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Die Transplantation mesenchymaler pluripotenter Zellen zur Regeneration von Knorpelschaden wurde aufgrund gesetzlicher Reglementierungen bisher hauptsachlich in ausereuropaischen Landern durchgefuhrt. Adipogene Stammzellen konnen in der stromal-vaskularen Fraktion (SVF) gefunden werden und haben vergleichbare immunmodulatorische und antiinflammatorische Eigenschaften zu Stammzellen, welche im Knochenmark vorkommen. Der unkomplizierte Zugang und die geringe Entnahmemorbiditat machen die Therapie mit SVF zur einer besonders interessanten Therapieoption fur die Behandlung der Arthrose. Die Studie untersucht, ob die Infiltration des Hoffa-Fettkorpers mit SVF bei Patienten mit Gonarthrose eine effektive und sichere Therapieoption darstellt. Des Weiteren werden die Anzahl und Vitalitat der injizierten Zellen sowie die klinische Wirksamkeit evaluiert. Es handelt sich um eine prospektive Fallserie, in der13 Patienten im Alter von 55–88 Jahren mit einem Kellgren-Lawrence-Score bis 3 eine Infiltration mit SVF in den Hoffa’schen Fettkorper erhalten. Die Anzahl und Vitalitat der Zellen werden mit einem Zellzahler gemessen. Das klinische Ergebnis wird mit der visuellen Analogskala (VAS) fur Schmerzempfindung und dem Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) mit einer geplanten Follow-up-Periode von 2 Jahren uberpruft. Auswertbare, vollstandige Verlaufe uber 6 Monate liegen bei 13 Patienten vor. Es wurden 3,21 E + 07 ± 2,45 E + 07 Zellen injiziert. Der durchschnittliche Anteil an vitalen Zellen betrug 78 ± 9 %. Nach 6 Monaten konnte eine signifikante Verbesserung der VAS und der jeweiligen Subskalen des KOOS im Vergleich zum Basiswert beobachtet werden. Es traten keine Komplikationen oder Nebenwirkungen auf. Diese ersten Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Behandlung mit SVF eine sichere Therapieoption darstellt, welche das Potenzial hat, die durch Kniegelenksarthrose entstehenden/entstandenen Schmerzen zu lindern und die Funktion signifikant zur verbessern. Die Zellzahl und Vitalitat der Zellen liegen im erwarteten und bisher publizierten Bereich.

Leukodystrophies are a group of neurodegenerative genetic disorders that affect approximately 1 in 7500 individuals. Despite therapeutic progress in individual leukodystrophies, guidelines in neurologic care are sparse and consensus among physicians and caregivers remains a challenge. At patient advocacy meetings hosted by Hunter’s Hope from 2016-2018, multidisciplinary experts and caregivers met to conduct a literature review, identify knowledge gaps and summarize best practices regarding neurologic care. Stages of severity in leukodystrophies guided recommendations to address different levels of need based on a newly defined system of disease severity. Four core neurologic domains prioritized by families were identified and became the focus of this guideline: sleep, pain, seizures/epilepsy, and language/cognition. Based on clinical severity, the following categories were used: presymptomatic, early symptomatic, intermediate symptomatic, and advanced symptomatic. Across the leukodystrophies, neurologic care should be tailored to stages of severity while accounting for unique aspects of every disease and multiple knowledge gaps present. Standardized tools and surveys can help guide treatment but should not overburden families.

Cortical tubers associated with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) are potential epileptic foci that are often amenable to resective or ablative surgeries, and controlling seizures at a younger age may lead to improved functional outcomes. MRI-guided laser interstitial thermal therapy (MRgLITT) has become a popular minimally invasive alternative to traditional craniotomy. Benefits of MRgLITT include the ability to monitor the ablation in real time, a smaller incision, shorter hospital stay, reduced blood loss, and reduced postoperative pain. To place the laser probe for LITT, however, stereotaxy is required—which classically involves head fixation with cranial pins. This creates a relative minimum age limit of 2 years old because it demands a mature skull and fused cranial sutures. A novel technique is presented for the application of MRgLITT in a 6-month-old infant for the treatment of epilepsy associated with TSC. To the authors’ knowledge this is the youngest patient treated with laser ablation. The authors used a frameless navigation technique with a miniframe tripod system and intraoperative reference points. This technique expands the application of MRgLITT to younger patients, which may lead to safer surgical interventions and improved outcomes for these children.

The Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Tubingen (IAAT) has a long-term experience in developing and building space-qualified imaging and photon counting microchannel-plate (MCP) detectors, which are sensitive in the ultraviolet wavelength range. Our goal is to achieve high quantum efficiency and spatial resolution, while maintaining solar blindness and low-noise characteristics. Our flexible detector design is currently tailored to the specific needs of three missions: For the ESBO DS (European Stratospheric Balloon Observatory – Design Study) we provide a sealed detector to the STUDIO instrument (Stratospheric Ultraviolet Demonstrator of an Imaging Observatory), a 50 cm telescope with a UV imager for operation at an altitude of 37-41 km. In collaboration with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics we plan a space mission with a CubeSat-sized farultraviolet spectroscopic imaging instrument, featuring an open version of our detector. A Chinese mission, led by the Purple Mountain Observatory, comprises a multi-channel imager using open and sealed detector versions. Our MCP detector has a cesium activated p-doped gallium-nitride photocathode. Other photocathode materials like cesium-telluride or potassium-bromide could be used as an alternative. For the sealed version, the photocathode is operated in semi-transparent mode on a MgF2 window with a cut-off wavelength of about 118 nm. For missions requiring sensitivity below this cut-off, we are planning an open version. We employ a coplanar cross-strip anode and advanced low-power readout electronics with a 128-channel charge-amplifier chip. This publication focuses on the progress concerning the main development challenges: the optimization of the photocathode parameters and the sophisticated detector electronics.

