Publications by authors named "Felix Fischer"

Objectives: This study aimed to compared Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) anxiety, depression, and anger item bank among Korean, US and Dutch general population.

Methods: Between December 2021 and January 2022, we surveyed representative Korean participants (N = 2699). Then we compared the mean T-scores of PROMIS anxiety, depression, and anger full items bank among Korean, US (N = 1696) and the Dutch (N = 1002) populations.

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  • The PROMIS aims to standardize patient-reported outcomes globally, and the Reha-Toolbox study links various rehabilitation measures to PROMIS metrics.
  • Five experts facilitated an online survey with 1000 participants to map items from WHODAS 2.0, IRES-3, and HEALTH-49 to PROMIS scales.
  • The study found that 56% of the legacy outcome items were successfully mapped to PROMIS domains, achieving sufficient reliability for certain domains to enable effective group-based analyses.
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  • The study evaluated the validity of German and Spanish translations of 35 new high-functioning items in the PROMIS Physical Function item bank by comparing responses from diverse samples in Argentina, Germany, and the U.S.
  • Data was collected from 3601 participants, with equal distribution among language versions, and differential item functioning (DIF) was analyzed through a comprehensive multiverse analysis.
  • Findings indicated that while some items showed consistent DIF across languages, its overall impact was minimal, and physical functioning scores were higher in Argentina compared to the U.S. and Germany, supporting the items' universal applicability across different populations.
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Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) is an umbrella term for various self-report instruments used to assess subjective health-related impressions and treatment success from the patient's perspective. In psychosomatic medicine, PROMs are often used to record subjective symptoms, psychosocial distress, and changes in health status, particularly in patients with comorbid (affective) disorders and frequent contact with physicians, but also in preventive health care and to monitor the effectiveness of treatment. In otolaryngology (ENT), self-report questionnaires (PROMs) are used, among other things, to assess the impact of hearing, speech, swallowing, and breathing disorders on patients' quality of life.

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  • The study investigates how using small datasets to select an optimal cutoff score for the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) can lead to inaccurate results.
  • Researchers evaluated whether data-driven methods for cutoff selection resulted in scores that were significantly different from the true population optimal score and if these methods produced biased accuracy estimates.
  • Findings showed that many small studies frequently failed to identify the correct optimal cutoff score, particularly in smaller samples, leading to an overestimation of test sensitivity.
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  • Comparing outcomes using different patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in spinal surgery is crucial due to the usage of over 30 PROMs in recent studies.
  • The study focused on examining how well scores from the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) align with predictions from the PROMIS Profile 29, finding satisfactory group-level agreements but poor accuracy in individual predictions.
  • The equipercentile linking method turned out to be the most reliable for matching ODI scores, suggesting that future models should consider nonlinear relationships for better accuracy.
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Objectives: Health state utility (HSU) instruments for calculating quality-adjusted life years, such as the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Utility - Core 10 Dimensions (QLU-C10D), derived from the EORTC QLQ-30 questionnaire, the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) preference score (PROPr), and the EuroQoL-5-Dimensions-5-Levels (EQ-5D-5L), yield different HSU values due to different modeling and different underlying descriptive scales. For example the QLU-C10D includes cancer-relevant dimensions such as nausea. This study aimed to investigate how these differences in descriptive scales contribute to differences in HSU scores by comparing scores of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy to those of the general population.

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  • Van der Waals heterostructures allow for the customization of electronic properties by combining two-dimensional materials, particularly bilayer graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs).
  • The study confirms two types of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in bilayer graphene when in contact with molybdenum disulfide: Ising and Rashba coupling, with respective energy values of 1.55 meV and 2.5 meV.
  • Observations include a unique pattern in conductivity as the electric displacement field changes, attributed to Ising SOC-induced gaps, and noticeable spikes in magnetoconductivity that challenge current theoretical understandings.
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  • The study aimed to explore how self-efficacy and social support relate to Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in hemodialysis patients who participated in the CONVINCE trial.
  • Using data from 1,360 patients, the researchers found that higher self-efficacy significantly predicted improved HRQoL across various domains, including mental health, physical function, and pain management.
  • While social support also positively influenced cognition and some symptoms, self-efficacy had a notably stronger impact, highlighting its importance in enhancing overall well-being in this patient population.
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Background: The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Preference Score (PROPr) is estimated from descriptive health assessments within the PROMIS framework. The underlying item response theory (IRT) allows researchers to measure PROMIS health domains with any subset of items that are calibrated to this domain. Consequently, this should also be true for the PROPr.

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  • Integrated circuits are approaching their atomic limits, leading to a focus on bottom-up fabrication methods like epitaxial growth and the use of tunable molecular semiconductors.
  • A novel wafer-scale process has been developed to direct conductive polymers into 50 nm vertical nanogaps through electric-field-driven self-assembly, demonstrating high selectivity.
  • This research marks progress towards scalable hybrid nanoelectronics, combining traditional lithographic techniques with molecular components for future circuit designs.
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Purpose: We applied a previously established common T-score metric for patient-reported and performance-based physical function (PF), offering the unique opportunity to directly compare measurement type-specific patterns of associations with potential laboratory-based, psychosocial, sociodemographic, and health-related determinants in hemodialysis patients.

Methods: We analyzed baseline data from the CONVINCE trial (N = 1,360), a multinational randomized controlled trial comparing high-flux hemodialysis with high-dose hemodiafiltration. To explore the associations of potential determinants with performance-based versus patient-reported PF, we conducted multiple linear regression (backward elimination with cross-validation and Lasso regression).

