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Background The Long-ter M O U tcomes after the Multisystem Inflammatory S yndrome I n C hildren (MUSIC) study aims to characterize the frequency and time course of acute and long-term cardiac and non-cardiac sequelae in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated with COVID-19 (MIS-C), which are currently poorly understood. Methods This multicenter observational cohort study will enroll at least 600 patients Conclusion The MUSIC study, with the largest cohort of MIS-C patients and the longest follow-up period to date, will make an important contribution to our understanding of the acute cardiac and non-cardiac manifestations of MIS-C and the long-term effects of this public health emergency.

Introduction Older adults with late-onset hearing loss are at risk for cognitive decline. Our study addresses the question of whether cochlear implantation (CI) can counteract this potential influence. We investigated whether cognitive performance in older adults with severe and profound hearing loss improves 12 months after CI to a level comparable to controls with normal hearing, matched for age, sex, and education level. Design This cohort study was performed at two tertiary referral centers. The study included 29 patients, of age between 60 and 80 years, with adult-onset, severe to profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and indication for CI (study group), as well as 29 volunteers with age-adjusted hearing abilities, according to the norm curves of ISO-702 9:2000-01, (control group). Before CI and 12 months after CI, participants completed a neurocognitive test battery including tests of global cognition, verbal and figural episodic memory, and executive functions (attentional control, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility). Results Twelve months after CI, the performance of the study group improved significantly in global cognition, compared to the situation before CI. Differences in verbal episodic memory, figural episodic memory, and executive function were not significant. Moreover, the improvement of the study group was significantly larger only in global cognition compared to the control group. Noninferiority tests on the cognitive performances of the study group after CI revealed that comparable levels to normal hearing controls were reached only in global cognition, figural episodic memory (immediate recall), and attentional control. The improvement in global cognition was significantly associated with speech recognition 3 months after CI, but not with speech recognition 12 months after CI. Conclusion One year after CI, cognitive deficits in older individuals with adult-onset hearing loss, compared to normal-hearing peers, could only improve some cognitive skills.

The cortisol response to social evaluative stress has been well characterized. However, data regarding changes in gonadal hormones after stress are still scarce and inconsistent. The majority of studies have focused on testosterone reactivity to stress in men, while estradiol responses or gonadal stress responses in women have hardly been investigated. Furthermore, it has not been evaluated whether sex hormone reactivity to stress differs between men and women and the relationship between cortisol and gonadal reactivity to stress is still unclear. To address these questions, we re-analyzed saliva samples collected from 37 men and 30 women in their luteal cycle phase before and repeatedly after social-evaluative stress. Both, testosterone and estradiol levels were assessed. In both men and women, testosterone was significantly reduced after stress. Testosterone levels were at their lowest after 20 minutes, but did not return to baseline until 35 minutes after stress. Across the whole sample, estradiol was significantly increased after stress with two separate peaks after 15 and 30 minutes. Follow-up analyses revealed that 41 participants actually responded with a decrease in estradiol levels to stress, with lowest levels after 20 min, while the remaining participants responded with an increase in estradiol levels. These gonadal stress responses appear to be largely independent of the cortisol response to stress. These results demonstrate that the endocrinological stress response is not restricted to the HPA axis and stress responsivity of gonadal hormones is not simply driven by cortisol. Accordingly, the stress responsivity of gonadal hormones and their association to psychological variables is an additional avenue to explore in both men and women.

As a typical harmful social behaviour, tail biting is considered to be a welfare-reducing problem with economic consequences for pig production. Taking a computer-vision based approach, in this study, we have developed a novel method to automatically identify and locate tail-biting interactions in group-housed pigs. The method employs a tracking-by-detection algorithm to simplify the group-level behaviour to pairwise interactions. Then, a convolution neural network (CNN) and a recurrent neural network (RNN) are combined to extract the spatial-temporal features and classify behaviour categories. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated by quantifying the localisation accuracy and behaviour classification accuracy. The results demonstrate that the tracking-by-detection approach is capable of obtaining the trajectories of biters and victims with a localisation accuracy of 92.71%. The spatial-temporal features trained by CNN and RNN are robust and effective with a category accuracy of 96.25%. In total, our proposed method is capable to identify and locate 89.23% of tail-biting behaviour in group-housed pigs.

Objective: Cognitive performance of older adults with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and indication for cochlear implantation was evaluated compared to peers with age appropriate hea...

Contains fulltext : 237669.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Sleep spindles benefit declarative memory consolidation and are considered to be a biological marker for general cognitive abilities. However, the impact of sexual hormones and hormonal oral contraceptives (OCs) on these relationships are less clear. Thus, we here investigated the influence of endogenous progesterone levels of naturally cycling women and women using OCs on nocturnal sleep and overnight memory consolidation. Nineteen healthy women using OCs (M(Age) = 21.4, SD = 2.1 years) were compared to 43 healthy women with a natural menstrual cycle (follicular phase: n = 16, M(Age) = 21.4, SD = 3.1 years; luteal phase: n = 27, M(Age) = 22.5, SD = 3.6 years). Sleep spindle density and salivary progesterone were measured during an adaptation and an experimental night. A word pair association task preceding the experimental night followed by two recalls (pre-sleep and post-sleep) was performed to test declarative memory performance. We found that memory performance improved overnight in all women. Interestingly, women using OCs (characterized by a low endogenous progesterone level but with very potent synthetic progestins) and naturally cycling women during the luteal phase (characterized by a high endogenous progesterone level) had a higher fast sleep spindle density compared to naturally cycling women during the follicular phase (characterized by a low endogenous progesterone level). Furthermore, we observed a positive correlation between endogenous progesterone level and fast spindle density in women during the luteal phase. Results suggest that the use of OCs and the menstrual cycle phase affects sleep spindles and therefore should be considered in further studies investigating sleep spindles and cognitive performance.

