Verrucomicrobia, Streptococcus phage), and host factors (miR-22-5p) associated with URI frequency (p < 0.05). These results provide pathophysiologic clues about molecular factors that influence URI susceptibility. Validation of these findings in a larger cohort could one day yield novel approaches to detecting and managing URI susceptibility in infants.Susceptibility to upper respiratory infections (URIs) may be influenced by host, microbial, and environmental factors. We hypothesized that multi-omic analyses of molecular factors in infant saliva would identify complex host-environment interactions associated with URI frequency. A cohort study involving 146 infants was used to assess URI frequency in the first year of life. Saliva was collected at 6 months for high-throughput multi-omic measurement of cytokines, microRNAs, transcripts, and microbial RNA. Regression analysis identified environmental , microbial ( Upper respiratory infections (URIs) are the most common cause of healthcare visits worldwide . URIs arInfant predisposition to URIs is influenced by environmental risk factors . InfantsCytokines, such as C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 10 (CXCL10), interleukin 18 (IL-18), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and interleukin 8 (IL-8) are involved in the early stages of inflammation associated with viral URIs . There imiRNAs are short, non-coding nucleic acids that modulate protein expression by binding and sequestering messenger RNAs for degradation . IntriguThe microbiome has also been implicated in viral URIs . ChangesAlthough various molecular factors have been implicated in immune system maturation and URI predisposition ,15,16, tThe majority of the 146 participating infants were female , white race , and non-Hispanic . The first URI episode occurred, on average, 1 (±1) month after birth. No participants were hospitalized for bronchiolitis, two received a diagnosis of pneumonia, two received a prescription for albuterol, and three were prescribed oral steroids.2 = 0.39, AIC = 593, RMSE = 1.72, p < 0.001) modeled the number of URIs in the first 12 months (Step-wise linear regression identified eight omic features that accurately (R2 months .p < 0.001), atmospheric pollution , and longer duration of exclusive breastfeeding   .Verrucomicrobia  and Streptococcus phage SpSL1  were directly associated with the number of URIs, whereas levels of miR-22-5p  were inversely related. Haemophilus virus HP1 , and TMPRSS2  met criteria for model inclusion (F > 2.0), but did not display significant relationships with URI frequency . There were significant interactions between daycare attendance and levels of Streptococcus phage SpSL1, as well as Verrucomicrobia levels and atmospheric pollution. Streptococcus phage SpSL1 potentiated the number of URIs among infants who attended daycare , whereas Verrucomicrobia potentiated URI frequency in infants without atmospheric pollution exposure . High levels of infant miR-22-5p had a protective effect on URI frequency among infants with longer breastfeeding duration.Notably, no cytokine components met criteria for inclusion in the model, although levels of CXCL10 were modestly correlated with the number of URIs , and one viral phage (Streptococcus phage SpSL1) that were directly associated with URI frequency in the first 12 months. One miRNA (miR-22-5p) was inversely correlated with URI frequency. Abundance of specific microbes in the infant oropharynx modulated the impacts of environmental exposures on URI frequency.In this cohort of 146 infants, we identified three environmental factors , one microbe  and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [TMPRSS2 expression in an effort to reduce URI frequency. Additionally, these immunoregulatory mediators have been demonstrated to influence the pro-inflammatory shifts in influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) mediated URIs [Several “omic” features in this study have been described in previous studies of viral pathogenesis. For example, miR-22 has been shown to inhibit adenovirus replication within lung fibroblasts by targeting retinoblastoma (Rb) dependent cell cycle genes ,22. Rb iERS-CoV) . It is pted URIs ,26.Haemophilus, Corynebacterium, Dolosigranulum, and Streptococcus in saliva have been associated with perturbations in host immunity that are linked to activation of innate immune mechanisms involved with URIs and airway remodeling [Verrucomicrobia in the gut can induce pro-inflammatory chemokines implicated in neuroinflammation [Streptococcus phage SpSL1 may also induce inflammatory perturbations in the oral microbiome [Verrucomicrobia and Streptococcus phage SpSL1 were higher in the saliva of infants with more frequent URIs, supporting their pro-inflammatory role in viral infections.Host immunologic factors may be driven by microbial flora in the oropharynx . For examodeling ,28,29. Oammation . Bactericrobiome . In thisStreptococcus phage SpSL1 potentiated the number of URIs among infants who attended daycare, whereas Verrucomicrobia potentiated URI frequency in infants without atmospheric pollution exposure. These results are consistent with prior studies demonstrating that air pollution and daycare exposure may interact with host or microbial factors to influence infection susceptibility [Intriguingly, tibility ,33,34. Etibility , and cautibility , which ctibility ,37,38.Based on the findings of this study, we propose a conceptual framework for URI pathogenesis involving microbial perturbations, miR-22-5p expression, immune dysregulation, and environmental exposures . In thisThere are several limitations of this study. URIs were identified through validated surveys and review of the medical record. However, surveys could introduce recall bias, and it is possible that the medical record might miss URIs that were diagnosed at an outside facility. We do note that participants were followed at our outpatient pediatric clinic for routine well-child check-ups, at which time recent urgent care or outpatient visits were typically recorded in the medical record. Although the vast majority of infant URIs are viral in nature, the precise pathogen responsible for each infection episode was not confirmed through laboratory testing. It is possible that some infectious episodes involved bacterial pathogens. Finally, the primary outcome of the study was URI frequency. Although details regarding severity were recorded, the study was not powered to compare multi-omic profiles between infants with severe and non-severe URI episodes. This should be explored in future studies.The results of this study support the premise that multi-omic analysis of infant saliva may provide insight into pathophysiologic mechanisms that underlie URIs. Such knowledge could eventually aid in novel diagnostic, preventative, or therapeutic measures. Validation of these results in a larger cohort with ancestral and geographic diversity is required.This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Penn State College of Medicine (STUDY00008657). Parents/guardians provided written, informed consent.This study involved a subset of infants from a prospective longitudinal cohort of 221 mother-infant dyads . EligibiElectronic surveys administered by research staff were used to obtain medical and demographic characteristics at the time of enrollment. Survey responses were confirmed through review of the electronic medical record. The following medical and demographic characteristics were collected: biological sex, race, ethnicity, gestational age (weeks), birth weight (g), and family history of asthma. The National Survey of Lead and Allergens in Housing (NSLAH)  was admiTwo non-fasting saliva samples were collected from each infant at 6 months of age. One swab contained nucleic acid stabilizer , and was used for analysis of the miRnome (miRNAs), the transcriptome (mRNAs), the microbiome , and the virome . The second swab contained no stabilizing reagents , and was used for analysis of the inflammasome (cytokines). Saliva was collected from the sub-lingual and parotid regions by swabbing the oropharynx for 10–20 s. Samples were stored at −80 ℃ prior to molecular analysis.g, and 70 µL of sample was mixed with 70 µL of diluent [g, then 50 µL of diluted samples were loaded on a custom cartridge and processed on an ELLA Simplex instrument per manufacturer instructions.Cytokines were measured using the ELLA SimplePlex immunoassays . The ELLA instrument performs automated, fluorescent-labeled antibody detection of cytokines using a microfluidic cartridge. Immunoassays were used to measure levels of four salivary cytokines: C-X-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 10 (CXCL10), interleukin 18 (IL-18), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and interleukin 8 (IL-8). These cytokines were selected based on their bioavailability in saliva, as well as their relevance to inflammation and URIs ,46,47,48 diluent . The solTMPRSS2, IL1RN, IL6ST, CCL2, TNFAIP3, TLR4, TAB2, NFKBIA), 8 miRNAs , 8 viral phages , and 8 microbial phyla , plus a measure of microbial diversity . These features were selected based on their biologic relevance to viral upper respiratory infections and their abundance in infant saliva [n = 146) provided > 95% power to detect an effect size ≥ 2.0 for 8 predictors, with alpha set at 0.05 .RNA was extracted from each sample using the miRNeasy Kit , and RNA quality was assessed with an Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 . Downstream RNA processing was performed as we have previously described . Brieflyt saliva ,52,53,542, and Root-mean-square-deviation (RMSE)) and individual factor statistics  were reported. A Durbin-Watson test for autocorrelation was performed, and Q-Q plots were used to visualize residuals. All analyses were completed using Jamovi Software (v2.3) [Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the medical and demographic characteristics of participating infants. The relationship between the primary medical outcome (number of URIs in the first 12 months) and molecular features from the 6 “omic” categories  were assess using linear regression. Number of URIs was the dependent variable, and omic features served as independent variables. Variables were introduced in a feed-forward, step-wise procedure. Only features with F ≥ 2.0 were retained, and a maximum of 8 features was permitted in the final model. For variables with large effect sizes (F > 5.0), interactions were explored. Overall model statistics (Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Re (v2.3) .The findings in this study suggest that multi-omic analysis of infant saliva may provide insight into pathophysiologic mechanisms that underlie upper respiratory infections, especially interactions between host immunity, microbial activity, and epi-transcriptomic. The measurement of these multi-omic factors may aid the identification of infants at risk for future respiratory infections, allowing clinicians to provide personalized anticipatory guidance and treatment. If a sufficiently accurate tool were developed, the results might be used to guide preventative measures, which could decrease emergency visits and the need for hospitalizations due to severe upper respiratory infections.


