Investigating remains of an early modern manor in Noer (Schleswig-Holstein) using 3D ERT and GPR – first results

Buried remains of an early modern manor are investigated using ERT and GPR. For this purpose, 3D approaches are applied for high-resolution imaging. The results of both methods are interpreted in combination with archaeological findings

The Bead Assay for Biofilms: A Quick, Easy and Robust Method for Testing Disinfectants

Bacteria live primarily in microbial communities (biofilms), where they exhibit considerably higher biocide tolerance than their planktonic counterparts. Current standardized efficacy testing protocols of disinfectants, however, employ predominantly planktonic bacteria. In order to test the efficacy of biocides on biofilms in a standardized manner, a new assay was developed and optimized for easy-handling, quickness, low running costs, and above all—repeatability. In this assay, 5 mm glass- or polytetrafluoroethylene beads in 24 well microtiter plates served as substrate for Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. After optimizing result-relevant steps, the actual performance of the assay was explored by treating P. aeruginosa biofilms with glutaraldehyde, isopropanol, or peracetic acid in predefined concentrations. The aspired 5 log10 reduction in CFU counts was achieved by glutaraldehyde at 5% (30 min), and by peracetic acid at 0.3% (10 min). In contrast, 80% isopropanol (30 min) failed to meet the reduction goal. However, the main accomplishment of this study was to unveil the potential of the array itself; most noteworthy here, a reliable repeatability of the results. The new bead assay for biofilms is a robust, quick and cost-effective method for assessing the efficacy of biocides against biofilms

Daratumumab for patients with myeloma with early or late relapse after initial therapy:subgroup analysis of CASTOR and POLLUX

High-risk multiple myeloma (MM) is often defined based on cytogenetic abnormalities, but patients who relapse early after initial therapy are considered a functional high-risk group. In the phase 3 CASTOR and POLLUX studies, daratumumab plus bortezomib/dexamethasone (D-Vd) or lenalidomide/dexamethasone (D-Rd) improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), regardless of cytogenetic risk, and achieved higher rates of complete response or better (≥CR) and minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity vs that with Vd/Rd alone in relapsed/refractory MM. Post hoc analyses of CASTOR and POLLUX evaluated patient subgroups with 1 prior line of therapy based on timing of progression/relapse (early or late) after initiation of first line of therapy. PFS consistently favored the daratumumab-containing regimens across subgroups using both a 24- and 18-month early-relapse cutoff. In the CASTOR/POLLUX pooled data set, daratumumab reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 65% (hazard ratio [HR], 0.35; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.26-0.48; P &lt; .0001) in the early-relapse (&lt;24 months) subgroup and by 65% (HR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.26-0.47; P &lt; .0001) in the late-relapse (≥24 months) subgroup. OS also favored the daratumumab-containing regimens in both the early-relapse (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.45-0.86; P = .0036) and late-relapse (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.48-0.93; P = .0183) subgroups in the pooled population using a 24-month cutoff. Rates of ≥CR and MRD negativity (10-5) were higher with daratumumab vs control, regardless of progression/relapse timing. Although daratumumab is unable to fully overcome the adverse prognosis of early relapse, our results support the use of daratumumab for patients with 1 prior line of therapy, including for those who progress/relapse early after initial therapy and are considered to have functional high-risk MM.</p

Deep-Sea Nematodes Actively Colonise Sediments, Irrespective of the Presence of a Pulse of Organic Matter: Results from an In-Situ Experiment

A colonisation experiment was performed in situ at 2500 m water depth at the Arctic deep-sea long-term observatory HAUSGARTEN to determine the response of deep-sea nematodes to disturbed, newly available patches, enriched with organic matter. Cylindrical tubes,laterally covered with a 500 µm mesh, were filled with azoic deep-sea sediment and 13C-labelled food sources (diatoms and bacteria). After 10 days of incubation the tubes were analysed for nematode response in terms of colonisation and uptake. Nematodes actively colonised the tubes,however with densities that only accounted for a maximum of 2.13% (51 ind.10 cm−2) of the ambient nematode assemblages. Densities did not differ according to the presence or absence of organic matter, nor according to the type of organic matter added. The fact that the organic matter did not function as an attractant to nematodes was confirmed by the absence of notable 13C assimilation by the colonising nematodes. Overall, colonisationappears to be a process that yields reproducible abundance and diversity patterns, with certain taxa showing more efficiency. Together with the high variability between the colonising nematode assemblages, this lends experimental support to the existence of a spatio-temporal mosaic that emerges from highly localised, partially stochastic community dynamics

