Lineage-specific requirements of β-catenin in neural crest development

β-Catenin plays a pivotal role in cadherin-mediated cell adhesion. Moreover, it is a downstream signaling component of Wnt that controls multiple developmental processes such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, and fate decisions. To study the role of β-catenin in neural crest development, we used the Cre/loxP system to ablate β-catenin specifically in neural crest stem cells. Although several neural crest–derived structures develop normally, mutant animals lack melanocytes and dorsal root ganglia (DRG). In vivo and in vitro analyses revealed that mutant neural crest cells emigrate but fail to generate an early wave of sensory neurogenesis that is normally marked by the transcription factor neurogenin (ngn) 2. This indicates a role of β-catenin in premigratory or early migratory neural crest and points to heterogeneity of neural crest cells at the earliest stages of crest development. In addition, migratory neural crest cells lateral to the neural tube do not aggregate to form DRG and are unable to produce a later wave of sensory neurogenesis usually marked by the transcription factor ngn1. We propose that the requirement of β-catenin for the specification of melanocytes and sensory neuronal lineages reflects roles of β-catenin both in Wnt signaling and in mediating cell–cell interactions

A Device to Quantify Sweat in Single Sweat Glands to Diagnose Neuropathy

We devised an objective "Sensitive Sweat Test" (SST) that detects and quantifies early changes in the function of sudomotor nerves that activate sweat glands (SGs). The SST is designed to diagnose peripheral neuropathy early, when the probability for reversal is greatest. Chemotherapy induced and diabetic neuropathy are very common causes of neuropathy in the USA. Both result in peripheral numbness, pain, decreased sweating, abnormal circulation, and eventual weakness. Early recognition can provide a better opportunity to treat and halt neuropathy than discovery after the onset of nerve degeneration. We contend that early diagnosis can be achieved by sensitive monitoring of sweating. Unfortunately, the changes that first signal impending sweat deficiency escape detection by conventional clinical examination and current tests We contracted with several MN small business concerns (SBCs) to construct the SST miniature camera device Methods Skin sites on the medial calf and foot dorsum, each measuring 2 cm 2 were stimulated to sweat maximally by iontophoresis of 1% pilocarpine (2 ma, 5 min; Transparent tape thinly coated with starch was attached over the lens of the SST miniature camera. The skin test sites were prepped with a 1% iodine solution. The skin was wiped dry and immediately the camera was pressed against the skin, activating a switch to begin image collection and storage. As sweat water exited from each sweat pore it contacted iodine and starch and formed a tiny dark spot. The tape prevented formation of a drop. Instead, sweat was forced to flow centrifugally to form a flat expanding dark spot. The SST device imaged spots from >200 SGs at 1 frame/sec (area of 2 cm 2 ) for 60 to 90 seconds, until adjacent spots coalesced. The process was performed twice. Image analysis was done in the Mathworks Software, MATLAB version R2012a. Each individual sweat spot was identified and followed from frame to fram

The Maternal and Infant Environmental Health Riskscape study of perinatal disparities in greater Houston: rationale, study design and participant profiles

IntroductionThe Maternal and Infant Environmental Health Riskscape (MIEHR) Center was established to address the interplay among chemical and non-chemical stressors in the biological, physical, social, and built environments that disproportionately impact perinatal health among Black pregnant people in a large and diverse urban area with documented disparities in the U.S.MethodsThe MIEHR cohort is recruiting non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white pregnant people who deliver their infants at major obstetric hospitals in Houston, Texas. At enrollment, all participants are asked to provide urine samples for chemical [metals, cotinine, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)] analyses and blood samples. A subset of the cohort is asked to provide oral and vaginal swabs, and fecal samples. Questionnaire and electronic health record data gather information about residential address history during pregnancy, pregnancy history and prenatal care, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, experiences of discrimination and stress, and sources of social support. Using information on where a participant lived during their pregnancy, features of their neighborhood environment are characterized. We provide summaries of key individual- and neighborhood-level features of the entire cohort, as well as for Black and white participants separately.ResultsBetween April 2021 and February 2023, 1,244 pregnant people were recruited. Nearly all participants provided urine samples and slightly less than half provided blood samples. PAH exposure patterns as assessed on 47% of participants thus far showed varying levels depending on metabolite as compared to previous studies. Additionally, analyses suggest differences between Black and white pregnant people in experiences of discrimination, stress, and levels of social support, as well as in neighborhood characteristics.DiscussionOur findings to date highlight racial differences in experiences of discrimination, stress, and levels of support, as well as neighborhood characteristics. Recruitment of the cohort is ongoing and additional neighborhood metrics are being constructed. Biospecimens will be analyzed for metals and PAH metabolites (urine samples), miRNAs (plasma samples) and the microbiome (oral swabs). Once enrollment ends, formal assessments are planned to elucidate individual- and neighborhood-level features in the environmental riskscape that contribute to Black-White disparities in perinatal health

