Difference in blink rate between men and women, and the effects of hormone levels

There is a documented difference m blink rates between men and women. In this project, blink rates of both men and women were recorded in a non-visually stimulating environment. We found that men and women did in fact blink at different rates, and, upon further investigation, we found that blink rates of women varied significantly with the use of birth control pills. This paper examines this relationship between blinking and its possible link to hormone levels

Importance of classroom listening conditions for the participation and quality of life of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in mainstream schools

Über 50 Prozent aller Kinder und Jugendlichen mit einem festgestellten sonderpädagogischen Förderbedarf im Bereich Hören (und Kommunikation) besuchen in Deutschland allgemeine Schulen. Da in inklusiven Bildungssettings vorwiegend in gesprochener Sprache kommuniziert wird, kann eine gute Hörqualität im Unterricht einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Sicherung der kommunikativen Partizipation und des Wohlbefindens der Schüler:innen leisten. Über die Zusammenhänge dieser drei Variablen ist bisher wenig bekannt. Der vorliegende Beitrag präsentiert die Ergebnisse einer Querschnittsuntersuchung, in der mittels standardisierter Fragebögen der Zusammenhang zwischen subjektiv beurteilter Hörqualität im Unterricht (E-HAK), kommunikativer Partizipation (CPQ-D) und Lebensqualität (KINDLR) untersucht wurde. Es liegen dazu die Daten von 156 Schüler:innen im Alter zwischen sieben und 18 Jahren vor. Die Ergebnisse der Korrelationsanalyse zeigen u. a. signifikante positive Zusammenhänge mit geringer bis mittlerer Effektstärke zwischen der subjektiv beurteilten Hörqualität im Unterricht und der kommunikativen Partizipation sowie zwischen der subjektiv beurteilten Hörqualität und der Lebensqualität. Subjektiv gut beurteilte Hörqualität ist mit einem besseren Verstehen der Äußerungen von Lehrkräften und Schüler:innen assoziiert und geht mit einer höher bewerteten Lebensqualität für den Bereich „Schule“ einher. Die Mediationsanalyse zeigt, dass der Zusammenhang von subjektiver Hörqualität und Lebensqualität durch die kommunikative Partizipation vermittelt wird. (DIPF/Orig.)Over 50 percent of all deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Germany attend mainstream schools. Since spoken language is the predominant means of communication in mainstream school classrooms, the listening conditions can substantially affect student participation and well-being in the classroom. However, little is known about the relationship between those three factors. This paper presents the results of a cross-sectional study using standardized questionnaires to investigate the relationship between subjective assessment of classroom listening quality (E-HAK), communicative participation (CPQ-D), and quality of life (KINDLR). Data from 156 pupils aged between 7 to 18 years were used. The results of the correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlations with low to medium effect sizes between subjective assessment of the listening quality and communicative participation and between the subjective assessment of listening quality and quality of life. In other words, a classroom environment assessed as having a good listening quality is associated both with better understanding of teachers and other pupils and with a higher-rated quality of life in school. A mediation analysis showed that communicative participation mediates the relationship between the subjectively assessed listening quality and the quality of life. (DIPF/Orig.

Navigating force conflicts: A case study on strategies of transformative research in the current academic system

Against the backdrop of the increasing calls for scholars, universities and the broader academic system to become more societally relevant and contribute to tackling various sustainability challenges, researchers across all disciplines are themselves moving toward conducting more transformative research. Work to date has focused on challenges in these transitions, obstacles to transformative research, and researchers' resistance to ‘impact strategies’; however, little is known about how those who actually do transformative research ultimately overcome these challenges. Using Lewin's field theory as a theoretical basis, we collected qualitative data and carried out 32 in-depth interviews with ‘transformative’ scholars and policy and support staff at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) on the driving and conflicting forces related to transformative research, as well as strategies for dealing with them. An in-depth grounded analysis revealed transformative researchers' identity and goal conflicts and showed how they skillfully navigate those conflicts by choosing between two ideal-typical strategies, ‘transforming through research output’ and ‘transforming through research process’. The constellations of forces identified that actually influence researchers' choices on those strategies need to be taken into account in the designing of effective research policies for leveraging the potential of transformative research to tackle sustainability challenges

Coping with transition pain: An emotions perspective on phase-outs in sustainability transitions

With this perspective paper, we aim to raise awareness of and offer starting points for studying the role of emotions and associated behavioural responses to losses in relation to phase-outs. We start from a psychological perspective and explain how losses due to phasing out dominant practices, structures, and cultures may threaten core psychological needs and lead to - what we introduce as - ‘transition pain’. We borrow insights from the psychological coping literature to explain that different forms of transition pain may elicit characteristic coping responses (e.g. opposition, escape, negotiation), shaping individual meaning-making and behaviour in ongoing sustainability transitions. We then expand this psychological lens and present three additional perspectives, namely, that transition pain is (1) dynamic and process-dependent, (2) collectively shared and socially conditioned, and (3) political. We discuss how a ‘coping with transition pain’ lens can contribute to a better understanding of individual and collective meaning-making, behaviour and agency in transitions as well as a more emotion-sensitive governance of phase-outs

Real-time motion and retrospective coil sensitivity correction for CEST using volumetric navigators (vNavs) at 7T

Purpose To explore the impact of temporal motion-induced coil sensitivity changes on CEST-MRI at 7T and its correction using interleaved volumetric EPI navigators, which are applied for real-time motion correction. Methods Five healthy volunteers were scanned via CEST. A 4-fold correction pipeline allowed the mitigation of (1) motion, (2) motion-induced coil sensitivity variations, Delta B1-, (3) motion-induced static magnetic field inhomogeneities, Delta B-0, and (4) spatially varying transmit RF field fluctuations, Delta B1+. Four CEST measurements were performed per session. For the first 2, motion correction was turned OFF and then ON in absence of voluntary motion, whereas in the other 2 controlled head rotations were performed. During post-processing Delta B1- was removed additionally for the motion-corrected cases, resulting in a total of 6 scenarios to be compared. In all cases, retrospective increment B-0 and -Delta B1+ corrections were performed to compute artifact-free magnetization transfer ratio maps with asymmetric analysis (MTRasym). Results Dynamic Delta B1- correction successfully mitigated signal deviations caused by head motion. In 2 frontal lobe regions of volunteer 4, induced relative signal errors of 10.9% and 3.9% were reduced to 1.1% and 1.0% after correction. In the right frontal lobe, the motion-corrected MTRasym contrast deviated 0.92%, 1.21%, and 2.97% relative to the static case for Delta omega = 1, 2, 3 +/- 0.25 ppm. The additional application of Delta B1- correction reduced these deviations to 0.10%, 0.14%, and 0.42%. The fully corrected MTRasym values were highly consistent between measurements with and without intended head rotations. Conclusion Temporal Delta B1- cause significant CEST quantification bias. The presented correction pipeline including the proposed retrospective Delta B1- correction significantly reduced motion-related artifacts on CEST-MRI.Peer reviewe

Enzymatic synthesis of antibody-human serum albumin conjugate for targeted drug delivery using tyrosinase from Agaricus bisporus

Highly specific targeted drug delivery devices can be obtained with antibody-human serum albumin (mAb-HSA) conjugates. However, their conventional production involves several reaction steps including chemical modification and activation of both proteins followed by cross-linking often involving toxic chemicals. Here, we describe the enzymatic synthesis of mAb-HSA conjugates for targeted drug delivery devices using tyrosinase from Agaricus bisporus under mild reaction conditions (pH 6.8, 25 [degree]C). Reaction conditions were optimized by using fluorescence labeled HSA to facilitate SDS-PAGE analysis with fluorescence scanning. Enzymatic cross-linking in the presence of natural low molecular weight phenolic compounds (e.g. caffeic acid) resulted in reaction products in the molecular weight range of [similar]216 kDa, corresponding to mAb-HSA conjugates. The composition of the conjugates was confirmed with tryptic digestion followed by LC-MS/MS analysis of the resulting peptide fragments. Successful binding of mAb-HSA conjugates (in contrast to free HSA) to MHC II molecules, located on antigen-presenting cells, was demonstrated by both ELISA and flow cytometry analysis.This work has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement NMP4-LA-2009-228827 NANOFOL and FWF, DK: Metabolic and Cardiovascular Disease: W1226-B18. We thank Tamara Reiter, Graz University of Technology for technical support with SEC; Exbio from the Czech Republic for providing the mAbs and Britta Obrist, Medical University of Graz and the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, for technical assistance with LC-MS/MS analysis

