Photonic crystals have proven their potential and are nowadays a familiar concept. They have been approached from many scientific and technological flanks. Among the many techniques devised to ...implement this technology self‐assembly has always been one of great popularity surely due to its ease of access and the richness of results offered. Self‐assembly is also probably the approach entailing more materials aspects owing to the fact that they lend themselves to be fabricated by a great many, very different methods on a vast variety of materials and to multiple purposes. To these well‐known material systems a new sibling has been born (photonic glass) expanding the paradigm of optical materials inspired by solid state physics crystal concept. It is expected that they may become an important player in the near future not only because they complement the properties of photonic crystals but because they entice the researchers’ curiosity. In this review a panorama is presented of the state of the art in this field with the view to serve a broad community concerned with materials aspects of photonic structures and more so those interested in self‐assembly.
Photonic crystals and, more recently, photonic glasses embody concepts that capture the essence of solid state physics and many aspects of materials science, bringing them together in the field of photonic materials. Self‐assembly and colloidal techniques constitute proven bottom‐up methods that have spread and are very popular nowadays. Characterization and modelling techniques develop abreast of applications. The illustration is an optical microscope image of a self‐assembled photonic crystal where terraces of different thicknesses can be distinguished by their color. Near the terraces’ edges crystal orientation usually changes and can be appreciated by their color.
Objectives
Perampanel is an antiepileptic drug (AED) approved for add‐on treatment of focal seizures (with or without generalization) and primary generalized tonic‐clonic (GTC) seizures. Our ...objective was to explore the effectiveness and tolerability of adjunctive perampanel in patients with drug‐resistant myoclonic seizures, after failure of other AEDs.
Materials and methods
Retrospective, multicenter, observational study. Data were collected from individual patient clinical files and analysed using appropriate descriptive statistics and inferential analyses.
Results
Data are reported for 31 patients with mean age 36.4 years, who had an average epilepsy duration of 18 years, previously taken an average of 5.03 AEDs, and were taking an average of 2.4 AEDs on perampanel initiation. Patients exhibited myoclonic, GTC, absence, tonic and focal seizures, and most had associated cognitive decline and/or ataxia. Median time on perampanel was 6 months, most common dose was 6 mg, and overall retention rate was 84%. The responder rate for myoclonic seizures was defined via reduction of days with myoclonic seizures per month. At 6 months, 15 (48.4%) of the 31 patients were classed as myoclonic seizure responders, 10 (32.3%) were myoclonic seizure free, and 39% saw improvements in functional ability. Of 17 patients with GTC seizures at baseline, 9 (53%) were responders at 6 months, and 8 (47.1%) were seizure free. The most frequent side effects were psychiatric disorders, instability, dizziness and irritability, and mostly resolved with dose reduction. Five patients discontinued perampanel due to side effects.
Conclusions
Perampanel caused clinically meaningful improvements in patients with drug‐resistant myoclonic seizures. It was generally well tolerated, but psychiatric and neurological side effects sometimes required follow‐up and dose reduction.
We introduce p-MINFLUX, a new implementation of the highly photon-efficient single-molecule localization method with a simplified experimental setup and additional fluorescence lifetime information. ...In contrast to the original MINFLUX implementation, p-MINFLUX uses interleaved laser pulses to deliver the doughnut-shaped excitation foci at a maximum repetition rate. Using both static and dynamic DNA origami model systems, we demonstrate the performance of p-MINFLUX for single-molecule localization nanoscopy and tracking, respectively. p-MINFLUX delivers 1-2 nm localization precision with 2000-1000 photon counts. In addition, p-MINFLUX gives access to the fluorescence lifetime enabling multiplexing and super-resolved lifetime imaging. p-MINFLUX should help to unlock the full potential of innovative single-molecule localization schemes.
