Respiratory syncytial virus infection in patients with haematological diseases: a retrospective multicentre study.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections in patients with haematological diseases. It seeks to analyse the relevance of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of RSV infections.

Methods: A multi-centre, retrospective study was conducted across University Hospitals in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf between Jan 2016 and Aug 2023.

Adverse events associated with robotic-assistance in total hip arthroplasty: an analysis based on the FDA MAUDE database.

Background: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains the Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience (MAUDE) database for reporting adverse events associated with medical devices, including emerging technologies, such as robotic-assisted total hip arthroplasty (THA). Aim of this study was to evaluate the variation of adverse events associated with robotics in THA.

Methods: Medical device reports (MDRs) within the MAUDE database were identified between 2017 and 2021.

Preoperative Antidepressant Prescriptions Are Associated With Increased Opioid Prescriptions and Health Care Use but Similar Rates of Secondary Surgery Following Primary Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction in a Young Adult Population.

Purpose: To compare adverse events, postoperative opioid-prescribing patterns, health care use, and secondary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) surgery rates of patients undergoing primary ACLR with a preoperative antidepressant prescription (ADP) against a propensity-matched group with no preoperative antidepressant prescription (NADP) using the TriNetX Diamond Network.

Methods: Patients undergoing primary ACLR between ages 18 and 35 years of age were queried from the database using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision/Current Procedural Terminology codes. Patients with an ADP were propensity matched in a 1:1 ratio to patients with NADP based on 11 patient characteristics.

Tree Water Use Patterns as Influenced by Phenology in a Dry Forest of Southern Ecuador.

Tropical dry forests are composed of tree species with different drought coping strategies and encompass heterogeneous site conditions. Actual water use will be controlled by soil moisture availability. In a premontane dry forest of southern Ecuador, tree water use patterns of four tree species of different phenologies were studied along an elevational gradient, in which soil moisture availability increases with altitude.

Characterization of cocoa production, income diversification and shade tree management along a climate gradient in Ghana.

Reduced climatic suitability due to climate change in cocoa growing regions of Ghana is expected in the coming decades. This threatens farmers' livelihood and the cocoa sector. Climate change adaptation requires an improved understanding of existing cocoa production systems and farmers' coping strategies.

Chlorin Nanoparticles for Tissue Diagnostics and Photodynamic Therapy.

Background: Organic crystalline nanoparticles (NPs) are not fluorescent due to the crystalline structure of the flat molecules organized in layers. In earlier experiments with Aluminum Phthalocyanine (AlPc)-derived NPs, the preferential uptake and dissolution by macrophages was demonstrated [3]. Therefore, inflamed tissue or cancer tissue with accumulated macrophages may exhibit specific fluorescence in contrast to healthy tissue which does not fluoresce.

Cocoa agroforestry is less resilient to sub-optimal and extreme climate than cocoa in full sun.

Cocoa agroforestry is perceived as potential adaptation strategy to sub-optimal or adverse environmental conditions such as drought. We tested this strategy over wet, dry and extremely dry periods comparing cocoa in full sun with agroforestry systems: shaded by (i) a leguminous tree species, Albizia ferruginea and (ii) Antiaris toxicaria, the most common shade tree species in the region. We monitored micro-climate, sap flux density, throughfall, and soil water content from November 2014 to March 2016 at the forest-savannah transition zone of Ghana with climate and drought events during the study period serving as proxy for projected future climatic conditions in marginal cocoa cultivation areas of West Africa.

Climate-Smart Livestock Systems: An Assessment of Carbon Stocks and GHG Emissions in Nicaragua.

Livestock systems in the tropics can contribute to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increasing carbon accumulation. We quantified C stocks and GHG emissions of 30 dual-purpose cattle farms in Nicaragua using farm inventories and lifecycle analysis. Trees in silvo-pastoral systems were the main C stock above-ground (16-24 Mg ha-1), compared with adjacent secondary forests (43 Mg C ha-1).

Lowering photosensitizer doses and increasing fluences induce apoptosis in tumor bearing mice.

The objective of this study was to determine an optimal dose of photodynamic therapy (PDT) for inducing apoptotic tumor cells in vivo. In this context, mice bearing human tongue-squamous epithelium carcinomas were treated with various photosensitizer concentrations and fluences. Tumor apoptosis was imaged after 2 days via a self-designed DY-734-annexin V probe using near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) optical imaging.

[Being old is occurring later. Age-related norms and self-concepts in the second half of life].

Our contribution focuses on the question of how aging subjects experience and interpret biographic transitions into old age - specifically against the background of the current sociodiscursive revaluation of the so-called young old. The results of our qualitative interviews with elderly men and women in Germany indicate that the self-description "young elderly" does not play a role in identity-building in higher age, although norms of "active" or "productive aging" are widely accepted by the elderly. On the other hand, notions of "very old age" in need of care appear as something that can barely be integrated into the self-concepts and life plans of the interviewees.

[Being old is occurring later: age-related norms and self-concepts in the second half of life].

Our contribution focuses on the question of how aging subjects experience and interpret biographic transitions into old age - specifically against the background of the current sociodiscursive revaluation of the so-called young old. The results of our qualitative interviews with elderly men and women in Germany indicate that the self-description "young elderly" does not play a role in identity-building in higher age, although norms of "active" or "productive aging" are widely accepted by the elderly. On the other hand, notions of "very old age" in need of care appear as something that can barely be integrated into the self-concepts and life plans of the interviewees.

Cellular and molecular effects of the liposomal mTHPC derivative Foslipos in prostate carcinoma cells in vitro.

Background: Meso-tetra-hydroxyphenyl-chlorine (mTHPC) is among the most powerful photosensitizers available for photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, the mechanisms leading to cell death are poorly understood. We here focused on changes at DNA and RNA levels after treatment with the liposomal mTHPC derivative Foslipos in vitro.

Genes from Chagas susceptibility loci that are differentially expressed in T. cruzi-resistant mice are candidates accounting for impaired immunity.

Variation between inbred mice of susceptibility to experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infection has frequently been described, but the immunogenetic background is poorly understood. The outcross of the susceptible parental mouse strains C57BL/6 (B6) and DBA/2 (D2), B6D2F1 (F1) mice, is highly resistant to this parasite. In the present study we show by quantitative PCR that the increase of tissue parasitism during the early phase of infection is comparable up to day 11 between susceptible B6 and resistant F1 mice.

Spontaneous recovery of pathogenicity by Leishmania major hsp100-/- alters the immune response in mice.

By using repeated mouse infection cycles, we obtained an escape variant with restored infectivity and pathogenicity that originated from a single, noninfectious hsp100-/- gene (formerly known as DeltaclpB) replacement clone of Leishmania major, the causative agent of cutaneous leishmaniasis. This isolate elicited increased infiltration of immune cells to the site of infection and altered the polarization of the immune response in BALB/c mice from a predominantly TH2 type to a TH1 type. A clonal analysis resulted in isolation of two clones with antagonistic properties.

Interaction of natural killer cells with Trypanosoma cruzi-infected fibroblasts.

The protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi circulates in the blood as trypomastigotes and invades a variety of cells to multiply intracellularly as amastigotes. The acute phase triggers an immune response that restricts the proliferation of the parasite. However, parasites are able to persist in different tissues causing the pathology of Chagas' disease.