[Energy and memory efficient calculation of the accommodation demand in the artificial accommodation system].

Presbyopia and cataract are gaining more and more importance in the ageing society. Both age-related complaints are accompanied with a loss of the eye's ability to accommodate. A new approach to restore accommodation is the Artificial Accommodation System, an autonomous micro system, which will be implanted into the capsular bag instead of a rigid intraocular lens.

γ-Catenin is an independent prognostic marker in early stage colorectal cancer.

Purpose: Expression and role of γ-catenin in colorectal carcinogenesis is not well understood. We aimed at characterizing γ-catenin's expression pattern during colorectal carcinogenesis.

Methods: The expression pattern of γ-catenin was characterized in adenomas, primary colorectal carcinomas, and their corresponding metastases.

Managing antimicrobial resistance in intensive care units.

The challenges in managing patients with infection in the intensive care unit are increased in an era where there are dwindling antimicrobial choices for multidrug-resistant pathogens. Clinicians in the intensive care unit must balance between choosing appropriate antimicrobial treatment for patients with suspected infection and utilizing antimicrobials in a judicious fashion. Improving antimicrobial utilization is a critical component to reducing antimicrobial resistance.

Enhanced absorption in optically thin solar cells by scattering from embedded dielectric nanoparticles.

We present a concept for improving the efficiency of thin-film solar cells via scattering from dielectric particles. The particles are embedded directly within the semiconductor absorber material with sizes on the order of one wavelength. Importantly, this geometry is fully compatible with the use of an anti-reflective coating (ARC) to maximize light capture.

Dopamine uptake inhibitors but not dopamine releasers induce greater increases in motor behavior and extracellular dopamine in adolescent rats than in adult male rats.

Most life-long drug addiction begins during adolescence. Important structural and functional changes in brain occur during adolescence and developmental differences in forebrain dopamine systems could mediate a biologic vulnerability to drug addiction during adolescence. Studies investigating age differences in psychostimulant responses have yielded mixed results, possibly because of different mechanisms for increasing extracellular dopamine.

Mediator subunits: gene expression pattern, a novel transcript identification and nuclear localization in human endothelial progenitor cells.

Mediator of RNA polymerase II transcription subunits (MEDs) serve to promote the assembly, activation, and regeneration of transcription complexes on core promoters during the initiation and re-initiation phases of transcription. There are no studies on the Mediator complex during development of endothelial progenitors (EPCs). Here, we have analysed all known MEDs during the differentiation of EPCs, by expression profile studies at RNA level and, for a limited subset of MED subunits, also at protein level.

Extended-interval once-daily dosing of aminoglycosides in adult and pediatric patients with cystic fibrosis.

Extended-interval once-daily dosing with the aminoglycoside tobramycin has been proven to be equally efficacious as traditional thrice-daily dosing for treatment of the pulmonary exacerbations of cystic fibrosis in adults and children older than 5 years. The frequencies of acute ototoxicity and nephrotoxicity do not appear to be significantly different between patients treated with once- versus thrice-daily dosing, and the risk of acute nephrotoxicity may actually be lower in pediatric patients when once-daily dosing is used. Long-term studies are needed to fully assess the impact that cumulative treatments with once-daily dosing have on renal and auditory function.

Clinical management of clopidogrel inefficiency by point of care platelet function testing and individual adjustment of anti-platelet therapy--initial experiences.

Insufficient inhibition of ADP dependent platelet aggregation by clopidogrel is associated with an increased risk for adverse coronary events, such as stent thrombosis, after percutaneous coronary intervention. Here, we describe an approach to the clinical management of patients with insufficient inhibition of ADP dependent platelet aggregation by clopidogrel involving dose adjustment or switching of the thienoyridine. We put special emphasize on a patient who experienced recurrent acute myocardial infarction due to stent thrombosis associated with severe clopidogrel non response following elective coronary drug eluting stent implantation.

Distinct gene mutation profiles among luminal-type and basal-type breast cancer cell lines.

Breast cancer has for long been recognized as a highly diverse tumor group, but the underlying genetic basis has been elusive. Here, we report an extensive molecular characterization of a collection of 41 human breast cancer cell lines. Protein and gene expression analyses indicated that the collection of breast cancer cell lines has retained most, if not all, molecular characteristics that are typical for clinical breast cancers.

Safety and tolerability of the rivastigmine patch: results of a 28-week open-label extension.

The primary objective of the open-label extension was to evaluate the long-term safety and tolerability of a transdermal rivastigmine patch up to 1 year, as a novel approach to treatment in Alzheimer disease. This was a 28-week extension to a 24-week, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled, and active-controlled study evaluating rivastigmine patches [9.5 mg/24 h (10 cm2) and 17.

Higher capillary electrophoresis injection settings as an efficient approach to increase the sensitivity of STR typing.