Summary
In addition to its well‐documented value in improving the diagnosis of skin tumours, dermoscopy is continually gaining appreciation in the field of general dermatology. Dermoscopy has been ...shown to facilitate the clinical recognition of several inflammatory and infectious diseases, as well as their discrimination from skin tumours. Moreover, recent data indicate that it might also be profitable in assessing the outcome and adverse effects of various treatments. Application of dermoscopy should follow the standard procedure of acquiring information from patient history and clinically evaluating the number, location and morphology of the lesion(s). Four parameters should be assessed when applying dermoscopy in the realm of inflammatory and infectious diseases: (i) morphological vascular patterns; (ii) arrangement of vascular structures; (iii) colours; and (iv) follicular abnormalities, while the presence of other specific features (clues) should also be evaluated. It must be underlined that dermoscopic findings should always be interpreted within the overall clinical context of the patient, integrated with information from the history and the macroscopic examination. With new evidence continuously being gathered, the dermatoscope gradually acquires a role similar to the stethoscope of general practitioners, becoming an irreplaceable clinical tool for dermatologists. In this article, we provide a succinct summary of existing data on dermoscopy in general dermatology. Practical tips are suggested, which can assist clinicians in profitably utilizing and applying the available knowledge in their everyday practice.
What's already known about this topic?
Dermoscopy has well‐documented value in improving the diagnosis of skin tumours.
It is continually gaining appreciation in the field of general dermatology.
What does this study add?
We provide a succinct summary of existing data on dermoscopy in general dermatology.
Practical tips are suggested, which can assist clinicians in profitably utilizing and applying the available knowledge in their everyday practice.
Summary
Background
The ideal means of identifying obesity in children and adolescents has not been determined although body mass index (BMI) is the most widely used screening tool.
Objective
We ...performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis of studies assessing the diagnostic performance of BMI to detect adiposity in children up to 18 years.
Methods
Data sources were EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane, Database of Systematic Reviews Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science and SCOPUS up to March 2013. Studies providing measures of diagnostic performance of BMI and using body composition technique for body fat percentage measurement were included.
Results
Thirty‐seven eligible studies that evaluated 53 521 patients, with mean age ranging from 4 to 18 years were included in the meta‐analysis. Commonly used BMI cut‐offs for obesity showed pooled sensitivity to detect high adiposity of 0.73 (confidence interval CI 0.67–0.79), specificity of 0.93 (CI 0.88–0.96) and diagnostic odds ratio of 36.93 (CI 20.75–65.71). Males had lower sensitivity. Moderate heterogeneity was observed (I2 = 48%) explained in meta‐regression by differences across studies in race, BMI cut‐off, BMI reference criteria (Center for Disease Control vs. International Obesity Task Force) and reference standard method assessing adiposity.
Conclusion
BMI has high specificity but low sensitivity to detect excess adiposity and fails to identify over a quarter of children with excess body fat percentage.
Wearable and skin electronics benefit from mechanically soft and stretchable materials to conform to curved and dynamic surfaces, thereby enabling seamless integration with the human body. However, ...such materials are challenging to process using traditional microelectronics techniques. Here, stretchable transistor arrays are patterned exclusively from solution by inkjet printing of polymers and carbon nanotubes. The additive, non-contact and maskless nature of inkjet printing provides a simple, inexpensive and scalable route for stacking and patterning these chemically-sensitive materials over large areas. The transistors, which are stable at ambient conditions, display mobilities as high as 30 cm
V
s
and currents per channel width of 0.2 mA cm
at operation voltages as low as 1 V, owing to the ionic character of their printed gate dielectric. Furthermore, these transistors with double-layer capacitive dielectric can mimic the synaptic behavior of neurons, making them interesting for conformal brain-machine interfaces and other wearable bioelectronics.
A comprehensive review of the single and sequential extraction schemes for metal fractionation in environmental samples such as soil and industrially contaminated soils, sewage sludge and sludge ...amended soils, road dust and run off, waste and miscellaneous materials along with other approaches of sequential extraction methods are being presented. A discussion on the application of chemometric methods in sequential extraction analysis is also being given. The study of single and sequential extraction methods for various reference materials are also being looked into. The review covers several aspects of the single and sequential extraction methodologies. The use of each reagents involved in these schemes are also discussed briefly. Finally the present upto date information by different workers in various fields of environmental geochemistry along with the possible future developments are also being outlined.
