Study protocol for a prospective, non-controlled, multicentre clinical study to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a stepwise two-photon excited melanin fluorescence in pigmented lesions suspicious for melanoma (FLIMMA study)

Introduction: Non-invasive, nanosecond, stepwise two-photon laser excitation of skin tissue was shown to induce melanin fluorescence spectra that allow for the differentiation of melanocytic nevi from cutaneous melanoma. Methods and analysis: This prospective, non-controlled, multicentre clinical study is performed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the stepwise two-photon excited melanin fluorescence in the detection of cutaneous melanoma. The comparator will be the histopathological diagnosis. A total of 620 pigmented skin lesions suspicious for melanoma and intended for excision will be enrolled. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval was provided by the local ethics committees of the medical faculties of the University of Tuebingen, Heidelberg and Berlin. Study registration: The FLIMMA study NCT02425475

Love and Marital Partnership: A Comparison of Marital Codes

Die Arbeit fragt nach Problembezug und Interrelation zweier semantischer Komplexe, die normierend und interpretativ die Wirklichkeit von Imtimbeziehungen, namentlich Ehen, unserer Tage gestalten. Romantische Liebe wird gesehen als Semantik der Partnerwahl, der Bildung von Beziehungen unter modernen Bedingungen familiarer Diskontinuität und forcierter Individualität. Gesamtgesellschaftlich gesehen formuliert sie als funktionsspezifische Semantik den Prozeß der Ausdifferenzierung von Intimbeziehungen, während Partnerschaft als funktionsunspezifische Semantik demgegenüber die Rückbildung an gesellschaftliche Relevanzen anmeldet, die Unhintergehbarkeit von Außenbeziehungen postuliert und einen Regelungsbedarf aufzufangen versucht, der zu tun hat mit dem Abbau rollenmäßiger Vorregulierungen, der Substitution von Symmetrie für eine in geringerem Maße regelungsbedürftige Komplementarität und der zunehmenden Partizipation von Frauen am ganzen Spektrum funktional geprägter Lebensvollzüge moderner Gesellschaften.

Wissenschaftsindikatoren und Quantitative Wissenschaftsforschung. Eine annotierte Bibliographie

Leupold A, Weingart P, Winterhager M. Wissenschaftsindikatoren und Quantitative Wissenschaftsforschung. Eine annotierte Bibliographie. Report Wissenschaftsforschung: 18. Bielefeld: Kleine Verlag; 1982

From Melanocytes to Melanoma Cells: Characterization of the Malignant Transformation by Four Distinctly Different Melanin Fluorescence Spectra (Review)

The melanin fluorescence emitted by pigment cells of the human skin has been a central research topic for decades, because melanin, on the one hand, protects against (solar) radiation in the near-UV range, whereas on the other hand, melanocytes are the starting point for the malignant transformation into melanoma. Until recently, however, melanin fluorescence was not accessible in the context of conventional spectroscopy, because it is ultraweak and is overshadowed by the more intense so-called autofluorescence of endogenous fluorophores. The advent of a new method of laser spectroscopy has made this melanin fluorescence measurable in vivo. A stepwise two-photon absorption with 800 nm photons is used, which more selectively excites melanin (dermatofluoroscopy). Our review summarizes the experimental results on melanin fluorescence of the four types of cutaneous pigment cells from healthy and malignant tissues. Outstanding is the finding that different types of melanocytes (i.e., melanocytes of common nevi, versus dysplastic nevi or versus melanoma cells) show characteristically different fluorescence spectra. The possibilities of using this melanin fluorescence for melanoma diagnosis are shown. Moreover, the uniform fluorescence spectra emitted by different melanoma subtypes are essential. Conclusions are drawn about the molecular processes in the melanosomes that determine fluorescence. Finally, experimental suggestions for further investigations are given

Structural insights into the architecture of the Shigella flexneri virulence factor IcsA/VirG and motifs involved in polar distribution and secretion.

