22 research outputs found

    Mechanisms for partial reproductive isolation in a Bombina hybrid zone in Romania

    Get PDF
    Differences between taxa which have devoloped in allopatry can contribute to reproductive isolation in the case of secondary contact. Hybrid zones are ideal study systems in which to investigate mechanisms for the inhibition of gene flow. This thesis describes a mosaic hybrid zone between the ecologically differentiated fire-bellied toads Bombina bombina and B. variegata. I show that the spatial arrangement of habitat, natural selection in tadpoles and phenotypic adaptation of the tadpoles to the favored habitat contribute essentially to reproduktive isolation.Unterschiede zwischen Taxa die sich in Allopatrie entwickelt haben können zur reproduktiven Isolation zwischen diesen Taxa beitragen, wenn sie in sekundärem Kontakt aufeinander treffen. Hybridzonen sind ideal, Mechanismen reproduktiver Isolation zu studieren. Diese Studie beleuchtet eine Mosaik-Hybridzone zwischen den ökologisch differenzierten Unkenarten Bombina bombina und B. variegata in Rumänien. Es wird gezeigt, dass einerseits die räumliche Verteilung der Habitate und andererseits natürliche Selektion an den Kaulquappen sowie deren phänotypische Adaptation an verschiedene Habitattypen entscheidende Rollen als Genflußbarriere spielen

    Risk under construction: The German discourse on the ban of MON810

    Get PDF
    Food crises ranging from BSE to EHEC have time and again demonstrated that uncertainrisks in the area of food safety constitute one of the main societal challenges we arecurrently facing. Their nature as “possible, new, imaginable hazards, with which societyhas no or limited experience” (van Asselt and Vos, 2008) leads to situations in whichtraditional means of science prove to be inadequate for drawing suitable conclusionsinforming how the uncertain risk is to be handled. This challenge is particularly visible inthe regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs): they have been characterizedas an uncertain risk and pose questions related to socio- political, economic and culturalconsiderations (Ansell and Vogel, 2006; van Asselt and Vos, 2008)

    Разработка схемы очистки сточных вод от нефтепродуктов

    Get PDF
    В дипломной работе рассмотрены происхождение, состав, показатели качества сточных вод, методы очистки сточных вод от нефтепродуктов. Проведены исследования качества сточных вод. Разработаны наиболее эффективные методы очистки сточных вод от нефтепродуктов.The thesis examines the origin, composition, quality indicators of wastewater, methods of wastewater treatment from petroleum products. Research wastewater quality water The most effective methods for treating wastewater from oil products have been developed

    2018 Research & Innovation Day Program

    Get PDF
    A one day showcase of applied research, social innovation, scholarship projects and activities.https://first.fanshawec.ca/cri_cripublications/1005/thumbnail.jp

    Detailed stratified GWAS analysis for severe COVID-19 in four European populations

