Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Preprint (537)
- Article (359)
- Working Paper (2)
Has Fulltext
- yes (898)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (898)
Keywords
- Heavy Ion Experiments (20)
- Hadron-Hadron scattering (experiments) (11)
- Hadron-Hadron Scattering (8)
- Heavy-ion collision (5)
- Atmospheric chemistry (4)
- Collective Flow (4)
- Quark-Gluon Plasma (4)
- Burden of illness (3)
- Healthcare costs (3)
- Jets (3)
Institute
- Physik (816)
- Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) (747)
- Informatik (714)
- Geowissenschaften (33)
- Medizin (31)
- ELEMENTS (6)
- Geowissenschaften / Geographie (5)
- Informatik und Mathematik (4)
- Biowissenschaften (2)
- Buchmann Institut für Molekulare Lebenswissenschaften (BMLS) (2)
- E-Finance Lab e.V. (2)
- Georg-Speyer-Haus (2)
- Starker Start ins Studium: Qualitätspakt Lehre (2)
- Wirtschaftswissenschaften (2)
- Center for Financial Studies (CFS) (1)
- Extern (1)
- Hochschulrechenzentrum (1)
- House of Finance (HoF) (1)
- Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität (1)
- Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) (1)
- Pharmazie (1)
- Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE) (1)
Nucleation of jet engine oil vapours is a large source of aviation-related ultrafine particles
(2022)
Large airports are a major source of ultrafine particles, which spread across densely populated residential areas, affecting air quality and human health. Jet engine lubrication oils are detectable in aviation-related ultrafine particles, however, their role in particle formation and growth remains unclear. Here we show the volatility and new-particle-formation ability of a common synthetic jet oil, and the quantified oil fraction in ambient ultrafine particles downwind of Frankfurt International Airport, Germany. We find that the oil mass fraction is largest in the smallest particles (10-18 nm) with 21% on average. Combining ambient particle-phase concentration and volatility of the jet oil compounds, we determine a lower-limit saturation ratio larger than 1 × 105 for ultra-low volatility organic compounds. This indicates that the oil is an efficient nucleation agent. Our results demonstrate that jet oil nucleation is an important mechanism that can explain the abundant observations of high number concentrations of non-refractory ultrafine particles near airports.
Background: Bipolar disorder is associated with circadian disruption and a high risk of suicidal behavior. In a previous exploratory study of patients with bipolar I disorder, we found that a history of suicide attempts was associated with differences between winter and summer levels of solar insolation. The purpose of this study was to confirm this finding using international data from 42% more collection sites and 25% more countries. Methods: Data analyzed were from 71 prior and new collection sites in 40 countries at a wide range of latitudes. The analysis included 4876 patients with bipolar I disorder, 45% more data than previously analyzed. Of the patients, 1496 (30.7%) had a history of suicide attempt. Solar insolation data, the amount of the sun’s electromagnetic energy striking the surface of the earth, was obtained for each onset location (479 locations in 64 countries). Results: This analysis confirmed the results of the exploratory study with the same best model and slightly better statistical significance. There was a significant inverse association between a history of suicide attempts and the ratio of mean winter insolation to mean summer insolation (mean winter insolation/mean summer insolation). This ratio is largest near the equator which has little change in solar insolation over the year, and smallest near the poles where the winter insolation is very small compared to the summer insolation. Other variables in the model associated with an increased risk of suicide attempts were a history of alcohol or substance abuse, female gender, and younger birth cohort. The winter/summer insolation ratio was also replaced with the ratio of minimum mean monthly insolation to the maximum mean monthly insolation to accommodate insolation patterns in the tropics, and nearly identical results were found. All estimated coefficients were significant at p < 0.01. Conclusion: A large change in solar insolation, both between winter and summer and between the minimum and maximum monthly values, may increase the risk of suicide attempts in bipolar I disorder. With frequent circadian rhythm dysfunction and suicidal behavior in bipolar disorder, greater understanding of the optimal roles of daylight and electric lighting in circadian entrainment is needed.
