EFFECTS OF ACUTE AND CHRONIC TREATMENT WITH 3,4-METHYLENEDIOXYMETHAMPHETAMINE (MDMA) AND THE CANNABINOID RECEPTOR AGONIST WIN55,212-2 ON BEHAVIOUR AND COGNITION IN RATS

MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymetamphethamine, ecstasy ) is one of the most popular illicit recreational drugs among young adults. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms responsible for the physiological, behavioural and psychological effects, as well as the influence on cognitive functions such as memory and decision making are still not fully examined. Furthermore, if and to what extend this drug has neurotoxic properties is debated. Most ecstasy users are polydrug users, and the majority concomitantly consumes cannabis. Cannabis is the most frequently consumed illegal psychoactive drug world wide. While cannabis products are generally perceived as soft drugs and their potential medical usefulness is progressing, cognitive impairments and long-term alterations in the brain, especially following prolonged and heavy use in adolescence, are observed. This thesis investigates the influence of MDMA and the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist, WIN55,212-2 (WIN), on different forms of decision making, memory function, locomotor activity and physiological parameters such as body temperature and food intake. Within both an acute as well as chronic systemic administration schedule, effects of each substance alone as well as their combination is tested in order to mimic co-consumption of these drugs. Within chronic treatment, adult as well as pubertal rats and their respective brain myelination levels are examined to determine vulnerable periods of drug consumption or age-related differences

Effekte akuter und chronischer Behandlung mit 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamin (MDMA) und dem Cannabinoid-Rezeptor Agonist WIN 55,212-2 auf Verhalten und Kognition der Ratte

MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymetamphethamine, ecstasy ) is one of the most popular illicit recreational drugs among young adults. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms responsible for the physiological, behavioural and psychological effects, as well as the influence on cognitive functions such as memory and decision making are still not fully examined. Furthermore, if and to what extend this drug has neurotoxic properties is debated. Most ecstasy users are polydrug users, and the majority concomitantly consumes cannabis. Cannabis is the most frequently consumed illegal psychoactive drug world wide. While cannabis products are generally perceived as soft drugs and their potential medical usefulness is progressing, cognitive impairments and long-term alterations in the brain, especially following prolonged and heavy use in adolescence, are observed. This thesis investigates the influence of MDMA and the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist, WIN55,212-2 (WIN), on different forms of decision making, memory function, locomotor activity and physiological parameters such as body temperature and food intake. Within both an acute as well as chronic systemic administration schedule, effects of each substance alone as well as their combination is tested in order to mimic co-consumption of these drugs. Within chronic treatment, adult as well as pubertal rats and their respective brain myelination levels are examined to determine vulnerable periods of drug consumption or age-related differences

Running a spectral analysis code on top of SCI shared memory using the TreadMarks API

Compute-clusters built of PCs or workstations and the Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) as interconnection technology offer a high-performance and cost-effective platform for parallel processing. Additionally, due to its technical features, SCI allows a a wide range of parallel programming libraries to be implemented. Besides message-passing libraries which can be optimized for user-level communication SCI's remote memory access mechanism provides the possibility to efficiently implement shared memory models for SCI-based clusters. The paper describes the SCI virtual memory layer (SCIVM) which provides a single cluster-wide global virtual memory management in an SCI-based cluster for the TreadMarks (TM) application programming interface (API). Thus, it is the first step in establishing a standard shared memory programming model in an SCI software infrastructure. The SCI-VM layer will be discussed using a real-world application from the area of medical imaging, a code for spectral anal..

Association between hematologic parameters and functional impairment among geriatric inpatients: Data of a prospective cross-sectional multicenter study (GeriPravalenz2013)

Objectives: Objective of this study was to analyse the association between impairment of Barthel Index items and hematologic parameters in geriatric inpatients. Methods: Patient recruitment of the GeriPravalenz2013 study has been described before. Inclusion criteria: in-patient aged >= 70 years; exclusion criteria: actual cancer disease or cancer associated treatment. Anemia was defined according to WHO criteria. Physical impairment was assessed by Barthel Index (BI). Association between all 10 items of the BI and hematologic parameters was statistically evaluated. Results: Anemia prevalence was 55.1% (319/579) with BI impairment in 96.2% patients. T-test revealed significant lower BI in anemic patients (47.9 vs 54.3; p = 0.004). Binary logistic regression revealed that growing age, reduced MCV, reduced iron levels and reduced Hb levels were associated with increased impairment of several items of the Barthel-Index. Interestingly, increased levels of albumin and folic acid (FA) were associated with increased impairment of BI items. Conclusion: Anemia and lower levels of anemia related parameters showed a negative impact on ADL and physical performance based on BI items. An impaired total BI should result in an analysis of BI subitems, particularly if anemia related laboratory parameters are deviant. Reasons for the negative impact of elevated FA and albumin levels on BI remain speculative. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Association of anemia with functional and nutritional status in the German multicenter study GeriAnaemie2013

Objectives. Anemia and malnutrition are risk factors for frailty in older people but data from multicenter studies among German geriatric inpatients are lacking. This analysis evaluated data from the multicenter study GerAnaemie2013 commissioned by the German Geriatric Society. Patients and methods. The study involved an analysis of the 579 geriatric inpatients recruited in the context of the German multicenter study GeriAnaemie2013. Study parameters: Barthel index (BI), handgrip strength, nutritional data (e.g. loss of appetite, loss of weight and decreased food intake). Inclusion criteria: in-patient age >= 70 years, exclusion criteria: current cancer disease or cancer-associated treatment. Anemia was defined according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Results. The mean age of patients was 81.9 years, overall prevalence of anemia 55.1 %, mean hemoglobin (Hb) level 11.9 g/dl, average BI 50.8 points and 30.3 % of all patients were at risk of malnutrition. While univariate analysis revealed a significantly lower BI in anemic patients, this association was no longer seen in multivariate analysis. Regression analysis revealed that a drug intake of > 5 drugs/day doubles the chance of suffering from anemia with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 2.17 (confidence interval (CI) 1.28-3.68, p = 0.004) as well as a serum albumin level below 3.5 g/dl with an adjusted OR of 2.11 (range 1.40-3.19, p < 0.001). Conclusion. Polymedication and low serum albumin were independent risk factors for anemia in geriatric patients, probably reflecting disease severity

Improved 2-DE of microorganisms after acidic extraction

2-DE separations of protein extracts sometimes have problems with poor resolution and streaking. This problem is particularly apparent with microorganisms, most notably those with a large cell wall. Here we describe a novel, rapid protocol for the extraction of microorganisms in acidic conditions, leading to increased resolution and 2-D gel quality. The efficiency of the protocol is demonstrated with extracts of bacteria, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis; fungus, Trichoderma harzianum and yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We also demonstrate using a membrane centrifugal filtration, that large acidic molecules in excess of 100 kDa, probably including cell wall material, are responsible for the separation difficulties. A range of acidic extraction conditions were investigated, and it was found that optimal extraction is achieved using an extraction solution acidified to pH 3 by 80 mM citric acid. These findings have significant implications for the proteomic study of many medically, agriculturally and environmentally significant microorganisms, as the cell walls of these organisms are often considerably more complex than many commonly studied laboratory strains