Management of growth arrest: Current practice and future directions.

Introduction: Premature growth arrest can pose a challenge to the orthopedic surgeon. Various options for treating physeal arrest exist.

Methods: Systematic searches were conducted on PubMed/Medline, ScienceDirect, OVID, and Cochrane Library.

Crossmodal lifelong learning in hybrid neural embodied architectures.

Lake et al. point out that grounding learning in general principles of embodied perception and social cognition is the next step in advancing artificial intelligent machines. We suggest it is necessary to go further and consider lifelong learning, which includes developmental learning, focused on embodiment as applied in developmental robotics and neurorobotics, and crossmodal learning that facilitates integrating multiple senses.

A Match-Pair Analysis of Open Versus Laparoscopic Liver Surgery.

Background And Objectives: In addition to general advantages of laparoscopic over open surgery, such as better cosmesis and faster recovery, laparoscopic liver surgery offers specific advantages. Improved liver function and potentially earlier postoperative oncologic treatment are suggested by the literature as benefits of laparoscopic over open liver surgery. The purpose of this analysis was to analyze the outcomes of laparoscopic liver surgery in our department.

Pringle maneuver increases the risk of anastomotic leakage after colonic resection in rats.

Background: Many centers use the Pringle's maneuver during liver resections. Since this maneuver might impair healing of bowel anastomoses, we evaluated its influence on the healing of colonic anastomosis in rats.

Methods: Male Wistar rats underwent median laparotomy and sigmoid resection with end-to-end anastomosis under inhalation anesthesia.

Individualized support for informal caregivers of people with dementia - effectiveness of the German adaptation of REACH II.

Background: Individualized, outreach and structured multicomponent interventions are a promising intervention approach to relieve the burden of informal caregivers of people with dementia. In this study, we adapted and evaluated a multicomponent intervention (Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health II, REACH II), which was developed in the USA, to the German health-care system. Therefore the project is called the German adaptation of REACH II (in German: Deutsche Adaptation der REACH II, DE-REACH).

Transfer of Minibeam Radiation Therapy into a cost-effective equipment for radiobiological studies: a proof of concept.

Minibeam radiation therapy (MBRT) is an innovative synchrotron radiotherapy technique able to shift the normal tissue complication probability curves to significantly higher doses. However, its exploration was hindered due to the limited and expensive beamtime at synchrotrons. The aim of this work was to develop a cost-effective equipment to perform systematic radiobiological studies in view of MBRT.

Pregnancy and perinatal conditions and atopic disease prevalence in childhood and adulthood.

Background: Previous studies showed controversial results for the influence of pregnancy-related and perinatal factors on subsequent respiratory and atopic diseases in children. The aim of this study was to assess the association between perinatal variables and the prevalence of asthma, bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR), flexural eczema (FE), allergic rhinitis, and sensitization in childhood and early adulthood.

Methods: The studied population was first examined in Munich and Dresden in 1995/1996 at age 9-11 years.

P300-based acuity estimation in imitated amblyopia.

Purpose: A frequent approach to estimating visual acuity objectively is the recording of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) to patterns of different coarseness. This, however, overestimates acuity in patients with fragmented and distorted vision such as in amblyopia. This is likely due to VEP-based techniques using checkerboard or grating stimuli.

How to Initiate Dementia Care Networks? Processes, Barriers, and Facilitators During the Development Process of a Practice-Oriented Website Toolkit Out of Research Results.

Background: Despite its high relevance, scientific evidence often fails to be disseminated into practice. Information websites can be a successful information dissemination tool, but very little is known about the processes involved in the interdisciplinary development of such websites. This article aims to demonstrate the processes, barriers, and facilitators during the development and publication of a practice-friendly information website grounded in scientifically based research findings about dementia care networks obtained by the DemNet-D study.

Diatrack particle tracking software: Review of applications and performance evaluation.

Object tracking is an instrumental tool supporting studies of cellular trafficking. There are three challenges in object tracking: the identification of targets; the precise determination of their position and boundaries; and the assembly of correct trajectories. This last challenge is particularly relevant when dealing with densely populated images with low signal-to-noise ratios-conditions that are often encountered in applications such as organelle tracking, virus particle tracking or single-molecule imaging.

Neoadjuvant Therapy of Pancreatic Cancer: Definitions and Benefits.

The standard treatment of resectable pancreatic cancer is surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Due to the complication rate of pancreatic surgery and the high rate of primary irresectability, neoadjuvant concepts are increasingly used for pancreatic cancer. Neoadjuvant therapy is better tolerated than adjuvant and might decrease the surgical complication rate from pancreatic surgery.

Gut microbiomes of free-ranging and captive Namibian cheetahs: Diversity, putative functions and occurrence of potential pathogens.

Although the significance of the gut microbiome for host health is well acknowledged, the impact of host traits and environmental factors on the interindividual variation of gut microbiomes of wildlife species is not well understood. Such information is essential; however, as changes in the composition of these microbial communities beyond the natural range might cause dysbiosis leading to increased susceptibility to infections. We examined the potential influence of sex, age, genetic relatedness, spatial tactics and the environment on the natural range of the gut microbiome diversity in free-ranging Namibian cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus).

