Feasibility test of per-flight contrail avoidance in commercial aviation.

Contrails, formed by aircraft engines, are a major component of aviation's impact on anthropogenic climate change. Contrail avoidance is a potential option to mitigate this warming effect, however, uncertainties surrounding operational constraints and accurate formation prediction make it unclear whether it is feasible. Here we address this gap with a feasibility test through a randomized controlled trial of contrail avoidance in commercial aviation at the per-flight level.

Standardized Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Congenital Aniridia.

Introduction: Congenital aniridia is a rare panocular disorder that is associated with varying degrees of impairment of visual acuity. The COST Action (CA18116) developed a survey (aniridia-net.eu) to assess patient-reported experiences with congenital aniridia and its impacts on vision and daily life.

Prediction of Enhancer-Gene Interactions Using Chromatin-Conformation Capture and Epigenome Data Using STARE.

Disentangling the relationship of enhancers and genes is an ongoing challenge in epigenomics. We present STARE, our software to quantify the strength of enhancer-gene interactions based on enhancer activity and chromatin contact data. It implements the generalized Activity-by-Contact (gABC) score, which allows predicting putative target genes of candidate enhancers over any desired genomic distance.

Community-driven governance of FAIRness assessment: an open issue, an open discussion.

Although FAIR Research Data Principles are targeted at and implemented by different communities, research disciplines, and research stakeholders (data stewards, curators, etc.), there is no conclusive way to determine the level of FAIRness intended or required to make research artefacts (including, but not limited to, research data) Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The FAIR Principles cover all types of digital objects, metadata, and infrastructures.

Computational tools for inferring transcription factor activity.

Transcription factors (TFs) are essential players in orchestrating the regulatory landscape in cells. Still, their exact modes of action and dependencies on other regulatory aspects remain elusive. Since TFs act cell type-specific and each TF has its own characteristics, untangling their regulatory interactions from an experimental point of view is laborious and convoluted.

Assessing the Use of Telepresence-Guided Video-Based Head and Neck Ultrasound Training: A Step towards Minimizing Dependence on Human Resources?

The acquisition of ultrasound skills is an essential part of any medical student's education. University access restrictions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need for digitization in teaching. However, teaching manual skills in online courses has proven to be challenging, not least in terms of human resources.

[Congenital aniridia patients' experience on their visual impairment in Hungary.].

Introduction: Aniridia is a rare congenital panocular disease associated with varying degrees of visual acuity impairment.

Objective: To assess the experiences of congenital aniridia patients in Hungary, with visual impairment using a questionnaire developed by the ANIRIDIA-NET.

Patients And Method: Patients completed the Hungarian version of the 20-item ANIRIDIA-NET questionnaire with our assistance.

The adapted Activity-By-Contact model for enhancer-gene assignment and its application to single-cell data.

Motivation: Identifying regulatory regions in the genome is of great interest for understanding the epigenomic landscape in cells. One fundamental challenge in this context is to find the target genes whose expression is affected by the regulatory regions. A recent successful method is the Activity-By-Contact (ABC) model which scores enhancer-gene interactions based on enhancer activity and the contact frequency of an enhancer to its target gene.

Identification of Neural Mechanisms in First Single-Sweep Analysis in oVEMPs and Novel Normative Data.

Background: Bone-conducted (BC) VEMPs provide important tools for measuring otolith function. However, two major drawbacks of this method are encountered in clinical practice-small n10 amplitude and averaging technique. In this study, we present the results of a new VEMP setup measuring technique combined with a novel single-sweep analysis.

DOT1L regulates chamber-specific transcriptional networks during cardiogenesis and mediates postnatal cell cycle withdrawal.

Mechanisms by which specific histone modifications regulate distinct gene networks remain little understood. We investigated how H3K79me2, a modification catalyzed by DOT1L and previously considered a general transcriptional activation mark, regulates gene expression during cardiogenesis. Embryonic cardiomyocyte ablation of Dot1l revealed that H3K79me2 does not act as a general transcriptional activator, but rather regulates highly specific transcriptional networks at two critical cardiogenic junctures: embryonic cardiogenesis, where it was particularly important for left ventricle-specific genes, and postnatal cardiomyocyte cell cycle withdrawal, with Dot1L mutants having more mononuclear cardiomyocytes and prolonged cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity.

-Establishment and Evaluation of a Video-Based "Hands-On" Head and Neck Ultrasound Course.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly highlighted the need for more digitalization in healthcare. Teaching ultrasound skills in online courses is a key challenge in this context. The aim of this study was to establish an online video-based head and neck ultrasound course with an evaluation of the quality, effectiveness, and feasibility of this teaching method compared to in-person teaching.

Supporting Visual Exploration of Iterative Job Scheduling.

We consider the general problem known as job shop scheduling, in which multiple jobs consist of sequential operations that need to be executed or served by appropriate machines having limited capacities. For example, train journeys (jobs) consist of moves and stops (operations) to be served by rail tracks and stations (machines). A schedule is an assignment of the job operations to machines and times where and when they will be executed.

Assessment of Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients' Preferences for Biologic Treatments in Germany Using a Discrete Choice Experiment.

