Influence of partial meniscectomy on attachment forces, superficial strain and contact mechanics in porcine knee joints.

Purpose: Numerous studies investigated the reasons for premature osteoarthritis due to partial meniscectomy (PM). However, the influence of meniscectomy on attachment forces and superficial strain of the tibial meniscus is unclear. It is hypothesised that these parameters depend on the degree of PM.

Child sexual abuse in religiously affiliated and secular institutions: a retrospective descriptive analysis of data provided by victims in a government-sponsored reappraisal program in Germany.

Background: The disclosure of widespread sexual abuse committed by professional educators and clergymen in institutions in Germany ignited a national political debate, in which special attention was paid to church-run institutions. We wanted to find out whether the nature of the abuse and its effect on victims differed depending on whether the abuse had been experienced in religiously affiliated versus secular institutions.

Methods: In 2010, the German government established a hotline that victims could contact anonymously to describe their experiences of sexual abuse.

Detecting and quantifying topography in neural maps.

Topographic maps are an often-encountered feature in the brains of many species, yet there are no standard, objective procedures for quantifying topography. Topographic maps are typically identified and described subjectively, but in cases where the scale of the map is close to the resolution limit of the measurement technique, identifying the presence of a topographic map can be a challenging subjective task. In such cases, an objective topography detection test would be advantageous.

Contrast dependency and prior expectations in human speed perception.

The perceived speed of moving objects has long been known to depend on image contrast. Lowering the contrast of first-order motion stimuli typically decreases perceived speed - the well-known "Thompson effect". It has been suggested that contrast-dependent biases are the result of optimal inference by the visual system, whereby unreliable sensory information is combined with prior beliefs.

Enzalutamide after docetaxel and abiraterone therapy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Introduction: Enzalutamide is a novel antiandrogen which is approved for the treatment of metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) after taxane-based chemotherapy. The efficacy of enzalutamide after the sequence docetaxel and abiraterone is not proven.

Methods: Thirty-five mCRPC patients in the German compassionate use program, who received enzalutamide after progression with taxane-based chemotherapy and abiraterone were prospectively evaluated.

Heat profiles of laser-irradiated nails.

Onychomycosis is a worldwide problem with no tendency for self-healing, and existing systemic treatments achieve disease-free nails in only 35 to 76% of cases. Recently, treatment of nail fungus with a near-infrared laser has been introduced. It is assumed that fungal eradication is mediated by local heat.

Broad-based visual benefits from training with an integrated perceptual-learning video game.

Perception is the window through which we understand all information about our environment, and therefore deficits in perception due to disease, injury, stroke or aging can have significant negative impacts on individuals' lives. Research in the field of perceptual learning has demonstrated that vision can be improved in both normally seeing and visually impaired individuals, however, a limitation of most perceptual learning approaches is their emphasis on isolating particular mechanisms. In the current study, we adopted an integrative approach where the goal is not to achieve highly specific learning but instead to achieve general improvements to vision.

Natural history of autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome associated with FAS gene mutations.

Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) presents in childhood with nonmalignant lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly associated with a characteristic expansion of mature CD4 and CD8 negative or double negative T-cell receptor αβ(+) T lymphocytes. Patients often present with chronic multilineage cytopenias due to autoimmune peripheral destruction and/or splenic sequestration of blood cells and have an increased risk of B-cell lymphoma. Deleterious heterozygous mutations in the FAS gene are the most common cause of this condition, which is termed ALPS-FAS.

Word-decoding as a function of temporal processing in the visual system.

This study explored the relation between visual processing and word-decoding ability in a normal reading population. Forty participants were recruited at Arizona State University. Flicker fusion thresholds were assessed with an optical chopper using the method of limits by a 1-deg diameter green (543 nm) test field.

Medial meniscal displacement and strain in three dimensions under compressive loads: MR assessment.

Purpose: To investigate the 3D displacement and the local strain of the medial meniscus and its attachments under compressive loading.

Materials And Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of six porcine knee joints were performed under unloaded and loaded conditions (100% and 200% body weight [BW]). Volumes were registered to obtain a 3D displacement field of the medial meniscus and its attachments, which were divided into five anatomic compartments.

Antibodies trap tissue migrating helminth larvae and prevent tissue damage by driving IL-4Rα-independent alternative differentiation of macrophages.

Approximately one-third of the world's population suffers from chronic helminth infections with no effective vaccines currently available. Antibodies and alternatively activated macrophages (AAM) form crucial components of protective immunity against challenge infections with intestinal helminths. However, the mechanisms by which antibodies target these large multi-cellular parasites remain obscure.

