Elevated dopamine D1 receptor availability in striatum of Göttingen minipigs after electroconvulsive therapy.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), a direct form of brain stimulation, is an effective antidepressant. We hypothesized that the beneficial effects of ECT are mediated by increased dopaminergic neurotransmission, in which the baseline activity of D1 receptors may predict the response to ECT. We established a novel model of brain stimulation in Göttingen minipigs based on the protocol of ECT applied in humans.

Dispatch and prehospital transport for acute septic patients: an observational study.

Background: In order to dispatch ambulances with the correct level of urgency, the dispatch center has to balance the perceived urgency and traffic safety considerations with the available resources. As urgency is not clear in all clinical situations, some high urgency patients may end up with a suboptimal mode of transport. Patients with severe sepsis or septic shock suffer from highly time dependent conditions but they present with a wide range of symptoms, which might be difficult to identify in the dispatch system.

Seasonal variation in child mortality in rural Guinea-Bissau.

Objectives: In many African countries, child mortality is higher in the rainy season than in the dry season. We investigated the effect of season on child mortality by time periods, sex and age in rural Guinea-Bissau.

Methods: Bandim health project follows children under-five in a health and demographic surveillance system in rural Guinea-Bissau.

Fast Dynamical Coupling Enhances Frequency Adaptation of Oscillators for Robotic Locomotion Control.

Rhythmic neural signals serve as basis of many brain processes, in particular of locomotion control and generation of rhythmic movements. It has been found that specific neural circuits, named central pattern generators (CPGs), are able to autonomously produce such rhythmic activities. In order to tune, shape and coordinate the produced rhythmic activity, CPGs require sensory feedback, i.

Seasonal and sex-specific variations in haematological parameters in 4 to 5.5-month-old infants in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.

Objective: This study investigated seasonal and sex-specific variations in the haematological parameters and established reference ranges for these parameters in healthy 4 to 5.5-month-old infants in Guinea-Bissau.

Methods: Within a randomised trial of early measles vaccination, over a period of 13 months blood samples were collected from infants aged 4 to 5.

"If only had I known": a qualitative study investigating a treatment of patients with a hip fracture with short time stay in hospital.

Hip fractures are amongst the leading causes of admission to an orthopaedic ward. Systematized pathways with reduced admission time have become increasingly common as an essential tool for quality development and to improve efficiency in the hospital setting.  The aim of this study was to clarify if the patients feel empowered and able to perform self-care after short time stay in hospital (STSH) due to a hip fracture.

Neonatal BCG vaccination has no effect on recurrent wheeze in the first year of life: A randomized clinical trial.

Background: Recurrent wheeze (RW) is frequent in childhood. Studies have suggested that BCG vaccination can have nonspecific effects, reducing general nontuberculosis morbidity, including respiratory tract infections and atopic diseases. The mechanisms behind these nonspecific effects of BCG are not fully understood, but a shift from a T2 to a T1 response has been suggested as a possible explanation.

Active placebo control groups of pharmacological interventions were rarely used but merited serious consideration: a methodological overview.

Objectives: Active placebos are control interventions that mimic the side effects of the experimental interventions in randomized trials and are sometimes used to reduce the risk of unblinding. We wanted to assess how often randomized clinical drug trials use active placebo control groups; to provide a catalog, and a characterization, of such trials; and to analyze methodological arguments for and against the use of active placebo.

Study Design And Setting: An overview consisting of three thematically linked substudies.

An Adaptive Neural Mechanism for Acoustic Motion Perception with Varying Sparsity.

Biological motion-sensitive neural circuits are quite adept in perceiving the relative motion of a relevant stimulus. Motion perception is a fundamental ability in neural sensory processing and crucial in target tracking tasks. Tracking a stimulus entails the ability to perceive its motion, i.

Different Teams, Same Conclusions? A Systematic Review of Existing Clinical Guidelines for the Assessment and Treatment of Tinnitus in Adults.

Though clinical guidelines for assessment and treatment of chronic subjective tinnitus do exist, a comprehensive review of those guidelines has not been performed. The objective of this review was to identify current clinical guidelines, and compare their recommendations for the assessment and treatment of subjective tinnitus in adults. We systematically searched a range of sources for clinical guidelines (as defined by the Institute of Medicine, United States) for the assessment and/or treatment of subjective tinnitus in adults.

Cortical Morphogenesis during Embryonic Development Is Regulated by miR-34c and miR-204.

The porcine brain closely resembles the human brain in aspects such as development and morphology. Temporal miRNA profiling in the developing embryonic porcine cortex revealed a distinct set of miRNAs, including miR-34c and miR-204, which exhibited a highly specific expression profile across the time of cortical folding. These miRNAs were found to target Doublecortin (DCX), known to be involved in neuron migration during cortical folding of gyrencephalic brains.

Pain relief that matters to patients: systematic review of empirical studies assessing the minimum clinically important difference in acute pain.

