Background: Digital mental health is a promising paradigm for individualized, patient-driven health care. For example, cognitive bias modification programs that target interpretation biases (cognitive bias modification for interpretation [CBM-I]) can provide practice thinking about ambiguous situations in less threatening ways on the web without requiring a therapist. However, digital mental health interventions, including CBM-I, are often plagued with lack of sustained engagement and high attrition rates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate how different combinations of T1-weighted (T1w), T2-weighted (T2w), and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) impact the performance of virtual contrast-enhanced (vCE) breast MRI.
Materials And Methods: The IRB-approved, retrospective study included 1064 multiparametric breast MRI scans (age: 52 ± 12 years) obtained from 2017 to 2020 (single site, two 3-T MRI). Eleven independent neural networks were trained to derive vCE images from varying input combinations of T1w, T2w, and multi-b-value DWI sequences (b-value = 50-1500 s/mm).
Heleocola piceanus, a new, relatively large metatherian from Upper Cretaceous ('Edmontonian') strata of the Williams Fork Formation in northwestern Colorado is described, based on a recently discovered jaw fragment (MWC 9744), in addition to three isolated teeth initially referred by other studies to Aquiladelphis incus and Glasbius piceanus. Although sharing several morphologic characters with the Lancian genus Glasbius, H. piceanus lower molars are considerably larger than those of Glasbius and differ from the latter in lacking a buccal cingulid, possessing carnassiform notches on the cristid obliqua and entocristid, and bearing an entoconulid on m3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere we present a nearly complete species-level phylogeny including 23 of the 25 known species of the forest-dwelling herbivorous scarab chafer beetle genus Pleophylla (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Sericinae), based on the analysis of 950 nuclear genes (metazoan-level universal single-copy orthologs; mzl-USCOs). DNA sequences were obtained from freshly collected, ethanol-preserved samples and from dried museum specimens by target enrichment or genome shotgun sequencing. Alignment completeness of mzl-USCOs newly obtained here by target DNA enrichment of ethanol samples were very heterogenous and lower (29-62 %) than in Dietz et al.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Web-based cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) can improve interpretation biases and anxiety symptoms but faces high rates of dropout. This study tested the effectiveness of web-based CBM-I relative to an active psychoeducation condition and the addition of low-intensity telecoaching for a subset of CBM-I participants.
Method: 1,234 anxious community adults (Mage = 35.
Recent advances in melanoma therapy have significantly improved the prognosis of metastasized melanoma. However, large therapeutic gaps remain that need to be closed by new strategies. Antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins critically contribute to apoptosis deficiency and therapy resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this feasibility study is to investigate if latent diffusion models (LDMs) are capable to generate contrast enhanced (CE) MRI-derived subtraction maximum intensity projections (MIPs) of the breast, which are conditioned by lesions. We trained an LDM with n = 2832 CE-MIPs of breast MRI examinations of n = 1966 patients (median age: 50 years) acquired between the years 2015 and 2020. The LDM was subsequently conditioned with n = 756 segmented lesions from n = 407 examinations, indicating their location and BI-RADS scores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnxiety disorders are highly prevalent, and rates increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, most individuals with elevated anxiety do not access treatment due to barriers such as stigma, cost, and availability. Digital mental health programs, such as cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I), hold promise in increasing access to care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMetazoa-level universal single-copy orthologs (mzl-USCOs) are universally applicable markers for DNA taxonomy in animals that can replace or supplement single-gene barcodes. Previously, mzl-USCOs from target enrichment data were shown to reliably distinguish species. Here, we tested whether USCOs are an evenly distributed, representative sample of a given metazoan genome and therefore able to cope with past hybridization events and incomplete lineage sorting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: When viewed internationally, Germany boasts a high rate of doctoral candidates. Fields such as medicine and life sciences have a notably high proportion of doctoral students, a trend rooted in historical factors. Despite this, comprehensive empirical studies concerning the doctoral phase and early-career researchers, especially in relation to the rise of structured doctoral programmes, have only recently gained traction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To evaluate whether artifacts on contrast-enhanced (CE) breast MRI maximum intensity projections (MIPs) might already be forecast before gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) administration during an ongoing examination by analyzing the unenhanced T1-weighted images acquired before the GBCA injection.
Materials And Methods: This IRB-approved retrospective analysis consisted of n = 2884 breast CE MRI examinations after intravenous administration of GBCA, acquired with n = 4 different MRI devices at different field strengths (1.5 T/3 T) during clinical routine.
Negative future thinking pervades emotional disorders. This hybrid efficacy-effectiveness trial tested a four-session, scalable online cognitive bias modification program for training more positive episodic prediction. 958 adults (73.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEmotion dysregulation (ED) is a key target for change among empirically supported treatments for emotional disorders, including dialectical behaviour therapy skills training (DBT-ST), yet how treatments improve ED is poorly understood. Using data from a randomised trial of DBT-ST versus supportive group therapy for transdiagnostic ED, we tested whether three mechanistic variables-behavioural skills use, mindfulness, and perceived control-explain variability in ED within people over time. We additionally explored the mediating roles of these variables between conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCannabinoids are mainly used for recreational purposes, but also made their way into oncology, since these substances can be taken to increase appetite in tumour cachexia. Since there are some hints in the literature that cannabinoids might have some anti-cancerous effects, the aim of this study was to study if and how cannabinoids mediate pro-apoptotic effects in metastatic melanoma in vivo and in vitro and its value besides conventional targeted therapy in vivo. Several melanoma cell lines were treated with different concentrations of cannabinoids, and anti-cancerous efficacy was assessed by proliferation and apoptosis assays.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVery little is known about factors determining the assemblage structure of megadiverse polyphagous-herbivore scarab chafers in the tropics (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Here, we examined the composition of Sri Lankan chafer assemblages and investigated whether it is influenced more by the general ecoclimatic situation, macrohabitat, or indetermined stochastic biotic and abiotic factors of each locality. We also explored the influence of the latter on separate lineages and general body size.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTargeting of MAP kinase pathways by BRAF inhibitors has evolved as a key therapy for BRAF-mutated melanoma. However, it cannot be applied for BRAF-WT melanoma, and also, in BRAF-mutated melanoma, tumor relapse often follows after an initial phase of tumor regression. Inhibition of MAP kinase pathways downstream at ERK1/2, or inhibitors of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, such as Mcl-1, may serve as alternative strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDNA barcoding has been used worldwide to identify biological specimens and to delimit species. It represents a cost-effective, fast, and efficient way to assess biodiversity with help of the public Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) accounting for more than 236,000 animal species and more than 10 million barcode sequences. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of available barcode data of central European Coleoptera to detect intraspecific genetic patterns among ecological groups in relation to geographic distance with the aim to investigate a possible link between infraspecific variation and species ecology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSkin Pharmacol Physiol
February 2023
Background: A disruption of sebocyte differentiation and lipogenesis has fatal consequences and can cause a wide spectrum of skin diseases, from acne vulgaris to sebaceous carcinoma, however, the relevant molecular mechanisms have not been fully clarified.
Objectives: The induction of autophagy and apoptosis in human sebocytes in response to biologically relevant fatty acids was investigated.
Methods: Free fatty acids (arachidonic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid, and palmitoleic acid) and the pan-caspase inhibitor QVD-Oph were added to the supernatant of cultured human SZ95 sebocytes.
Long-term, curative treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) remains a major challenge. Therapy resistance is often based on apoptosis deficiency, and may depend on antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, such as Bcl-2, Bcl-x, Bcl-w and Mcl-1. For their targeting, several antagonists have been generated, which mimic the Bcl-2 homology domain 3 (BH3 mimetics).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFungal infections have increased considerably over the last decades, becoming progressively resistant to common drugs. UVC light has shown microbiological eradication effects, whereby the wavelength of 254 nm is strongly carcino- and mutagenic. Therefore, 222 and 233 nm, which do not significantly harm skin cells, were tested for their antifungal effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for women living with HIV (WLWH) in low-income-but not in high-income-countries, where milk substitutes are preferred. Some guidelines for high-income countries opted for a shared decision-making process regarding breastfeeding in optimal scenarios with adherence to antiretroviral therapy (cART), suppressed maternal viral load (mVL), and clinical monitoring. Although vertical transmission (VT) risk under cART is estimated below 1% in low-income settings, data from high-income countries are rare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe term sinecatechins designates an extract containing a high percentage of catechins obtained from green tea, which is commercially registered as Veregen or Polyphenon E (PE) and may be considered for treatment of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) and actinic keratosis (AK). As shown here, treatment of four cSCC cell lines with 200 µg/mL of PE resulted in strong, dose-dependent decrease in cell proliferation (20-30%) as well as strongly decreased cell viability (4-21% of controls, 48 h). Effects correlated with loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, whereas early apoptosis was less pronounced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFShark teeth are one of the most abundant vertebrate fossils, and because tooth size generally correlates with body size, their accumulations document the size structure of populations. Understanding how ecological and environmental processes influence size structure, and how this extends to influence these dental distributions, may offer a window into the ecological and environmental dynamics of past and present shark populations. Here, we examine the dental distributions of sand tigers, including extant and extinct , to reconstruct the size structure for a contemporary locality and four Eocene localities.
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