Musical Activity During Life Is Associated With Multi-Domain Cognitive and Brain Benefits in Older Adults.

Regular musical activity as a complex multimodal lifestyle activity is proposed to be protective against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. This cross-sectional study investigated the association and interplay between musical instrument playing during life, multi-domain cognitive abilities and brain morphology in older adults (OA) from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study (DELCODE) study. Participants reporting having played a musical instrument across three life periods ( = 70) were compared to controls without a history of musical instrument playing ( = 70), well-matched for reserve proxies of education, intelligence, socioeconomic status and physical activity.

Boosting the Theory of Mind Network: Specific Psychotherapy Increases Neural Correlates of Affective Theory of Mind in Euthymic Bipolar Disorder.

Background: In bipolar disorder, impaired affective theory of mind (aToM) performance and aberrant neural activation in the ToM brain network partly explain social functioning impairments. However, it is not yet known whether psychotherapy of bipolar disorder influences neuroimaging markers of aToM.

Methods: In this study, conducted within the multicentric randomized controlled trial of the BipoLife consortium, patients with euthymic bipolar disorder underwent 2 group interventions over 6 months (mean = 28.

Neuroleptic intolerance in the context of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis: A systematic review and synthesis of global case reports.

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (anti-NMDAR) encephalitis presents commonly with psychiatric symptoms. One cohort of these patients reported that antipsychotic administration led to neuroleptic intolerance (NI) in 19% of them, which was preventable by a prompt encephalitis diagnosis. To date, there is no clear description of the "neuroleptic intolerance" spectrum in general or during anti-NMDAR encephalitis.

Tachycardiomyopathy entails a dysfunctional pattern of interrelated mitochondrial functions.

Tachycardiomyopathy is characterised by reversible left ventricular dysfunction, provoked by rapid ventricular rate. While the knowledge of mitochondria advanced in most cardiomyopathies, mitochondrial functions await elucidation in tachycardiomyopathy. Pacemakers were implanted in 61 rabbits.

Do patients need advice and information to prevent infections - results of a single centre structured survey.

Background: Healthcare-associated infections are a major burden for hospitals, leading to morbidity and mortality and unnecessary medical costs. They can probably be reduced through what is known as patient empowerment. This study aims to address the question of whether patients are interested in receiving infection prevention and control information.

B-cell receptors of EBV-negative Burkitt lymphoma bind modified isoforms of autoantigens.

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) represents the most aggressive B-cell-lymphoma. Beside the hallmark of -translocation, surface B-cell receptor (BCR) is expressed, and mutations in the BCR pathway are frequent. Coincidental infections in endemic BL, and specific extra-nodal sites suggest antigenic triggers.

Enhancing Cardiomyocyte Transcription Using In Vivo CRISPR/Cas9 Systems.

Endogenous gene activation by programmable transcription factors offers gene-dose-dependent phenotyping of target cells embedded in their in vivo natural tissue environment. Modified CRISPR/Cas9 systems were developed to be used as guide (g) RNA programmable transcriptional activation platforms (CRISPRa) in vitro and in vivo allowing targeted or multiplexed gene activation studies. We specifically developed these tools to be applied in cardiomyocytes providing dCas9VPR expressing mice under the control of the Myosin heavy chain 6 (Myh6) promoter.

Novelty-Related fMRI Responses of Precuneus and Medial Temporal Regions in Individuals at Risk for Alzheimer Disease.

Background And Objectives: We assessed whether novelty-related fMRI activity in medial temporal lobe regions and the precuneus follows an inverted U-shaped pattern across the clinical spectrum of increased Alzheimer disease (AD) risk as previously suggested. Specifically, we tested for potentially increased activity in individuals with a higher AD risk due to subjective cognitive decline (SCD) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We further tested whether activity differences related to diagnostic groups were accounted for by CSF markers of AD or brain atrophy.

Frontiers in the enzymology of thiamin diphosphate-dependent enzymes.

Enzymes that use thiamin diphosphate (ThDP), the biologically active derivative of vitamin B1, as a cofactor play important roles in cellular metabolism in all domains of life. The analysis of ThDP enzymes in the past decades have provided a general framework for our understanding of enzyme catalysis of this protein family. In this review, we will discuss recent advances in the field that include the observation of "unusual" reactions and reaction intermediates that highlight the chemical versatility of the thiamin cofactor.

BNT162b2-boosted immune responses six months after heterologous or homologous ChAdOx1nCoV-19/BNT162b2 vaccination against COVID-19.

Heterologous prime/boost vaccination with a vector-based approach (ChAdOx-1nCov-19, ChAd) followed by an mRNA vaccine (e.g. BNT162b2, BNT) has been reported to be superior in inducing protective immunity compared to repeated application of the same vaccine.

BNT162b2 booster after heterologous prime-boost vaccination induces potent neutralizing antibodies and T cell reactivity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 in young adults.

In light of the decreasing immune protection against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection after initial vaccinations and the now dominant immune-evasive Omicron variants, 'booster' vaccinations are regularly performed to restore immune responses. Many individuals have received a primary heterologous prime-boost vaccination with long intervals between vaccinations, but the resulting long-term immunity and the effects of a subsequent 'booster', particularly against Omicron BA.1, have not been defined.

