Recanalization strategies in childhood stroke in Germany

Childhood arterial ischemic stroke (CAIS) is a rare event. Diverse etiologies, risk factors, symptoms and stroke mimics hamper obtaining a fast diagnosis and implementing immediate recanalization strategies. Over a period of 3~years (2015-2017), the data of 164 pediatric patients (> 28~days of life-18~years) with a first episode of AIS were submitted to a hospital-based nationwide surveillance system for rare disorders (ESPED). We report a subgroup analysis of patients who have undergone recanalization therapy and compare these data with those of the whole group. Twenty-eight patients (17%) with a median age of 12.2~years (range 3.3-16.9) received recanalization therapy. Hemiparesis, facial weakness and speech disturbance were the main presenting symptoms. The time from onset of symptoms to confirmation of diagnosis was significantly shorter in the intervention group (4.1~h vs. 20.4~h, p ≤ 0.0001). Only in one patient occurred a minor bleed. Cardiac disease as predisposing risk factor was more common in the recanalization group. Recanalization therapies are feasible and increasingly applied in children with AIS. High awareness, timely diagnosis and a large amount of expertise may improve time to treatment and make hyperacute therapy an option for more patients

Behavioral responses to noxious stimuli shape the perception of pain

Pain serves vital protective functions. To fulfill these functions, a noxious stimulus might induce a percept which, in turn, induces a behavioral response. Here, we investigated an alternative view in which behavioral responses do not exclusively depend on but themselves shape perception. We tested this hypothesis in an experiment in which healthy human subjects performed a reaction time task and provided perceptual ratings of noxious and tactile stimuli. A multi-level moderated mediation analysis revealed that behavioral responses are significantly involved in the translation of a stimulus into perception. This involvement was significantly stronger for noxious than for tactile stimuli. These findings show that the influence of behavioral responses on perception is particularly strong for pain which likely reflects the utmost relevance of behavioral responses to protect the body. These observations parallel recent concepts of emotions and entail implications for the understanding and treatment of pain

[Rezension zu:] Torsten Riotte, Der Monarch im Exil. Eine andere Geschichte von Staatswerdung und Legitimismus im 19. Jahrhundert, Göttingen (Wallstein) 2018, 427 S., 13 Abb. (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen, 295), ISBN 978-3-8353-3058-0, EUR 39,90

Obwohl das Interesse an der Erforschung der Monarchie so alt ist wie die Geschichtswissenschaften selbst, bestand in der Untersuchung der Begebenheiten nach dem Sturz eines Monarchen bisher eine weitgehende Forschungslücke. Nachdem er das Thema in einem mit Philip Mansel 2011 herausgegebenen Sammelband bereits angeschnitten hatte, legt Torsten Riotte mit seiner Habilitationsschrift nun eine erste komparative und umfassende Studie des modernen monarchischen Exils vor. Riotte widmet sich dabei mit großer Sorgfalt zwei Fallstudien: dem Comte de Chambord, Prinz Henri d’Artois (1820–1883), der Frankreich nach der Revolution von 1830 noch als Kind verlassen musste, und dem Herzog von Cumberland, Prinz Ernst August von Hannover (1845–1923), der seinem Vater dem König 1866, nach der Annexion Hannovers durch preußische Truppen, ins Exil folgte. Beide fanden Zuflucht in Österreich und ließen sich dauerhaft in der Nähe Wiens nieder. ..

Sowjetisch in der Form, "usbekisch" im Inhalt. Geschichtspolitik und Musealisierung in Usbekistan

Usbekistans Umgang mit der eigenen sowjetischen Vergangenheit ist widersprüchlich. Einerseits versucht sich die Elite von der Sowjetunion abzugrenzen, andererseits stammt sie selbst aus der sowjetischen Zeit. Die Eliten von damals kontrollieren Politik und Wirtschaft des Landes. Einerseits versucht das Regime, für die nationale Unabhängigkeit und die politische Ordnung von heute Legitimität zu gewinnen, andererseits herrscht in der Gesellschaft eine ausgeprägte Sowjetnostalgie. Geschichtspolitik und staatliche Museen stellen die Sowjetunion als Fortsetzung der zarischen Herrschaft über Zentralasien dar, die durch koloniale Ausbeutung und Machtasymmetrie zwischen Zentrum und Peripherie geprägt gewesen sei. Doch schon immer seien die Usbeken zur kulturellen Selbstbehauptung durch Widerstand gegen fremde Unterdrücker fähig gewesen. Die Elite legitimiert die Kontinuität ihrer Herrschaft, indem sie sich als schon immer usbekisch national gesonnen darstellt

Population dynamics of bacterial communities.

