Initial evaluation of 4-palmitoyloxy butyrate in whole blood as potential biomarker after γ-hydroxybutyric acid intake.

The problem of finding a suitable biomarker to widen the detection window of γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) intake remains a challenge in forensic toxicology. Based on previously published results, the present study deals with the evaluation of a fatty acid ester of GHB (4-palmitoyloxy butyrate (GHB-Pal)) in whole blood as a potential biomarker to extend the detection window of GHB use e.g.

The Interplay of Oxytocin and Attachment in Schizophrenic Patients: An fMRI Study.

Background: Attachment theory offers an important framework for understanding interpersonal interaction experiences. In the present study, we examined the neural correlates of attachment patterns and oxytocin in schizophrenic patients (SZP) compared to healthy controls (HC) using fMRI. We assumed that male SZP shows a higher proportion of insecure attachment and an altered level of oxytocin compared to HC.

A chatbot-based intervention with ELME to improve stress and health-related parameters in a stressed sample: Study protocol of a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Stress levels in the general population had already been increasing in recent years, and have subsequently been exacerbated by the global pandemic. One approach for innovative online-based interventions are "chatbots" - computer programs that can simulate a text-based interaction with human users a conversational interface. Research on the efficacy of chatbot-based interventions in the context of mental health is sparse.

What semantic analysis can tell us about long term trends in the global STI policy agenda.

The scope, complexity and the "volume" of knowledge accumulated render producing an overview of the core themes of science, technology and innovation policies difficult. Reviews of this policy domain mostly either refer to general issues without deep immersion into details or focus on specific narrower aspects. The paper uses semantic analysis to identify major themes of science, technology and innovation policies over the last three decades and to trace their evolution towards current policy setting.

Are You Willing to Self-Disclose for Science? Effects of Privacy Awareness and Trust in Privacy on Self-Disclosure of Personal and Health Data in Online Scientific Studies-An Experimental Study.

Digital interactions via the internet have become the norm rather than the exception in our global society. Concerns have been raised about human-centered privacy and the often unreflected self-disclosure behavior of internet users. This study on human-centered privacy follows two major aims: first, investigate the willingness of university students (as digital natives) to disclose private data and information about their person, social and academic life, their mental health as well as their health behavior habits, when taking part as a volunteer in a scientific online survey.

Feasibility of a Software agent providing a brief Intervention for Self-help to Uplift psychological wellbeing ("SISU"). A single-group pretest-posttest trial investigating the potential of SISU to act as therapeutic agent.

Background: Software agents are computer-programs that conduct conversations with a human. The present study evaluates the feasibility of the software agent "SISU" aiming to uplift psychological wellbeing. Methods: Within a one-group pretest-posttest trial,  = 30 German-speaking participants were recruited.

Study protocol of a randomised controlled trial on SISU, a software agent providing a brief self-help intervention for adults with low psychological well-being.

Introduction: Only a minority of people living with mental health problems are getting professional help. As digitalisation moves on, the possibility of providing internet/mobile-based interventions (IMIs) arises. One type of IMIs are fully automated conversational software agents (chatbots).

Local capacity, innovative entrepreneurial places and global connections: an overview.

The globalisation trend of the past few decades, driven to a large extent by the proliferation of GVCs, has led to a set of significant changes in patterns of technology upgrading and new modes of interaction between domestic technology efforts and external sources of technological knowledge. Whether this new dynamic will lead to continuing increase in the economic importance of emerging economies will ultimately depend on whether their productivity growth will be driven by technology upgrading, requiring active and coordinated activity orchestrated by a variety of state and non-state actors under diverse sectoral, regional and national innovation systems. The new dynamic also reinforces the focus on local-global interfaces which becomes ever more important once we recognize that in the 21st century technology upgrading challenges depend much more on improvements in connectivity and on the industrial ecosystem.

Fitness and mobility training in patients with Intensive Care Unit-acquired muscle weakness (FITonICU): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Critical illness myopathy (CIM) and polyneuropathy (CIP) are a common complication of critical illness. Both cause intensive-care-unit-acquired (ICU-acquired) muscle weakness (ICUAW) which increases morbidity and delays rehabilitation and recovery of activities of daily living such as walking ability. Focused physical rehabilitation of people with ICUAW is, therefore, of great importance at both an individual and a societal level.

Phage-mediated transfer of a dextranase gene in Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis and characterization of the enzyme.

While phages of lactobacilli are extensively studied with respect to their structure and role in the dairy environment, knowledge about phages in bacteria residing in sourdough fermentation is limited. Based on the previous finding that the Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis phage EV3 carries a putative dextranase gene (dex), we have investigated the distribution of similar dex(+) phages in L. sanfranciscensis, the chance of gene transfer and the properties of the dextranase encoded by phage EV3.

Measurement procedure for glucose in serum using liquid chromatography isotope dilution--tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ID-MS/MS).

Background: We developed and validated a measurement procedure for glucose using liquid chromatography-isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry. The proposed method is intended to be used for setting target values in EQAS samples and for certification of glucose reference materials, including those in biological matrices.

Methods: Serum samples were spiked with internal standard 13C6 D-glucose.

Oxytocin and vasopressin levels are decreased in the plasma of male schizophrenia patients.