MedShapeNet -- A Large-Scale Dataset of 3D Medical Shapes for Computer Vision

Prior to the deep learning era, shape was commonly used to describe the objects. Nowadays, state-of-the-art (SOTA) algorithms in medical imaging are predominantly diverging from computer vision, where voxel grids, meshes, point clouds, and implicit surface models are used. This is seen from numerous shape-related publications in premier vision conferences as well as the growing popularity of ShapeNet (about 51,300 models) and Princeton ModelNet (127,915 models). For the medical domain, we present a large collection of anatomical shapes (e.g., bones, organs, vessels) and 3D models of surgical instrument, called MedShapeNet, created to facilitate the translation of data-driven vision algorithms to medical applications and to adapt SOTA vision algorithms to medical problems. As a unique feature, we directly model the majority of shapes on the imaging data of real patients. As of today, MedShapeNet includes 23 dataset with more than 100,000 shapes that are paired with annotations (ground truth). Our data is freely accessible via a web interface and a Python application programming interface (API) and can be used for discriminative, reconstructive, and variational benchmarks as well as various applications in virtual, augmented, or mixed reality, and 3D printing. Exemplary, we present use cases in the fields of classification of brain tumors, facial and skull reconstructions, multi-class anatomy completion, education, and 3D printing. In future, we will extend the data and improve the interfaces. The project pages are: https://medshapenet.ikim.nrw/ and https://github.com/Jianningli/medshapenet-feedbackComment: 16 page

CharWars Rise of the fallen strings: Replace C-String Library calls with C++ std::string Operations

C strings are still in heavy use in C++ programs. Additionally, standardized C functions such as strcpy() and strstr() are often used to modify or analyze the content of the strings. Unfortunately, because of the fact that a C string is just a pointer to a zero-terminated character array, those functions have a lot of drawbacks regarding performance, safety and readability. The std::string class from the C++ standard library and its member functions provide a lot of the same functionality without these downsides. Building on previous work from our term project Pointerminator we extended the existing Eclipse CDT plug-in so that it helps a programmer to find and automatically refactor pieces of code, that use C strings in an unfavourable way. We started with an analysis of the various ways C strings and their related C functions are used in practice. Based on that analysis we defined possible refactorings for a subset of the standardized C string functions. We then added this functionality to the existing plug-in, wrote corresponding unit tests and documented its architecture. Finally, we tested the plug-in in the code base of an open source C++ application called XBMC. The results of these tests allowed us to optimize the plug-in and to fix some of the problems that we discovered during testing

Synchronium

Ausgangslage: In der heutigen Zeit spielen elektronische Geräte - seien dies Mobiltelefone, mobile oder stationäre Computer - eine zunehmend wichtigere Rolle. Geschäftliche und private Daten, wie beispielsweise Kontakte und Termine sollen auf allen Geräten zu jeder Zeit und aktuell verfügbar sein. Vielfach sind diese Daten auf verschiedenen Servern unterschiedlicher Dienstleister verteilt. Da momentan keine kostengünstigen Dienste und Anwendungen für eine flexible Synchronisation mehrerer Datenquellen vorhanden sind, wurde dieses Projekt ins Leben gerufen. Vorgehen/Technologien: Nach einer Analyse der möglichen Synchronisations- Protokolle und - Technologien hat das Team festgelegt, welche Komponenten entwickelt werden sollen. Als Programmiersprache wurde C# zusammen mit dem .NET-Framework verwendet. Die Implementierung wurde von einem Buld Server unterstützt, welcher die Software laufend kompiliert und die Unit Tests ausführt. Ergebnis: Die im Rahmen der Bachelorarbeit entwickelte Server-Applikation ermöglicht es, mehrere Datenquellen einer grossen Anzahl Benutzer zu synchronisieren. Synchronisationskonflikte werden mit zwei Ansätzen gefunden und aufgelöst. Datenquellen, die gerade nicht verfügbar sind, können anhand der Objektversion herausfinden, welche Objekte seit der letzten Verfügbarkeit verändert wurden. Alle weiteren Konflikte werden mithilfe eines Dienstes verarbeitet, der alle Änderungen sammelt, Konflikte erkennt und diese zu lösen versucht. Während dem Projekt wurde eine Google-, ActiveSync- sowie eine Exchange- Komponente entwickelt, welche Termine und Kontakte untereinander synchronisieren können. Für die Administration bietet eine weitere Service- Komponenten SOAP Web Services an, mit der die Benutzer und deren Datenquellen verwaltet werden