<p>(<b>a</b>) Simulated growth trajectories for Cm^R and Cm^S populations subject to antibiotic stress and resource competition. (<b>b</b>) Dynamic of intracellular Cm (<i>y</i>_r and <i>y</i>_s) and growth-limiting resource (<i>z</i>). Simulation time is scaled relative to the mean residence time of cells in a chemostat, which is equal to the generation time at steady state. At low population densities, the Cm^R strain can grow, whereas Cm^S cannot, due to a high concentration of Cm. However, the invasion of Cm^R lowers antibiotic stress, generating permissive conditions for the growth of Cm^S cells. The chemostat is then rapidly colonized by both strains (shortly after <i>t</i> = 180) until the resource becomes limiting. From that moment onwards, total cell density changes little, while the relative frequencies of the two strains continue to shift. Eventually, a stable equilibrium is reached, at which the cost and benefit of CAT expression (i.e., reduced growth rate efficiency for Cm^R cells versus their lower intracellular Cm concentration) balance out. Inset (<b>c</b>), The dark-red dot pinpoints the parameter set used in the simulation shown in <b>a</b> and <b>b</b>: <i>r</i> = 20.0, <i>η</i> = 0.9, <i>k</i>_z = 4.0, <i>c</i> = 1.0, <i>p</i> = 50.0, <i>h</i>_Y = 0.25/<i>Y</i>₀, <i>k</i>_Y = 2.5/<i>Y</i>₀, <i>d</i> = 30.0/<i>Y</i>₀ and <i>Y</i>₀ = 0.8. These parameters were selected to lie in a restricted area of parameter space (highlighted in red) where stable coexistence between Cm^S and Cm^R cells is observed Alternative model outcomes, which were identified by a numerical bifurcation analysis (see <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000631#pbio.2000631.s007" target="_blank">S1 Text</a> and <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000631#pbio.2000631.s004" target="_blank">S4 Fig</a>), include establishment of Cm^S only (area S), establishment of Cm^R only (area R), no bacterial growth (area N), and competition-induced extinction (area E, where Cm^S bacteria first outcompete Cm^R bacteria and subsequently are cleared by the antibiotic; see <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000631#pbio.2000631.s005" target="_blank">S5 Fig</a>).</p

Experimental setup to determine passive resistance.

<p>Antibiotic-susceptible cells (Ab^S) constitutively expressing <i>luc</i> are grown together with antibiotic-resistant cells (Ab^R, which do not express <i>luc</i>). Only when the concentration of the antibiotic in the medium is reduced by enzymatic deactivation of resistant cells will the genetically antibiotic-susceptible cells be able to grow and produce light.</p

Interspecies collective resistance.

<p>Still images (overlay of phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy) of a time-lapse experiment of <i>S</i>. <i>pneumoniae</i> Cm^S, cocultivated with a strain of the pneumococcal niche competitor <i>S</i>. <i>aureus</i> (strain LAC pCM29) that expresses CAT and GFP, growing on a semi-solid surface supplemented with 3 μg ml⁻¹ Cm. Scale bar 10 μm.</p

Cross-protection in a mouse pneumonia model.

<p>(<b>a</b>) Eight-wk-old female CD1 mice were infected intratracheally with Cm^S pneumococci or an equivalent amount of Cm^S + Cm^R pneumococci in a one-to-one ratio. One h post infection, mice were treated with one intraperitoneal injection of Cm 75 mg kg⁻¹ followed by two additional doses spaced 5 h apart. Control mice received an injection of the vehicle alone. <i>n</i> = 14 for Cm^S control; 13 for Cm^S Cm-treated; 13 for Cm^S + Cm^R control; and 14 for Cm^S + Cm^R Cm-treated. Data plotted as average and s.e.m. of two independent experiments combined. Dashed line ‘inoc’ denotes the initial inoculum. <i>*p < 0</i>.<i>05</i>; one-way ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparison post-test. (<b>b</b>) Bacterial colonies recovered from the Cm^S + Cm^R control and Cm^S + Cm^R Cm-treated mice were individually picked and used to inoculate THY media in 96-well plates. These 96-well plates were then used to inoculate 96-well plates with THY media containing either 15 μg ml⁻¹ Cm or 100 μg ml⁻¹ kanamycin to determine whether or not the original bacterial colony was Cm^S or Cm^R. n = 9 for Cm^S + Cm^R control and 14 for Cm^S + Cm^R Cm-treated. Data plotted as average and s.e.m. of two independent experiments combined. <i>*p</i> = 0.04; Mann–Whitney <i>U</i> test (see <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000631#pbio.2000631.s008" target="_blank">S1 Data</a>).</p

Cm deactivation during mixed population assays.

<p>(<b>a</b>) Plate reader assay sets in quadruplicate (average and standard error of the mean [s.e.m.]) measuring luminescence (symbols with color outline) and cell density (corresponding grey symbols) of <i>S</i>. <i>pneumoniae</i> Cm^S growing in the presence of 3 μg ml⁻¹ Cm, in presence (+) or absence (−) of Cm^R cells. (<b>b</b>) Development of the count of viable Cm^S cells (colony-forming units per ml [CFUs ml⁻¹]) during the cultivation assay presented in <b>a</b>, determined via plating in the presence of kanamycin; average values of duplicates are shown. (<b>c</b>) Culture supernatant (S) samples after 0, 1, 2, and 4 h of Cm^R cultivation (inoculation at optical density OD 0.001) in the presence of 5 μg ml⁻¹ Cm, analyzed for Cm content by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation and ultraviolet (UV) detection at 278 nm. (<b>d</b>) Luminescence and cell density profiles of Cm^S cells treated with 3 μg ml⁻¹ Cm (inoculation at OD 0.001) in dependency of the inoculum size of Cm^R cells. (<b>e</b>, <b>f</b>), Cm^S luminescence and growth analysis (<b>e</b>) in Cm-supplemented medium (3 μg ml⁻¹) that was pretreated with Cm^R cell pellet (P), S, and culture lysate (L), and controls without (C⁻) and with Cm (C⁺); (<b>f</b>) schematic overview of the assay (see also <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000631#sec010" target="_blank">Methods</a> and <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000631#pbio.2000631.s008" target="_blank">S1 Data</a>).</p