International audienceIcsA/VirG is a key virulence factor of the human pathogen Shigella flexneri, acting as both an adhesin and actin-polymerizing factor during infection. We identified a soluble expression construct of the IcsA/VirG α-domain using the ESPRIT library screening system and determined its structure to 1.9Å resolution. In addition to the previously characterized autochaperone domain, our structure reveals a new domain, which shares a common fold with the autochaperone domains of various autotransporters. We further provide insight into the previously structurally uncharacterized β-helix domain that harbors the polar targeting motif and passenger-associated transport repeat. This structure is the first of any member of the recently identified passenger-associated transport repeat-containing autotransporters. Thus, it provides new insights into the overall architecture of this class of autotransporters, the function of the identified additional autochaperone domain and the structural properties of motifs involved in polar targeting and secretion of the Shigella flexneri virulence factor IcsA/VirG

Dermatofluoroscopy Is Also for Redheads a Sensitive Method of Early Melanoma Detection

Background: Caucasians with red hair and fair skin have a remarkably increased risk of malignant melanoma compared to non-redhead Caucasians. Objectives: With the aim of a reliable melanoma diagnosis in redheads, the application of dermatofluoroscopy was analyzed in 16 patients with red hair. Most of them had been included in a clinical dermatofluoroscopy study for patients with the suspicion of melanoma. We examined whether the 25 lesions of the redheads showed the same characteristic melanin fluorescence spectra for dysplastic nevi and melanomas as those of non-redhead Caucasians or whether there was a different fluorescence pattern. This is important in view of the known significantly altered ratio of eumelanin to pheomelanin in the skin of redheads. Methods: More than 8,000 spatially resolved fluorescence spectra of 25 pigmented lesions were measured and analysed. The spectra were excited by the stepwise absorption of two 800-nm photons (principle of dermatofluoroscopy). Furthermore, the fluorescence spectra of eumelanin and pheomelanin in hair samples were determined in the same way. Results: The evaluation revealed that the melanin fluorescence spectra of dysplastic nevi and melanomas of redheads have the same spectral characteristics as those of non-redhead Caucasians. An accompanying result is that dermatofluoroscopy shows identical fluorescence spectra for eumelanin and pheomelanin. Conclusions: Dermatofluoroscopy proves to be a reliable diagnostic method also for redheads. Our results also explain our recent finding that there is a uniform fluorescence spectroscopic fingerprint for melanomas of all subtypes, which is of particular interest for hypomelanotic and apparently amelanotic melanomas containing pheomelanin

Mid-Holocene expansion of the Indian Ocean warm pool documented in coral Sr/Ca records from Kenya

Abstract Proxy reconstructions suggest that mid-Holocene East African temperatures were warmer than today between 8 and 5 ka BP, but climate models cannot replicate this warming. Precessional forcing caused a shift of maximum insolation from boreal spring to fall in the mid-Holocene, which may have favored intense warming at the start of the warm season. Here, we use three Porites corals from Kenya that represent time windows from 6.55 to 5.87 ka BP to reconstruct past sea surface temperature (SST) seasonality from coral Sr/Ca ratios in the western Indian Ocean during the mid-Holocene. Although the Indian monsoon was reportedly stronger in the mid-Holocene, which should have amplified the seasonal cycle of SST in the western Indian Ocean, the corals suggest reduced seasonality (mean 3.2 °C) compared to the modern record (mean 4.3 °C). Warming in austral spring is followed by a prolonged period of warm SSTs, suggesting that an upper limit of tropical SSTs under mid-Holocene conditions was reached at the start of the warm season, and SSTs then remained stable. Similar changes are seen at the Seychelles. Bootstrap estimates suggest a reduction in SST seasonality of 1.3 ± 0.22 °C at Kenya and 1.7 ± 0.32 °C at the Seychelles. SST seasonality at Kenya corresponds to present-day SST seasonality at 55° E–60° E, while SST seasonality at the Seychelles corresponds to present day SST seasonality at ~ 65° E. This implies a significant westward expansion of the Indian Ocean warm pool. Furthermore, the coral data suggests that SST seasonality deviates from seasonal changes in orbital insolation due to ocean–atmosphere interactions