TY - JOUR A1 - Henk, Lars Thorben T1 - «We’re on the road to nowhere» – Felwine Sarrs narrativer Weg in die Afrotopie JF - promptus - Würzburger Beiträge zur Romanistik N2 - According to the Senegalesian scholar Felwine Sarr who conceives an African utopia in his programmatic essay Afrotopia (2016), this Afrotopos has already germinated in contemporary African literature. However, it still needs to be enquired to what extent the narrated topos of the street in Sarr’s own anthology 105 Rue Carnot (2011) has already realized the Afrotopos. In order to respond to this question, we would like to mobilise Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia, which elaborates on the interactions between truth production/knowledge, power and space, and permits us to conceive of «les lieux utopiques» (Foucault 2005: 40) as actually locatable on the map and real other places outside of all places (cf. Foucault 1994: 755). Thus, in the street, a different relationship between global North and South is founded, which becomes legible as an African «utopie localisée» (Foucault 2005: 41) that Sarr calls for in Afrotopia (2016). KW - utopia KW - heterotopia KW - street KW - space KW - power Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-305662 SN - 2364-6705 VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dittmann, Lara A. T1 - Sprach- und Kommunikationsnuancen in literarischen Interspeziesbegegnungen – Juan Ramón Jiménezʼ Platero y yo (1914/1917) und Thomas Manns Herr und Hund (1919) JF - promptus - Würzburger Beiträge zur Romanistik N2 - The encounter with non-human animals has always been a major preoccupation in the (philosophical) quest of understanding the human (condition). Of course, they are not only present in literary texts, but also in other media such as music and art. We consider ourselves aware of their selves, natures and skills as well as their sensory perceptions. Indeed, the ways we interact with non-human animals in everyday life and in the fictional world, how we perceive, think and talk about them as well as how we communicate with them are often related to our own self-perceptions in the social collective and in social-historical discourse. If we take a closer look at literary interspecies relations, we can detect clear shades in language and communication. Based on the approaches of Human-Animal Studies, this article deals with those nuances regarding animal-human encounters in Juan Ramón Jiménez’ Platero y yo (1914/1917) and Thomas Mann's Herr und Hund (1919) in a comparative perspective. In addition to this, a special focus is placed on the effect these elements can have on (inter)acting literary subjects as well as on extra-textual recipients. KW - Human-Animal Studies KW - interspecies encounters KW - Platero y yo KW - Herr und Hund KW - animal-human relations Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-305658 SN - 2364-6705 VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Cringis, Patricia T1 - 100 Jahre Vokalschwächung in den tierras altas: historische Perspektiven eines (zu) wenig beachteten Aussprachemerkmal JF - promptus - Würzburger Beiträge zur Romanistik N2 - This paper deals with the origin of the hundred-year old theory of tierras bajas and tierras altas, focusing on the description of vowel weakening within that theory developed in 1921 by Henríquez Ureña. I argue that the early conception of vowel weakening and its dialectal distribution has strongly influenced the kind of research we have been conducting about this phonetic feature to this day. The aim of this study therefore, is to sharpen our understanding of the former zeitgeist of research and to stimulate further big data-based studies on vowel weakening overcoming the traditional dialectal division of tierras bajas and tierras altas. KW - tierras bajas KW - tierras altas KW - Vokalschwächung KW - Andalucismo KW - Antiandalucismo Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-305638 SN - 2364-6705 VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Christmann, Tim T1 - Grenzerfahrung, Grenzüberschreitung, Grenzüberwindung: Das Falkland/Malvinas Malvinas-Trauma in Lola Arias’ Film Teatro de Guerra (2018) JF - promptus - Würzburger Beiträge zur Romanistik N2 - This article will examine the cinematic approach to the trauma of the Falklands/Malvinas War in Lola Ariasʼ film Teatro de Guerra (AR/ES, 2018). The armed conflict between Ar-gentina and Great Britain in 1982 can be understood as a traumatic liminal experience, whose artistic reception pushes conventional aesthetics to their limits and calls for innova-tive representational strategies. Based on a cultural studies approach to the Falklands/Mal-vinas War as a collective trauma, this contribution will highlight selected moments of aes-thetic border crossing in Teatro de Guerra, by which the film succeeds in transcending boundaries between former enemies of the war. KW - trauma KW - documentary film KW - cultural memory KW - Falklands War KW - Malvinas Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-305577 SN - 2364-6705 VL - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weinreich, Oliver T1 - Zwei lange vergessene Kilianslieder aus zwei Epochen: "Adoranda veneranda" und "Sankt Kilian ein edler Schott" JF - Würzburger Diözesangeschichtsblätter N2 - Es werden zwei Kirchenlieder zum Würzburger Bistumspatron Kilian vorgestellt: eines aus dem 12. und eines aus dem 17. Jahrhundert. Beide waren lange aus dem Bewußtsein und dem Alltagsgebrauch verschwunden. KW - Adoranda veneranda KW - Sankt Kilian ein edler Schott KW - Kilian KW - Verehrung KW - Kirchenlied Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-303766 SN - 0342-3093 VL - 84 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Breil, Christina A1 - Kanske, Philipp A1 - Pittig, Roxana A1 - Böckler, Anne T1 - A revised instrument for the assessment of empathy and Theory of Mind in adolescents: Introducing the EmpaToM-Y JF - Behavior Research Methods N2 - Empathy and Theory of Mind (ToM) are two core components of social understanding. The EmpaToM is a validated social video task that allows for independent manipulation and assessment of the two capacities. First applications revealed that empathy and ToM are dissociable constructs on a neuronal as well as on a behavioral level. As the EmpaToM has been designed for the assessment of social understanding in adults, it has a high degree of complexity and comprises topics that are inadequate for minors. For this reason, we designed a new version of the EmpaToM that is especially suited to measure empathy and ToM in youths. In experiment 1, we successfully validated the EmpaToM-Y on the original EmpaToM in an adult sample (N = 61), revealing a similar pattern of results across tasks and strong correlations of all constructs. As intended, the performance measure for ToM and the control condition of the EmpaToM-Y showed reduced difficulty. In experiment 2, we tested the feasibility of the EmpaToM-Y in a group of teenagers (N = 36). Results indicate a reliable empathy induction and higher demands of ToM questions for adolescents. We provide a promising task for future research targeting inter-individual variability of socio-cognitive and socio-affective capacities as well as their precursors and outcomes in healthy minors and clinical populations. KW - empathy KW - Theory of Mind KW - social cognition KW - social understanding KW - mentalizing KW - asolescence KW - development Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-302877 VL - 53 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schrader, Nikolas A1 - Riese, Thorsten A1 - Kurlbaum, Max A1 - Meybohm, Patrick A1 - Kredel, Markus A1 - Surat, Güzin A1 - Scherf-Clavel, Oliver A1 - Strate, Alexander A1 - Pospiech, Andreas A1 - Hoppe, Kerstin T1 - Personalized antibiotic therapy for the critically ill: Implementation strategies and effects on clinical outcome of piperacillin therapeutic drug monitoring — a descriptive retrospective analysis JF - Antibiotics N2 - Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is increasingly relevant for an individualized antibiotic therapy and subsequently a necessary tool to reduce multidrug-resistant pathogens, especially in light of diminishing antimicrobial capabilities. Critical illness is associated with profound pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic alterations, which challenge dose finding and the application of particularly hydrophilic drugs such as β-lactam antibiotics. Methods: Implementation strategy, potential benefit, and practicability of the developed standard operating procedures were retrospectively analyzed from January to December 2020. Furthermore, the efficacy of the proposed dosing target of piperacillin in critically ill patients was evaluated. Results: In total, 160 patients received piperacillin/tazobactam therapy and were subsequently included in the study. Of them, 114 patients received piperacillin/tazobactam by continuous infusion and had at least one measurement of piperacillin serum level according to the standard operating procedure. In total, 271 measurements were performed with an average level of 79.0 ± 46.0 mg/L. Seventy-one piperacillin levels exceeded 100 mg/L and six levels were lower than 22.5 mg/L. The high-level and the low-level group differed significantly in infection laboratory parameters (CRP (mg/dL) 20.18 ± 11.71 vs. 5.75 ± 5.33) and renal function [glomerular filtration rate (mL/min/1.75 m2) 40.85 ± 26.74 vs. 120.50 ± 70.48]. Conclusions: Piperacillin levels are unpredictable in critically ill patients. TDM during piperacillin/tazobactam therapy is highly recommended for all patients. Although our implementation strategy was effective, further strategies implemented into the daily clinical workflow might support the health care staff and increase the clinicians' alertness. KW - therapeutic drug monitoring KW - piperacillin/tazobactam KW - personalized antimicrobial therapy KW - antimicrobial stewardship Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250052 SN - 2079-6382 VL - 10 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schlauersbach, Jonas A1 - Hanio, Simon A1 - Lenz, Bettina A1 - Vemulapalli, Sahithya P. B. A1 - Griesinger, Christian A1 - Pöppler, Ann-Christin A1 - Harlacher, Cornelius A1 - Galli, Bruno A1 - Meinel, Lorenz T1 - Leveraging bile solubilization of poorly water-soluble drugs by rational polymer selection JF - Journal of Controlled Release N2 - Poorly water-soluble drugs frequently solubilize into bile colloids and this natural mechanism is key for efficient bioavailability. We tested the impact of pharmaceutical polymers on this solubilization interplay using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, and by assessing the flux across model membranes. Eudragit E, Soluplus, and a therapeutically used model polymer, Colesevelam, impacted the bile-colloidal geometry and molecular interaction. These polymer-induced changes reduced the flux of poorly water-soluble and bile interacting drugs (Perphenazine, Imatinib) but did not impact the flux of bile non-interacting Metoprolol. Non-bile interacting polymers (Kollidon VA 64, HPMC-AS) neither impacted the flux of colloid-interacting nor colloid-non-interacting drugs. These insights into the drug substance/polymer/bile colloid interplay potentially point towards a practical optimization parameter steering formulations to efficient bile-solubilization by rational polymer selection. KW - polymer drug interaction KW - flux KW - bile salt KW - simulated intestinal fluid KW - colloid Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-296957 VL - 330 ET - Accepted Version ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tongsomporn, Janyarak A1 - Wananiyakul, Saeree A1 - Steuding, Jörn T1 - The values of the periodic zeta-function at the nontrivial zeros of Riemann's zeta-function JF - Symmetry N2 - In this paper, we prove an asymptotic formula for the sum of the values of the periodic zeta-function at the nontrivial zeros of the Riemann zeta-function (up to some height) which are symmetrical on the real line and the critical line. This is an extension of the previous results due to Garunkštis, Kalpokas, and, more recently, Sowa. Whereas Sowa's approach was assuming the yet unproved Riemann hypothesis, our result holds unconditionally. KW - zeta-functions KW - Riemann hypothesis Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252261 SN - 2073-8994 VL - 13 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rodrigues, Johannes A1 - Marzban, Dorna A1 - Hewig, Johannes T1 - The influence of mental imagery expertise of pen and paper players versus computer gamers upon performance and electrocortical correlates in a difficult mental rotation task JF - Symmetry N2 - We investigated the influence of mental imagery expertise in 15 pen and paper role-players as an expert group compared to the gender-matched control group of computer role-players in the difficult Vandenberg and Kuse mental rotation task. In this task, the participants have to decide which two of four rotated figures match the target figure. The dependent measures were performance speed and accuracy. In our exploratory investigation, we further examined midline frontal theta band activation, parietal alpha band activation, and parietal alpha band asymmetry in EEG as indicator for the chosen rotation strategy. Additionally, we explored the gender influence on performance and EEG activation, although a very small female sample section was given. The expected gender difference concerning performance accuracy was negated by expertise in pen and paper role-playing women, while the gender-specific difference in performance speed was preserved. Moreover, gender differences concerning electro-cortical measures revealed differences in rotation strategy, with women using top-down strategies compared to men, who were using top-down strategies and active inhibition of associative cortical areas. These strategy uses were further moderated by expertise, with higher expertise leading to more pronounced activation patters, especially during successful performance. However, due to the very limited sample size, the findings of this explorative study have to be interpreted cautiously. KW - mental rotation KW - expertise in visual imagery KW - pen and paper vs. computer role-players KW - midline frontal theta band frequency activation KW - parietal alpha band frequency activation KW - gender influence KW - EEG Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252253 SN - 2073-8994 VL - 13 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stanley, Jean-Daniel A1 - Ullmann, Tobias A1 - Lange-Athinodorou, Eva T1 - Holocene aridity-induced interruptions of human activity along a fluvial channel in Egypt's northern delta JF - Quaternary N2 - Geoarchaeological information presented here pertains to a subsidiary Nile channel that once flowed west of the main Sebennitic distributary and discharged its water and sediments at Egypt’s then north-central deltaic coast. Periodical paleoclimatic episodes during the later Middle and Upper Holocene included decreased rainfall and increased aridity that reduced the Nile’s flow levels and thus likely disrupted nautical transport and anthropogenic activity along this channel. Such changes in this deltaic sector, positioned adjacent to the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean, can be attributed to climatic shifts triggered as far as the North Atlantic to the west, and African highland source areas of the Egyptian Nile to the south. Of special interest in a study core recovered along the channel are several sediment sequences without anthropogenic material that are interbedded between strata comprising numerous potsherds. The former are interpreted here as markers of increased regional aridity and reduced Nile flow which could have periodically disrupted the regional distribution of goods and nautical activities. Such times occurred ~5000 years B.P., ~4200–4000 years B.P., ~3200–2800 years B.P., ~2300–2200 years B.P., and more recently. Periods comparable to these are also identified by altered proportions of pollen, isotopic and compositional components in different radiocarbon-dated Holocene cores recovered elsewhere in the Nile delta, the Levantine region to the east and north of Egypt, and in the Faiyum depression south of the delta. KW - Nile delta KW - Sebennitic KW - paleoenvironment KW - paleoclimate KW - Nile flow KW - geoarchaeology Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250285 SN - 2571-550X VL - 4 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jakuscheit, Axel A1 - Schaefer, Nina A1 - Roedig, Johannes A1 - Luedemann, Martin A1 - Hertzberg-Boelch, Sebastian Philipp von A1 - Weissenberger, Manuel A1 - Schmidt, Karsten A1 - Holzapfel, Boris Michael A1 - Rudert, Maximilian T1 - Modifiable individual risks of perioperative blood transfusions and acute postoperative complications in total hip and knee arthroplasty JF - Journal of Personalized Medicine N2 - Background: The primary aim of this study was to identify modifiable patient-related predictors of blood transfusions and perioperative complications in total hip and knee arthroplasty. Individual predictor-adjusted risks can be used to define preoperative treatment thresholds. Methods: We performed this retrospective monocentric study in orthopaedic patients who underwent primary total knee or hip arthroplasty. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess the predictive value of patient-related characteristics. Predictor-adjusted individual risks of blood transfusions and the occurrence of any perioperative adverse event were calculated for potentially modifiable risk factors. Results: 3754 patients were included in this study. The overall blood transfusion and complication rates were 4.8% and 6.4%, respectively. Haemoglobin concentration (Hb, p < 0.001), low body mass index (BMI, p < 0.001) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, p = 0.004) were the strongest potentially modifiable predictors of a blood transfusion. EGFR (p = 0.001) was the strongest potentially modifiable predictor of a complication. Predictor-adjusted risks of blood transfusions and acute postoperative complications were calculated for Hb and eGFR. Hb = 12.5 g/dL, BMI = 17.6 kg/m\(^2\), and eGFR = 54 min/mL were associated, respectively, with a 10% risk of a blood transfusion, eGFR = 59 mL/min was associated with a 10% risk of a complication. Conclusion: The individual risks for blood transfusions and acute postoperative complications are strongly increased in patients with a low preoperative Hb, low BMI or low eGFR. We recommend aiming at a preoperative Hb ≥ 13g/dL, an eGFR ≥ 60 mL/min and to avoid a low BMI. Future studies must show if a preoperative increase of eGFR and BMI is feasible and truly beneficial. KW - patient blood management KW - total joint arthroplasty KW - haemoglobin KW - perioperative management Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250290 SN - 2075-4426 VL - 11 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziegler, Mirjam A1 - Kaiser, Anna A1 - Igel, Christine A1 - Geissler, Julia A1 - Mechler, Konstantin A1 - Holz, Nathalie E. A1 - Becker, Katja A1 - Döpfner, Manfred A1 - Romanos, Marcel A1 - Brandeis, Daniel A1 - Hohmann, Sarah A1 - Millenet, Sabina A1 - Banaschewski, Tobias T1 - Actigraphy-derived sleep profiles of children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) over two weeks — comparison, precursor symptoms, and the chronotype JF - Brain Sciences N2 - Although sleep problems are common in children with ADHD, their extent, preceding risk factors, and the association between neurocognitive performance and neurobiological processes in sleep and ADHD, are still largely unknown. We examined sleep variables in school-aged children with ADHD, addressing their intra-individual variability (IIV) and considering potential precursor symptoms as well as the chronotype. Additionally, in a subgroup of our sample, we investigated associations with neurobehavioral functioning (n = 44). A total of 57 children (6–12 years) with (n = 24) and without ADHD (n = 33) were recruited in one center of the large ESCAlife study to wear actigraphs for two weeks. Actigraphy-derived dependent variables, including IIV, were analyzed using linear mixed models in order to find differences between the groups. A stepwise regression model was used to investigate neuropsychological function. Overall, children with ADHD showed longer sleep onset latency (SOL), higher IIV in SOL, more movements during sleep, lower sleep efficiency, and a slightly larger sleep deficit on school days compared with free days. No group differences were observed for chronotype or sleep onset time. Sleep problems in infancy predicted later SOL and the total number of movements during sleep in children with and without ADHD. No additional effect of sleep problems, beyond ADHD symptom severity, on neuropsychological functioning was found. This study highlights the importance of screening children with ADHD for current and early childhood sleep disturbances in order to prevent long-term sleep problems and offer individualized treatments. Future studies with larger sample sizes should examine possible biological markers to improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. KW - sleep KW - actigraphy KW - attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) KW - intra-individual variability (IIV) KW - chronotype KW - children KW - continuous performance task (CPT) KW - precursor symptoms KW - ESCAlife Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250084 SN - 2076-3425 VL - 11 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmitt, T. A1 - Egu, D.T. A1 - Walter, E. A1 - Sigmund, A.M. A1 - Eichkorn, R. A1 - Yazdi, A. A1 - Schmidt, E. A1 - Sárdy, M. A1 - Eming, R. A1 - Goebeler, M. A1 - Waschke, J. T1 - Ca\(^{2+}\) signalling is critical for autoantibody‐induced blistering of human epidermis in pemphigus JF - British Journal of Dermatology N2 - Background Pemphigus is a severe bullous autoimmune skin disease. Pemphigus foliaceus (PF) is characterized by antidesmoglein (Dsg) 1 IgG causing epidermal blistering; mucosal pemphigus vulgaris (mPV) by anti‐Dsg3 IgG inducing erosions in the mucosa; and mucocutaneous pemphigus vulgaris (PV) by affecting both, with autoantibodies targeting Dsg1 and Dsg3. Objectives To characterize the Ca\(^{2+}\) flux pathway and delineate its importance in pemphigus pathogenesis and clinical phenotypes caused by different antibody profiles. Methods Immunoprecipitation, Ca\(^{2+}\) flux analysis, Western blotting, immunofluorescence staining, dissociation assays and a human skin ex vivo model were used. Results PV IgG and PF IgG, but neither Dsg3‐specific monoclonal antibody (AK23) nor mPV IgG, caused Ca\(^{2+}\) influx in primary human keratinocytes. Phosphatidylinositol 4‐kinase α interacts with Dsg1 but not with Dsg3. Its downstream target – phospholipase‐C‐γ1 (PLC) – was activated by PV IgG and PF IgG but not AK23 or mPV IgG. PLC releases inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP3) causing IP3 receptor (IP3R) activation and Ca2+ flux from the endoplasmic reticulum into the cytosol, which stimulates Ca2+ release‐activated channels (CRAC)‐mediated Ca\(^{2+}\) influx. Inhibitors against PLC, IP3R and CRAC effectively blocked PV IgG and PF IgG‐induced Ca\(^{2+}\) influx; ameliorated alterations of Dsg1 and Dsg3 localization, and reorganization of keratin and actin filaments; and inhibited loss of cell adhesion in vitro. Finally, inhibiting PLC or IP3R was protective against PV IgG‐induced blister formation and redistribution of Dsg1 and Dsg3 in human skin ex vivo. Conclusions Ca2+‐mediated signalling is important for epidermal blistering and dependent on the autoantibody profile, which indicates different roles for signalling complexes organized by Dsg1 and Dsg3. Interfering with PLC and Ca\(^{2+}\) signalling may be a promising approach to treat epidermal manifestations of pemphigus. KW - pemphigus KW - epidermis KW - Ca\(^{2+}\) signalling Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262810 VL - 185 IS - 3 SP - 595 EP - 604 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reif, Magnus A1 - Tesfaselassie, Mewael F. A1 - Wolters, Maik H. T1 - Technological Growth and Hours in the Long Run: Theory and Evidence JF - Economica N2 - Over the last few decades, hours worked per capita have declined substantially in many OECD economies. Using the standard neoclassical growth model with endogenous work–leisure choice, we assess the role of trend growth slowdown in accounting for the decline in hours worked. In the model, a permanent reduction in technological growth decreases steady‐state hours worked by increasing the consumption–output ratio. Our empirical analysis exploits cross‐country variation in the timing and size of the decline in technological growth to show that technological growth has a highly significant positive effect on hours. A decline in the long‐run