    Get PDF
    Given the highly variable clinical phenotype of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a deeper analysis of the host genetic contribution to severe COVID-19 is important to improve our understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. Here, we describe an extended genome-wide association meta-analysis of a well-characterized cohort of 3255 COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure and 12 488 population controls from Italy, Spain, Norway and Germany/Austria, including stratified analyses based on age, sex and disease severity, as well as targeted analyses of chromosome Y haplotypes, the human leukocyte antigen region and the SARS-CoV-2 peptidome. By inversion imputation, we traced a reported association at 17q21.31 to a ~0.9-Mb inversion polymorphism that creates two highly differentiated haplotypes and characterized the potential effects of the inversion in detail. Our data, together with the 5th release of summary statistics from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative including non-Caucasian individuals, also identified a new locus at 19q13.33, including NAPSA, a gene which is expressed primarily in alveolar cells responsible for gas exchange in the lung.S.E.H. and C.A.S. partially supported genotyping through a philanthropic donation. A.F. and D.E. were supported by a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and COVID-19 grant Research (BMBF; ID:01KI20197); A.F., D.E. and F.D. were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence ‘Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation’ (EXC2167). D.E. was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the Computational Life Sciences funding concept (CompLS grant 031L0165). D.E., K.B. and S.B. acknowledge the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF14CC0001 and NNF17OC0027594). T.L.L., A.T. and O.Ö. were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project numbers 279645989; 433116033; 437857095. M.W. and H.E. are supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Research Training Group 1743, ‘Genes, Environment and Inflammation’. L.V. received funding from: Ricerca Finalizzata Ministero della Salute (RF-2016-02364358), Italian Ministry of Health ‘CV PREVITAL’—strategie di prevenzione primaria cardiovascolare primaria nella popolazione italiana; The European Union (EU) Programme Horizon 2020 (under grant agreement No. 777377) for the project LITMUS- and for the project ‘REVEAL’; Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda ‘Ricerca corrente’, Fondazione Sviluppo Ca’ Granda ‘Liver-BIBLE’ (PR-0391), Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda ‘5permille’ ‘COVID-19 Biobank’ (RC100017A). A.B. was supported by a grant from Fondazione Cariplo to Fondazione Tettamanti: ‘Bio-banking of Covid-19 patient samples to support national and international research (Covid-Bank). This research was partly funded by an MIUR grant to the Department of Medical Sciences, under the program ‘Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018–2022’. This study makes use of data generated by the GCAT-Genomes for Life. Cohort study of the Genomes of Catalonia, Fundació IGTP (The Institute for Health Science Research Germans Trias i Pujol) IGTP is part of the CERCA Program/Generalitat de Catalunya. GCAT is supported by Acción de Dinamización del ISCIII-MINECO and the Ministry of Health of the Generalitat of Catalunya (ADE 10/00026); the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (2017-SGR 529). M.M. received research funding from grant PI19/00335 Acción Estratégica en Salud, integrated in the Spanish National RDI Plan and financed by ISCIII-Subdirección General de Evaluación and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)-Una manera de hacer Europa’). B.C. is supported by national grants PI18/01512. X.F. is supported by the VEIS project (001-P-001647) (co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), ‘A way to build Europe’). Additional data included in this study were obtained in part by the COVICAT Study Group (Cohort Covid de Catalunya) supported by IsGlobal and IGTP, European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union, COVID-19 Rapid Response activity 73A and SR20-01024 La Caixa Foundation. A.J. and S.M. were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers: PSE-010000-2006-6 and IPT-010000-2010-36). A.J. was also supported by national grant PI17/00019 from the Acción Estratégica en Salud (ISCIII) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The Basque Biobank, a hospital-related platform that also involves all Osakidetza health centres, the Basque government’s Department of Health and Onkologikoa, is operated by the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research-BIOEF. M.C. received Grants BFU2016-77244-R and PID2019-107836RB-I00 funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI, Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, EU). M.R.G., J.A.H., R.G.D. and D.M.M. are supported by the ‘Spanish Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Competition, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (PI19/01404, PI16/01842, PI19/00589, PI17/00535 and GLD19/00100) and by the Andalussian government (Proyectos Estratégicos-Fondos Feder PE-0451-2018, COVID-Premed, COVID GWAs). The position held by Itziar de Rojas Salarich is funded by grant FI20/00215, PFIS Contratos Predoctorales de Formación en Investigación en Salud. Enrique Calderón’s team is supported by CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’. J.C.H. reports grants from Research Council of Norway grant no 312780 during the conduct of the study. E.S. reports grants from Research Council of Norway grant no. 312769. The BioMaterialBank Nord is supported by the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Airway Research Center North (ARCN). The BioMaterialBank Nord is member of popgen 2.0 network (P2N). P.K. Bergisch Gladbach, Germany and the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. He is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). O.A.C. is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education and is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy—CECAD, EXC 2030–390661388. The COMRI cohort is funded by Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. This work was supported by grants of the Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung, the Saarland University, BMBF and The States of Saarland and Lower Saxony. K.U.L. is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, LU-1944/3-1). Genotyping for the BoSCO study is funded by the Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Bonn. F.H. was supported by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Arts. Part of the genotyping was supported by a grant to A.R. from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant: 01ED1619A, European Alzheimer DNA BioBank, EADB) within the context of the EU Joint Programme—Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). Additional funding was derived from the German Research Foundation (DFG) grant: RA 1971/6-1 to A.R. P.R. is supported by the DFG (CCGA Sequencing Centre and DFG ExC2167 PMI and by SH state funds for COVID19 research). F.T. is supported by the Clinician Scientist Program of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence ‘Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation’ (EXC2167). C.L. and J.H. are supported by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). T.B., M.M.B., O.W. und A.H. are supported by the Stiftung Universitätsmedizin Essen. M.A.-H. was supported by Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion program, grant IJC2018-035131-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. E.C.S. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; SCHU 2419/2-1).Peer reviewe

    Detailed stratified GWAS analysis for severe COVID-19 in four European populations