Subglacial drainage systems are crucial elements of glaciers and ice sheets because they modulate ice flow velocity. However, logistical challenges of measuring subglacial processes beneath contemporary ice and natural limitations in long-term monitoring hinder our understanding about their spatio-temporal evolution. Subglacial meltwater landforms created by palaeo-ice sheets are records of past subglacial drainage systems and offer the potential to study their large-scale development throughout deglaciation. Although collectively recording subglacial drainage, individual meltwater landforms such as eskers, meltwater channels and meltwater corridors, which comprise tunnel valleys and meltwater tracks , have mostly been investigated as separate entities. Using high-resolution (1–2 m) digital elevation models, we map integrated networks of subglacial meltwater landforms, herein called subglacial meltwater routes, on an ice-sheet scale in Fennoscandia. Our map provides a basis for future research on the long-term evolution of subglacial drainage networks and its effect on ice dynamics of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet. Subglacial meltwater landforms created during past glaciations are powerful archives that can help to inform our understanding about the subglacial hydrology of modern glaciers and ice sheets . In receSubglacial melt water drainage is frequently idealised into two endmember configurations: distributed flow at the ice-bed interface and diffusing through sedimentary beds, or with water mainly channelised into discrete threads. While there is an ongoing debate about the extent of distributed drainage configurations recorded in the landscape , the recEsker ridges consist of glaciofluvial sediment typically deposited within subglacial conduits carved up into the ice . They caMeltwater channels, sometimes called Nye-channels, are cut into sedimentary or bedrock substrates and are typically <10 m deep and 10–20 m in width . Larger It has recently been recognised that the repertoire of subglacial meltwater landforms described above is often associated with wide (100s m to km) meltwater tracks that are interpreted to be transitory spatial extensions of the channelised drainage, which are hydraulically connected to parts of the distributed drainage system . MeltwatThe geomorphological literature has often investigated the various types of subglacial meltwater landforms in isolation . However, observations at various scales indicate that they do not form independently of one another, but each are smaller building blocks of a wider drainage network . Accordi1.1.The Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) formed the largest ice mass of the Eurasian Ice Sheet complex that repeatedly covered northern Europe during the Quaternary . At its There is a substantial literature dealing with the variety of subglacial meltwater features on both local and regional scales e.g. . However2.2.1.) of Norway, Sweden and Finland, and the ArcticDEM  for Russian Karelia and small areas in Norway  national digital elevation models  and confluent meltwater track without esker (indicated by dashed line). I: Esker ridge and continuation of meltwater route via a narrow channel . Note that esker ridge is surrounded by irregular terrain, likely indicating a continuation of the indicated tunnel valley. J: Meltwater track in smooth terrain. Note embayment of moraine ridges and esker ridge on the right. K: Irregular terrain track in bedrock area. Note small-scale irregularities inside meltwater track margins. L: Confluent valleys (meltwater tracks) comprising hummocks, ribs and murtoos*. Note lineations and partially irregular terrain in areas between valleys. M: Association of esker ridges and murtoos* with ribbed moraine tracks. Note confluence of moraine tracks and smooth surface in between. N: Tunnel valley with crenulated edges cutting through a hill (∼20 m high). O: Complex zone of valleys comprising murtoos* and esker ridges. Note flow direction and increasing valley size towards southeast. All panels: Brown colours denote higher elevations. White arrows denote meltwater downflow direction. *refers to murtoos and murtoo-related subglacial landforms . Both ribs and transverse ridges can be oblique to the corridor axis.The dimensions of structures within meltwater tracks range from metres to 10s metres for irregular hummocks and transverse ridges and up to 10s to 100s metres for murtoo and murtoo related landforms, ribs and crenulated edges cf. . Where mVérité et al., 20212.2.3.Subglacial meltwater channels are m-scale erosional troughs formed by channelised meltwater flow at the ice sheet bed. They typically have undulating long-profiles, high sinuosities and do not follow local topographic gradients . They ca2.3.To ensure a systematic mapping approach, we created sets of east–west trending lines with a north–south spacing of 12 km for each country. These were used as guidelines along which our mapping was orientated. All features were mapped at scales between 1:20,000 and 1:40,000 in ArcMap 10.7 or QGIS 3.6 km2) required making compromises regarding the detail and arrangement of our mapping. We adapted the approach introduced by The large-scale nature of our study (1.4 × 10Esker ridges (type 1) have been mapped along their crestlines (meltwater corridor associated with esker ridge (type 2). In cases where esker ridges occur within a meltwater corridor  either show a decline in their morphological distinctiveness compared to associated subglacial meltwater routes or have no direct association to esker ridges  where cold-based conditions have been inferred from earlier studies e.g. . AdditioWe identify a variety of drainage patterns in mapped subglacial meltwater routes . As obse3.2.We compared our mapping to previous studies that documented subglacial meltwater features, each varying with respect to detail and/or mapped area. For this, we used a comprehensive and detailed database of glacial landforms in Finland , integraA comparison to eskers extracted from a LiDAR-derived database of glacial landforms in Finland  indicateBy linking esker ridges to other subglacial meltwater features, Qualitative comparison to comprehensive, LiDAR-based mapping projects across the South Swedish Uplands  indicate3.3.3.3.1.Repeated periods of glacially induced erosion in Fennoscandia led to numerous incised valleys in which ice flow concentrated during subsequent glaciations . Thus, pOur map is based around esker ridges and their relationship to meltwater corridors. However, this relationship does not attest to a contemporaneous formation. It is rather an expression of the idea that glacial landscapes are composite records e.g.  with somTraditionally, eskers are associated with the most recent deglaciation  because 3.3.2.Variations in feature density between areas of different data sources might be due to differences in the respective datasets, and not necessarily reflect an actual change in subglacial meltwater route count. As discussed above, this is mostly due to the inclusion of tree canopies in DSMs (i.e. ArcticDEM) which impedes the identification of glacial meltwater landforms in forested areas.). Subglacial discharges are expected to have varied in both space and time yielding a complex evolution beyond the qualitative scope of this map.Because feature dimensions are not considered, the map may give the impression that all subglacial meltwater routes have evacuated equal volumes of water which is unlikely to be realistic cf. . SubglacBecause post-depositional modification or a lack of morphological imprint may have led to gaps in the landform record , 2020, tOur study focuses on the terrestrial parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russian Karelia only. Absence of mapped landforms in the surrounding areas  does not suggest that subglacial meltwater landforms do not exist in these areas e.g. , 2017.Besides challenges with inferring the temporal evolution of drainage, we point out additional limitations of our study:4.We present the first ice sheet-scale map of subglacial meltwater routes in Fennoscandia. Subglacial meltwater routes comprise eskers and meltwater corridors, which together form extensive networks throughout the area. We distinguish between esker ridges, meltwater corridors that are associated with esker ridges and additional meltwater corridors.This map provides a basis for ice sheet-scale analyses of subglacial drainage networks in Fennoscandia, with a particular challenge being to derive the time sequencing of the development of the hydrological network during deglaciation. This will be the subject of future work, and we plan to use the map to inform ice sheet modelling experiments.The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in ORDA (Online research data) at 10.15131/shef.data.17086472.Hillshaded DEMs were created using Esri ArcMap 10.7. All features were digitised as polylines using Esri ArcMap 10.7. and QGIS 3.10.Click here for additional data file.


Vienna today is one of the capitals of research on foundations of quantum physics. We reconstruct the development of modern physics in Vienna, with a focus on foundations of quantum mechanics (FQM), which is a sub-field of quantum mechanics. We show that the influence of Erwin Schrödinger and, in more recent years, the initiatives of Anton Zeilinger—the two main intuitive reasons—cannot alone account for today’s outstanding research landscape on FQM in Vienna. We highlight four additional factors that played a crucial role in the development of foundational research in Vienna: 1) the Viennese heritage of the cultural golden age just before World War II; 2) the long-lasting institutional connection between the faculty of physics and philosophy; 3) a rise of several initiatives that gave forum to the interplay of physics and philosophy; and 4) the influence of several external scholars in the Viennese scientific landscape. Our analysis is informed by interviews with the most pertinent scientists, a detailed survey of the relevant social networks, and review of the main primary literature. Vienna is today recognized as a major center for the studies on FQM. This field of research is unconventional within physics, for it often addresses questions that border on philosophical investigation. Only recently it has become part of mainstream physics, largely by the virtue of practical applications such as secure quantum communication and the promise of a universal quantum computer.Our aim is to study the historical developments that made it possible for FQM to flourish in Vienna. More specifically, we will address the following question: was there something exceptional in the academic and, more generally, the cultural landscape that made of Vienna a particularly fertile ground for FQM compared with other places?1At first sight, the answer seems straightforward. First, many preeminent physicists concerned with FQM studied and worked in Vienna, most notably one of the founding fathers of quantum theory, Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961). Second, in the past few decades, the seminal initiatives of Anton Zeilinger (b. 1945) have deeply shaped physics research at Austrian institutions. Yet, this twofold explanation is not completely satisfactory; as we shall see, Schrödinger’s influence cannot be held accountable for the developments of the research on FQM in Vienna, except potentially indirectly due to his renown. Moreover, although it is unquestionable that Zeilinger—who indeed made pivotal contributions to FQM—was the driving force for the establishment of the research on FQM in Vienna, it is more than doubtful that this could have happened with the same success anywhere else. In fact, if we distance ourselves from the hagiographic narrative, we should realize that the cultural context in which scientists live and work plays a fundamental role in their intellectual formation, for the development of novel ideas and for the acceptance and establishment thereof. In the case of Zeilinger, historian of physics Olival Freire’s words reflect this idea: “Zeilinger’s intellectual style is marked by a deep curiosity, which was directed towards science during his undergraduate studies and favored by the flexible curriculum at University of Vienna at that time. In addition, he benefited from Rauch’s support to research on foundations of quantum mechanics and from the intellectual climate of physics in Vienna—with its mix of science and philosophy—a legacy coming from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”We will show that the acceptance of FQM in Vienna was indeed the result of a combination of cultural and institutional factors that provided a fertile ground, together with the rise of several initiatives that gave forum to the interplay of physics and philosophy as well as the influence of several external scholars.Indeed, the role that Vienna played at the turn of the twentieth century as a major multicultural center for art, philosophy, and science was reflected also in a flourishing landscape of intellectual debates at the boundary between physics and philosophy, such as the Boltzmann–Mach controversy, or the Popper–Vienna Circle dispute about scientific method. Despite the fact that this exceptional period of intellectual blossoming was shattered by the advent of fascism and the outbreak of World War II, its legacy continued to influence the Viennese scientific landscape throughout the second half of the century.2 Following the United States as the leading Western scientific force, many European countries adhered to such an attitude. Research became dominated by particle physics, where research projects turned into collective enterprises that involved tens if not hundreds or thousands of physicists . At the same time, research on FQM virtually disappeared from scientific programs, and was regarded with suspicion or actively opposed.With the transition into Cold War, a new scientific paradigm took hold. In addition to an increased focus on military research, a hyper-pragmatic attitude emerged, mostly devoid of any fundamental and philosophical concerns. Such an attitude was epitomized by the expression “shut up and calculate!”prima facie conducted within the standard pragmatism of the time. However, in Vienna this drastic separation between science and its philosophical and fundamental aspects was never as complete as almost everywhere else. First, at the institutional level, at the University of Vienna, until as late as 1975 physics was a department of the Faculty of Philosophy.3 The final exam  to become Dr. Phil. in physics included philosophy as a mandatory subject. Consequently, Viennese physics students received some formal education in philosophy. Second, although most of the teaching and research activities in Viennese universities were more standardized than in other cities and countries, many leading physicists were actively involved in a number of initiatives that were rooted in a genuine interest in philosophy of science and foundational research. Indeed, as Reinhold Bertlmann (b. 1945)—an Austrian physicist who closely collaborated with John S. Bell (1928–90) and, together with Zeilinger, was among the first to introduce FQM into teaching at the University of Vienna in the early 1990s—put it, “officially they just followed this rule ‘shut up and calculate,’ but in their heart they were open and unofficially they discussed [foundational problems]…. There was still an atmosphere of philosophy.”4 It should be remarked that, contrary to other cases, such as Italy or the United States5—where interest in foundations was revived between 1970 and 1980s, motivated by political and ideological reasons, after a period of dormancy—in Vienna, philosophy and physics always maintained a relatively strong bond with a certain continuity. According to our account, this happened primarily for conservative reasons, namely for the strength that this bond had acquired in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Indeed, Vienna has a reputation for its notorious cultural conservatism, as crystallized by the famous dictum attributed to the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler: “If the world ends, I would go to Vienna; there everything happens fifty years later.”Also in Austria, and in particular in Vienna, a large part of the physics that was rebuilt in the postwar period focused on particle physics and was Philosophisch-Naturwissenschaftlicher Arbeitskreis), which catalyzed the curiosity of physicists toward philosophical issues and allowed a structured forum for debate among physicists and philosophers.6This tradition of philosophical interest and fundamental debate in physics in the Austrian capital was kept alive and recast by several physicists, such as theoreticians Herbert Pietschmann (b. 1936) and Roman U. Sexl (1939–86), and the experimentalist Helmut Rauch (1939–2019). In particular, Pietschmann and the philosopher Gerhard Schwarz (b. 1937) founded, in 1964, a “Philosophical-Scientific Working Group” —we document that he deliberately did not establish a school, and did not essentially contribute further to FQM while in Vienna. Conversely, a series of external influences helped pave the way for the flourishing research environment on FQM in Vienna. This was the case for Franco Selleri (1936–2013)—the initiator of the revival of FQM in Italy956—we doOur analysis is mostly based on interviews with significant historical figures, a detailed examination of relevant social networks, and a review of the primary literature. This allows us to access information that is not available in written sources, including the perception of the general atmosphere, in particular regarding the local acceptance of foundational and philosophical questions.Vienna has an outstanding physics tradition, which dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century when the city experienced an intellectual golden age. In those years, the University of Vienna had among its professors physicists like Christian Andreas Doppler (1803–53), Josef Loschmidt (1821–95), Joseph Stefan (1835–93), Ernst Mach (1838–1916), Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906), and Franz Serafin Exner (1849–1926), who collectively laid the groundwork for an exceptionally prolific physics milieu in the following years. The three Austrian Nobel Laureates in physics, Erwin Schrödinger, Victor Francis Hess (1883–1964), and Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958), as well as Lise Meitner (1878–1968) and Paul Ehrenfest (1880–1933), were all academic children of that extraordinary period.10In particular, the intellectual debate between Mach’s empiricism and Boltzmann’s realism had a lasting impact on foundations of physics and general philosophy of science, and gave momentum to the interplay between physics and philosophy. Notably, despite his physics background, Mach was appointed the world’s first chair in history and philosophy of science.11 In fact, Exner anticipated the rise of fundamental indeterminism before quantum mechanics. He furthermore formed a school of physicists who were to become highly influential figures in Vienna, most notably Friedrich Hasenöhrl (1874–1915), Hans Thirring (1888–1976), and Schrödinger  for the Socialist Party of Austria  between 1957 and 1964.17 In that role, he promoted further pacifist initiatives, such as a proposed unilateral disarmament of Austria, known as the “Thirring Plan.”Like for most other activities, reconstructing science in Austria after the Nazi period and the war required a great effort, and quite some time . Some of the physicists were reinstated, in particular Hans Thirring as the only professor of theoretical physics at the University of Vienna. However, his intellectual interests had changed somewhat. Immediately after the war, he started devoting a great deal of his interests to pacifist and political initiatives. Paul Feyerabend, who was a student of physics in Vienna in those years, recalled him saying: “This is important, physics is not.”18 The only other theoretician—a lecturer (Dozent) who was said to know quantum physics—was Theodor Sexl (1899–1967), who, however, also never taught it in his courses. A story circulated among the students at that time that he had written a book on quantum mechanics that was lost in the mail on its way to the publisher, and he therefore refused to teach quantum physics.19 Whether there is truth in this anecdote or otherwise, as a matter of fact, after World War II neither Hans Thirring nor Theodor Sexl, nor any other professor, taught quantum physics at the University of Vienna until as late as 1959.20 The students showed a great deal of initiative and used to meet in self-organized groups after the official lectures to study quantum physics using the famous book Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Paul Dirac.21Thirring’s deep involvement in complex political challenges, however, most likely came at the expense of his scientific achievements and the quality of his physics teaching. This was a potential reason that university courses in Vienna lagged behind the scientific developments of the time. Pietschmann, who had started his studies in physics at the University of Vienna in 1954, recalls that “it was kind of transition period. In those days there was no quantum physics taught at the University of Vienna.