Abstract
Atmospheric escape is a fundamental process that affects the structure, composition, and evolution of many planets. The signatures of escape are detectable on close-in, gaseous exoplanets ...orbiting bright stars, owing to the high levels of extreme-ultraviolet irradiation from their parent stars. The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a CubeSat mission designed to take advantage of the near-ultraviolet stellar brightness distribution to conduct a survey of the extended atmospheres of nearby close-in planets. The CUTE payload is a magnifying near-ultraviolet (2479–3306 Å) spectrograph fed by a rectangular Cassegrain telescope (206 mm × 84 mm); the spectrogram is recorded on a back-illuminated, UV-enhanced CCD. The science payload is integrated into a 6U Blue Canyon Technology XB1 bus. CUTE was launched into a polar, low-Earth orbit on 2021 September 27 and has been conducting this transit spectroscopy survey following an on-orbit commissioning period. This paper presents the mission motivation, development path, and demonstrates the potential for small satellites to conduct this type of science by presenting initial on-orbit science observations. The primary science mission is being conducted in 2022–2023, with a publicly available data archive coming online in 2023.
In Germany, emergency medical teams are staffed with physicians but evidence regarding their prehospital diagnostic accuracy remains poor.
To evaluate the out-of-hospital diagnostic accuracy of ...physician-staffed emergency medical teams (PEMTs).
A retrospective observational cohort study involving the Emergency Medical Service Bonn, Germany, from January to December 2004 and 2014 respectively. A total of 8346 patients underwent medical treatment by PEMTs, of which 1960 adult patients (inclusion criteria: ≥18 years of age, hospital diagnosis available) were included for further analysis. Reasons for non-inclusion: death on scene, outpatient, interhospital transfer, mental illness, false alarm, no hospital medical history available. The overall diagnostic accuracy (correct or false) of PEMTs was measured after matching the prehospital diagnosis with the corresponding diagnosis of the hospital. Secondary outcome measures were incidence of common PEMT diagnoses (acute coronary syndrome (ACS), dyspnea, stroke/intracerebral bleeding), recognition rate of a given disease by PEMTs, and prehospital diagnostic accuracy in elderly patients.
PEMT calls increased 2-fold over a decade (2004: n = 3151 vs. 2014: n = 5195). Overall diagnostic accuracy of PEMTs increased from 87.5% in 2004 to 92.6% in the year 2014. The incidence of common PEMT diagnoses such as ACS, dyspnea or stroke/intracerebral bleeding increased 2-fold from 2004 to 2014. The recognition rate of a given disease by the PEMT varied between 2004 and 2014: an increase was observed when a stroke/intracerebral bleeding was diagnosed (2004: 67% vs. 2014: 83%; p = 0.054), a decreased rate of recognition occurred when a syncope/collapse was diagnosed (2004: 81% vs. 2014: 56%; p = 0.007) and a sepsis appears to be a rare event for EMS personnel (2004: 0% vs. 2014: 23%). Linear regression analysis revealed that the prehospital diagnostic accuracy decreases in the elderly patient.
The overall prehospital diagnostic accuracy of PEMTs improved between the year 2004 and 2014 respectively. Our findings suggest that the incidence of common diseases (ACS, dyspnea stroke/intracerebral bleeding, sepsis) increased over a 10-year period. Diagnostic accuracy of different diseases varied but generally decreased in the elderly patient. Regular training of EMS personnel and public campaigns should be implemented to improve the diagnostic accuracy in the future.
Here, we present a unified protocol for the extraction, culture, and basic characterization of rat neural stem cells (NSCs) from all three canonical neurogenic niches in the brain and spinal cord. We ...describe tissue dissection and dissociation, cell culture, followed by EdU labeling and characterization of NSCs. By yielding considerable numbers of viable cells per animal, this protocol enables the establishment of substantial, long-term cell banks, thus offering cost and labor efficiency while significantly reducing the numbers of animals used.
Display omitted
•Extraction, culture, and characterization of adult neurogenic niche neural stem cells•Comparison of neural stem cells from the different neurogenic niches•High yield of viable neural stem cells obtainable per animal
Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.