trend of technological growth by 1 percentage point is associated with a decline in trend hours worked in the range of 1–3%. This result is robust to controlling for taxes, which have been found in previous studies to be an important determinant of hours. Our empirical finding is quantitatively in line with the one implied by a calibrated version of the model, though evidence for the model’s implication that the effect on hours works via changes in the consumption–output ratio is rather mixed. KW - technological growth KW - working hours KW - neoclassical growth model Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262801 VL - 88 IS - 352 SP - 1016 EP - 1053 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dorner, Daniela A1 - Mostafá, Miguel A1 - Satalecka, Konstancja T1 - High-energy alerts in the multi-messenger era JF - Universe N2 - The observation of electromagnetic counterparts to both high energy neutrinos and gravitational waves marked the beginning of a new era in astrophysics. The multi-messenger approach allows us to gain new insights into the most energetic events in the Universe such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, and black hole mergers. Real-time multi-messenger alerts are the key component of the observational strategies to unravel the transient signals expected from astrophysical sources. Focusing on the high-energy regime, we present a historical perspective of multi-messenger observations, the detectors and observational techniques used to study them, the status of the multi-messenger alerts and the most significant results, together with an overview of the future prospects in the field. KW - multi-messenger KW - real-time KW - high-energy KW - alerts Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248496 SN - 2218-1997 VL - 7 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Morais, António P. A1 - Pasechnik, Roman A1 - Porod, Werner T1 - Grand Unified origin of gauge interactions and families replication in the Standard Model JF - Universe N2 - The tremendous phenomenological success of the Standard Model (SM) suggests that its flavor structure and gauge interactions may not be arbitrary but should have a fundamental first-principle explanation. In this work, we explore how the basic distinctive properties of the SM dynamically emerge from a unified New Physics framework tying together both flavor physics and Grand Unified Theory (GUT) concepts. This framework is suggested by a novel anomaly-free supersymmetric chiral E\(_6\)×SU(2)\(_F\)×U(1)\(_F\) GUT containing the SM. Among the most appealing emergent properties of this theory is the Higgs-matter unification with a highly-constrained massless chiral sector featuring two universal Yukawa couplings close to the GUT scale. At the electroweak scale, the minimal SM-like effective field theory limit of this GUT represents a specific flavored three-Higgs doublet model consistent with the observed large hierarchies in the quark mass spectra and mixing already at tree level. KW - grand unified theories KW - supersymmetry KW - phenomenology of New Physics Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250237 SN - 2218-1997 VL - 7 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Boulos, Joelle C. A1 - Saeed, Mohamed E. M. A1 - Chatterjee, Manik A1 - Bülbül, Yagmur A1 - Crudo, Francesco A1 - Marko, Doris A1 - Munder, Markus A1 - Klauck, Sabine M. A1 - Efferth, Thomas T1 - Repurposing of the ALK inhibitor crizotinib for acute leukemia and multiple myeloma cells JF - Pharmaceuticals N2 - Crizotinib was a first generation of ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of ALK-positive non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) patients. COMPARE and cluster analyses of transcriptomic data of the NCI cell line panel indicated that genes with different cellular functions regulated the sensitivity or resistance of cancer cells to crizotinib. Transcription factor binding motif analyses in gene promoters divulged two transcription factors possibly regulating the expression of these genes, i.e., RXRA and GATA1, which are important for leukemia and erythroid development, respectively. COMPARE analyses also implied that cell lines of various cancer types displayed varying degrees of sensitivity to crizotinib. Unexpectedly, leukemia but not lung cancer cells were the most sensitive cells among the different types of NCI cancer cell lines. Re-examining this result in another panel of cell lines indeed revealed that crizotinib exhibited potent cytotoxicity towards acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma cells. P-glycoprotein-overexpressing CEM/ADR5000 leukemia cells were cross-resistant to crizotinib. NCI-H929 multiple myeloma cells were the most sensitive cells. Hence, we evaluated the mode of action of crizotinib on these cells. Although crizotinib is a TKI, it showed highest correlation rates with DNA topoisomerase II inhibitors and tubulin inhibitors. The altered gene expression profiles after crizotinib treatment predicted several networks, where TOP2A and genes related to cell cycle were downregulated. Cell cycle analyses showed that cells incubated with crizotinib for 24 h accumulated in the G\(_2\)M phase. Crizotinib also increased the number of p-H3(Ser10)-positive NCI-H929 cells illustrating crizotinib's ability to prevent mitotic exit. However, cells accumulated in the sub-G\(_0\)G\(_1\) fraction with longer incubation periods, indicating apoptosis induction. Additionally, crizotinib disassembled the tubulin network of U2OS cells expressing an α-tubulin-GFP fusion protein, preventing migration of cancer cells. This result was verified by in vitro tubulin polymerization assays. In silico molecular docking also revealed a strong binding affinity of crizotinib to the colchicine and Vinca alkaloid binding sites. Taken together, these results demonstrate that crizotinib destabilized microtubules. Additionally, the decatenation assay showed that crizotinib partwise inhibited the catalytic activity of DNA topoisomerase II. In conclusion, crizotinib exerted kinase-independent cytotoxic effects through the dual inhibition of tubulin polymerization and topoisomerase II and might be used to treat not only NSCLC but also multiple myeloma. KW - acute myeloid leukemia KW - drug repurposing KW - multiple myeloma KW - network pharmacology KW - transcriptomics KW - tyrosine kinase inhibitors Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250258 SN - 1424-8247 VL - 14 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pirner, Marlies T1 - A review on BGK models for gas mixtures of mono and polyatomic molecules JF - Fluids N2 - We consider the Bathnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) model, an approximation of the Boltzmann equation, describing the time evolution of a single momoatomic rarefied gas and satisfying the same two main properties (conservation properties and entropy inequality). However, in practical applications, one often has to deal with two additional physical issues. First, a gas often does not consist of only one species, but it consists of a mixture of different species. Second, the particles can store energy not only in translational degrees of freedom but also in internal degrees of freedom such as rotations or vibrations (polyatomic molecules). Therefore, here, we will present recent BGK models for gas mixtures for mono- and polyatomic particles and the existing mathematical theory for these models. KW - multi-fluid mixture KW - kinetic model KW - BGK approximation KW - degrees of freedom in internal energy KW - existence of solutions KW - large-time behaviour Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250161 SN - 2311-5521 VL - 6 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hellmuth, Kathrin A1 - Klingenberg, Christian A1 - Li, Qin A1 - Tang, Min T1 - Multiscale convergence of the inverse problem for chemotaxis in the Bayesian setting JF - Computation N2 - Chemotaxis describes the movement of an organism, such as single or multi-cellular organisms and bacteria, in response to a chemical stimulus. Two widely used models to describe the phenomenon are the celebrated Keller–Segel equation and a chemotaxis kinetic equation. These two equations describe the organism's movement at the macro- and mesoscopic level, respectively, and are asymptotically equivalent in the parabolic regime. The way in which the organism responds to a chemical stimulus is embedded in the diffusion/advection coefficients of the Keller–Segel equation or the turning kernel of the chemotaxis kinetic equation. Experiments are conducted to measure the time dynamics of the organisms' population level movement when reacting to certain stimulation. From this, one infers the chemotaxis response, which constitutes an inverse problem. In this paper, we discuss the relation between both the macro- and mesoscopic inverse problems, each of which is associated with two different forward models. The discussion is presented in the Bayesian framework, where the posterior distribution of the turning kernel of the organism population is sought. We prove the asymptotic equivalence of the two posterior distributions. KW - inverse problems KW - Bayesian approach KW - kinetic chemotaxis equation KW - Keller–Segel model KW - multiscale modeling KW - asymptotic analysis KW - velocity jump process KW - mathematical biology Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250216 SN - 2079-3197 VL - 9 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rokhafrouz, Mohammad A1 - Latifi, Hooman A1 - Abkar, Ali A. A1 - Wojciechowski, Tomasz A1 - Czechlowski, Mirosław A1 - Naieni, Ali Sadeghi A1 - Maghsoudi, Yasser A1 - Niedbała, Gniewko T1 - Simplified and hybrid remote sensing-based delineation of management zones for nitrogen variable rate application in wheat JF - Agriculture N2 - Enhancing digital and precision agriculture is currently inevitable to overcome the economic and environmental challenges of the agriculture in the 21st century. The purpose of this study was to generate and compare management zones (MZ) based on the Sentinel-2 satellite data for variable rate application of mineral nitrogen in wheat production, calculated using different remote sensing (RS)-based models under varied soil, yield and crop data availability. Three models were applied, including (1) a modified “RS- and threshold-based clustering”, (2) a “hybrid-based, unsupervised clustering”, in which data from different sources were combined for MZ delineation, and (3) a “RS-based, unsupervised clustering”. Various data processing methods including machine learning were used in the model development. Statistical tests such as the Paired Sample T-test, Kruskal–Wallis H-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were applied to evaluate the final delineated MZ maps. Additionally, a procedure for improving models based on information about phenological phases and the occurrence of agricultural drought was implemented. The results showed that information on agronomy and climate enables improving and optimizing MZ delineation. The integration of prior knowledge on new climate conditions (drought) in image selection was tested for effective use of the models. Lack of this information led to the infeasibility of obtaining optimal results. Models that solely rely on remote sensing information are comparatively less expensive than hybrid models. Additionally, remote sensing-based models enable delineating MZ for fertilizer recommendations that are temporally closer to fertilization times. KW - precision agriculture KW - management zones KW - remote sensing KW - Sentinel-2 KW - clustering KW - winter wheat KW - drought KW - digital agriculture Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250033 SN - 2077-0472 VL - 11 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rapp, Christina K. A1 - Van Dijck, Ine A1 - Laugwitz, Lucia A1 - Boon, Mieke A1 - Briassoulis, George A1 - Ilia, Stavroula A1 - Kammer, Birgit A1 - Reu, Simone A1 - Hornung, Stefanie A1 - Buchert, Rebecca A1 - Sofan, Linda A1 - Froukh, Tawfiq A1 - Witters, Peter A1 - Rymen, Daisy A1 - Haack, Tobias B. A1 - Proesmans, Marijke A1 - Griese, Matthias T1 - Expanding the phenotypic spectrum of FINCA (fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and cerebral angiomatosis) syndrome beyond infancy JF - Clinical Genetics N2 - Fibrosis, neurodegeneration, and cerebral angiomatosis (FINCA, MIM#618278) is a rare clinical condition caused by bi‐allelic variants in NHL repeat containing protein 2 (NHLRC2, MIM*618277). Pulmonary disease may be the presenting sign and the few patients reported so far, all deceased in early infancy. Exome sequencing was performed on patients with childhood interstitial lung disease (chILD) and additional neurological features. The chILD‐EU register database and an in‐house database were searched for patients with NHLRC2 variants and clinical features overlapping FINCA syndrome. Six patients from three families were identified with bi‐allelic variants in NHLRC2. Two of these children died before the age of two while four others survived until childhood. Interstitial lung disease was pronounced in almost all patients during infancy and stabilized over the course of the disease with neurodevelopmental delay (NDD) evolving as the key clinical finding. We expand the phenotype of FINCA syndrome to a multisystem disorder with variable severity. FINCA syndrome should also be considered in patients beyond infancy with NDD and a history of distinct interstitial lung disease. Managing patients in registers for rare diseases helps identifying new diagnostic entities and advancing care for these patients. KW - cerebropulmonary disease KW - childhood interstitial lung disease KW - cholesterol pneumonia KW - FINCA KW - lung fibrosis KW - lipoid pneumonitis KW - multi‐organ disease KW - NHLRC2 Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262732 VL - 100 IS - 4 SP - 453 EP - 461 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kann, Simone A1 - Blessmann, Joerg A1 - Winkelmann, Yvonne A1 - Hansen, Jessica A1 - Maya Amaya, Leonardo J. A1 - Rivera Salcedo, Gadith E. A1 - Halas, Hussein El A1 - Schmidt‐Chanasit, Jonas A1 - Keoviengkhone, Latdamone A1 - Sopraseuth, Vatsana A1 - Deschermeier, Christina A1 - Mika, Angela T1 - Dengue virus detection in Lao PDR and Colombia: Comparative evaluation of PCR tests JF - Tropical Medicine & International Health N2 - Objectives Dengue virus (DENV) detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) facilitates diagnosis of dengue fever, which is the most frequent arboviral disease globally. Two studies were performed in countries with high dengue incidence, to assess the diagnostic performance of different PCR techniques. Methods/Results Two hundred and seventy‐nine acute phase blood samples from febrile patients were analyzed for DENV by the RealStar Dengue RT‐PCR kit (Altona Diagnostics) as gold standard in comparison with the Tropical Fever Core multiplex PCR (Fast Track Diagnostics). In total, 102 samples collected in Savannakhet Province (Lao PDR, Southeast Asia) in 2013 and 35 samples from Valledupar (Colombia, South America) tested positive for DENV by RealStar RT‐PCR. In comparison, the Tropical Fever Core multiplex PCR detected 65.0% (65/102) and 68.6% (24/35) of these samples as positive for DENV in Savannakhet and Valledupar, respectively. Diagnostic sensitivity of the multiplex PCR strongly correlated with viral load. A subset of DENV PCR‐confirmed samples was additionally tested by BNITM in house Dengue Type RT‐PCR in comparison with two commercial test kits (RealStar Dengue Type RT‐PCR [Altona Diagnostics], Dengue differentiation PCR [Fast Track Diagnostics]). The leading dengue serotype in Savannakhet was DENV‐3 (58% [29/50]), while DENV‐1 (53.8% [14/26]) was the predominant serotype found in samples collected in Valledupar by BNITM‐type PCR. However, three DENV serotypes were circulating in Valledupar and in Savannakhet. In 2015, additional studies found predominantly DENV‐4 (71% [12/17]) in Savannakhet. Conclusions Both studies emphasized that routine diagnostics in both regions will benefit from an expanded use of highly sensitive pan‐dengue PCRs. KW - Colombia KW - dengue infections KW - dengue serotypes KW - Lao PDR KW - PCR diagnostics Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262703 VL - 26 IS - 10 SP - 1296 EP - 1302 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Asch, Silke A1 - Kaufmann, Tobias Peter A1 - Walter, Michaela A1 - Leistner, Marcus A1 - Danner, Bernd C. A1 - Perl, Thorsten A1 - Kutschka, Ingo A1 - Niehaus, Heidi T1 - The effect of perioperative hemadsorption in patients operated for acute infective endocarditis—A randomized controlled study JF - Artificial Organs N2 - Patients operated for infective endocarditis (IE) are at high risk of developing an excessive systemic hyperinflammatory state, resulting in systemic inflammatory response syndrome and septic shock. Hemoadsorption (HA) by cytokine adsorbers has been successfully applied to remove inflammatory mediators. This randomized controlled trial investigates the effect of perioperative HA therapy on inflammatory parameters and hemodynamic status in patients operated for IE. A total of 20 patients were randomly assigned to either HA therapy or the control group. HA therapy was initiated intraoperatively and continued for 24 hours postoperatively. Cytokine levels (IL‐6, IL‐1b, TNF‐α), leukocytes, C‐reactive protein (CRP), and Procalcitonin (PCT) as well as catecholamine support, and volume requirement were compared between both groups. Operative procedures included aortic (n = 7), mitral (n = 6), and multiple valve surgery (n = 7). All patients survived to discharge. No significant differences concerning median cytokine levels (IL‐6 and TNF‐α) were observed between both groups. CRP and PCT baseline levels were significantly higher in the HA group (59.5 vs. 26.3 mg/dL, P = .029 and 0.17 vs. 0.05 µg/L, P = .015) equalizing after surgery. Patients in the HA group required significantly higher doses of vasopressors (0.093 vs. 0.025 µg/kg/min norepinephrine, P = .029) at 12 hours postoperatively as well as significantly more overall volume replacement (7217 vs. 4185 mL at 12 hours, P = .015; 12 021 vs. 4850 mL at 48 hours, P = .015). HA therapy did neither result in a reduction of inflammatory parameters nor result in an improvement of hemodynamic parameters in patients operated for IE. For a more targeted use of HA therapy, appropriate selection criteria are required. KW - cytokines KW - endocarditis KW - hemadsorption KW - sepsis KW - SIRS Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262681 VL - 45 IS - 11 SP - 1328 EP - 1337 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Glöggler, Julia C. A1 - Hellmann, Daniel A1 - Von Manstein, Maja A1 - Jäger, Rudolph A1 - Repky, Stefan A1 - Beyersmann, Jan A1 - Lapatki, Bernd G. T1 - Motor learning might contribute to a therapeutic anterior shift of the habitual mandibular position—An exploratory study JF - Journal of Oral Rehabilitation N2 - Background Passive mandibular advancement with functional appliances is commonly used to treat juvenile patients with mandibular retrognathism. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether active repetitive training of the mandible into an anterior position would result in a shift of the habitual mandibular position (HMP). Methods Twenty adult healthy subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a training group receiving six supervised functional training sessions of 10 min each and a control group without training. Bonded lateral biteplates disengaged occlusion among both groups throughout the 15‐day experiment. Customised registration‐training appliances consisted of a maxillary component with an anterior plane and a mandibular component with an attached metal sphere. Training sessions consisted of repeated mouth‐opening/closing cycles (frequency: 30/min) to hit an anteriorly positioned hemispherical target notch with this metal sphere. The HMP was registered at defined times during the experiment. Results The HMP in the training group showed a statistically significant anterior shift of 1.6 mm (interquartile range [IQR]: 1.2 mm), compared with a significant posterior shift of −0.8 mm (IQR: 2.8 mm) in the control group (p < .05). Although the anterior shift among the training group showed a partial relapse 4 days after the first training block, it then advanced slightly in the 4‐day interval after the second training block, which might indicate neuroplasticity of the masticatory motor system. Conclusions Motor learning by repetitive training of the mandible into an anterior position might help to improve the results of functional appliance therapy among patients with mandibular retrognathism. KW - mandibular advancement KW - mandibular shift KW - masticatory system KW - motor training KW - mandibular resting position KW - habitual mandibular position KW - masticatory muscles KW - motor skill learning Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262644 VL - 48 IS - 8 SP - 891 EP - 900 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schulz, Ninja T1 - Auxiliary DO in Asian Englishes JF - World Englishes N2 - To indicate emphasis, auxiliary do is used in affirmative contexts (do+) when no other auxiliary is present. It is thus rooted in the grammatical system of do‐support; however, do+ does not always bear stress and can fulfil various discourse‐marking functions (Nevalainen & Rissanen, 1986). Positioned at the intersection of grammar and discourse, do+ constitutes an interesting study for its use in ‘non‐native’ varieties of English since it can be assumed that the more salient grammatical functions are easier to master for learners. Focusing on Asian Englishes in contrast to Inner Circle varieties, this exploratory paper assesses the frequency and distribution of do+ in the spoken and written parts of eight ICE components. KW - auxiliary DO KW - Asian Englishes KW - grammar Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262630 VL - 40 IS - 4 SP - 502 EP - 518 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lombardi, Jolina A1 - Mayer, Benjamin A1 - Semler, Elisa A1 - Anderl‐Straub, Sarah A1 - Uttner, Ingo A1 - Kassubek, Jan A1 - Diehl‐Schmid, Janine A1 - Danek, Adrian A1 - Levin, Johannes A1 - Fassbender, Klaus A1 - Fliessbach, Klaus A1 - Schneider, Anja A1 - Huppertz, Hans‐Jürgen A1 - Jahn, Holger A1 - Volk, Alexander A1 - Kornhuber, Johannes A1 - Landwehrmeyer, Bernhard A1 - Lauer, Martin A1 - Prudlo, Johannes A1 - Wiltfang, Jens A1 - Schroeter, Matthias L. A1 - Ludolph, Albert A1 - Otto, Markus T1 - Quantifying progression in primary progressive aphasia with structural neuroimaging JF - Alzheimer's & Dementia N2 - Introduction The term primary progressive aphasia (PPA) sums up the non‐fluent (nfv), the semantic (sv), and the logopenic (lv) variant. Up to now, there is only limited data available concerning magnetic resonance imaging volumetry to monitor disease progression. Methods Structural brain imaging and an extensive assessment were applied at baseline and up to 4‐year(s) follow‐up in 269 participants. With automated atlas‐based volumetry 56 brain regions were assessed. Atrophy progression served to calculate sample sizes for therapeutic trials. Results At baseline highest atrophy appeared in parts of the left frontal lobe for nfvPPA (–17%) and of the left temporal lobe for svPPA (–34%) and lvPPA (–24%). Severest progression within 1‐year follow‐up occurred in the basal ganglia in nfvPPA (–7%), in the hippocampus/amygdala in svPPA (–9%), and in (medial) temporal regions in lvPPA (–6%). Conclusion PPA presents as a left‐dominant, mostly gray matter sensitive disease with considerable atrophy at baseline that proceeds variant‐specific. KW - atlas‐based volumetry KW - disease progression KW - frontotemporal dementia KW - longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging KW - primary progressive aphasia KW - sample size calculation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262605 VL - 17 IS - 10 SP - 1595 EP - 1609 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krämer, Felix A1 - Luff, Martin S. A1 - Radius, Udo A1 - Weigend, Florian A1 - Breher, Frank T1 - NON‐Ligated N‐Heterocyclic Tetrylenes JF - European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry N2 - We report on the synthesis of N‐heterocyclic tetrylenes ligated by the NON‐donor framework 4,5‐bis(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl‐amino)‐2,7‐di‐tert‐butyl‐9,9‐dimethylxanthene. The molecular structures of the germylene (3), stannylene (4) and plumbylene (5) where determined by X‐ray diffraction studies. Furthermore, we present quantum chemical studies on the σ‐donor and π‐acceptor properties of 3–5. Additionally, we report on the reactivity of the tetrylenes towards the transition metal carbonyls [Rh(CO)\(_{2}\)Cl]\(_{2}\), [W(CO)\(_{6}\)] and [Ni(CO)\(_{4}\)]. The isolated complexes (6 and 7) show the differing reactivity of NHTs compared to NHCs. Instead of just forming the anticipated complex [(NON)Sn−Rh(CO)\(_{2}\)Cl], 4 inserts into the Rh−Cl bond to afford [(NON)Sn(Cl)Rh(CO)(C\(_{6}\)H\(_{6}\))] (6, additional CO/C6H6 exchange) and [(NON)Sn(Cl)Rh\(_{2}\)(CO)\(_{4}\)Cl] (7). By avoiding halogenated transition metal precursors in order to prevent insertion reactions, germylene 3 shows “classical” coordination chemistry towards {Ni(CO)3} forming the complex [(NON)Ge−Ni(CO)\(_{3}\)] (8). KW - Germylenes KW - heterocyclic tetrylenes KW - hetrocyclic tetrylene complexes KW - Plumbylenes KW - Stannylenes Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262586 VL - 2021 IS - 35 SP - 3591 EP - 3600 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Alnusaire, Taghreed S. A1 - Sayed, Ahmed M. A1 - Elmaidomy, Abeer H. A1 - Al-Sanea, Mohammad M. A1 - Albogami, Sarah A1 - Albqmi, Mha A1 - Alowaiesh, Bassam F. A1 - Mostafa, Ehab M. A1 - Musa, Arafa A1 - Youssif, Khayrya A. A1 - Refaat, Hesham A1 - Othman, Eman M. A1 - Dandekar, Thomas A1 - Alaaeldin, Eman A1 - Ghoneim, Mohammed M. A1 - Abdelmohsen, Usama Ramadan T1 - An in vitro and in silico study of the enhanced antiproliferative and pro-oxidant potential of Olea europaea L. cv. Arbosana leaf extract via elastic nanovesicles (spanlastics) JF - Antioxidants N2 - The olive tree is a venerable Mediterranean plant and often used in traditional medicine. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of Olea europaea L. cv. Arbosana leaf extract (OLE) and its encapsulation within a spanlastic dosage form on the improvement of its pro-oxidant and antiproliferative activity against HepG-2, MCF-7, and Caco-2 human cancer cell lines. The LC-HRESIMS-assisted metabolomic profile of OLE putatively annotated 20 major metabolites and showed considerable in vitro antiproliferative activity against HepG-2, MCF-7, and Caco-2 cell lines with IC\(_{50}\) values of 9.2 ± 0.8, 7.1 ± 0.9, and 6.5 ± 0.7 µg/mL, respectively. The encapsulation of OLE within a (spanlastic) nanocarrier system, using a spraying method and Span 40 and Tween 80 (4:1 molar ratio), was successfully carried out (size 41 ± 2.4 nm, zeta potential 13.6 ± 2.5, and EE 61.43 ± 2.03%). OLE showed enhanced thermal stability, and an improved in vitro antiproliferative effect against HepG-2, MCF-7, and Caco-2 (IC\(_{50}\) 3.6 ± 0.2, 2.3 ± 0.1, and 1.8 ± 0.1 µg/mL, respectively) in comparison to the unprocessed extract. Both preparations were found to exhibit pro-oxidant potential inside the cancer cells, through the potential inhibitory activity of OLE against glutathione reductase and superoxide dismutase (IC\(_{50}\) 1.18 ± 0.12 and 2.33 ± 0.19 µg/mL, respectively). These inhibitory activities were proposed via a comprehensive in silico study to be linked to the presence of certain compounds in OLE. Consequently, we assume that formulating such a herbal extract within a suitable nanocarrier would be a promising improvement of its therapeutic potential. KW - olive KW - metabolomic profiling KW - antiproliferative KW - pro-oxidant KW - encapsulation KW - spanlastic KW - nanocarrier KW - docking KW - molecular dynamics simulation KW - Olea Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250064 SN - 2076-3921 VL - 10 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Friedmann, Anton A1 - Fickl, Stefan A1 - Fischer, Kai R. A1 - Dalloul, Milad A1 - Goetz, Werner A1 - Kauffmann, Frederic T1 - Horizontal augmentation of chronic mandibular defects by the Guided Bone Regeneration approach: a randomized study in dogs JF - Materials N2 - Various biomaterial combinations have been studied focusing on their ability to stabilize blood clots and maintain space under soft tissue to support new bone formation. A popular combination is Deproteinized Bovine Bone Mineral (DBBM) placed with a native collagen membrane (NCM) tacked to native bone. In this study, we compared the outcome of this treatment option to those achieved with three different graft/membrane combinations with respect to total newly occupied area and the mineralized compound inside. After bi-lateral extraction of two mandibular premolars in five adult beagles L-shaped alveolar defects were created. A total of 20 defects healed for 6 weeks resulting in chronic type bone defects. At baseline, four options were randomly allocated to five defects each: a. DBBM + NCM with a four-pin fixation across the ridge; b. DBBM + RCLC (ribose cross-linked collagen membrane); c. DBBM + NPPM (native porcine pericardium membrane); and d. Ca-sulfate (CS) + RCLC membrane. Membranes in b/c/d were not fixed; complete tensionless wound closure was achieved by CAF. Termination after 3 months and sampling followed, and non-decalcified processing and toluidine blue staining were applied. Microscopic images obtained at standardized magnification were histomorphometrically assessed by ImageJ software (NIH). An ANOVA post hoc test was applied; histomorphometric data are presented in this paper as medians and interquartile ranges (IRs). All sites healed uneventfully, all sites were sampled and block separation followed before Technovit embedding. Two central sections per block for each group were included. Two of five specimen were lost due to processing error and were excluded from group b. New bone area was significantly greater for option b. compared to a. (p = 0.001), c. (p = 0.002), and d. (p = 0.046). Residual non-bone graft area was significantly less for option d. compared to a. (p = 0.026) or c. (p = 0.021). We conclude that collagen membranes with a prolonged resorption/barrier profile combined with bone substitutes featuring different degradation profiles sufficiently support new bone formation. Tacking strategy/membrane fixation appears redundant when using these biomaterials. KW - lateral augmentation KW - histomorphometry KW - collagen membranes KW - degradation profile KW - bone substitutes KW - guided bone regeneration (GBR) KW - animal study Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252351 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 15 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dauer née Joppe, Karina A1 - Tatenhorst, Lars A1 - Caldi Gomes, Lucas A1 - Zhang, Shuyu A1 - Parvaz, Mojan A1 - Carboni, Eleonora A1 - Roser, Anna‐Elisa A1 - El DeBakey, Hazem A1 - Bähr, Mathias A1 - Vogel‐Mikuš, Katarina A1 - Wang Ip, Chi A1 - Becker, Stefan A1 - Zweckstetter, Markus A1 - Lingor, Paul T1 - Brain iron enrichment attenuates α‐synuclein spreading after injection of preformed fibrils JF - Journal of Neurochemistry N2 - Regional iron accumulation and α‐synuclein (α‐syn) spreading pathology within the central nervous system are common pathological findings in Parkinson's disease (PD). Whereas iron is known to bind to α‐syn, facilitating its aggregation and regulating α‐syn expression, it remains unclear if and how iron also modulates α‐syn spreading. To elucidate the influence of iron on the propagation of α‐syn pathology, we investigated α‐syn spreading after stereotactic injection of α‐syn preformed fibrils (PFFs) into the striatum of mouse brains after neonatal brain iron enrichment. C57Bl/6J mouse pups received oral gavage with 60, 120, or 240 mg/kg carbonyl iron or vehicle between postnatal days 10 and 17. At 12 weeks of age, intrastriatal injections of 5‐µg PFFs were performed to induce seeding of α‐syn aggregates. At 90 days post‐injection, PFFs‐injected mice displayed long‐term memory deficits, without affection of motor behavior. Interestingly, quantification of α‐syn phosphorylated at S129 showed reduced α‐syn pathology and attenuated spreading to connectome‐specific brain regions after brain iron enrichment. Furthermore, PFFs injection caused intrastriatal microglia accumulation, which was alleviated by iron in a dose‐dependent way. In primary cortical neurons in a microfluidic chamber model in vitro, iron application did not alter trans‐synaptic α‐syn propagation, possibly indicating an involvement of non‐neuronal cells in this process. Our study suggests that α‐syn PFFs may induce cognitive deficits in mice independent of iron. However, a redistribution of α‐syn aggregate pathology and reduction of striatal microglia accumulation in the mouse brain may be mediated via iron‐induced alterations of the brain connectome. KW - alpha‐synuclein KW - alpha‐synuclein propagation KW - alpha‐synuclein seeding KW - iron dyshomeostasis KW - Parkinson's disease Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262544 VL - 159 IS - 3 SP - 554 EP - 573 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Freitag‐Wolf, Sandra A1 - Munz, Matthias A1 - Junge, Olaf A1 - Graetz, Christian A1 - Jockel‐Schneider, Yvonne A1 - Staufenbiel, Ingmar A1 - Bruckmann, Corinna A1 - Lieb, Wolfgang A1 - Franke, Andre A1 - Loos, Bruno G. A1 - Jepsen, Søren A1 - Dommisch, Henrik A1 - Schaefer, Arne S. T1 - Sex‐specific genetic factors affect the risk of early‐onset periodontitis in Europeans JF - Journal of Clinical Periodontology N2 - Aims Various studies have reported that young European women are more likely to develop early‐onset periodontitis compared to men. A potential explanation for the observed variations in sex and age of disease onset is the natural genetic variation within the autosomal genomes. We hypothesized that genotype‐by‐sex (G × S) interactions contribute to the increased prevalence and severity. Materials and methods Using the case‐only design, we tested for differences in genetic effects between men and women in 896 North‐West European early‐onset cases, using imputed genotypes from the OmniExpress genotyping array. Population‐representative 6823 controls were used to verify that the interacting variables G and S were uncorrelated in the general population. Results In total, 20 loci indicated G × S associations (P < 0.0005), 3 of which were previously suggested as risk genes for periodontitis (ABLIM2, CDH13, and NELL1). We also found independent G × S interactions of the related gene paralogs MACROD1/FLRT1 (chr11) and MACROD2/FLRT3 (chr20). G × S‐associated SNPs at CPEB4, CDH13, MACROD1, and MECOM were genome‐wide‐associated with heel bone mineral density (CPEB4, MECOM), waist‐to‐hip ratio (CPEB4, MACROD1), and blood pressure (CPEB4, CDH13). Conclusions Our results indicate that natural genetic variation affects the different heritability of periodontitis among sexes and suggest genes that contribute to inter‐sex phenotypic variation in early‐onset periodontitis. KW - alveolar bone loss KW - gene × sex interaction KW - genetic risk KW - heritability KW - inflammation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-262445 VL - 48 IS - 11 SP - 1404 EP - 1413 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cadar, Dániel A1 - Jellinger, Kurt A. A1 - Riederer, Peter A1 - Strobel, Sabrina A1 - Monoranu, Camelia-Maria A1 - Tappe, Dennis T1 - No metagenomic evidence of causative viral pathogens in postencephalitic parkinsonism following encephalitis lethargica JF - Microorganisms N2 - Postencephalitic parkinsonism (PEP) is a disease of unknown etiology and pathophysiology following encephalitis lethargica (EL), an acute-onset polioencephalitis of cryptic cause in the 1920s. PEP is a tauopathy with multisystem neuronal loss and gliosis, clinically characterized by bradykinesia, rigidity, rest tremor, and oculogyric crises. Though a viral cause of EL is likely, past polymerase chain reaction-based investigations in the etiology of both PEP and EL were negative. PEP might be caused directly by an unknown viral pathogen or the consequence of a post-infectious immunopathology. The development of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in conjunction with bioinformatic techniques has generated a broad-range tool for the detection of unknown pathogens in the recent past. Retrospective identification and characterization of pathogens responsible for past infectious diseases can be successfully performed with formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples. In this study, we analyzed 24 FFPE brain samples from six patients with PEP by unbiased metagenomic next-generation sequencing. Our results show that no evidence for the presence of a specific or putative (novel) viral pathogen was found, suggesting a likely post-infectious immune-mediated etiology of PEP. KW - postencephalitic parkinsonism KW - encephalitis lethargica KW - von Economo KW - metagenomics KW - neuropathology KW - tauopathy Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245074 SN - 2076-2607 VL - 9 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kammerer, Klaus A1 - Göster, Manuel A1 - Reichert, Manfred A1 - Pryss, Rüdiger T1 - Ambalytics: a scalable and distributed system architecture concept for bibliometric network analyses JF - Future Internet N2 - A deep understanding about a field of research is valuable for academic researchers. In addition to technical knowledge, this includes knowledge about subareas, open research questions, and social communities (networks) of individuals and organizations within a given field. With bibliometric analyses, researchers can acquire quantitatively valuable knowledge about a research area by using bibliographic information on academic publications provided by bibliographic data providers. Bibliometric analyses include the calculation of bibliometric networks to describe affiliations or similarities of bibliometric entities (e.g., authors) and group them into clusters representing subareas or communities. Calculating and visualizing bibliometric networks is a nontrivial and time-consuming data science task that requires highly skilled individuals. In addition to domain knowledge, researchers must often provide statistical knowledge and programming skills or use software tools having limited functionality and usability. In this paper, we present the ambalytics bibliometric platform, which reduces the complexity of bibliometric network analysis and the visualization of results. It accompanies users through the process of bibliometric analysis and eliminates the need for individuals to have programming skills and statistical knowledge, while preserving advanced functionality, such as algorithm parameterization, for experts. As a proof-of-concept, and as an example of bibliometric analyses outcomes, the calculation of research fronts networks based on a hybrid similarity approach is shown. Being designed to scale, ambalytics makes use of distributed systems concepts and technologies. It is based on the microservice architecture concept and uses the Kubernetes framework for orchestration. This paper presents the initial building block of a comprehensive bibliometric analysis platform called ambalytics, which aims at a high usability for users as well as scalability. KW - system architecture design KW - bibliometric analysis KW - community detection Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-244916 SN - 1999-5903 VL - 13 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Makbul, Cihan A1 - Kraft, Christian A1 - Grießmann, Matthias A1 - Rasmussen, Tim A1 - Katzenberger, Kilian A1 - Lappe, Melina A1 - Pfarr, Paul A1 - Stoffer, Cato A1 - Stöhr, Mara A1 - Wandinger, Anna-Maria A1 - Böttcher, Bettina T1 - Binding of a pocket factor to Hepatitis B virus capsids changes the rotamer conformation of Phenylalanine 97 JF - Viruses N2 - (1) Background: During maturation of the Hepatitis B virus, a viral polymerase inside the capsid transcribes a pre-genomic RNA into a partly double stranded DNA-genome. This is followed by envelopment with surface proteins inserted into a membrane. Envelopment is hypothetically regulated by a structural signal that reports the maturation state of the genome. NMR data suggest that such a signal can be mimicked by the binding of the detergent Triton X 100 to hydrophobic pockets in the capsid spikes. (2) Methods: We have used electron cryo-microscopy and image processing to elucidate the structural changes that are concomitant with the binding of Triton X 100. (3) Results: Our maps show that Triton X 100 binds with its hydrophobic head group inside the pocket. The hydrophilic tail delineates the outside of the spike and is coordinated via Lys-96. The binding of Triton X 100 changes the rotamer conformation of Phe-97 in helix 4, which enables a π-stacking interaction with Trp-62 in helix 3. Similar changes occur in mutants with low secretion phenotypes (P5T and L60V) and in a mutant with a pre-mature secretion phenotype (F97L). (4) Conclusion: Binding of Triton X 100 is unlikely to mimic structural maturation because mutants with different secretion phenotypes show similar structural responses. KW - Hepatitis B Virus KW - pocket factor KW - Triton X 100 KW - envelopment KW - maturation signal KW - single strand blocking KW - electron cryo-microscopy KW - isothermal titration calorimetry Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248565 SN - 1999-4915 VL - 13 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schneider-Schaulies, Sibylle A1 - Schumacher, Fabian A1 - Wigger, Dominik A1 - Schöl, Marie A1 - Waghmare, Trushnal A1 - Schlegel, Jan A1 - Seibel, Jürgen A1 - Kleuser, Burkhard T1 - Sphingolipids: effectors and Achilles heals in viral infections? JF - Cells N2 - As viruses are obligatory intracellular parasites, any step during their life cycle strictly depends on successful interaction with their particular host cells. In particular, their interaction with cellular membranes is of crucial importance for most steps in the viral replication cycle. Such interactions are initiated by uptake of viral particles and subsequent trafficking to intracellular compartments to access their replication compartments which provide a spatially confined environment concentrating viral and cellular components, and subsequently, employ cellular membranes for assembly and exit of viral progeny. The ability of viruses to actively modulate lipid composition such as sphingolipids (SLs) is essential for successful completion of the viral life cycle. In addition to their structural and biophysical properties of cellular membranes, some sphingolipid (SL) species are bioactive and as such, take part in cellular signaling processes involved in regulating viral replication. It is especially due to the progress made in tools to study accumulation and dynamics of SLs, which visualize their compartmentalization and identify interaction partners at a cellular level, as well as the availability of genetic knockout systems, that the role of particular SL species in the viral replication process can be analyzed and, most importantly, be explored as targets for therapeutic intervention. KW - glycosphingolipids KW - ceramides KW - sphingosine 1-phosphate KW - sphingomyelinase KW - HIV KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - measles Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245151 SN - 2073-4409 VL - 10 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Prieto-Garcia, Cristian A1 - Tomašković, Ines A1 - Shah, Varun Jayeshkumar A1 - Dikic, Ivan A1 - Diefenbacher, Markus T1 - USP28: oncogene or tumor suppressor? a unifying paradigm for squamous cell carcinoma JF - Cells N2 - Squamous cell carcinomas are therapeutically challenging tumor entities. Low response rates to radiotherapy and chemotherapy are commonly observed in squamous patients and, accordingly, the mortality rate is relatively high compared to other tumor entities. Recently, targeting USP28 has been emerged as a potential alternative to improve the therapeutic response and clinical outcomes of squamous patients. USP28 is a catalytically active deubiquitinase that governs a plethora of biological processes, including cellular proliferation, DNA damage repair, apoptosis and oncogenesis. In squamous cell carcinoma, USP28 is strongly expressed and stabilizes the essential squamous transcription factor ΔNp63, together with important oncogenic factors, such as NOTCH1, c-MYC and c-JUN. It is presumed that USP28 is an oncoprotein; however, recent data suggest that the deubiquitinase also has an antineoplastic effect regulating important tumor suppressor proteins, such as p53 and CHK2. In this review, we discuss: (1) The emerging role of USP28 in cancer. (2) The complexity and mutational landscape of squamous tumors. (3) The genetic alterations and cellular pathways that determine the function of USP28 in squamous cancer. (4) The development and current state of novel USP28 inhibitors. KW - USP28 KW - SCC KW - USP25 KW - FBXW7 KW - Tp63 KW - c-MYC KW - ΔNp63 KW - p53 KW - cancer KW - DUB inhibitor KW - squamous Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248409 SN - 2073-4409 VL - 10 IS - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wagenbrenner, Mike A1 - Mayer-Wagner, Susanne A1 - Rudert, Maximilian A1 - Holzapfel, Boris Michael A1 - Weissenberger, Manuel T1 - Combinations of hydrogels and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) for cartilage tissue engineering — a review of the literature JF - Gels N2 - Cartilage offers limited regenerative capacity. Cell-based approaches have emerged as a promising alternative in the treatment of cartilage defects and osteoarthritis. Due to their easy accessibility, abundancy, and chondrogenic potential mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) offer an attractive cell source. MSCs are often combined with natural or synthetic hydrogels providing tunable biocompatibility, biodegradability, and enhanced cell functionality. In this review, we focused on the different advantages and disadvantages of various natural, synthetic, and modified hydrogels. We examined the different combinations of MSC-subpopulations and hydrogels used for cartilage engineering in preclinical and clinical studies and reviewed the effects of added growth factors or gene transfer on chondrogenesis in MSC-laden hydrogels. The aim of this review is to add to the understanding of the disadvantages and advantages of various combinations of MSC-subpopulations, growth factors, gene transfers, and hydrogels in cartilage engineering. KW - hydrogels KW - osteoarthritis KW - cartilage defects KW - MSCs KW - cartilage regeneration KW - tissue engineering Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250177 SN - 2310-2861 VL - 7 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ye, Liqing A1 - Ambi, Uddhav B. A1 - Olguin-Nava, Marco A1 - Gribling-Burrer, Anne-Sophie A1 - Ahmad, Shazeb A1 - Bohn, Patrick A1 - Weber, Melanie M. A1 - Smyth, Redmond P. T1 - RNA structures and their role in selective genome packaging JF - Viruses N2 - To generate infectious viral particles, viruses must specifically select their genomic RNA from milieu that contains a complex mixture of cellular or non-genomic viral RNAs. In this review, we focus on the role of viral encoded RNA structures in genome packaging. We first discuss how packaging signals are constructed from local and long-range base pairings within viral genomes, as well as inter-molecular interactions between viral and host RNAs. Then, how genome packaging is regulated by the biophysical properties of RNA. Finally, we examine the impact of RNA packaging signals on viral evolution. KW - RNA virus KW - RNA KW - RNA structure KW - genome packaging KW - viral assembly KW - evolution Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246101 SN - 1999-4915 VL - 13 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schilcher, Felix A1 - Hilsmann, Lioba A1 - Rauscher, Lisa A1 - Değirmenci, Laura A1 - Krischke, Markus A1 - Krischke, Beate A1 - Ankenbrand, Markus A1 - Rutschmann, Benjamin A1 - Mueller, Martin J. A1 - Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf A1 - Scheiner, Ricarda T1 - In vitro rearing changes social task performance and physiology in honeybees JF - Insects N2 - In vitro rearing of honeybee larvae is an established method that enables exact control and monitoring of developmental factors and allows controlled application of pesticides or pathogens. However, only a few studies have investigated how the rearing method itself affects the behavior of the resulting adult honeybees. We raised honeybees in vitro according to a standardized protocol: marking the emerging honeybees individually and inserting them into established colonies. Subsequently, we investigated the behavioral performance of nurse bees and foragers and quantified the physiological factors underlying the social organization. Adult honeybees raised in vitro differed from naturally reared honeybees in their probability of performing social tasks. Further, in vitro-reared bees foraged for a shorter duration in their life and performed fewer foraging trips. Nursing behavior appeared to be unaffected by rearing condition. Weight was also unaffected by rearing condition. Interestingly, juvenile hormone titers, which normally increase strongly around the time when a honeybee becomes a forager, were significantly lower in three- and four-week-old in vitro bees. The effects of the rearing environment on individual sucrose responsiveness and lipid levels were rather minor. These data