Immunodysregulation, polyendocrinopathy, and enteropathy, X-linked (IPEX) syndrome is an autoimmune condition caused by mutations in the Forkhead Box P3 ( FOXP3 ) gene, which maps to chromosome Xp11.23 (OMIM #304790).1 It typically presents within the first year of life with watery diarrhea, eczematous dermatitis, and endocrinopathy (most commonly diabetes mellitus).1 Most children have other autoimmune phenomena including Coombs-positive anemia, thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and tubular nephropathy.1 Bone marrow transplantation is the only definitive cure for IPEX syndrome.2 Neurologic involvement in IPEX syndrome has not been well characterized in the literature, based on a current Ovid MEDLINE search. Without aggressive immunosuppression or bone marrow transplantation, the majority of affected boys die within the first 1 to 2 years of life from metabolic derangements or sepsis.1 Diagnosis is based on clinical features and whole exome sequencing that reveals a pathogenic FOXP3 variant.1

The original publication of this article unfortunately contained the incorrect version of the manuscript. The original article has been corrected.

Pediatric migraine is a common, chronic, and disabling neurological disorder in children and adolescents. Outpatient management is not always effective, and intravenous migraine management may be necessary for headache treatment in the pediatric emergency department. Most current treatment is based on retrospective evidence and there is a lack of well-designed randomized double-blinded controlled pediatric studies. Intravenous drug treatment agents including intravenous fluids, prochlorperazine, diphenhydramine, metoclopramide, dexamethasone, magnesium, valproate and propofol, and dihydroergotamine are reviewed in this paper.Nineteen studies were reviewed including one prospective randomized double-blind; one single-blinded randomized; one prospective; and one open-label, randomized clinical trial. Most studies were retrospective and the quality of the studies was limited. No definite conclusions can be drawn from the studies, but appropriate prospective trials between major pediatric headache institutions will move pediatric intravenous migraine management forward.

Synchronizing clocks is crucial for distributed safety-critical in-vehicle applications. Since Controller Area Network (CAN) is the predominant in-vehicle communication bus, it is highly relevant to realize clock synchronization (CS) on CAN. This paper proposes a new software-based CS (SW-CS) algorithm based on the periodic transmission of reference messages (RMs) by a Master node and discrete-time feedback control. Different from existing algorithms, that only update clocks after receiving a RM, our algorithm corrects the clock drift between RMs. Measurements on a hardware setup show a decrease of the clock differences by more than one order of magnitude.

This chapter will present a number of concepts, which need to be known for the product development with the new solid-state RF technology. It will present RF generator components and key parameters and appliance system topologies and discuss not only the benefits and possible advantages but also the challenges that successful product design needs to overcome.

Ground-Based and Airborne Telescopes VIII 2020; Virtual, Online; United States; 14 December 2020 through 22 December 2020; Code 166573.--Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering Volume 11445, 2020, Article number 114451Y.--Full list of authors: Pahler, A.; Ã ngermann, M.; Barnstedt, J.; Bougueroua, S.; Colin, A.; Conti, L.; Diebold, S.; Duffard, R.; Emberger, M.; Hanke, L.; Kalkuhl, C.; Kappelmann, N.; Keilig, T.; Klinkner, S.; Krabbe, A.; Janson, O.; Lengowski, M.; Lockowandt, C.; Maier, P.; Müller, T.; Rauch, T.; Schanz, T.; Stelzer, B.; Taheran, M.; Vaerneus, A.; Werner, K.; Wolf, J., Stratospheric balloons offer accessible and affordable platforms for observations in atmosphere-constrained wavelength ranges. At the same time, they can serve as an effective step for technology demonstration towards future space applications of instruments and other hardware. The Stratospheric UV Demonstrator of an Imaging Observatory (STUDIO) is a balloon-borne platform and mission carrying an imaging micro-channel plate (MCP) detector on a 0.5 m aperture telescope. STUDIO is currently planned to fly during the summer turnaround conditions over Esrange, Sweden, in the 2022 season. For details on the ultraviolet (UV) detector, see the contribution of Conti et al. to this symposium.1 The scientific goal of the mission is to survey for variable hot compact stars and flaring M-dwarf stars within the galactic plane. At the same time, the mission acts as a demonstrator for a versatile and scalable astronomical balloon platform as well as for the aforementioned MCP instrument. The gondola is designed to allow the use of different instruments or telescopes. Furthermore, it is designed to serve for several, also longer flights, which are envisioned under the European Stratospheric Balloon Observatory (ESBO) initiative. In this paper, we present the design and current status of manufacturing and testing of the STUDIO platform. We furthermore present the current plans for the flight and observations from Esrange. © COPYRIGHT SPIE., ESBO DS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 777516. R. Duffard and A. Colin acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía ?SEV-2017-0709).