Here, we present a unified protocol for the extraction, culture, and basic characterization of rat neural stem cells (NSCs) from all three canonical neurogenic niches in the brain and spinal cord. We describe tissue dissection and dissociation, cell culture, followed by EdU labeling and characterization of NSCs. By yielding considerable numbers of viable cells per animal, this protocol enables the establishment of substantial, long-term cell banks, thus offering cost and labor efficiency while significantly reducing the numbers of animals used.
Current preclinical models of neurodegenerative disease, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), can significantly benefit from
neuroengineering approaches that enable the selective study and ...manipulation of neurons, networks, and functional units of interest. Custom-designed compartmentalized microfluidic culture systems enable the co-culture of different relevant cell types in interconnected but fluidically isolated microenvironments. Such systems can thus be applied for ALS disease modeling, as they enable the recapitulation and study of neuromuscular junctions (NMJ) through co-culturing of motor neurons and muscle cells in separate, but interconnected compartments. These
systems are particularly relevant for investigations of mechanistic aspects of the ALS pathological cascade in engineered NMJ, as progressive loss of NMJ functionality may constitute one of the hallmarks of disease related pathology at early onset, in line with the dying back hypothesis. In such models, ability to test whether motor neuron degeneration in ALS starts at the nerve terminal or at the NMJ and retrogradely progresses to the motor neuron cell body largely relies on robust methods for verification of engineered NMJ functionality. In this study, we demonstrate the functionality of engineered NMJs within a microfluidic chip with a differentially perturbable microenvironment using a designer pseudotyped ΔG-rabies virus for retrograde monosynaptic tracing.
The adsorption properties of thin silica films on Mo(112) have been tailored by embedding single Pd atoms into the nanopores of the oxide material. The embedded Pd is able to anchor metal adatoms ...that would not bind to the inert silica surface otherwise. Several adsorption structures, e.g., Pd-Pd, Ag-Pd, and Au-Pd complexes, have been prepared in this way and analyzed with the STM and density functional theory. The binding strength of the different adatoms to the surface is determined by the number of electrons in their frontier orbitals, which introduce a repulsive interaction with the oxide electronic states and weaken the covalent bond to the Pd anchor.
Dramatic changes in the surface morphology have been observed during the oxidation of stepped NiAl(16,
14,
1) by LEED and STM. The initial sequence of identical (1
1
0) terraces is lifted in favor of ...large, triangular planes, whose mean size is determined by the mismatch-induced stress that accumulates in the thin alumina film. The asymmetry of the original step direction on NiAl(16,
14,
1) with respect to the orientation of the two alumina reflection domains favors the formation of one domain type, for which the stress relief via NiAl step edges is particularly efficient.
We have performed a series of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and static light scattering (SLS) experiments with dilute and semidilute solutions of polymer-like micelles formed by C16E6 in D2O ...at two different temperatures (T = 26 °C, 35 °C). The local structure has been investigated by applying indirect Fourier transformation and square-root deconvolution techniques. We demonstrate that the micelles maintain their locally cylindrical structure in this temperature regime despite the significant change in the spontaneous curvature of the surfactant. Detailed information on the micellar flexibility has been obtained from the SANS data by applying a nonlinear least-squares fitting procedure based upon a numerical expression for the single-chain scattering function of a worm-like chain with excluded volume effects. Particular attention has been given to the determination of quantitative numbers for the “intrinsic” persistence length as well as for the contribution from electrostatic interactions upon the addition of a small fraction of an ionic surfactant. The results have been compared with predictions from theoretical models for polyelectrolytes.
The present investigation focused on the numerical determination and subsequent optimisation of the temperature distribution during laser welding of thin metal structures made of duplex stainless ...steel (X2CrNiMoN22-5-3). This work describes a theoretical way to deliberately reduced the process-related high cooling rates using a numerically modelled two-beam-method. At first, the welding parameter-dependent temperature fields were analysed and validated without post-heating by modelling a flow body whose temperature field has reached the stationary state. Based on state-of-the-art-literature, the determination of temperature-dependent fluid and thermodynamic material data has been carried out. The keyhole, which is the central element of energy input during laser deep welding, was modelled as a solid wall. In addition, the most important influences of the complex molten pool flow, such as Marangoni convection, were included. Experimental welding tests and the preparation of metallographic microsections were used to validate the simulations without reheating. The second laser beam was numerically modelled using different intensity distributions. By means of this procedure, the simulations of three different reheating strategies were carried out.
PDF
