Humanlike manual activities in Australopithecus.

The evolution of the human hand is a topic of great interest in paleoanthropology. As the hand can be involved in a vast array of activities, knowledge regarding how it was used by early hominins can yield crucial information on the factors driving biocultural evolution. Previous research on early hominin hands focused on the overall bone shape.

Immunosuppressive effects of circulating bile acids in human endotoxemia and septic shock: patients with liver failure are at risk.

Background: Sepsis-induced immunosuppression is a frequent cause of opportunistic infections and death in critically ill patients. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms is needed to develop targeted therapies. Circulating bile acids with immunosuppressive effects were recently identified in critically ill patients.

Impact of Regular Intake of Microalgae on Nutrient Supply and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: Results from the NovAL Intervention Study.

A 14-day randomized controlled study with a parallel design was conducted with 80 healthy participants. Intervention groups I (IG1) and II (IG2) received a defined background diet and consumed a smoothie enriched with either 15 g of dry weight (d.w.

Unifying the identification of biomedical entities with the Bioregistry.

The standardized identification of biomedical entities is a cornerstone of interoperability, reuse, and data integration in the life sciences. Several registries have been developed to catalog resources maintaining identifiers for biomedical entities such as small molecules, proteins, cell lines, and clinical trials. However, existing registries have struggled to provide sufficient coverage and metadata standards that meet the evolving needs of modern life sciences researchers.

Attitudes and perception of artificial intelligence in healthcare: A cross-sectional survey among patients.

Objective: The attitudes about the usage of artificial intelligence in healthcare are controversial. Unlike the perception of healthcare professionals, the attitudes of patients and their companions have been of less interest so far. In this study, we aimed to investigate the perception of artificial intelligence in healthcare among this highly relevant group along with the influence of digital affinity and sociodemographic factors.

Silver nanoparticles adversely affect the swimming behavior of European Whitefish () larvae within the low µg/L range.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs; speciation: NM-300 K) in the lab on the behavior of larvae in European Whitefish (), a relevant model species for temperate aquatic environments during alternating light and darkness phases. The behavioral parameters measured included activity, turning rate, and distance moved. were exposed to AgNP at nominal concentrations of 0, 5, 15, 45, 135, or 405 µg/L (n = 33, each) and behavior was recorded using a custom-built tracking system equipped with light sources that reliably simulate light and darkness.

Search for Lepton Number and Flavor Violation in K^{+} and π^{0} Decays.

Searches for the lepton number violating K^{+}→π^{-}μ^{+}e^{+} decay and the lepton flavor violating K^{+}→π^{+}μ^{-}e^{+} and π^{0}→μ^{-}e^{+} decays are reported using data collected by the NA62 experiment at CERN in 2017-2018. No evidence for these decays is found and upper limits of the branching ratios are obtained at 90% confidence level: B(K^{+}→π^{-}μ^{+}e^{+})<4.2×10^{-11}, B(K^{+}→π^{+}μ^{-}e^{+})<6.

Algorithmic surveillance of ICU patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ASIC): protocol for a multicentre stepped-wedge cluster randomised quality improvement strategy.

Introduction: The acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a highly relevant entity in critical care with mortality rates of 40%. Despite extensive scientific efforts, outcome-relevant therapeutic measures are still insufficiently practised at the bedside. Thus, there is a clear need to adhere to early diagnosis and sufficient therapy in ARDS, assuring lower mortality and multiple organ failure.

Internet of Samples (iSamples): Toward an interdisciplinary cyberinfrastructure for material samples.

Sampling the natural world and built environment underpins much of science, yet systems for managing material samples and associated (meta)data are fragmented across institutional catalogs, practices for identification, and discipline-specific (meta)data standards. The Internet of Samples (iSamples) is a standards-based collaboration to uniquely, consistently, and conveniently identify material samples, record core metadata about them, and link them to other samples, data, and research products. iSamples extends existing resources and best practices in data stewardship to render a cross-domain cyberinfrastructure that enables transdisciplinary research, discovery, and reuse of material samples in 21st century natural science.

Future Medical Artificial Intelligence Application Requirements and Expectations of Physicians in German University Hospitals: Web-Based Survey.

Background: The increasing development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in medicine driven by researchers and entrepreneurs goes along with enormous expectations for medical care advancement. AI might change the clinical practice of physicians from almost all medical disciplines and in most areas of health care. While expectations for AI in medicine are high, practical implementations of AI for clinical practice are still scarce in Germany.

Future Mobile Device Usage, Requirements, and Expectations of Physicians in German University Hospitals: Web-Based Survey.

Background: The use of mobile devices in hospital care constantly increases. However, smartphones and tablets have not yet widely become official working equipment in medical care. Meanwhile, the parallel use of private and official devices in hospitals is common.

Backside wear of tibial polyethylene components is affected by gait pattern: A knee simulator study using rare earth tracer technology.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of two in-vivo-determined gait patterns, one with low and one with high anteroposterior (AP) motion, on total and backside polyethylene insert wear in comparison with the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard 14243-3. In order to differentiate and accurately quantify topside and backside wear, a novel technique was employed where different lanthanide tracers were incorporated into the polyethylene during manufacture. Wear particle analysis was conducted following established protocols.

Impact of wastewater-borne nanoparticles of silver and titanium dioxide on the swimming behaviour and biochemical markers of Daphnia magna: An integrated approach.

Due to their widespread use, silver (Ag) and titanium dioxide (TiO) nanoparticles (NPs) are commonly discharged into aquatic environments via wastewater treatment plants. The study was aimed to assess the effects of wastewater-borne AgNPs (NM-300 K; 15.5 ± 2.

Articulation of an alumina-zirconia composite ceramic against living cartilage - An in vitro wear test.

Background: There is interest in minimally invasive solutions that reduce osteoarthritic symptoms and restore joint mobility in the early stages of cartilage degeneration. The aim of the present study was to evaluate an alumina-zirconia composite (AZC) as a counterface for articulation against live cartilage explants in comparison to the clinically relevant cobalt-chromium (CoCrMo) alloy.

Methods: A four-station bioreactor designed to articulate against living tissue in an incubator was used for testing.

Gaussian Mean Field Regularizes by Limiting Learned Information.

Variational inference with a factorized Gaussian posterior estimate is a widely-used approach for learning parameters and hidden variables. Empirically, a regularizing effect can be observed that is poorly understood. In this work, we show how mean field inference improves generalization by limiting mutual information between learned parameters and the data through noise.

Zebrafish larvae show negative phototaxis to near-infrared light.

Zebrafish larvae (Danio rerio) are among the most used model species to test biological effects of different substances in biomedical research, neuroscience and ecotoxicology. Most tests are based on changes in swimming activity of zebrafish larvae by using commercially available high-throughput screening systems. These systems record and analyse behaviour patterns using visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR) light sources, to simulate day (VIS) and night (NIR) phases, which allow continuous recording of the behaviour using a NIR sensitive camera.

The Role of the Intestinal Microbiome in Chronic Psychosocial Stress-Induced Pathologies in Male Mice.

Chronic psychosocial stress is a risk factor for the development of physical and mental disorders accompanied or driven by an activated immune system. Given that chronic stress-induced systemic immune activation is lacking in germ-free and antibiotics-treated mice, a causal role of the gut microbiome in the development of stress-related disorders is likely. To address this hypothesis in the current study we employed the chronic subordinate colony housing (CSC, 19 days) paradigm, a pre-clinically validated mouse model for chronic psychosocial stress, known to alter the gut microbial signature and to induce systemic low-grade inflammation, as well as physical and mental abnormalities.

Impulsivity predicts illness severity in long-term course of bipolar disorder: A prospective approach.

Background: Bipolar disorder is a common, severe and chronic mental illness. Despite this, predictors of illness severity remain poorly understood. Impulsivity is reported to be associated with bipolar disorder and aggravating comorbidities.

Corrigendum: Computer-assisted quantification of motile and invasive capabilities of cancer cells.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep15338.

Effects of Psychosocial Stress on Subsequent Hemorrhagic Shock and Resuscitation in Male Mice.

Background: Hypoxemia and tissue ischemia during hemorrhage as well as formation of oxygen and nitrogen radicals during resuscitation promote hyperinflammation and, consequently, trigger severe multi-organ failure (MOF). Individuals diagnosed with stress-related disorders or reporting a life history of psychosocial stress are characterized by chronic low-grade inflammation and a reduced glucocorticoid (GC) signaling. We hypothesized that exposure to chronic psychosocial stress during adulthood prior to hemorrhagic shock increases oxidative/nitrosative stress and therefore the risk of developing MOF in mice.

Uniform resolution of compact identifiers for biomedical data.

Most biomedical data repositories issue locally-unique accessions numbers, but do not provide globally unique, machine-resolvable, persistent identifiers for their datasets, as required by publishers wishing to implement data citation in accordance with widely accepted principles. Local accessions may however be prefixed with a namespace identifier, providing global uniqueness. Such "compact identifiers" have been widely used in biomedical informatics to support global resource identification with local identifier assignment.

Total Synthesis of Ripostatin B and Structure-Activity Relationship Studies on Ripostatin Analogs.

Described is the total synthesis of the myxobacterial natural product ripostatin B and of a small number of analogs. Ripostatin B is a polyketide-derived 14-membered macrolide that acts as an inhibitor of bacterial RNA-polymerase, but is mechanistically distinct from rifamycin-derived RNA-polymerase inhibitors that are in use for tuberculosis treatment. The macrolactone ring of ripostatin B features two stereocenters and a synthetically challenging doubly skipped triene motif, with one of the double bonds being in conjugation with the ester carbonyl.

Detection of the Bacterial Quorum-Sensing Signaling Molecules N-Acyl-Homoserine Lactones (HSL) and N-Acyl-Homoserine (HS) with an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and via Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS).

Quick and reliable quantitative methods requiring low amounts of sample volume are needed for the detection of N-acyl-homoserine lactones (HSL) and their degradation products N-acyl-homoserines (HS) in order to elucidate the occurrence and dynamics of these prevalent quorum-sensing molecules of Gram-negative bacteria in natural samples and laboratory model experiments. A combination of ELISA and UHPLC-MS is presented here which has proven to meet these requirements. Both methods can not only precisely detect and quantify HSLs but also their degradation products HS and thereby enable studying signaling dynamics in quorum sensing, which have been identified to play an essential role in bacterial communication.

A hierarchical testing strategy for micropollutants in drinking water regarding their potential endocrine-disrupting effects-towards health-related indicator values.

In Germany, micropollutants that (may) occur in drinking water are assessed by means of the health-related indicator value (HRIV concept), developed by the German Federal Environment Agency. This concept offers five threshold values (≤ 0.01 to ≤ 3 μg l) depending on availability and completeness of data regarding genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and germ cell-damaging potential.