848 results match your criteria: "Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald.[Affiliation]"

Deep learning-based body composition analysis from whole-body magnetic resonance imaging to predict all-cause mortality in a large western population.

EBioMedicine

December 2024

Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • This study explores the use of advanced deep learning methods to automatically measure body composition from whole-body MRI scans, aiming to assess their ability to predict mortality in the general population.
  • The investigation was based on data from two large Western European cohort studies, focusing on key body composition metrics such as subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue, skeletal muscle, and intramuscular fat.
  • Results indicate significant associations between several volumetric body composition measures and mortality risk, highlighting the potential of automated techniques to improve clinical outcomes related to cardiometabolic diseases and cancer.
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Background: Exercise pulmonary hypertension (PH) was defined by a mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP)/cardiac output (CO) slope >3 mmHg·min·L between rest and exercise in the 2022 European Society of Cardiology/European Respiratory Society PH guidelines. However, large, multicentre studies on the prognostic relevance of exercise haemodynamics and its added value to resting haemodynamics are missing.

Patients And Methods: The PEX-NET (Pulmonary Haemodynamics during Exercise Network) registry enrolled patients who underwent clinically indicated right heart catheterisations both at rest and ergometer exercise from 23 PH centres worldwide.

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Managing anxiety and behavior during pediatric dental procedures is challenging. This study examines the effects of combining ibuprofen with midazolam sedation using both behavioral management and clinical hypnosis to improve patient cooperation and reduce post-treatment pain. A retrospective cohort study of 311 children (mean age 74.

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We describe a new species, (Myxomycetes), collected from a microhabitat new for myxomycetes: stem wounds of coniferous trees (Norway spruce) where the resin is overgrown with a community of resinicolous fungi. The 80 known collections come from the Vosges (France), the Black Forest (Germany), Swabian Alp (Germany), and several localities in Denmark and Norway. Observations, but as well as metabarcoding of substrate samples with fungal (ITS [internal transcribed spacer]), bacterial (16S rDNA), and myxomycete (18S nuc rDNA) primers from eight trunks, revealed the new myxomycete to co-occur with resin-degrading ascomycetes ().

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The bispecific T cell-binding antibody blinatumomab (CD19/CD3) is widely and successfully used for the treatment of children with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). Here, we report the efficacy of a single course of blinatumomab instead of consolidation chemotherapy to eliminate minimal residual disease (MRD) and maintain stable MRD-negativity in children with primary BCP-ALL.Between February 2020 and November 2022, 177 children with non-high-risk BCP-ALL were enrolled in the ALL-MB 2019 pilot study (NCT04723342).

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Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Reference Ranges From the Healthy Hearts Consortium.

JACC Cardiovasc Imaging

July 2024

William Harvey Research Institute, NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London, United Kingdom; Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, West Smithfield, London, United Kingdom; Health Data Research UK, London, United Kingdom; Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • The study addresses the lack of population-specific cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) reference ranges, which is important for clinical care.
  • It provides CMR reference ranges based on data from 9,088 healthy individuals, considering age, sex, and ethnicity, thus enhancing the understanding of heart metrics across diverse demographics.
  • The analysis involved advanced software and various imaging techniques, resulting in a comprehensive set of healthy CMR-derived volumetric reference ranges that can be applied in clinical settings.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the differences in cartilage thickness and composition in the retropatellar area of patients with varying degrees of osteoarthritis compared to healthy samples.
  • Using immunohistochemistry and real-time PCR, findings revealed significant decreases in staining intensity and increases in collagen expression in advanced osteoarthritis samples.
  • The results suggest that understanding the unique biomechanics of retropatellar cartilage is crucial for improving total knee arthroplasty and cartilage restoration methods.
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Article Synopsis
  • Vaspin is a protein linked to obesity that may influence metabolism, but its exact role is still unclear; researchers aimed to understand its genetic variability and impact on metabolic traits.
  • A meta-analysis of data from 6 studies involving nearly 7,450 people identified significant genetic variants associated with vaspin levels and conducted further analyses to explore its causal relationship with lipid traits.
  • Results indicated that vaspin levels are genetically determined and have a causal effect on lipid metabolism, as evidenced by changes in triglyceride levels in treated mice.
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A new species of (), described herein as , was recovered in the field on ground litter from mountain subtropical forests (Phia Oắc - Phia Đén National Park) of northern Vietnam. Morphological details were examined by light and scanning electron microscopy. The species is characterized by a distinct and unique combination of morphological features, including a bright blue, shiny and very thin membranous peridium, a small dome-shaped columella, rigid, straight, branched, brown capillitial threads which gradually become pale at the periphery and finally colorless at the tips and small-meshed, banded-reticulate spores with 9-12 meshes across the spore diameter and solid walls without perforations 0.

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Sequencing herbarium specimens can be instrumental in answering ecological, evolutionary, and taxonomic inquiries. We developed a protocol for sequencing herbarium specimens of rust fungi (Pucciniales) and proceeded to sequence specimens ranging from 4 to 211 yr old from five different genera. We then obtained sequences from an economically important biological control agent, Puccinia suaveolens, to highlight the potential of sequencing herbarium specimens in an ecological sense and to evaluate the following hypotheses: (1) The population structure of a plant pathogen changes over time, and (2) introduced pathogens are more diverse in their native range.

