Development of brainstem-evoked responses in congenital auditory deprivation

To compare the development of the auditory system in hearing and completely acoustically deprived animals, naive congenitally deaf white cats (CDCs) and hearing controls (HCs) were investigated at different developmental stages from birth till adulthood. The CDCs had no hearing experience before the acute experiment. In both groups of animals, responses to cochlear implant stimulation were acutely assessed. Electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses (E-ABRs) were recorded with monopolar stimulation at different current levels. CDCs demonstrated extensive development of E-ABRs, from first signs of responses at postnatal (p.n.) day 3 through appearance of all waves of brainstem response at day 8 p.n. to mature responses around day 90 p.n.. Wave I of E-ABRs could not be distinguished from the artifact in majority of CDCs, whereas in HCs, it was clearly separated from the stimulus artifact. Waves II, III, and IV demonstrated higher thresholds in CDCs, whereas this difference was not found for wave V. Amplitudes of wave III were significantly higher in HCs, whereas wave V amplitudes were significantly higher in CDCs. No differences in latencies were observed between the animal groups. These data demonstrate significant postnatal subcortical development in absence of hearing, and also divergent effects of deafness on early waves II–IV and wave V of the E-ABR

Bedeutung des sozioökonomischen Status bezüglich der Determinanten von Übergewicht bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

Der Einfluss verschiedener Determinanten auf die Prävalenz von Übergewicht im Vergleich der Kategorien des sozioökonomischen Status wurde aus Daten von 6137 (Status defniert über Bildungsstand der Eltern) bzw. 4325 (Status definiert über Einkommen der Eltern) Kindern und Jugendlichen im Alter von 5 bis 17 Jahren berechnet. Die Daten wurden zwischen 1996 und 2010 im Rahmen der Kieler Adipositas-Präventionsstudie erhoben. Die untersuchten Determinanten beinhalten familiäre (Gewichtsstatus der Eltern und Geschwister, ernährungsmitbedingte Erkrankungen) und soziale Faktoren (alleinerziehendes Elternteil, Rauchverhalten der Eltern, Nationalität), Geburtsgewicht und Lebensstilvariablen (Medienzeit, körperliche Aktivität, Ernährungsmuster). Größe und Gewicht der Kinder und Jugendlichen wurden gemessen. Übergewicht wurde definiert nach Kromeyer-Hauschild et al. (2001). Weitere Daten wurden mittels eines Fragebogens über die Eltern erhoben. Zunächst wurde eine logistische Regression durchgeführt, um die unabhängigen signifikanten Determinanten für Übergewicht und Adipositas im Kindes- und Jugendalter zu identifizieren. Anschließend wurde die Bedeutung der Determinanten für Präventionsmaßnahmen anhand von bevölkerungsbezogenen attributablen Risiken bestimmt. Bei hohem und mittlerem sozioökonomischen Status zeigte unabhängig von der Einteilung nach Bildung oder Einkommen das Vorhandensein adipöser Geschwister und Eltern sowie starker Nikotinkonsum der Eltern einen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Prävalenz von Übergewicht und Adipositas bei Kindern. Bei mittlerem sozioökonomischen Status erwiesen sich zusätzlich alleinerziehende Eltern (nach Bildung) bzw. hohes Geburtsgewicht, keine Geschwister/keine Angaben zu Geschwister und eine hohe Medienzeit (nach Einkommen) sowie eine sehr hohe Medienzeit (nach Bildung und Einkommen) als signifikant. Bei niedrigem sozioökonomischem Status zeigten Übergewicht und/oder Adipositas der Eltern einen signifikanten Einfluss. Zusätzlich waren ein hohes Geburtsgewicht (nach Bildung), starker Nikotinkonsum, eine Häufung ernährungsmitbedingter Erkrankungen, ein niedriges Geburtsgewicht und eine sehr hohe Medienzeit (nach Einkommen) von Bedeutung für die Prävalenz von Übergewicht. Die für die Prävalenz von Übergewicht und Adipositas signifikanten Determinanten erklärten bei den nach dem Bildungsstand der Familie eingeteilten Kindern bei hohem/mittlerem/niedrigem SES 65,9%/ 76,4%/ 48,1% des Übergewichts. Bei Einteilung des sozioökonomischen Status nach dem Einkommen der Eltern erklärten die signifikanten Einflussfaktoren bei Kindern aus Familien mit hohem/mittlerem/niedrigem Einkommen 64,3%/ 76,7%/ 91,5% des Übergewichts. Bei sehr hohen attributablen Risiken im Bereich der ernährungsmitbedingten Erkrankungen ist hier bei niedrigem Einkommen allerdings von einer gewissen Verzerrung auszugehen. Die Unterteilung des sozioökonomischen Status nach Bildung und nach Einkommen ergab ähnliche Ergebnisse. Die Einteilung des sozioökonomischen Status nach dem Bildungsstand zeigte sich geeigneter als die Einteilung nach dem Einkommen, da sich bei letzterer bei niedrigem sozioökonomischem Status ein eher unglaubwürdig hohes attributables Risiko für die untersuchten Determinanten zeigte. Insgesamt gab es geringe Verzerrungen zwischen den Kategorien der Einteilung nach Einkommen und nach Bildungsstand, so dass sich besonders im Bereich des mittleren und niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status Unterschiede zwischen signifikanten Determinanten in diesen Kategorien zeigten

