Functionalization of screw implants with superelastic structured Nitinol anchoring elements

Background Demographic change is leading to an increase in the number of osteoporotic patients, so a rethink is required in implantology in order to be able to guarantee adequate anchoring stability in the bone. The functional modification of conventional standard screw implants using superelastic, structured Ti6Al4V anchoring elements promises great potential for increasing anchoring stability. Methods For this purpose, conventional screw implants were mechanically machined and extended so that structured-superelastic-positionable-Ti6Al4V anchoring elements could be used. The novel implants were investigated with three tests. The setup of the anchoring elements was investigated in CT studies in an artificial bone. In a subsequent simplified handling test, the handling of the functional samples was evaluated under surgical conditions. The anchorage stability compared to standard screw implants was investigated in a final pullout test according to ASTM F543—the international for the standard specification and test methods for metallic medical bone screws. Results The functionalization of conventional screw implants with structured superelastic Ti6Al4V anchoring elements is technically realizable. It was demonstrated that the anchoring elements can be set up in the artificial bone without any problems. The anchorage mechanism is easy to handle under operating conditions. The first simplified handling test showed that at the current point of the investigations, the anchoring elements have no negative influence on the surgical procedure (especially under the focus of screw implantation). Compared to conventional standard screws, more mechanical work is required to remove the functional patterns completely from the bone. Conclusion In summary, it was shown that conventional standard screw implants can be functionalized with Ti6Al4V-structured NiTi anchoring elements and the new type of screws are suitable for orthopedic and neurosurgical use. A first biomechanical test showed that the anchoring stability could be increased by the anchoring elements.

GeneTonic: an R/Bioconductor package for streamlining the interpretation of RNA-seq data

Background The interpretation of results from transcriptome profiling experiments via RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) can be a complex task, where the essential information is distributed among different tabular and list formats—normalized expression values, results from differential expression analysis, and results from functional enrichment analyses. A number of tools and databases are widely used for the purpose of identification of relevant functional patterns, yet often their contextualization within the data and results at hand is not straightforward, especially if these analytic components are not combined together efficiently. Results We developed the software package, which serves as a comprehensive toolkit for streamlining the interpretation of functional enrichment analyses, by fully leveraging the information of expression values in a differential expression context. is implemented in R and Shiny, leveraging packages that enable HTML-based interactive visualizations for executing drilldown tasks seamlessly, viewing the data at a level of increased detail. is integrated with the core classes of existing Bioconductor workflows, and can accept the output of many widely used tools for pathway analysis, making this approach applicable to a wide range of use cases. Users can effectively navigate interlinked components (otherwise available as flat text or spreadsheet tables), bookmark features of interest during the exploration sessions, and obtain at the end a tailored HTML report, thus combining the benefits of both interactivity and reproducibility. Conclusion is distributed as an R package in the Bioconductor project (https://bioconductor.org/packages/GeneTonic/) under the MIT license. Offering both bird’s-eye views of the components of transcriptome data analysis and the detailed inspection of single genes, individual signatures, and their relationships, aims at simplifying the process of interpretation of complex and compelling RNA-seq datasets for many researchers with different expertise profiles.

Sex differences in neuronal systems function and behaviour: beyond a single diagnosis in autism spectrum disorders

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that is associated with functional brain alterations that underlie the expression of behaviour. Males are diagnosed up to four times more than females, and sex differences have been identified in memory, cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, and social communication. Unfortunately, there exists a lack of information on the sex-dependent mechanisms of ASD, as well as biological markers to distinguish sex-specific symptoms in ASD. This can often result in a standardized diagnosis for individuals across the spectrum, despite significant differences in the various ASD subtypes. Alterations in neuronal connectivity and oscillatory activity, such as is observed in ASD, are highly coupled to behavioural states. Yet, despite the well-identified sexual dimorphisms that exist in ASD, these functional patterns have rarely been analyzed in the context of sex differences or symptomology. This review summarizes alterations in neuronal oscillatory function in ASD, discusses the age, region, symptom and sex-specific differences that are currently observed across the spectrum, and potential targets for regulating neuronal oscillatory activity in ASD. The need to identify sex-specific biomarkers, in order to facilitate specific diagnostic criteria and allow for more targeted therapeutic approaches for ASD will also be discussed.

Seasonal Variations Affect The Ecosystem Functioning And Microbial Assembly Processes In Plantation Forests

Background: While afforestation mitigates climate concerns, the impact of afforestation on soil microbial compositions, ecological assembly processes, and multiple soil functions (multifunctionality) in afforested areas remains unclear. The Xiong'an New Area plantation forests (Pinus and Sophora forests) were selected to examine the effects of plantation types in four contrasting seasons on soil microbiomes.Results: We evaluated three functional categories (nutrient stocks, organic matter decomposition, and microbial functional genes) of multifunctionality, and the average (net) multifunctionality was quantified. The results showed that net soil multifunctionality as a broad function did not change seasonally, unlike other narrow functional categories. Bacterial communities were deterministically (variable selection and homogenous selection) structured, whereas the stochastic process of dispersal limitation was mainly responsible for the assembly and turnover of fungal and protist communities. Additionally, we showed that winter triggered an abrupt transition in the bacterial community assembly from deterministic to stochastic processes in Pinus forests that was closely associated with a reduction in the bacterial Shannon diversity, with functional patterns of a high level of nutrient cycling (nutrient stocks and organic matter decomposition). Conclusions: Overall, the present study contributes local-ecosystem prospects to model the behavior of soil biota seasonally and their implied effects on soil functioning and microbial assembly processes in plantation forests.

