Dornier (Germany)

Future space travel needs ultra-lightweight and robust structural materials that can withstand extreme conditions with multiple entry points to orbit to ensure mission reliability. This is unattainable with current inorganic materials. Ultra-highly stable carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) have shown susceptibility to environmental instabilities and electrostatic discharge, thereby limiting the full lightweight potential of CFRP. A more robust and improved CFRP is needed in order to improve space travel and structural engineering further. Here, we address these challenges and present a superlattice nano-barrier-enhanced CFRP with a density of ~3.18 g/cm3 that blends within the mechanical properties of the CFRP, thus becoming part of the composite itself. We demonstrate composites with enhanced radiation resistance coupled with electrical conductivity (3.2 × 10-8 ohm⋅m), while ensuring ultra-dimensionally stable physical properties even after temperature cycles from 77 to 573 K.

Abstract Performing surgeries in the cervical spine endoscopically is gaining more and more traction. Nowadays, there are four standard surgeries, which can be done endoscopically in the cervical spine; anterior endoscopic cervical discectomy (AECD), posterior endoscopic cervical discectomy (PECD), posterior endoscopic cervical foraminotomy (PECF), and cervical endoscopic unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression (CE-ULBD). Some authors consider “posterior cervical endoscopic ventral bony decompression” as a separate entity, counting it as the fifth procedure. Beyond these standard procedures, there are numerous individually adapted special approaches for not so common pathologies.Endoscopic procedures in the cervical spine are preferentially performed through a posterior approach. This chapter will focus on the standard procedure of CE-ULBD, a procedure intended for decompression of a cervical central canal stenosis. In cases of moderate and severe stenosis/myelopathy, there is a clear recommendation for surgical treatment.In microsurgery, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is commonplace for the treatment of cervical spinal stenosis. However, the standard endoscopic anterior approach has limited range of motion and allows the use of only small instruments and therefore remains a procedure primarily reserved for the removal of (small) fresh disc herniations. Performing CE-ULBD through a posterior approach enables to effectively decompress a central stenosis due to sufficient mobility of the endoscope and the use of effective endoscopic decompression instruments such as power burrs.Nowadays, CE-ULBD is characterized in the literature. Beyond studies of feasibility, different authors could prove noninferiority of CE-ULBD in regard to Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score and superiority in terms of duration of surgery, intraoperative blood loss, and length of hospital stay in comparison to microsurgical ACDF.KeywordsCervical spinal canal stenosisSpinal cord compressionCervical myelopathyCE-ULBDCervical laminotomyPosterior cervical endoscopic decompression

BackgroundCryolipolysis is a non-surgical procedure for subcutaneous fat layer reduction by controlled cooling. During the past few years, the use of cryolipolysis for non-invasive body contouring has increased significantly.ObjectivesThis retrospective study examines patient satisfaction, recommendation rate and patient comfort with the use of an FDA-cleared system (CoolSculpting Elite, Allergan Aesthetics, AbbVie Company, Irvine CA) for cryolipolysis at a single clinic and reports on the results.MethodsBetween December 2020 and January 2022, 91 patients were treated with an FDA-cleared cryolipolysis system. To assess patient satisfaction, patients were asked to complete clinical questionnaires three months after their last treatment session. The following questions were asked: painfulness of the treatment, complications, satisfaction with the treatment, consideration of further treatment sessions, and willingness to further recommend the treatment.ResultsEighty-four percent of the 91 patients were female, and 16% were male. The average age was 45.5 years and the mean BMI was 26 kg/m2. Patients rated the treatment in terms of pain and discomfort experienced during the procedures on a scale of 1 to 5, with the value 1 representing not painful and 5 as extremely painful. 40% of the patients evaluated the procedure with 1, 38% with 2, 19% with 3, 1% with 4 and 2% with 5. With respect to satisfaction rates, 66% rated the treatment on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1, 18% with 2, 7% with 3, 7% with 4 and 3% with 5, with 1 indicating very satisfied and 5 indicating very dissatisfied. Thus, the overall level of satisfaction (the sum of scale values 1 and 2) amounts to 84%. Of 91 patients, 88% would agree to further treatment and 92% would recommend the therapy to others. All patients reported temporary tissue reactions such as swelling and redness which did not require any further treatment and were self-limiting. Serious or permanent complications did not occur.ConclusionsThe results of our study show that cryolipolysis is a safe and effective method for non-surgical body contouring, providing a high degree of patient satisfaction and recommendation rate.Level of Evidence: 4

We report 1.51-GHz and 2.185-GHz Kerr-lens-modelocked Yb:Y2O3 ring lasers constructed by directly bonding the cavity components onto an aluminum baseplate using an approach already proven in space-borne instrumentation.

Abstract. Spatially heterogeneous Earth radiance scenes affect the atmospheric composition measurements of high-resolution Earth observation spectrometer missions. The scene heterogeneity creates a pseudo-random deformation of the instrument spectral response function (ISRF). The ISRF is the direct link between the forward radiative transfer model, used to retrieve the atmospheric state, and the spectra measured by the instrument. Hence, distortions of the ISRF owing to radiometric inhomogeneity of the imaged Earth scene will degrade the precision of the Level-2 retrievals. Therefore, the spectral requirements of an instrument are often parameterized in the knowledge of the ISRF over non-uniform scenes in terms of shape, centroid position of the spectral channel and the full width at half maximum (FWHM). The Sentinel-5/UVNS instrument is the first push-broom spectrometer that makes use of a concept referred to as a slit homogenizer (SH) for the mitigation of spatially non-uniform scenes. This is done by employing a spectrometer slit formed by two parallel mirrors scrambling the scene in the along track direction (ALT) and hence averaging the scene contrast only in the spectral direction. The flat mirrors do not affect imaging in the across track direction (ACT) and thus preserve the spatial information in that direction. The multiple reflections inside the SH act as coherent virtual light sources and the resulting interference pattern at the SH exit plane can be described by simulations using scalar diffraction theory. By homogenizing the slit illumination, the SH strongly modifies the spectrograph pupil illumination as a function of the input scene. In this work we investigate the impact and strength of the variations of the spectrograph pupil illumination for different scene cases and quantify the impact on the ISRF stability for different types of aberration present in the spectrograph optics.