Background: Current treatment regimens for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) include biologics such as epidermal growth factor receptor and vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors, which have specific side-effect profiles. There is a lack of information on mCRC patient preference in Germany regarding biologics in combination with chemotherapy. This study aims to identify German mCRC patients' preference for these treatments PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a multicenter cross-sectional discrete choice experiment (DCE).

[Neurophysiological parameters for speech recognition in patients with cochlear implants].

Objectives: Cochlea Implants (CI) are the preferred treatment for deaf and highly hearing imparied people. While deaf people already profit enormously from any regained hearing perception, it is not as easy to predict a profitable outcome for people with a remaining sense of hearing. To provide patients the best possible outcome in speech understanding, a lot of parameters have to be identified and adjusted.

[Prospektives Audit des Gentamicin Drug Monitorings in einem Kinderkrebszentrum].

Background: Many pediatric cancer centers still use Gentamicin as first line combination treatment in patients with fever and neutropenia. Since 2011, our center has implemented a dosing regimen with 250 mg/m BSA (max. 10 mg/kg, max.

EpiRegio: analysis and retrieval of regulatory elements linked to genes.

A current challenge in genomics is to interpret non-coding regions and their role in transcriptional regulation of possibly distant target genes. Genome-wide association studies show that a large part of genomic variants are found in those non-coding regions, but their mechanisms of gene regulation are often unknown. An additional challenge is to reliably identify the target genes of the regulatory regions, which is an essential step in understanding their impact on gene expression.

Constructing Spaces and Times for Tactical Analysis in Football.

A possible objective in analyzing trajectories of multiple simultaneously moving objects, such as football players during a game, is to extract and understand the general patterns of coordinated movement in different classes of situations as they develop. For achieving this objective, we propose an approach that includes a combination of query techniques for flexible selection of episodes of situation development, a method for dynamic aggregation of data from selected groups of episodes, and a data structure for representing the aggregates that enables their exploration and use in further analysis. The aggregation, which is meant to abstract general movement patterns, involves construction of new time-homomorphic reference systems owing to iterative application of aggregation operators to a sequence of data selections.

Cochlea-Specific Deletion of Ca1.3 Calcium Channels Arrests Inner Hair Cell Differentiation and Unravels Pitfalls of Conditional Mouse Models.

Inner hair cell (IHC) Ca1.3 Ca channels are multifunctional channels mediating Ca influx for exocytosis at ribbon synapses, the generation of Ca action potentials in pre-hearing IHCs and gene expression. IHCs of deaf systemic Ca1.

Synaptic coupling of inner ear sensory cells is controlled by brevican-based extracellular matrix baskets resembling perineuronal nets.

Background: Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are specialized aggregations of extracellular matrix (ECM) molecules surrounding specific neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). PNNs are supposed to control synaptic transmission and are frequently associated with neurons firing at high rates, including principal neurons of auditory brainstem nuclei. The origin of high-frequency activity of auditory brainstem neurons is the indefatigable sound-driven transmitter release of inner hair cells (IHCs) in the cochlea.

[Multicentric analysis of the use behavior of cochlear implant users].

Introduction: Novel cochlear implant speech processors are capable of storing data logs. With the help of this information a more individualized patient care can be provided. However, standard data are missing to a greater extent to the individual usage behavior.

Prosthetic supply of facial defects: long-term experience and retrospective analysis on 99 patients.

Introduction: Defects in the head region may be caused by tumour treatments, injuries, as well as congenital malformations. The restoration of these defects that can be performed through reconstructive plastic surgery and/or prosthetic surgery occupies a high priority in the physical and psychological rehabilitation of the patient. The present study reports on long-term experience in supply of facial prosthesis.

Combined therapy for epistaxis by hereditary hemorrhagic teleangiectasia: A 3-year follow up study on 45 patients.

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a mutilating disease associated with the majority of patients with recurrent epistaxis episodes. The aim of this study was to present a single institution experience with patients treated for nasal epistaxis using a combination of Nd:YAG laser and argon plasma coagulation (APC) vs Nd:YAG laser alone, with a minimum follow-up of 3 years. 45 patients (21 men, 24 women) aged from 15 to 84 years with the diagnosis of HHT were treated in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery in Homburg/Saar between 10/2002 and 10/2012 because of epistaxis, using a combination of Nd:YAG laser and APC or Nd:YAG laser alone.

α2δ2 Controls the Function and Trans-Synaptic Coupling of Cav1.3 Channels in Mouse Inner Hair Cells and Is Essential for Normal Hearing.

Unlabelled: The auxiliary subunit αδ2 modulates the abundance and function of voltage-gated calcium channels. Here we show that αδ2 mRNA is expressed in neonatal and mature hair cells. A functional αδ2-null mouse, the ducky mouse (du), showed elevated auditory brainstem response click and frequency-dependent hearing thresholds.

Investigations on the prevalence of the photo-induced sneezing reflex in the German population, a representative cross-sectional study.

The sneezing reflex is a common phenomenon in human beings and animals. Until now largely uninvestigated sneezing phenomenon is the photic sneeze reflex, also known as the ACHOO (Autosomal Cholinergic Helio-Ophtalmologic Outburst). This light induced sneezing reflex is triggered by a bright light like the sun but also by artificial light.