Smartphone usage strongly increased in the last decade, especially before bedtime. There is growing evidence that short-wavelength light affects hormonal secretion, thermoregulation, sleep and alertness. Whether blue light filters can attenuate these negative effects is still not clear. Therefore, here, we present preliminary data of 14 male participants (21.93 ± 2.17 years), who spent three nights in the sleep laboratory, reading 90 min either on a smartphone (1) with or (2) without a blue light filter, or (3) on printed material before bedtime. Subjective sleepiness was decreased during reading on a smartphone, but no effects were present on evening objective alertness in a GO/NOGO task. Cortisol was elevated in the morning after reading on the smartphone without a filter, which resulted in a reduced cortisol awakening response. Evening melatonin and nightly vasodilation (i.e., distal-proximal skin temperature gradient) were increased after reading on printed material. Early slow wave sleep/activity and objective alertness in the morning were only reduced after reading without a filter. These results indicate that short-wavelength light affects not only circadian rhythm and evening sleepiness but causes further effects on sleep physiology and alertness in the morning. Using a blue light filter in the evening partially reduces these negative effects.

The very common condition of sinusitis is characterized by persistent inflammation of the nasal cavity, which contributes to chronic rhinosinusitis and morbidity of cystic fibrosis patients. Colonization by opportunistic pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa triggers inflammation that is exacerbated by defects in the innate immune response. Pathophysiological mechanisms underlying initial colonization of the sinuses are not well established. Despite their extensive use, current murine models of acute bacterial rhinosinusitis have not improved the understanding of early disease stages due to analytical limitations. In this study, a model is described that is technically simple, allows non-invasive tracking of bacterial infection, and screening of host-responses to infection and therapies. The model was modified to investigate longer-term infection and disease progression by using a less virulent, epidemic P. aeruginosa cystic fibrosis clinical isolate LESB65. Tracking of luminescent bacteria was possible after intranasal infections, which were sustained for up to 120 h post-infection, without compromising the overall welfare of the host. Production of reactive oxidative species was associated with neutrophil localization to the site of infection in this model. Further, host-defense peptides administered by Respimat® inhaler or intranasal instillation reduced bacterial burden and impacted disease progression as well as cytokine responses associated with rhinosinusitis. Thus, future studies using this model will improve our understanding of rhinosinusitis etiology and early stage pathogenesis, and can be used to screen for the efficacy of emerging therapies pre-clinically.

There is a critical need for more-effective treatments to combat multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections. Combination therapies are a promising strategy, especially when these enable existing clinical drugs to be repurposed as antibiotics. We examined the mechanisms of action and basis of innate Gram-negative resistance for the anthelmintic drug niclosamide and subsequently exploited this information to demonstrate that niclosamide and analogs kill Gram-negative bacteria when combined with antibiotics that inhibit drug efflux or permeabilize membranes. We confirm the synergistic potential of niclosamide in vitro against a diverse range of recalcitrant Gram-negative clinical isolates and in vivo in a mouse abscess model. We also demonstrate that nitroreductases can confer resistance to niclosamide but show that evolution of these enzymes for enhanced niclosamide resistance confers a collateral sensitivity to other clinical antibiotics. Our results highlight how detailed mechanistic understanding can accelerate the evaluation and implementation of new combination therapies., One avenue to combat multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria is the coadministration of multiple drugs (combination therapy), which can be particularly promising if drugs synergize. The identification of synergistic drug combinations, however, is challenging. Detailed understanding of antibiotic mechanisms can address this issue by facilitating the rational design of improved combination therapies. Here, using diverse biochemical and genetic assays, we examine the molecular mechanisms of niclosamide, a clinically approved salicylanilide compound, and demonstrate its potential for Gram-negative combination therapies. We discovered that Gram-negative bacteria possess two innate resistance mechanisms that reduce their niclosamide susceptibility: a primary mechanism mediated by multidrug efflux pumps and a secondary mechanism of nitroreduction. When efflux was compromised, niclosamide became a potent antibiotic, dissipating the proton motive force (PMF), increasing oxidative stress, and reducing ATP production to cause cell death. These insights guided the identification of diverse compounds that synergized with salicylanilides when coadministered (efflux inhibitors, membrane permeabilizers, and antibiotics that are expelled by PMF-dependent efflux), thus suggesting that salicylanilide compounds may have broad utility in combination therapies. We validate these findings in vivo using a murine abscess model, where we show that niclosamide synergizes with the membrane permeabilizing antibiotic colistin against high-density infections of multidrug-resistant Gram-negative clinical isolates. We further demonstrate that enhanced nitroreductase activity is a potential route to adaptive niclosamide resistance but show that this causes collateral susceptibility to clinical nitro-prodrug antibiotics. Thus, we highlight how mechanistic understanding of mode of action, innate/adaptive resistance, and synergy can rationally guide the discovery, development, and stewardship of novel combination therapies.