A point mutation in the Ncr1 signal peptide impairs the development of innate lymphoid cell subsets
(2018)
NKp46 (CD335) is a surface receptor shared by both human and mouse natural killer (NK) cells and innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) that transduces activating signals necessary to eliminate virus-infected cells and tumors. Here, we describe a spontaneous point mutation of cysteine to arginine (C14R) in the signal peptide of the NKp46 protein in congenic Ly5.1 mice and the newly generated NCRB6C14R strain. Ly5.1C14R NK cells expressed similar levels of Ncr1 mRNA as C57BL/6, but showed impaired surface NKp46 and reduced ability to control melanoma tumors in vivo. Expression of the mutant NKp46C14R in 293T cells showed that NKp46 protein trafficking to the cell surface was compromised. Although Ly5.1C14R mice had normal number of NK cells, they showed an increased number of early maturation stage NK cells. CD49a+ILC1s were also increased but these cells lacked the expression of TRAIL. ILC3s that expressed NKp46 were not detectable and were not apparent when examined by T-bet expression. Thus, the C14R mutation reveals that NKp46 is important for NK cell and ILC differentiation, maturation and function.
Rare copy-number variation (CNV) is an important source of risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We analyzed 2,446 ASD-affected families and confirmed an excess of genic deletions and duplications in affected versus control groups (1.41-fold, p = 1.0 × 10(-5)) and an increase in affected subjects carrying exonic pathogenic CNVs overlapping known loci associated with dominant or X-linked ASD and intellectual disability (odds ratio = 12.62, p = 2.7 × 10(-15), ∼3% of ASD subjects). Pathogenic CNVs, often showing variable expressivity, included rare de novo and inherited events at 36 loci, implicating ASD-associated genes (CHD2, HDAC4, and GDI1) previously linked to other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as other genes such as SETD5, MIR137, and HDAC9. Consistent with hypothesized gender-specific modulators, females with ASD were more likely to have highly penetrant CNVs (p = 0.017) and were also overrepresented among subjects with fragile X syndrome protein targets (p = 0.02). Genes affected by de novo CNVs and/or loss-of-function single-nucleotide variants converged on networks related to neuronal signaling and development, synapse function, and chromatin regulation.
Despite advances in allogeneic stem cell transplantation, BCR-ABL-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) remains a high-risk disease, necessitating the development of novel treatment strategies. As the known oncomir, miR-17~92, is regulated by BCR-ABL fusion in chronic myeloid leukaemia, we investigated its role in BCR-ABL translocated ALL. miR-17~92-encoded miRNAs were significantly less abundant in BCR-ABL-positive as compared to -negative ALL-cells and overexpression of miR-17~19b triggered apoptosis in a BCR-ABL-dependent manner. Stable isotope labelling of amino acids in culture (SILAC) followed by liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) identified several apoptosis-related proteins including Bcl2 as potential targets of miR-17~19b. We validated Bcl2 as a direct target of this miRNA cluster in mice and humans, and, similar to miR-17~19b overexpression, Bcl2-specific RNAi strongly induced apoptosis in BCR-ABL-positive cells. Furthermore, BCR-ABL-positive human ALL cell lines were more sensitive to pharmacological BCL2 inhibition than negative ones. Finally, in a xenograft model using patient-derived leukaemic blasts, real-time, in vivo imaging confirmed pharmacological inhibition of BCL2 as a new therapeutic strategy in BCR-ABL-positive ALL. These data demonstrate the role of miR-17~92 in regulation of apoptosis, and identify BCL2 as a therapeutic target of particular relevance in BCR-ABL-positive ALL.
We measured the Coulomb dissociation of 16O into 4He and 12C at the R3B setup in a first campaign within FAIR Phase 0 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt. The goal was to improve the accuracy of the experimental data for the 12C(α,γ)16O fusion reaction and to reach lower center-ofmass energies than measured so far.
The experiment required beam intensities of 109 16O ions per second at an energy of 500 MeV/nucleon. The rare case of Coulomb breakup into 12C and 4He posed another challenge: The magnetic rigidities of the particles are so close because of the same mass-to-charge-number ratio A/Z = 2 for 16O, 12C and 4He. Hence, radical changes of the R3B setup were necessary. All detectors had slits to allow the passage of the unreacted 16O ions, while 4He and 12C would hit the detectors' active areas depending on the scattering angle and their relative energies. We developed and built detectors based on organic scintillators to track and identify the reaction products with sufficient precision.
