The Inter-Mammary Sticky Roll: A Novel Technique for Securing a Doppler Ultrasonic Probe to the Precordium for Venous Air Embolism Detection.

Venous air embolism is a devastating and potentially life-threatening complication that can occur during neurosurgical procedures. We report the development and use of the "inter-mammary sticky roll," a technique to reliably secure a precordial Doppler ultrasonic probe to the chest wall during neurosurgical cases that require lateral decubitus positioning. We have found that this noninvasive technique is safe, and effectively facilitates a constant Doppler signal with no additional risk to the patient

Leitlinien für eine gerechte Verteilung von Sicherheit in der Stadt

Jede Stadt hat ihre ›Angsträume‹, ›Schmuddelecken‹ und ›Problemviertel‹. Gefahren und Bedrohungsgefühle sind nicht gleichmäßig in den Kommunen verteilt. Es gibt Gegenden, die gemieden werden und deren Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner als potenzielles Sicherheitsrisiko gelten. Es gibt Orte in größerer Nähe oder Entfernung zu möglichen Schadensquellen oder zu Rettungskräften; Orte mit gutem oder weniger gutem Zugang zu Fluchtwegen. Kurzum: Unsicherheit und Sicherheit sind ungleich verteilt. Gleichwohl ist es ein Ziel demokratischer Gesellschaften, Sicherheit zu gewähren: die Sicherheit, sich ohne Angst im öffentlichen Raum, aber auch im privaten Wohnumfeld bewegen zu können; die Sicherheit, in schwierigen Situationen wie Krankheit oder Alter eine Lebensgrundlage zu haben; die Sicherheit, vor Gericht ein gerechtes Verfahren erwarten zu können; aber auch die Sicherheit, nicht wegen des Aussehens, einer abweichenden Meinung oder eines anderen Lebensstils diskriminiert zu werden. Die vorliegenden Leitlinien nehmen eine ethische Perspektive auf Sicherheit in der Stadt ein. Die Aufgabe der gerechten Verteilung von Sicherheit wird dabei mit Fragen nach dem ›guten Leben‹ verknüpft. Probleme der Gewährleistung und Verteilung von Sicherheit können letztlich nicht ohne eine Diskussion der Frage ›Wie wollen wir leben?‹ gelöst werden. Die genannten Denkanstöße für die kommunale Sicherheitsarbeit sind angesichtsder Reichweite des Themas aus drei verschiedenen Blickwinkeln formuliert. Erstens wird die Bedeutung von Sicherheit im Kontext städtischen Zusammenlebens diskutiert und ins Verhältnis zu anderen Werten gesetzt. Zweitens werden Kriterien einer gerechten Verteilung von Sicherheit im Sinne faktisch verfügbarer Ressourcen oder konkreter Maßnahmen vorgeschlagen. Drittens werden Reflexionsfragen aufgeworfen, die bei der Beurteilung einzelner Maßnahmen helfen sollen

Scenario Human Centered Manufacturing (Man-u-Faktur 2012)

Unter Ambient Intelligence (AmI) wird die Integration verschiedener Technologien zu einer den Menschen umgebenden, (nahezu) unsichtbaren Gesamtheit verstanden. Diese Intelligente Umgebung wird möglich durch die Miniaturisierung hochintegrierter Bauteile (Sensoren, Aktuatoren und Rechnern), deren zunehmende Intelligenz und vor allem deren lokale und globale zunehmend drahtlose Vernetzung. Unter dem Titel Man-u-Faktur 2012 (man and factoring in 2012) wurde an der Technischen Universität Kaiserslautern im Rahmen des Forschungsschwerpunkts Ambient Intelligence ein Szenario entwickelt, das ein beeindruckendes Gesamtbild einer Technik, die den Menschen in den Mittelpunkt rückt, beschreibt. Man-u-Faktur 2012 steht dabei für ein Weiterdrehen des Rads der Industrialisierung von der heute üblichen variantenreichen, technologiezentrierten Massenfertigung hin zu einer kundenindividuellen, mitarbeiterzentrierten Maßfertigung. Im Speziellen wird hierunter der Aufbau massiv verteiler kunden- aber auch mitarbeiterfreundlicher Produktionsanlagen verstanden, die sich im hochdynamischen Umfeld entsprechend der jeweiligen Gegebenheiten anzupassen wissen. Der Mensch ist überall dort präsent, wo flexibles Arbeiten oder flexible Entscheidungen im Vordergrund stehen. In diesem Bericht wird der Einfluss von Ambient Intelligence beispielhaft auf die Vision einer Fahrradproduktion in der Man-u-Faktur 2012 angewandt. Aus diesem Szenario werden anschließend sowohl die zu entwickelnden Schlüsseltechnologien als auch die Einflüsse auf Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft abgeleitet.Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is the vision of a Society where the emphasis is on greater user-friendliness, more efficient services support, user-empowerment, and support for human interactions. People are surrounded by intelligent intuitive interfaces that are embedded in all kinds of objects and an environment that is capable of recognising and responding to the presence of different individuals in a seamless, unobtrusive and often invisible way. An interdisciplinary team from The University of Kaiserslautern (research cluster Ambient Intelligence) developed the scenario Man-u-Faktur 2012, which draws up an awe-inspiring picture of future technology having integrated man into complex production chains. Man-u-Faktur 2012 (man and factoring in 2012) is the idea of bringing man back into the factories by still walking on the trail of industrialization, heading towards a customer oriented production. In fact, that will be the begin of massively distributed customer and worker friendly plants, which will be able to adapt to (nearly) every situation within a highly dynamical process. There will be a huge product range produced in one factory. Respect towards energy and other environmental problems will play an important role. Yet, man should be the center of all actions. He will be present in particular where we need flexible decisions as well as flexible work. In this report the influence of Ambient Intelligence is focused on the vision of a bicycle production in the Man-u-Faktur 2012. From this scenario the necessary key technologies as well as the impacts on society and economy are derived