Background/Aims: Recruitment and retention of research participants are challenging and critical components of successful clinical trials and natural history studies. Infants with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) have been a particularly challenging population to study due to their fragile and complex medical issues, poor prognosis and, until 2016, a lack of effective therapies. Recruitment of healthy infants into clinical trials and natural history studies is also challenging and sometimes assumed to not be feasible. Methods: In 2011, our group initiated a two-year, longitudinal natural history study of infants with SMA and healthy infant controls to provide data to assist in the analysis and interpretation of planned clinical trials in infants with SMA. The recruitment goal was to enroll 27 infants less than 6 months of age with SMA and 27 age-matched healthy infants within the two-year enrollment period. A detailed recruitment and retention plan was developed for this purpose. In addition, a survey was administered to participant families to understand the determinants of participation in the study. Results: All healthy infants were recruited within the study's first year and 26 SMA infants were recruited within the two-year recruitment period. Thirty-eight participant families responded to the recruitment determinants survey. Nearly half of respondents (18/38, 48%) reported that they first heard of the study from their physician or neurologist. The most common reason to decide to enroll their infant (22/38, 58%) and to remain in the study (28/38, 74%) was their understanding of the importance of the study. Thematic recruitment tools such as a study brochure, video on social media, and presentations at advocacy meetings were reported to positively influence the decision to enroll. Conclusions: A proactive, thematic and inclusive recruitment and retention plan that effectively communicates the rationale of a clinical study and partners with patients, advocacy groups and the local communities can effectively recruit participants in vulnerable populations. Recommendations for the proactive integration of recruitment and retention plans into clinical trial protocol development are provided. Keywords: Social media, Altruism, Spinal muscle atrophy, Healthy controls, Network

OBJECTIVE Infantile-onset spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the most common genetic cause of infant mortality, typically resulting in death preceding age 2. Clinical trials in this population require an understanding of disease progression and identification of meaningful biomarkers to hasten therapeutic development and predict outcomes. METHODS A longitudinal, multicenter, prospective natural history study enrolled 26 SMA infants and 27 control infants aged

This paper addresses the longitudinal vehicle behavior before and during lane changes. Hereby, it is desired that the lane-changing vehicle simultaneously follows its predecessors on the lanes before and after the lane change. Specifically, the lane changing vehicle should keep a safe distance to the rearmost predecessor vehicle, while maintaining a small inter-vehicle spacing and supporting driving comfort. To this end, the paper develops an extension of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC). Instead of following a single vehicle as in the classical realization of CACC, it is proposed to follow a virtual vehicle that is evaluated based on distance measurements and communicated state information from the predecessor vehicles. A simulation study demonstrates the practicability of the proposed method.

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) support flexibility in the product variety and the configuration of the manufacturing system itself in order to enable quick adjustments to new products and production requirements. As a consequence, an essential feature of RMS is their ability to rapidly modify the control strategy during run-time. In this paper, the particular problem of changing the specified operation of a RMS, whose logical behaviour is modelled as a finite state automaton, is addressed. The notion of reconfigurability of specifications (RoS) is introduced and it is shown that the stated reconfiguration problem can be formulated as a controlled language convergence problem. In addition, algorithms for the verification of RoS and the construction of a reconfiguration supervisor are proposed. The supervisor is realised in a modular way which facilitates the extension by new configurations. Finally, it is shown that a supremal nonblocking and controllable strict subautomaton of the plant automaton that fulfils RoS exists in case RoS is violated for the plant automaton itself and an algorithm for the computation of this strict subautomaton is presented. The developed concepts and results are illustrated by a manufacturing cell example.

In this paper we propose ACCLOUD-MAN, a novel resource manager for heterogeneous cloud data centers. In heterogeneous clouds a user request can be satisfied with more than one physical resource alternative. Resource manager must decide which resource alternative will be chosen, along with the decision of the server the request will be assigned to. ACCLOUDMAN's resource management objective is to reduce the power consumption of the cloud. Manager is modeled as an Integer Linear Problem and is implemented on MATLAB, together with a simulation platform. Simulation results show that the solution times are too long for practical applications. Dividing requests into smaller groups is suggested to improve the timings. It is seen that this method improves the timings with a penalty in decision performance.

This paper presents a novel lane detection algorithm based on fusion of camera and 2D LIDAR data. On the one hand, objects on the road are detected via 2D LIDAR. On the other hand, binary bird's eye view (BEV) images are acquired from the camera data and the locations of objects detected by LIDAR are estimated on the BEV image. In order to remove the noise generated by objects on the BEV, a modified BEV image is obtained, where pixels occluded by the detected objects are turned into background pixels. Then, lane detection is performed on the modified BEV image. Computational and experimental evaluations show that the proposed method significantly increases the lane detection accuracy.

Preliminary results are presented on the mapping of surface current velocities measured by two WERAs operating in MIMO configuration. The systems operated by the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography are part of an NSF funded network of instruments deployed at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, investigating the interaction between shallow waters and the open ocean there. The MIMO arrangement of both systems in this study consists of a linear array of 8 receive antennas and two transmitters. The contribution of this paper compared to previous publications of WERA systems in MIMO mode includes the use of a slightly different MIMO geometry and the incorporation of recent modifications in the software that could ease the implementation and configuration of a MIMO system. The paper demonstrates the narrowing of the beamformed antenna pattern obtained when considering MIMO-generated virtual antennas. It also evaluates the performance of the surface current velocity data measured by the MIMO radar by comparing it to an in-situ ADCP.

In this paper we propose ACCLOUD-MAN, a novel resource manager for heterogeneous cloud data centers. In heterogeneous clouds a user request can be satisfied with more than one physical resource alternative. That is, the resource manager must decide which resource alternative will be chosen, along with the decision of the server the request will be assigned to. ACCLOUD-MAN's resource management objective is to reduce the power consumption of the cloud data center. To this end, the manager is modeled as an integer linear programming problem and is implemented in MATLAB, along with a cloud data center simulation platform. Simulation results show that the proposed ACCLOUD-MAN outperforms existing resource allocation methods such as Openstack.

A 4-year-old boy with atypical, complete DiGeorge and CHARGE (coloboma, heart defects, atresia choanae, growth retardation, genital abnormalities and ear abnormalities) syndromes presented with frequent episodes of a painful, markedly erythematous eruption associated with swelling. Evaluation revealed non-specific findings on skin biopsy at the time of eruption and no pathogenic mutation in the SCN9A gene. The patient was diagnosed with secondary erythromelalgia based on clinical presentation. Erythromelalgia is a rare disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of pain and erythema typically affecting the distal extremities. This case represents the first case of erythromelalgia in the setting of DiGeorge and CHARGE syndromes.

Objective This study prospectively assessed putative promising biomarkers for use in assessing infants with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Methods This prospective, multi-center natural history study targeted the enrollment of SMA infants and healthy control infants less than 6 months of age. Recruitment occurred at 14 centers within the NINDS National Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT) Network. Infant motor function scales and putative electrophysiological, protein and molecular biomarkers were assessed at baseline and subsequent visits. Results Enrollment began November, 2012 and ended September, 2014 with 26 SMA infants and 27 healthy infants enrolled. Baseline demographic characteristics of the SMA and control infant cohorts aligned well. Motor function as assessed by the Test for Infant Motor Performance Items (TIMPSI) and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Infant Test of Neuromuscular Disorders (CHOP-INTEND) revealed significant differences between the SMA and control infants at baseline. Ulnar compound muscle action potential amplitude (CMAP) in SMA infants (1.4 ± 2.2 mV) was significantly reduced compared to controls (5.5 ± 2.0 mV). Electrical impedance myography (EIM) high-frequency reactance slope (Ohms/MHz) was significantly higher in SMA infants than controls SMA infants had lower survival motor neuron (SMN) mRNA levels in blood than controls, and several serum protein analytes were altered between cohorts. Interpretation By the time infants were recruited and presented for the baseline visit, SMA infants had reduced motor function compared to controls. Ulnar CMAP, EIM, blood SMN mRNA levels, and serum protein analytes were able to distinguish between cohorts at the enrollment visit.

The subject of this paper is the coordination of lane changes of autonomous vehicles on a two-lane road segment before reaching a given critical position. We first develop an algorithm that performs a lane change of a single vehicle in the shortest possible time. This algorithm is then applied iteratively in order to handle all lane changes required on the considered road segment while guaranteeing traffic safety. Various example scenarios illustrate the functionality of our algorithm.

System security is currently a main focus area for all IT infrastructure providers. New system features like pervasive encryption, the transition to cloud-based offerings, and the demand for quantum-safe platforms demand increased cryptographic performance as well as more cryptographic agility. The new IBM 4769 Cryptographic Coprocessor addresses these trends. It brings performance improvements that match the requirements of the new IBM z15. A combination of newly available features allows IBM z15 to scale to greater than 5,000 Virtual Hardware secure modules per system and makes it suitable to support virtualized client environments such as cloud-scale datacenters. To meet the dense packaging and energy requirements of those data centers, the form factor and power consumption of the card were reduced significantly. The card also offers an expanded set of algorithms to support state-of-the-art as well as future workloads. For the first time, the user interface provides access to a selected set of quantum-safe algorithms. Infrastructure extensions add hardware-embedded, attestation-friendly trusted boot services, which improve system resiliency by providing hardware enabled measurements of the secure and trusted boot process. These extensions simultaneously simplify the security certifications built on them. This article provides an overview of the IBM 4769 cryptographic coprocessor, highlighting security characteristics, internal hardware, form factor, and enhanced firmware.

We report on the first results for jet observables from a time-like parton cascade integrated with hydrodynamic evolution within the EPOS3-HQ framework. The hard (jet) partons are produced along with soft partons in the initial state EPOS approach. The soft partons, represented by strings, melt into a thermalized medium which is described by a 3 dimensional event-by-event viscous hydrodynamic approach. The jet partons then propagate in the hydrodynamically expanding medium. The total jet energy gets progressively `degraded' when the partons reaching a thermal energy scale are melted into the hydrodynamic medium via the source terms. The full evolution proceeds in a parallel mode, without separating the thermalized and jet parts. We demonstrate how the transverse expansion of the medium affects the jet structure, and how the medium itself is affected by the jet recoil., Comment: talk at Hard Probes 2018 conference (Aix-Les-Bains, France, 30 September - 5 October, 2018)

This paper proposes a robust and effective vision-based lane detection approach. First, two binary images are obtained from the region of interest of gray-scale images. The obtained binary images are merged by a novel neighborhood AND operator and then transformed to a bird's eye view (BEV) via inverse perspective mapping. Then, gaussian probability density functions are fit to the left and right regions of a histogram image acquired from the BEV. Finally, a polynomial lane model is estimated from the identified regions. Experimental results show that the proposed method accurately detects lanes in complex situations including worn-out and curved lanes.

We are developing imaging and photon counting UV-MCP detectors, which are sensitive in the wavelength range from far ultraviolet to near ultraviolet. A good quantum efficiency, solar blindness and high spatial resolution is the aim of our development. The sealed detector has a Cs-activated photoactive layer of GaN (or similarly advanced photocathode), which is operated in semitransparent mode on (001)-MgF 2 . The detector comprises a stack of two long-life MCPs and a coplanar cross strip anode with advanced readout electronics. The main challenge is the flawless growth of the GaN photocathode layer as well as the requirements for the sealing of the detector, to prevent a degradation of the photocathode. We present here the detector concept and the experimental setup, examine in detail the status in the production and describe the current status of the readout electronics development.

Fault-tolerant control addresses the control of dynamical systems such that they remain functional after the occurrence of a fault. To allow the controller to compensate for a fault, the system must exhibit certain redundancies. Alternatively, one may relax performance requirements for the closedloop behaviour after the occurrence of a fault. To achieve fault tolerance for a hierarchical control architecture, a combination of both options appears to be advisable: on each individual level of the hierarchy, the controller may compensate the fault as far as possible, and then pass on responsibility to the next upper level. This approach, when further elaborated for discrete-event systems represented by formal languages, turns out to impose a hard lower-bound inclusion specification on the closed-loop behaviour. The present paper discusses the corresponding synthesis problem and presents a solution.

The World Space Observatory Ultraviolet (WSO/UV) is a multi-national project lead by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) with the objective of high performance observations in the ultraviolet range. The 1.7 m WSO/UV telescope feeds UV spectrometers and UV imagers. The UV spectrometers comprise two high resolution Echelle spectrographs for the 100 − 170 nm and 170 − 300 nm wavelength range and a long slit spectrograph for the 100 − 300 nm band. All three spectrometers represent individual instruments that are assembled and aligned separately. In order to save mass while maintaining high stiffness, the instruments are combined to a monoblock. Cesic has been selected to reduce CTE related distortions of the instruments. In contrast to aluminium, the stable structure of Cesic is significantly less sensitive to thermal gradients. No further mechanism for focus correction with high functional, technical and operational complexity and dedicated System costs are necessary. Using Cesic also relaxes the thermal control requirements of ±5°C, which represents a considerable cost driver for the S/C design. The WUVS instrument is currently studied in the context of a phase B2 study by Kayser-Threde GmbH including a Structural Thermal Model (STM) for verification of thermal and mechanical loads, stability due to thermal distortions and Cesic manufacturing feasibility.

CAN FD (Controller Area Network with Flexible Data Rate) is a new standard which provides a fast data rate while preserving the compatibility with CAN. In this paper, we propose the C3 (Configurable CAN FD Controller) IP core architecture, which is compatible with the non-ISO CAN FD standard. C3 supports up to 96 transmit and receive buffers. The transmit buffers are organized as mailboxes with CAN ID prioritization in frame transmission. A separate filter mask that can be configured by the user exists for each receive buffer. Different from existing CAN/CAN FD controllers, the numbers and sizes of transmit and receive buffers of C3 can be configured at run time. To this end, C3 enables the best use of a single controller hardware for different applications and enables improving the real-time communication performance. C3 communicates with the host device over SPI without any specific interface requirements using the protocol that is developed in the scope of this paper. C3 is implemented on an FPGA Evaluation Board and its functionality is verified at a data rate of 2Mbps.

CAN FD is a new standard which provides fast data rate while preserving the compatibility with CAN (controller area network). In this paper, a Configurable IP core architecture (A-CAN) which is compatible with the CAN FD standard, is proposed. Different than existing CAN/CAN FD controllers, the numbers and sizes of transmit and receive buffers of A-CAN can be configured in run time. To this end, A-CAN enables the best use of single controller hardware for different applications and enables improving the real time communication performance. A-CAN communicates with the host device over SPI without any specific interface requirements. A-CAN is implemented on an FPGA Evaluation Board and its functionally is verified at a rate of 2 Mbps.

A new hierarchical multi-agent decision-making structure has been proposed. There are two phases of the structure. The first phase is the construction phase where the decision making structure consisting of switching and classification agents is built on the training data set generated by the system scenarios. In construction phase, switching and classification agents are trained and made ready for decision-making. In the decision phase, which is the second phase, the class of the new data sample is decided. This process is carried out by the transmission of the data sample to the correct classifier agent by the switching agents and the classification by the classifier agent. The proposed structure is applied to a complex fault identification problem and a successful result is obtained. The structure is also adaptable to other big data decision making problems.