Bringing the Entrepreneurial Mindset into Mining Engineering Education

There has been an ongoing debate on how to transform engineering education to better prepare students for today`s professional world that is characterized by increasingly complex problems and challenges that engineers are tasked with upon entering the industry. Within the conceive–design–implement–operate (CDIO) framework, entrepreneurship education presents a valuable pedagogical approach to foster the necessary skills of the students through integrated, hands-on, active learning experiences. While numerous publications have addressed possibilities of how experiential, problem-based, project-based and active learning can be integrated into engineering curriculum, there has been hardly any attention on mining engineering with respect to adopting this approach. This paper will address the possibilities of integrating entrepreneurship education into mining engineering programs in particular. This paper will enhance and foster discussion among academics from mining engineering on how to integrate elements of entrepreneurship education on a course, program and departmental level to infuse value creation experiences across the curriculum

Thermal dosimetry for bladder hyperthermia treatment. An overview.

The urinary bladder is a fluid-filled organ. This makes, on the one hand, the internal surface of the bladder wall relatively easy to heat and ensures in most cases a relatively homogeneous temperature distribution; on the other hand the variable volume, organ motion, and moving fluid cause artefacts for most non-invasive thermometry methods, and require additional efforts in planning accurate thermal treatment of bladder cancer. We give an overview of the thermometry methods currently used and investigated for hyperthermia treatments of bladder cancer, and discuss their advantages and disadvantages within the context of the specific disease (muscle-invasive or non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer) and the heating technique used. The role of treatment simulation to determine the thermal dose delivered is also discussed. Generally speaking, invasive measurement methods are more accurate than non-invasive methods, but provide more limited spatial information; therefore, a combination of both is desirable, preferably supplemented by simulations. Current efforts at research and clinical centres continue to improve non-invasive thermometry methods and the reliability of treatment planning and control software. Due to the challenges in measuring temperature across the non-stationary bladder wall and surrounding tissues, more research is needed to increase our knowledge about the penetration depth and typical heating pattern of the various hyperthermia devices, in order to further improve treatments. The ability to better determine the delivered thermal dose will enable clinicians to investigate the optimal treatment parameters, and consequentially, to give better controlled, thus even more reliable and effective, thermal treatments

Modulation of Mast Cell Reactivity by Lipids: The Neglected Side of Allergic Diseases

Mast cells (MCs) have long been mainly regarded as effector cells in IgE-associated allergic disorders with potential immunoregulatory roles. Located close to the allergen entry sites in the skin and mucosa, MCs can capture foreign substances such as allergens, toxins, or noxious substances and are exposed to the danger signals produced by epithelial cells. MC reactivity shaped by tissue-specific factors is crucial for allergic responses ranging from local skin reactions to anaphylactic shock. Development of Th2 response leading to allergen-specific IgE production is a prerequisite for MC sensitization and induction of FcεRI-mediated MC degranulation. Up to now, IgE production has been mainly associated with proteins, whereas lipids present in plant pollen grains, mite fecal particles, insect venoms, or food have been largely overlooked regarding their immunostimulatory and immunomodulatory properties. Recent studies, however, have now demonstrated that lipids affect the sensitization process by modulating innate immune responses of epithelial cells, dendritic cells, and NK-T cells and thus crucially contribute to the outcome of sensitization. Whether and how lipids affect also MC effector functions in allergic reactions has not yet been fully clarified. Here, we discuss how lipids can affect MC responses in the context of allergic inflammation. Direct effects of immunomodulatory lipids on MC degranulation, changes in local lipid composition induced by allergens themselves and changes in lipid transport affecting MC reactivity are possible mechanisms by which the function of MC might be modulated

