Mortality in Germany during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Is there sufficient scientific evidence for excess mortality caused by COVID-19? The German population, similar to the population of many other countries, is subject to fluctuations caused by multiple factors, including migration and aging. COVID-19 is one additional factor, superposing natural or seasonal mortality fluctuations. To give scientific evidence for excess mortality caused by COVID-19, it is essential to employ appropriate statistical tools.

Quantifying beryllium concentrations in plant shoots from forest ecosystems using cation-exchange chromatography and quadrupole ICP-MS.

Beryllium (Be) is known to be one of the most toxic elements but at the same time exerts a stimulating effect on plant growth. Despite this contradiction, little is known about the Be metabolism in living organisms, partially because of the low amounts present and because the analysis of Be in plants by ICP-MS remains challenging. The challenges arise from the complex organic matrix, the low abundance of Be relative to the other plant essential elements, and the matrix effects resulting thereof in the plasma.

Groundwater controls on colloidal transport in forest stream waters.

Biogeochemical changes of whole catchments may, at least in part, be deduced from changes in stream water composition. We hypothesized that there are seasonal variations of natural nanoparticles (NNP; 1-100 nm) and fine colloids (<300 nm) in stream water, which differ in origin depending on catchment inflow parameters. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the annual dynamics of the elemental composition of NNP and fine colloids in multiple water compartments, namely in stream water, above and below canopy precipitation, groundwater and lateral subsurface flow from the Conventwald catchment, Germany.

Design of nanostructured hybrid materials: twin polymerization of urethane-based twin prepolymers.

Organic-inorganic hybrid materials with urethane functionalities were obtained by simultaneous twin polymerization of twin prepolymers in combination with the ideal twin monomer 2,2'-spirobi[4-1,3,2-benzodioxasiline]. The twin prepolymers consist of a urethane-based prepolymer with reactive terminal groups which can react during the twin polymerization process. Nanostructured hybrid materials with integrated dialkylsiloxane crosslinked urethane structures, phenolic resin and SiO are obtained in a one pot process.

Down-regulation of HLA class II and costimulatory CD86/B7-2 on circulating monocytes from melanoma patients.

Antigen-presenting cells are crucial for the induction of an antigen-specific antitumoral immune response. Deteriorations in the expression pattern of cell surface molecules important for the presentation of antigens might therefore be indicative of an impaired immune response status in cancer patients. In the present study we investigated the expression of MHC class I and class II molecules, of the costimulatory molecules CD80/B7-1 and CD86/B7-2, of the adhesion molecule CD11c, and of the marker of activation CD71 on CD14+ peripheral blood monocytes (PBMs) from 144 melanoma patients in different stages of disease and 43 healthy controls, by flow cytometric analysis.