    Get PDF
    Given the highly variable clinical phenotype of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a deeper analysis of the host genetic contribution to severe COVID-19 is important to improve our understanding of underlying disease mechanisms. Here, we describe an extended GWAS meta-analysis of a well-characterized cohort of 3,260 COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure and 12,483 population controls from Italy, Spain, Norway and Germany/Austria, including stratified analyses based on age, sex and disease severity, as well as targeted analyses of chromosome Y haplotypes, the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) region and the SARS-CoV-2 peptidome. By inversion imputation, we traced a reported association at 17q21.31 to a highly pleiotropic ∼0.9-Mb inversion polymorphism and characterized the potential effects of the inversion in detail. Our data, together with the 5th release of summary statistics from the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative, also identified a new locus at 19q13.33, including NAPSA, a gene which is expressed primarily in alveolar cells responsible for gas exchange in the lung.Andre Franke and David Ellinghaus were supported by a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (01KI20197), Andre Franke, David Ellinghaus and Frauke Degenhardt were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence “Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation” (EXC2167). David Ellinghaus was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the Computational Life Sciences funding concept (CompLS grant 031L0165). David Ellinghaus, Karina Banasik and Søren Brunak acknowledge the Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant NNF14CC0001 and NNF17OC0027594). Tobias L. Lenz, Ana Teles and Onur Özer were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project numbers 279645989; 433116033; 437857095. Mareike Wendorff and Hesham ElAbd are supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Research Training Group 1743, "Genes, Environment and Inflammation". This project was supported by a Covid-19 grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; ID: 01KI20197). Luca Valenti received funding from: Ricerca Finalizzata Ministero della Salute RF2016-02364358, Italian Ministry of Health ""CV PREVITAL – strategie di prevenzione primaria cardiovascolare primaria nella popolazione italiana; The European Union (EU) Programme Horizon 2020 (under grant agreement No. 777377) for the project LITMUS- and for the project ""REVEAL""; Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda ""Ricerca corrente"", Fondazione Sviluppo Ca' Granda ""Liver-BIBLE"" (PR-0391), Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda ""5permille"" ""COVID-19 Biobank"" (RC100017A). Andrea Biondi was supported by the grant from Fondazione Cariplo to Fondazione Tettamanti: "Biobanking of Covid-19 patient samples to support national and international research (Covid-Bank). This research was partly funded by a MIUR grant to the Department of Medical Sciences, under the program "Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018–2022". This study makes use of data generated by the GCAT-Genomes for Life. Cohort study of the Genomes of Catalonia, Fundació IGTP. IGTP is part of the CERCA Program / Generalitat de Catalunya. GCAT is supported by Acción de Dinamización del ISCIIIMINECO and the Ministry of Health of the Generalitat of Catalunya (ADE 10/00026); the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) (2017-SGR 529). Marta Marquié received research funding from ant PI19/00335 Acción Estratégica en Salud, integrated in the Spanish National RDI Plan and financed by ISCIIISubdirección General de Evaluación and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER-Una manera de hacer Europa").Beatriz Cortes is supported by national grants PI18/01512. Xavier Farre is supported by VEIS project (001-P-001647) (cofunded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), “A way to build Europe”). Additional data included in this study was obtained in part by the COVICAT Study Group (Cohort Covid de Catalunya) supported by IsGlobal and IGTP, EIT COVID-19 Rapid Response activity 73A and SR20-01024 La Caixa Foundation. Antonio Julià and Sara Marsal were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant numbers: PSE-010000-2006-6 and IPT-010000-2010-36). Antonio Julià was also supported the by national grant PI17/00019 from the Acción Estratégica en Salud (ISCIII) and the FEDER. The Basque Biobank is a hospitalrelated platform that also involves all Osakidetza health centres, the Basque government's Department of Health and Onkologikoa, is operated by the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research-BIOEF. Mario Cáceres received Grants BFU2016-77244-R and PID2019-107836RB-I00 funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI, Spain) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, EU). Manuel Romero Gómez, Javier Ampuero Herrojo, Rocío Gallego Durán and Douglas Maya Miles are supported by the “Spanish Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Competition, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III” (PI19/01404, PI16/01842, PI19/00589, PI17/00535 and GLD19/00100), and by the Andalussian government (Proyectos Estratégicos-Fondos Feder PE-0451-2018, COVID-Premed, COVID GWAs). The position held by Itziar de Rojas Salarich is funded by grant FI20/00215, PFIS Contratos Predoctorales de Formación en Investigación en Salud. Enrique Calderón's team is supported by CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), "Instituto de Salud Carlos III". Jan Cato Holter reports grants from Research Council of Norway grant no 312780 during the conduct of the study. Dr. Solligård: reports grants from Research Council of Norway grant no 312769. The BioMaterialBank Nord is supported by the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Airway Research Center North (ARCN). The BioMaterialBank Nord is member of popgen 2.0 network (P2N). Philipp Koehler has received non-financial scientific grants from Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, and the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. He is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).Oliver A. Cornely is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education and is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – CECAD, EXC 2030 – 390661388. The COMRI cohort is funded by Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. Genotyping was performed by the Genotyping laboratory of Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM Technology Centre, University of Helsinki. This work was supported by grants of the Rolf M. Schwiete Stiftung, the Saarland University, BMBF and The States of Saarland and Lower Saxony. Kerstin U. Ludwig is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, LU-1944/3-1). Genotyping for the BoSCO study is funded by the Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Bonn. Frank Hanses was supported by the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and Arts. Part of the genotyping was supported by a grant to Alfredo Ramirez from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grant: 01ED1619A, European Alzheimer DNA BioBank, EADB) within the context of the EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). Additional funding was derived from the German Research Foundation (DFG) grant: RA 1971/6-1 to Alfredo Ramirez. Philip Rosenstiel is supported by the DFG (CCGA Sequencing Centre and DFG ExC2167 PMI and by SH state funds for COVID19 research). Florian Tran is supported by the Clinician Scientist Program of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Cluster of Excellence “Precision Medicine in Chronic Inflammation” (EXC2167). Christoph Lange and Jan Heyckendorf are supported by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). Thorsen Brenner, Marc M Berger, Oliver Witzke und Anke Hinney are supported by the Stiftung Universitätsmedizin Essen. Marialbert Acosta-Herrera was supported by Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion program, grant IJC2018-035131-I funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Eva C Schulte is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; SCHU 2419/2-1).N