Pointerminator

Pointers and Arrays as inherited from C are still in heavy use in C++ programs. They are used to represent strings, arrays, objects on the heap or they appear in function signatures to do call-by-reference. However, issues like resource responsibility, degradation of an array to a pointer loosing its dimension or zero termination of byte sequences lead to poor quality and potential security problems. Modern C++ and its standard library provide a lot of functionality to avoid the use of raw pointers and arrays. If those concepts are applied correctly, they can lead to much better and more maintainable code. The goal of our term project is to write a plug-in for Eclipse CDT that allows a programmer to find and automatically refactor pieces of code, that use pointers in an unfavourable way. We started with an analysis of the various roles pointers can have. Based on that analysis we decided that the plug-in should be able to refactor C strings, C arrays and pointer parameters. Then we implemented the plug-in and documented its architecture. Finally, we tested the plug-in in the code base of an existing C++ application called fish shell. The results of these tests allowed us to optimize the plug-in and to fix some of the problems that we discovered during testing

TabMed

Jährlich führt das Institut für Medizinische Lehre viele praktische Prüfungen, sogenannte Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE), durch. Für das nächste Jahr ist im Zuge der Ausweitung der Prüfungen auf nationaler Ebene ein starker Anstieg an Prüfungsdurchführungen geplant. Dadurch stösst der bisherige papiergebundene Prüfungsdurchführungsprozess an seine Grenzen. Mit diesem Problem vor Augen wurde am Institut für Software das Projekt E-OSCE gegründet, welches Konzepte für eine digitalisierte und effizientere Prüfungsabwicklung hervorbringen soll. Ein Teil des E-OSCE Projektes stellt diese Studienarbeit „TabMed“ dar. Die Aufgabe war die Entwicklung einer Umgebung, in der diese Prüfungen durchgeführt werden können. Dazu sollte ein auf einem Tablet-PC aufsetzender Prototyp zur Bewertung von Medizinstudenten erstellt werden. Dabei musste darauf geachtet werden, dass die Client-Applikation einfach und intuitiv zu bedienen ist, da sie auch von nicht computer-versierten Experten verwendet wird. Da mit sensiblen Daten gearbeitet wird, wurde gefordert, dass die Formulare nicht von unbefugten Personen gelesen werden können. Aus diesem Grund wird die gesamte Kommunikation zwischen den Applikationen verschlüsselt. Die Gesetze fordern, dass Prüfungen signiert und nicht mehr geändert werden können. Daher werden alle Prüfungen mit einer Signatur aus einem Zertifikat, das auf einem USB-Stick gespeichert ist, signiert. Wichtig war ausserdem, dass die Applikation von den Experten akzeptiert wird, denn es war bereits eine gute papierbasierte Lösung vorhanden. Im Laufe des Projekts entwickelten wir eine komplette Prüfungs-Infrastruktur: Dazu gehört ein Server mit Frontend, ein Client und ein Editor um Prüfungsformulare zu erstellen. In einem abschliessenden Usability-Test in Bern wurden diese Prototypen getestet. Dabei wurde festgestellt, dass die Applikation einfach zu verwenden ist und bereits für richtige Prüfungen verwendet werden kann. Alle Komponenten kommunizieren über eine REST-basierte HTTPS-Schnittstelle. Diese Schnittstelle wird auf dem Server mit dem Jersey-REST-Framework realisiert. Für die grafischen Oberflächen der Applikationen setzten wir auf die neue WPF-Technologie von Microsoft. Die Kommunikation wurde mit XML-Daten realisiert und kann so auch auf anderen Plattformen verwendet werden

VEGF-A promotes intussusceptive angiogenesis in the developing chicken chorioallantoic membrane

To assess the impact of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) on intussusceptive angiogenesis