Effect of Perioperative Lipid Status on Clinical Outcomes after Cardiac Surgery

Abstract Patients undergoing cardiac surgery are at increased cardiovascular risk, which includes altered lipid status. However, data on the effect of cardiac surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) on plasma levels of key lipids are scarce. We investigated potential effects of CPB on plasma lipid levels and associations with early postoperative clinical outcomes. This is a prospective bio-bank study of patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery at our center January to December 2019. The follow-up period was 1 year after surgery. Blood sampling was performed before induction of general anesthesia, upon weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), and on the first day after surgery. Clinical end points included the incidence of postoperative stroke, myocardial infarction, and death of any cause at 30 days after surgery as well as 1-year all-cause mortality. A total of 192 cardiac surgery patients (75% male, median age 67.0 years (interquartile range 60.0–73.0), median BMI 26.1 kg/m2 (23.7–30.4)) were included. A significant intraoperative decrease in plasma levels compared with preoperative levels (all p < 0.0001) was observed for total cholesterol (TC) (Cliff’s delta d: 0.75 (0.68–0.82; 95% CI)), LDL-Cholesterol (LDL-C) (d: 0.66 (0.57–0.73)) and HDL-Cholesterol (HDL-C) (d: 0.72 (0.64–0.79)). At 24h after surgery, the plasma levels of LDL-C (d: 0.73 (0.650.79)) and TC (d: 0.77 (0.69–0.82)) continued to decrease compared to preoperative levels, while the plasma levels of HDL-C (d: 0.46 (0.36–0.55)) and TG (d: 0.40 (0.29–0.50)) rebounded, but all remained below the preoperative levels (p < 0.001). Mortality at 30 days was 1.0% (N = 2/192), and 1-year mortality was 3.8% (N = 7/186). Postoperative myocardial infarction occurred in 3.1% of patients (N = 6/192) and postoperative stroke in 5.8% (N = 11/190). Adjusting for age, sex, BMI, and statin therapy, we noted a protective effect of postoperative occurrence of stroke for pre-to-post-operative changes in TC (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.29 (0.07–0.90), p = 0.047), in LDL-C (aOR 0.19 (0.03–0.88), p = 0.045), and in HDL-C (aOR 0.01 (0.00–0.78), p = 0.039). No associations were observed between lipid levels and 1-year mortality. In conclusion, cardiac surgery induces a significant sudden drop in levels of key plasma lipids. This effect was pronounced during the operation, and levels remained significantly lowered at 24 h after surgery. The intraoperative drops in LDL-C, TC, and HDL-C were associated with a protective effect against occurrence of postoperative stroke in adjusted models. We demonstrate that the changes in key plasma lipid levels during surgery are strongly correlated, which makes attributing the impact of each lipid to the clinical end points, such as postoperative stroke, a challenging task. Large-scale analyses should investigate additional clinical outcome measures

Detection of feline coronavirus spike gene mutations as a tool to diagnose feline infectious peritonitis

Objectives Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is an important cause of death in the cat population worldwide. The ante-mortem diagnosis of FIP in clinical cases is still challenging. In cats without effusion, a definitive diagnosis can only be achieved post mortem or with invasive methods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a combined reverse transcriptase nested polymerase chain reaction (RT-nPCR) and sequencing approach in the diagnosis of FIP, detecting mutations at two different nucleotide positions within the spike (S) gene. Methods The study population consisted of 64 cats with confirmed FIP and 63 cats in which FIP was initially suspected due to similar clinical or laboratory signs, but that were definitively diagnosed with another disease. Serum/plasma and/or effusion samples of these cats were examined for feline coronavirus (FCoV) RNA by RT-nPCR and, if positive, PCR products were sequenced for nucleotide transitions within the S gene. Results Specificity of RT-nPCR was 100% in all materials (95% confidence interval [CI] in serum/plasma 83.9-100.0;95% CI in effusion 93.0-100.0). The specificity of the sequencing step could not be determined as none of the cats of the control group tested positive for FCoV RNA. Sensitivity of the 'combined RT-nPCR and sequencing approach' was 6.5% (95% CI 0.8-21.4) in serum/plasma and 65.3% (95% CI 50.4-78.3) in effusion. Conclusions and relevance A positive result is highly indicative of the presence of FIP, but as none of the control cats tested positive by RT-nPCR, it was not possible to confirm that the FCoV mutant described can only be found in cats with FIP. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the usefulness of the sequencing step including FCoV-RNA-positive cats with and without FIP. A negative result cannot be used to exclude the disease, especially when only serum/plasma samples are available