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a widespread, debilitating problem with poorly understood immunology. Here, we assess the host response to middle ear infection over the course of a month post-infection in a mouse model of CSOM and in human subjects with the disease. Using multiparameter flow cytometry and a binomial generalized linear machine learning model, we identified Ly6G, a surface marker of mature neutrophils, as the most informative factor of host response driving disease in the CSOM mouse model. Consistent with this, neutrophils were the most abundant cell type in infected mice and Ly6G expression tracked with the course of infection. Moreover, neutrophil-specific immunomodulatory treatment using the neutrophil elastase inhibitor GW 311616A significantly reduces bacterial burden relative to ofloxacin-only treated animals in this model. The levels of dsDNA in middle ear effusion samples are elevated in both humans and mice with CSOM and decreased during treatment, suggesting that dsDNA may serve as a molecular biomarker of treatment response. Together these data strongly implicate neutrophils in the ineffective immune response to P. aeruginosa infection in CSOM and suggest that immunomodulatory strategies may benefit drug-tolerant infections for chronic biofilm-mediated disease.

A novel mouse model of chronic ear infections is used to investigate antibiotic failure in humans., Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a neglected pediatric disease affecting 330 million worldwide for which no new drugs have been introduced for over a decade. We developed a mouse model with utility in preclinical drug evaluation and antimicrobial discovery. Our model used immune-competent mice, tympanic membrane perforation and inoculation with luminescent Pseudomonas aeruginosa that enabled bacterial abundance tracking in real-time for 100 days. The resulting chronic infection exhibited hallmark features of clinical CSOM, including inhibition of tympanic membrane healing and purulent ear discharge. We evaluated the standard care fluoroquinolone ofloxacin and demonstrated that this therapy resulted in a temporary reduction of bacterial burden. These data are consistent with the clinical problem of persistent infection in CSOM and the need for therapeutic outcome measures that assess eradication post-therapeutic endpoint. We conclude that this novel mouse model of CSOM has value in investigating new potential therapies.

INTRODUCTION: Post-operative length of stay (LOS) after the arterial switch operation (ASO) is variable. The association between pre-operative non-invasive measures of ventricular function and post-operative course has not been well established. The aims of this study were to (1) evaluate the relationship between pre-operative non-invasive measures of ventricular function and post-operative LOS and (2) evaluate the change in ventricular function after ASO. METHODS: Data were reviewed in consecutive ASO patients between 2010 and 2016. The primary outcome was post-operative LOS. Echocardiograms obtained during the pre-operative period and at the time of discharge were retrospectively analyzed using speckle-tracking echocardiography. Pearson’s correlation between patient-specific, pre-operative, and echocardiographic data versus post-operative LOS was assessed. RESULTS: Fifty-two patients were included in analyses, 39 neonates and 13 infants. Left ventricular (LV) longitudinal strain correlated with post-operative LOS for infants age > 28 days (r = 0.62, p = 0.03), but not for neonates (r = 0.14, p = 0.40). Operative age (r = − 0.42, p = 0.003), weight at surgery (r = − 0.48, p ≤ 0.001), and cardiopulmonary bypass time (r = 0.30, p = 0.045) also correlated with post-operative LOS. Standard 2D measures of ventricular function did not correlate with post-operative LOS. LV ejection fraction and longitudinal strain worsened post-operatively. CONCLUSION: Higher pre-operative LV longitudinal strain (representing worse LV function) is associated with increased post-operative LOS after ASO in infants > 28 days, but not in neonates. LV ejection fraction and longitudinal strain worsened after ASO. Future studies should assess the utility of performing STE in risk stratifying patients prior to ASO.

Microbial biofilms, which are elaborate and highly resistant microbial aggregates formed on surfaces or medical devices, cause two-thirds of infections and constitute a serious threat to public health. Immunocompromised patients, individuals who require implanted devices, artificial limbs, organ transplants, or external life support and those with major injuries or burns, are particularly prone to become infected. Antibiotics, the mainstay treatments of bacterial infections, have often proven ineffective in the fight against microbes when growing as biofilms, and to date, no antibiotic has been developed for use against biofilm infections. Antibiotic resistance is rising, but biofilm-mediated multidrug resistance transcends this in being adaptive and broad spectrum and dependent on the biofilm growth state of organisms. Therefore, the treatment of biofilms requires drug developers to start thinking outside the constricted "antibiotics" box and to find alternative ways to target biofilm infections. Here, we highlight recent approaches for combating biofilms focusing on the eradication of preformed biofilms, including electrochemical methods, promising antibiofilm compounds and the recent progress in drug delivery strategies to enhance the bioavailability and potency of antibiofilm agents.

