Neural Classifier Systems for Histopathologic Diagnosis

Neural network and statistical classification methods were applied to derive an objective grading for moderately and poorly differentiated lesions, based on characteristics of the nuclear placement patterns. Using a multilayer network after abbreviated training as a feature extractor followed by a quadratic Bayesian classifier allowed grade assignment agreeing with visual diagnostic consensus in 96% of fields from the training set of 500 fields, and a 77% of 130 fields of a test set

Welche Reform die Bundeswehr heute braucht: ein Denkanstoß

Spätestens seit dem sicherheitspolitischen Epochenjahr 2014 (Russlands Annexion der Krim) und den Nato-Beschlüssen von Wales, zuvor aber schon mit dem Strategischen Konzept des Nato-Gipfels von Lissabon 2010 rückte die kollektive Verteidigung wieder in den Mittelpunkt der Bündnisanstrengungen. Der Nordatlantikrat stellte sie gleich­rangig neben die weltweiten Einsätze zur Krisenintervention. Ungeachtet dessen wurde in Deutschland die Organisation der Bundeswehr 2011 noch stärker auf inter­nationales Krisenmanagement als Schwerpunkt ausgerichtet. Erst mit dem Weißbuch 2016 und der Konzeption der Bundeswehr 2018 erfolgte politisch die notwendige Korrektur. Wesentliche Auswirkungen auf die zuvor eingenommenen Strukturen sind bislang noch nicht erkennbar, wohl aber Fehlentwicklungen. Deshalb sollte jetzt mit den erforderlichen Veränderungen begonnen werden. (Autorenreferat

The family of Peps and their precursors in Arabidopsis: differential expression and localization but similar induction of pattern-triggered immune responses

In Arabidopsis thaliana, the endogenous danger peptides, AtPeps, have been associated with plant defences reminiscent of those induced in pattern-triggered immunity. AtPeps are perceived by two homologous receptor kinases, PEPR1 and PEPR2, and are encoded in the C termini of the PROPEP precursors. Here, we report that, contrary to the seemingly redundant AtPeps, the PROPEPs fall at least into two distinct groups. As revealed by promoter-β-glucuronidase studies, expression patterns of PROPEP1-3, -5, and -8 partially overlapped and correlated with those of the PEPR1 and -2 receptors, whereas those of PROPEP4 and -7 did not share any similarities with the former. Moreover, bi-clustering analysis indicated an association of PROPEP1, -2, and -3 with plant defence, whereas PROPEP5 expression was related to patterns of plant reproduction. In addition, at the protein level, PROPEPs appeared to be distinct. PROPEP3::YFP (fused to yellow fluorescent protein) was present in the cytosol, but, in contrast to previous predictions, PROPEP1::YFP and PROPEP6::YFP localized to the tonoplast. Together with the expression patterns, this could point to potentially non-redundant roles among the members of the PROPEP family. By contrast, their derived AtPeps, including the newly reported AtPep8, when applied exogenously, provoked activation of defence-related responses in a similar manner, suggesting a high level of functional redundancy between the AtPeps. Taken together, our findings reveal an apparent antagonism between AtPep redundancy and PROPEP variability, and indicate new roles for PROPEPs besides plant immunit

Axisymmetric pulse train solutions in narrow-gap spherical Couette flow

We numerically compute the flow induced in a spherical shell by fixing the outer sphere and rotating the inner one. The aspect ratio ϵ = ( r o − r i ) / r i is set at 0.04 and 0.02, and in each case the Reynolds number measuring the inner sphere’s rotation rate is increased to ∼ 10% beyond the first bifurcation from the basic state flow. For ϵ = 0.04 the initial bifurcations are the same as in previous numerical work at ϵ = 0.154 , and result in steady one- and two-vortex states. Further bifurcations yield travelling wave solutions similar to previous analytic results valid in the ϵ → 0 limit. For ϵ = 0.02 the steady one-vortex state no longer exists, and the first bifurcation is directly to these travelling wave solutions, consisting of pulse trains of Taylor vortices travelling toward the equator from both hemispheres, and annihilating there in distinct phase-slip events. We explore these time-dependent solutions in detail, and find that they can be both equatorially symmetric and asymmetric, as well as periodic or quasi-periodic in time

Concept Study of a fast VTOL-UAV Technology-Demonstrator for MUM-T

The Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) of rotorcraft offers the potential to increase the effectivity and survivability of the combined tactical unit. Currently, commercially available Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capability are not specifically designed for fast forward flight and would slow down the entire tactical unit. This study presents the first results of the development of a technology-demonstrator with a maximum airspeed of at least 180 kt. The investigation of different VTOL-UAV concepts, the selection of a thrust-compound configuration and the first details of the predesign are described. Furthermore, the flight performance is analyzed with focus on maximum airspeed, power, endurance and range. The results show, that the proposed design of the VTOL-UAV is expected to fulfill the requirements

fMR-adaptation indicates selectivity to audiovisual content congruency in distributed clusters in human superior temporal cortex