Background Anti-angiogenic treatment is believed to have at least cystostatic effects in highly vascularized tumours like pancreatic cancer. In this study, the treatment effects of the angiogenesis inhibitor Cilengitide and gemcitabine were compared with gemcitabine alone in patients with advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer. Methods A multi-national, open-label, controlled, randomized, parallel-group, phase II pilot study was conducted in 20 centers in 7 countries. Cilengitide was administered at 600 mg/m2 twice weekly for 4 weeks per cycle and gemcitabine at 1000 mg/m2 for 3 weeks followed by a week of rest per cycle. The planned treatment period was 6 four-week cycles. The primary endpoint of the study was overall survival and the secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), response rate, quality of life (QoL), effects on biological markers of disease (CA 19.9) and angiogenesis (vascular endothelial growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor), and safety. An ancillary study investigated the pharmacokinetics of both drugs in a subset of patients. Results Eighty-nine patients were randomized. The median overall survival was 6.7 months for Cilengitide and gemcitabine and 7.7 months for gemcitabine alone. The median PFS times were 3.6 months and 3.8 months, respectively. The overall response rates were 17% and 14%, and the tumor growth control rates were 54% and 56%, respectively. Changes in the levels of CA 19.9 went in line with the clinical course of the disease, but no apparent relationships were seen with the biological markers of angiogenesis. QoL and safety evaluations were comparable between treatment groups. Pharmacokinetic studies showed no influence of gemcitabine on the pharmacokinetic parameters of Cilengitide and vice versa. Conclusion There were no clinically important differences observed regarding efficacy, safety and QoL between the groups. The observations lay in the range of other clinical studies in this setting. The combination regimen was well tolerated with no adverse effects on the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of either agent.
Optogenetic manipulation of neuronal activity through excitatory and inhibitory opsins has become an indispensable experimental strategy in neuroscience research. For many applications bidirectional control of neuronal activity allowing both excitation and inhibition of the same neurons in a single experiment is desired. This requires low spectral overlap between the excitatory and inhibitory opsin, matched photocurrent amplitudes and a fixed expression ratio. Moreover, independent activation of two distinct neuronal populations with different optogenetic actuators is still challenging due to blue-light sensitivity of all opsins. Here we report BiPOLES, an optogenetic tool for potent neuronal excitation and inhibition with light of two different wavelengths. BiPOLES enables sensitive, reliable dual-color neuronal spiking and silencing with single- or two-photon excitation, optical tuning of the membrane voltage, and independent optogenetic control of two neuronal populations using a second, blue-light sensitive opsin. The utility of BiPOLES is demonstrated in worms, flies, mice and ferrets.
Background: To test the impact of urethral sphincter length (USL) and anatomic variants of prostatic apex (Lee-type classification) in preoperative multiparametric magnet resonance imaging (mpMRI) on mid-term continence in prostate cancer patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP). Methods: We relied on an institutional tertiary-care database to identify patients who underwent RP between 03/2018 and 12/2019 with preoperative mpMRI and data available on mid-term (>6 months post-surgery) urinary continence, defined as usage 0/1 (-safety) pad/24 h. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to test for predictor status of USL and prostatic apex variants, defined in mpMRI measurements. Results: Of 68 eligible patients, rate of mid-term urinary continence was 81% (n = 55). Median coronal (15.1 vs. 12.5 mm) and sagittal (15.4 vs. 11.1 mm) USL were longer in patients reporting urinary continence in mid-term follow-up (both p < 0.01). No difference was recorded for prostatic apex variants distribution (Lee-type) between continent vs. incontinent patients (p = 0.4). In separate multivariable logistic regression models, coronal (odds ratio (OR): 1.35) and sagittal (OR: 1.67) USL, but not Lee-type, were independent predictors for mid-term continence. Conclusion: USL, but not apex anatomy, in preoperative mpMRI was associated with higher rates of urinary continence at mid-term follow-up.
This paper presents an imaging radar system for structural health monitoring (SHM) of wind turbine blades. The imaging radar system developed here is based on two frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar sensors with a high output power of 30 dBm. They have been developed for the frequency bands of 24,05 GHz-24,25 GHz and 33.4 GHz-36.0 GHz, respectively. Following the successful proof of damage detection and localization in laboratory conditions, we present here the installation of the sensor system at the tower of a 2 MW wind energy plant at 95 m above ground. The realization of the SHM-system will be introduced including the sensor system, the data acquisition framework and the signal processing procedures. We have achieved an imaging of the rotor blades using inverse synthetic aperture radar techniques under changing environmental and operational condition. On top of that, it was demonstrated that the front wall and back wall radar echo can be extracted from the measured signals demonstrating the full penetration of wind turbine blades during operation.