… Not at all!”ordentliche Professorin).22 Moreover, concerning fundamental physics, at the beginning of the same year, Schrödinger returned to Vienna as “honorary professor” (Ehrenprofessor), where he remained until his death in 1961.23 This surely changed the landscape of Viennese physics, causing great excitement among students, who, however, were to see some of their expectations betrayed. It is true that Schrödinger stimulated young physicists through his thought-provoking talks, in which foundational problems played a central role, such as his inaugural address on “The Crisis of the Atomic Concept,”24 and that he engaged in public philosophical debates, for instance when Victor Weisskopf (1908–2002) visited Vienna in 1958.25 Yet his impact on the Viennese research and education regarding foundational issues, especially those dealing with quantum mechanics, turns out to be much more limited.Only from the mid-1950s did the real postwar modernization of Viennese physics take hold. First, Berta Karlik (1904–90) was appointed professor of experimental nuclear physics in 1956, being the first woman in the history of Austria to become a full professor ,28 In the end, quite shockingly, it was decided to appoint as the successor of Hans Thirring his son Walter Thirring (1927–2014). In Pietschmann’s words:29“there is one kind of nepotism which is worldwide unique, and this is Walter Thirring. I mean, no doubts about his capabilities, but he inherited the chair from his father. So Schrödinger was against it … because he said it is simply impossible to inherit a chair at the University.”Instead, perhaps the most remarkable change relevant to the modernization of physics in postwar Vienna stemmed from Thirring’s retirement and the stir caused by the search of a new professor of theoretical physics. According to Schrödinger’s biographer, “the various factions were agreed only on one thing: to prevent Schrödinger from using his enormous prestige to influence the decision.”30After his PhD, Walter Thirring, most likely also thanks to the acquaintances of his father, went on a kind of Grand Tour to perfect his formation under some of the most distinguished living physicists of that time: he was in Dublin with Schrödinger, in Glasgow with Bruno Touschek, in Göttingen with Werner Heisenberg, in Zurich with Wolfgang Pauli, and in Princeton, where he had contacts with Einstein. When the younger Thirring finally came back to Vienna in 1959 as a full professor, he was an internationally recognized expert in quantum field theory.Thirring initiated modern physics in postwar Vienna. He was the first professor to teach quantum mechanics, together with advanced courses on contemporary physics. He also played a major role in making Austria a member state of CERN—where hedirected the Theory Division between 1968 and 1971—which helped put Austria back on the map for physics research at the international level. Moreover, Thirring attracted many young students who completed their dissertations with him, both on theoretical high energy physics and on general relativity. Many of that new generation of students (and the immediately following one) were to become professors at the University of Vienna and rebuild the physics landscape there. In particular, two of Thirring’s first students in Vienna, Herbert Pietschmann and Roman Ulrich Sexl (the nephew of the physicist Theodor Sexl), became professors at the end of the 1960s, and, as we shall see in the next section, helped restore the Viennese tradition of connecting physics with philosophy.31 Nevertheless, Thirring was not only tolerant but, to a certain extent, even supportive of the initiatives that some of his collaborators and former students, foremost Pietschmann and Sexl, launched in the mid-1960s.Thirring himself did not show a particular interest in philosophical or interpretational issues, favoring formal problems of theoretical high energy physics: “He was very pragmatic,” recalls Peter Aichelburg, a former student of his who was to become professor of gravitational physics in Vienna.32 but it was only in 1964 that Pietschmann—together with his friend, the philosopher Gerhard Schwarz—established a novel dialogue between physics and philosophy. The two founded the Philosophisch-Naturwissenschaftlicher Arbeitskreis (PNA), a discussion group that focused on topics at the intersection of physics and philosophy, debated in front of an audience of students.33 Since the beginning, Pietschmann and Schwarz wanted to establish the PNA as an official university course. They individually approached their respective supervisors for their approval. Pietschmann recalls that “Thirring always was very open minded and said: ‘yes, it is fine if I don’t have to be involved.’”34 From the side of the philosophers, the response was somewhat more pessimistic about the success of the course. Schwarz recalls his mentor saying: “this is not gonna work Mr. Schwarz, because physicists don’t understand the first thing about philosophy and it is not possible to teach them. But if you want to do that!”35 Despite this reluctance, the PNA took off as an official university course where students could get a grade by attending the panel discussions and handing in a paper.Subsequent to Schrödinger’s refusal to take him (or anyone else) as a student, Pietschmann completed his PhD in 1960 under Walter Thirring and became professor in Vienna in 1968 after collecting some international experiences. Only a few months later, however, Thirring left for CERN, and Pietschmann remained the only professor of theoretical physics in Vienna and became de facto head of the Theoretical Physical Institute. Pietschmann was always sensitive to the more speculative and philosophical aspect of theoretical physics. He had been introduced to the foundational problems of quantum mechanics in his years as a student, thanks to the presence of Schrödinger,36 Sexl completed his PhD in 1961 under Walther Thirring and, after a period at several US institutions, returned to Vienna in 1967, where he became full professor of general relativity theory and cosmology in 1971. His work on the production of particles by gravitational fields,37 carried out with his Viennese colleague Helmuth Urbantke, pioneered the field of particle production in curved spacetime that would lead to Stephen Hawking’s radiation theory a few years later, and won him international fame. Moreover, Sexl became renowned for his involvement in physics education and wrote several scholarly and popular science books. Sexl had a dynamic intellectual style. As Bertlmann recalled: “he was very broad in this. He was typically Viennese in this. Not just doing calculations, but also philosophy, culture, art.”38 Indeed, since 1979, Sexl was the editor of the book series Facetten der Physik (“Facets of Physics”), which promoted a genuinely interdisciplinary and open-minded approach to physics, as stated by the introductory editorial note that opens every volume of the series: “Physics has many facets: historical, technical, social, cultural, philosophical and amusing ones. They can serve as essential and decisive motives for the pursuit of the natural sciences.”Soon after its foundation, another prominent participant joined the PNA, Pietschmann’s colleague Roman U. Sexl. The latter was the nephew of the aforementioned Viennese physicist Theodor Sexl, from whom Roman possibly learned about the fundamental problems of quantum physics.Die Debatte um die Quantentheorie (“The Debate over the Quantum Theory”) in 1983.39 Sexl himself—together with Kurt Baumann—published, in 1984, Die Deutungen der Quantentheorie (“The Interpretations of Quantum Theory”),40 a collection of original papers that aims to show different interpretations of quantum formalism . Remarkably, Sexl’s book shows an exceptionally modern understanding of the relevance of the interpretational problems:41“Because only mathematical formalisms that have an interpretation can be understood as a physical theory.… Even though, at some point in time, different interpretations lead to the same physical results, they let us anticipate very different developments and research directions.”In that book series, Franco Selleri, the main character of the Italian revival of FQM in the 1970s (see below), published his Albert Einstein: His Influence on Physics, Philosophy and Politics,42 collected contributions from distinguished physicists and philosophers.43 It also contained a chapter by Nathan Rosen on the EPR paradox, wherein Einstein’s collaborator stated his lack of confidence that quantum theory could be completed in terms of hidden variables, because this would mean to give up locality in the light of Bell’s theorem.Moreover, together with Peter Aichelburg, Sexl edited a collective volume in honor of Einstein on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. The book, Facets of Physics, the PNA covered a diverse palette of topics in their discussions, each of which usually took up several semesters. In the course of over fifty years, the PNA covered twelve broad topics in their discussions.44 It started with the subject of space and time (1964–69), which was to become a common theme over the course of the following decades. Its continuation led to questions regarding inertial and gravitational mass (1969–71), where the assumptions leading to ideas such as cosmic inflation and the theory of the big bang were received critically by the philosophers of the PNA, who considered them rather arbitrary. This lead Pietschmann to introduce the distinction between predictive and descriptive theories.45 As a consequence, the discussion shifted toward methodology (Methodenproblem) (1971–78).In the spirit of 46 Pietschmann published the paper “The Rules of Scientific Discovery Demonstrated from Examples of the Physics of Elementary Particles,” wherein he showed that the methodological rules of Popper’s falsificationism are “actual tools rather than abstract norms in the development of physics.”47 Despite his influence on the PNA and the repeated invitations, there is no evidence that Popper ever attended their meetings.In their meetings, they sometimes invited guests to contribute to the discussion, such as Ingvild Birkhan, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Roland Fischer. Of particular interest is the involvement of Karl Popper, who became a major influence on Pietschmann’s thoughts. Sexl and Pietschmann invited Popper to participate in the discussion of the PNA in October 1972, and kept a correspondence with him until 1980.48 Zeilinger also participated in at least one of the meetings of the PNA, but did not find it particular influential in his intellectual development. However, he maintains that the very existence of such a successful initiative was symptomatic of a remarkable openness to foundational questions in the Viennese environment, which likely helped pave the way for the establishment of FQM in the following years.49 The PNA was so successful as to last for over half a century. A final meeting of the PNA took place in 2016.The PNA certainly had a strong impact on the general landscape of physics in postwar Vienna, where the new developments of high energy physics, under the lead of Walter Thirring, had overcome the philosophy-oriented mood that had characterized prewar physics research. In Pietschmann’s case, for example, the interaction with philosophers was to have lasting and deep consequences, and paved the way for his subsequent interest in foundational questions. This is witnessed by Aichelburg, who did not find the PNA particularly fruitful, but recalls that “Pietschmann … somehow absorbed this philosophical vocabulary and somehow turned to the philosophical aspects.”Rigorosen, [final exams for a