Genomic investigations of unexplained acute hepatitis in children

Since its first identification in Scotland, over 1000 cases of unexplained pediatric hepatitis in children have been reported worldwide, including 278 cases in the UK 1. Here we report investigation of 38 cases, 66 age-matched immunocompetent controls and 21 immunocompromised comparator subjects, using a combination of genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic and immunohistochemical methods. We detected high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) DNA in liver, blood, plasma or stool from 27/28 cases. We found low levels of Adenovirus (HAdV) and Human Herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B), in 23/31 and 16/23 respectively of the cases tested. In contrast, AAV2 was infrequently detected at low titre in blood or liver from control children with HAdV, even when profoundly immunosuppressed. AAV2, HAdV and HHV-6 phylogeny excluded emergence of novel strains in cases. Histological analyses of explanted livers showed enrichment for T-cells and B-lineage cells. Proteomic comparison of liver tissue from cases and healthy controls, identified increased expression of HLA class 2, immunoglobulin variable regions and complement proteins. HAdV and AAV2 proteins were not detected in the livers. Instead, we identified AAV2 DNA complexes reflecting both HAdV and HHV-6B-mediated replication. We hypothesize that high levels of abnormal AAV2 replication products aided by HAdV and in severe cases HHV-6B, may have triggered immune-mediated hepatic disease in genetically and immunologically predisposed children

Standards in semen examination:publishing reproducible and reliable data based on high-quality methodology

Biomedical science is rapidly developing in terms of more transparency, openness and reproducibility of scientific publications. This is even more important for all studies that are based on results from basic semen examination. Recently two concordant documents have been published: the 6th edition of the WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, and the International Standard ISO 23162:2021. With these tools, we propose that authors should be instructed to follow these laboratory methods in order to publish studies in peer-reviewed journals, preferable by using a checklist as suggested in an Appendix to this article.Peer reviewe

Quantitative detection of small molecule/DNA complexes employing a force-based and label-free DNA-microarray

Force-based ligand detection is a promising method to characterize molecular complexes label-free at physiological conditions. Because conventional implementations of this technique, e.g., based on atomic force microscopy or optical traps, are low-throughput and require extremely sensitive and sophisticated equipment, this approach has to date found only limited application. We present a low-cost, chip-based assay, which combines high-throughput force-based detection of dsDNA·ligand interactions with the ease of fluorescence detection. Within the comparative unbinding force assay, many duplicates of a target DNA duplex are probed against a defined reference DNA duplex each. The fractions of broken target and reference DNA duplexes are determined via fluorescence. With this assay, we investigated the DNA binding behavior of artificial pyrrole-imidazole polyamides. These small compounds can be programmed to target specific dsDNA sequences and distinguish between D- and L-DNA. We found that titration with polyamides specific for a binding motif, which is present in the target DNA duplex and not in the reference DNA duplex, reliably resulted in a shift toward larger fractions of broken reference bonds. From the concentration dependence nanomolar to picomolar dissociation constants of dsDNA·ligand complexes were determined, agreeing well with prior quantitative DNAase footprinting experiments. This finding corroborates that the forced unbinding of dsDNA in presence of a ligand is a nonequilibrium process that produces a snapshot of the equilibrium distribution between dsDNA and dsDNA·ligand complexes

Measurement of the prompt J/psi and psi(2S) polarizations in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The polarizations of prompt J/psi and psi(2S) mesons are measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using a dimuon data sample collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 inverse femtobarns. The prompt J/psi and psi(2S) polarization parameters lambda[theta], lambda[phi], and lambda[theta, phi], as well as the frame-invariant quantity lambda(tilde), are measured from the dimuon decay angular distributions in three different polarization frames. The J/psi results are obtained in the transverse momentum range 14 &lt; pt &lt; 70 GeV, in the rapidity intervals abs(y) &lt; 0.6 and 0.6 &lt; abs(y) &lt; 1.2. The corresponding psi(2S) results cover 14 &lt; pt &lt; 50 GeV and include a third rapidity bin, 1.2 &lt; abs(y) &lt; 1.5. No evidence of large transverse or longitudinal polarizations is seen in these kinematic regions, which extend much beyond those previously explored

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis