Cisplatin-based chemotherapy of testicular cancer - Two decades after a major breakthrough

Two decades ago the introduction of cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy has dramatically improved the prognosis of patients with metastatic testicular cancer, At present 3 cycles of cisplatin, etoposide and bleomycin are considered as standard treatment for good-risk metastatic disease. Outside of clinical trials patients in the intermediate and poor prognosis categories should receive 4 cycles of this standard regimen, Clinical trials currently evaluate the role of high-dose chemotherapy in first-line treatment of high-risk patients and in the salvage setting, Post-chemotherapy resection of tumor residuals remains an important part of therapy. Attention should be focused on long-term toxicity of therapy and the occurrence of late relapse

Global denken, lokal handeln: Gebäudesanierung als Beitrag zum Klimaschutz am konkreten Beispiel

Der CO2-Ausstoß betrug 2008 weltweit über 30 Milliarden Tonnen, davon gingen alleine in Deutschland über 100 Millionen Tonnen auf schlecht gedämmte Wohngebäude zurück. Hinzu kommen enorme Energiekosten für die Besitzer der ungedämmten Immobilien. Dämmung hat daher nicht nur einen ökologischen, sondern auch einen ökonomischen, ja betriebswirtschaftlichen, Aspekt. In dieser Arbeit soll daher kurz anhand eines konkreten Beispiels dargestellt werden, wie die Dämmung einer Bestandsimmobilie in ökonomischer und ökologischer Sicht wirkt. Anschließend werden die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse auf die deutsche Volkswirtschaft übertragen, um zu sehen, ob die flächendeckende Dämmung von Bestandsimmobilien volkswirtschaftlich überhaupt möglich und zudem sinnreich ist

Phase Transitions for Random Walk Asymptotics on Free Products of Groups

Suppose we are given finitely generated groups $\Gamma_1,...,\Gamma_m$ equipped with irreducible random walks. Thereby we assume that the expansions of the corresponding Green functions at their radii of convergence contain only logarithmic or algebraic terms as singular terms up to sufficiently large order (except for some degenerate cases). We consider transient random walks on the free product {$\Gamma_1 \ast ... \ast\Gamma_m$} and give a complete classification of the possible asymptotic behaviour of the corresponding $n$-step return probabilities. They either inherit a law of the form $\varrho^{n\delta} n^{-\lambda_i} \log^{\kappa_i}n$ from one of the free factors $\Gamma_i$ or obey a $\varrho^{n\delta} n^{-3/2}$-law, where $\varrho<1$ is the corresponding spectral radius and $\delta$ is the period of the random walk. In addition, we determine the full range of the asymptotic behaviour in the case of nearest neighbour random walks on free products of the form $\Z^{d_1}\ast ... \ast \Z^{d_m}$. Moreover, we characterize the possible phase transitions of the non-exponential types $n^{-\lambda_i}\log^{\kappa_i}n$ in the case $\Gamma_1\ast\Gamma_2$.Comment: 32 page

Replica Symmetry Breaking and the Kuhn-Tucker Cavity Method in simple and multilayer Perceptrons

Within a Kuhn-Tucker cavity method introduced in a former paper, we study optimal stability learning for situations, where in the replica formalism the replica symmetry may be broken, namely (i) the case of a simple perceptron above the critical loading, and (ii) the case of two-layer AND-perceptrons, if one learns with maximal stability. We find that the deviation of our cavity solution from the replica symmetric one in these cases is a clear indication of the necessity of replica symmetry breaking. In any case the cavity solution tends to underestimate the storage capabilities of the networks.Comment: 32 pages, LaTex Source with 9 .eps-files enclosed, accepted by J. Phys I (France

Spin-orbit splitting and effective masses in p-type GaAs two-dimensional hole gases

We present magnetotransport measurements performed on two-dimensional hole gases embedded in carbon doped p-type GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures grown on [001] oriented substrates. A pronounced beating pattern in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations proves the presence of strong spin-orbit interaction in the device under study. We estimate the effective masses of spin-orbit split subbands by measuring the temperature dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations at different hole densities. While the lighter heavy-hole effective mass is not energy dependent, the heavier heavy-hole effective mass has a prominent energy dependence, indicating a strong spin-orbit induced non parabolicity of the valence band. The measured effective masses show qualitative agreement with self-consistent numerical calculations

Carbon-doped high mobility two-dimensional hole gases on (110) faced GaAs

Carbon-doped high mobility two-dimensional hole gases grown on (110) oriented GaAs substrates have been grown with hole mobilities exceeding 10^6 cm^2/Vs in single heterojunction GaAs/AlGaAs structures. At these high mobilities, a pronounced mobility anisotropy has been observed. Rashba induced spin-splitting in these asymmetric structures has been found to be independent on the transport direction

Characterization of spin-orbit interactions of GaAs heavy holes using a quantum point contact

We present transport experiments performed in high quality quantum point contacts embedded in a GaAs two-dimensional hole gas. The strong spin-orbit interaction results in peculiar transport phenomena, including the previously observed anisotropic Zeeman splitting and level-dependent effective g-factors. Here we find additional effects, namely the crossing and the anti-crossing of spin-split levels depending on subband index and magnetic field direction. Our experimental observations are reconciled in an heavy hole effective spin-orbit Hamiltonian where cubic- and quadratic-in-momentum terms appear. The spin-orbit components, being of great importance for quantum computing applications, are characterized in terms of magnitude and spin structure. In the light of our results, we explain the level dependent effective g-factor in an in-plane field. Through a tilted magnetic field analysis, we show that the QPC out-of-plane g-factor saturates around the predicted 7.2 bulk value