Long-term application potential of urban air mobility complementing public transport: an upper Bavaria example

In this paper, the required models and methods to analyze and quantify the potential demand for urban air mobility (UAM) complementing public transport and possible impacts were defined and applied to the Munich Metropolitan region. An existing agent-based transport model of the study area were used and extended to cover socio-demographic changes up to the year 2030 and intermodal UAM services. An incremental logit model for UAM was derived to simulate demand for this new mode. An airport access model was developed as well. Three different UAM networks with different numbers of vertiports were defined. Sensitivity studies of ticket fare and structure, flying vehicle cruise speed, passenger process times at vertiports and different Urban Air Mobility networks sizes were performed. For the reference case, UAM accounts for a modal share of 0.5%. The absolute UAM demand is concentrated on very short routes; hence, UAM vehicle flight speed variation shows low UAM demand impacts. Kilometer-based fare, number of UAM vehicles per vertiport and passenger process times at vertiports show a significant impact on UAM demand.

Myelodysplastic syndromes without peripheral monocytosis but with evidence of marrow monocytosis share clinical and molecular characteristics with CMML

MDS patients may present with monocytic marrow proliferation not fulfilling criteria for CMML. We analyzed MDS patients with or without a marrow monocytic proliferation by following up the amount of monocytic proliferation and characterizing their molecular profile. 315 MDS patients of Duesseldorf MDS registry were divided into two groups: A) 183 patients with monocytic esterase positive cells in marrow and monocytes between 101 and 900/μl in blood and B) 132 patients without monocytic esterase positive cells in marrow and monocytes in blood ≤100/μl. Twenty patients of each group were screened with regard to ASXL1, TET2, RUNX1, SETBP1, NRAS, and SRSF2 using Illumina myeloid panel. Group A patients were older, had significantly higher WBC, hemoglobin levels, neutrophils and platelets. CMML evolution rates were 4.9% and 1.5%, respectively (p=n.s.). TET2, NRAS and SRFS2 mutation frequencies were higher in group A and four patients had coexisting TET2 and SRFS2 mutation, which was shown to be characteristic but not specific for CMML. MDS patients with marrow monocytic proliferation have a more CMML-like pheno- and genotype and develop CMML more often. Those patients could potentially be very early stages of CMML or represent a CMML-like myeloid neoplasma with marrow adherence of the monocytic cell population.

[Dying at Life's Beginning]

AIM

When parents-to-be are faced with a terminal prenatal diagnosis, they are confronted with the decision either to continue the pregnancy or to terminate it at an advanced stage. This difficult decision is intimately affected by the experience of the inevitability of loss, and ethical dilemmas posed in this usually completely unexpected situation. Studies indicate that perinatal child loss due to lethal foetal anomalies is a major life event and a source of serious psychological issues, which can last for many years after the experience. Moreover, it has been shown that care for bereaved parents, if guided by their needs, can ease their burden, regardless of whether they choose to end or continue the pregnancy. The aim of this study is to inspect current practices of counselling and support of affected families and develop practical guidelines for health and social professionals involved.

METHODS

A sample of 32 parents in the German-speaking part of Switzerland was investigated between December 2012 and March 2014. Semi-structured problem-centred interviews were conducted, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed.

RESULTS

4 main time periods and 6 themes were identified by participants ranging from diagnosis until birth: "shock", "choices and dilemmas", "taking responsibility", "still being pregnant", "saying goodbye/letting go" and "planning the future". However, findings reflect critical points of care and showed gaps not only between emphasising time periods but also between affected parents' and involved professionals' views. This article reports the findings from the parents.

CONCLUSION

This study provided new insights into parental responses when they are confronted with a fatal prenatal diagnosis. The results contribute towards rethinking current practices in midwifery and other healthcare during pregnancy, birth and puerperium as well as the palliative care of the child.

[Transcultural prevention of alcohol-related disorders : effects of a culture- and migration-sensitive approach in elderly migrants with respect to attitudes and behavior: a cluster randomized controlled trial]

BACKGROUND

For migrants who are older than 50, alcohol frequently becomes a problem. Simultaneously alcohol-related prevention measures only reach this group insufficiently. Therefore, a transcultural concept for preventing alcohol-related disorders in elderly (≥ 45 years) migrants has been developed.

METHOD

The transcultural concept, which consisted of a prevention event as well as a cultural and language-sensitive information booklet, was evaluated in a cluster-randomized controlled trial (n = 310 immigrants). As a control condition there was a prevention event with materials from Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen (German Centre for Addiction Issues). Data were obtained before and after the event, as well as after 6 months. All materials were available both in German and in Russian, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.

RESULTS

Directly after the event, as well as 6 months thereafter, the transcultural approach was rated significantly better than the general prevention event. 73.4 % of the participants read the cultural and migration-sensitive booklet, whereas only 21.2 % in the control condition (p = 0.0001). Furthermore, significantly more participants of the transcultural approach reported a reduced alcohol consumption (49.4 vs. 16.7 %; p = 0.004) after 6 months.

CONCLUSION

The consideration of diversity with respect to cultural, migration-related, socio demographic und linguistic aspects improves the effectiveness of prevention measures.

In silico study of structural and geometrical requirements of natural sesquiterpene lactones with trypanocidal activity

Chagas' disease, caused by the intracellular protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is one of the most serious health problems throughout South America. Despite the progress that has been made in the study of its biochemistry and physiology, more efficient chemotherapies to control this parasitic infection are still lacking. In this paper we report the trypanocidal and cytotoxic activities of a series of sesquiterpene lactones, isolated from Asteraceae medicinal plants. The significant trypanocidal activity and high selectivity indexes found for many of the compounds evaluated, prompted us to undertake a quantitative structure-activity relationship study. A model using 3D molecular descriptors allowed us to set up a high correlation of the observed activity and the atomic spatial arrangement of these sesquiterpene lactones closely related to steric parameters.

Invited review article: technology for attosecond science

We describe a complete technological system at Imperial College London for Attosecond Science studies. The system comprises a few-cycle, carrier envelope phase stabilized laser source which delivers sub 4 fs pulses to a vibration-isolated attosecond vacuum beamline. The beamline is used for the generation of isolated attosecond pulses in the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) at kilohertz repetition rates through laser-driven high harmonic generation in gas targets. The beamline incorporates: interferometers for producing pulse sequences for pump-probe studies; the facility to spectrally and spatially filter the harmonic radiation; an in-line spatially resolving XUV spectrometer; and a photoelectron spectroscopy chamber in which attosecond streaking is used to characterize the attosecond pulses. We discuss the technology and techniques behind the development of our complete system and summarize its performance. This versatile apparatus has enabled a number of new experimental investigations which we briefly describe.

Enhancement of high harmonics from plasmas using two-color pump and chirp variation of 1 kHz Ti:sapphire laser pulses

We have investigated resonance effects in high-order harmonic generation (HHG) within laser-produced plasmas. We demonstrate a significantly improved harmonic yield by using two-color pump-induced enhancement and a 1 kHz pulse repetition rate. Together with an increased HHG output, the even harmonics in the cutoff region were enhanced with respect to odd harmonics. We report the observation of a resonance-induced growth in intensity of 20th harmonic in silver plasma (2×), 26th harmonic in vanadium plasma (4×), and 28th harmonic in chromium plasma (5×).