Trajectories of health-related quality of life across age cohorts: A longitudinal analysis of the German population over 16 years.

Background: Understanding the trajectories of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) across different age cohorts and sociodemographic factors is crucial for promoting healthy aging. This study aims to examine the course of physical and mental HRQoL over a 16-year period in a nationwide sample of the German population.

Methods: Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel spanning from 2002 to 2018 (N = 4111; female = 52.

Joint embedding-classifier learning for interpretable collaborative filtering.

Background: Interpretability is a topical question in recommender systems, especially in healthcare applications. An interpretable classifier quantifies the importance of each input feature for the predicted item-user association in a non-ambiguous fashion.

Results: We introduce the novel Joint Embedding Learning-classifier for improved Interpretability (JELI).

Serum NfL predicts outcome and secondary autoimmunity in herpes-simplex encephalitis.

Objectives: Herpes simplex virus 1 encephalitis (HSE) is the most common infectious encephalitis in developed countries. We aimed to evaluate the association of serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) with disease severity, outcome and secondary anti-neuronal autoantibodies in a retrospective cohort study.

Methods: We retrospectively identified 30 patients with HSE and 132 controls (bacterial meningoencephalitis BM n = 27, non-bacterial meningitis NBM n = 33, healthy controls = 72).

Widespread environmental contamination from relic munitions in the southwestern Baltic Sea.

Relic munitions from warfare and intentional dumping contaminate coastal waters worldwide, with an estimated 300,000 tons in the German Baltic Sea alone. These contain toxic conventional explosive chemicals, including 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX), and 1,3-dinitrobenzene (DNB). Corrosion of metal munition housings in seawater releases these munition chemicals (MCs) to the marine environment.

Real-time deformable structure tracking in 3D ultrasound sequences using deformable convolutional layers.

Ultrasound imaging can provide 3D images of soft tissue structures in real-time without harmful radiation. Due to its high level of availability and low-cost characteristics, it is becoming more and more interesting for therapy guidance purposes like in radiotherapy. However, for usage in radiotherapy a robust and real-time image analysis method is required to be able to track the target during the treatment session.

Perfluorooctanoate and nano-titanium dioxide modulate male gonadal function in the mussel Mytilus coruscus.

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO₂) are widely used in industrial applications such as manufacturing and textiles, and can be released into the environment, causing toxicity to marine organisms. To study the effects of these pollutants on the gonadal development, we exposed the males of Mytilus coruscus to varying PFOA concentrations (2 and 200 μg/L) alone or combined with nano-TiO (0.1 mg/L, size: 25 nm) for 14 days.

Alternating electrical fields to stimulate osteogenic cells and biomimetic calcium phosphate-coated titanium substrates-A combinatorial approach to bone regeneration.

Biophysical stimuli such as alternating electrical fields can mimic endogenous electrical potentials and currents in natural bone. This can help to improve the healing and reconstruction of bone tissue. However, little is known about the combined influence of biomaterials and alternating electric fields on bone cells.

Genotypic Spectrum in a Cohort of Sri Lankan Patients With Homocystinuria.

Homocystinuria due to cystathionine beta-synthase (CBS) deficiency is a rare metabolic disorder inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. Spectrum of genetic variants in gene and their correlation with the phenotypes of homocystinuria in Sri Lankan patients have not been reported to date. The objective of this study was to identify the genotypes and genotype-phenotype correlations in a cohort of Sri Lankan patients with homocystinuria due to CBS deficiency.

Comprehensive evaluation of pure and hybrid collaborative filtering in drug repurposing.

Drug development is known to be a costly and time-consuming process, which is prone to high failure rates. Drug repurposing allows drug discovery by reusing already approved compounds. The outcomes of past clinical trials can be used to predict novel drug-disease associations by leveraging drug- and disease-related similarities.

Stillbirth rate trends across 25 European countries between 2010 and 2021: the contribution of maternal age and multiplicity.

Stillbirth rates have stalled or increased in some European countries during the last decade. We investigate to what extent time-trends and between-country differences in stillbirth rates are explained by the changing prevalence of advanced maternal age and teenage pregnancies or multiple births. We analysed data on stillbirths and live births by maternal age and multiplicity from 2010 to 2021 in 25 European countries using Kitagawa decomposition to separate rate differences into compositional and rate components.

Dynamic photosynthetic labeling and carbon-positional mass spectrometry monitor in vivo Rubisco carbon assimilation rates.

RIBULOSE-1,5-BISPHOSPHATE CARBOXYLASE/OXYGENASE (RUBISCO) is the most abundant enzyme and CO2 bio-sequestration system on Earth. Its in vivo activity is usually determined by 14CO2 incorporation into 3-phosphoglycerate (3PGA). However, the radiometric analysis of 3PGA does not distinguish carbon positions.

Redox-induced dimerisations of a phosphacyclic biradicaloid.