    Physician empathy and subjective evaluation of medical treatment outcome in trauma surgery patients

    No full text
    Objective: To analyze whether patients' perception of their medical treatment outcome is higher among patients who experienced a higher empathy by trauma surgeons during their stay in hospital. Methods: 127 patients were surveyed six weeks after discharge from the trauma surgical general ward. Subjective evaluation of medical treatment outcome was measured with the corresponding scale from the Cologne Patient Questionnaire. Clinical empathy was assessed by using the CARE measure. The influence of physician empathy and control variables on a dichotomized index of subjective evaluation of medical treatment outcome was identified with a logistic regression. Results: 120 patients were included in the logistic regression analysis. Compared to patients with physician empathy ratings of less than 30 points, patients with ratings of 41 points or higher have a 20-fold higher probability to be in the group with a better medical treatment outcome on the CPQ-scale (alpha-level <.001, R-2 46.9). Conclusion: Findings emphasize the importance of a well-functioning relationship between physician and patient even in a surgical setting where the focus is mostly on the bare medical treatment. Practice implications: Communication trainings i.e. in surgical education can be an effective way to improve the ability to show empathy with patients' concerns. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

    Image_1.TIF

    Get PDF
    The peripheral hearing process taking place in the cochlea mainly depends on two distinct sensory cell types: the mechanosensitive hair cells and the spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). The first respond to the mechanical stimulation exerted by sound pressure waves on their hair bundles by releasing neurotransmitters and thereby activating the latter. Loss of these sensorineural cells is associated with permanent hearing loss. Stem cell-based approaches aiming at cell replacement or in vitro drug testing to identify potential ototoxic, otoprotective, or regenerative compounds have lately gained attention as putative therapeutic strategies for hearing loss. Nevertheless, they rely on efficient and reliable protocols for the in vitro generation of cochlear sensory cells for their implementation. To this end, we have developed a differentiation protocol based on organoid culture systems, which mimics the most important steps of in vivo otic development, robustly guiding mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) toward otic sensory neurons (OSNs). The stepwise differentiation of mESCs toward ectoderm was initiated using a quick aggregation method in presence of Matrigel in serum-free conditions. Non-neural ectoderm was induced via activation of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling and concomitant inhibition of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) signaling to prevent mesendoderm induction. Preplacodal and otic placode ectoderm was further induced by inhibition of BMP signaling and addition of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). Delamination and differentiation of SGNs was initiated by plating of the organoids on a 2D Matrigel-coated substrate. Supplementation with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) was used for further maturation until 15 days of in vitro differentiation. A large population of neurons with a clear bipolar morphology and functional excitability was derived from these cultures. Immunostaining and gene expression analysis performed at different time points confirmed the transition trough the otic lineage and final expression of the key OSN markers. Moreover, the stem cell-derived OSNs exhibited functional electrophysiological properties of native SGNs. Our established in vitro model of OSNs development can be used for basic developmental studies, for drug screening or for the exploration of their regenerative potential
    corecore