doctorate] three in the main topic—in [this] case physics—and two in philosophy. So [they] really had to study it and learn it, although the philosophers knew that they had to be very soft with scientists.”50Before entering the core of our reconstruction of the first steps toward modern FQM in Vienna, however, we deem it relevant to give an overview of the system of physics education at the University of Vienna in the 1960s and 1970s. As mentioned in the introduction, a peculiar aspect of the University of Vienna is that up until 1975 the physics institutes were part of the Faculty of Philosophy. This was not just an administrative matter, but had a real impact on the education of young physicists. Pietschmann recalls that physics students “had to take five Rigorosen had an impact on his intellectual formation.51 In general, this formal training in philosophy is likely to have played a considerable role in forming the interest in foundational problems at Vienna.Zeilinger also recalls that the course he followed in philosophy to prepare for the 52 Indeed, until the reform of 1975, there was a single cycle degree program (which if completed would grant a PhD) without mandatory courses or exams to take, except the final Rigorosen. Zeilinger, who studied physics in Vienna in the same years as Bertlmann, recalls:53“when I started to study physics and mathematics at the University of Vienna in 1963, there was no fixed curriculum at all. One was essentially free to choose the topics according to one’s liking. Only at the end, one had to pass a rigorous examination and present a PhD thesis. This resulted in me taking not even a single hour of quantum mechanics, but I learned it all from textbooks for the final exam.”Moreover, the curriculum was exceptionally flexible, granting students customized training. Bertlmann remembers: “When I think back it was like in paradise, I must say. You only had to choose your thesis advisor and he told you what you had to study.”54 However, despite his full involvement in philosophical discussions, topics pertaining to FQM were not introduced in this course. The same lack of foundational topics is apparent in the courses led by Sexl, who also taught quantum mechanics in the following years. Yet, despite the fact that Facetten der Physik was publishing whole volumes on FQM, and their involvement in the PNA, neither Pietschmann nor Sexl seemed to have introduced their interest in foundational problems into their teaching throughout the 1970s and even the 1980s. Bertlmann, who attended their courses, recalls:55“The lectures of Pietschmann and Sexl were very good, very modern, but no density matrices and of course, no Bell’s Theorem. Although Sexl was writing about Bell’s Theorem in a book at that time, so he knew about it. But he never mentioned it in the course. It was an official line not to do it.”The first course of quantum mechanics was taught by Walter Thirring in 1959. However, it did not cover any foundational problems, such as the EPR paradox or the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. During the years 1968–1971, when Thirring moved to CERN, Pietschmann replaced him teaching theoretical physics, a two-year course divided in four parts: mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, and statistical physics.56 We regard this attitude of keeping these interests somewhat private as a cultural product of the age of “shut up and calculate.” As Bertlmann puts it, “it was an official line.”57One can thus see a dichotomy between the interest in foundational and philosophical aspects of physics that physicists such as Pietschamann and Sexl were extensively cultivating and their appearance as professors of the Faculty of Physics, especially in their teaching. Aichelburg maintains: “if there was at that time some discussions on fundamental physics, I didn’t know this.”Atominstitut—an inter-university institution between the Technical University of Vienna (TU) and the University of Vienna—was a major venue for the rebirth of the Viennese foundational research. Helmut Rauch, one of the protagonists of the rise of FQM in Vienna was based there. During his study years at TU, “quantum mechanics was taught in the standard form, that means Copenhagen as it is, and there were no broad discussions about that.”58 TU never had a Faculty of Philosophy, which might explain why the connections to philosophy were weaker then at Vienna. However, one can find some exceptions: Walter Glaser (1906–60), professor of Theoretical Physics at TU since 1956, was said to have strong interest in FQM, and to oppose the Copenhagen interpretation. Furthermore, Rauch recalled that occasional visitors would come to the TU to give talks about Bohmian mechanics, and that Karl Popper visited the institute several times around the mid-1960s, because he was very interested in matter-wave quantum phenomena (see below).59The 60 “was very open and … interested of doing fundamental physics which could be published in reasonable journals.”61 In 1972, Rauch was appointed full professor of experimental and neutron physics at TU, and in the following years he was to be recognized as one of the most renowned experts on neutron interferometry worldwide. Indeed Rauch’s group obtained a pivotal result in 1974, becoming the first to realize a silicon crystal appropriately manufactured to implement a (Laue-type) interferometer between coherent beams of neutrons.62Rauch’s doctoral supervisor, Gustav Ortner (1900–1984)63 Zeilinger was particularly involved in the first experiment of foundational nature conducted with the new neutron interferometer: the verification of the sign flip of the wave function of a spin-1/2 particle.64 This seminal result was a turning point in Zeilinger’s career because this offered him the opportunity to get involved with the  community of FQM. In fact, Zeilinger participated in an international workshop on FQM, “Thinkshop on Physics,” which took place in Erice  in 1976 and was directed by John Bell and Bernard D’Espagnat (1921–2015).65 This workshop had a pivotal international resonance for the field of FQM, as it “was seen by some physicists as the turning point in the acceptance that quantum nonlocality was indeed a new physical effect.”66 John Clauser (b. 1942), a pioneer of research on Bell’s inequalities, pointed out that “the sociology of the conference was as interesting as was its physics. The quantum subculture finally had come out of the closet.”67 There, Zeilinger had his first encounter with quantum entanglement and Bell’s inequalities:68“[T]his was my first real encounter with the international scientific community. There, I heard for the first time about Bell’s theorem, about the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, about entanglement, and the like.… This meeting turned out to be very crucial in my life. There, I met a number of colleagues for the first time, some of whom later became personal friends.”In 1968, Anton Zeilinger—at that time a student at the University of Vienna—also joined Rauch’s group, wherein, in 1971, he completed his doctoral dissertation. Zeilinger recalls that his interest on foundations of physics was easily accepted and grew within Rauch’s group at the Atominstitut, feeling that he had escaped the reluctance with which foundational issues were still regarded at the Vienna Faculty of Physics.69 That work, published in the proceedings of the conference, was the first paper of Zeilinger on matters of entanglement and non-locality.70 Zeilinger and Horn’s collaboration continued in the following years and was joined by Daniel Greenberger (b. 1932) in 1987, with whom they were the first to tackle the problem of tripartite entanglement, allowing them to formulate a stronger form of Bell’s theorem—the GHZ theorem.71It should be stressed that Zeilinger’s research did not deal with entanglement and non-locality until 1985, when, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Einstein-Podolski-Rosen (EPR) paper, a conference was held in Joensuu (Finland). For this occasion Zeilinger and Michael Horne (1943–2019) formulated the first experimental proposal for violating Bell’s inequalities using entanglement between external degrees of freedom .Zeilinger was predominantly an experimentalist, so his aim became to realize some of these theoretical proposals involving multipartite entanglement in a laboratory. However, he soon realized that neutrons are not suitable for creating entangled states, so he switched to photonic entanglement, applying the newly developed techniques for creating entangled pairs of photons through the effect called spontaneous parametric down-conversion.72Zeilinger became increasingly recognized as a world’s leading figure in FQM, quantum optics, and quantum communication. Reconstructing Zeilinger’s scientific achievements in these fields goes beyond the scope of the present paper.73But it is worth noting that, on Zeilinger’s (amongst others’) initiative, the “Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information” (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences was founded in 2003, with two independent sites in Innsbruck and Vienna.74 It ought to be remarked that the majority of these dissidents—such as David Bohm (1917–92), John Bell, Hugh Everett (1930–82), Jean-Pierre Vigier (1920–2004), and Franco Selleri—were motivated by realism to oppose the widespread Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. On the other hand, the school of thought initiated by Zeilinger in Vienna, coming from a quantum information background, mainly supports a non-realist “neo-Copenhagen” interpretation, where the epistemic concept of information plays a major role.75As already noted, FQM encountered a tremendous setback in the postwar period, with the exception of a few physicists that historian of physics Olival Freire Jr. has named the “quantum dissidents” because they challenged the standard view according to which “foundational issues were already solved by the founding fathers of quantum physics.”Nevertheless, some of the aforementioned quantum dissidents helped popularize FQM in Vienna and have likely played a relevant role in smoothing the path toward the rise of the “Zeilinger era” of FQM.76 Selleri’s realist position was explicitly rooted in his radical left-wing, materialistic credo. In the 1970s, a remarkably large group of young physicists—who included Giancarlo Ghirardi (1935–2018), who would make important contributions to FQM—joined his research program.The initiator and main actor of the rebirth of the interest in FQM in Italy was the theoretician Franco Selleri.77Selleri and his school took part in the Erice workshop of 1976, and more than likely it is there that he started to be interested in experimental tests of some of his ideas on FQM using neutrons. Many years later, he would recall: “I have done a lot to promote neutron interferometry as a tool to study fundamental questions.… I was particularly connected with Helmut Rauch at Vienna and Rauch is a practical man, less philosophically inclined than Zeilinger but a very concrete physicist. And I believe that neutron interferometry shows very clearly that you have wave particle duality again.”78—which confirmed the violation predicted by quantum theory and thus jeopardized most of the hidden variable programs—neutron interferometry became for many the hope to save hidden variables. John Bell himself explained to Rauch that “it would be important to make it [Bell’s experiment] with matter waves, because electromagnetic waves are in principle all over.”79 This view was shared by French theoretical physicist Jean-Pierre Vigier, who visited Rauch’s group several times, both at the Atominstitut in Vienna and at the Institut Laue–Langevin in Grenoble, where he tried to persuade Rauch to conduct experiments that could allegedly disprove the Copenhagen interpretation.80 Indeed, Rauch stated:81“many of our experiments were afterwards really stimulated by some strange ideas about how to distinguish between different interpretations.