Publications by authors named "Hammer C"

Cancer immunotherapy-including immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) and adoptive cell therapy (ACT)-has become a standard, potentially curative treatment for a subset of advanced solid and liquid tumors. However, most patients with cancer do not benefit from the rapidly evolving improvements in the understanding of principal mechanisms determining cancer immune responsiveness (CIR); including patient-specific genetically determined and acquired factors, as well as intrinsic cancer cell biology. Though CIR is multifactorial, fundamental concepts are emerging that should be considered for the design of novel therapeutic strategies and related clinical studies.

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Demands for animal products are projected to increase in the future, and animal production is key to agricultural sustainability and food security; consequently, enhancing ruminant livestock production efficiencies in sustainable ways is a major goal for the livestock industry. Developmental programming is the concept that various stressors, including compromised maternal nutrition during critical developmental windows will result in both short- and long-term changes in the offspring. Ruminant models of developmental programming indicate that compromised maternal nutrition, including global under and over-nutrition, macronutrients, and specific micronutrients, including amino acids (Met and Arg), vitamins (folate, B, and choline), and minerals (sulfur, cobalt, and selenium) can alter offspring outcomes.

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Purpose: Parent engagement is a critical component of optimizing services for young children with disabilities, including those with language disorders. Without training, however, many parents may lack the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate their children's language development during the essential early childhood years. The Parents Plus intervention was designed to support parents, through online training and coaching, in using focused stimulation, an evidence-based strategy for fostering early language development.

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In Plateau State, pastoralism has historically been a cost effective and resilient economic system well-suited to the ecological context. However, changes in land use and conflict have increasingly changed patterns of mobility. Pastoralist movement is now often associated with zoonotic disease transmission, environmental degradation and conflict, increasingly resulting in forced sedentarisation.

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Background: It is uncertain what could be the best training methods for infection prevention and control when an infectious disease threat is active or imminent in especially vulnerable or resource-scarce settings.

Methods: A scoping review was undertaken to find and summarise relevant information about training modalities, replicability and effectiveness of IPC training programmes for clinical staff as reported in multiple study designs. Eligible settings were conflict-affected or in countries classified as low-income or lower-middle income (World Bank 2022 classifications).

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Endothelial cells (ECs) are vital structural units of the cardiovascular system possessing two principal distinctive properties: heterogeneity and plasticity. Endothelial heterogeneity is defined by differences in tissue-specific endothelial phenotypes and their high predisposition to modification along the length of the vascular bed. This aspect of heterogeneity is closely associated with plasticity, the ability of ECs to adapt to environmental cues through the mobilization of genetic, molecular, and structural alterations.

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The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) is the receptor responsible for bidirectional transport of immunoglobulin G (IgG) across cells, maintenance of IgG levels in serum, and assisting with antigen presentation. Unfortunately, little is known about FcRn in horses. Therefore, the objective of this study was to provide fundamental information regarding the location of FcRn in equine tissues.

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Addressing the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) and macrophage M1/M2 activation is important in diagnosing hematological disorders and inflammatory pathologies and designing therapeutic tools. CSF1R is a reliable marker to identify all circulating MPS cells and tissue macrophages in humans using a single surface protein. CSF1R permits the quantification and isolation of monocyte and dendritic cell (DC) subsets in conjunction with CD14, CD16, and CD1c and is stable across the lifespan and sexes in the absence of overt pathology.

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The objective of this study was to determine the dose-dependent response of one-carbon metabolite (OCM: methionine, choline, folate, and vitamin B12) supplementation on heifer dry matter intake on fixed gain, organ mass, hematology, cytokine concentration, pancreatic and jejunal enzyme activity, and muscle hydrogen peroxide production. Angus heifers (n = 30; body weight [BW] = 392.6 ± 12.

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Early works that used thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) to measure absorbed dose from alpha particles reported relatively high variation (10%) between TLDs, which is undesirable for modern dosimetry applications. This work outlines a method to increase precision for absorbed dose measured using TLDs with alpha-emitting radionuclides by applying an alpha-specific chip factor (CF) that individually characterizes the TLD sensitivity to alpha particles. Variation between TLDs was reduced from 21.

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The goal of this work was to assess the potential use of non-contact scintillator imaging dosimetry for tracking delivery in total body irradiation (TBI).. Studies were conducted to measure the time-gated light signals caused by radiation exposure to scintillators that were placed on tissue.

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Purpose: To elucidate whether it is feasible to use porcine eyes from scalded, abattoir-acquired animals for refractive femtosecond laser research.

Methods: An infrared laser (FS 200) and an ultraviolet laser (prototype version) were tested for their applicability on scalded pig eyes. Fifty porcine eyes were divided into two equally-sized groups and assigned to either the infrared or the ultraviolet laser.