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Identifying cellular identities is a key use case in single-cell transcriptomics. While machine learning has been leveraged to automate cell annotation predictions for some time, there has been little progress in scaling neural networks to large data sets and in constructing models that generalize well across diverse tissues. Here, we propose scTab, an automated cell type prediction model specific to tabular data, and train it using a novel data augmentation scheme across a large corpus of single-cell RNA-seq observations (22.

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  • * Researchers also assessed health-related quality of life (HRQoL) across various domains, finding that while both groups experienced a decline, the HDF group showed more favorable changes, particularly in cognitive function.
  • * Overall, the trial indicated HDF not only benefits survival rates but also helps slow the decline in quality of life aspects for patients, particularly in physical and cognitive functioning.
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Small-scale robots offer significant potential in minimally invasive medical procedures. Due to the nature of soft biological tissues, however, robots are exposed to complex environments with various challenges in locomotion, which is essential to overcome for useful medical tasks. A single mini-robot often provides insufficient force on slippery biological surfaces to carry medical instruments, such as a fluid catheter or an electrical wire.

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  • The study presents a method for integrating low-energy zero-modes into graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) to create materials with custom electronic properties for nanoelectronics.
  • The researchers successfully synthesized [3]triangulene-GNRs, which are chains of linked [3]triangulenes, demonstrating a narrow band gap of about 0.7 eV and the existence of topological end states verified by scanning tunneling spectroscopy.
  • Through theoretical calculations, the work reveals the mechanisms behind the selective synthesis and the role of gold-carbon bonds in the polymerization process on surfaces.
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The covalent interaction of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with transition metal atoms gives rise to distinctive frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs). These emergent electronic states have spurred the widespread adoption of NHC ligands in chemical catalysis and functional materials. Although formation of carbene-metal complexes in self-assembled monolayers on surfaces has been explored, design and electronic structure characterization of extended low-dimensional NHC-metal lattices remains elusive.

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Topological phases in laterally confined low-dimensional nanographenes have emerged as versatile design tools that can imbue otherwise unremarkable materials with exotic band structures ranging from topological semiconductors and quantum dots to intrinsically metallic bands. The periodic boundary conditions that define the topology of a given lattice have thus far prevented the translation of this technology to the quasi-zero-dimensional (0D) domain of small molecular structures. Here, we describe the synthesis of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) featuring two localized zero modes (ZMs) formed by the topological junction interface between a trivial and nontrivial phase within a single molecule.

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The classification of personality disorder (PD) is undergoing a paradigm shift in which categorically defined specific PDs are being replaced by dimensionally defined maladaptive trait domains. To bridge the classificatory approaches, this study attempts to use items from the categorical PD model in DSM-IV to measure the maladaptive trait domains described in DSM-5 Section III/ICD-11. A general population sample comprising 1228 participants completed the Screening Questionnaire of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II (SCID-II-SQ), the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5), and the anankastia scale of the Personality Inventory for ICD-11 (PiCD).

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The low-energy electronic structure of nanographenes can be tuned through zero-energy π-electron states, typically referred to as zero-modes. Customizable electronic and magnetic structures have been engineered by coupling zero-modes through exchange and hybridization interactions. Manipulation of the of such states, however, has not yet received significant attention.

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  • Identifying cellular identities is crucial in single-cell transcriptomics, where machine learning has made limited progress in handling large datasets and diverse biological contexts.
  • The proposed scTab model applies a feature-attention mechanism and a novel data augmentation approach to predict cell types across a large dataset of 22.2 million human cells, enhancing model generalization and uncertainty quantification.
  • Results indicate that scTab outperforms linear models for cross-tissue annotations and scales effectively with data size, with available resources for public use to facilitate further research in the field.
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Aims: To map the Oxford Knee Score (OKS) and High Activity Arthroplasty Score (HAAS) items to a common scale, and to investigate the psychometric properties of this new scale for the measurement of knee health.

Methods: Patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) data measuring knee health were obtained from the NHS PROMs dataset and Total or Partial Knee Arthroplasty Trial (TOPKAT). Assumptions for common scale modelling were tested.

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Background: The PROMIS Preference score (PROPr) is a new health state utility (HSU) score that aims to comprehensively incorporate the biopsychosocial model of health and apply favorable psychometric properties from the descriptive PROMIS system to HSU measurements. However, minimal evidence concerning comparisons to the EQ-5D-3L and the PROPr's capability to differentiate clinical severity are available. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the PROPr to the EQ-5D-3L in terms of scale agreement, ceiling/floor effects, distribution, construct validity, discriminatory power, and relative efficiency (RE) in terms of the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for patients with low back pain (LBP).

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  • The study investigates the validity of using Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) scales for comparing physical function, upper extremity function, and pain interference across the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany for individuals aged 50 and older.
  • The research involves telephone interviews with participants from these countries, collecting data on PROMIS scales and sociodemographic factors, while ensuring demographic alignment to improve the representativeness of the sample.
  • Results will reveal how age, gender, and country relate to PROMIS scores, ultimately determining if PROMIS items can be used for valid cross-country comparisons in the specific health domains studied.
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  • Substitutional heteroatom doping in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) is an effective method for creating materials useful in nanoelectronics and sensing, with a focus on nitrogen doping replacing carbon atoms.
  • Traditional nitrogen doping mainly affected the edges of GNRs, leading to limited changes in the electronic energy levels.
  • The study introduces nitrogen core-doped 5-atom-wide armchair GNRs, which significantly shift the energy levels and open a new band gap, confirmed by theoretical calculations and experimental techniques like scanning tunneling spectroscopy.
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