… Also Vigier was a fighter for that. But … we were fortunately always very careful in our discussion. We never mentioned that it disproves quantum mechanics.”Indeed, after 1982 when the first experiments on Bell’s inequality were conducted with photons by Alain Aspect (b. 1947)82—having actively re-engaged with the community of quantum physicists. At a conference in Bari, organized by Selleri himself, Popper presented a “simplified version of the EPR experiment.” Selleri had arranged that some experimentalists, including Rauch, would be present with the hope of persuading someone to perform Popper’s proposed experiment.83 Consequently, Popper visited Rauch in Vienna in March 1984. Rauch wrote to Popper that he found his proposal very interesting and invited him to speak at the Chemisch-Physikalische Gesellschaft  in Vienna, of which Rauch was the chairman.84 Popper’s experiment was carried out only in 1999, after his death. It turned out that Popper’s proposal was not capable of discriminating between different interpretations of quantum physics.85 On the other hand, Bell’s experiments with neutrons did not work because of the technical difficulties with realizing a source of entangled neutrons.86 However, the interaction between these unorthodox thinkers and the group of Rauch stimulated the foundational character of the experiments with neutrons, as explicitly acknowledged by Rauch, and more generally may have contributed to open to discussions on FQM in Vienna.In the early 1980s, Vigier was the main influence on the octogenarian philosopher Karl Popper—who had been engaging with problems of FQM since 1934 and as such should be considered a fully-fledged “quantum dissident”87 In Vienna, indeed, Selleri discussed FQM mainly with Pietschmann, Sexl, and Rauch. Bertlmann, still a young researcher at that time, also remembers Selleri’s visits, but gives us a taste of how unpopular the topic of FQM was: Bertlmann “did not have contact with him [Selleri] on this subject. This was not allowed, so to say.”88 Therefore, it is surprising that, during his period in Vienna, Selleri was actually allowed to give lectures on FQM. Selleri himself remembered that Sexl “followed [his] lectures in Vienna and invited [him] to write a book” on their topic,89 which appeared in 1983 as a volume in the already mentioned series Facetten der Physik, edited by Sexl himself (see above).90 The contents of this book reflect the unconventional palette of topics that Selleri had covered in his lectures in 1980. It encompasses whole chapters devoted to problems such as the completeness of quantum theory and hidden variables, wave-particle duality from a realist point of view , the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment and Bell’s inequality, as well as a final chapter on “Experimental Philosophy.”Moreover, Selleri had been good friends with Pietschmann for many years (they met at CERN in 1960–61 when Selleri was still working on particle physics) and, from the beginning of the 1980s, began a fruitful intellectual relationship with Sexl too. It was most likely Sexl and Pietschmann’s interest in foundational questions that caused Selleri to spend a leave of absence at the institute of physics in Vienna. He visited from winter 1980 to spring 1981 and made further regular visits until at least 1985.91 in which he proposed a model that allegedly disproved the fact that the factorability of probabilities for outcomes of experiments conducted at distant locations is sufficient to derive Bell’s inequalities, as proposed by Clauser and Horne.92 This proposal earned the praise of Popper—who coined the term “universality claim” to refer to the result of Clauser and Horne93—and had a certain following throughout the 1980s. However, it turned out to be untenable because it was based on a misconception.94Moreover, while in Vienna, Selleri wrote a paper95 He had proposed this independently of the works of Nick Herbert (b. 1936), who had promoted the same idea in the United States.96 It was in Vienna that Selleri explored one such scheme for achieving faster-than-light communication. This, however, assumed the possibility of a laser emitting longitudinal modes all with the same, yet unknown, circular polarization. Pietschmann remembers that Selleri entered his office jubilantly and presented this result to him and Walter Thirring. The proposal had no formal mistakes, but Pietschmann replied: “Absolutely great, you have just proven that it is impossible to make a laser which lases linearly polarised light in the same way,” and Thirring agreed.97 Indeed, the impossibility of preparing copies of unknown quantum states was to be proven in full generality soon afterwards, motivated also as a reaction to Nick Herbert’s proposal,98 and became known as the “no-cloning theorem,” on which the entire field of modern quantum cryptography relies.Selleri is also known for having been among the first proposers of protocols to achieve superluminal communication, based on (a misconception of) quantum entanglement.99 despite their opposite views on FQM. Therein, they analyzed a local deterministic hidden variable model that would determine whether a photon is detected or not in an EPR-like experiment. This model is empirically distinguishable from quantum mechanics, but this was at that time out of experimental reach, due to the low efficiency of photon detectors. The disagreement between the two authors is made manifest in the last sentence of the paper: “the difference in the expectations of the present authors whether this will happen or not is indicative of the diversity of opinion among physicists at large.”100 On this note, Zeilinger recently recalls: “I saw the paper as a mathematical exercise out of curiosity, for Selleri it was important for his realist view.”101 As a matter of fact, all experiments so far performed confirm quantum mechanics.Interestingly, Selleri and Zeilinger co-authored a paper in 1988,par excellence, the physicist who changed the understanding of modern FQM more than anyone, was John Bell. He also played a role in Vienna, mostly indirectly through the Austrian physicist Reinhold Bertlmann.102 The latter completed his dissertation in 1974 under Pietschmann’s supervision. In these years, Bertlmann was active in left-wing student movements, which were particularly sensitized to physicists’ involvement in military research . Bertlmann’s leftist attitude led to a curious wearing habit that was to change his scientific life some years later. Bertlmann recollects:103“my way of looking was a protest against the bourgeoisie, but not only this. I don’t know how it actually happened.… One day I changed my socks. I thought: ‘why do all people choose the socks of the same color for both feet, why is this?’ So this for me was like a sheep-effect. And then I changed this.… I don’t know the day exactly when I started, must have been in the ‘60 s, but from that day on I never had socks of the same color, no day.”The quantum dissident 104In 1977, Bertlmann had the opportunity to work for nine months in the Soviet Union, at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. It should be recalled that Austria declared itself “perpetually neutral” in its new Constitution of 1955 , so it enjoyed a status that allowed scientific collaborations to develop across the Iron Curtain. There, Bertlmann was exposed for the first time to alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics, in particular to the realist-materialist position of Dmitrii Blokhintsev (1908–79) who had written a renowned book (within the Soviet Union) on FQM.105 They started a close friendship and a prolific collaboration on topics of particle physics.106 Bell was a recognized authority in theoretical particle physics and accelerator physics—he was called “the Oracle of CERN”107—but he never discussed his paramount results on FQM 108 with his colleagues in CERN, nor did he discuss it with Bertlmann, who recalls: “John … never mentioned his quantum works to me in the first years of our collaboration. Why? This I understood later on, John was reluctant to push somebody into a field that was quite unpopular at that time.”109In April 1978, Bertlmann moved to the Theory Division of CERN, where he soon made Bell’s acquaintance.110 During the last talk, Bell joked that EPR pairs behave in the same fashion as Bertlmann’s socks. This triggered the laughs of the audience, but nobody, including Bertlmann, thought more about it.111 However, in 1980, the joke came back into Bertlmann’s life, launching him, willing or not, “out of the blue into the middle of the quantum debate,”112 when Bell published the paper “Bertlmann’s socks and the nature of reality.”113 Therein he explained the fundamental difference between “spooky” quantum correlations and classical ones, exemplified by the (anti-)correlated colors of Bertlmann’s socks. Indeed, the paper begins with:114The philosopher in the street, who has not suffered a course in quantum mechanics, is quite unimpressed by Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations. He can point to many examples of similar correlations in every day life. The case of Bertlmann’s socks is often cited. Dr. Bertlmann likes to wear two socks of different colours. Which colour he will have on a given foot on a given day is quite unpredictable. But when you see  that the first sock is pink you can be already sure that the second sock will not be pink.… And is not the EPR business just the same?”The first direct contact between Bell and the University of Vienna occurred in May 1980, when he was invited by Walter Thirring as the “Schrödinger Guest Professor” for about ten days. On that occasion, Bell gave three lectures. It must have been quite for Thirring to figure out that only the first one was about particle physics, “On the role of duality for bound states in QCD” (on May 19), whereas the other two focused on his (at that time) virtually unknown work on FQM, “Assuming the Schrödinger equation is exact” (on May 21), and “On locality in quantum mechanics” (on May 22).115 And so he did, engaging in many discussion on FQM with Bell himself. Together with Jun John Sakurai (1933–82), who was at CERN at the beginning of the 1980s—until his untimely death—he wrote his famous book on quantum mechanics, which was the first manual for students to include Bell’s inequalities.116 Indeed, throughout the 1980s, Bertlmann became a main actor in popularizing Bell’s results on FQM both in Vienna and internationally. He started being invited to give talks about Bell’s inequalities and quantum non-locality, especially by physics groups that never dealt with FQM. In 1984, invited by Othmar Preining (1927–2007) at the Institute of Experimental Physics in Vienna, he gave the talk “Bell’sches Theorem” (“Bell’s theorem”); in 1987 he presented the lecture “Bell’s theorem and the nature of reality” first again at the University of Vienna, and in the same year—invited respectively by Heinrich Leutwyler (b. 1938) and Hans Günter Dosch (b. 1936)—in Bern and in Heidelberg. Moreover, at the end of 1986, Bertlmann persuaded Walter Thirring to organize a conference on FQM at the University of Vienna, with an emphasis on Bell’s Theorem. The “Schrödinger Symposium” took place the following year and, naturally, Bell was invited as a speaker. He spoke on “Schrödinger’s cat” , and took part in the panel discussion (together with Zeilinger), announcing therein his notorious list of “words that should be forbidden in serious discussion,” such as “system,” “apparatus,” “observable,” and “measurement.”117Bertlmann recalls that the paper pushed him abruptly into the field of FQM: “I had to study because everyone was addressing me as the most expert in the world, and I knew nothing!”118 the pre-print of which he sent to Bell, who enjoyed it very much,119 but also to Abner Shimony (1928–2015), another of the early experts in Bell’s theorem. The latter, who involved James Cushing (1937–2002), replied enthusiastically with the proposal of organizing a volume of invited papers dedicated to Bell’s work on FQM. With the help of the editor of the