The rapid reconfiguration of manufacturing systems is an important issue in today's manufacturing technology in order to adjust the production to varying product demands and types. In this paper, we study the control of reconfigurable machine tools (RMTs) with the aim of fast reconfiguration and an easy controller implementation. We first formulate a particular reconfiguration problem for RMTs in a discrete event system setting, and then provide a necessary and sufficient condition for its solution. Moreover, we propose a polynomial-time algorithm for the construction of a reconfiguration supervisor as the composition of one modular supervisor for each separate RMT configuration. Each modular supervisor operates in three modes. In the first mode, it tracks the plant state if its corresponding configuration is inactive. In the second mode, it performs a configuration change if its corresponding configuration becomes active and in the third mode, it follows the specified behavior of its corresponding configuration if the configuration is active. An important property of the proposed reconfiguration supervisor is that it performs reconfigurations in a bounded number of event occurrences. In addition, the modular realization of our reconfiguration supervisor enables controller modifications such as adding or removing configurations during run-time. All results presented in the paper are illustrated by an RMT example.

The usage of the controller area network (CAN) as an in-vehicle communication bus requires finding feasible and robust priority orders such that each message transmitted on the bus meets its specified deadline and tolerates potential transmission errors. Although such priority orders can be determined by available algorithms whenever they exist, it is always assumed that a CAN priority order is computed from scratch. In practical applications, it is frequently necessary to extend an existing message set by new messages. In this case, a feasible priority order that retains the standardized IDs of the existing messages and assigns suitable priorities to the new messages needs to be found. This paper proposes an algorithm for the computation of robust priority orders that solves the stated problem of extending existing message sets. First, bounds for the priorities of new messages are determined and then the most robust priority order that keeps the IDs of the existing messages is computed. The obtained algorithms are proved to yield correct results and are illustrated by detailed scheduling examples.

In this paper, we study the fault-recovery and repair of discrete event systems (DES). To this end, we first develop a new method for the fault-recovery of DES. In particular, we compute a fault-recovery supervisor that follows the specified nominal system behavior until a fault-occurrence, that continues its operation according to a degraded specification after a fault and that finally converges to a desired behavior after fault. We next show that our method is also applicable to system repair and we propose an iterative procedure that determines a supervisor for an arbitrary number of fault occurrences and system repairs. We demonstrate our method with a manufacturing system example.

Reports on the new generation of microwave ovens. Solid-state-generated RF amplifiers based on solid-state semiconductor devices readily provide all the control and feedback mechanisms currently lacking in common magnetrons, creating an alternative method for heating and power delivery. With these transformative amplifiers, any parameter of the RF signal (frequency, amplitude, phase, pulsewidth, and modulation) is finally under the designer’s full control and can be tuned to an application’s advantage.

Cylindromas are very rare and benign adnexal tumours of the skin. Very few reports of these benign tumours are reported in the literature. Dermal cylindromas are characterised as a benign neoplasm of the eccrine sweat glands. The most frequent location is the head and neck. Multiple occurrences are often linked to the Brooke-Spiegler syndrome. The Brooke-Spiegler syndrome is inherited as an irregular autosomal dominant trait. A malignant transformation to an adenoid cystic carcinoma is also described in the literature. The leading treatment modality described in the literature is the complete surgical removal of the lesions. Here, a systematic review of the literature is presented with two rare cases of cylindromas.

The main instrument of the WSO-UV satellite covers the wavelength range of 102-176 nm and 174-310 nm with two high resolution echelle spectrographs. The essential requirements for the associated detectors are high quantum efficiency, solar blindness, and single photon detection. To achieve this, we are developing microchannel plate (MCP) detectors in sealed tubes. It is planned to use cesium activated gallium nitride as semitransparent photocathode, a stack of two microchannel plates in chevron configuration, and a 33 mm × 44 mm cross strip anode with 64 horizontal and 64 vertical electrodes. This type of anode requires a lower gain of the MCPs ( ≈ 106) compared to other types of anodes. Therefore, it extends the expected lifetime of the detectors to about five to ten years. The challenge for the use of a cross strip anode onboard the WSO-UV satellite is the combination of contradictory constraints on the readout electronics: On the one hand it should be able to handle a maximum count rate of 3·105 s-1 with a spatial resolution better than 15 μm . On the other hand the power consumption is limited to about 8 W. One feasible solution is the so-called Beetle chip. This chip provides 128 input channels with charge-sensitive preamplifiers and shapers. It stores the sampled data temporarily in a ring buffer and multiplexes it to four analogue readout channels. The output is then digitized by four ADCs and processed in a radiation hard FPGA, which also contains the space-wire interface to the satellite bus.