Combined oral contraceptive (COC) use is associated with small, albeit significant, increases in mental symptom scores, predominantly irritability, depressed mood, and anxiety. Yet, randomized prospective trials are needed to better characterize the women at risk for COC-induced negative mood change. Thus, the primary aim of this sub-study to a placebo-controlled randomized trial was to determine whether COC use influences emotional interference by negative and positive stimuli. Secondly, we wanted to evaluate what factors would predict depressive symptoms at the end of the trial, taking personality factors, history of mental disorders and other demographic factors into account. Sixty-nine women were included, randomized to three cycles of treatment with a COC (1.5 mg estradiol and 2.5 mg nomegestrolacetate) or placebo. An emotional verbal Stroop task was used to measure interference of emotional stimuli, in which participants were asked to only name the color of a presented word, while ignoring the meaning of the word. Four different word categories were used; neutral, positive, depression, and anxiety. For the second aim of the study, rating on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale during the final days of the trial was used as outcome. We found no interaction between emotional verbal Stroop word category and treatment, indicating that COC treatment did not evoke any differences in emotional interference to the three word categories. Significant predictors for depressive symptoms at the end of the trial were trait anxiety at baseline and prior adverse mood effects by hormonal contraceptive use. Treatment (i.e. whether women had been treated with the COC or placebo) did not play a role in predicting depression scores at the end of the trial. In conclusion, we found no evidence that combined oral contraceptive use is associated with impaired cognitive-emotional processing. Instead, the main predictors of self-rated depression at the end of the trial were baseline trait anxiety and previous mental symptoms during hormonal contraceptive use.

With the antibiotic development pipeline running dry, many fear that we might soon run out of treatment options. High-density infections are particularly difficult to treat due to their adaptive multidrug-resistance and currently there are no therapies that adequately address this important issue. Here, a large-scale in vivo study was performed to enhance the activity of antibiotics to treat high-density infections caused by multidrug-resistant Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. It was shown that synthetic peptides can be used in conjunction with the antibiotics ciprofloxacin, meropenem, erythromycin, gentamicin, and vancomycin to improve the treatment outcome of murine cutaneous abscesses caused by clinical hard-to-treat pathogens including all ESKAPE (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae) pathogens and Escherichia coli. Promisingly, combination treatment often showed synergistic effects that significantly reduced abscess sizes and/or improved clearance of bacterial isolates from the infection site, regardless of the antibiotic mode of action. In vitro data suggest that the mechanisms of peptide action in vivo include enhancement of antibiotic penetration and potential disruption of the stringent stress response., Author summary There has been enormous publicity about the inexorable rise of resistance and the dearth of new therapies. However less attention has been placed on adaptively multidrug-resistant high density bacterial infections for which antibiotics are highly used but no effective therapies currently exist. Here we have provided new hope for this previously intractable class of infections as typified by abscess infections that are responsible for 3.2 million annual emergency room visits in the US alone. We show how to enhance the activity of antibiotics to treat multidrug-resistant Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, using peptides that target the bacterial stress response, persister-based resistance and the outer membrane permeability barrier. In particular we have employed a new bacterial subcutaneous abscess mouse model to demonstrate that: (a) 7 of the society’s most recalcitrant pathogens formed cutaneous abscesses and even when antibiotics were directly delivered into abscess tissues, they showed poor efficacy; (b) By combining antibiotics with the local administration of anti-biofilm peptides that target cellular (stringent) stress responses, we could pharmacologically treat the infection and reduce the severity of cutaneous abscesses; (c) This synergy was due to increased outer membrane permeability as well as the disruption of the conserved stringent stress response that controls virulence and antibiotic resistance, particularly due to so-called persisters. These peptides have therefore the potential to broaden our limited antibiotic arsenal for a group of extremely difficult to treat infections.

Chronic wounds are a growing clinical concern worldwide with only a few treatment options available to address the fundamental causes of non-healing wounds. There is increasing evidence that the colonization of chronic wounds by bacteria growing within biofilms complicates treatment with conventional antibiotics and prevents proper wound healing. Compounding the issue is a relative lack of appropriate animal models that accurately capture the etiology and clinical features of chronic wounds. In the present work, we outline the role of natural host defense peptides (HDPs) on the wound healing process and highlight the potential of synthetic HDP derivatives as novel therapeutic molecules to treat long-lasting wounds. In particular, we will summarize many of the animal models available to study chronic wound infections and discuss recent results that describe the efficacy of synthetic HDPs and their ability to promote wound closure in vivo. We propose that novel synthetic HDPs that are optimized for both anti-biofilm and wound healing properties could 1 day provide additional support to help treat chronic wounds and improve patient welfare.

Bifacial modules have the advantage of capturing sunlight from front as well as from rear surfaces, and therefore, they are able to produce larger amounts of energy, compared with standard (monofacial) modules. However, their performance depends on the spatial distribution of the irradiance incident on the rear module surface, which is strongly affected by several site-specific conditions, such as albedo, reflective surface size, module elevation, and tilt angle. In this study, we elaborate upon the individual and combined effects of these factors on the annual energy yield of stand-alone south-facing bifacial modules through simulations at two site locations with contrary climatic conditions. Following the optimization of the tilt angle of bifacial modules dependent on the site, albedo, and module elevation, we demonstrate that the annual energy yield of a bifacial module increases linearly with albedo, which shows a monotonically increasing but, in addition, saturating behavior versus reflective surface size, and increases up to a certain module elevation. Through the simultaneous consideration of these dependences, we suggest an optimal positioning of bifacial modules. Finally, we show that under these optimal conditions, bifacial modules can supply up to 25% more energy compared with standard modules.