journal Foundations of Physics, Alwyn Van der Merwe (1927–), they started inviting some of the most prominent physicists and philosophers with the aim of giving long-overdue credit to Bell’s work on FQM. Bell was unaware of this project, orchestrated behind his back to surprise him. Writing the papers and assembling the volume, however, took two years and the first dedicated issue appeared on October 1, 1990120. Most sadly, Bell died unexpectedly that very day, without knowing of the honor that he was about to receive.121Throughout the 1980s—mainly thanks to experimental violations of Bell’s inequalities, but also thanks to the popularization of this topic by the quantum dissidents and other younger scholars—Bell’s theorem became increasingly recognized as proper physics. On the occasion of Bell’s sixtieth birthday, in 1988, Bertlmann wrote the paper “Bell’s theorem and the nature of reality,”122 This was also the case in Vienna.Interest in FQM took off shortly after Bell’s death in the 1990s, with the advent of quantum information theory and applications for quantum communication.123 In 1994, they established the seminar “Foundations of Quantum Mechanics” as an official course between the University of Vienna, where Bertlmann was associate professor, and the University of Innsbruck, where Zeilinger had just become full professor. This was activated as an official course thanks to the support of Pietschmann, in his role of head of the Physics Institute.Curiously enough, although Bertlmann and Zeilinger were exactly the same age, both studied at the University of Vienna, and both had a common interest in FQM (at least throughout the 1980s), they did not get to know each other until 1991. The occasion was provided by a conference in memory of John Bell, “Bell’s theorem and the foundations of modern physics,” organized by Selleri and collaborators on October 7–10, in Cesena, Italy. Bertlmann recalls: “There I met [Zeilinger], we found common interests and we thought, let’s begin to do something. And we had this idea: let’s educate young people and with this young people we can do something. Then we thought the best could be to organize a joint seminar.”124 turned out to be a turning point in the acceptance of FQM at the University of Vienna, for it sensitized many students to foundational problems that were never discussed in official courses. Shortly afterwards, the first Diploma theses  on FQM started appearing: Časlav Brukner (b. 1967) who was to become full professor of quantum information theory and foundations of quantum physics at the University of Vienna—was the first to complete his thesis in 1995 at the University of Vienna under Zeilinger (who was still in Innsbruck) and Pietschmann. In 1997, Dominique Groß with the thesis “Die Nichtlokalität in der Quantenmechanik” , supervised by Bertlmann, was the first student to have directly been influenced by the quantum foundation seminar. Beginning in 1996, Bertlmann also modernized the way quantum mechanics was taught in basic undergraduate courses, discussing “what a wave-function means, what is a wave-function collapse” and introducing the density matrix formalism and Bell’s inequalities.125The seminar, which had a “quite informal, familiar character,”Atominstitut and at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at TU, a few more people started doing research on FQM such as Johannes Summhammer, Günter Krenn (in collaboration with Zeilinger), and Karl Svozil.126 Summhammer published one of the first partial reconstructions of quantum theory, deriving Malus’s law from first principles,127 and Svozil carried out extensive research on quantum contextuality.128 Bertlmann, too, finally entered active research in FQM in the mid-1990s, together with Walter Grimus (b. 1953), a professor of theoretical particle physics at the University of Vienna. They investigated the possibility of performing Bell’s experiments with massive particles, such as B-meson pairs, which are naturally produced in entangled states in accelerators due to conservation laws. Their collaboration lasted about a decade, and included several of their students and collaborators.129Besides Zeilinger’s research activities at the 130When Zeilinger came back to Vienna in 1999 (this time to stay) together with Bertlmann they organized a big conference on FQM, “Quantum [Un]Speakables.” The conference took place at the University of Vienna on November 10–14, 2000, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Bell’s death, and gathered the most distinguished scholars working in FQM and quantum information (and a few from particle physics). Symbolically taking place at the turn of the new century, this conference marked the acceptance of FQM into the domain of physics in Vienna. Walter Thirring, who more than anyone else personified the renaissance of modern physics after World War II, came to realize his underappreciation of Bell’s results in FQM by pronouncing: “I have to apologize to John Bell, that I recognized the significance of Bell’s theorem only so late.”Since the 2000s, Vienna has seen exceptional growth of quantum information science and quantum technology, all branches of physics stemming more or less directly from FQM. Zeilinger, who is now Emeritus Professor at University of Vienna, is today recognized among the world’s leading physicists for his work in the field of FQM. As of the date of publication, the Faculty of Physics of the University of Vienna has five full professors and three assistant professors, most of whom deal with either theoretical or experimental problems of FQM; the same is true at the IQOQI-Vienna which encompasses another six research groups, not counting the overlaps with the Faculty. These two institutions together amount to the impressive total number of roughly 150 researchers (including PhD students) working in this field.We have shown that today’s outstanding research landscape on FQM in Vienna did not come out of the blue by means of a single physicist , but rather developed through a long tradition of interest in philosophical and foundational problems. We have discussed the reconstruction of physics in post–World War II Vienna. In particular, we have elucidated the roles of Walter Thirring, who helped bring back Vienna on the international landscape of physics, and of the PNA, founded by Herbert Pietschmann and joined by Roman U. Sexl, which reintroduced the discourse between philosophy and physics to the Faculty of Physics. We have shown how modern developments unfolded and how Vienna became a center of foundations of physics, highlighting the roles of, among others, Helmuth Rauch, Anton Zeilinger, Reinhold Bertlmann, as well as external influences from the likes of Franco Selleri, Jean-Pierre Vigier, Karl Popper, and John Bell.131Since our research mainly relies on interviews and the analysis of significant social networks, it allows us to reconstruct otherwise inaccessible information about historical developments with a focus on the perception of the general atmosphere and certain lines of research. However, one should keep in mind that the subjective nature of our sources limits the reliability of our narrative up to certain extent, which is a well-known problem of oral history.In conclusion, the philosophical inclination of generations of Viennese physicists, as well as the initiatives they undertook, although those often remained hidden from the public appearance, played a crucial role in opening room for the establishment of the present-day thriving environment of foundational research in Vienna.


Neocaridina denticulate and Eriocheir sinensis. Both in the field and ditch experiments, PBQ exhibited comparable molluscicidal efficacy with MNSC. At doses of 0.50 g/m3 and 0.50 g/m2, the snail mortalities were more than 90% three days after PBQ (20% SC) application. Compared with previous tests, PBQ (20% SC) exhibited higher molluscicidal activity than PBQ  used in Jiangling and showed similar mollucicidal activity to PBQ (25% WP) used in Dali and Poyang Lake. The 96 h LC50 value of MNSC against Eriocheir sinensis was 283.84 mg a.i./L. At the concentration of PBQ (20% SC) 1000 mg a.i./L, all Eriocheir sinensis were alive. The 96 h LC50 values of PBQ and MNSC against Neocaridina denticulate were 17.67 and 14.05 mg a.i./L, respectively. In conclusion, PBQ (20% SC) had a comparable molluscicidal efficacy with MNSC (26% SC) and PBQ (25% WP). Furthermore, it showed lower toxicity to the crustacean species, better solubility, no floating dust, and convenience for carriage. PBQ (20% SC) was suitable for controlling snails in the water network schistosomiasis-endemic areas.A new formulation  of PBQ [1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(pyridin-3-yl) urea] was used in water network schistosomiasis-endemic areas to test its molluscicidal efficacy and the acute toxicity to crustaceans. PBQ (20% SC), 26% metaldehyde, and niclosamide suspension concentrate [MNSC (26% SC)] were used both in ditch and field experiments for the molluscicidal efficacy comparison. Acute toxicity tests of two molluscicides were conducted using  Snail-borne parasitic diseases (SBPDs) are major parasitic diseases that remain important public health issues worldwide . SBPDs cSchistosomiasis japonica (S. japonicum), a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by infection of the Schistosoma species, seriously endangers human health and socioeconomic development, which is one of the major global public health concerns , developed by the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention , exhibited strong molluscicidal potency against raminea) , Pomaceaiculata) , and O. hupensis . The exhhupensis ,16. In aand bees ,15,16, sstaceans ,18. MoreIn this study, a new dosage form  of PBQ was used to test its molluscicidal efficacy and the acute toxicity to crustaceans to provide scientific basis and the rational use method for field promotion in the water network schistosomiasis-endemic areas.The 20% PBQ sulfate suspension concentrate [PBQ (20% SC)] was provided by the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention . The 26% metaldehyde and niclosamide suspension concentrate [MNSC (26% SC)], provided by the Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases , was purchased from Jiangsu Aijin Agrochemical Co., Ltd. .2/ditch, 12.5 m length × 1 m width) were prepared for the experiments. Each ditch was enclosed with 0.6 m high soil dikes covered with plastic film to avoid water exchange and the contamination of other treatments. Water was introduced and maintained at a depth of ~40 cm. In each ditch, a total of 154–172 O. hupensis (5–7 mm shell length × 3–4 mm shell width) were uniformly divided into 3 bags. PBQ (20% SC) was applied to the study ditches at doses of 0.25, 0.50, 1.00, and 2.00 g/m3. PBQ (20% SC) was placed at the center of the ditch and stirred with long sticks to ensure homogeneous mixing. At 3 days after molluscicide application, one bag in each ditch was collected daily, and the mortality of snails was evaluated via the warm water method combined with the percussion method. The arrangement included negative (water) and positive  controls. Corrected mortality rate of snails was calculated as follows:Ditch experiments were conducted in Guangfu Town, Wuzhong District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, in June 2022. Seven rectangle-shaped ditches , uniformly distributed in the rectangle-shaped fields. PBQ (20% SC) was applied in three fields by the broadcasted application method at doses of 0.50, 1.00, and 2.00 g/m2. The arrangement included negative (water) and positive  controls. At 3 days post application, snails were sampled using the same protocol used for the snail density investigation. The collected snails from each field were identified as dead or alive via the warm water method combined with the percussion method. The warm water method is to put the snails in warm water (20-5 °C) for 15 min and identify if the snails are dead or alive by observing whether the snails are active. Inactive snails are identified