en vergaderingen kunnen leiden (hij). Oh, en met een ruime keuken – zou zo’n kookeiland niet mooi zijn?<br/

Modeling of mode-locking in a laser with spatially separate gain media

We present a novel laser mode-locking scheme and discuss its unusual properties and feasibility using a theoretical model. A large set of single-frequency continuous-wave lasers oscillate by amplification in spatially separated gain media. They are mutually phase-locked by nonlinear feedback from a common saturable absorber. As a result, ultra short pulses are generated. The new scheme offers three significant benefits: the light that is amplified in each medium is continuous wave, thereby avoiding issues related to group velocity dispersion and nonlinear effects that can perturb the pulse shape. The set of frequencies on which the laser oscillates, and therefore the pulse repetition rate, is controlled by the geometry of resonator-internal optical elements, not by the cavity length. Finally, the bandwidth of the laser can be controlled by switching gain modules on and off. This scheme offers a route to mode-locked lasers with high average output power, repetition rates that can be scaled into the THz range, and a bandwidth that can be dynamically controlled. The approach is particularly suited for implementation using semiconductor diode laser arrays.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Optics Expres

Impact of Intracranial Volume and Brain Volume on the Prognostic Value of Computed Tomography Perfusion Core Volume in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Background: Computed tomography perfusion (CTP)-estimated core volume is associated with functional outcomes in acute ischemic stroke. This relationship might differ among patients, depending on brain volume. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively included patients from the MR CLEAN Registry. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and intracranial volume (ICV) were automatically segmented on NCCT. We defined the proportion of the ICV and total brain volume (TBV) affected by the ischemic core as ICVcore and TBVcore. Associations between the core volume, ICVcore, TBVcore, and functional outcome are reported per interquartile range (IQR). We calculated the area under the curve (AUC) to assess diagnostic accuracy.Results: In 200 patients, the median core volume was 13 (5–41) mL. Median ICV and TBV were 1377 (1283–1456) mL and 1108 (1020–1197) mL. Median ICVcore and TBVcore were 0.9 (0.4–2.8)% and 1.7 (0.5–3.6)%. Core volume (acOR per IQR 0.48 [95%CI 0.33–0.69]), ICVcore (acOR per IQR 0.50 [95%CI 0.35–0.69]), and TBVcore (acOR per IQR 0.41 95%CI 0.33–0.67]) showed a lower likelihood of achieving improved functional outcomes after 90 days. The AUC was 0.80 for the prediction of functional independence at 90 days for the CTP-estimated core volume, the ICVcore, and the TBVcore. Conclusion:Correcting the CTP-estimated core volume for the intracranial or total brain volume did not improve the association with functional outcomes in patients who underwent EVT.</p

Value of Automatically Derived Full Thrombus Characteristics:An Explorative Study of Their Associations with Outcomes in Ischemic Stroke Patients

(1) Background: For acute ischemic strokes caused by large vessel occlusion, manually assessed thrombus volume and perviousness have been associated with treatment outcomes. However, the manual assessment of these characteristics is time-consuming and subject to inter-observer bias. Alternatively, a recently introduced fully automated deep learning-based algorithm can be used to consistently estimate full thrombus characteristics. Here, we exploratively assess the value of these novel biomarkers in terms of their association with stroke outcomes. (2) Methods: We studied two applications of automated full thrombus characterization as follows: one in a randomized trial, MR CLEAN-NO IV (n = 314), and another in a Dutch nationwide registry, MR CLEAN Registry (n = 1839). We used an automatic pipeline to determine the thrombus volume, perviousness, density, and heterogeneity. We assessed their relationship with the functional outcome defined as the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 90 days and two technical success measures as follows: successful final reperfusion, which is defined as an eTICI score of 2b-3, and successful first-pass reperfusion (FPS). (3) Results: Higher perviousness was significantly related to a better mRS in both MR CLEAN-NO IV and the MR CLEAN Registry. A lower thrombus volume and lower heterogeneity were only significantly related to better mRS scores in the MR CLEAN Registry. Only lower thrombus heterogeneity was significantly related to technical success; it was significantly related to a higher chance of FPS in the MR CLEAN-NO IV trial (OR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.31–0.98) and successful reperfusion in the MR CLEAN Registry (OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.78–0.99). (4) Conclusions: Thrombus characteristics derived from automatic entire thrombus segmentations are significantly related to stroke outcomes.</p