Wiki: Functional annotation of the minimal model organism .

The human pathogen is viable independently from host cells or organisms, despite its strongly reduced genome with only about 700 protein-coding genes. The investigation of can therefore help to obtain general insights concerning the basic requirements for cellular life. Accordingly, has become a model organism for systems biology in the past decade.

The mobility of thorium, uranium and rare earth elements from Mid Ordovician black shales to acid waters and its removal by goethite and schwertmannite.

Previous studies have addressed the occurrence of Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) affecting La Silva stream due to the generation of large dumps of Middle Ordovician black shales during the construction of a highway close to El Bierzo (León, Spain). This ARD was characterized by sulphated acid waters with high concentration of heavy metals and anomalies in dissolved thorium (Th) and uranium (U). In the present study, we analyse in depth black shales and water, streambed sediments and precipitates of La Silva stream and its tributaries using different petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical approaches.

ImputAccur: fast and user-friendly calculation of genotype-imputation accuracy-measures.

Background: ImputAccur is a software tool to measure genotype-imputation accuracy. Imputation of untyped markers is a standard approach in genome-wide association studies to close the gap between directly genotyped and other known DNA variants. However, high accuracy for imputed genotypes is fundamental.

Barley Ror1 encodes a class XI myosin required for mlo-based broad-spectrum resistance to the fungal powdery mildew pathogen.

Loss-of-function alleles of plant MLO genes confer broad-spectrum resistance to powdery mildews in many eudicot and monocot species. Although barley (Hordeum vulgare) mlo mutants have been used in agriculture for more than 40 years, understanding of the molecular principles underlying this type of disease resistance remains fragmentary. Forward genetic screens in barley have revealed mutations in two Required for mlo resistance (Ror) genes that partially impair immunity conferred by mlo mutants.

Cross-ancestry genome-wide meta-analysis of 61,047 cases and 947,237 controls identifies new susceptibility loci contributing to lung cancer.

To identify new susceptibility loci to lung cancer among diverse populations, we performed cross-ancestry genome-wide association studies in European, East Asian and African populations and discovered five loci that have not been previously reported. We replicated 26 signals and identified 10 new lead associations from previously reported loci. Rare-variant associations tended to be specific to populations, but even common-variant associations influencing smoking behavior, such as those with CHRNA5 and CYP2A6, showed population specificity.

Diplodia tip blight pathogen's virulence empowered through host switch.

Increased drought combined with emerging pathogens poses an increased threat to forest health. This is attributable to the unpredictable behaviour of forest pathosystems, which can favour fungal pathogens over the host under persistent drought stress conditions. (≡ ) is one of the most severe pathogens in Scots pine () causing Diplodia tip blight (conifer blight) under certain environmental conditions.

Mutagenic Analysis of the HIV Restriction Factor Shiftless.

The interferon-induced host cell protein shiftless (SFL) was reported to inhibit human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection by blocking the -1 programmed ribosomal frameshifting (-1PRF) required for expression of the Gag-Pol polyprotein. However, it is not clear how SFL inhibits -1PRF. To address this question, we focused on a 36 amino acids comprising region (termed required for antiviral activity (RAA)) that is essential for suppression of -1PRF and HIV infection and is missing from SFL short (SFLS), a splice variant of SFL with unknown function.

COVID-19 Intensive Care-Evaluation of Public Information Sources and Current Standards of Care in German Intensive Care Units: A Cross Sectional Online Survey on Intensive Care Staff in Germany.

: In February 2021, the first formal evidence and consensus-based (S3) guidelines for the inpatient treatment of patients with COVID-19 were published in Germany and have been updated twice during 2021. The aim of the present study is to re-evaluate the dissemination pathways and strategies for ICU staff (first evaluation in December 2020 when previous versions of consensus-based guidelines (S2k) were published) and question selected aspects of guideline adherence of standard care for patients with COVID-19 in the ICU. We conducted an anonymous online survey among German intensive care staff from 11 October 2021 to 11 November 2021.

Artificial intelligence fully automated myocardial strain quantification for risk stratification following acute myocardial infarction.

Feasibility of automated volume-derived cardiac functional evaluation has successfully been demonstrated using cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. Notwithstanding, strain assessment has proven incremental value for cardiovascular risk stratification. Since introduction of deformation imaging to clinical practice has been complicated by time-consuming post-processing, we sought to investigate automation respectively.

Assessing scale-dependent effects on Forest biomass productivity based on machine learning.

Estimating forest above-ground biomass (AGB) productivity constitutes one of the most fundamental topics in forest ecological research. Based on a 30-ha permanent field plot in Northeastern China, we modeled AGB productivity as output, and topography, species diversity, stand structure, and a stand density variable as input across a series of area scales using the algorithm. As the grain size increased from 10 to 200 m, we found that the relative importance of explanatory variables that drove the variation of biomass productivity varied a lot, and the model accuracy was gradually improved.