suggest that larval rearing conditions can affect the task performance and physiology of adult bees despite equal weight, pointing to an important role of the colony environment for these factors. Our observations of behavior and metabolic pathways offer important novel insight into how the rearing environment affects adult honeybees. KW - honeybee KW - artificial rearing KW - behavior KW - in vitro KW - juvenile hormone KW - triglycerides KW - PER KW - foraging KW - nursing Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252305 SN - 2075-4450 VL - 13 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kraft, Robin A1 - Reichert, Manfred A1 - Pryss, Rüdiger T1 - Towards the interpretation of sound measurements from smartphones collected with mobile crowdsensing in the healthcare domain: an experiment with Android devices JF - Sensors N2 - The ubiquity of mobile devices fosters the combined use of ecological momentary assessments (EMA) and mobile crowdsensing (MCS) in the field of healthcare. This combination not only allows researchers to collect ecologically valid data, but also to use smartphone sensors to capture the context in which these data are collected. The TrackYourTinnitus (TYT) platform uses EMA to track users' individual subjective tinnitus perception and MCS to capture an objective environmental sound level while the EMA questionnaire is filled in. However, the sound level data cannot be used directly among the different smartphones used by TYT users, since uncalibrated raw values are stored. This work describes an approach towards making these values comparable. In the described setting, the evaluation of sensor measurements from different smartphone users becomes increasingly prevalent. Therefore, the shown approach can be also considered as a more general solution as it not only shows how it helped to interpret TYT sound level data, but may also stimulate other researchers, especially those who need to interpret sensor data in a similar setting. Altogether, the approach will show that measuring sound levels with mobile devices is possible in healthcare scenarios, but there are many challenges to ensuring that the measured values are interpretable. KW - mHealth KW - crowdsensing KW - tinnitus KW - noise measurement KW - environmental sound Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252246 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hirth, Matthias A1 - Seufert, Michael A1 - Lange, Stanislav A1 - Meixner, Markus A1 - Tran-Gia, Phuoc T1 - Performance evaluation of hybrid crowdsensing and fixed sensor systems for event detection in urban environments JF - Sensors N2 - Crowdsensing offers a cost-effective way to collect large amounts of environmental sensor data; however, the spatial distribution of crowdsensing sensors can hardly be influenced, as the participants carry the sensors, and, additionally, the quality of the crowdsensed data can vary significantly. Hybrid systems that use mobile users in conjunction with fixed sensors might help to overcome these limitations, as such systems allow assessing the quality of the submitted crowdsensed data and provide sensor values where no crowdsensing data are typically available. In this work, we first used a simulation study to analyze a simple crowdsensing system concerning the detection performance of spatial events to highlight the potential and limitations of a pure crowdsourcing system. The results indicate that even if only a small share of inhabitants participate in crowdsensing, events that have locations correlated with the population density can be easily and quickly detected using such a system. On the contrary, events with uniformly randomly distributed locations are much harder to detect using a simple crowdsensing-based approach. A second evaluation shows that hybrid systems improve the detection probability and time. Finally, we illustrate how to compute the minimum number of fixed sensors for the given detection time thresholds in our exemplary scenario. KW - crowdsensing KW - event detection KW - detection time simulation KW - performance analysis Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245245 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 21 IS - 17 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dumic, Emil A1 - Bjelopera, Anamaria A1 - Nüchter, Andreas T1 - Dynamic point cloud compression based on projections, surface reconstruction and video compression JF - Sensors N2 - In this paper we will present a new dynamic point cloud compression based on different projection types and bit depth, combined with the surface reconstruction algorithm and video compression for obtained geometry and texture maps. Texture maps have been compressed after creating Voronoi diagrams. Used video compression is specific for geometry (FFV1) and texture (H.265/HEVC). Decompressed point clouds are reconstructed using a Poisson surface reconstruction algorithm. Comparison with the original point clouds was performed using point-to-point and point-to-plane measures. Comprehensive experiments show better performance for some projection maps: cylindrical, Miller and Mercator projections. KW - 3DTK toolkit KW - map projections KW - point cloud compression KW - point-to-point measure KW - point-to-plane measure KW - Poisson surface reconstruction KW - octree Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252231 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gehrmann, Robin A1 - Hertlein, Tobias A1 - Hopke, Elisa A1 - Ohlsen, Knut A1 - Lalk, Michael A1 - Hilgeroth, Andreas T1 - Novel small-molecule hybrid-antibacterial agents against S. aureus and MRSA strains JF - Molecules N2 - Ongoing resistance developments against antibiotics that also affect last-resort antibiotics require novel antibacterial compounds. Strategies to discover such novel structures have been dimerization or hybridization of known antibacterial agents. We found novel antibacterial agents by dimerization of indols and hybridization with carbazoles. They were obtained in a simple one-pot reaction as bisindole tetrahydrocarbazoles. Further oxidation led to bisindole carbazoles with varied substitutions of both the indole and the carbazole scaffold. Both the tetrahydrocarbazoles and the carbazoles have been evaluated in various S. aureus strains, including MRSA strains. Those 5-cyano substituted derivatives showed best activities as determined by MIC values. The tetrahydrocarbazoles partly exceed the activity of the carbazole compounds and thus the activity of the used standard antibiotics. Thus, promising lead compounds could be identified for further studies. KW - antibacterial activity KW - synthesis KW - substituent KW - structure–activity KW - inhibition Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252371 SN - 1420-3049 VL - 27 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Abboud, Tammam A1 - Asendorf, Thomas A1 - Heinrich, Jutta A1 - Faust, Katharina A1 - Krieg, Sandro M. A1 - Seidel, Kathleen A1 - Mielke, Dorothee A1 - Matthies, Cordola A1 - Ringel, Florian A1 - Rohde, Veit A1 - Szelényi, Andrea T1 - Transcranial versus direct cortical stimulation for motor-evoked potentials during resection of supratentorial tumors under general anesthesia (the TRANSEKT-trial): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial JF - Biomedicines N2 - Background: Monitoring of motor function during surgery for supratentorial tumors under general anesthesia applies either transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) or direct cortical stimulation (DCS) to elicit motor-evoked potentials. To date, there is no guideline that favor one method over the other. Therefore, we designed this randomized study to compare between both methods regarding the prediction of postoperative motor deficits and extent of tumor resection. Methods: This is a multicenter (six centers in Germany and one in Switzerland), double blind, parallel group, exploratory, randomized controlled clinical trial. Patients without or with mild paresis, who are scheduled for surgical resection of motor-eloquent brain tumors under general anesthesia will be randomized to surgical resection under TES or surgical resection under DCS. The primary endpoint is sensitivity and specificity in prognosis of motor function 7 days after surgery. The main secondary endpoint is the extent of tumor resection. The study is planned to include 120 patients within 2 years. Discussion: The present exploratory study should compare TES and DCS regarding sensitivity and specificity in predicting postoperative motor deficit and extent of tumor resection to calculate the required number of patients in a confirmatory trial to test the superiority of one method over the other. KW - threshold criterion KW - amplitude criterion KW - intraoperative monitoring KW - transcranial motor-evoked potentials KW - direct cortical stimulation KW - threshold level Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248513 SN - 2227-9059 VL - 9 IS - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kelm, Matthias A1 - Germer, Christoph-Thomas A1 - Schlegel, Nicolas A1 - Flemming, Sven T1 - The revival of surgery in Crohn's disease — early intestinal resection as a reasonable alternative in localized ileitis JF - Biomedicines N2 - Crohn's disease (CD) represents a heterogeneous and complex disease with no curative therapeutic option available to date. Current therapy is mainly antibody-based focusing on the immune system while other treatment alternatives such as surgery are considered to be “last options”. However, medical therapy for CD results in mild to severe side effects in a relevant amount of patients and some patients do not respond to the medication. Following that, quality of life is often significantly reduced in this patient cohort, thus, therapeutic alternatives are urgently needed. Updated evidence has revealed that surgery such as ileocecal resection (ICR) might be a potential therapeutic option in case of localized terminal ileitis since resection at early time points improves quality of life and significantly reduces the postoperative need for immunosuppressive medication with low rates of morbidity. In addition, new surgical approaches such as Kono-S anastomosis or inclusion of the mesentery result in significantly reduced rates of disease recurrence and reoperation. Based on the new evidence, the goal of this review is to provide an update on the role of surgery as a reasonable alternative to medical therapy in the interdisciplinary treatment of patients with CD. KW - surgery KW - Crohn's disease KW - terminal ileitis KW - inflammatory bowel disease KW - surgical outcome Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246296 SN - 2227-9059 VL - 9 IS - 10 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zwirner, Johann A1 - Bohnert, Simone A1 - Franke, Heike A1 - Garland, Jack A1 - Hammer, Niels A1 - Möbius, Dustin A1 - Tse, Rexson A1 - Ondruschka, Benjamin T1 - Assessing protein biomarkers to detect lethal acute traumatic brain injuries in cerebrospinal fluid JF - Biomolecules N2 - Diagnosing traumatic brain injury (TBI) from body fluids in cases where there are no obvious external signs of impact would be useful for emergency physicians and forensic pathologists alike. None of the previous attempts has so far succeeded in establishing a single biomarker to reliably detect TBI with regards to the sensitivity: specificity ratio in a post mortem setting. This study investigated a combination of body fluid biomarkers (obtained post mortem), which may be a step towards increasing the accuracy of biochemical TBI detection. In this study, serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 30 acute lethal TBI cases and 70 controls without a TBI-related cause of death were evaluated for the following eight TBI-related biomarkers: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), ferritin, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), lactate dehydrogenase, neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), neuron-specific enolase and S100 calcium-binding protein B. Correlations among the individual TBI biomarkers were assessed, and a specificity-accentuated threshold value analysis was conducted for all biomarkers. Based on these values, a decision tree modelling approach was performed to assess the most accurate biomarker combination to detect acute lethal TBIs. The results showed that 92.45% of acute lethal TBIs were able to be diagnosed using a combination of IL-6 and GFAP in CSF. The probability of detecting an acute lethal TBI was moderately increased by GFAP alone and considerably increased by the remaining biomarkers. BDNF and NGAL were almost perfectly correlated (p = 0.002; R\(^2\) = 0.944). This study provides evidence that acute lethal TBIs can be detected to a high degree of statistical accuracy using forensic biochemistry. The high inter-individual correlations of biomarkers may help to estimate the CSF concentration of an unknown biomarker, using extrapolation techniques. KW - biomarker combination KW - glial fibrillary acidic protein KW - interleukin-6 KW - post mortem biochemistry KW - traumatic brain injury Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248587 SN - 2218-273X VL - 11 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Radeloff, Katrin A1 - Weiss, Dorothee A1 - Hagen, Rudolf A1 - Kleinsasser, Norbert A1 - Radeloff, Andreas T1 - Differentiation behaviour of adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) seeded on polyurethane-fibrin scaffolds in vitro and in vivo JF - Biomedicines N2 - Adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) are a promising cell source for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine approaches for cartilage replacement. For chondrogenic differentiation, human (h)ASCs were seeded on three-dimensional polyurethane (PU) fibrin composites and induced with a chondrogenic differentiation medium containing TGF-ß3, BMP-6, and IGF-1 in various combinations. In addition, in vitro predifferentiated cell-seeded constructs were implanted into auricular cartilage defects of New Zealand White Rabbits for 4 and 12 weeks. Histological, immunohistochemical, and RT-PCR analyses were performed on the constructs maintained in vitro to determine extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition and expression of specific cartilage markers. Chondrogenic differentiated constructs showed a uniform distribution of cells and ECM proteins. RT-PCR showed increased gene expression of collagen II, collagen X, and aggrecan and nearly stable expression of SOX-9 and collagen I. Rabbit (r)ASC-seeded PU-fibrin composites implanted in ear cartilage defects of New Zealand White Rabbits showed deposition of ECM with structures resembling cartilage lacunae by Alcian blue staining. However, extracellular calcium deposition became detectable over the course of 12 weeks. RT-PCR showed evidence of endochondral ossification during the time course with the expression of specific marker genes (collagen X and RUNX-2). In conclusion, hASCs show chondrogenic differentiation capacity in vitro with the expression of specific marker genes and deposition of cartilage-specific ECM proteins. After implantation of predifferentiated rASC-seeded PU-fibrin scaffolds into a cartilage defect, the constructs undergo the route of endochondral ossification. KW - polyurethane KW - fibrin KW - ASC KW - adipose-derived stromal cells KW - chondrogenic differentiation KW - endochondral ossification KW - BMP-6 KW - TGF-ß3 Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245030 SN - 2227-9059 VL - 9 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maucher, Marius A1 - Srour, Micha A1 - Danhof, Sophia A1 - Einsele, Hermann A1 - Hudecek, Michael A1 - Yakoub-Agha, Ibrahim T1 - Current limitations and perspectives of chimeric antigen receptor-T-cells in acute myeloid leukemia JF - Cancers N2 - Adoptive transfer of gene-engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cells has emerged as a powerful immunotherapy for combating hematologic cancers. Several target antigens that are prevalently expressed on AML cells have undergone evaluation in preclinical CAR-T-cell testing. Attributes of an ‘ideal’ target antigen for CAR-T-cell therapy in AML include high-level expression on leukemic blasts and leukemic stem cells (LSCs), and absence on healthy tissues, normal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). In contrast to other blood cancer types, where CAR-T therapies are being similarly studied, only a rather small number of AML patients has received CAR-T-cell treatment in clinical trials, resulting in limited clinical experience for this therapeutic approach in AML. For curative AML treatment, abrogation of bulk blasts and LSCs is mandatory with the need for hematopoietic recovery after CAR-T administration. Herein, we provide a critical review of the current pipeline of candidate target antigens and corresponding CAR-T-cell products in AML, assess challenges for clinical translation and implementation in routine clinical practice, as well as perspectives for overcoming them. KW - AML KW - CAR-T-cell KW - hematology KW - gene therapy KW - adoptive cell therapy Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252180 SN - 2072-6694 VL - 13 IS - 24 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mc Laughlin, Anna M. A1 - Schmulenson, Eduard A1 - Teplytska, Olga A1 - Zimmermann, Sebastian A1 - Opitz, Patrick A1 - Groenland, Stefanie L. A1 - Huitema, Alwin D. R. A1 - Steeghs, Neeltje A1 - Müller, Lothar A1 - Fuxius, Stefan A1 - Illerhaus, Gerald A1 - Joerger, Markus A1 - Mayer, Frank A1 - Fuhr, Uwe A1 - Holdenrieder, Stefan A1 - Hempel, Georg A1 - Scherf-Clavel, Oliver A1 - Jaehde, Ulrich A1 - Kloft, Charlotte T1 - Developing a nationwide infrastructure for therapeutic drug monitoring of targeted oral anticancer drugs: the ON-TARGET study protocol JF - Cancers N2 - Exposure-efficacy and/or exposure-toxicity relationships have been identified for up to 80% of oral anticancer drugs (OADs). Usually, OADs are administered at fixed doses despite their high interindividual pharmacokinetic variability resulting in large differences in drug exposure. Consequently, a substantial proportion of patients receive a suboptimal dose. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM), i.e., dosing based on measured drug concentrations, may be used to improve treatment outcomes. The prospective, multicenter, non-interventional ON-TARGET study (DRKS00025325) aims to investigate the potential of routine TDM to reduce adverse drug reactions in renal cell carcinoma patients receiving axitinib or cabozantinib. Furthermore, the feasibility of using volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS), a minimally invasive and easy to handle blood sampling technique, for sample collection is examined. During routine visits, blood samples are collected and sent to bioanalytical laboratories. Venous and VAMS blood samples are collected in the first study phase to facilitate home-based capillary blood sampling in the second study phase. Within one week, the drug plasma concentrations are measured, interpreted, and reported back to the physician. Patients report their drug intake and toxicity using PRO-CTCAE-based questionnaires in dedicated diaries. Ultimately, the ON-TARGET study aims to develop a nationwide infrastructure for TDM for oral anticancer drugs. KW - therapeutic drug monitoring KW - oral anticancer drugs KW - renal cell carcinoma KW - volumetric absorptive microsampling Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252196 SN - 2072-6694 VL - 13 IS - 24 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Canu, Letizia A1 - Puglisi, Soraya A1 - Berchialla, Paola A1 - De Filpo, Giuseppina A1 - Brignardello, Francesca A1 - Schiavi, Francesca A1 - Ferrara, Alfonso Massimiliano A1 - Zovato, Stefania A1 - Luconi, Michaela A1 - Pia, Anna A1 - Appetecchia, Marialuisa A1 - Arvat, Emanuela A1 - Letizia, Claudio A1 - Maccario, Mauro A1 - Parasiliti-Caprino, Mirko A1 - Altieri, Barbara A1 - Faggiano, Antongiulio A1 - Modica, Roberta A1 - Morelli, Valentina A1 - Arosio, Maura A1 - Verga, Uberta A1 - Pellegrino, Micaela A1 - Petramala, Luigi A1 - Concistrè, Antonio A1 - Razzore, Paola A1 - Ercolino, Tonino A1 - Rapizzi, Elena A1 - Maggi, Mario A1 - Stigliano, Antonio A1 - Burrello, Jacopo A1 - Terzolo, Massimo A1 - Opocher, Giuseppe A1 - Mannelli, Massimo A1 - Reimondo, Giuseppe T1 - A multicenter epidemiological study on second malignancy in non-syndromic pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma patients in Italy JF - Cancers N2 - No studies have carried out an extensive analysis of the possible association between non-syndromic pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGLs) and other malignancies. To assess >the risk of additional malignancy in PPGL, we retrospectively evaluated 741 patients with PPGLs followed-up in twelve referral centers in Italy. Incidence of second malignant tumors was compared between this cohort and Italian patients with two subsequent malignancies. Among our patients, 95 (12.8%) developed a second malignant tumor, which were mainly prostate, colorectal and lung/bronchial cancers in males, breast cancer, differentiated thyroid cancer and melanoma in females. The standardized incidence ratio was 9.59 (95% CI 5.46–15.71) in males and 13.21 (95% CI 7.52–21.63) in females. At multivariable analysis, the risk of developing a second malignant tumor increased with age at diagnosis (HR 2.50, 95% CI 1.15–5.44, p = 0.021 for 50–59 vs. <50-year category; HR 3.46, 95% CI 1.67–7.15, p < 0.001 for >60- vs. <50-year). In patients with available genetic evaluation, a positive genetic test was inversely associated with the risk of developing a second tumor (HR 0.25, 95% CI 0.10–0.63, p = 0.003). In conclusion, PPGLs patients have higher incidence of additional malignant tumors compared to the general population who had a first malignancy, which could have an impact on the surveillance strategy. KW - pheochromocytoma KW - paraganglioma KW - epidemiology KW - genetic analysis KW - mortality KW - surveillance Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250148 SN - 2072-6694 VL - 13 IS - 22 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fuss, Carmina Teresa A1 - Other, Katharina A1 - Heinze, Britta A1 - Landwehr, Laura-Sophie A1 - Wiegering, Armin A1 - Kalogirou, Charis A1 - Hahner, Stefanie A1 - Fassnacht, Martin T1 - Expression of the chemokine receptor CCR7 in the normal adrenal gland and adrenal tumors and its correlation with clinical outcome in adrenocortical carcinoma JF - Cancers N2 - Background: The chemokine receptor CCR7 is crucial for an intact immune function, but its expression is also associated with clinical outcome in several malignancies. No data exist on the expression of CCR7 in adrenocortical tumors. Methods: CCR7 expression was investigated by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in 4 normal adrenal glands, 59 adrenocortical adenomas, and 181 adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) samples. Results: CCR7 is highly expressed in the outer adrenocortical zones and medulla. Aldosterone-producing adenomas showed lower CCR7 protein levels (H-score 1.3 ± 1.0) compared to non-functioning (2.4 ± 0.5) and cortisol-producing adenomas (2.3 ± 0.6), whereas protein expression was variable in ACC (1.8 ± 0.8). In ACC, CCR7 protein expression was significantly higher in lymph node metastases (2.5 ± 0.5) compared to primary tumors (1.8±0.8) or distant metastases (2.0 ± 0.4; p < 0.01). mRNA levels of CCR7 were not significantly different between ACCs, normal adrenals, and adrenocortical adenomas. In contrast to other tumor entities, neither CCR7 protein nor mRNA expression significantly impacted patients' survival. Conclusion: We show that CCR7 is expressed on mRNA and protein level across normal adrenals, benign adrenocortical tumors, as well as ACCs. Given that CCR7 did not influence survival in ACC, it is probably not involved in tumor progression, but it could play a role in adrenocortical homeostasis. KW - CCR7 KW - chemokine receptor KW - adrenocortical carcinoma KW - adrenal tumors Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250112 SN - 2072-6694 VL - 13 IS - 22 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ottinger, Marco A1 - Bachofer, Felix A1 - Huth, Juliane A1 - Kuenzer, Claudia T1 - Mapping aquaculture ponds for the coastal zone of Asia with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 time series JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Asia dominates the world's aquaculture sector, generating almost 90 percent of its total annual global production. Fish, shrimp, and mollusks are mainly farmed in land-based pond aquaculture systems and serve as a primary protein source for millions of people. The total production and area occupied for pond aquaculture has expanded rapidly in coastal regions in Asia since the early 1990s. The growth of aquaculture was mainly boosted by an increasing