Background: The minimum clinically important difference (MCID) is used to interpret the clinical relevance of results reported by trials and meta-analyses as well as to plan sample sizes in new studies. However, there is a lack of consensus about the size of MCID in acute pain, which is a core symptom affecting patients across many clinical conditions.

Methods: We identified and systematically reviewed empirical studies of MCID in acute pain.

The Introduction of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis and Oral Polio Vaccine Among Young Infants in an Urban African Community: A Natural Experiment.

Background: We examined the introduction of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) and oral polio vaccine (OPV) in an urban community in Guinea-Bissau in the early 1980s.

Methods: The child population had been followed with 3-monthly nutritional weighing sessions since 1978. From June 1981 DTP and OPV were offered from 3months of age at these sessions.

Campaigns with oral polio vaccine may lower mortality and create unexpected results.

Three studies from Guinea-Bissau found conflicting effects of OPV-at-birth (OPV0) on child survival. One study from 2004 suggested excess male mortality among children receiving OPV0 compared with children receiving NoOPV0 during a period of shortage of OPV. However, two subsequent studies showed beneficial effects of OPV0.

The association between parental separation during childhood and obesity in adulthood: a Danish twin study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine if parental separation during childhood is associated with obesity in adulthood.

Methods: A co-twin case-control study of 146 adult same-sexed twin pairs with discordant body mass index (BMI) (i.e.

Depressive symptoms in women's midlife in relation to their body weight before, during and after childbearing years.

Objective: This study aimed to examine how weight and weight changes related to pregnancy were associated with depressive symptoms 11-16 years after childbirth.

Method: We followed 16,998 first-time mothers from the Danish National Birth Cohort up till 16 years after birth and estimated associations between depressive symptoms and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) (kg m), weight changes in different time periods, and BMI-adjusted waist circumference 7 years after birth (WC, cm). Depressive symptoms were estimated by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression 10-item scale.

Effect of an Early Dose of Measles Vaccine on Morbidity Between 18 Weeks and 9 Months of Age: A Randomized, Controlled Trial in Guinea-Bissau.

Background: Children in Guinea-Bissau receive measles vaccine (MV) at 9 months of age, but studies have shown that an additional dose before 9 months of age might have beneficial nonspecific effects. Within a randomized trial designed to examine nonspecific effects of early MV receipt on mortality, we conducted a substudy to investigate the effect of early MV receipt on morbidity.

Methods: Children were randomly assigned at a ratio of 2:1 to receive 2 doses of MV at 18 weeks and age 9 months (intervention group) or 1 dose of MV at age 9 months, in accordance with current practice (control group).

Introduction of standard measles vaccination in an urban African community in 1979 and overall child survival: a reanalysis of data from a cohort study.

Objective: To examine the effect of the first introduction of measles vaccine (MV) in Guinea-Bissau in 1979.

Setting: Urban community study of the anthropometric status of all children under 6 years of age.

Participants: The study cohort included 1451 children in December 1978; 82% took part in the anthropometric survey.

Insight into the Exoproteome of the Tissue-Derived Trypomastigote form of .

The protozoan parasite causes Chagas disease, one of the major neglected infectious diseases. It has the potential to infect any nucleated mammalian cell. The secreted/excreted protein repertoire released by trypomastigotes is crucial in host-pathogen interactions.

Is diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) associated with increased female mortality? A meta-analysis testing the hypotheses of sex-differential non-specific effects of DTP vaccine.

Background: Ten years ago, we formulated two hypotheses about whole-cell diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccination: first, when given after BCG, DTP increases mortality in girls and, second, following DTP there is an increase in the female/male mortality rate ratio (MRR). A recent review by WHO found no convincing evidence that DTP increases mortality in females.

Methods: We used previous DTP reviews as well as the recent WHO review for assessing the hypotheses.

Intracellular Nitrate of Marine Diatoms as a Driver of Anaerobic Nitrogen Cycling in Sinking Aggregates.

Diatom-bacteria aggregates are key for the vertical transport of organic carbon in the ocean. Sinking aggregates also represent pelagic microniches with intensified microbial activity, oxygen depletion in the center, and anaerobic nitrogen cycling. Since some of the aggregate-forming diatom species store nitrate intracellularly, we explored the fate of intracellular nitrate and its availability for microbial metabolism within anoxic diatom-bacteria aggregates.

A marginal structural model for recurrent events in the presence of time-dependent confounding: non-specific effects of vaccines on child hospitalisations.

Using a Danish register-based study on childhood vaccination and hospitalisation as motivation, a marginal structural model for recurrent events is studied. The model addresses a number of challenges which may be seen more generally in large register-based cohort studies. One is to adjust for a time-dependent confounder when studying the effect of a time-varying exposure on a recurrent event based on an analysis in continuous time.

Nonspecific effect of BCG vaccination at birth on early childhood infections: a randomized, clinical multicenter trial.

Background: Childhood infections are common and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination at birth may prevent these via nonspecific effects.

Methods: A randomized, clinical multicenter trial. All women planning to give birth (n = 16,521) at the three study sites were invited during the recruitment period.