To improve the effective utilisation of its supercomputing platforms, the New Zealand eScience Infrastructure (NeSI) offers, in addition to user support and the installation of a comprehensive software stack, a consultancy service to some of its users. Here we present lessons learned from this work and how additional improvements can be made to further enhance productivity of researchers on computing platforms.

Emitter performance is crucial for the efficiency of solar cells. A further increase of efficiency requires reducing recombination losses while keeping parasitic resistances and shadowing at a minimum. In silicon solar cells, recombination can be lowered by decreasing the emitter doping concentration; however, this comes at the cost of increasing contact and sheet resistances. Dopant segregation during nickel silicidation resolves this tradeoff since it allows ohmic contact formation to emitters with almost arbitrary doping profile and concentration. Here, we elaborate on using dopant segregation during silicidation and demonstrate contact formation, as well as a substantial performance improvement of silicon solar cells exhibiting a lowly doped emitter with a peak doping concentration of 6 × 10 $^{18}$ cm $^{-3}$ . Furthermore, we show that the small achievable contact resistances in principle allow a strong reduction of the contact area. In turn, this enables lowering the shadowing while, at the same time, decreasing the sheet resistance due to a larger number of front contacts that can be placed close to each other. Using PC1D simulations, we study the solar cell performance as a function of the emitter dopant concentration estimating the achievable efficiency increase when employing dopant segregation.

Men and women differ in their vulnerability to a variety of stress-related illnesses, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not well understood. This is likely due to a comparative dearth of neurobiological studies that assess male and female rodents at the same time, while human neuroimaging studies often don’t model sex as a variable of interest. These sex differences are often attributed to the actions of sex hormones, i.e. estrogens, progestogens and androgens. In this review, we summarize the results on sex hormone actions in the hippocampus and seek to bridge the gap between animal models and findings in humans. However, while effects of sex hormones on the hippocampus are largely consistent in animals and humans, methodological differences challenge the comparability of animal and human studies on stress effects. We summarise our current understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie sex-related differences in behavior and discuss implications for stress-related illnesses.

Selective emitter solar cells based on “screen-printed” metallization face still several hurdles for the mass production in industry due to process complexities demanding advanced fabrication techniques and precise alignment of the final contact step. To address this issue, we present a simple and economical approach involving only a single diffusion and a plasma etching step to form the self-aligned selective emitter (SASE) silicon solar cells. Particularly, a plasma etching step is used to reduce the thickness of homogeneous and heavily doped emitter, reducing doping concentration and thereby, increasing sheet resistance. In this paper, several distinctive characteristics of this cell concept are discussed such as; improved passivation quality of emitter by dry etching and electrical properties of screen-printed contacts, which were used as mask during etch-back process. Finally, a comparison of SASE solar cell with reference cells comprised of a standard homogeneous emitter is given. Since, there is no need for alignment in the selective emitter concept proposed, it appears to be an attractive solution for industrial cell fabrication.

Bifacial solar modules are becoming increasingly more attractive stimulated by the development of new solar cell structures enabling to capture solar insolation on both front and rear surfaces. The possibilities to be installed in the conventional south facing orientation or even vertically are further advantages. Although the potential of bifacial modules have been already shown in specific time intervals and for various ground albedos there is a lack in simulation studies up to now. In this study, we simulated the annual energy yield (AEY) of south facing bifacial modules using a rigorous calculation method of the ground reflected radiation reaching the rear module surface. The necessary tilt angle optimization is done incorporating the influence of module elevation and considering the inherent albedo coefficient. These simulations are able to reproduce measurement observations and show that at optimum tilt angles produced annual energy can be increased by 30% compared to a standard module simply by positioning modules two meters above ground instead of a close to ground installation. Furthermore, a linear relationship between albedo coefficient and AEY is demonstrated.

The aim of the present study was to identify, whether and how oral hormonal contraceptives (OCs) alter women's number processing. Behavioral performance and brain activation patterns (BOLD-response) of 14 OC-users were evaluated during two distinct numerical tasks (number comparison, number bisection) and compared to 16 men (high testosterone), and 16 naturally cycling women, once during their follicular (low hormone levels) and once during their luteal cycle phase (high progesterone). For both tasks, reliable sex differences and menstrual cycle dependent modulation have previously been described. If progestogenic effects of the synthetic progestins contained in OC play a predominant role, OC-users should be comparable to luteal women. If androgenic effects of the synthetic steroids exert the progestogenic actions, OC-users should be comparable to men. Likewise, if neither of the above are the case, the reduction of endogenous steroids by OCs should make OC-users comparable to follicular women. Our findings suggest that OC-users resemble follicular women in their behavioral performance, but show male-like brain activation patterns during both tasks. Analysis of brain–behavior relationships suggests that OC-users differ from naturally cycling women in the way they recruit their neural resources to deal with challenges of the tasks. We conclude that OCs, which are used by 100 million women worldwide, may have profound effects on cognition that have not been recognized so far.

