[The Quality indicator project of the German college of general practice and family medicine (DEGAM): development of indicators based on the guidelines dementia, neck pain and sore throat].

A debate on the application of quality indicators (QIs) arose among the members of the German College of General Practitioners and Family Physicians (DEGAM) when two QI systems for ambulatory care (QISA and AQUIK) were published in a short time interval. A research question that emanated from this discussion was whether appropriate QI might be developed based on German general practice guidelines. In spring 2010, the DEGAM guideline committee (SLK) decided to conduct a project on guideline-based development of QIs using the DEGAM guidelines for dementia, neck pain and sore throat.

Construct validity and descriptive validity of somatoform disorders in light of proposed changes for the DSM-5.

Objective: Current diagnostic criteria for somatoform disorders demand revisions due to their insufficient clinical as well as scientific usability. Various psychological and behavioral characteristics have been considered for the proposed new category Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD). With this study, we were able to jointly assess the validity of these variables in an inpatient sample.

[Infectious causes of lameness in sheep - treatment options in veterinary practice].

Lameness in sheep induced by infectious agents can cause problems regarding animal welfare, diagnosis and treatment. Individual lame animals and lameness caused by systemic disease, but especially flock problems due to infectious causes of lameness, such as foot rot, can for various reasons pose a problem for veterinary treatment. The causes of lameness in sheep are described with a special focus on infectious flock problems, and the different treatment options such as foot trimming, foot baths and local and systemic antibiotic therapy as well as vaccination are discussed based on a review of recent international research.

[Recommendations for the husbandry and welfare of sheep and goats by the German Small Ruminant Veterinary Association. Part 2].

The second part of the recommendations deals with the healthcare and the regulatory framework for the husbandry of sheep and goats. The suggested concept for healthcare aims to develop an individual health plan for every flock. This health plan focuses not only on the prevention of notifiable diseases, but also on chronic and slow infections as well as on parasite monitoring.

[Recommendations for the husbandry and welfare of sheep and goats by the German Small Ruminant Veterinary Association. Part 1].

Recommendations for the different forms of sheep and goat husbandry based on the legal regulations are summarized. These are given in particular respect to transhumance, tending, alpine farming, and indoor housing. The requirements for pasture, housing, supply of water and food, lambing, rearing of lambs, and health management are intensively discussed.

Predictive validity and clinical utility of DSM-5 Somatic Symptom Disorder--comparison with DSM-IV somatoform disorders and additional criteria for consideration.

Objective: Major changes to the diagnostic category of somatoform disorders are being proposed for DSM-5. The effect of e.g.

Spatially resolved investigation of the oil composition in single intact hyphae of Mortierella spp. with micro-Raman spectroscopy.

Zygomycetes are well known for their ability to produce various secondary metabolites. Fungi of the genus Mortierella can accumulate highly unsaturated lipids in large amounts as lipid droplets. However, no information about the spatial distribution or homogeneity of the oil inside the fungi is obtainable to date due to the invasive and destructive analytical techniques applied so far.

Ethical concerns in tobacco control nonsmoker and "nonnicotine" hiring policies: the implications of employment restrictions for tobacco control.

Smoking has been restricted in workplaces for some time. A number of organizations with health promotion or tobacco control goals have taken the further step of implementing employment restrictions. These restrictions apply to smokers and, in some cases, to anyone testing positive on cotinine tests, which also capture users of nicotine-replacement therapy and those exposed to secondhand smoke.

Evaluation of organochlorine pesticides in breast milk samples in Turkey applying features of the partial order technique.

Exposure data to organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) of mothers' breast milk samples were measured in different locations in the Taurus Mountains/Turkey. Villages at five altitudes were looked upon. The data analysis method applied is the Hasse diagram technique, based on Discrete Mathematics.

Health related quality of life in male patients with osteoporosis: results of a cross sectional study.

Introduction: Osteoporosis is one of the most common diseases affecting elderly persons. Male patients with osteoporosis have rarely been the focus of earlier studies. This study explores health related quality of life (HRQoL) indicators in a sample of German male patients with osteoporosis to determine potential avenues for clinical practice changes.

Lichtheimia species exhibit differences in virulence potential.

Although the number of mucormycosis cases has increased during the last decades, little is known about the pathogenic potential of most mucoralean fungi. Lichtheimia species represent the second and third most common cause of mucormycosis in Europe and worldwide, respectively. To date only three of the five species of the genus have been found to be involved in mucormycosis, namely L.

Molecular phylogeny of the Entomophthoromycota.

The Entomophthoromycota is a ubiquitous group of fungi best known as pathogens of a wide variety of economically important insect pests, and other soil invertebrates. This group of fungi also includes a small number of parasites of reptiles, vertebrates (including humans), macromycetes, fern gametophytes, and desmid algae, as well as some saprobic species. Here we report on recent studies to resolve the phylogenetic relationships within the Entomophthoromycota and to reliably place this group among other basal fungal lineages.

[Cleaning and disinfection in nursing homes. Data on quality of structure, process and outcome in nursing homes in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2011].

Due to the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, public health services in Germany are obliged to check the infection prevention in hospitals and other medical facilities as well as in nursing homes. In Frankfurt/Main, Germany, standardized control visits have been performed for many years. In 2011 focus was laid on cleaning and disinfection of surfaces.