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Efficient multisensory integration is of vital importance for adequate interaction with the environment. In addition to basic binding cues like temporal and spatial coherence, meaningful multisensory information is also bound together by content-based associations. Many functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies propose the (posterior) superior temporal cortex (STC) as the key structure for integrating meaningful multisensory information. However, a still unanswered question is how superior temporal cortex encodes content-based associations, especially in light of inconsistent results from studies comparing brain activation to semantically matching (congruent) versus nonmatching (incongruent) multisensory inputs. Here, we used fMR-adaptation (fMR-A) in order to circumvent potential problems with standard fMRI approaches, including spatial averaging and amplitude saturation confounds. We presented repetitions of audiovisual stimuli (letter-speech sound pairs) and manipulated the associative relation between the auditory and visual inputs (congruent/incongruent pairs). We predicted that if multisensory neuronal populations exist in STC and encode audiovisual content relatedness, adaptation should be affected by the manipulated audiovisual relation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results revealed an occipital-temporal network that adapted independently of the audiovisual relation. Interestingly, several smaller clusters distributed over superior temporal cortex within that network, adapted stronger to congruent than to incongruent audiovisual repetitions, indicating sensitivity to content congruency.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the revealed clusters contain multisensory neuronal populations that encode content relatedness by selectively responding to congruent audiovisual inputs, since unisensory neuronal populations are assumed to be insensitive to the audiovisual relation. These findings extend our previously revealed mechanism for the integration of letters and speech sounds and demonstrate that fMR-A is sensitive to multisensory congruency effects that may not be revealed in BOLD amplitude per se.</p

ADHERE: randomized controlled trial comparing renal function in de novo kidney transplant recipients receiving prolonged-release tacrolimus plus mycophenolate mofetil or sirolimus

ADHERE was a randomized, open-label, Phase IV study comparing renal function at Week 52 postkidney transplant, in patients who received prolongedrelease tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive regimens. On Days 0?27, patients received prolonged-release tacrolimus (initially 0.2 mg/kg/day), corticosteroids, and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). Patients were randomized on Day 28 to receive either prolonged-release tacrolimus plus MMF (Arm 1) or prolongedrelease tacrolimus (?25% dose reduction on Day 42) plus sirolimus (Arm 2). The primary endpoint was glomerular filtration rate by iohexol clearance (mGFR) at Week 52. Secondary endpoints included eGFR, creatinine clearance (CrCl), efficacy failure (patient withdrawal or graft loss), and patient/graft survival. Tolerability was analyzed. The full-analysis set comprised 569 patients (Arm 1: 287; Arm 2: 282). Week 52 mean mGFR was similar in Arm 1 versus Arm 2 (40.73 vs. 41.75 ml/min/1.73 m2; P = 0.405), as were the secondary endpoints, except composite efficacy failure, which was higher in Arm 2 versus 1 (18.2% vs. 11.5%; P = 0.002) owing to a higher postrandomization withdrawal rate due to adverse events (AEs) (14.4% vs. 5.2%). Results from this study show comparable renal function between arms at Week 52, with fewer AEs leading to study discontinuation with prolonged-release tacrolimus plus MMF (Arm 1) versus lower dose prolonged-release tacrolimus plus sirolimus (Arm 2)

Mapping the Organization of Axis of Motion Selective Features in Human Area MT Using High-Field fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at high magnetic fields has made it possible to investigate the columnar organization of the human brain in vivo with high degrees of accuracy and sensitivity. Until now, these results have been limited to the organization principles of early visual cortex (V1). While the middle temporal area (MT) has been the first identified extra-striate visual area shown to exhibit a columnar organization in monkeys, evidence of MT's columnar response properties and topographic layout in humans has remained elusive. Research using various approaches suggests similar response properties as in monkeys but failed to provide direct evidence for direction or axis of motion selectivity in human area MT. By combining state of the art pulse sequence design, high spatial resolution in all three dimensions (0.8 mm isotropic), optimized coil design, ultrahigh field magnets (7 Tesla) and novel high resolution cortical grid sampling analysis tools, we provide the first direct evidence for large-scale axis of motion selective feature organization in human area MT closely matching predictions from topographic columnar-level simulations

Benchmarking whole exome sequencing in the German Network for Personalized Medicine

Introduction Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) has emerged as an efficient tool in clinical cancer diagnostics to broaden the scope from panel-based diagnostics to screening of all genes and enabling robust determination of complex biomarkers in a single analysis. Methods To assess concordance, six formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens and four commercial reference standards were analyzed by WES as matched tumor-normal DNA at 21 NGS centers in Germany, each employing local wet-lab and bioinformatics investigating somatic and germline variants, copy-number alteration (CNA), and different complex biomarkers. Somatic variant calling was performed in 494 diagnostically relevant cancer genes. In addition, all raw data were re-analyzed with a central bioinformatic pipeline to separate wet- and dry-lab variability. Results The mean positive percentage agreement (PPA) of somatic variant calling was 76% and positive predictive value (PPV) 89% compared a consensus list of variants found by at least five centers. Variant filtering was identified as the main cause for divergent variant calls. Adjusting filter criteria and re-analysis increased the PPA to 88% for all and 97% for clinically relevant variants. CNA calls were concordant for 82% of genomic regions. Calls of homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), tumor mutational burden (TMB), and microsatellite instability (MSI) status were concordant for 94%, 93%, and 93% respectively. Variability of CNAs and complex biomarkers did not increase considerably using the central pipeline and was hence attributed to wet-lab differences. Conclusion Continuous optimization of bioinformatic workflows and participating in round robin tests are recommend

Deutsche Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress Ohrid 2008

Der vorliegende Band versammelt – mit wenigen Ausnahmen – die deutschen Beiträge zum 14. Internationalen Slavistenkongress in Ohrid, der vom 10.–16. September 2008 stattfand. Der Band enthält insgesamt 40 Beiträge, von denen 32 der Rubrik Sprachwissenschaft und 8 der Rubrik Literaturwissenschaft zugeordnet wurden