Local dark current contributions of multicrystalline (mc) and cast-mono silicon (Si) solar cells were evaluated by using dark lock-in thermography (DLIT) measurements. The goal of these investigations was to evaluate the influence of the contact metallization on the efficiency. Both materials are treated by nearly the same solar cell process. Because of a special print design, the current density caused by the front-side and rear-side silver metallization can be measured separately, and their influence on the overall cell performance can be estimated. We measure an increase of the local saturation current density J01 by about 2.8 × 10-12 to 6.7 × 10-12A/cm2 at the soldering pads of the solar cell, compared with about 6 × 10-13 A/cm2 in the undisturbed regions. In the region of the front-side busbars, J01 increases locally by about 4.5 × 10-13 to 17.6 × 10-13A/cm2. The local depletion region recombination current, as well as the ohmic shunt current, is not affected by the screen-printed contacts. The bulk and back surface recombination in mc-Si within regions with a low amount of defects are almost the same as in cast-mono material. However, in regions of recombination active bulk defects, a significant increase in the recombination activity at the front contact was observed.

Collaboration across research, government, academic, and private sectors is integrating more than 70 scientific computing libraries and applications through a tailorable provenance framework, empowering scientists to exchange and examine data in novel ways.

This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a joystick-controlled camera holder (Soloassist; Actormed, Barbing, Germany) in laparoscopic cholecystectomy as so-called solo-surgery compared with the standard operation. Of the 123 patients included in this study, 63 underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy using the Soloassist system and were compared with 60 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy with human assistance. The two groups did not differ significantly in terms of age, sex, body mass index, or American Society of Anesthesiology classification. The surgeons were divided into those highly experienced and those experienced with the new camera holder. The operation times were measured, including setup and dismantling of the system. The assessment also included complications, postoperative hospital stay, measurement of human resources in terms of personnel/minutes/operation, and subjective evaluation of the camera-guiding device by the surgeons. The hospital stay and operation-related complications were not enhanced in the Soloassist group. The differences in core operation time (p = 0.008) and total operating time (p = 0.001) significantly favored the human assistant. Whereas the absolute duration of surgery was longer, the relative operating time (in personnel/minutes/operation) was significantly shorter (p

Electroluminescence (EL) imaging technique has become a powerful and fast characterization tool providing spatially-resolved information about electrical, optical and material properties of solar cells. When applying a forward bias the solar cell emits infrared radiation whose intensity is governed by the minority carrier lifetime in the bulk and thus decreases considerably in the vicinity of intrinsic defects and cracks. In this work the influence of micro cracks and the progression of already existing cracks in multicrystalline silicon solar cells are investigated. The impact of these defects on the electrical solar cell parameters is studied in the frame of the two-diode model. Statistically proven, it was found that beside a decrease in EL intensity the short circuit current Jsc and the efficiency η also will be reduced, whereas a strong increase in the recombination current density j02 is observed. This work on crack detection and the research on crack-forming will help to explain the reasons behind the loss of efficiency seen in long-term performance analyses

In this paper, the gettering potential of phosphorus dopant pastes used in single-sided screen-printing processes is investigated including the consequences for essential solar cell parameters. These results are supported by minority carrier lifetime measurements with the quasi-steady-state photoconductance method and certified by the analysis of the recombination current density in solar cells on mc-Si wafers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The development of a new parallel framework for integrated modeling of tokamak plasmas is a primary objective of the SciDAC Framework Architecture for Core-Edge Transport Simulations (FACETS) project. The FACETS code will be used to predict the performance of tokamak discharges and to optimize tokamak discharge scenarios. Novel parallel numerical algorithms and solvers have been developed in the FACETS project in order to simulate the multi-scale dynamics of tokamak plasmas. The status of development of modules for anomalous transport in the FACETS code is described in this paper. Mechanisms that are used for coupling 1D anomalous transport in the plasma core together with 2D transport in the plasma edge (in near separatrix and scrape-off-layer regions) are considered. Results of the first verification studies based on predictive modeling of several analytical and experimental equilibria are presented.

When building large scientific codes, you might have to mix different programming languages. The authors show how to bridge the interoperability gap between Fortran 90/95 and C, and from C to other languages, with working code examples.

Powerline communication (PLC) offers the chance for distribution grid operators to use the existing energy cable grid simultaneously as an infrastructure for communication purpose. In this paper practical examinations under realistic conditions are performed in the distribution grid laboratory of the Center for Grid Integration and Storage Technologies of RWTH Aachen University. Measurements with different photovoltaic (PV) inverters demonstrate the robustness of state of the art G3-PLC modems against additional attenuation and emission of noise of PV inverters in operation. Furthermore the adaptive reconnection ability of these modems is pointed out for smart grid application.

Fast wave (FW) studies of mode conversion (MC) processes at the ion–ion hybrid layer in toroidal plasmas must capture the disparate scales of the FW and mode converted ion Bernstein and ion cyclotron waves. Correct modeling of the MC layer requires resolving wavelengths on the order of k⊥ρi∼1 which leads to a scaling of the maximum poloidal mode number, Mmax, proportional to 1/ρ* (ρ*≡ρi/L). The computational resources needed scale with the number of radial (Nr), poloidal (Nθ), and toroidal (Nφ) elements as Nr * Nφ * Nθ3. Two full wave codes, a massively-parallel-processor (MPP) version of the TORIC-2D finite Larmor radius code [M. Brambilla, Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 41, 1 (1999)] and also an all orders spectral code AORSA2D [E. F. Jaeger et al., Phys. Plasmas 9, 1873 (2002)], have been developed which for the first time are capable of achieving the resolution and speed necessary to address mode conversion phenomena in full two-dimensional (2-D) toroidal geometry. These codes have been used in conjunction with theory and experimental data from the Alcator C-Mod [I. H. Hutchinson et al., Phys. Plasmas 1, 1511 (1994)] to gain new understanding into the nature of FWMC in tokamaks. The massively-parallel-processor version of TORIC is also now capable of running with sufficient resolution to model planned lower hybrid range of frequencies experiments in the Alcator C-Mod.