Studies on the metabolism of five model drugs by fungi colonizing cadavers using LC-ESI-MS/MS and GC-MS analysis.

It is well-known that cadavers may be colonized by microorganisms, but there is limited information if or to what extent these microbes are capable of metabolizing drugs or poisons, changing the concentrations and metabolic pattern of such compounds in postmortem samples. The aim of the present study was to develop a fungal biotransformation system as an in vitro model to investigate potential postmortem metabolism by fungi. Five model drugs (amitriptyline, metoprolol, mirtazapine, promethazine, and zolpidem) were each incubated with five model fungi known to colonize cadavers (Absidia repens, Aspergillus repens, Aspergillus terreus, Gliocladium viride, and Mortierella polycephala) and with Cunninghamella elegans (positive control).

Retargeting sleeping beauty transposon insertions by engineered zinc finger DNA-binding domains.

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon is a nonviral, integrating vector system with proven efficacy in preclinical animal models, and thus holds promise for future clinical applications. However, SB has a close-to-random insertion profile that could lead to genotoxic effects, thereby presenting a potential safety issue. We evaluated zinc finger (ZF) DNA-binding domains (DBDs) for their abilities to introduce a bias into SB's insertion profile.

Public familiarity with the terms somatoform disorder and functional disorder in Germany: results from a representative population survey.

Objective: The terms somatoform disorder and functional disorder have been criticized for hindering rather than facilitating clinical communication, and physicians may rarely use these terms when communicating with patients who might be eligible for these diagnoses. However, no study has yet examined the extent to which patients at risk for these disorders are familiar with the diagnostic terms. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to examine whether people at risk for a somatoform disorder (ie, those with medically unexplained somatic symptoms) are more familiar with the 2 terms than others.

[High perinatal mortality associated with triple anthelmintic resistance in a German sheep flock].

High perinatal mortality, low milk yields and occasional ewe deaths were investigated in a Dorper sheep flock in Southern Germany. Parasitic gastroenteritis due to Trichostrongylus spp. associated with severe weight loss despite regular anthelmintic treatments of the flock was identified as the underlying cause.

Response to W. Kramer: The human sex odds at birth after the atmospheric atomic bomb tests, after Chernobyl, and in the vicinity of nuclear facilities: comment (doi:10.1007/s11356-011-0644-8).

Introduction: This paper is in response to criticism of our article "The human sex odds at birth after the atmospheric atomic bomb tests, after Chernobyl, and in the vicinity of nuclear facilities" published in Environ Sci Pollut Res 18(5):697-707, 2011.

Methods: Our findings and methods concerning the disturbed human sex odds at birth have been criticized in this journal for being artifacts of data mining, that the concept of statistical significance was misunderstood, and that confounding factors have not been accounted for. Here, we show that this criticism has no basis.

Fabrication and experimental demonstration of the first 160 Gb/s hybrid silicon-on-insulator integrated all-optical wavelength converter.

We present a hybrid integrated photonic circuit on a silicon-on-insulator substrate that performs ultra high-speed all-optical wavelength conversion. The chip incorporates a 1.25 mm non-linear SOA mounted on the SOI board using gold-tin bumps as small as 14 μm.

Fluid biopsy in patients with metastatic prostate, pancreatic and breast cancers.

Hematologic spread of carcinoma results in incurable metastasis; yet, the basic characteristics and travel mechanisms of cancer cells in the bloodstream are unknown. We have established a fluid phase biopsy approach that identifies circulating tumor cells (CTCs) without using surface protein-based enrichment and presents them in sufficiently high definition (HD) to satisfy diagnostic pathology image quality requirements. This 'HD-CTC' assay finds >5 HD-CTCs mL(-1) of blood in 80% of patients with metastatic prostate cancer (n = 20), in 70% of patients with metastatic breast cancer (n = 30), in 50% of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (n = 18), and in 0% of normal controls (n = 15).

Reaction Kinetics and Reduced Shrinkage Stress of Thiol-Yne-Methacrylate and Thiol-Yne-Acrylate Ternary Systems.

Thiol-yne-methacrylate and thiol-yne-acrylate ternary systems were investigated for polymerization kinetics and material properties and compared to the analogous pure thiol-yne and (meth)acrylate systems. Both thiol-yne-methacrylate and thiol-yne-acrylate systems were demonstrated to reduce polymerization induced shrinkage stress while simultaneously achieving high glass transition temperatures (T(g)) and modulius. Formulations with 70 wt% methacrylate increased the T(g) from 51 ± 2 to 75 ± 1 °C and the modulus from 1800 ± 100 to 3200 ± 400 MPa (44% increase) over the pure thiol-yne system.

Noise-induced precursors of tonic-to-bursting transitions in hypothalamic neurons and in a conductance-based model.

The dynamics of neurons is characterized by a variety of different spiking patterns in response to external stimuli. One of the most important transitions in neuronal response patterns is the transition from tonic firing to burst discharges, i.e.

Direct analysis and identification of pathogenic Lichtheimia species by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight analyzer-mediated mass spectrometry.

Zygomycetes of the order Mucorales can cause life-threatening infections in humans. These mucormycoses are emerging and associated with a rapid tissue destruction and high mortality. The resistance of Mucorales to antimycotic substances varies between and within clinically important genera such as Mucor, Rhizopus, and Lichtheimia.