Increased temperature and CO2 alleviate photoinhibition in Desmarestia anceps: from transcriptomics to carbon utilization.

Ocean acidification and warming are affecting polar regions with particular intensity. Rocky shores of the Antarctic Peninsula are dominated by canopy-forming Desmarestiales. This study investigates the physiological and transcriptomic responses of the endemic macroalga Desmarestia anceps to a combination of different levels of temperature (2 and 7 °C), dissolved CO2 (380 and 1000 ppm), and irradiance (65 and 145 µmol photons m-2 s-1).

Association of household cleaning agents and disinfectants with asthma in young German adults.

Objectives: We scrutinised the association of private use of household sprays and disinfectants with asthma incidence in young adults in the transition from school to working life.

Methods: Between 2007 and 2009,2051 young adults aged 19-24 years living in two major German cities took part in the Study on Occupational Allergy Risks II. Self-reported exposure to household sprays and disinfectants was characterised according to a composite score for frequency of use as no use (score=0), low use (score between 1 and the median), medium use (score between the median and the 90th percentile) and high use (score above the 90th percentile).

Bedside repositioning of a dislocated Avalon-cannula in a running veno-venous ECMO.

We report a repositioning maneuver of a dislocated Avalon Elite dual lumen catheter during ongoing veno-venous ECMO support. The inferior tip of the catheter dislocated into a liver vein, which was accompanied by a dramatic decrease in pump flow. After standard repositioning maneuvers under transthoracic echocardiographic guidance had failed, a special guiding sheath was inserted into the main lumen through a Y-connector with a valve.

Adverse genomic alterations and stemness features are induced by field cancerization in the microenvironment of hepatocellular carcinomas.

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) commonly develops in chronically damaged liver tissues. The resulting regenerative and inflammatory processes create an adverse milieu that promotes tumor-initiation and progression. A better understanding of the hepatic tumor-microenvironment interaction might infer profound therapeutic implications.

Hepatic resection for primary and secondary liver malignancies.

Liver surgery has become the standard treatment of primary liver cancer and liver metastases from colorectal cancer. Also, patients with non-colorectal liver metastases are increasingly offered surgery due to the low morbidity and excellent long-term results. The evolution of two-stage procedures helps to increase resectability.

Cheetahs have a stronger constitutive innate immunity than leopards.

As a textbook case for the importance of genetics in conservation, absence of genetic variability at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is thought to endanger species viability, since it is considered crucial for pathogen resistance. An alternative view of the immune system inspired by life history theory posits that a strong response should evolve in other components of the immune system if there is little variation in the MHC. In contrast to the leopard (Panthera pardus), the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) has a relatively low genetic variability at the MHC, yet free-ranging cheetahs are healthy.

[Hopes of high dose-rate radiotherapy].

In this review, we present the synthesis of the newly acquired knowledge concerning high dose-rate irradiations and the hopes that these new radiotherapy modalities give rise to. The results were presented at a recent symposium on the subject.

Regional dementia care networks in Germany: changes in caregiver burden at one-year follow-up and associated factors.

Background: Recently, regional dementia care networks (DCNs) have been established in Germany to provide timely support for persons with dementia (PwDs) and their families. There is a lack of research in this setting. This study was conducted to describe the burden experienced by informal caregivers over the course of one year when utilizing a DCN and the factors affecting potential changes in caregiver burden during that time.

Two-Tactor Vibrotactile Navigation Information for the Blind: Directional Resolution and Intuitive Interpretation.

Lacking vision, blind people have to exploit other senses for navigation. Using the tactile rather than the auditory sense avoids masking important environmental information. Directional information is particularly important and traditionally conveyed through an array of tactors, each coding one direction.

Stem-loop RNA labeling can affect nuclear and cytoplasmic mRNA processing.

The binding of sequence-specific RNA-interacting proteins, such as the bacteriophage MS2 or PP7 coat proteins, to their corresponding target sequences has been extremely useful and widely used to visualize single mRNAs in vivo. However, introduction of MS2 stem-loops into yeast mRNAs has recently been shown to lead to the accumulation of RNA fragments, suggesting that the loops impair mRNA decay. This result was questioned, because fragment occurrence was mainly assessed using ensemble methods, and their cellular localization and its implications had not been addressed on a single transcript level.

[Improvement of vision through perceptual learning in the case of refractive errors and presbyopia : A critical valuation].

The idea of compensating or even rectifying refractive errors and presbyopia with the help of vision training is not new. For most approaches, however, scientific evidence is insufficient. A currently promoted method is "perceptual learning", which is assumed to improve stimulus processing in the brain.

Temporal and spatial regulation of mRNA export: Single particle RNA-imaging provides new tools and insights.

The transport of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) from the nucleus to cytoplasm is an essential step in the gene expression program of all eukaryotes. Recent technological advances in the areas of RNA-labeling, microscopy, and sequencing are leading to novel insights about mRNA biogenesis and export. This includes quantitative single molecule imaging (SMI) of RNA molecules in live cells, which is providing knowledge of the spatial and temporal dynamics of the export process.