The increasing complexity and cost pressure of advanced radios for mobile communication devices dictates further integration of front-end components into the transceiver (TRX) in order to reduce bill-of-material (BoM), printed-circuit-board (PCB) area and system cost. In [1] a fully-digital polar modulator is presented, which enables a SAW-less 2G/3G transmitter, in particular by solving the transmitter (TX) noise in receive (RX) band issues at various duplex distances (45/80/190/400MHz). Removing the TX SAW filter by adopting innovative transmitter topologies not only reduced the amount of external components, but also paved the way for monolithic power amplifier (PA) integration into the CMOS transceiver IC. This step poses additional challenges in terms of RX-TX cross-talk, self-heating and remodulation (unwanted frequency modulation of local oscillator by modulated output signal, very critical in IQ direct modulators, much less pronounced in polar modulators). The first integration of a PA with external matching network into a TRX SoC product has been presented in [2] for DECT cordless phones using GFSK modulation. PAs are also successfully integrated into a Wi-Fi TRX SoC, delivering linear transmit power up to 22dBm [3]. Following these earlier examples, this work proposes to fully integrate a PA capable of delivering more than 0.5W of linear RF power for the demanding 3G cellular applications.

The ongoing trend to decrease the wafer thickness in the fabrication of silicon solar cells increases the number of possible cracks. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the influence of cracks on solar cells is necessary. In this work, we investigate silicon solar cells with cracks by employing three camera-based spatially-resolved techniques and use the data to quantitatively calculate local-current voltage parameters. Cracks mainly influence the recombination current density of a silicon solar cell. This fact is clearly shown by drastically increased recombination in the space charge region. This recombination reduces parameters like fill factor, open circuit voltage and the cell efficiency. The comparison of the solar cell data before and after the formation of cracks shows a 0.2 % absolute efficiency loss in the global current-voltage parameters and up to 1 % absolute efficiency loss in the local current-voltage analysis at the crack positions.

Objectives The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether the arithmetic achievement of children with cochlear implants (CI) was lower or comparable to that of their normal hearing peers and to identify predictors of arithmetic achievement in children with CI. In particular we related the arithmetic achievement of children with CI to nonverbal IQ, reading skills and hearing variables. Methods 23 children with CI (onset of hearing loss in the first 24 months, cochlear implantation in the first 60 months of life, atleast 3 years of hearing experience with the first CI) and 23 normal hearing peers matched by age, gender, and social background participated in this case control study. All attended grades two to four in primary schools. To assess their arithmetic achievement, all children completed the “Arithmetic Operations” part of the “Heidelberger Rechentest” (HRT), a German arithmetic test. To assess reading skills and nonverbal intelligence as potential predictors of arithmetic achievement, all children completed the “Salzburger Lesetest” (SLS), a German reading screening, and the Culture Fair Intelligence Test (CFIT), a nonverbal intelligence test. Results Children with CI did not differ significantly from hearing children in their arithmetic achievement. Correlation and regression analyses revealed that in children with CI, arithmetic achievement was significantly (positively) related to reading skills, but not to nonverbal IQ. Reading skills and nonverbal IQ were not related to each other. In normal hearing children, arithmetic achievement was significantly (positively) related to nonverbal IQ, but not to reading skills. Reading skills and nonverbal IQ were positively correlated. Hearing variables were not related to arithmetic achievement. Conclusions Children with CI do not show lower performance in non-verbal arithmetic tasks, compared to normal hearing peers.

Non-uniform voltage distribution across the electrode area results in inhomogeneous thin-film RF plasma deposition in large-area reactors. In this work, a two-dimensional analytic model for the calculation of the voltage distribution across the electrode area is presented. The results of this model are in good agreement with measurements performed without plasma at 13.56 MHz and 70 MHz in a large-area reactor. The principal voltage inhomogeneities are caused by logarithmic singularities in the vicinity of RF connections and not by standing waves. These singularities are only described by a two-dimensional model and cannot be intuitively predicted by analogy to a one-dimensional case. Plasma light emission measurements and thickness homogeneity studies of a-Si:H deposited films show that the plasma reproduces these voltage inhomogeneities. Improvement of the voltage uniformity is investigated by changing the number and position of the RF connections.