Ein 73-jahriger Patient, bei dem vor 26 Jahren ein malignes Melanom retroaurikular rechts mit zervikalen Lymphknotenmetastasen diagnostiziert wurde, entwickelte im Verlauf BRAF V600E-negative Fernmetastasen, die sich sowohl unter einer Monochemotherapie als auch unter einer Kombinationschemotherapie grosenprogredient zeigten. Daraufhin wurde dem Patienten Ipilimumab in einer Dosierung von 3 mg/kg Korpergewicht 4-malig im Abstand von 3 Wochen verabreicht. Darunter zeigte sich eine fast vollstandige Regression der Fernmetastasen. In mehreren Phase-III-Studien konnte ein signifikanter Uberlebensvorteil fur Patienten bei der Gabe von Ipilimumab nachgewiesen werden. Der humane monoklonale Antikorper ist seit Juli 2011 als Second-line-Therapie in Deutschland zugelassen und wurde im Januar 2013 in die neue Leitlinie zur Therapie des malignen Melanoms aufgenommen. Der CTLA-4-Antikorper ist das erste Medikament, das signifikant das Uberleben von Patienten mit metastasiertem Melanom verbessern kann. Bei fortgeschrittenem (nicht resezierbarem oder metastasiertem) Melanom stellt die immunstimulierende Behandlung mit Ipilimumab eine neue Therapieoption dar.

Linear array antennas and beamforming techniques offer some advantages compared to direction finding using squared arrays. The azimuthal resolution depends on the number of antenna elements and their spacing. Assuming an ideal beam pattern and no amplitude taper across the aperture, 16 antennas in a linear array spaced at half the electromagnetic wavelength theoretically provide a beam resolution of 3.5° normal to the array, and up to twice that when the beam is steered within an azimuthal range of 60° from the direction normal to the array. However, miscalibrated phases among antenna elements, cables, and receivers (e.g., caused by service activities without recalibration) can cause errors in the beam-steering direction and distortions of the beam pattern, resulting in unreliable ocean surface current and wave estimations. The present work uses opportunistic ship echoes randomly received by oceanographic high-frequency radars to correct an unusual case of severe phase differences between receiver channels, leading to a dramatic improvement of the surface current patterns. The method proposed allows for simplified calibrations of phases to account for hardware-related changes without the need to conduct the regular calibration procedure and can be applied during postprocessing of datasets acquired with insufficient calibration.

Reconfiguration control for discrete event systems (DES) is concerned with the realization of different system configurations by modification of the supervisory control loop. In this paper, we study the reconfiguration supervisor design for reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) that comprise multiple components. We construct a modular supervisor for each configuration and system component in order to realize each active configuration and to quickly change between configurations. Different from the existing literature that is focused on monolithic design, our method is abstraction-based, and, hence applicable to large-scale DES.

Fault-tolerance addresses the problem of operating a system even in case of faults. In this paper, we study fault-tolerance in the supervisory control framework for discrete event systems (DES). We consider DES, where certain events might no longer be possible in case a fault happens. In this setting, we first identify necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a supervisor that realizes a given behavioral specification both in the non-faulty and in the faulty case. We further show that it is possible to determine a supremal fault-tolerant sublanguage in case the existence condition is violated. Finally, we propose an algorithm for the computation of this sublanguage and prove its correctness. Different from existing work, our fault-tolerant supervisor allows fault occurrences and system repairs at any time. The concepts and results developed in this paper are illustrated by a manufacturing system example.

The topic of this technical note is the nonblocking and maximally permissive abstraction-based supervisory control for modular discrete event systems (DES). It is shown, that an efficient abstraction technique, that was developed for the nonconflict verification of modular DES, is also suitable for the nonblocking supervisory control. Moreover, it is proved that this abstraction technique can be extended by the condition of local control consistency, in order to achieve maximally permissive supervision. Different from existing approaches, the presented abstraction does not require to preserve the shared events among the system components in the respective abstraction alphabets, and hence leads to potentially smaller system abstractions. The obtained results are illustrated by a flexible manufacturing system example.

Ein 35-jahriger Patient stellte sich mit einer Schwellung, Verhartung und Knotenbildung im Bereich des rechten Daumens, Handgelenkes und der Finger der rechten Hand erstmals in unserer Klinik vor. Die Symptomatik bestand anamnestisch bereits seit mindestens 8 Jahren und war langsam progredient. Eine feingewebliche Analyse eines Knotens zeigte ein diffuses Infiltrat, bestehend aus teils atypischen spindelformigen Zellen, die positiv fur die immunhistochemischen Marker Zytokeratin, epitheliales Membranantigen (EMA) und CD34 waren, sodass die Diagnose eines epitheloidzelligen Sarkoms gestellt werden konnte. Aufgrund der grosflachigen, diffusen Tumorausdehnung wurde eine Unterarmamputation durchgefuhrt sowie bei axillaren Lymphknotenmetastasen eine Lymphknotendissektion mit anschliesender Radiotherapie. Epitheloidzellige Sarkome (ES) sind seltene Subtypen der Weichteilsarkome, die ein harmloses Aussehen und eine langsame Wachstumstendenz zeigen. Bedingt durch diese Tatsache, kommt es haufig zur Diagnoseverzogerung und verzogerten Therapieeinleitung. Die wichtigste Therapiemasnahme beim ES ist die fruhzeitige totale Tumorexzision mit adjuvanter Radiotherapie bei Vorliegen einer lokalen Metastasierung.

