Weekday effect of surgery on in-hospital outcome in pancreatic surgery: a population-based study.

Importance: There is conflicting evidence regarding weekday dependent outcome in complex abdominal surgery, including pancreatic resections.

Objective: To clarify weekday-dependency of outcome after pancreatic resections in a comprehensive nationwide context.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study of anonymized nationwide hospital billing data (DRG data).

Activity dependent modulation of glial gap junction coupling in the thalamus.

Astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in the ventrobasal thalamus are electrically coupled through gap junctions. We have previously shown that these cells form large panglial networks, which have a key role in the transfer of energy substrates to postsynapses for sustaining neuronal activity. Here, we show that the efficiency of these transfer networks is regulated by synaptic activity: preventing the generation and propagation of action potentials resulted in reduced glial coupling.

Incidental Pulmonary Nodules: Differential Diagnosis and Clinical Management.

Background: According to data from the USA, the incidence of incidentally discovered pulmonary nodules is 5.8 per 1000 person-years for women and 5.2 per 1000 person-years for men.

User expectations and experiences of an assistive robotic arm in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a multicenter observational study.

Objective: Robotic arms are innovative assistive devices for ALS patients with progressive motor deficits of arms and hands. The objective was to explore the patients´ expectations towards a robotic arm system and to assess the actual experiences after the provision of the device.

Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted at 9 ALS centers in Germany.