Significant improvement in screen-printing technology and the advancement in commercial Ag pastes has attracted considerable attention of PV community due to the possibility to contact lowly doped emitters to boost cell efficiencies without need of complex processing steps and device structures (eg. selective emitter solar cell). In this paper, our focus is on high ohmic emitters (Rsheet ~ 100 Ω/sq.) formed using different approaches. These emitters possess either high doping level (Ns ~ 2.5 × 1020 cm-3) and are shallow in depth or a very low doping level (Ns ~ 1.6 × 1019 cm-3) and are deeper/Gaussian in nature. Thermal oxidation processes have been used to optimise such emitter profiles. Hence emitter formation and passivation was accomplished in a single step. By changing the oxidation temperature surface concentration significantly decreases while the emitter depth increases. The solar cells of this investigation were fabricated on large area p-type Cz-Si wafers and have been screen-printed with commercially available Ag paste at front and full area Al-BSF at rear. Despite the low doping levels, all solar cells found to have a very good ohmic contact (FF > 78%). The highest cell efficiency for this simple and low cost approach, featuring low temperature oxide (LTO) and SiNx stack at front is 18,33% with a Voc of 640 mV, Jsc of 37,03 mA/cm2 and a fill factor of 79,14%.

Recently, the demand for non-destructive contact-free measurement tools which are able to measure conductivity distributions at spatial resolutions down to a few micrometres has strongly increased. This demand is caused by an increased application of micron-scale doping areas in solar cells (e.g. selective emitter structures fabricated by laser-doping [1]) and further semiconductor applications. Although, scanning-type (AFM-based) microscope solutions have been reported even with resolutions down to 100 nm [2, 3] a main drawback of this methods still is the limitation to small scan areas and (optically) flat samples. Several optical solutions (VIS or IR) like the recently presented confocal microphotoluminescence may offer micron-scale resolution and applicability to large-scale samples but they also suffer from strong scattering artefacts on rough samples and cross-sensitivity to carrier-lifetime. This is leading to data misinterpretations on samples with inhomogeneous carrier-lifetime distributions like for example present on laser-processed (locally melted and re-crystallized) surfaces. In this work a recently introduced approach based on the photoconductive (PC) near-field detection of terahertz (THz) light transmission [4] is demonstrated for the first time for sheet conductivity imaging on rough laser-doped multicrystalline silicon samples featuring doping microstructures.

First photo-conductive near-field probes combining THz generation, detection, transmission and resonant focusing element in a single micro-structured cantilever device are presented and applied to free-carrier density imaging applications in semiconductor (solar) material analytics.

This paper presents a novel method for video-based traffic state detection on motorways performed on smart cameras. Camera calibration parameters are obtained from the known length of lane markings. Mean traffic speed is estimated from Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) optical flow method using a robust outlier detection. Traffic density is estimated using a robust statistical counting method. Our method has been implemented on an embedded smart camera and evaluated under different road and illumination conditions. It achieves a detection rate of more than 95% for stationary traffic.

We have investigated the potential to accelerate three-dimensional numeric simulation of silicon solar cell using thread parallelism. The device simulated is a rear side passivated cell with rear point contacts (PERC). The optical and electrical behaviour of the device was simulated with Sentaurus Device (formerly dessis). We show that the simulation run-time on a four socket Opteron 6168 machine is reduced down to 6% compared to the run-time without thread parallelism. Furthermore, limits of time reduction by varying the number of threads up to 48 are studied. Thereby, the number of threads for the optimum use of the hardware resources is determined.

The continuous increase of solar cell efficiencies is related to a large extent to a number of device structure improvements such as the introduction of selective emitters, selective front surface fields (FSF) or local back surface fields (BSF). These structures allow even more complex solar cell designs like passivated emitter and rear contacts/locally diffused (PERC/PERL), metal/emitter wrap through (MWT/EWT) or interdigitated back contact (IBC) cells. All these designs exhibit three-dimensional (3D) doping profiles that are mostly processed with diffusion and are thus not directly visible. In this paper we present a method to characterize these non-visible emitters, FSF and BSF structures in a two-dimensional (2D) camera based spatially-resolved technique, which is based on the illuminated lock-in thermography (ILIT) and free carrier absorption/emission (FCA/FCE). While this technique, also referred to as carrier density imaging (CDI) [1] or infrared lifetime mapping (ILM) [2] and usually used to investigate the wafer material quality, has already been used to investigate phosphorus diffused selective emitter structures [5],[6], here we present to the best of our knowledge the first results of aluminum (Al) alloyed emitters, selective FSF and local Al-BSF structures measured with this method. All spatially-resolved structures were matched with their doping profiles measured with electrochemical capacitance voltage (ECV) measurements. The approach appears very suitable for an in-situ process control of structured emitters, FSFs and BSFs. In principle, patterns with dimensions down to 5 µm can be resolved due to the detected wavelengths (λ) of 3 – 5 µm. We present clearly visible structures with dimensions down to 120 µm on monocrystalline Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) with a lateral resolution of 30 µm per pixel due to our camera setup. This is suitable for an automatic alignment during contact formation and offers the possibility of quantitative measurements.

A novel level of service (LOS) estimation approach based on the extraction of three local visual features is presented. The feature set comprises KLT motion vectors and Sobel edges, and is fed into a Gaussian radial-basis-function (GRBF) network to classify the prevailing LOS. The whole approach is designed and implemented to run on smart cameras in real-time and has been evaluated with a comprehensive set of real-world training and test video data from a national motorway. The evaluations in daylight environments have shown an average accuracy of LOS classification of 86.2% on an Atom-based smart camera, with a maximum reachable processing frame rate of 12.5 frames/sec. Incorrect classified samples differed from the ground truth by only one level. The comparisons are done with observation data from sensors utilizing a combination of Doppler radar, ultrasound, and passive infrared technologies.