We introduce the fluctuating two-ray (FTR) fading model, a new statistical channel model that consists of two fluctuating specular components with random phases plus a diffuse component. The FTR ...model arises as the natural generalization of the two-wave with diffuse power (TWDP) fading model; this generalization allows its two specular components to exhibit a random amplitude fluctuation. Unlike the TWDP model, all the chief probability functions of the FTR fading model (PDF, CDF, and MGF) are expressed in closed-form, having a functional form similar to other state-of-the-art fading models. We also provide approximate closed-form expressions for the PDF and CDF in terms of a finite number of elementary functions, which allow for a simple evaluation of these statistics to an arbitrary level of precision. We show that the FTR fading model provides a much better fit than Rician fading for recent small-scale fading measurements in 28 GHz outdoor mm-wave channels. Finally, the performance of wireless communication systems over FTR fading is evaluated in terms of the bit error rate and the outage capacity, and the interplay between the FTR fading model parameters and the system performance is discussed. Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out in order to validate the obtained theoretical expressions.
T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CAR T cells) targeting human CD19 (hCD19) have shown clinical efficacy against B cell malignancies
. CAR T cells have been less effective against solid ...tumours
, in part because they enter a hyporesponsive ('exhausted' or 'dysfunctional') state
triggered by chronic antigen stimulation and characterized by upregulation of inhibitory receptors and loss of effector function. To investigate the function of CAR T cells in solid tumours, we transferred hCD19-reactive CAR T cells into hCD19
tumour-bearing mice. CD8
CAR
tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and CD8
endogenous tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes expressing the inhibitory receptors PD-1 and TIM3 exhibited similar profiles of gene expression and chromatin accessibility, associated with secondary activation of nuclear receptor transcription factors NR4A1 (also known as NUR77), NR4A2 (NURR1) and NR4A3 (NOR1) by the initiating transcription factor NFAT (nuclear factor of activated T cells)
. CD8
T cells from humans with cancer or chronic viral infections
expressed high levels of NR4A transcription factors and displayed enrichment of NR4A-binding motifs in accessible chromatin regions. CAR T cells lacking all three NR4A transcription factors (Nr4a triple knockout) promoted tumour regression and prolonged the survival of tumour-bearing mice. Nr4a triple knockout CAR tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes displayed phenotypes and gene expression profiles characteristic of CD8
effector T cells, and chromatin regions uniquely accessible in Nr4a triple knockout CAR tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes compared to wild type were enriched for binding motifs for NF-κB and AP-1, transcription factors involved in activation of T cells. We identify NR4A transcription factors as having an important role in the cell-intrinsic program of T cell hyporesponsiveness and point to NR4A inhibition as a promising strategy for cancer immunotherapy.
The goal of this paper is to examine the effect of inequality on crime rates in a unique context, Mexico's drug war. The analysis exploits an original dataset containing inequality and crime ...statistics on more than 2000 Mexican municipalities over a 20-year period. To uncover the causal effect of inequality on crime, we use an instrumental variable for the Gini coefficient that combines the initial income distribution at the municipality level with national trends. Our estimates indicate that a one-point increment in the Gini coefficient between 2007 and 2010 translates into an increase of more that 36% in the number of drug-related homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. The fact that the effect found during the drug war is substantially greater is likely caused by the rise in rents to be extracted through crime and an expansion in the employment opportunities in the illegal sector through the proliferation of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), accompanied by a decline in legal job opportunities and a reduction in the probability of being caught given the resource constraints faced by the law enforcement system. Combined, the latter factors made the expected benefits of criminal activity shift in a socially undesirable direction after 2007.
Sector Board: Poverty (POV)
•This paper examines the effect of inequality on crime rates during Mexico’s drug war.•It uses a dataset on inequality and crime for more than 2,000 Mexican municipalities.•It instruments for inequality through initial distribution and national income trends.•Finds that a one-point increment in inequality implies a 36 increase in the homicide rate.
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