LONGO: An R package for interactive gene length dependent analysis for neuronal identity

Motivation: Reprogramming somatic cells into neurons holds great promise to model neuronal development and disease. The efficiency and success rate of neuronal reprogramming, however, may vary between different conversion platforms and cell types, thereby necessitating an unbiased, systematic approach to estimate neuronal identity of converted cells. Recent studies have demonstrated that long genes (\u3e100 kb from transcription start to end) are highly enriched in neurons, which provides an opportunity to identify neurons based on the expression of these long genes. Results: We have developed a versatile R package, LONGO, to analyze gene expression based on gene length. We propose a systematic analysis of long gene expression (LGE) with a metric termed the long gene quotient (LQ) that quantifies LGE in RNA-seq or microarray data to validate neuronal identity at the single-cell and population levels. This unique feature of neurons provides an opportunity to utilize measurements of LGE in transcriptome data to quickly and easily distinguish neurons from non-neuronal cells. By combining this conceptual advancement and statistical tool in a user-friendly and interactive software package, we intend to encourage and simplify further investigation into LGE, particularly as it applies to validating and improving neuronal differentiation and reprogramming methodologies. Availability and implementation: LONGO is freely available for download at https://github.com/biohpc/longo. Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

Neurite orientation and dispersion density imaging (NODDI) detects cortical and corticospinal tract degeneration in ALS

Background: Corticospinal tract (CST) degeneration and cortical atrophy are consistent features of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We hypothesised that neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI), a multicompartment model of diffusion MRI, would reveal microstructural changes associated with ALS within the CST and precentral gyrus (PCG) ‘in vivo’. Methods: 23 participants with sporadic ALS and 23 healthy controls underwent diffusion MRI. Neurite density index (NDI), orientation dispersion index (ODI) and free water fraction (isotropic compartment (ISO)) were derived. Whole brain voxel-wise analysis was performed to assess for group differences. Standard diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters were computed for comparison. Subgroup analysis was performed to investigate for NODDI parameter differences relating to bulbar involvement. Correlation of NODDI parameters with clinical variables were also explored. The results were accepted as significant where p<0.05 after family-wise error correction at the cluster level, clusters formed with p<0.001. Results: In the ALS group NDI was reduced in the extensive regions of the CST, the corpus callosum and the right PCG. ODI was reduced in the right anterior internal capsule and the right PCG. Significant differences in NDI were detected between subgroups stratified according to the presence or absence of bulbar involvement. ODI and ISO correlated with disease duration. Conclusions: NODDI demonstrates that axonal loss within the CST is a core feature of degeneration in ALS. This is the main factor contributing to the altered diffusivity profile detected using DTI. NODDI also identified dendritic alterations within the PCG, suggesting microstructural cortical dendritic changes occur together with CST axonal damage

Vulnerability and vulnerable groups from an intersectionality perspective

In general, the identification and protection of vulnerable groups in the case of hazards or when a crisis unfolds is an issue that any crisis and disaster risk management should address, since people have different levels of exposure to hazards and crises. In this article, we promote the application of the intersectionality perspective in the study of vulnerable groups, and we call for intersectionality as a guiding principle in risk and crisis management, to provide a better and more nuanced picture of vulnerabilities and vulnerable groups. This can help national and local authorities and agencies to formulate specific guides, to hire staff with the skills necessary to meet particular needs, and to inform vulnerable groups in a particular way, taking into account the differences that may coexist within the same group. Intersectionality allows us to read vulnerability not as the characteristic of some socio-demographic groups. It is rather the result of different and interdependent societal stratification processes that result in multiple dimensions of marginalisation. In this vein, we argue that research should focus on 1) self-perceived vulnerability of individuals and an intersectionality approach to unpack vulnerable groups; 2) cases of crises according to the level and/or likelihood of individual exposure to hazards, to better nuance issues of vulnerability.publishedVersio

myTAI: evolutionary transcriptomics with R.