Objective: Impaired social functioning and autistic symptoms are characteristics of schizophrenia. The social hormones oxytocin (OT) and arginine-vasopressin (AVP) both modulate social interaction and therefore may be involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. We investigated whether men with schizophrenia show altered OT and AVP levels compared with healthy controls (HC) and whether autism symptoms are associated with OT levels.

The major function of a metallothionein from the aquatic fungus Heliscus lugdunensis is cadmium detoxification.

A spring from a former copper shale mine in the area of Mansfelder Land, Germany, shows extremely high transition metal ion concentrations, i.e. 40mM Zn(II), 208μM Cu(II), 61μM As(V), and 25μM Cd(II).

[The White man's burden - a case study caught between bipolar affective disorder and Huntington's disease].

We report upon a case of a 55 year old patient with a bipolar affective disorder, presenting herself with a depressive symptomatology in addition to a severe motor perturbation. The main emphasis upon admittance was perfecting and improving her latest medication. Four weeks prior to her stay at our clinic a thorough neurological examination had taken place in terms of an invalidity pension trial which did not result in any diagnostic findings.

How to design magneto-based total analysis systems for biomedical applications.

This article reviews recent developments on magnetoresistive detection of magnetic beads or nanoparticles by nanoscale sized sensors. Sensors are analyzed from an experimental and a numerical point of view in respect to their capability to either localize the position of a single magnetic particle or to detect the number of particles in a certain range. Guidelines are shown up on how to extend single sensors to sensor arrays with very high spatial resolution and how to modify the sensor shape in order to provide long distance measurements.

Identification and characterization of a glucan-producing enzyme from Lactobacillus hilgardii TMW 1.828 involved in granule formation of water kefir.

Water kefir is a home made fermented beverage based on a sucrose solution with fruit extracts. The inoculum of such fermentations consists of macroscopic granula containing lactic and acetic acid bacteria, and yeasts, which are embedded in an exopolysaccharide (EPS) matrix. In this work, a strain of Lactobacillus hilgardii producing large amounts of the granule-forming dextran could be isolated.

A novel role of the yeast CaaX protease Ste24 in chitin synthesis.

Ste24 is a membrane-integral CaaX metalloprotease residing in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In yeast, the only known substrate of Ste24 is the mating factor a precursor. A global screening for protein-protein interactions indicated that Ste24 interacts with chitin synthesis deficient (Chs)3, an enzyme required for chitin synthesis.

Purification of an active, oligomeric chitin synthase complex from the midgut of the tobacco hornworm.

Chitin formation depends on the activity of a family II glycosyltransferase known as chitin synthase, whose biochemical and structural properties are largely unknown. Previously, we have demonstrated that the chitin portion of the peritrophic matrix in the midgut of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, is produced by chitin synthase 2 (CHS-2), one of two isoenzymes encoded by the Chs-1 and Chs-2 genes (also named Chs-A and Chs-B), and that CHS-2 is located at the apical tips of the brush border microvilli. Here we report the purification of the chitin synthase from the Manduca midgut as monitored by its activity and immuno-reactivity with antibodies to the chitin synthase.

Genetic and functional characterization of Lactobacillus panis levansucrase.

Exopolysaccharides (EPS) can affect the rheological properties of foods, act as stabilizers or stimulate preferential growth of bifidobacteria in the gut and therefore function as prebiotics. The latter is referred to fructans, which are synthesized from sucrose by fructosyl transferases (FTFs). In this work, the FTF enzyme of Lactobacillus panis TMW1.

The role of UDP-glucose:hydroxycinnamate glucosyltransferases in phenylpropanoid metabolism and the response to UV-B radiation in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Arabidopsis harbors four UDP-glycosyltransferases that convert hydroxycinnamates (HCAs) to 1-O-beta-glucose esters, UGT84A1 (encoded by At4g15480), UGT84A2 (At3g21560), UGT84A3 (At4g15490), and UGT84A4 (At4g15500). To elucidate the role of the individual UGT84A enzymes in planta we analyzed gene expression, UGT activities and accumulation of phenylpropanoids in Arabidopsis wild type plants, ugt mutants and overexpressing lines. Individual ugt84A null alleles did not significantly reduce the gross metabolic flux to the accumulating compounds sinapoylcholine (sinapine) in seeds and sinapoylmalate in leaves.

Dissection of a complex seed phenotype: novel insights of FUSCA3 regulated developmental processes.

A T-DNA insertion mutant of FUSCA3 (fus3-T) in Arabidopsis thaliana exhibits several of the expected deleterious effects on seed development, but not the formation of brown seeds, a colouration which results from the accumulation of large amounts of anthocyanin. A detailed phenotypic comparison between fus3-T and a known splice point mutant (fus3-3) revealed that the seeds from both mutants do not enter dormancy and can be rescued at an immature stage. Without rescue, mature fus3-3 seeds are non-viable, whereas those of fus3-T suffer only a slight loss in their germinability.

Predictive validity and responsiveness of the functional ambulation category in hemiparetic patients after stroke.

Objective: To determine the reliability, concurrent and predictive validity, and responsiveness of the Functional Ambulation Category (FAC) in hemiparetic patients after stroke.

Design: Prospective cohort.

Setting: An early rehabilitation center for patients with neurologic disorders.