App-based maintenance treatment for alcohol use disorder after acute inpatient treatment : Study protocol for a multicentre randomized controlled trial

Background: Alcohol use disorder, a prevalent and disabling mental health problem, is often characterized by a chronic disease course. While effective inpatient and aftercare treatment options exist, the transferal of treatment success into everyday life is challenging and many patients remain without further assistance. App-based in terventions with human guidance have great potential to support individuals after inpatient treatment, yet ev idence on their efficacy remains scarce. Objectives: To develop an app-based intervention with human guidance and evaluate its usability, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. Methods: Individuals with alcohol use disorder (DSM-5), aged 18 or higher, without history of schizophrenia, undergoing inpatient alcohol use disorder treatment (N = 356) were recruited in eight medical centres in Bavaria, Germany, between December 2019 and August 2021. Participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either receive access to treatment as usual plus an app-based intervention with human guidance (intervention group) or access to treatment as usual plus app-based intervention after the active study phase (waitlist control/TAU group). Telephone-based assessments are conducted by diagnostic interviewers three and six weeks as well as three and six months after randomization. The primary outcome is the relapse risk during the six months after randomization assessed via the Timeline Follow-Back Interview. Secondary outcomes include intervention usage, uptake of aftercare treatments, AUD-related psychopathology, general psychopathology, and quality of life. Discussion: This study will provide further insights into the use of app-based interventions with human guidance as maintenance treatment in individuals with AUD. If shown to be efficacious, the intervention may improve AUD treatment by assisting individuals in maintaining inpatient treatment success after returning into their home setting. Due to the ubiquitous use of smartphones, the intervention has the potential to become part of routine AUD care in Germany and countries with similar healthcare systems

Hazard characterization of Alternaria toxins to identify data gaps and improve risk assessment for human health

Fungi of the genus Alternaria are ubiquitous plant pathogens and saprophytes which are able to grow under varying temperature and moisture conditions as well as on a large range of substrates. A spectrum of structurally diverse secondary metabolites with toxic potential has been identified, but occurrence and relative proportion of the different metabolites in complex mixtures depend on strain, substrate, and growth conditions. This review compiles the available knowledge on hazard identification and characterization of Alternaria toxins. Alternariol (AOH), its monomethylether AME and the perylene quinones altertoxin I (ATX-I), ATX-II, ATX-III, alterperylenol (ALP), and stemphyltoxin III (STTX-III) showed in vitro genotoxic and mutagenic properties. Of all identified Alternaria toxins, the epoxide-bearing analogs ATX-II, ATX-III, and STTX-III show the highest cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic potential in vitro. Under hormone-sensitive conditions, AOH and AME act as moderate xenoestrogens, but in silico modeling predicts further Alternaria toxins as potential estrogenic factors. Recent studies indicate also an immunosuppressive role of AOH and ATX-II; however, no data are available for the majority of Alternaria toxins. Overall, hazard characterization of Alternaria toxins focused, so far, primarily on the commercially available dibenzo-α-pyrones AOH and AME and tenuazonic acid (TeA). Limited data sets are available for altersetin (ALS), altenuene (ALT), and tentoxin (TEN). The occurrence and toxicological relevance of perylene quinone-based Alternaria toxins still remain to be fully elucidated. We identified data gaps on hazard identification and characterization crucial to improve risk assessment of Alternaria mycotoxins for consumers and occupationally exposed workers.The European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 101057014 and has received co-funding of the authors’ institutions. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Aromaticity in cyanuric acid

This study analyzes the aromatic nature of cyanuric acid (hexahydrotriazine) and some of its derivatives, in terms of aromatic stabilization energy (ASE) and electronic behavior. The simplest molecule (C3N3O3H3) is the most aromatic item out of the entire set, but some of the others also display aromatic character. The structure of all the rings is analyzed considering their molecular orbitals as well as studying the inductive effect

Effect of a Gentamicin-Collagen Sponge on Sternal Wound Complications - a prospective, randomized, double-blind trial

Die prophylaktische retrosternale Einlage eines Gentamicin-Kollagen Schwammes wurde in letzter Zeit in mehreren Studien untersucht und ist wird kontrovers diskutiert. Die vorliegende Studie ist die erste prospektiv randomisierte, Einzelzentrums-Doppelblind-Studie zur Untersuchung der Effektivität, im Hinblick auf die Reduktion sternaler Wundkomplikationen nach herzchirurgischen Eingriffen, eines retrosternal eingelegten Gentamicin-Kollagen-Schwammes.Prophylactic retrosternal placement of a Gentamicin-collagen sponge has been the subject of several recent clinical studies and is a matter of controversy. The present study is the first controlled, prospective, randomized, double-blind, single-center study to investigate the efficacy of a retrosternal Gentamicin-collagen sponge in reducing sternal wound complications after heart surgery

Rayleigh-Taylor experiments in materials and conditions relevant to ignition in inertial confinement fusion.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, 2012.In direct-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF), a spherical target is imploded by overlapping laser beams to compress and heat DT fuel to conditions necessary for efficient thermonuclear burn. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) is of primary concern in ICF, as it can cause initial areal-density (ρR) perturbations to grow, leading to shell degradation and quenching of the hot spot necessary to achieve ignition of thermonuclear fusion. This work addresses two RTI concerns relevant to achieving ignition in ICF; measurement of RTI growth in cryogenic D2 targets and the effect of ablators of different atomic numbers (Z) on RTI growth rates using plastic (CH) and glass (SiO2) targets. In these experiments, the temporal evolution of 2-D areal density (ρR) modulations is measured using face-on X-ray radiography. Measured RT growth rates in D2 showed reasonable agreement with 2-D hydrodynamic simulations indicating reduced growth in D2 compared to CH, as predicted by theory. This result is crucial to ignition target designs using cryogenic DT ablators. The effect of thin ablators with different Z’s on CH and SiO2 targets at varying drive intensities showed inconsistencies between the measured modulation growth and the 2-D hydrodynamic simulations at peak intensities of 1015 W/cm2 for targets with CH ablators due to hot electron preheat. Understanding preheat for ablators of different Z’s is critical to achieving ignition in ICF; this work explores the impact of hot electron generation on the RTI at conditions relevant to ignition

A new species of <i>Myrianida</i> (Autolytinae, Syllidae, Annelida) from the North Sea, with short notes on the distribution and habitat of Northeast Atlantic autolytines

<div><p></p><p>In this paper, we describe <i>Myrianida sanmartini</i>, a new species of Autolytinae from the North Sea, southwest and north of Helgoland. The species is unique within the genus in that the cirrophores of both short and long cirri are longer than the cirrostyles. In addition, we provide illustrated keys to the North Atlantic species of autolytine syllids and report on finding <i>Proceraea rubroproventriculata</i> Nygren & Gidholm, 2001 for the first time in the North East Atlantic (Madeira).</p><p><a href="http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:331DB44F-AD0D-45EF-8489-D7B0A55C8C7A" target="_blank">http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:331DB44F-AD0D-45EF-8489-D7B0A55C8C7A</a></p></div