demand for fish and seafood from a growing world population. The aquaculture sector generates income and employment, contributes to food security, and has become a billion-dollar industry with high socio-economic value, but has also led to severe environmental degradation. In this regard, geospatial information on aquaculture can support the management of this growing food sector for the sustainable development of coastal ecosystems, resources, and human health. With free and open access to the rapidly growing volume of data from the Copernicus Sentinel missions as well as machine learning algorithms and cloud computing services, we extracted coastal aquaculture at a continental scale. We present a multi-sensor approach that utilizes Earth observation time series data for the mapping of pond aquaculture within the entire Asian coastal zone, defined as the onshore area up to 200 km from the coastline. In this research, we developed an object-based framework to detect and extract aquaculture at a single-pond level based on temporal features derived from high-spatial-resolution SAR and optical satellite data acquired from the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites. In a second step, we performed spatial and statistical data analyses of the Earth-observation-derived aquaculture dataset to investigate spatial distribution and identify production hotspots at various administrative units at regional, national, and sub-national scale. KW - aquaculture KW - Asia KW - Earth observation KW - ponds KW - coastal zone KW - Sentinel-1 KW - SAR KW - time series Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252207 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 14 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fakhri, Seyed Arvin A1 - Latifi, Hooman T1 - A consumer grade UAV-based framework to estimate structural attributes of coppice and high oak forest stands in semi-arid regions JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Semi-arid tree covers, in both high and coppice growth forms, play an essential role in protecting water and soil resources and provides multiple ecosystem services across fragile ecosystems. Thus, they require continuous inventories. Quantification of forest structure in these tree covers provides important measures for their management and biodiversity conservation. We present a framework, based on consumer-grade UAV photogrammetry, to separately estimate primary variables of tree height (H) and crown area (A) across diverse coppice and high stands dominated by Quercus brantii Lindl. along the latitudinal gradient of Zagros mountains of western Iran. Then, multivariate linear regressions were parametrized with H and A to estimate the diameter at breast height (DBH) of high trees because of its importance to accelerate the existing practical DBH inventories across Zagros Forests. The estimated variables were finally applied to a model tree aboveground biomass (AGB) for both vegetative growth forms by local allometric equations and Random Forest models. In each step, the estimated variables were evaluated against the field reference values, indicating practically high accuracies reaching root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.68 m and 4.74 cm for H and DBH, as well as relative RMSE < 10% for AGB estimates. The results generally suggest an effective framework for single tree-based attribute estimation over mountainous, semi-arid coppice, and high stands. KW - tree structure KW - biomass KW - DBH KW - Zagros Forests KW - Q. brantii Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248469 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 13 IS - 21 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Janjetovic, Snjezana A1 - Lohneis, Philipp A1 - Nogai, Axel A1 - Balci, Derya A1 - Rasche, Leo A1 - Jähne, Doris A1 - Bokemeyer, Carsten A1 - Schilling, Georgia A1 - Blau, Igor Wolfgang A1 - Schmidt-Hieber, Martin T1 - Clinical and biological characteristics of medullary and extramedullary plasma cell dyscrasias JF - Biology N2 - Background: Extramedullary plasma cell (PC) disorders may occur as extramedullary disease in multiple myeloma (MM-EMD) or as primary extramedullary plasmocytoma (pEMP)/solitary osseous plasmocytoma (SOP). In this study, we aimed to obtain insights into the molecular mechanisms of extramedullary spread of clonal PC. Methods: Clinical and biological characteristics of 87 patients with MM-EMD (n = 49), pEMP/SOP (n = 20) and classical MM (n = 18) were analyzed by using immunohistochemistry (CXCR4, CD31, CD44 and CD81 staining) and cytoplasmic immunoglobulin staining combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (cIg-FISH). Results: High expression of CD44, a cell-surface glycoprotein involved in cell-cell interactions, was significantly enriched in MM-EMD (90%) vs. pEMP/SOP (27%) or classical MM (33%) (p < 0.001). In addition, 1q21 amplification by clonal PC occurred at a similar frequency of MM-EMD (33%), pEMP/SOP (57%) and classical MM (44%). Conversely, del(17p13), t(4;14) and t(14;16) were completely absent in pEMP/SOP. Besides this, 1q21 amplification was identified in 64% of not paraskeletal samples from MM-EMD or pEMP compared to 9% of SOP or paraskeletal MM-EMD/pEMP and 44% of classical MM samples, respectively (p = 0.02). Conclusion: Expression of molecules involved in homing and cytogenetic aberrations differ between MM with or without EMD and pEMP/SOP. KW - plasma cell disorder KW - multiple myeloma KW - extramedullary KW - immunohistochemistry KW - cytogenetics Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242592 SN - 2079-7737 VL - 10 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fekri, Erfan A1 - Latifi, Hooman A1 - Amani, Meisam A1 - Zobeidinezhad, Abdolkarim T1 - A training sample migration method for wetland mapping and monitoring using Sentinel data in Google Earth Engine JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems due to their critical services to both humans and the environment. Therefore, wetland mapping and monitoring are essential for their conservation. In this regard, remote sensing offers efficient solutions due to the availability of cost-efficient archived images over different spatial scales. However, a lack of sufficient consistent training samples at different times is a significant limitation of multi-temporal wetland monitoring. In this study, a new training sample migration method was developed to identify unchanged training samples to be used in wetland classification and change analyses over the International Shadegan Wetland (ISW) areas of southwestern Iran. To this end, we first produced the wetland map of a reference year (2020), for which we had training samples, by combining Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images and the Random Forest (RF) classifier in Google Earth Engine (GEE). The Overall Accuracy (OA) and Kappa coefficient (KC) of this reference map were 97.93% and 0.97, respectively. Then, an automatic change detection method was developed to migrate unchanged training samples from the reference year to the target years of 2018, 2019, and 2021. Within the proposed method, three indices of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and the mean Standard Deviation (SD) of the spectral bands, along with two similarity measures of the Euclidean Distance (ED) and Spectral Angle Distance (SAD), were computed for each pair of reference–target years. The optimum threshold for unchanged samples was also derived using a histogram thresholding approach, which led to selecting the samples that were most likely unchanged based on the highest OA and KC for classifying the test dataset. The proposed migration sample method resulted in high OAs of 95.89%, 96.83%, and 97.06% and KCs of 0.95, 0.96, and 0.96 for the target years of 2018, 2019, and 2021, respectively. Finally, the migrated samples were used to generate the wetland map for the target years. Overall, our proposed method showed high potential for wetland mapping and monitoring when no training samples existed for a target year. KW - wetland KW - Google Earth Engine (GEE) KW - training sample migration KW - sentinel Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248542 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 13 IS - 20 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Uphus, Lars A1 - Lüpke, Marvin A1 - Yuan, Ye A1 - Benjamin, Caryl A1 - Englmeier, Jana A1 - Fricke, Ute A1 - Ganuza, Cristina A1 - Schwindl, Michael A1 - Uhler, Johannes A1 - Menzel, Annette T1 - Climate effects on vertical forest phenology of Fagus sylvatica L., sensed by Sentinel-2, time lapse camera, and visual ground observations JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Contemporary climate change leads to earlier spring phenological events in Europe. In forests, in which overstory strongly regulates the microclimate beneath, it is not clear if further change equally shifts the timing of leaf unfolding for the over- and understory of main deciduous forest species, such as Fagus sylvatica L. (European beech). Furthermore, it is not known yet how this vertical phenological (mis)match — the phenological difference between overstory and understory — affects the remotely sensed satellite signal. To investigate this, we disentangled the start of season (SOS) of overstory F.sylvatica foliage from understory F. sylvatica foliage in forests, within nine quadrants of 5.8 × 5.8 km, stratified over a temperature gradient of 2.5 °C in Bavaria, southeast Germany, in the spring seasons of 2019 and 2020 using time lapse cameras and visual ground observations. We explained SOS dates and vertical phenological (mis)match by canopy temperature and compared these to Sentinel-2 derived SOS in response to canopy temperature. We found that overstory SOS advanced with higher mean April canopy temperature (visual ground observations: −2.86 days per °C; cameras: −2.57 days per °C). However, understory SOS was not significantly affected by canopy temperature. This led to an increase of vertical phenological mismatch with increased canopy temperature (visual ground observations: +3.90 days per °C; cameras: +2.52 days per °C). These results matched Sentinel-2-derived SOS responses, as pixels of higher canopy height advanced more by increased canopy temperature than pixels of lower canopy height. The results may indicate that, with further climate change, spring phenology of F. sylvatica overstory will advance more than F. sylvatica understory, leading to increased vertical phenological mismatch in temperate deciduous forests. This may have major ecological effects, but also methodological consequences for the field of remote sensing, as what the signal senses highly depends on the pixel mean canopy height and the vertical (mis)match. KW - overstory KW - understory KW - Sentinel-2 KW - time lapse cameras KW - vertical mismatch KW - phenological escape KW - climate change KW - European beech Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248419 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 13 IS - 19 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mayr, Stefan A1 - Klein, Igor A1 - Rutzinger, Martin A1 - Kuenzer, Claudia T1 - Determining temporal uncertainty of a global inland surface water time series JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Earth observation time series are well suited to monitor global surface dynamics. However, data products that are aimed at assessing large-area dynamics with a high temporal resolution often face various error sources (e.g., retrieval errors, sampling errors) in their acquisition chain. Addressing uncertainties in a spatiotemporal consistent manner is challenging, as extensive high-quality validation data is typically scarce. Here we propose a new method that utilizes time series inherent information to assess the temporal interpolation uncertainty of time series datasets. For this, we utilized data from the DLR-DFD Global WaterPack (GWP), which provides daily information on global inland surface water. As the time series is primarily based on optical MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images, the requirement of data gap interpolation due to clouds constitutes the main uncertainty source of the product. With a focus on different temporal and spatial characteristics of surface water dynamics, seven auxiliary layers were derived. Each layer provides probability and reliability estimates regarding water observations at pixel-level. This enables the quantification of uncertainty corresponding to the full spatiotemporal range of the product. Furthermore, the ability of temporal layers to approximate unknown pixel states was evaluated for stratified artificial gaps, which were introduced into the original time series of four climatologic diverse test regions. Results show that uncertainty is quantified accurately (>90%), consequently enhancing the product's quality with respect to its use for modeling and the geoscientific community. KW - Earth observation KW - interpolation KW - MODIS KW - optical remote sensing KW - probability KW - reliability KW - validation KW - variability Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245234 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 13 IS - 17 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mayr, Stefan A1 - Klein, Igor A1 - Rutzinger, Martin A1 - Kuenzer, Claudia T1 - Systematic water fraction estimation for a global and daily surface water time-series JF - Remote Sensing N2 - Fresh water is a vital natural resource. Earth observation time-series are well suited to monitor corresponding surface dynamics. The DLR-DFD Global WaterPack (GWP) provides daily information on globally distributed inland surface water based on MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images at 250 m spatial resolution. Operating on this spatiotemporal level comes with the drawback of moderate spatial resolution; only coarse pixel-based surface water quantification is possible. To enhance the quantitative capabilities of this dataset, we systematically access subpixel information on fractional water coverage. For this, a linear mixture model is employed, using classification probability and pure pixel reference information. Classification probability is derived from relative datapoint (pixel) locations in feature space. Pure water and non-water reference pixels are located by combining spatial and temporal information inherent to the time-series. Subsequently, the model is evaluated for different input sets to determine the optimal configuration for global processing and pixel coverage types. The performance of resulting water fraction estimates is evaluated on the pixel level in 32 regions of interest across the globe, by comparison to higher resolution reference data (Sentinel-2, Landsat 8). Results show that water fraction information is able to improve the product's performance regarding mixed water/non-water pixels by an average of 11.6% (RMSE). With a Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.61, the model shows good overall performance. The approach enables the systematic provision of water fraction estimates on a global and daily scale, using only the reflectance and temporal information contained in the input time-series. KW - earth observation KW - landsat KW - MODIS KW - remote sensing KW - probability KW - Sentinel-2 KW - subpixel KW - water Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242586 SN - 2072-4292 VL - 13 IS - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mages, Michelle A1 - Shojaa, Mahdieh A1 - Kohl, Matthias A1 - Stengel, Simon von A1 - Becker, Clemens A1 - Gosch, Markus A1 - Jakob, Franz A1 - Kerschan-Schindl, Katharina A1 - Kladny, Bernd A1 - Klöckner, Nicole A1 - Lange, Uwe A1 - Middeldorf, Stefan A1 - Peters, Stefan A1 - Schoene, Daniel A1 - Sieber, Cornel C. A1 - Tholen, Reina A1 - Thomasius, Friederike E. A1 - Uder, Michael A1 - Kemmler, Wolfgang T1 - Exercise effects on Bone Mineral Density in men JF - Nutrients N2 - In contrast to postmenopausal women, evidence for a favorable effect of exercise on Bone Mineral Density (BMD) is still limited for men. This might be due to the paucity of studies, but also to the great variety of participants and study characteristics that may dilute study results. The aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effect of exercise on BMD changes with rational eligibility criteria. A comprehensive search of six electronic databases up to 15 March 2021 was conducted. Briefly, controlled trials ≥6 months that determined changes in areal BMD in men >18 years old, with no apparent diseases or pharmacological therapy that relevantly affect bone metabolism, were included. BMD changes (standardized mean differences: SMD) of the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) were considered as outcomes. Twelve studies with 16 exercise and 12 control groups were identified. The pooled estimate of random-effect analysis was SMD = 0.38, 95%-CI: 0.14–0.61 and SMD = 0.25, 95%-CI: 0.00–0.49, for LS and FN, respectively. Heterogeneity between the trials was low–moderate. Funnel plots and rank and regression correlation tests indicate evidence for small study publication bias for LS but not FN-BMD. Subgroup analyses that focus on study length, type of exercise and methodologic quality revealed no significant difference between each of the three categories. In summary, we provided further evidence for a low but significant effect of exercise on BMD in men. However, we are currently unable to give even rough exercise recommendations for male cohorts. KW - Bone Mineral Density KW - exercise KW - men KW - overview Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250247 SN - 2072-6643 VL - 13 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Barrea, Luigi A1 - Vetrani, Claudia A1 - Altieri, Barbara A1 - Verde, Ludovica A1 - Savastano, Silvia A1 - Colao, Annamaria A1 - Muscogiuri, Giovanna T1 - The importance of being a ‘lark’ in post-menopausal women with obesity: a ploy to prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus? JF - Nutrients N2 - Chronotype is defined as the behavioral manifestation of circadian rhythms related to the external light–dark cycle. Evening chronotype has been associated with an increased risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases in obesity. Menopause is a lifestage associated with an increased risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases and a change in circadian rhythmicity compared to pre-menopause. However, the prevalence of chronotype categories in menopause and their role in determining menopause-related cardiometabolic risk, mostly in obesity, have not been investigated. Thus, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of chronotype categories in post-menopausal women with obesity and their role in menopause-related cardiometabolic risk. In this cross-sectional study we enrolled 49 pre-menopausal and 74 post-menopausal women with obesity. Anthropometric parameters, lifestyle habits, adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD), sleep quality, chronotype and the presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) were studied. No significance differences were detected in terms of lifestyle and adherence to the MD between pre- and post-menopausal women. Chronotype was classified as morning in 66 (53.6%), evening in 20 (16.3%) and intermediate in 37 (30.1%) women. In addition, pre-menopausal women with obesity showed a significantly higher chance to have an intermediate chronotype (OR = 2.21, 95% CI 1.28–3.83; p = 0.004), whereas post-menopausal women with obesity showed a trend to have a higher morning chronotype (OR = 1.42, 95% CI 0.98–2.06; p = 0.051), although this did not reach statistical significance. No significant differences were detected in terms of prevalence of evening chronotype between the two groups. However, the evening chronotype had a significantly higher risk to have T2DM compared to the morning (OR = 17.29, 95% CI 2.40–124.27; p = 0.005) and intermediate chronotypes (OR = 30.86, 95% CI 2.05–464.32; p = 0.013) in both pre- and post-menopausal women with obesity. In conclusion, the intermediate chronotype was significantly more prevalent in pre-menopausal women with obesity compared to post-menopausal women. Evening chronotype was associated to T2DM in both pre- and post-menopause. These results support the importance of including the assessment of chronotype in the management of women with obesity in post-menopause. KW - chronotype KW - circadian rhythms KW - menopause KW - obesity KW - type 2 diabetes KW - cardiovascular diseases Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-248572 SN - 2072-6643 VL - 13 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reichardt, Elisabeth A1 - Krug, Ralf A1 - Bornstein, Michael M. A1 - Tomasch, Jürgen A1 - Verna, Carlalberta A1 - Krastl, Gabriel T1 - Orthodontic forced eruption of permanent anterior teeth with subgingival fractures: a systematic review JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health N2 - (1) Background: To assess orthodontic forced eruption (OFE) as a pre-restorative procedure for non-restorable permanent teeth with subgingival dental hard tissue defects after dental trauma. (2) Methods: A systematic electronic search of three databases, namely, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE, revealed a total of 2757 eligible publications. Randomized controlled clinical trials (RCT), retro- and prospective clinical studies, or case series (with a minimum of three patients) were reviewed. (3) Results: Thirteen full-text papers were included: one RCT, one prospective clinical trial, two retrospective cohort studies, and nine case series. Within case series, statistical significance between age and cause of fracture (p < 0.03) was determined. The mean extrusion rate of OFE was 1.5 mm a week within a four to six weeks treatment period followed by retention. Three OFE protocols for maxillary single teeth are available: 1. OFE without migration of gingiva and alveolar bone, 2. OFE with gingival migration and slight alveolar bone migration, and 3. OFE with migration of both gingiva and alveolar bone. (4) Conclusions: The current state of the evidence suggests that OFE is a feasible pre-treatment option for non-restorable permanent teeth. OFE can promote the migration of tooth surrounding hard and soft tissues in the esthetic zone. Root resorption does not seem to be a relevant side effect of OFE. KW - orthodontic forced eruption KW - crown-root fracture KW - subgingival defects KW - dental hard tissue defects KW - dental trauma KW - root resorption Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250192 SN - 1660-4601 VL - 18 IS - 23 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Briegel, Wolfgang T1 - Psychiatric comorbidities in 1p36 deletion syndrome and their treatment — a case report JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health N2 - 1p36 deletion syndrome represents the most common terminal deletion observed in humans. Major clinical findings comprise developmental delay/intellectual disability, poor or absent expressive language, congenital central muscular hypotonia, brain anomalies, brachydactyly/camptodactyly, short feet, and characteristic facial features like straight eyebrows, deep-set eyes, and midface hypoplasia. So far, there is very limited knowledge about comorbid psychiatric disorders and their effective treatment in this special population. To fill this gap, this case report presents an initially four-year-old girl with 1p36.33–1p36.32 deletion, moderate intellectual disability, insomnia, oppositional-defiant disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder covering a period of time of about 1.5 years comprising initial psychological/psychiatric assessment, subsequent day clinic/outpatient treatment (amongst others including off-label use of melatonin and methylphenidate as well as parent-child interaction therapy) and follow-up assessment. Follow-up results indicated good efficacy of melatonin and methylphenidate medication without any adverse effects. Multidisciplinarity in diagnosis and treatment are mandatory to meet needs of patients with complex genetic disorders like 1p36 deletion syndrome. Off-label use of melatonin (for insomnia) and methylphenidate (for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) should be considered in young children with 1p36 deletion syndrome if behavioral interventions are not sufficient. KW - 1p36 deletion syndrome KW - oppositional-defiant disorder KW - attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder KW - parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) KW - melatonin KW - methylphenidate KW - off label use KW - case report Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-250189 SN - 1660-4601 VL - 18 IS - 22 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tischer, Christina A1 - Stupp, Carolin A1 - Janson, Patrick A1 - Willeke, Kristina A1 - Hung, Chu-Wei A1 - Flöter, Jessica A1 - Kirchner, Anna A1 - Zink, Katharina A1 - Eder, Lisa A1 - Hackl, Christina A1 - Mühle, Ursula A1 - Weidmann, Manfred A1 - Nennstiel, Uta A1 - Kuhn, Joseph A1 - Weidner, Christian A1 - Liebl, Bernhard A1 - Wildner, Manfred A1 - Keil, Thomas T1 - Evaluation of screening tests in Bavarian healthcare facilities during the second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health N2 - Due to the lack of data on asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2-positive persons in healthcare institutions, they represent an inestimable risk. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the first 1,000,000 reported screening tests of asymptomatic staff, patients, residents, and visitors in hospitals and long-term care (LTC) facilities in the State of Bavaria over a period of seven months. Data were used from the online database BayCoRei (Bavarian Corona Screening Tests), established in July 2020. Descriptive analyses were performed, describing the temporal pattern of persons that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or antigen tests, stratified by facility. Until 15 March 2021, this database had collected 1,038,146 test results of asymptomatic subjects in healthcare facilities (382,240 by RT-PCR, and 655,906 by antigen tests). Of the RT-PCR tests, 2.2% (n = 8380) were positive: 3.0% in LTC facilities, 2.2% in hospitals, and 1.2% in rehabilitation institutions. Of the antigen tests, 0.4% (n = 2327) were positive: 0.5% in LTC facilities, and 0.3% in both hospitals and rehabilitation institutions, respectively. In LTC facilities and hospitals, infection surveillance using RT-PCR tests, or the less expensive but less sensitive, faster antigen tests, could facilitate the long-term management of the healthcare workforce, patients, and residents. KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - asymptomatic screening KW - RT-PCR KW - antigen testing KW - infection surveillance Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242637 SN - 1660-4601 VL - 18 IS - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kimpel, Otilia A1 - Bedrose, Sara A1 - Megerle, Felix A1 - Berruti, Alfredo A1 - Terzolo, Massimo A1 - Kroiss, Matthias A1 - Mai, Knut A1 - Dekkers, Olaf M. A1 - Habra, Mouhammed Amir A1 - Fassnacht, Martin T1 - Adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy in radically resected adrenocortical carcinoma: a cohort study JF - British Journal of Cancer N2 - Background After radical resection, patients with adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) frequently experience recurrence and, therefore, effective adjuvant treatment is urgently needed. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of adjuvant platinum-based therapy. Methods In this retrospective multicentre cohort study, we identified patients treated with adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy after radical resection and compared them with patients without adjuvant chemotherapy. Recurrence-free and overall survival (RFS/OS) were investigated in a matched group analysis and by applying a propensity score matching using the full control cohort (n = 268). For both approaches, we accounted for immortal time bias. Results Of the 31 patients in the platinum cohort (R0 n = 25, RX n = 4, R1 n = 2; ENSAT Stage II n = 11, III n = 16, IV n = 4, median Ki67 30%, mitotane n = 28), 14 experienced recurrence compared to 29 of 31 matched controls (median RFS after the landmark at 3 months 17.3 vs. 7.3 months; adjusted HR 0.19 (95% CI 0.09-0.42; P < 0.001). Using propensity score matching, the HR for RFS was 0.45 (0.29-0.89, P = 0.021) and for OS 0.25 (0.09-0.69; P = 0.007). Conclusions Our study provides the first evidence that adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy may be associated with prolonged recurrence-free and overall survival in patients with ACC and a very high risk for recurrence. KW - adjuvant platinum-based chemotherapy KW - adrenocortical carcinoma KW - radical resection Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-273000 SN - 1532-1827 VL - 125 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haider, Malik Salman A1 - Ahmad, Taufiq A1 - Groll, Jürgen A1 - Scherf-Clavel, Oliver A1 - Kroiss, Matthias A1 - Luxenhofer, Robert T1 - The Challenging Pharmacokinetics of Mitotane: An Old Drug in Need of New Packaging JF - European Journal of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics N2 - Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a malignant tumor originating from the adrenal gland cortex with a heterogeneous but overall dismal prognosis in advanced stages. For more than 50 years, mitotane has remained a cornerstone for the treatment of ACC as adjuvant and palliative therapy. It has a very poor aqueous solubility of 0.1 mg/l and high partition coefficient in octanol/water (log P) value of 6. The commercially available dosage form is 500 mg tablets (Lysodren®). Even at doses up to 6 g/day (12 tablets in divided doses) for several months, > 50% patients do not achieve therapeutic plasma concentration > 14 mg/l due to poor water solubility, large volume of distribution and inter/intra-individual variability in bioavailability. This article aims to give a concise update of the clinical challenges associated with the administration of high-dose mitotane oral therapy which encompass the issues of poor bioavailability, difficult-to-predict pharmacokinetics and associated adverse events. Moreover, we present recent efforts to improve mitotane formulations. Their success has been limited, and we therefore propose an injectable mitotane formulation instead of oral administration, which could bypass many of the main issues associated with high-dose oral mitotane therapy. A parenteral administration of mitotane could not only help to alleviate the adverse effects but also circumvent the variable oral absorption, give better control over therapeutic plasma mitotane concentration and potentially shorten the time to achieve therapeutic drug plasma concentrations considerably. Mitotane as tablet form is currently the standard treatment for adrenocortical carcinoma. It has been used for 5 decades but suffers from highly variable responses in patients, subsequent adverse effects and overall lower response rate. This can be fundamentally linked to the exceedingly poor water solubility of mitotane itself. In terms of enhancing water solubility, a few research groups have attempted to develop better formulations of mitotane to overcome the issues associated with tablet dosage form. However, the success rate was limited, and these formulations did not make it into the clinics. In this article, we have comprehensively reviewed the properties of these formulations and discuss the reasons for their limited utility. Furthermore, we discuss a recently developed mitotane nanoformulation that led us to propose a novel approach to mitotane therapy, where intravenous delivery supplements the standard oral administration. With this article, we combine the current state of knowledge as a single piece of information about the various problems associated with the use of mitotane tablets, and herein we postulate the development of a new injectable mitotane formulation, which can potentially circumvent the major problems associated to mitotane's poor water solubility. KW - Mitotane KW - cancer KW - adrenal gland Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-270476 SN - 2107-0180 VL - 46 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khayenko, Vladimir A1 - Maric, Hans Michael T1 - Innovative affinitätsbasierte Markierungen für die High-End-Mikroskopie JF - BIOspektrum N2 - Advanced tissue imaging techniques and super resolution microscopy are opening new avenues of investigations in life sciences. These mainly instrumentation-driven innovations require the development of appropriate molecular labelling tools. Here, we discuss currently used and upcoming manipulation-free protein labelling strategies and their potential for the precise and interference-free visualization of endogenous proteins. KW - Fluoreszenzsonden KW - High-End-Mikroskopie KW - Proteinmarkierungen Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-287377 VL - 27 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Staab, Torsten E. M. A1 - Lotter, Frank A1 - Mühle, Uwe A1 - Elsayed, Mohamed A1 - Petschke, Danny A1 - Schubert, Thomas A1 - Ibrahim, Alaa M. A1 - Krause-Rehberg, Reinhard A1 - Kieback, Bernd T1 - The decomposition process in high-purity Al-1.7 at.% Cu alloys with trace elements: preservation of quenched-in vacancies by In, Sn and Pb influencing the ​θ′formation JF - Journal of Materials Science N2 - Aluminium-copper alloys of the 2xxx type receive their excellent mechanical properties by the formation of copper-rich precipitates during hardening. Size, distribution and crystal structure of the formed precipitates determine the final strength of those alloys. Adding traces of certain elements, which bind to vacancies, significantly influences the decomposition behaviour, i.e. the diffusion of the copper atoms. For high-purity ternary alloys (Al-1.7 at.% Cu-X), we investigate the interaction of copper and trace element atoms (X=In, Sn, and Pb) with quenched-in vacancies by Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS). By employing Vickers microhardness, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) we obtain a comprehensive picture of the decomposition process: opposite to predicted binding energies to vacancies by ab-initio calculations we find during ageing at room and elevated temperature a more retarded clustering of copper in the presence of In rather than for Sn additions, while Pb, having the highest predicted binding to vacancies, shows nearly no retarding effect compared to pure Al-Cu. If the latter would be due to a limited solubility of lead, it had to be below 2 ppm. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) as imaging method complements our findings. Annealing the quenched Al-1.7 at.% Cu-X-alloys containing 100 ppm In or Sn at 150∘C leads to finely distributed θ′-precipitates on the nanoscale, since due to the trace additions the formation temperature of θ′ is lowered by more than 100∘C. According to TEM small agglomerates of trace elements (In, Sn) may support the early nucleation for the θ′-precipitates. KW - Aluminium-copper KW - alloys KW - trace elements Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269103 SN - 1573-4803 VL - 56 IS - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zetzl, Teresa A1 - Pittig, Andre A1 - Renner, Agnes A1 - van Oorschott, Birgitt A1 - Jentschke, Elisabeth T1 - Yoga therapy to reduce fatigue in cancer: effects of reminder e-mails and long-term efficacy JF - Supportive Care in Cancer N2 - Objective To examine the efficacy of reminder e-mails to continue yoga therapy on practice frequency and fatigue in cancer patients and long-term effects of yoga on fatigue, depression, and quality of life. Methology One hundred two cancer patients who completed an 8-week yoga therapy were randomly allocated to two groups: reminder (N = 51) vs. no-reminder group (N = 51). After completing yoga therapy, the reminder group received weekly e-mails for 24 weeks, which reminded them of practicing yoga, whereas the no-reminder group did not. Primary outcomes were fatigue and practice frequency, and long-term outcomes were fatigue, depression, and quality of life. Data were assessed using questionnaires after yoga therapy (T1) and 6 months after completing yoga therapy (T2). Result A significantly stronger reduction of general (p = 0.038, d = 0.42) and emotional fatigue (p = 0.004, d = 0.59) and a higher increase of practice frequency (p = 0.015, d = 0.52) between T1 and T2 were found for the reminder group compared to the no-reminder group. In the mediation model, practice frequency as a mediator partially explained the changes in emotional fatigue (indirect effect B =  - 0.10). Long-term effects of yoga therapy regarding fatigue, depression, and quality of life were found (F > 7.46, p < 0.001, d > 0.54). Conclusion Weekly reminder e-mails after yoga therapy can positively affect general and emotional fatigue and help cancer patients with fatigue establish a regular yoga practice at home. However, higher practice frequency did not lead to higher physical or cognitive fatigue improvement, suggesting other factors that mediate efficacy on physical or cognitive fatigue, such as mindfulness or side effects of therapy. KW - reminder e-mails KW - mind–body intervention KW - complementary alternative medicine KW - long-term effects KW - Yoga KW - fatigue Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-268415 SN - 1433-7339 VL - 29 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Maas, Moritz A1 - Mischinger, Johannes A1 - Compérat, Eva A1 - Scharpf, Marcus A1 - Fend, Falko A1 - Todenhöfer, Timlan A1 - Stenzl, Arnulf A1 - Gakis, Georgios A1 - Rausch, Steffen T1 - Utility of pT3 substaging in lymph node-negative urothelial carcinoma of the bladder: do pathologic parameters add to prognostic sub-stratification? JF - World Journal of Urology N2 - Purpose The value of bladder cancer (BC) substaging into macroscopic (pT3b) and microscopic (pT3a) perivesical fat extension in lymph node (Ln)-negative patients is controversially discussed and limited evidence for prognostic relevance of additional histopathological factors in pT3 BC exists. We evaluated the prognostic value of pT3 substaging and established pathological and clinical parameters with focus on tumor invasive front (TIF) and tumor size. Methods Specimens of 52 patients treated with radical cystectomy (RC) for pT3 a/b muscle-invasive BC were reviewed and re-evaluated by a pathologist specialized in uropathology. Clinical variables and standard histopathologic characteristics were assessed including TIF and tumor size. Their value as prognosticators for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) was evaluated. Results Mean age of patients was 67.55 years. Tumors were staged pT3a in 28 patients (53.8%) and pT3b in 24 (46.8%). Median OS was 34.51 months. Median tumor size was 3.2 cm, median TIF was 11.0 mm. Differences in OS between pT3a and pT3b were not significant (p = 0.45). Carcinoma in situ (CIS) and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) were significantly associated with pT3b tumors. Univariate analysis could not identify pathological prognosticators like TIF or tumor size for OS and RFS (p for all > 0.05). Conclusion No significant differences in OS or RFS were observed comparing Ln-negative pT3 BC following radical cystectomy. Additional pathologic variables like TIF could not be identified as prognosticator. Relevance of pT3 BC substaging needs reevaluation in larger prospective cohorts. KW - tumor invasion front KW - muscle-invasive bladder cancer KW - pathological staging KW - patient outcome KW - perivesical extension Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-266535 SN - 1433-8726 VL - 39 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hänscheid, Heribert A1 - Hartrampf, Philipp E. A1 - Schirbel, Andreas A1 - Buck, Andreas K. A1 - Lapa, Constantin T1 - Intraindividual comparison of [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE and [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-TOC JF - European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging N2 - Purpose The radiolabelled somatostatin analogue [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE binds to albumin via Evans blue, thereby increasing the residence time in the blood and potentially allowing more therapeutic agent to be absorbed into the target tissue during peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. It was tested in selected patients whether the substance is superior to [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-TOC. Methods Activity kinetics in organs and tumours after [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE and [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-TOC were compared intraindividually in five patients with progressive somatostatin receptor-positive disease scheduled for radionuclide therapy. Resuluts In comparison to [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-TOC, tumour doses per administered activity were higher for [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE in 4 of 5 patients (median ratio: 1.7; range: 0.9 to 3.9), kidney doses (median ratio: 3.2; range: 1.6 to 9.8) as well as spleen doses (median ratio: 4.7; range 1.2 to 6.2) in all patients, and liver doses in 3 of 4 evaluable patients (median ratio: 4.0; range: 0.7 to 4.9). The tumour to critical organs absorbed dose ratios were higher after [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-TOC in 4 of 5 patients. Conclusions Prior to a treatment with [\(^{177}\)Lu]Lu-DOTA-EB-TATE, it should be assessed individually whether the compound is superior to established substances. KW - intraindividual comparison KW - DOTA-EB-TATE KW - somatostatin receptor KW - evans blue KW - biokinetics Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265470 SN - 1619-7089 VL - 48 IS - 8 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schumann, S. A1 - Eberlein, U. A1 - Lapa, C. A1 - Müller, J. A1 - Serfling, S. A1 - Lassmann, M. A1 - Scherthan, H. T1 - α-Particle-induced DNA damage tracks in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl\(_{2}\)-treated prostate cancer patients JF - European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging N2 - Purpose One therapy option for prostate cancer patients with bone metastases is the use of [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl\(_{2}\). The α-emitter \(^{223}\)Ra creates DNA damage tracks along α-particle trajectories (α-tracks) in exposed cells that can be revealed by immunofluorescent staining of γ-H2AX+53BP1 DNA double-strand break markers. We investigated the time- and absorbed dose-dependency of the number of α-tracks in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients undergoing their first therapy with [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl\(_{2}\). Methods Multiple blood samples from nine prostate cancer patients were collected before and after administration of [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl\(_{2}\), up to 4 weeks after treatment. γ-H2AX- and 53BP1-positive α-tracks were microscopically quantified in isolated and immuno-stained PBMCs. Results The absorbed doses to the blood were less than 6 mGy up to 4 h after administration and maximally 16 mGy in total. Up to 4 h after administration, the α-track frequency was significantly increased relative to baseline and correlated with the absorbed dose to the blood in the dose range < 3 mGy. In most of the late samples (24 h - 4 weeks after administration), the α-track frequency remained elevated. Conclusion The γ-H2AX+53BP1 assay is a potent method for detection of α-particle-induced DNA damages during treatment with or after accidental incorporation of radionuclides even at low absorbed doses. It may serve as a biomarker discriminating α- from β-emitters based on damage geometry. KW - γ-H2AX KW - DNA damage KW - nuclear medicine KW - dosimetry KW - α-Emitter KW - biokinetics KW - prostate cancer KW - [\(^{223}\)Ra]RaCl\(_{2}\) KW - 53BP1 Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265462 SN - 1619-7089 VL - 48 IS - 9 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seifert, Annika A1 - Gruber, Julia A1 - Gbureck, Uwe A1 - Groll, Jürgen T1 - Morphological control of freeze‐structured scaffolds by selective temperature and material control in the ice‐templating process JF - Advanced Engineering Materials N2 - Herein, it is aimed to highlight the importance of the process parameter choice during directional solidification of polymer solutions, as they have a significant influence on the pore structure and orientation. Biopolymer solutions (alginate and chitosan) are directionally frozen, while systematically varying parameters such as the external temperature gradient, the temperature of the overall system, and the temperatures of the cooling surfaces. In addition, the effect of material properties such as molecular weight, solution concentration, or viscosity on the sample morphology is investigated. By selecting appropriate temperature gradients and cooling surface temperatures, aligned pores ranging in size between (50 ± 22) μm and (144 ± 56) μm are observed in the alginate samples, whereas the pore orientation is influenced by altering the external temperature gradient. As this gradient increases, the pores are increasingly oriented perpendicular to the sample surface. This is also observed in the chitosan samples. However, if the overall system is too cold, that is, using temperatures of the lower cooling surface down to −60 °C combined with low temperatures of the upper cooling surface, control over pore orientation is lost. This is also found when viscosity of chitosan solutions is above ≈5 Pas near the freezing point. KW - unidirectional freezing KW - anisotropic porous structures KW - morphology controls KW - systematic investigations Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-256330 VL - 24 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reis, Stefanie A1 - Popp, Maria A1 - Schmid, Benedikt A1 - Stegemann, Miriam A1 - Metzendorf, Maria-Inti A1 - Kranke, Peter A1 - Meybohm, Patrick A1 - Weibel, Stephanie T1 - Safety and efficacy of intermediate- and therapeutic-dose anticoagulation for hospitalised patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Background: COVID-19 patients are at high thrombotic risk. The safety and efficacy of different anticoagulation regimens in COVID-19 patients remain unclear. Methods: We searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing intermediate- or therapeutic-dose anticoagulation to standard thromboprophylaxis in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 irrespective of disease severity. To assess efficacy and safety, we meta-analysed data for all-cause mortality, clinical status, thrombotic event or death, and major bleedings. Results: Eight RCTs, including 5580 patients, were identified, with two comparing intermediate- and six therapeutic-dose anticoagulation to standard thromboprophylaxis. Intermediate-dose anticoagulation may have little or no effect on any thrombotic event or death (RR 1.03, 95% CI 0.86–1.24), but may increase major bleedings (RR 1.48, 95% CI 0.53–4.15) in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients. Therapeutic-dose anticoagulation may decrease any thrombotic event or death in patients with moderate COVID-19 (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.38–1.07), but may have little or no effect in patients with severe disease (RR 0.98, 95% CI 0.86–1.12). The risk of major bleedings may increase independent of disease severity (RR 1.78, 95% CI 1.15–2.74). Conclusions: Certainty of evidence is still low. Moderately affected COVID-19 patients may benefit from therapeutic-dose anticoagulation, but the risk for bleeding is increased. KW - anticoagulant therapy KW - coronavirus disease 2019 KW - thrombosis KW - bleeding KW - death Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252285 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 11 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Streck, Laura Elisa A1 - Gaal, Chiara A1 - Forster, Johannes A1 - Konrads, Christian A1 - Hertzberg-Boelch, Sebastian Philipp von A1 - Rueckl, Kilian T1 - Defining a synovial fluid white blood cell count threshold to predict periprosthetic infection after shoulder arthroplasty JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Background: The diagnosis of periprosthetic shoulder infection (PSI) requires a thorough diagnostic workup. Synovial fluid aspiration has been proven to be a reliable tool in the diagnosis of joint infections of the lower extremity, but shoulder specific data is limited. This study defines a threshold for synovial fluid white blood cell count (WBC) and assesses the reliability of microbiological cultures. Methods: Retrospective study of preoperative and intraoperative fluid aspiration of 31 patients who underwent a revision of a shoulder arthroplasty (15 with PSI defined by IDSA criteria, 16 without infection). The threshold for WBC was calculated by ROC/AUC analysis. Results: WBC was significantly higher in patients with PSI than in other patients. A threshold of 2800 leucocytes/mm\(^3\) showed a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 88% (AUROC 0.92). Microbiological cultures showed a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 100%. Conclusions: A threshold of 2800 leucocytes/mm\(^3\) in synovial fluid can be recommended to predict PSI. Microbiological culture has an excellent specificity and allows for targeted antibiotic therapy. Joint aspiration presents an important pillar to diagnose PSI. KW - upper extremity KW - joint infection KW - joint aspiration KW - leucocyte count KW - cutibacteria KW - ICM KW - MSIS KW - IDSA KW - WBC Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252275 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 11 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schlee, Winfried A1 - Simoes, Jorge A1 - Pryss, Rüdiger T1 - Auricular acupressure combined with self-help intervention for treating chronic tinnitus: a longitudinal observational study JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Tinnitus is a phantom sound perception in the ears or head and can arise from many different medical disorders. Currently, there is no standard treatment for tinnitus that reliably reduces tinnitus. Individual patients reported that acupressure at various points around the ear can help to reduce tinnitus, which was investigated here. With this longitudinal observational study, we report a systematic evaluation of auricular acupressure on 39 tinnitus sufferers, combined with a self-help smartphone app. The participants were asked to report on tinnitus, stress, mood, neck, and jaw muscle tensions twice a day using an ecological momentary assessment study design for six weeks. On average, 123.6 questionnaires per person were provided and used for statistical analysis. The treatment responses of the participants were heterogeneous. On average, we observed significant negative trends for tinnitus loudness (Cohen's d effect size: −0.861), tinnitus distress (d = −0.478), stress (d = −0.675), and tensions in the neck muscles (d = −0.356). Comparison with a matched control group revealed significant improvements for tinnitus loudness (p = 0.027) and self-reported stress level (p = 0.003). The positive results of the observational study motivate further research including a randomized clinical trial and long-term assessment of the clinical improvement. KW - tinnitus KW - acupressure KW - self-help KW - ecological momentary assessment KW - stress Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-246209 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 10 IS - 18 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meintrup, David A1 - Borgmann, Stefan A1 - Seidl, Karlheinz A1 - Stecher, Melanie A1 - Jakob, Carolin E. M. A1 - Pilgram, Lisa A1 - Spinner, Christoph D. A1 - Rieg, Siegbert A1 - Isberner, Nora A1 - Hower, Martin A1 - Vehreschild, Maria A1 - Göpel, Siri A1 - Hanses, Frank A1 - Nowak-Machen, Martina T1 - Specific risk factors for fatal outcome in critically ill COVID-19 patients: results from a European multicenter study JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - (1) Background: The aim of our study was to identify specific risk factors for fatal outcome in critically ill COVID-19 patients. (2) Methods: Our data set consisted of 840 patients enclosed in the LEOSS registry. Using lasso regression for variable selection, a multifactorial logistic regression model was fitted to the response variable survival. Specific risk factors and their odds ratios were derived. A nomogram was developed as a graphical representation of the model. (3) Results: 14 variables were identified as independent factors contributing to the risk of death for critically ill COVID-19 patients: age (OR 1.08, CI 1.06–1.10), cardiovascular disease (OR 1.64, CI 1.06–2.55), pulmonary disease (OR 1.87, CI 1.16–3.03), baseline Statin treatment (0.54, CI 0.33–0.87), oxygen saturation (unit = 1%, OR 0.94, CI 0.92–0.96), leukocytes (unit 1000/μL, OR 1.04, CI 1.01–1.07), lymphocytes (unit 100/μL, OR 0.96, CI 0.94–0.99), platelets (unit 100,000/μL, OR 0.70, CI 0.62–0.80), procalcitonin (unit ng/mL, OR 1.11, CI 1.05–1.18), kidney failure (OR 1.68, CI 1.05–2.70), congestive heart failure (OR 2.62, CI 1.11–6.21), severe liver failure (OR 4.93, CI 1.94–12.52), and a quick SOFA score of 3 (OR 1.78, CI 1.14–2.78). The nomogram graphically displays the importance of these 14 factors for mortality. (4) Conclusions: There are risk factors that are specific to the subpopulation of critically ill COVID-19 patients. KW - COVID-19 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - risk factors KW - critically ill patients KW - comorbidities KW - lasso regression KW - nomogram Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-245191 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 10 IS - 17 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwaab, Bernhard A1 - Bjarnason-Wehrens, Birna A1 - Meng, Karin A1 - Albus, Christian A1 - Salzwedel, Annett A1 - Schmid, Jean-Paul A1 - Benzer, Werner A1 - Metz, Matthes A1 - Jensen, Katrin A1 - Rauch, Bernhard A1 - Bönner, Gerd A1 - Brzoska, Patrick A1 - Buhr-Schinner, Heike A1 - Charrier, Albrecht A1 - Cordes, Carsten A1 - Dörr, Gesine A1 - Eichler, Sarah A1 - Exner, Anne-Kathrin A1 - Fromm, Bernd A1 - Gielen, Stephan A1 - Glatz, Johannes A1 - Gohlke, Helmut A1 - Grilli, Maurizio A1 - Gysan, Detlef A1 - Härtel, Ursula A1 - Hahmann, Harry A1 - Herrmann-Lingen, Christoph A1 - Karger, Gabriele A1 - Karoff, Marthin A1 - Kiwus, Ulrich A1 - Knoglinger, Ernst A1 - Krusch, Christian-Wolfgang A1 - Langheim, Eike A1 - Mann, Johannes A1 - Max, Regina A1 - Metzendorf, Maria-Inti A1 - Nebel, Roland A1 - Niebauer, Josef A1 - Predel, Hans-Georg A1 - Preßler, Axel A1 - Razum, Oliver A1 - Reiss, Nils A1 - Saure, Daniel A1 - von Schacky, Clemens A1 - Schütt, Morten A1 - Schultz, Konrad A1 - Skoda, Eva-Maria A1 - Steube, Diethard A1 - Streibelt, Marco A1 - Stüttgen, Martin A1 - Stüttgen, Michaela A1 - Teufel, Martin A1 - Tschanz, Hansueli A1 - Völler, Heinz A1 - Vogel, Heiner A1 - Westphal, Ronja T1 - Cardiac rehabilitation in German speaking countries of Europe — evidence-based guidelines from Germany, Austria and Switzerland LLKardReha-DACH — part 2 JF - Journal of Clinical Medicine N2 - Background: Scientific guidelines have been developed to update and harmonize exercise based cardiac rehabilitation (ebCR) in German speaking countries. Key recommendations for ebCR indications have recently been published in part 1 of this journal. The present part 2 updates the evidence with respect to contents and delivery of ebCR in clinical practice, focusing on exercise training (ET), psychological interventions (PI), patient education (PE). In addition, special patients' groups and new developments, such as telemedical (Tele) or home-based ebCR, are discussed as well. Methods: Generation of evidence and search of literature have been described in part 1. Results: Well documented evidence confirms the prognostic significance of ET in patients with coronary artery disease. Positive clinical effects of ET are described in patients with congestive heart failure, heart valve surgery or intervention, adults with congenital heart disease, and peripheral arterial disease. Specific recommendations for risk stratification and adequate exercise prescription for continuous-, interval-, and strength training are given in detail. PI when added to ebCR did not show significant positive effects in general. There was a positive trend towards reduction in depressive symptoms for “distress management” and “lifestyle changes”. PE is able to increase patients’ knowledge and motivation, as well as behavior changes, regarding physical activity, dietary habits, and smoking cessation. The evidence for distinct ebCR programs in special patients’ groups is less clear. Studies on Tele-CR predominantly included low-risk patients. Hence, it is questionable, whether clinical results derived from studies in conventional ebCR may be transferred to Tele-CR. Conclusions: ET is the cornerstone of ebCR. Additional PI should be included, adjusted to the needs of the individual patient. PE is able to promote patients self-management, empowerment, and motivation. Diversity-sensitive structures should be established to interact with the needs of special patient groups and gender issues. Tele-CR should be further investigated as a valuable tool to implement ebCR more widely and effectively. KW - cardiac rehabilitation KW - scientific guidelines KW - secondary prevention KW - physical activity KW - exercise training KW - psychological interventions KW - education KW - gender KW - frailty KW - migration KW - old patients KW - young patients KW - tele-medicine KW - home-based-rehabilitation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242645 SN - 2077-0383 VL - 10 IS - 14 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mamontova, Victoria A1 - Trifault, Barbara A1 - Boten, Lea A1 - Burger, Kaspar T1 - Commuting to work: Nucleolar long non-coding RNA control ribosome biogenesis from near and far JF - Non-Coding RNA N2 - Gene expression is an essential process for cellular growth, proliferation, and differentiation. The transcription of protein-coding genes and non-coding loci depends on RNA polymerases. Interestingly, numerous loci encode long non-coding (lnc)RNA transcripts that are transcribed by RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) and fine-tune the RNA metabolism. The nucleolus is a prime example of how different lncRNA species concomitantly regulate gene expression by facilitating the production and processing of ribosomal (r)RNA for ribosome biogenesis. Here, we summarise the current findings on how RNAPII influences nucleolar structure and function. We describe how RNAPII-dependent lncRNA can both promote nucleolar integrity and inhibit ribosomal (r)RNA synthesis by modulating the availability of rRNA synthesis factors in trans. Surprisingly, some lncRNA transcripts can directly originate from nucleolar loci and function in cis. The nucleolar intergenic spacer (IGS), for example, encodes nucleolar transcripts that counteract spurious rRNA synthesis in unperturbed cells. In response to DNA damage, RNAPII-dependent lncRNA originates directly at broken ribosomal (r)DNA loci and is processed into small ncRNA, possibly to modulate DNA repair. Thus, lncRNA-mediated regulation of nucleolar biology occurs by several modes of action and is more direct than anticipated, pointing to an intimate crosstalk of RNA metabolic events. KW - long non-coding RNA KW - RNA polymerase II KW - nucleolus KW - ribosome biogenesis Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242756 SN - 2311-553X VL - 7 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aido, Ahmed A1 - Zaitseva, Olena A1 - Wajant, Harald A1 - Buzgo, Matej A1 - Simaite, Aiva T1 - Anti-Fn14 antibody-conjugated nanoparticles display membrane TWEAK-like agonism JF - Pharmaceutics N2 - Conventional bivalent IgG antibodies targeting a subgroup of receptors of the TNF superfamily (TNFSF) including fibroblast growth factor-inducible 14 (anti-Fn14) typically display no or only very limited agonistic activity on their own and can only trigger receptor signaling by crosslinking or when bound to Fcγ receptors (FcγR). Both result in proximity of multiple antibody-bound TNFRSF receptor (TNFR) molecules, which enables engagement of TNFR-associated signaling pathways. Here, we have linked anti-Fn14 antibodies to gold nanoparticles to mimic the “activating” effect of plasma membrane-presented FcγR-anchored anti-Fn14 antibodies. We functionalized gold nanoparticles with poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) linkers and then coupled antibodies to the PEG surface of the nanoparticles. We found that Fn14 binding of the anti-Fn14 antibodies PDL192 and 5B6 is preserved upon attachment to the nanoparticles. More importantly, the gold nanoparticle-presented anti-Fn14 antibody molecules displayed strong agonistic activity. Our results suggest that conjugation of monoclonal anti-TNFR antibodies to gold nanoparticles can be exploited to uncover their latent agonism, e.g., for immunotherapeutic applications. KW - Fn14 KW - nanoparticles KW - surface modification KW - drug-delivery KW - anti-TNFRSF receptor (TNFR) antibodies Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242710 SN - 1999-4923 VL - 13 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Apelblat, Alexander A1 - Consiglio, Armando A1 - Mainardi, Francesco T1 - The Bateman functions revisited after 90 years — a survey of old and new results JF - Mathematics N2 - The Bateman functions and the allied Havelock functions were introduced as solutions of some problems in hydrodynamics about ninety years ago, but after a period of one or two decades they were practically neglected. In handbooks, the Bateman function is only mentioned as a particular case of the confluent hypergeometric function. In order to revive our knowledge on these functions, their basic properties (recurrence functional and differential relations, series, integrals and the Laplace transforms) are presented. Some new results are also included. Special attention is directed to the Bateman and Havelock functions with integer orders, to generalizations of these functions and to the Bateman-integral function known in the literature. KW - bateman functions KW - havelock functions KW - integral-bateman functions KW - confluent hypergeometric functions Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-240970 SN - 2227-7390 VL - 9 IS - 11 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grassinger, Julia Maria A1 - Floren, Andreas A1 - Müller, Tobias A1 - Cerezo-Echevarria, Argiñe A1 - Beitzinger, Christoph A1 - Conrad, David A1 - Törner, Katrin A1 - Staudacher, Marlies A1 - Aupperle-Lellbach, Heike T1 - Digital lesions in dogs: a statistical breed analysis of 2912 cases JF - Veterinary Sciences N2 - Breed predispositions to canine digital neoplasms are well known. However, there is currently no statistical analysis identifying the least affected breeds. To this end, 2912 canine amputated digits submitted from 2014–2019 to the Laboklin GmbH & Co. KG for routine diagnostics were statistically analyzed. The study population consisted of 155 different breeds (most common: 634 Mongrels, 411 Schnauzers, 197 Labrador Retrievers, 93 Golden Retrievers). Non-neoplastic processes were present in 1246 (43%), tumor-like lesions in 138 (5%), and neoplasms in 1528 cases (52%). Benign tumors (n = 335) were characterized by 217 subungual keratoacanthomas, 36 histiocytomas, 35 plasmacytomas, 16 papillomas, 12 melanocytomas, 9 sebaceous gland tumors, 6 lipomas, and 4 bone tumors. Malignant neoplasms (n = 1193) included 758 squamous cell carcinomas (SCC), 196 malignant melanomas (MM), 76 soft tissue sarcomas, 52 mast cell tumors, 37 non-specified sarcomas, 29 anaplastic neoplasms, 24 carcinomas, 20 bone tumors, and 1 histiocytic sarcoma. Predisposed breeds for SCC included the Schnauzer (log OR = 2.61), Briard (log OR = 1.78), Rottweiler (log OR = 1.54), Poodle (log OR = 1.40), and Dachshund (log OR = 1.30). Jack Russell Terriers (log OR = −2.95) were significantly less affected by SCC than Mongrels. Acral MM were significantly more frequent in Rottweilers (log OR = 1.88) and Labrador Retrievers (log OR = 1.09). In contrast, Dachshunds (log OR = −2.17), Jack Russell Terriers (log OR = −1.88), and Rhodesian Ridgebacks (log OR = −1.88) were rarely affected. This contrasted with the well-known predisposition of Dachshunds and Rhodesian Ridgebacks to oral and cutaneous melanocytic neoplasms. Further studies are needed to explain the underlying reasons for breed predisposition or “resistance” to the development of specific acral tumors and/or other sites. KW - canine KW - subungual KW - toe KW - tumor KW - inflammation KW - breed predisposition Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242690 SN - 2306-7381 VL - 8 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Holzmann-Littig, Christopher A1 - Braunisch, Matthias Christoph A1 - Kranke, Peter A1 - Popp, Maria A1 - Seeber, Christian A1 - Fichtner, Falk A1 - Littig, Bianca A1 - Carbajo-Lozoya, Javier A1 - Allwang, Christine A1 - Frank, Tamara A1 - Meerpohl, Joerg Johannes A1 - Haller, Bernhard A1 - Schmaderer, Christoph T1 - COVID-19 vaccination acceptance and hesitancy among healthcare workers in germany JF - Vaccines N2 - Vaccination hesitancy is a threat to herd immunity. Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a key role in promoting Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination in the general population. We therefore aimed to provide data on COVID-19 vaccination acceptance/hesitancy among German HCWs. For this exploratory, cross-sectional study, an online survey was conducted in February 2021. The survey included 54 items on demographics; previous vaccination behavior; trust in vaccines, physicians, the pharmaceutical industry and health politics; fear of adverse effects; assumptions regarding the consequences of COVID-19; knowledge about vaccines; and information seeking behavior. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated and chi-square tests were performed. Four thousand five hundred surveys were analyzed. The overall vaccination acceptance was 91.7%. The age group ≤20 years showed the lowest vaccination acceptance. Factors associated with vaccination hesitancy were lack of trust in authorities and pharmaceutical companies. Attitudes among acquaintances were associated with vaccination hesitancy too. Participants with vaccination hesitancy more often obtained information about COVID-19 vaccines via messenger services or online video platforms and underperformed in the knowledge test. We found high acceptance amongst German HCWs. Several factors associated with vaccination hesitancy were identified which could be targeted in HCW vaccination campaigns. KW - COVID-19 KW - vaccine KW - vaccination KW - vaccination hesitancy KW - vaccine refusal KW - vaccination campaign Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242627 SN - 2076-393X VL - 9 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fortmann, Ingmar A1 - Dammann, Marie-Theres A1 - Humberg, Alexander A1 - Siller, Bastian A1 - Stichtenoth, Guido A1 - Engels, Geraldine A1 - Marißen, Janina A1 - Faust, Kirstin A1 - Hanke, Kathrin A1 - Goedicke-Fritz, Sybelle A1 - Derouet, Christoph A1 - Meyer, Sascha A1 - Stutz, Regine A1 - Kaiser, Elisabeth A1 - Herting, Egbert A1 - Göpel, Wolfgang A1 - Härtel, Christoph A1 - Zemlin, Michael T1 - Five year follow up of extremely low gestational age infants after timely or delayed administration of routine vaccinations JF - Vaccines N2 - This study is aimed at detecting the rate of untimely immunization in a large cohort of extremely low gestational age neonates (ELGANs) of the German Neonatal Network (GNN) and at addressing risk factors for delayed vaccination and associated long-term consequences. We performed an observational study of the GNN between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2019. The immunization status for the hexavalent and pneumococcal immunization was evaluated in n = 8401 preterm infants <29 weeks of gestation. Univariate analysis and logistic/linear regression models were used to identify risk factors for vaccination delay and outcomes at a 5-year follow-up. In our cohort n = 824 (9.8%) ELGANs did not receive a timely first immunization with the hexavalent and pneumococcal vaccine. Risk factors for delayed vaccination were SGA status (18.1% vs. 13.5%; OR 1.3; 95% CI: 1.1–1.7), impaired growth and surrogates for complicated clinical courses (i.e., need for inotropes, necrotizing enterocolitis). At 5 years of age, timely immunized children had a lower risk of bronchitis (episodes within last year: 27.3% vs. 37.7%; OR 0.60, 95% CI: 0.42–0.86) but spirometry measures were unaffected. In conclusion, a significant proportion of ELGANs are untimely immunized, specifically those with increased vulnerability, even though they might particularly benefit from the immune-promoting effects of a timely vaccination. KW - immunization KW - prematurity KW - trained immunity KW - long-term outcome Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239592 SN - 2076-393X VL - 9 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Homburg, Annika A1 - Weiß, Christian H. A1 - Frahm, Gabriel A1 - Alwan, Layth C. A1 - Göb, Rainer T1 - Analysis and forecasting of risk in count processes JF - Journal of Risk and Financial Management N2 - Risk measures are commonly used to prepare for a prospective occurrence of an adverse event. If we are concerned with discrete risk phenomena such as counts of natural disasters, counts of infections by a serious disease, or counts of certain economic events, then the required risk forecasts are to be computed for an underlying count process. In practice, however, the discrete nature of count data is sometimes ignored and risk forecasts are calculated based on Gaussian time series models. But even if methods from count time series analysis are used in an adequate manner, the performance of risk forecasting is affected by estimation uncertainty as well as certain discreteness phenomena. To get a thorough overview of the aforementioned issues in risk forecasting of count processes, a comprehensive simulation study was done considering a broad variety of risk measures and count time series models. It becomes clear that Gaussian approximate risk forecasts substantially distort risk assessment and, thus, should be avoided. In order to account for the apparent estimation uncertainty in risk forecasting, we use bootstrap approaches for count time series. The relevance and the application of the proposed approaches are illustrated by real data examples about counts of storm surges and counts of financial transactions. KW - count time series KW - expected shortfall KW - expectiles KW - Gaussian approximation KW - mid quantiles KW - tail conditional expectation KW - value at risk Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236692 SN - 1911-8074 VL - 14 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Goettsch, Winfried A1 - Beerenwinkel, Niko A1 - Deng, Li A1 - Dölken, Lars A1 - Dutilh, Bas E. A1 - Erhard, Florian A1 - Kaderali, Lars A1 - Kleist, Max von A1 - Marquet, Roland A1 - Matthijnssens, Jelle A1 - McCallin, Shawna A1 - McMahon, Dino A1 - Rattei, Thomas A1 - Van Rij, Ronald P. A1 - Robertson, David L. A1 - Schwemmle, Martin A1 - Stern-Ginossar, Noam A1 - Marz, Manja T1 - ITN—VIROINF: Understanding (harmful) virus-host interactions by linking virology and bioinformatics JF - Viruses N2 - Many recent studies highlight the fundamental importance of viruses. Besides their important role as human and animal pathogens, their beneficial, commensal or harmful functions are poorly understood. By developing and applying tailored bioinformatical tools in important virological models, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Initiative International Training Network VIROINF will provide a better understanding of viruses and the interaction with their hosts. This will open the door to validate methods of improving viral growth, morphogenesis and development, as well as to control strategies against unwanted microorganisms. The key feature of VIROINF is its interdisciplinary nature, which brings together virologists and bioinformaticians to achieve common goals. KW - bioinformatic KW - virus KW - virology KW - virus host interaction Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236687 SN - 1999-4915 VL - 13 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Moratin, Helena A1 - Ickrath, Pascal A1 - Scherzad, Agmal A1 - Meyer, Till Jasper A1 - Naczenski, Sebastian A1 - Hagen, Rudolf A1 - Hackenberg, Stephan T1 - Investigation of the immune modulatory potential of zinc oxide nanoparticles in human lymphocytes JF - Nanomaterials N2 - Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NP) are commonly used for a variety of applications in everyday life. In addition, due to its versatility, nanotechnology supports promising approaches in the medical sector. NP can act as drug-carriers in the context of targeted chemo- or immunotherapy, and might also exhibit autonomous immune-modulatory characteristics. Knowledge of potential immunosuppressive or stimulating effects of NP is indispensable for the safety of consumers as well as patients. In this study, primary human peripheral blood lymphocytes of 9 donors were treated with different sub-cytotoxic concentrations of ZnO-NP for the duration of 1, 2, or 3 days. Flow cytometry was performed to investigate changes in the activation profile and the proportion of T cell subpopulations. ZnO-NP applied in this study did not induce any significant alterations in the examined markers, indicating their lack of impairment in terms of immune modulation. However, physicochemical characteristics exert a major influence on NP-associated bioactivity. To allow a precise simulation of the complex molecular processes of immune modulation, a physiological model including the different components of an immune response is needed. KW - zinc oxide nanoparticles KW - immunomodulation KW - T cell subpopulations Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-234016 SN - 2079-4991 VL - 11 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Basile, Vittoria A1 - Puglisi, Soraya A1 - Altieri, Barbara A1 - Canu, Letizia A1 - Libè, Rossella A1 - Ceccato, Filippo A1 - Beuschlein, Felix A1 - Quinkler, Marcus A1 - Calabrese, Anna A1 - Perotti, Paola A1 - Berchialla, Paola A1 - Dischinger, Ulrich A1 - Megerle, Felix A1 - Baudin, Eric A1 - Bourdeau, Isabelle A1 - Lacroix, André A1 - Loli, Paola A1 - Berruti, Alfredo A1 - Kastelan, Darko A1 - Haak, Harm R. A1 - Fassnacht, Martin A1 - Terzolo, Massimo T1 - What is the optimal duration of adjuvant mitotane therapy in adrenocortical carcinoma? An unanswered question JF - Journal of Personalized Medicine N2 - A relevant issue on the treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) concerns the optimal duration of adjuvant mitotane treatment. We tried to address this question, assessing whether a correlation exists between the duration of adjuvant mitotane treatment and recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with ACC. We conducted a multicenter retrospective analysis on 154 ACC patients treated for ≥12 months with adjuvant mitotane after radical surgery and who were free of disease at the mitotane stop. During a median follow-up of 38 months, 19 patients (12.3%) experienced recurrence. We calculated the RFS after mitotane (RFSAM), from the landmark time-point of mitotane discontinuation, to overcome immortal time bias. We found a wide variability in the duration of adjuvant mitotane treatment among different centers and also among patients cared for at the same center, reflecting heterogeneous practice. We did not find any survival advantage in patients treated for longer than 24 months. Moreover, the relationship between treatment duration and the frequency of ACC recurrence was not linear after stratifying our patients in tertiles of length of adjuvant treatment. In conclusion, the present findings do not support the concept that extending adjuvant mitotane treatment over two years is beneficial for ACC patients with low to moderate risk of recurrence. KW - mitotane KW - adjuvant treatment KW - adrenocortical cancer KW - recurrence KW - recurrence free survival KW - timing Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236507 SN - 2075-4426 VL - 11 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nedopil, Alexander J. A1 - Delman, Connor A1 - Howell, Stephen M. A1 - Hull, Maury L. T1 - Restoring the patient's pre-arthritic posterior slope is the correct target for maximizing internal tibial rotation when implanting a PCL retaining TKA with calipered kinematic alignment JF - Journal of Personalized Medicine N2 - Introduction: The calipered kinematically-aligned (KA) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) strives to restore the patient's individual pre-arthritic (i.e., native) posterior tibial slope when retaining the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL). Deviations from the patient's individual pre-arthritic posterior slope tighten and slacken the PCL in flexion that drives tibial rotation, and such a change might compromise passive internal tibial rotation and coupled patellofemoral kinematics. Methods: Twenty-one patients were treated with a calipered KA TKA and a PCL retaining implant with a medial ball-in-socket and a lateral flat articular insert conformity that mimics the native (i.e., healthy) knee. The slope of the tibial resection was set parallel to the medial joint line by adjusting the plane of an angel wing inserted in the tibial guide. Three trial inserts that matched and deviated 2°> and 2°< from the patient's pre-arthritic slope were 3D printed with goniometric markings. The goniometer measured the orientation of the tibia (i.e., trial insert) relative to the femoral component. Results: There was no difference between the radiographic preoperative and postoperative tibial slope (0.7 ± 3.2°, NS). From extension to 90° flexion, the mean passive internal tibial rotation with the pre-arthritic slope insert of 19° was greater than the 15° for the 2°> slope (p < 0.000), and 15° for the 2°< slope (p < 0.000). Discussion: When performing a calipered KA TKA with PCL retention, the correct target for setting the tibial component is the patient's individual pre-arthritic slope within a tolerance of ±2°, as this target resulted in a 15–19° range of internal tibial rotation that is comparable to the 15–18° range reported for the native knee from extension to 90° flexion. KW - total knee replacement KW - total knee arthroplasty KW - kinematic alignment KW - slope KW - rotation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-240996 SN - 2075-4426 VL - 11 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wyborski, Paweł A1 - Musiał, Anna A1 - Mrowiński, Paweł A1 - Podemski, Paweł A1 - Baumann, Vasilij A1 - Wroński, Piotr A1 - Jabeen, Fauzia A1 - Höfling, Sven A1 - Sęk, Grzegorz T1 - InP-substrate-based quantum dashes on a DBR as single-photon emitters at the third telecommunication window JF - Materials N2 - We investigated emission properties of photonic structures with InAs/InGaAlAs/InP quantum dashes grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a distributed Bragg reflector. In high-spatial-resolution photoluminescence experiment, well-resolved sharp spectral lines are observed and single-photon emission is detected in the third telecommunication window characterized by very low multiphoton events probabilities. The photoluminescence spectra measured on simple photonic structures in the form of cylindrical mesas reveal significant intensity enhancement by a factor of 4 when compared to a planar sample. These results are supported by simulations of the electromagnetic field distribution, which show emission extraction efficiencies even above 18% for optimized designs. When combined with relatively simple and undemanding fabrication approach, it makes this kind of structures competitive with the existing solutions in that spectral range and prospective in the context of efficient and practical single-photon sources for fiber-based quantum networks applications. KW - single-photon emitter KW - III–V quantum dot KW - telecommunication spectral range KW - photonic structure KW - extraction efficiency Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228773 SN - 1996-1944 VL - 14 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Megas, Ioannis-Fivos A1 - Simons, David A1 - Kim, Bong-Sung A1 - Stoppe, Christian A1 - Piatkowski, Andrzej A1 - Fikatas, Panagiotis A1 - Fuchs, Paul Christian A1 - Bastiaanse, Jacqueline A1 - Pallua, Norbert A1 - Bernhagen, Jürgen A1 - Grieb, Gerrit T1 - Macrophage migration inhibitory factor — an innovative indicator for free flap ischemia after microsurgical reconstruction JF - Healthcare N2 - (1) Background: Nowadays, the use of microsurgical free flaps is a standard operative procedure in reconstructive surgery. Still, thrombosis of the microanastomosis is one of the most fatal postoperative complications. Clinical evaluation, different technical devices and laboratory markers are used to monitor critical flap perfusion. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a structurally unique cytokine with chemokine-like characteristics, could play a role in predicting vascular problems and the failure of flap perfusion. (2) Methods: In this prospective observational study, 26 subjects that underwent microsurgical reconstruction were observed. Besides clinical data, the number of blood leukocytes, CRP and MIF were monitored. (3) Results: Blood levels of MIF, C-reactive protein (CRP) and leukocytes increased directly after surgery. Subjects that needed surgical revision due to thrombosis of the microanastomosis showed significantly higher blood levels of MIF than subjects without revision. (4) Conclusion: We conclude that MIF is a potential and innovative indicator for thrombosis of the microanastomosis after free flap surgery. Since it is easy to obtain diagnostically, MIF could be an additional tool to monitor flap perfusion besides clinical and technical assessments. KW - macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) KW - free flap surgery KW - innovative surgical methods KW - microanastomosis KW - ischemia Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239632 SN - 2227-9032 VL - 9 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rößler, Sebastian A1 - Witt, Marius S. A1 - Ikonen, Jaakko A1 - Brown, Ian A. A1 - Dietz, Andreas J. T1 - Remote sensing of snow cover variability and its influence on the runoff of Sápmi's rivers JF - Geosciences N2 - The boreal winter 2019/2020 was very irregular in Europe. While there was very little snow in Central Europe, the opposite was the case in northern Fenno-Scandia, particularly in the Arctic. The snow cover was more persistent here and its rapid melting led to flooding in many places. Since the last severe spring floods occurred in the region in 2018, this raises the question of whether more frequent occurrences can be expected in the future. To assess the variability of snowmelt related flooding we used snow cover maps (derived from the DLR's Global SnowPack MODIS snow product) and freely available data on runoff, precipitation, and air temperature in eight unregulated river catchment areas. A trend analysis (Mann-Kendall test) was carried out to assess the development of the parameters, and the interdependencies of the parameters were examined with a correlation analysis. Finally, a simple snowmelt runoff model was tested for its applicability to this region. We noticed an extraordinary variability in the duration of snow cover. If this extends well into spring, rapid air temperature increases leads to enhanced thawing. According to the last flood years 2005, 2010, 2018, and 2020, we were able to differentiate between four synoptic flood types based on their special hydrometeorological and snow situation and simulate them with the snowmelt runoff model (SRM). KW - remote sensing KW - snow parameters KW - snow variability KW - MODIS KW - snow hydrology KW - spring flood KW - Sápmi KW - Mann-Kendall test KW - snowmelt runoff model Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-234261 SN - 2076-3263 VL - 11 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dobiński, Wojciech A1 - Kneisel, Christof T1 - Permafrost and glaciers: perspectives for the Earth and planetary sciences — another step forward JF - Geosciences N2 - No abstract available KW - permafrost KW - glaciers Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228766 SN - 2076-3263 VL - 11 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bannasch, Johannes H. A1 - Berger, Benjamin A1 - Schwartkopp, Claus-Peter A1 - Berning, Marco A1 - Goetze, Oliver A1 - Panning, Marcus A1 - Fritz-Weltin, Miriam A1 - Trendelenburg, George A1 - Gelderblom, Mathias A1 - Lütgehetmann, Marc A1 - Stute, Fridrike A1 - Horvatits, Thomas A1 - Dirks, Meike A1 - Antoni, Christoph A1 - Behrendt, Patrick A1 - Pischke, Sven T1 - HEV-associated neuralgic amyotrophy: a multicentric case series JF - Pathogens N2 - Background: Neuralgic amyotrophy (NA) has been described as a possible extrahepatic manifestation of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection. Usually, HEV-associated NA occurs bilaterally. The clinical characteristics determining the course of HEV-associated NA have still not been defined. Methods: In this retrospective multicentric case series, 16 patients with HEV-associated NA were studied and compared to 176 HEV patients without NA in terms of their age, sex, and ALT levels. Results: Neither gender distribution (75% vs. 67% male) nor age (47 vs. 48 years median) differed significantly between the NA patients and controls. Eight NA patients (50%) presented with bilateral involvement — seven of these had right-side dominance and one had left-side dominance. Thirteen cases (81%) were hospitalized. Eight of these patients stayed in hospital for five to seven days, and five patients stayed for up to two weeks. The time from the onset of NA to the HEV diagnosis, as well as the diagnostic and therapeutic proceedings, showed a large variability. In total, 13 (81%) patients received treatment: 1/13 (8%) received intravenous immunoglobulins, 8/13 (62%) received glucocorticoids, 3/13 (23%) received ribavirin, and 6/13 (46%) received pregabalin/gabapentin. Patients with ages above the median (47 years) were more likely to be treated (p = 0.001). Conclusion: HEV-associated NA causes a relevant morbidity. In our case series neither the type of treatment nor the time of initiation of therapy had a significant effect on the duration of hospitalization or the course of the disease. The clinical presentation, the common diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and the patients' characteristics showed large variability, demonstrating the necessity of standardized protocols for this rare but relevant disease. KW - Hepatitis E KW - HEV KW - neuralgic amyotrophy KW - NA Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239691 SN - 2076-0817 VL - 10 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Batool, Farwa A1 - Saeed, Muhammad A1 - Saleem, Hafiza Nosheen A1 - Kirschner, Luisa A1 - Bodem, Jochen T1 - Facile synthesis and in vitro activity of N-substituted 1,2-benzisothiazol-3(2H)-ones against dengue virus NS2BNS3 protease JF - Pathogens N2 - Several new N-substituted 1,2-benzisothiazol-3(2H)-ones (BITs) were synthesised through a facile synthetic route for testing their anti-dengue protease inhibition. Contrary to the conventional multistep synthesis, we achieved structurally diverse BITs with excellent yields using a two-step, one-pot reaction strategy. All the synthesised compounds were prescreened for drug-like properties using the online Swiss Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Elimination (SwissADME) model, indicating their favourable pharmaceutical properties. Thus, the synthesised BITs were tested for inhibitory activity against the recombinant dengue virus serotype-2 (DENV-2) NS2BNS3 protease. Dose–response experiments and computational docking analyses revealed that several BITs bind to the protease in the vicinity of the catalytic triad with IC\(_{50}\) values in the micromolar range. The DENV2 infection assay showed that two BITs, 2-(2-chlorophenyl)benzo[d]isothiazol-3(2H)-one and 2-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)benzo[d]isothiazol-3(2H)-one, could suppress DENV replication and virus infectivity. These results indicate the potential of BITs for developing new anti-dengue therapeutics. KW - dengue virus KW - direct-acting antivirals KW - 1,2-benzisothiazolinone KW - drug discovery KW - infectivity assays Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236605 SN - 2076-0817 VL - 10 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziebertz, Hans-Georg T1 - Introduction to the special issue: Religion and human rights: complementary or contrary JF - Religions N2 - No abstract available KW - human rights Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228798 SN - 2077-1444 VL - 12 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fabritius, Matthias Philipp A1 - Wölfer, Teresa A. A1 - Herzberg, Moriz A1 - Tiedt, Steffen A1 - Puhr-Westerheide, Daniel A1 - Grosu, Sergio A1 - Maurus, Stefan A1 - Geyer, Thomas A1 - Curta, Adrian A1 - Kellert, Lars A1 - Küpper, Clemens A1 - Liebig, Thomas A1 - Ricke, Jens A1 - Dimitriadis, Konstantinos A1 - Kunz, Wolfgang G. A1 - Zimmermann, Hanna A1 - Reidler, Paul T1 - Course of early neurologic symptom severity after endovascular treatment of anterior circulation large vessel occlusion stroke: association with baseline multiparametric CT imaging and clinical parameters JF - Diagnostics N2 - Background: Neurologic symptom severity and deterioration at 24 hours (h) predict long-term outcomes in patients with acute large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke of the anterior circulation. We aimed to examine the association of baseline multiparametric CT imaging and clinical factors with the course of neurologic symptom severity in the first 24 h after endovascular treatment (EVT). Methods: Patients with LVO stroke of the anterior circulation were selected from a prospectively acquired consecutive cohort of patients who underwent multiparametric CT, including non-contrast CT, CT angiography and CT perfusion before EVT. The symptom severity was assessed on admission and after 24 h using the 42-point National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Clinical and imaging data were compared between patients with and without early neurological deterioration (END). END was defined as an increase in ≥4 points, and a significant clinical improvement as a decrease in ≥4 points, compared to NIHSS on admission. Multivariate regression analyses were used to determine independent associations of imaging and clinical parameters with NIHSS score increase or decrease in the first 24 h. Results: A total of 211 patients were included, of whom 38 (18.0%) had an END. END was significantly associated with occlusion of the internal carotid artery (odds ratio (OR), 4.25; 95% CI, 1.90–9.47) and the carotid T (OR, 6.34; 95% CI, 2.56–15.71), clot burden score (OR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.68–0.92) and total ischemic volume (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00–1.01). In a comprehensive multivariate analysis model including periprocedural parameters and complications after EVT, carotid T occlusion remained independently associated with END, next to reperfusion status and intracranial hemorrhage. Favorable reperfusion status and small ischemic core volume were associated with clinical improvement after 24 h. Conclusions: The use of imaging parameters as a surrogate for early NIHSS progression in an acute LVO stroke after EVT reached limited performance with only carotid T occlusion as an independent predictor of END. Reperfusion status and early complications in terms of intracranial hemorrhage are critical factors that influence patient outcome in the acute stroke phase after EVT. KW - stroke KW - large vessel occlusion KW - multiparametric CT KW - CT perfusion KW - CT angiography KW - NIHSS KW - EVT Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-242681 SN - 2075-4418 VL - 11 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Werner, Rudolf A. A1 - Higuchi, Takahiro A1 - Pomper, Martin G. A1 - Rowe, Steven P. T1 - Theranostics in oncology — thriving, now more than ever JF - Diagnostics N2 - Tracing its roots back to the 1940s, theranostics in nuclear oncology has proved successful mainly due to the beneficial effects of image-guided therapeutic concepts for patients afflicted with a variety of different cancers. The majority of these treatments are not only characterized by substantial prolongation of progression-free and overall survival, but are also generally safe, rendering theranostic agents as an attractive treatment option in various clinical scenarios in oncology. In this Special Issue Novel Theranostic Agents, nine original articles from around the globe provide further evidence on the use of the theranostic concept for neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN), prostate cancer (PC), meningioma, and neuroblastoma. The investigated diagnostic and therapeutic radiotracers target not only established structures, such as somatostatin receptor, prostate-specific membrane antigen or norepinephrine transporter, but also recently emerging targets such as the C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4. Moreover, the presented original articles also combine the concept of theranostics with in-depth read-out techniques such as radiomics or novel reconstruction algorithms on pretherapeutic scans, e.g., for outcome prediction. Even 80 years after its initial clinical introduction, theranostics in oncology continues to thrive, now more than ever. KW - theranostics KW - somatostatin receptor (SSTR) KW - prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) KW - prostate cancer KW - neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) KW - neuroendocrine tumors (NET) KW - meningioma KW - norepinephrine transporter KW - neuroblastoma Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236662 SN - 2075-4418 VL - 11 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khatri, Wajahat A1 - Chung, Hyun Woo A1 - Werner, Rudolf A. A1 - Leal, Jeffrey P. A1 - Pienta, Kenneth J. A1 - Lodge, Martin A. A1 - Gorin, Michael A. A1 - Pomper, Martin G. A1 - Rowe, Steven P. T1 - Effect of point-spread function reconstruction for indeterminate PSMA-RADS-3A lesions on PSMA-targeted PET imaging of men with prostate cancer JF - Diagnostics N2 - Purpose: Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) is emerging as an important modality for imaging patients with prostate cancer (PCa). As with any imaging modality, indeterminate findings will arise. The PSMA reporting and data system (PSMA-RADS) version 1.0 codifies indeterminate soft tissue findings with the PSMA-RADS-3A moniker. We investigated the role of point-spread function (PSF) reconstructions on categorization of PSMA-RADS-3A lesions. Methods: This was a post hoc analysis of an institutional review board approved prospective trial. Around 60 min after the administration of 333 MBq (9 mCi) of PSMA-targeted \(^{18}\)F-DCFPyL, patients underwent PET/computed tomography (CT) acquisitions from the mid-thighs to the skull vertex. The PET data were reconstructed with and without PSF. Scans were categorized according to PSMA-RADS version 1.0, and all PSMA-RADS-3A lesions on non-PSF images were re-evaluated to determine if any could be re-categorized as PSMA-RADS-4. The maximum standardized uptake values (SUVs) of the lesions, mean SUVs of blood pool, and the ratios of those values were determined. Results: A total of 171 PSMA-RADS-3A lesions were identified in 30 patients for whom both PSF reconstructions and cross-sectional imaging follow-up were available. A total of 13/171 (7.6%) were re-categorized as PSMA-RADS-4 lesions with PSF reconstructions. A total of 112/171 (65.5%) were found on follow-up to be true positive for PCa, with all 13 of the re-categorized lesions being true positive on follow-up. The lesions that were re-categorized trended towards having higher SUV\(_{max}\)-lesion and SUV\(_{max}\)-lesion/SUV\(_{mean}\)-blood-pool metrics, although these relationships were not statistically significant. Conclusions: The use of PSF reconstructions for \(^{18}\)F-DCFPyL PET can allow the appropriate re-categorization of a small number of indeterminate PSMA-RADS-3A soft tissue lesions as more definitive PSMA-RADS-4 lesions. The routine use of PSF reconstructions for PSMA-targeted PET may be of value at those sites that utilize this technology. KW - prostate-specific membrane antigen KW - reporting and data system KW - positron emission tomography Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-236528 SN - 2075-4418 VL - 11 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bleilevens, Christian A1 - Soppert, Josefin A1 - Hoffmann, Adrian A1 - Breuer, Thomas A1 - Bernhagen, Jürgen A1 - Martin, Lukas A1 - Stiehler, Lara A1 - Marx, Gernot A1 - Dreher, Michael A1 - Stoppe, Christian A1 - Simon, Tim-Philipp T1 - Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) plasma concentration in critically ill COVID-19 patients: a prospective observational study JF - Diagnostics N2 - Mortality in critically ill coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is high and pharmacological treatment strategies remain limited. Early-stage predictive biomarkers are needed to identify patients with a high risk of severe clinical courses and to stratify treatment strategies. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) was previously described as a potential predictor for the outcome of critically ill patients and for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a hallmark of severe COVID-19 disease. This prospective observational study evaluates the predictive potential of MIF for the clinical outcome after severe COVID-19 infection. Plasma MIF concentrations were measured in 36 mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients over three days after intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Increased compared to decreased MIF was significantly associated with aggravated organ function and a significantly lower 28-day survival (sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score; 8.2 ± 4.5 to 14.3 ± 3, p = 0.009 vs. 8.9 ± 1.9 to 12 ± 2, p = 0.296; survival: 56% vs. 93%; p = 0.003). Arterial hypertension was the predominant comorbidity in 85% of patients with increasing MIF concentrations (vs. decreasing MIF: 39%; p = 0.015). Without reaching significance, more patients with decreasing MIF were able to improve their ARDS status (p = 0.142). The identified association between an early MIF response, aggravation of organ function and 28-day survival may open future perspectives for biomarker-based diagnostic approaches for ICU management of COVID-19 patients. KW - Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) KW - COVID-19 KW - ICU treatment KW - acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) KW - SOFA Score KW - Horowitz Quotient Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228967 SN - 2075-4418 VL - 11 IS - 2 ER -