Learning what to expect (in visual perception).

Expectations are known to greatly affect our experience of the world. A growing theory in computational neuroscience is that perception can be successfully described using Bayesian inference models and that the brain is "Bayes-optimal" under some constraints. In this context, expectations are particularly interesting, because they can be viewed as prior beliefs in the statistical inference process.

[Neoadjuvant, adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy of penile cancer].

Data on the treatment of advanced penile carcinoma especially for chemotherapy are very limited. Due to the results of recent studies there has been a shift to taxan/cisplatinum based regimens. Initial case reports also showed a response to targeted therapy especially antibodies against epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

Encoding of episodic information through fast task-irrelevant perceptual learning.

The mechanisms guiding our learning and memory processes are of key interest to human cognition. While much research shows that attention and reinforcement processes help guide the encoding process, there is still much to know regarding how our brains choose what to remember. Recent research of task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL) has found that information presented coincident with important events is better encoded even if participants are not aware of its presence (see Seitz & Watanabe, 2009).

Context is quick, knowledge is slow: rapid time-course of contextual modulations in the horizontal-vertical illusion.

One of the oldest visual illusions consists of observers' tendency to estimate vertical lines as longer than equal horizontal lines. This Horizontal-Vertical Illusion has been studied widely; however, most studies may not generalize to natural contexts because they have not addressed the low-level processes that occur rapidly and in response to context-free lines vs the possibility for high-level processes that arise over time in response to context. These issues were investigated via a novel design: rapid time-sequencing embedded within the context of natural images.

The International ADHD in Substance Use Disorders Prevalence (IASP) study: background, methods and study population.

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an increasingly recognized comorbid condition in subjects with substance use disorders (SUDs). This paper describes the methods and study population of the International ADHD in Substance Use Disorders Prevalence (IASP) study. Objectives of the IASP are to determine the prevalence of ADHD in adult treatment seeking patients with SUD in different countries and SUD populations, determine the reliability and validity of the Adult ADHD Self-report Scale V 1.

Antifungal efficacy of lasers against dermatophytes and yeasts in vitro.

Purpose: Approximately 2-13% of the world population suffers from onychomycosis. Recently, lasers have been introduced for treatment. However, no effect was found with in vitro laser irradiation of pathogens on agar plates.

The effect of statistical learning on internal stimulus representations: predictable items are enhanced even when not predicted.

Statistical learning is the automatic and unconscious learning of environmental regularities and is a basic mechanism of learning in a variety of human perceptual and cognitive domains. Previous studies have mainly focused on the associative mechanisms of statistical learning. However, an unexplored question is whether the internal representations of individual stimuli are altered as their associations are learned.

TSG-6 released from intradermally injected mesenchymal stem cells accelerates wound healing and reduces tissue fibrosis in murine full-thickness skin wounds.

Proper activation of macrophages (Mφ) in the inflammatory phase of acute wound healing is essential for physiological tissue repair. However, there is a strong indication that robust Mφ inflammatory responses may be causal for the fibrotic response always accompanying adult wound healing. Using a complementary approach of in vitro and in vivo studies, we here addressed the question of whether mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-due to their anti-inflammatory properties-would control Mφ activation and tissue fibrosis in a murine model of full-thickness skin wounds.

Processing irrelevant location information: practice and transfer effects in a Simon task.

How humans produce cognitively driven fine motor movements is a question of fundamental importance in how we interact with the world around us. For example, we are exposed to a constant stream of information and we must select the information that is most relevant by which to guide our actions. In the present study, we employed a well-known behavioral assay called the Simon task to better understand how humans are able to learn to filter out irrelevant information.

Supraspinatus tendon and subacromial space parameters measured on ultrasonographic imaging in subacromial impingement syndrome.

Purpose: To characterize the supraspinatus tendon thickness, subacromial space, and the relationship between tendon thickness and subacromial space to further elucidate the mechanisms of subacromial impingement syndrome.

Methods: In a single-blind cross-sectional study, subjects were recruited with subacromial impingement syndrome (n = 20) and asymptomatic controls (n = 20) matched for age, gender, and hand dominance. Ultrasound images were collected using a 4-12-MHz linear transducer in B-mode of the supraspinatus tendon in the transverse (short axis) and the anterior aspect of the subacromial space outlet.

Neovascularization prevalence in the supraspinatus of patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy.

Objective: A high prevalence of neovascularity in lower extremity tendinopathies has been reported. Neovascularity in those with rotator cuff tendinopathy exclusively has not been examined. The objective was to determine the prevalence of neovascularization in patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy compared with asymptomatic controls.