Estimating Trends in the Proportion of Transmitted and Acquired HIV Drug Resistance in a Long Term Observational Cohort in Germany

Objective: We assessed trends in the proportion of transmitted (TDR) and acquired (ADR) HIV drug resistance and associated mutations between 2001 and 2011 in the German ClinSurv-HIV Drug Resistance Study. Method: The German ClinSurv-HIV Drug Resistance Study is a subset of the German ClinSurv-HIV Cohort. For the ClinSurv-HIV Drug Resistance Study all available sequences isolated from patients in five study centres of the long term observational ClinSurv-HIV Cohort were included. TDR was estimated using the first viral sequence of antiretroviral treatment (ART) naive patients. One HIV sequence/patient/year of ART experienced patients was considered to estimate the proportion of ADR. Trends in the proportion of HIV drug resistance were calculated by logistic regression. Results: 9,528 patients were included into the analysis. HIV-sequences of antiretroviral naive and treatment experienced patients were available from 34% (3,267/9,528) of patients. The proportion of TDR over time was stable at 10.4% (95% CI 9.1-11.8; p (for trend)=0.6; 2001-2011). The proportion of ADR among all treated patients was 16%, whereas it was high among those with available HIV genotypic resistance test (64%; 1,310/2,049 sequences; 95% CI 62-66) but declined significantly over time (OR 0.8; 95% CI 0.77-0.83; p (for trend)<0.001; 2001-2011). Viral load monitoring subsequent to resistance testing was performed in the majority of treated patients (96%) and most of them (67%) were treated successfully. Conclusions: The proportion of TDR was stable in this study population. ADR declined significantly over time. This decline might have been influenced by broader resistance testing, resistance test guided therapy and the availability of more therapeutic options and not by a decline in the proportion of TDR within the study population

an evaluation of data sources to determine the number of people living with HIV who are receiving antiretroviral therapy in Germany

Background This study aimed to determine the number of people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) between 2006 and 2013 in Germany by using the available numbers of antiretroviral drug prescriptions and treatment data from the ClinSurv HIV cohort (CSH). Methods The CSH is a multi-centre, open, long-term observational cohort study with an average number of 10.400 patients in the study period 2006–2013. ART has been documented on average for 86% of those CSH patients and medication history is well documented in the CSH. The antiretroviral prescription data (APD) are reported by billing centres for pharmacies covering >99% of nationwide pharmacy sales of all individuals with statutory health insurance (SHI) in Germany (~85%). Exactly one thiacytidine-containing medication (TCM) with either emtricitabine or lamivudine is present in all antiretroviral fixed-dose combinations (FDCs). Thus, each daily dose of TCM documented in the APD is presumed to be representative of one person per day receiving ART. The proportion of non-TCM regimen days in the CSH was used to determine the corresponding number of individuals in the APD. Results The proportion of CSH patients receiving TCMs increased continuously over time (from 85% to 93%; 2006–2013). In contrast, treatment interruptions declined remarkably (from 11% to 2%; 2006–2013). The total number of HIV-infected people with ART experience in Germany increased from 31,500 (95% CI 31,000-32,000) individuals to 54,000 (95% CI 53,000-55,500) over the observation period (including 16.3% without SHI and persons who had interrupted ART). An average increase of approximately 2,900 persons receiving ART was observed annually in Germany. Conclusions A substantial increase in the number of people receiving ART was observed from 2006 to 2013 in Germany. Currently, the majority (93%) of antiretroviral regimens in the CSH included TCMs with ongoing use of FDCs. Based on these results, the future number of people receiving ART could be estimated by exclusively using TCM prescriptions, assuming that treatment guidelines will not change with respect to TCM use in ART regimens