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Microgravity eases several constraints limiting experiments with ultracold and condensed atoms on ground. It enables extended times of flight without suspension and eliminates the gravitational sag for trapped atoms. These advantages motivated numerous initiatives to adapt and operate experimental setups on microgravity platforms. We describe the design of the payload, motivations for design choices, and capabilities of the Bose-Einstein Condensate and Cold Atom Laboratory (BECCAL), a NASA-DLR collaboration. BECCAL builds on the heritage of previous devices operated in microgravity, features rubidium and potassium, multiple options for magnetic and optical trapping, different methods for coherent manipulation, and will offer new perspectives for experiments on quantum optics, atom optics, and atom interferometry in the unique microgravity environment on board the International Space Station.

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BackgroundSince 2005 an interdisciplinary German apheresis working group has been established by members of both German Societies of Nephrology and of Lipidologists and completed the data set for the registry according to the current guidelines and the German indication guideline for apheresis in 2009. In 2011 the German Lipoprotein Apheresis Registry (GLAR) was launched and data are available over nearly 5 years now.Methods and resultsDuring the time period 2012–2016, 71 German apheresis centers collected retrospective and prospective observational data of 1435 patients undergoing lipoprotein apheresis (LA) treatment of high LDL-C levels and/or high Lp (a) levels suffering from cardiovascular disease (CVD) or progressive CVD. A total of 15,527 completely documented LA treatments were entered into the database. All patients treated by LA showed a median LDL-C reduction rate of 67.5%, and a median Lp (a) reduction rate of 71.1%. Analog to the Pro(a)LiFe pattern, patient data were analyzed to the incidence rate of coronary events (MACE) 1 and 2 years before the beginning of LA treatment (y-2 and y‑1) and prospectively two years on LA treatment (y + 1 and y + 2). During two years of LA treatment a MACE reduction of 78% was observed. In the years considered, side effects of LA treatment were low (5.9%) and mainly comprised puncture problems.ConclusionsThe data generated by the GLAR shows that LA lowers the incidence rate of cardiovascular events in patients with high LDL-C and/or high Lp (a) levels, progressive CVD, and maximally tolerated lipid lowering medication. In addition, LA treatments were found to be safe with a low rate of side effects.

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When two individuals interact in a collaborative task, such as carrying a sofa or a table, usually spatiotemporal coordination of individual motor behavior will emerge. In many cases, interpersonal coordination can arise independently of verbal communication, based on the observation of the partners' movements and/or the object's movements. In this study, we investigate how social coupling between two individuals can emerge in a collaborative task under different modes of perceptual information. A visual reference condition was compared with three different conditions with new types of additional auditory feedback provided in real time: effect-based auditory feedback, performance-based auditory feedback, and combined effect/performance-based auditory feedback. We have developed a new paradigm in which the actions of both participants continuously result in a seamlessly merged effect on an object simulated by a tablet computer application. Here, participants should temporally synchronize their movements with a 90° phase difference and precisely adjust the finger dynamics in order to keep the object (a ball) accurately rotating on a given circular trajectory on the tablet. Results demonstrate that interpersonal coordination in a joint task can be altered by different kinds of additional auditory information in various ways.

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Within this open observational study, repeated PCR ( n  > 4,700) and antibody screening ( n  > 1,600) tests were offered in three different working fields. The study identified 51 subjects with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and 37 subjects reported to have had a positive PCR test taken externally.