as alive or dead by crushing or percussing  chemicals to shrimp.For g a.i./L . AccordiO. hupensis is the only intermediate host of S. japonicum, and the control of O. hupensis is one of the important methods of the control and prevention of schistosomiasis [O. hupensis live widely, have an obviously spreading trend, and are difficult to control. Niclosamide demonstrated outstanding molluscicidal activity against different kinds of freshwater snails [Schistosomiasis is a public health problem in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and South America . Last yesomiasis . Althougsomiasis . Therefosomiasis . Howeverr snails . Howeverr snails . Niclosar snails . TherefoPomacea canaliculate and Biomphalaria straminea [O. hupensis, probably due to its amphibious habitat and thicker shell [In recent years, the novel molluscicide PBQ showed excellent molluscicidal effects in laboratory experiments and field tests . PBQ hastraminea ,15,16. Rer shell ,16. Moreer shell ,15,16, sO. hupensis could be higher than 80% when the concentration of PBQ (20% SC) reached 2.00 g/m2 24 h after exposure, which satisfied the WHO cut-off for the efficacy of a molluscicide formulation [3 and 2 mg/m2, respectively.Due to the field tests and ditch experiments in this research, PBQ (20% SC) showed higher molluscicidal activity than MNSC (26% SC) at the same concentration. In field practical application, the mortality rate of mulation . In pracmulation , both inmulation ,18. PBQ mulation . Tempera50 value of PBQ (20% SC) for shrimp was 17.67 mg a.i./L. PBQ could achieve the ideal effect at concentrations of 2 g/m2 and 2 g/m3, and the effective concentration corresponding to this concentration was much lower than 17.67 mg a.i./L, indicating that the window of molluscicide is relatively large so as to be used for on-site application in areas around shrimp ponds safely. In addition, PBQ showed low toxicity against shrimp and could provide time for the government sector to deal with it once a leak happens. PBQ (20% SC) seemed much more friendly against crabs. This phenomenon, perhaps related to the tough shell of the crabs, was also observed in other studies [Daphnia magna [Daphnia magna, Eriocheir sinensis, and Neocaridina denticulate are representative aquatic organisms required for pesticide registration, we could draw the conclusion that PBQ is low in toxicity to aquatic animals.Due to the acute toxicity test in shrimp, both PBQ (20% SC) and MNSC 26% SC) were low toxicity chemicals to shrimp . However% SC were studies . Previouia magna . BecauseO.hupensis have been identified based on morphological and molecular characteristics [O.hupensis. In future studies, we intend to test the molluscicidal effect of PBQ on other sub-species under different terrains, landforms, and latitudes. What is more, this study did not test the molluscicidal effect of PBQ (20% SC) at low concentrations. We also did not research the toxicity of PBQ (20% SC) to aquatic plants. This is the direction we plan to study in the future.There are some limitations to this study. In P.R. China, four sub-species of the intermediate host eristics . We only2 PBQ (20% SC), field application could obtain the ideal effect of the controlling of O. hupensis snails. Meanwhile, PBQ (20% SC) had a better solubility, convenience for carriage, no floating dust, and low toxicity to crustacean species. PBQ (20% SC) has value for further research and promotion. It could provide novel and effective technical means and tools for controlling snails and advancing the cooperation of schistosomiasis prevention and control between China and Africa.The molluscicidal activity of PBQ (20% SC) was comparable with MNSC (26% SC). At a dose of 2.00 g/m


Pulmonary tele-rehabilitation can improve adherence to pulmonary rehabilitation. However, there are few reports on home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation. We assessed the effectiveness of home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).This cohort study enrolled 174 patients with COPD who received home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system. The follow-up time was 12 weeks. Patients were grouped according to pulmonary rehabilitation weeks, number of rehabilitation times and total duration time, and when these three data were inconsistent, the two lowest values were grouped: control group , pulmonary rehabilitation group 1 (PR-1) , pulmonary rehabilitation group 2 (PR-2) , pulmonary rehabilitation group 3 (PR-3)  and pulmonary rehabilitation group 4 (PR-4) . The clinical data before and after rehabilitation were collected and evaluated, including dyspnea symptoms, 6-min walk distance (6MWD), diaphragmatic mobility, anxiety and depression.There was no significance difference between control group and PR-1 group. PR-2 group after rehabilitation had significantly decreased CAT and HAMA scores than control (P < 0.05). Compared with control, PR-3 group and PR-4 group after rehabilitation had significantly higher 6MWD and diaphragmatic motility during deep breathing, but significantly lower CAT score, mMRC score, HAMA score, and HAMD score (P < 0.05). Compared with before pulmonary rehabilitation, in PR-3 and PR-4 groups, the 6MWD and the diaphragmatic motility during deep breathing were significantly higher, while CAT score, mMRC score, HAMA score, and HAMD score (for PR-4 only) were significantly lower after pulmonary rehabilitation (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between PR-3 group and PR-4 group (P > 0.05). In the 12-week pulmonary rehabilitation program, patients who completed at least 8 weeks, namely those in the PR-3 and PR-4 groups, accounted for 42.5% of the total number. Education, income and response rate to telemedicine system reminders were the main risk factors associated with home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation.Home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system for more than 8 weeks can significantly improve the dyspnea symptoms, 6MWD, diaphragmatic mobility during deep breathing, and negative emotions of patients with moderate to severe stable COPD.Trial registration: This study was registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry under registration number of ChiCTR2200056241CTR2200056241.The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12890-022-02077-w. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by irreversible persistent airflow limitation. In the 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study, it is estimated that about 174.5 million adults worldwide suffer from COPD . COPD isTelemedicine platforms, mobile apps, or fitness bracelets can provide objective feedback on patient activity, but their effectiveness for home-based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation remains to be determined . SeveralTherefore, in this study, we conducted a cohort study to evaluate the effectiveness of home-based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system in COPD. The telemedicine system was developed by China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Beijing) and Saike (Xiamen) Medical Equipment Co., Ltd. It has been tested for feasibility as well as functionality/user familiarity and has been successfully used in more than 30 tertiary hospitals including China-Japan Friendship Hospital. Our findings may provide certain reference for the use of telemedicine system in home-based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation for patients with COPD.This trial was designed as a cohort study and has been registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry under the registration number: ChiCTR2200056241.This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and all methods were also performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations under the committee supervision. The signed informed consents were obtained from all participants.We enrolled patients with stable COPD in People’s Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from October 1, 2019 to June 1, 2021. Inclusion criteria: (1) COPD was diagnosed according to diagnostic criteria in 2019 GOLD : Global Strategy for COPD Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention ; (2) Pathttps://m.xeek.cn/login/health.html). The telemedicine system consisted of a physician terminal and a patient terminal , 25–30 min of aerobic exercise , and, 15–20 min of resistance exercise using elastic band or endurance training using sandbags (following videos with standard guidance on exercises). A suitable plan should meet the following standards: 1) target heart rate = (maximum heart rate—resting heart rate) × 60% + resting heart rate; 2) at least two of the following scores: Borg fatigue score 4–6, Brog shortness of breath score 12–14, and/or Brog6-20 scale score 13–16 , i.e. the percentage of subjects of the PR-3 and PR-4 groups in the total population. Then, we evaluated the factors affecting home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation in patients with COPD. Place of residence, education, income, evaluation of telemedicine system and response rate to telemedicine system reminders were significantly associated with the completion of 8-week home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation (all P < 0.05, Table 4/174*100Pulmonary rehabilitation has been recommended as an effective treatment for COPD. However, to date, most of the evidence of pulmonary rehabilitation is from hospital-based studies, while the evidence for home-based tele-rehabilitation is still limited , 20. FurWe found that after home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system for 8–12 weeks, patients with COPD had significant improvement in 6MWD, dyspnea symptoms, diaphragmatic mobility during deep breathing, anxiety and depression, suggesting that home-based pulmonary rehabilitation results in significantly greater improvements in exercise capacity and health-related quality of life in patients with COPD. Our results was consistence with previous studies, which showed that home based pulmonary rehabilitation via phone or videoconferencing could significantly improve exercise tolerance, dyspnea, and quality of life in patients with COPD , 26. HowIn this study, the completion rate of 8-week home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system was 42.5%, and income, education and the lower response rate of the telemedicine system were found to be the main factors affecting telemedicine in the pulmonary rehabilitation. Low income of patients with COPD may affect their willingness or ability to participate in pulmonary tele-rehabilitation, but in the long run, pulmonary tele-rehabilitation may actually reduce their medical costs. Recently, a meta-analysis showed that pulmonary rehabilitation could reduce the risk of admission to the hospital due to respiratory disease . TreatmeThere are some limitations in this study. First, a control group that did not use telemedicine was not set up due to insufficient patient number. Second, critically ill and poorly nourished patients with COPD were not included. Therefore, the results of this study cannot be applied to these patients. Third, the duration of follow-up time was 12 weeks, which was not enough for evaluation of long-term prognosis, and longer follow-up is required. Fourth, the web/technology literacy of the participants were not analyzed in this study. Fifth, one-on-one video supervision of patients was not performed. Thus, the accuracy of the exercises cannot be guaranteed. Further studies are warranted.To sum up, home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system for more than 8 weeks can significantly improve the 6MWD, symptoms, diaphragmatic mobility, anxiety and depression of patients with moderate to severe stable COPD. Home based pulmonary tele-rehabilitation under telemedicine system may be used as an effective treatment in patients with COPD.Additional file 1: Table S1. Changes of FEV1, 6MWD, CAT,mMRC,diaphragmatic mobility during deep/rest breathing, SGRQ, HAMAand HAMD in patients with COPD.