An atraumatic symphysiolysis with a unilateral injured sacroiliac joint in a patient with Cushing’s disease: a loss of pelvic stability related to ligamentous insufficiency?

Glucocorticoids are well known for altering bone structure and elevating fracture risk. Nevertheless, there are very few reports on pelvic ring fractures, compared to other bones, especially with a predominantly ligamentous insufficiency, resulting in a rotationally unstable pelvic girdle.We report a 39-year-old premenopausal woman suffering from an atraumatic symphysiolysis and disruption of the left sacroiliac joint. She presented with external rotational pelvic instability and immobilization. Prior to the injury, she received high-dose glucocorticoids for a tentative diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis over two months. This diagnosis was not confirmed. Other causes leading to the unstable pelvic girdle were excluded by several laboratory and radiological examinations. Elevated basal cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels were measured and subsequent corticotropin-releasing hormone stimulation, dexamethasone suppression test, and petrosal sinus sampling verified the diagnosis of adrenocorticotropic hormonedependent Cushing’s disease. The combination of adrenocorticotropic hormone-dependent Cushing’s disease and the additional application of exogenous glucocorticoids is the most probable cause of a rare atraumatic rotational pelvic instability in a premenopausal patient. To the authors’ knowledge, this case presents the first description of a rotationally unstable pelvic ring fracture involving a predominantly ligamentous insufficiency in the context of combined exogenous and endogenous glucocorticoid elevation

Formale und informelle Kommunikation via WhatsApp und E-Mail: Die spezifischen Nutzungspraktiken digitaler Technologien

Die digitale Kommunikation und das Kontakthalten via Apps, z.B. Signal oder WhatsApp, ebenso wie die "klassische" E-Mail ist aus unserem Alltag kaum noch wegzudenken. Das zeigte sich auch in den Tagebuchaufzeichnungen von 23 Studierenden zur Nutzung digitaler Praktiken. Gezeigt haben sich aber auch Unterschiede in der Nutzung von Apps und E-Mail. Diese Nutzungspraktiken von Messenger-Apps und die digitale Nachrichtenkommunikation via E-Mail werden in diesem Beitrag theoretisch und empirisch miteinander verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Messenger-Kommunikation v.a. für Familie, Freund*innen und Kolleg*innen, die E-Mail-Kommunikation hingegen vermehrt für den dienstlich-formellen Austausch genutzt wird. Entsprechend haben sich gewisse Routinen und digitale Praktiken entwickelt, die den Alltag der Probanden bestimmen.Digital communication and keeping in touch via apps, e.g. Signal or WhatsApp, as well as the "classic" email has become an integral part of our everyday life. This was also evident in the diary entries of 23 students on the use of digital practices. But they also showed differences in the use of apps and e-mail. This article compares these practices of using messenger apps and digital message communication via e-mail both theoretically and empirically. The results show that messenger communication is used primarily for family, friends and colleagues, while e-mail communication is increasingly used for formal business exchanges. Correspondingly, certain routines and digital practices have developed which determine the daily life of the test persons

The perils of performance measurement in the German mutual-fund industry

We document a curious feature of the German mutual fund industry. Unlike U.S. mutual funds, funds domiciled in Germany do not necessarily compute their net asset values (NAV) as of market close. Using a sample of German equity funds, we infer each fund's NAV closing time from the best-fit market model using both maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimation. The results of both approaches coincide perfectly and show that all but one of the funds domiciled in Germany report intraday NAVs. We show that using market returns computed at the end of the day instead of the best-fit time, usually leads to misleading inferences about mutual fund performance

The patients’ perspective on access to and use of Personal Health Records

We present the patients' perspective regarding the use of Personal Health Records, and give insights on patients' characteristics, such as socioeconomic and behavioural factors, that are associated with the access to and use of Personal Health Records. The findings come from the INTERREG APPS project that investigated preferences for and intention to use Personal Health Records in four cross-border regions, in Lorraine/France, Luxembourg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland/Germany, and Wallonia/Belgium

The innate immune response of self-assembling silk fibroin hydrogels

Silk has a long track record of use in humans, and recent advances in silk fibroin processing have opened up new material formats. However, these new formats and their applications have subsequently created a need to ascertain their biocompatibility. Therefore, the present aim was to quantify the haemocompatibility and inflammatory response of silk fibroin hydrogels. This work demonstrated that self-assembled silk fibroin hydrogels, as one of the most clinically relevant new formats, induced very low blood coagulation and platelet activation but elevated the inflammatory response of human whole blood in vitro. In vivo bioluminescence imaging of neutrophils and macrophages showed an acute, but mild, local inflammatory response which was lower than or similar to that induced by polyethylene glycol, a benchmark material. The time-dependent local immune response in vivo was corroborated by histology, immunofluorescence and murine whole blood analyses. Overall, this study confirms that silk fibroin hydrogels induce a similar immune response to that of PEG hydrogels, while also demonstrating the power of non-invasive bioluminescence imaging for monitoring tissue responses