MOTIVATION: Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies generate a large amount of high quality transcriptome datasets enabling the investigation of molecular processes on a genomic and metagenomic scale. These transcriptomics studies aim to quantify and compare the molecular phenotypes of the biological processes at hand. Despite the vast increase of available transcriptome datasets, little is known about the evolutionary conservation of those characterized transcriptomes. RESULTS: The myTAI package implements exploratory analysis functions to infer transcriptome conservation patterns in any transcriptome dataset. Comprehensive documentation of myTAI functions and tutorial vignettes provide step-by-step instructions on how to use the package in an exploratory and computationally reproducible manner. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The open source myTAI package is available at https://github.com/HajkD/myTAI and https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/myTAI/index.html. CONTACT: [email protected]. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

The relationship between mental health, sleep quality and the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Sleep modulates the immune response, and sleep loss can reduce vaccine immunogenicity; vice versa, immune responses impact sleep. We aimed to investigate the influence of mental health and sleep quality on the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccinations and, conversely, of COVID-19 vaccinations on sleep quality. The prospective CoVacSer study monitored mental health, sleep quality and Anti-SARS-CoV-2-Spike IgG titres in a cohort of 1082 healthcare workers from 29 September 2021 to 19 December 2022. Questionnaires and blood samples were collected before, 14 days, and 3 months after the third COVID-19 vaccination, as well as in 154 participants before and 14 days after the fourth COVID-19 vaccination. Healthcare workers with psychiatric disorders had slightly lower Anti-SARS-CoV-2-Spike IgG levels before the third COVID-19 vaccination. However, this effect was mediated by higher median age and body mass index in this subgroup. Antibody titres following the third and fourth COVID-19 vaccinations ("booster vaccinations") were not significantly different between subgroups with and without psychiatric disorders. Sleep quality did not affect the humoral immunogenicity of the COVID-19 vaccinations. Moreover, the COVID-19 vaccinations did not impact self-reported sleep quality. Our data suggest that in a working population neither mental health nor sleep quality relevantly impact the immunogenicity of COVID-19 vaccinations, and that COVID-19 vaccinations do not cause a sustained deterioration of sleep, suggesting that they are not a precipitating factor for insomnia. The findings from this large-scale real-life cohort study will inform clinical practice regarding the recommendation of COVID-19 booster vaccinations for individuals with mental health and sleep problems

Evolution of white matter damage in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Objective To characterize disease evolution in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis using an event‐based model designed to extract temporal information from cross‐sectional data. Conventional methods for understanding mechanisms of rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disorders are limited by the subjectivity inherent in the selection of a limited range of measurements, and the need to acquire longitudinal data. Methods The event‐based model characterizes a disease as a series of events, each comprising a significant change in subject state. The model was applied to data from 154 patients and 128 healthy controls selected from five independent diffusion MRI datasets acquired in four different imaging laboratories between 1999 and 2016. The biomarkers modeled were mean fractional anisotropy values of white matter tracts implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The cerebral portion of the corticospinal tract was divided into three segments. Results Application of the model to the pooled datasets revealed that the corticospinal tracts were involved before other white matter tracts. Distal corticospinal tract segments were involved earlier than more proximal (i.e., cephalad) segments. In addition, the model revealed early ordering of fractional anisotropy change in the corpus callosum and subsequently in long association fibers. Interpretation These findings represent data‐driven evidence for early involvement of the corticospinal tracts and body of the corpus callosum in keeping with conventional approaches to image analysis, while providing new evidence to inform directional degeneration of the corticospinal tracts. This data‐driven model provides new insight into the dynamics of neuronal damage in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Post-embryonic Hourglass Patterns Mark Ontogenetic Transitions in Plant Development

The historic developmental hourglass concept depicts the convergence of animal embryos to a common form during the phylotypic period. Recently, it has been shown that a transcriptomic hourglass is associated with this morphological pattern, consistent with the idea of underlying selective constraints due to intense molecular interactions during body plan establishment. Although plants do not exhibit a morphological hourglass during embryogenesis, a transcriptomic hourglass has nevertheless been identified in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we investigated whether plant hourglass patterns are also found postembryonically. We found that the two main phase changes during the life cycle of Arabidopsis, from embryonic to vegetative and from vegetative to reproductive development, are associated with transcriptomic hourglass patterns. In contrast, flower development, a process dominated by organ formation, is not. This suggests that plant hourglass patterns are decoupled from organogenesis and body plan establishment. Instead, they may reflect general transitions through organizational checkpoints