Acquired platelet dysfunction due to aspirin ingestion may increase bleeding tendency during surgery. Thus, we examined the diagnostic accuracy of in vivo bleeding time (BT) and 2 platelet function assays for the preoperative assessment of a residual antiplatelet effect in patients treated with aspirin.Consecutive patients scheduled for surgery were prospectively enrolled in this study. The patients' last aspirin ingestion had occurred within the previous 48 hours before blood sampling in the "full aspirin effect" group, between 48 and 96 hours before in the "variable aspirin effect" group, and96 hours before in the "recovered aspirin effect" group. The control group had not taken any aspirin. Multiple electrode aggregometry, platelet function analyzer (PFA)-100, and in vivo BT were performed to assess the effects of aspirin. One-way analysis of variance on ranks with a post hoc multiple-comparison procedure (Dunn) was used to detect differences among the groups. Categorical data were compared using the z test. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were created to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the platelet function assays investigated. The area under the ROC curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity of the assays were calculated. The level of statistical significance was set at P0.05.Three hundred ninety-four patients were included in the analysis (133 control and 261 aspirin-treated patients). All 3 methods were able to detect the antiplatelet effect of aspirin in the full aspirin effect group. Furthermore, no difference in the measurement values between the recovered aspirin effect and control group was found, irrespective of the assay performed. Measurement values in the variable aspirin effect group were different from those of the control group in the ASPItest using multiple electrode aggregometry and COL-EPI using PFA-100 but not in BT. ROC analysis showed the highest diagnostic accuracy in excluding the residual aspirin effect in the ASPItest (AUC 0.81, P0.001), followed by COL-EPI (AUC 0.78, P0.001) and BT (AUC 0.56, P = 0.05). The cutoff value of 53 U in the ASPItest excluded the effect of aspirin with a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 71%.The full therapeutic antiplatelet effects of aspirin can be expected within 48 hours of the patient's last aspirin ingestion. Platelet function recovered in our study if aspirin cessation occurred96 hours (4 days) before; thus, in these patients, preoperative platelet function testing is not useful. To quantify any residual aspirin effect in patients who ceased their intake of aspirin between 48 and 96 hours before surgery, the ASPItest might have the highest diagnostic accuracy.

Serum levels of S-100B and neurone-specific enolase (NSE) reflect cerebral injury in a variety of neurological conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and cardiac arrest. There are limited data on the release of S-100B and NSE following carotid artery stenting (CAS). In 22 patients undergoing CAS, serial blood samples for S-100B and NSE were collected before and 2, 4, and 6 to 8 hours after the procedure. A group of 20 patients with significant CAS undergoing purely diagnostic angiography served as controls. A significant increase in S-100B levels was observed 2 hours after the procedure in patients with CAS (P = .001) with a gradual decline over the next hours. In contrast, patients who underwent purely diagnostic angiography did not show significant changes in S-100B levels up to 8 hours after the procedure. Neither patients with CAS nor those undergoing diagnostic angiography displayed any significant changes in serial NSE levels.

The World Space Observatory Ultraviolet (WSO-UV) is a multi-national project lead by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) with the objective of high performance observations in the ultraviolet range. The 1.7 m WSO-UV telescope is equipped with UV spectrographs (responsibility of Russia and Germany) and UV imagers (responsibility of Spain). The UV spectroscopic instrumentation comprises two high resolution echelle spectrographs operating in wavelength ranges of 102–176 nm and 174–310 nm respectively, and a Long Slit Spectrograph designed to operate in the range of 102–310 nm. All three spectrographs represent individual instruments. In order to save mass while maintaining high stiffness, the instruments are combined to a monoblock, World Space Observatory Ultraviolet Spectrographs (WUVS). Due to strict technical requirements stated by the customer the material CeSiC (provided by the company ECM) has been selected for the design of the spectrograph structure. In contrast to aluminium, the stable structure of CeSiC is significantly less sensitive to thermal gradients. No further mechanism for focus correction with high functional, technical and operational complexity and corresponding additional System costs are necessary. Using CeSiC also relaxes the thermal control requirements of ±5°C, which represents a considerable cost driver for the S/C design. The phase B2 study of the WUVS instrument finished in December 2010 in collaboration with Russia and with industrial support of the Kayser–Threde company. It included construction of a Structural Thermal Model (STM) for verification of thermal and mechanical loads, stability with respect to thermal distortions and CeSiC manufacturing feasibility.

The subject of this paper is the synthesis of natural projections that serve as nonblocking and maximally permissive abstractions for the hierarchical and decentralized control of large-scale discrete event systems. To this end, existing concepts for nonblocking abstractions such as natural observers and marked string accepting (msa)-observers are extended by local control consistency (LCC) as a novel sufficient condition for maximal permissiveness. Furthermore, it is shown that, similar to the natural observer condition and the msa-observer condition, also LCC can be formulated in terms of a quasi-congruence. Based on existing algorithms in the literature, this allows to algorithmically compute natural projections that are either natural observers or msa-observers and that additionally fulfill LCC. The obtained results are illustrated by the synthesis of nonblocking and maximally permissive supervisors for a manufacturing system.

This paper addresses abstraction-based supervisory control for plant and specification behaviours that are not necessarily ω-closed, i.e. plant behaviours that exhibit eventuality properties and specifications that impose eventuality properties on the closed loop. Technically, the core idea is to combine results from previous work on abstraction-based supervision of input-output behaviours with results on supervisory control of ω-languages. As our main result, we identify a controllability condition for the plant, that ensures a nonblocking closed-loop behaviour with a controller that has been obtained for a plant abstraction.