Despite the first examples being isolated more than two decades ago, little is known about the redox chemistry of stable phosphacyclic biradicaloids. Here, we demonstrate that a biradicaloid featuring a diphosphaindenyl backbone is able to undergo both oxidation and reduction reactions. One-electron oxidation results in the formation of a dicationic cage compound structurally related to an isomer of hypostrophene (CH).

Changes in Circadian Rhythm in Chronically-Starved Mice Are Associated With Glial Cell Density Reduction in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus.

Objective: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterized by severe weight loss and associated with hyperactivity and circadian rhythm disruption. However, the cellular basis of circadian rhythm disruption is poorly understood. Glial cells in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the principal circadian pacemaker, are involved in regulating circadian rhythms.

The influence of different crosslinking agents onto the physical properties, integration behavior and immune response of collagen-based barrier membranes.

This study investigates the mechanical properties as well as and cyto- and biocompatibility of collagen membranes cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (GA), proanthocyanidins (PC), hexamethylendiisocyanate (HMDI) and 1-Ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide/N-hydroxysuccinimide (EC/NHS). A non-crosslinked membrane was used as reference control (RF). The initial cytotoxic analyses revealed that the PC, EC, and HMDI crosslinked membranes were cytocompatible, while the GA crosslinked membrane was cytotoxic and thus selected as positive control in the further study.

Parental Separation and Children's Education-Changes Over Time?

The association between parental separation and children's education has been widely studied, but mainly at a single time point and for marital dissolution only. We examine whether the (generally negative) association has changed across cohorts for several educational outcomes and whether the association differs by parental union type (marriage, cohabitation) and socioeconomic family background (parental education).We use Finnish total population register data.

Semantic search helper: A tool based on the use of embeddings in multi-item questionnaires as a harmonization opportunity for merging large datasets - A feasibility study.

Background: Recent advances in natural language processing (NLP), particularly in language processing methods, have opened new avenues in semantic data analysis. A promising application of NLP is data harmonization in questionnaire-based cohort studies, where it can be used as an additional method, specifically when only different instruments are available for one construct as well as for the evaluation of potentially new construct-constellations. The present article therefore explores embedding models' potential to detect opportunities for semantic harmonization.

Time-resolved and theoretical analysis of Mo-carbene transformations in metathesis of ethylene with 2-butene.

Although supported Mo-containing catalysts have been extensively investigated in the metathesis of ethylene with 2-butene to propene, the mechanisms of the formation and transformation of catalytically active Mo-carbenes in the course of the reaction are still not fully understood. The difficulties arise because only a tiny fraction of MoO species can form Mo-carbenes , making the detection of the latter by spectroscopic means very unlikely. Herein, purposefully designed steady-state and transient experiments including their kinetic evaluation and density functional theory calculations enabled us to elucidate mechanistic and kinetic details of the above reaction-induced processes in the metathesis reaction over a Mo/P/SiO catalyst at 50 °C.

The effect of a general practitioner's perception of a patient request for antibiotics on antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections: secondary analysis of a point prevalence audit survey in 18 European countries.

Background: Illness severity, comorbidity, fever, age and symptom duration influence antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections (RTI). Non-medical determinants, such as patient expectations, also impact prescribing.

Aim: To quantify the effect of general practitioners' (GPs') perception of a patient request for antibiotics on antibiotic prescribing for RTI and investigate effect modification by medical determinants and country.

Rationale and Design of the HERZCHECK trial: Detection of Early Heart Failure Using Telemedicine and CMR in Structurally Weak Regions (NCT05122793).

Background And Aims: Heart failure (HF) is an imminent global health problem. Yet established screening algorithms for asymptomatic pre-HF, allowing for early and effective preventive interventions, are largely lacking. The HERZCHECK trial, conducted in structurally underserved rural regions of North-Eastern Germany, aims to close this gap by evaluating the feasibility, diagnostic efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of a fully mobile, telemedically-supervised screening approach, combining cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) and laboratory testing as central elements.

Long-term recurrence after parathyroidectomy in primary hyperparathyroidism-do predictors exist?

Background: Primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) is the third most common endocrine disease, affecting predominantly postmenopausal women. About 85% of cases are caused by a solitary parathyroid adenoma which leads to a hypersecretion of the parathyroid hormone (PTH) and consequently to elevated serum calcium concentrations. Parathyroidectomy is the only curative treatment.

Secondary full thickness macular holes following complete vitrectomy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: rare occurrence with good closure rate.

Purpose: Formation of a full thickness macular hole (FTMH) after vitrectomy is rare. The aim of this study was to describe risk factors, clinical course, anatomical and functional prognosis of secondary FTMH development following surgery for primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD).

Methods: Retrospective study.

Reduced contribution of sulfur to the mass extinction associated with the Chicxulub impact event.

The Chicxulub asteroid impact event at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary ~66 Myr ago is widely considered responsible for the mass extinction event leading to the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs. Short-term cooling due to massive release of climate-active agents is hypothesized to have been crucial, with S-bearing gases originating from the target rock vaporization considered an important driving force. Yet, the magnitude of the S release remains poorly constrained.