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Milk urea concentration is an indicator for dietary nitrogen (N)-supply and urinary N-excretion. Dairy cows with high (HMU) compared to low milk urea (LMU) concentration have greater plasma urea, creatinine and uric acid concentrations, but if the liver metabolism accounts for these differences is unknown. Eighteen HMU and 18 LMU cows were fed a diet with a low (LP) or normal (NP) crude protein concentration.

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Increasing antibacterial drug resistance threatens global health, unfortunately, however, efforts to find novel antibacterial agents have been scaled back by the pharmaceutical industry due to concerns about a poor return on investment. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need to find novel antibacterial compounds to combat antibacterial drug resistance. The synthesis of novel drugs from natural sources is mostly cost-intensive due to those drugs' complicated structures.

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Essential oils (EOs) and their individual volatile organic constituents have been an inherent part of our civilization for thousands of years. They are widely used as fragrances in perfumes and cosmetics and contribute to a healthy diet, but also act as active ingredients of pharmaceutical products. Their antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties have qualified EOs early on for both, the causal and symptomatic therapy of a number of diseases, but also for prevention.

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Coating and Corruption of Human Neutrophils by Bacterial Outer Membrane Vesicles.

Microbiol Spectr

October 2022

Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Groningengrid.4830.f, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

Porphyromonas gingivalis is a keystone oral pathogen that successfully manipulates the human innate immune defenses, resulting in a chronic proinflammatory state of periodontal tissues and beyond. Here, we demonstrate that secreted outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) are deployed by P. gingivalis to selectively coat and activate human neutrophils, thereby provoking degranulation without neutrophil killing.

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Hypnosis and Sedation for Anxious Children Undergoing Dental Treatment: A Retrospective Practice-Based Longitudinal Study.

Children (Basel)

April 2022

Department of Restorative, Preventive and Pediatric Dentistry, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland.

To assess whether the treatment of children with oral midazolam and pediatric hypnosis techniques can improve the compliance in consecutive sessions, a retrospective longitudinal practice-based observational study was designed and carried out. A total of 311 children between 3 and 12 years of age were treated under hypnosis and sedation with midazolam (0.40 mg/kg body weight).

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LeiP#netz 2.0: mapping COVID-19-related changes in mental health services in the German city of Leipzig.

Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol

August 2022

Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy and Centre for Mental Health, Helios-Park-Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the changes in psychosocial and psychiatric services in the German city of Leipzig during the COVID-19-pandemic.

Methods: A participatory, mixed-methods study was used involving a quantitative online survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews with professionals. Quantitative findings were reported with descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data.

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Ongoing resistance developments against antibiotics that also affect last-resort antibiotics require novel antibacterial compounds. Strategies to discover such novel structures have been dimerization or hybridization of known antibacterial agents. We found novel antibacterial agents by dimerization of indols and hybridization with carbazoles.

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The recent developments in artificial intelligence have the potential to facilitate new research methods in ecology. Especially Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) have been shown to outperform other approaches in automatic image analyses. Here we apply a DCNN to facilitate quantitative wood anatomical (QWA) analyses, where the main challenges reside in the detection of a high number of cells, in the intrinsic variability of wood anatomical features, and in the sample quality.

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encodes for a chloride and bicarbonate channel expressed at the apical membrane of polarized epithelial cells. Transepithelial sodium transport mediated by the amiloride-sensitive sodium channel ENaC is thought to contribute to the manifestation of CF disease. Thus, ENaC is a therapeutic target in CF and a valid cystic fibrosis modifier gene.

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Background: Since 2015, the European pulmonary hypertension guidelines recommend the use of combination therapy in most patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, it is unclear to what extent this treatment strategy is adopted in clinical practice and if it is associated with improved long-term survival.

Methods: We analysed data from COMPERA, a large European pulmonary hypertension registry, to assess temporal trends in the use of combination therapy and survival of patients with newly diagnosed PAH between 2010 and 2019.

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Within the last decades cancer treatment improved by the availability of more specifically acting drugs that address molecular target structures in cancer cells. However, those target-sensitive drugs suffer from ongoing resistances resulting from mutations and moreover they are affected by the cancer phenomenon of multidrug resistance. A multidrug resistant cancer can hardly be treated with the common drugs, so that there have been long efforts to develop drugs to combat that resistance.

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Despite the development of targeted therapies in cancer, the problem of multidrug resistance (MDR) is still unsolved. Most patients with metastatic cancer die from MDR. Transmembrane efflux pumps as the main cause of MDR have been addressed by developed inhibitors, but early inhibitors of the most prominent and longest known efflux pump P-glycoprotein (P-gp) were disappointing.

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Background: Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple genomic loci associated with coronary artery disease, but most are common variants in non-coding regions that provide limited information on causal genes and etiology of the disease. To overcome the limited scope that common variants provide, we focused our investigation on low-frequency and rare sequence variations primarily residing in coding regions of the genome.

Methods And Results: Using samples of individuals of European ancestry from ten cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, both cross-sectional and prospective analyses were conducted to examine associations between genetic variants and myocardial infarction (MI), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality following these events.

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Post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, nitrosylation, and pupylation modulate multiple cellular processes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. While protein methylation at lysine and arginine residues is widespread in eukaryotes, to date only two methylated proteins in Mtb have been identified. Here, we report the identification of methylation at lysine and/or arginine residues in nine mycobacterial proteins.

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