Evidentiary traces may contain low quantities of DNA, and regularly incomplete short tandem repeat (STR) profiles are obtained. In this study, higher capillary electrophoresis injection settings were used to efficiently improve incomplete STR profiles generated from low-level DNA samples under standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions. The method involves capillary electrophoresis with higher injection voltage and extended injection time.

The anxiolytic and analgesic properties of fenobam, a potent mGlu5 receptor antagonist, in relation to the impairment of learning.

Fenobam [N-(3-chlorophenyl)-N'-(4,5-dihydro-1-methyl-4-oxo-1H-imidazole-2-yl)urea] was suggested to possess anxiolytic actions 30 years ago. Hoffmann-La Roche researchers recently reported that it is a selective and potent mGlu5 receptor antagonist, acting as a negative allosteric modulator. In the present study, we show that fenobam readily penetrates to the brain, reaching concentrations over 600 nM, clearly above the affinity for mGluR5 receptors.

Effects of a metabotropic glutamate receptor group II agonist LY354740 in animal models of positive schizophrenia symptoms and cognition.

It has been proposed that activation of metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 2/3 (mGluR2/3) may induce both antipsychotic and anxiolytic effects. The aim of this study was to evaluate further the effect of the mGluR2/3 agonist, LY354740 [(+)-2-aminobicyclo(3.1.

Therapeutically relevant plasma concentrations of memantine produce significant L-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor occupation and do not impair learning in rats.

Subchronic treatment with memantine using osmotic pumps in male rats was used to verify whether plasma levels significantly blocking L-N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors (and shown previously to be neuroprotective) may impair learning. Treatment with 6.27, 12.

Investigation on tolerance development to subchronic blockade of mGluR5 in models of learning, anxiety, and levodopa-induced dyskinesia in rats.

In the present study, we evaluated the effects of subchronic blockade of mGluR5 by 3-[(2-methyl-1,3-thiazol-4-yl)ethynyl]pyridine (MTEP) on learning, anxiety and levodopa-induced dyskinesia in rats. In addition, we excluded the possibility that subchronic treatment produced pharmacokinetic changes using brain microdialysis. MTEP (5 mg/kg) impaired spatial learning in a radial maze task and contextual fear conditioning (CFC) when administered acutely, and the same effect was observed following a 4-day pre-treatment regime.

Exon expression arrays as a tool to identify new cancer genes.

Background: Identification of genes that are causally implicated in oncogenesis is a major goal in cancer research. An estimated 10-20% of cancer-related gene mutations result in skipping of one or more exons in the encoded transcripts. Here we report on a strategy to screen in a global fashion for such exon-skipping events using PAttern based Correlation (PAC).

Observation of negative absolute resistance in a Josephson junction.

We experimentally demonstrate the occurrence of negative absolute resistance (NAR) up to about -1 Omega in response to an externally applied dc current for a shunted Nb-Al/AlO_{x}-Nb Josephson junction, exposed to a microwave current at frequencies in the GHz range. The realization (or not) of NAR depends crucially on the amplitude of the applied microwave current. Theoretically, the system is described by means of the resistively and capacitively shunted junction model in terms of a moderately damped, classical Brownian particle dynamics in a one-dimensional potential.

Psychoanalytic and musical perspectives on shame in Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor.

Two disciplines, psychoanalysis and music, are synthesized here with an eye to the origins and vicissitudes of shame and guilt as seen in the emotional disintegration of the eponymous heroine of Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor. Lucia's affects and her intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics are heard in the music itself. A psychoanalytic and musical analysis of the opera, taking Lucia's dynamics as a quasi-substitute for clinical material, illuminates the intersections between certain theoretical aspects of the two disciplines.

Psychoanalytic perspectives on music: an intersection on the oral and aural road.

This paper is organized around two ideas. The first invites the reader to consider the importance of music in emotional life, suggesting that for some people, music can have profound, deep, and transformative effects, both in loosening defenses and in deepening the psychoanalytic experience. The second idea is that analysis of the formal properties of music have both specific and overdetermined meanings that share elements with psychoanalytic principles.

EST analysis of hop glandular trichomes identifies an O-methyltransferase that catalyzes the biosynthesis of xanthohumol.

The glandular trichomes (lupulin glands) of hop (Humulus lupulus) synthesize essential oils and terpenophenolic resins, including the bioactive prenylflavonoid xanthohumol. To dissect the biosynthetic processes occurring in lupulin glands, we sequenced 10,581 ESTs from four trichome-derived cDNA libraries. ESTs representing enzymes of terpenoid biosynthesis, including all of the steps of the methyl 4-erythritol phosphate pathway, were abundant in the EST data set, as were ESTs for the known type III polyketide synthases of bitter acid and xanthohumol biosynthesis.