Publications by authors named "Verena Weiss"

Biodegradable nanoparticles based on stearic acid-modified poly(glycerol adipate) (PGAS) are promising carriers for drug delivery. In order to investigate the impact of the particle interface characteristics on the biological fate, PGAS nanoparticles are covalently and noncovalently coated with N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymers. HPMA copolymer-modified PGAS nanoparticles have similar particle sizes, but less negative zeta-potentials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Juvenile overweight is increasing, and effective preventive measures are needed. After years of arbitrarily assigning these measures disregarding socioeconomic and/or cultural differences, it has become necessary to tailor interventions more specific to these target groups. Providing data for such an intervention is the objective of this study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Poor survival rates after cardiac arrest can partly be explained by poor basic life support skills in medical professionals.

Aim: This study aimed to assess quality of basic life support in medical students and paramedics.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study with 100 early medical students (group A), 100 late medical students (group B) and 100 paramedics (group C), performing a 20-minute basic life support simulation in teams of two.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examines selection bias in a breast cancer survey by comparing characteristics of patients who responded to the questionnaire versus those who did not.
  • It found that factors like age, cancer stage, general health, and type of surgery influenced response rates, with very young and very old patients being less likely to respond, as well as those with later-stage cancer and poorer health.
  • The research emphasizes the importance of considering these differences when interpreting survey results, as they may affect the generalizability of the findings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study investigated the prevalence of Frey's syndrome (FS) following superficial parotidectomy and its correlation with the use of a sternocleidomastoid muscle flap (SCMMF).
  • A total of 130 patients were included, with 30 receiving SCMMF; follow-ups revealed a consistent FS prevalence around 46% across 24 months, higher among the SCMMF group (59.9%).
  • Ultimately, the findings concluded that SCMMF did not reduce the risk of FS, and most patients reported FS as not bothersome after two years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Severe cerebral venous-sinus thrombosis (CVT) is a rare disease, and its clinical course, imaging correlates, as well as long-term prognosis have not yet been investigated systematically.

Methods: Multicenter retrospective study. Inclusion criteria were CVT, Glasgow coma scale ≤9, and treatment in the intensive care unit.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

HIV long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs) maintaining high CD4(+) T-cell counts without antiretroviral therapy (ART) are divided into elite controllers (ECs) with undetectable and viremic controllers (VCs) with low viral loads. Little is known about the long-term changes of T-cell subsets and inflammation patterns in ECs versus VCs. The aim of the study was to explore the long-term evolution of CD4(+) T-cell levels in LTNPs and to analyze cytokine profiles in ECs versus VCs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The traditional coefficient of determination is inadequate for assessing the fit of survival data models, prompting the development of alternative measures of explained variation.
  • A critical analysis of an existing measure reveals it does not meet minimization requirements, leading to the creation of a new nonparametric measure based on the Kaplan-Meier estimator.
  • This novel measure allows for different weightings, statistical significance testing, and is demonstrated using data from patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma, offering a clear and understandable approach for future analyses in survival studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Current guidelines recommend that patients with Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (SAB) are treated with long courses of intravenous antimicrobial therapy. This serves to avoid SAB-related complications such as relapses, local extension and distant metastatic foci. However, in certain clinical scenarios, the incidence of SAB-related complications is low.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Cardiac dysfunction frequently complicates the clinical course of patients with end-stage renal failure (ESRF). Recently, we observed abnormal longitudinal cardiac rotation (LR) among patients with ESRF. In this study, we sought to quantify LR mechanics in patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Primary Objective: Hypopituitarism is a frequent complication in patients after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Both TBI and hypopituitarism can lead to complex cognitive and affective deficits. This study was intended to examine the quality-of-life in patients with post-traumatic hypopituitarism (PTH) and to discern the effect of this endocrinological disorder on general outcome of patients after TBI including earning capacity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: HIV-positive patients are at an increased risk for chronic kidney disease. However, these data mainly derive from cohorts with a high percentage of African-American patients, representing a specific ethnical risk group for chronic kidney disease. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and risk factors specifically for early signs of kidney dysfunction in a large, predominantly white cohort of HIV patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

EcoCyc is a bioinformatics database available at EcoCyc.org that describes the genome and the biochemical machinery of Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655. The long-term goal of the project is to describe the complete molecular catalog of the E.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a common, often fatal infection. Our aim was to describe how its clinical presentation varies between populations and to identify common determinants of outcome.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis on 3395 consecutive adult patients with S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • RegulonDB offers curated information on E. coli's transcriptional regulatory network, including experimental and computational data.
  • A new two-tier rating system classifies evidence strength as 'weak' or 'strong', and now includes classifications for high-throughput evidence like ChIP and RNA-seq.
  • Two evaluation strategies—statistical validation and independent cross-validation—improve confidence in data accuracy, potentially upgrading evidence ratings from weak to confirmed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Poly(glycerol adipate) (PGA)-based nanoparticles are promising carriers for drug delivery with a wide range of available structures. The biodegradable polymer with pendant free hydroxyl groups can be diversely functionalized. In this study, the toxicity of different Stearoyl-PGA nanoparticles with respect to erythrocytes and HepG2 cells was assessed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

EcoCyc (http://EcoCyc.org) is a model organism database built on the genome sequence of Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655. Expert manual curation of the functions of individual E.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A simple approach using comb-like polymers that undergo nanophase separation between the polyester backbone and the stearoyl side chains is proposed for the preparation of structured non-spherical nanoparticles from a nanoemulsion. Depending on the degree of esterification of the OH groups of poly(glycerol adipate) differently ordered nanostructures is obtained. A perfect lamellar arrangement is obtained for polymers with a high degree of esterification and leads to spherical nanoparticles with an internal onion-like structure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Poly(glycerol adipate) (PGA) is a biodegradable polymer with promising features for nanoparticulate drug carrier systems. By acylation of PGA with fatty acids, composite systems with amphiphilic properties can be obtained. Variation of the fatty acid (laurate, stearate and behenate) and their substitution degrees lead to a wide range of different polymer structures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

NtrB is the bifunctional histidine kinase for nitrogen regulation. Dependent on the availability of nitrogen, it either autophosphorylates and serves as the phosphodonor for its cognate response regulator, NtrC, or, it promotes the rapid dephosphorylation of NtrC-P. The activity of NtrB depends on the interaction of two subdomains within its transmitter domain, the H-domain and the kinase domain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF