Factors of resilience in informal caregivers of people with dementia from integrative international data analysis

Background/Aims: Although caring for a person with dementia can be stressful, some caregivers appear to experience few negative consequences to their well-being. This study aimed to examine what proportion of caregivers demonstrates resilience under different challenging circumstances and to identify factors related to their resilience. Methods: Baseline data from 4 studies from the Netherlands and UK among informal caregivers of people with dementia were harmonized and integrated. Caregiver resilience was defined as high levels of psychological well-being despite different types of high caregiving demands. Multivariate regression analyses identified factors significantly related to caregiver resilience. Results: The integrated data set included 15 harmonized variables with data from 1,048 caregivers facing a high care demand. The prevalence of resilience varied between 35 and 43%, depending on the demand for high care. Being a male caregiver, caring for a female, living apart from your relative, and low caregiver burden were positively related to caregiver resilience. Conclusion: Caregivers have the capacity to demonstrate resilience despite significant challenges. This study demonstrates how harmonization of data from multiple existing studies can be used to increase power and explore the consistency of findings. This contributes to a better understanding of which factors are likely to facilitate caregiver resilience and offers insights for developing services

Entwicklung und Verifikation eines Mess- und Bewertungsverfahrens der elektromagnetischen Immission durch ITS-G5

Immer mehr Bereiche des alltäglichen Lebens werden von drahtlos kommunikationsfähigen elektronischen Geräten beeinflusst, so dass die Relevanz für die persönliche Exposition der Nutzer durch hochfrequente elektromagnetische Felder rapide zunimmt. So soll auch der Straßenverkehr stetig weiter automatisiert und per Funk vernetzt werden, indem so genannte intelligente Transportsysteme (ITS) entwickelt werden. Im Rahmen des vernetzten Fahrens sollen Fahrzeuge im Verkehr untereinander, aber auch mit Infrastruktur und weiteren Verkehrsteilnehmern kommunizieren, um Sensor-, Zustands- und Ortsinformationen austauschen zu können. Hierfür wird der Begriff vehicle-to-everything (V2X)- Kommunikation verwendet. Zukünftig wird somit der Straßenverkehr als ein weiterer und erheblicher Teil der Alltagsumgebung von neuen Funktechnologien durchdrungen, die per Konstruktion einen signifikanten zusätzlichen Beitrag zur persönlichen Exposition liefern. Für die technische Umsetzung der V2X-Kommunikation etabliert sich neben der auf Mobilfunk basierenden Funktechnik cellular-V2X (C-V2X) der Kooperation 3rd Generation Partnership Project derzeit in Europa die Kommunikationstechnologie ITS-G5, die auf dem Standard 802.11p [1] des Verbands Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) basiert. Für den europäischen Einsatz wird ITS-G5 durch das europäische Institut für Telekommunikationsnormen (ETSI) spezifiziert und genormt. Ein zuverlässiges und praktikables Verfahren zur Bestimmung der elektromagnetischen Immission durch ITSG5- Geräte existiert allerdings bislang nicht. Um die Exposition der Allgemeinbevölkerung in Verkehrsumgebungen durch die neuen ITS-Funksysteme abschätzen zu können, ist die Entwicklung eines Immissionsmessverfahrens für ITS-G5 dringend erforderlich. Vorliegender Beitrag beschreibt die Entwicklung eines ITS-G5-spezifischen Mess- und Bewertungsverfahrens unter Verwendung des frequenzselektiven Messgeräts SRM-3006 von Narda STS [2]. Abgesehen von der physikalischen Zugangsschicht weist der Standard ITS-G5 Ähnlichkeiten mit dem Sidelink des LTE-Derivats C-V2X auf, so dass die hier beschriebenen Schlussfolgerungen sinngemäß für beide Standards Anwendung finden können

Back To The Roots: Tree-Based Algorithms for Weakly Supervised Anomaly Detection

Weakly supervised methods have emerged as a powerful tool for model-agnostic anomaly detection at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While these methods have shown remarkable performance on specific signatures such as di-jet resonances, their application in a more model-agnostic manner requires dealing with a larger number of potentially noisy input features. In this paper, we show that using boosted decision trees as classifiers in weakly supervised anomaly detection gives superior performance compared to deep neural networks. Boosted decision trees are well known for their effectiveness in tabular data analysis. Our results show that they not only offer significantly faster training and evaluation times, but they are also robust to a large number of noisy input features. By using advanced gradient boosted decision trees in combination with ensembling techniques and an extended set of features, we significantly improve the performance of weakly supervised methods for anomaly detection at the LHC. This advance is a crucial step towards a more model-agnostic search for new physics.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Redaktionelt forord - Krig

Danmark er et krigsførende land. Det er dog forholdsvist let at overse. Her er hverken rationeringsmærker, mørklægningsgardiner eller grandiøse støtteerklæringer til rigets forsvar. Alligevel bliver det i disse år langsomt tydeligere, at krigens virkelighed presser sig på. Fra dokumentarfilmen Armadillo over diskussioner om veteranpolitik, tortur og ikke mindst med Danmarks militære indsatser i verdens brændpunkter, bliver krigen med små skridt præsent. SLAGMARK har derfor sat sig for at undersøge krigen. I tre skridt gør dette nummers artikler os klogere på problemstillingen. Først trænes vores blik i at spore krigen i vores dagligdag. Dette sker gennem et opmærksomt essayistisk blik på krigen i den danske hverdag og en antropologisk analyse af vores nyligt indførte hjemkomstparader. Derefter undersøger vi idéhistorisk, hvordan en ung Hugo Grotius argumenterede for, at et handelskompagni kunne føre retfærdig krig og dermed skrev det private firma ind som en legitim aktør, der også kunne føre krig. Og i samme tråd viser den historiske sociologi os, med hjælp fra Niklas Luhmann og Carl von Clausewitz, at det ikke burde overraske nogen, at krigsførende lande ofte ender med slunkne statskasser, som f.eks. USA aktuelt lider under. Til sidst kigger vi nærmere på samtidens krige. Martin Heidegger bruges til at reflektere over dronepiloterne, som fra Nevada udfører angreb i Afghanistans bjerge, ligesom vi også bliver klogere på en af vores erklærede fjenders udvikling og påståede død, nemlig organisationen al-Qaida. Sidst, men ikke mindst, underkastes forsvaret af tortur med henvisning til den tikkende bombe en skarp analyse og kritik

Health-related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents with Sagittal Synostosis

Background: This study evaluated the health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in patients with sagittal synostosis (SS), and the influence of frequent headaches and surgical techniques on the HR-QoL. Method: Patients with SS aged 8 to 18 years were invited to participate between June 2016 and February 2017. The Child Health Questionnaire was used to assess the HR-QoL. A detailed questionnaire was used to assess the severity of headache symptoms. The control group consisted of 353 school children aged 5 to 14 years. Results: In all, 95 parents of patients with SS were invited to participate, of whom 68 (71.6%) parents completed the CHQ-PF50. The mean age of the participating patients was 12.4 years (10.8 to 14.2). The Psychosocial-and Physical summary of the patients with SS was similar to the general population. In the distinct CHQ scales, "Family cohesion" (P=0.02) was higher, and "Mental health" (P=0.05) was lower compared with the general population. The type and timing of surgery did not affect the HR-QoL. Thirty-two patients (47.1%) reported having headache complaints at least once a month. The CHQ scores of SS patients with frequent headaches had a significantly lower score of mild to large effect than those without headaches. Conclusion: Patients with SS have a slightly lower to similar HR-QoL compared with the general population. In all, 47.1% of SS patients have frequent headaches, resulting in lower average HR-QoL. The type and timing of surgery did not affect the results. Clinicians should be aware of lower HR-QoL in some subgroups of patients with SS.</p

Small Molecules in the Treatment of Squamous Cell Carcinomas: Focus on Indirubins

Skin cancers are the most common malignancies in the world. Among the most frequent skin cancer entities, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) ranks second (~20%) after basal cell carcinoma (~77%). In early stages, a complete surgical removal of the affected tissue is carried out as standard therapy. To treat advanced and metastatic cancers, targeted therapies with small molecule inhibitors are gaining increasing attention. Small molecules are a heterogeneous group of protein regulators, which are produced by chemical synthesis or fermentation. The majority of them belong to the group of receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (RTKIs), which specifically bind to certain RTKs and directly influence the respective signaling pathway. Knowledge of characteristic molecular alterations in certain cancer entities, such as SCC, can help identify tumor-specific substances for targeted therapies. Most frequently, altered genes in SCC include TP53, NOTCH, EGFR, and CCND1. For example, the gene CCND1, which codes for cyclin D1 protein, is upregulated in nearly half of SCC cases and promotes proliferation of affected cells. A treatment with the small molecule 5'-nitroindirubin-monoxime (INO) leads to inhibition of cyclin D1 and thus inhibition of proliferation. As a component of Danggui Longhui Wan, a traditional Chinese medicine, indirubins are used to treat chronic diseases and have been shown to inhibit inflammatory reactions. Indirubins are pharmacologically relevant small molecules with proapoptotic and antiproliferative activity. In this review, we discuss the current literature on indirubin-based small molecules in cancer treatment. A special focus is on the molecular biology of squamous cell carcinomas, their alterations, and how these are rendered susceptible to indirubin-based small molecule inhibitors. The potential molecular mechanisms of the efficacy of indirubins in killing SCC cells will be discussed as well

Eemian landscape response to climatic shifts and evidence for northerly neanderthal occupation at a palaeolake margin in northern germany

The prevailing view suggests that the Eemian interglacial on the European Plain was characterized by largely negligible geomorphic activity beyond the coastal areas. However, systematic geomorphological studies are sparse. Here we present a detailed reconstruction of Eemian to Early Weichselian landscape evolution in the vicinity of a small fingerlake on the northern margin of the Salzwedel Palaeolake in Lower Saxony (Germany). We apply a combination of seismics, sediment coring, pollen analysis and luminescence dating on a complex sequence of colluvial, paludal and lacustrine sediments. Results suggest two pronounced phases of geomorphic activity, directly before the onset and at the end of the Eemian period, with an intermediate period of pronounced landscape stability. The dynamic phases were largely driven by incomplete vegetation cover, but likely accentuated by fluvial incision in the neighbouring Elbe Valley. Furthermore, we discovered Neanderthal occupation at the lakeshore during Eemian pollen zone (PZ) E IV, which is chronologically in line with other known Eemian sites of central Europe. Our highly‐resolved spatio‐temporal data substantially contribute to the understanding of climate‐induced geomorphic processes throughout and directly after the last interglacial period. It helps unraveling the landscape dynamics between the coastal areas to the north and the loess belt to the south