IL4I1 Is a Metabolic Immune Checkpoint that Activates the AHR and Promotes Tumor Progression

Immune checkpoint blockade therapy induces the AHR-activating enzyme IL4I1, which promotes tumor progression, through its effects on tumor cell motility and adaptive immunity

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Model-Based Prediction of an Effective Adhesion Parameter Guiding Multi-Type Cell Segregation

The process of cell-sorting is essential for development and maintenance of tissues. With the Differential Adhesion Hypothesis, Steinberg proposed that cellsorting is determined by quantitative differences in cell-type-specific intercellular adhesion strengths. An implementation of the Differential Adhesion Hypothesis is the Differential Migration Model by Voss-Böhme and Deutsch. There, an effective adhesion parameter was derived analytically for systems with two cell types, which predicts the asymptotic sorting pattern. However, the existence and form of such a parameter for more than two cell types is unclear. Here, we generalize analytically the concept of an effective adhesion parameter to three and more cell types and demonstrate its existence numerically for three cell types based on in silico time-series data that is produced by a cellular-automaton implementation of the Differential Migration Model. Additionally, we classify the segregation behavior using statistical learning methods and show that the estimated effective adhesion parameter for three cell types matches our analytical prediction. Finally, we demonstrate that the effective adhesion parameter can resolve a recent dispute about the impact of interfacial adhesion, cortical tension and heterotypic repulsion on cell segregation.Der Prozess der Zellsortierung ist für die Entwicklung und Erhaltung von Geweben unerlässlich. Mit der Differentiellen Adhäsionshypothese schlug Steinberg vor, dass die Zellsortierung durch quantitative Unterschiede in den zelltypspezifischen interzellulären Adhäsionsstärken bestimmt wird. Eine Umsetzung der Differentiellen Adhäsionshypothese ist das Differentielle Migrationsmodell von Voss-Böhme und Deutsch. In diesem wurde für Systeme mit zwei Zelltypen ein effektiver Adhäsionsparameter analytisch hergeleitet, der das asymptotische Sortiermuster vorhersagt. Die Existenz und Form eines solchen Parameters für mehr als zwei Zelltypen ist jedoch unklar. Hier verallgemeinern wir analytisch das Konzept eines effektiven Adhäsionsparameters für drei und mehr Zelltypen und zeigen numerisch seine Existenz für drei Zelltypen auf der Basis von in silico Zeitreihendaten, die von einem zellulären Automaten des Differentiellen Migrationsmodells erzeugt werden. Darüber hinaus klassifizieren wir das Segregationsverhalten mithilfe statistischer Lernverfahren und zeigen, dass der geschätzte effektive Adhäsionsparameter für drei Zelltypen mit unserer analytischen Vorhersage übereinstimmt. Schließlich zeigen wir, dass der effektive Adhäsionsparameter eine kürzlich aufgekommene Diskussion über den Einfluss von Grenzflächenadhäsion, Kortikalspannung und heterotypischer Abstoßung auf die Zellsegregation lösen kann

The herpetofauna of the Bijagós archipelago, Guinea-Bissau (West Africa) and a first country-wide checklist

An annotated checklist of amphibians and reptiles from the Bijagós archipelago (Guinea-Bissau) with comments on the species’ distribution, systematics and natural history traits is presented here for the first time. During two field surveys 13 anurans and 17 reptile species were recorded from the archipelago of which several species represent either first records for the islands, i.e., Silurana tropicalis, Hemisus g. guineensis Leptopelis viridis, Hemidactylus angulatus, Chamaeleo gracilis, Trachylepis perrotetii, Philothamnus heterodermus, Toxicodryas blandingii, Naja melanoleuca and Thelotornis kirtlandii or first country records, i.e., Amietophrynus maculatus, Ptychadena pumilio, P. bibroni, Phrynobatrachus calcaratus, P. francisci, Leptopelis bufonides, Hyperolius occidentalis, H. nitidulus, H. spatzi, Kassina senegalensis and Thrasops occidentalis. Species diversity reflects savanna and forest elements and a complete herpetofaunal checklist of the country is provided