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Malaria is endemic in Guinea; however, the extent and role in transmission of asymptomatic malaria are not well understood. In May 2023, we conducted a rapid community survey to determine () prevalence among asymptomatic individuals in Middle Guinea (Prefecture Dalaba) and Forest Guinea (Prefecture Guéckédou). In Dalaba, 6 of 239 (2.

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Background: Pulsed reduced dose rate (PRDR) is an emerging radiotherapy technique for recurrent diseases. It is pertinent that the linac beam characteristics are evaluated for PRDR dose rates and a suitable dosimeter is employed for IMRT QA.

Purpose: This study sought to investigate the pulse characteristics of a 6 MV photon beam during PRDR irradiations on a commercial linac.

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Background: To investigate the root depth, root angle, and light and scanning electron microscopical anatomy of human eyelashes relevant to eyelash ablation.

Methods: Eyelash root depth, the angle between eyelash root and skin epithelium, spatial relationship, and scanning electron microscopical features of the eyelashes were studied on 4 upper and 4 lower eyelids of Caucasian (n = 4) and Indian (n = 4) cadaver heads according to a set protocol.

Results: There were significant differences in the mean eyelash root depth between Indians (2.

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Cryptochromes (CRYs) are a structurally conserved but functionally diverse family of proteins that can confer unique sensory properties to organisms. In the marine bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii, its light receptive cryptochrome L-CRY (PdLCry) allows the animal to discriminate between sunlight and moonlight, an important requirement for synchronizing its lunar cycle-dependent mass spawning. Using cryo-electron microscopy, we show that in the dark, PdLCry adopts a dimer arrangement observed neither in plant nor insect CRYs.

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The broad application of precision cancer immunotherapies is limited by the number of validated neoepitopes that are common among patients or tumor types. To expand the known repertoire of shared neoantigen-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complexes, we developed a high-throughput platform that coupled an in vitro peptide-HLA binding assay with engineered cellular models expressing individual HLA alleles in combination with a concatenated transgene harboring 47 common cancer neoantigens. From more than 24,000 possible neoepitope-HLA combinations, biochemical and computational assessment yielded 844 unique candidates, of which 86 were verified after immunoprecipitation mass spectrometry analyses of engineered, monoallelic cell lines.

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We present the findings from the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) Alumni Network (EAN) Member Survey conducted in October to December 2021. The EAN consists of field epidemiologists (EPIET) and public health microbiologists (European Public Health Microbiology Training Programme (EUPHEM)) who stay connected after their 2-year fellowship. This active alumni network provides opportunities for career development, mentorship, knowledge exchange and sharing of best practices for community members, affiliated professionals and public health organisations in Europe.

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In recent years, field epidemiologists have embraced rapidly evolving digital tools, data sources and technologies, and collaborated with an ever-growing field of scientific specialisms. The COVID-19 pandemic put field epidemiology under unprecedented demand and scrutiny. As the COVID-19 emergency recedes, it is timely to reflect on the core values of our profession and the unique challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

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The proximal hamstring complex is a highly vulnerable area that is especially prone to injury. Proximal hamstring tendinopathies (PHTs) remain challenging in diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention due to a large variety of different injuries, slow healing response, persistent symptoms, and functional impairments. PHTs are often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, leading to delayed treatment and therapy failure.

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Children growing up bilingually are often treated as a monolithic group; however, heritage language (HL) bilinguals constitute an extremely heterogenous group that vary due to a wide variety of factors. In her keynote, Paradis provides a thought-provoking analysis of the research literature and identifies key internal and external factors that lead to individual differences. Specifically, she identifies age of second language (L2) acquisition, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional wellbeing as important internal factors.

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Objective: Evaluating various polishing methods after bracket debonding and excessive attachment material removal for different ceramics and pretreatments.

Material And Methods: Zirconia (ZrO2), leucite (LEU) and lithium disilicate (LiSi) specimens were pretreated with a) silica coated alumina particles (CoJet); LEU and LiSi additionally with b) hydrofluoric acid (HF), c) Monobond Etch&Prime (MEP), d) silicium carbide grinder (SiC) before bracket bonding, shearing off, ARI evaluation, excessive attachment material removal and polishing with i) Sof-Lex Discs (Soflex), ii) polishing paste (Paste), iii) polishing set (Set). Before/after polishing surface roughness (Ra) was measured with a profilometer.

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Voxel-level dosimetry based on nuclear medicine images offers patient-specific personalization of radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) treatments. Clinical evidence is emerging demonstrating improvements in treatment precision in patients when voxel-level dosimetry is used compared to MIRD. Voxel-level dosimetry requires absolute quantification of activity concentrations in the patient, but images from SPECT/CT scanners are not quantitative and require calibration using nuclear medicine phantoms.

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