Single-Cell Clonal Tracking in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Reveals Time Dependent and Distinct Functional Patterns in Traceable Donor T Cell Clones

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) is the only curative treatment option for various malignant hematological diseases. The therapeutic effect of alloHSCT is a long-lasting graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effect of the transferred graft. T cells are important mediators of GvL and the longitudinal tracking of T-cell clones from donor to recipient is of particular interest in the setting of alloHSCT as this might provide further insight into mechanisms leading to survival and expansion of particular clones. In a broader sense, we used the unique setting of alloHSCT to study survival and expansion of mature T-cell clones after transfer into an immune cell depleted and allogeneic patient. We used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) to integrate immune subset delineation, clone identification and transcriptome information of about 35500 single T cells in peripheral blood of 14 paired donor-recipient samples in four alloHSCT pairs. Donor samples were collected before and after treatment with Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factor (GCSF), and recipient samples were collected on days +90 and +180 post-transplant. Looking at common diversity scores of pooled donor versus pooled recipient time points we observe an expected decrease of TCR diversity after transplantation (median inv. Simpson's 379 in donor vs. 20 in recipient samples, p=0.011, Figure 1A). On single cell level, we observe a substantial decrease of unique T-cell clones after transplantation compared to donor samples, which in return means that certain TCR clones markedly expand, contributing to a skewing of the TCR repertoire in the post-transplant course. The majority of these cells represent CD8 effector memory T cells. Our main interest was a better understanding of traceable and persisting T-cell clones. In a first step, we looked at the overall clonal overlap between time points of the different donor-recipient pairs, using only combined TCR alpha and beta chain information to define specific T-cell clones. We find the highest overlaps of T-cell clones between time points within individuals (e.g., Morisita score 0.91 between preGCSF and postGCSF of donor 16 and Morisita score 0.65 between days +90 and +180 of recipient 16, Figure 1B). Additionally, we demonstrate an inter-individual overlap between donors and their respective recipients in all pairs on single cell level (Figure 1C). Next, we compared the differential gene expression of traceable and non-traceable T cell clones and found that the traceable T cell clones exhibit a distinct transcriptional program, characterized by upregulation of genes related to T cell proliferation and chemotaxis as well as antigen presentation, while housekeeping functions such as translation are downregulated. In order to examine the dynamic changes of the T-cell transcriptome, we looked at the differential gene expression at the consecutive time points of pooled traceable clones in all pairs. This shows an induction of an activation pattern during the donor-recipient transfer and post-transplant phase involving genes related to the cell cycle and graft-versus-host disease (Figure 1D). Phenotype analysis via antibody-derived tags accordingly revealed an upregulation of activation markers in the recipients. To our knowledge, this is the first time that longitudinal inter-individual (donor-to-recipient) overlap of single-cell TCR alpha/beta clones is demonstrated in the setting of alloHSCT revealing time point-dependent and distinct functional patterns in traceable donor T cell clones. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Penack: Neovii: Honoraria; MSD: Honoraria; Incyte: Research Funding; Priothera: Consultancy; Therakos: Honoraria; Gilead: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria; Pfizer: Honoraria; Takeda: Research Funding; Astellas: Honoraria; Jazz: Honoraria; Omeros: Consultancy; Shionogi: Consultancy. Bullinger: Amgen: Honoraria; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Hexal: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy, Honoraria; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria; Astellas: Honoraria; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Bayer: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria; Menarini: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Sanofi: Honoraria. Na: Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Shire/Takeda: Honoraria, Research Funding; Octapharma: Honoraria, Research Funding.

Family functioning and stroke: Family members’ perspectives

Background: Stroke survivors often experience permanent or temporal physical and psychological stroke impairments. As a result, stroke survivors are often discharged to recover in their home environments and are cared for mostly by family members. Additionally, caregiving roles are often assumed without any formal training or preparation whatsoever. This can transform the family’s functional patterns due to adjustments that are made to accommodate the caregiving needs.Objectives: To explore the experiences and influence of stroke on families and on family functioning.Method: Explorative descriptive qualitative research design through the use of in-depth interviews were employed as the means of data collection. The sample size was eight (8) family members and was guided by the saturation point. Data was thematically analysed.Results: Four themes emerged from the analysis: 1) reduced interactions with family members due to communication barriers, 2) the influence of stroke on family relationships, 3) emotional engagement in caring for a family member with a stroke and 4) financial implications of stroke on family functioning. This study found that stroke can influence the family functioning negatively as family members may be forced to change their functional patterns. However, some family members reported positive experiences, they developed a supportive structure to accommodate the new life of the stroke survivor.Conclusion: Using the McMaster’s model of family functioning, this study found that stroke is a threat to the six dimensions of family functioning: 1) problem-solving, 2) communication, 3) roles, 4) affective responsiveness, 5) affective involvement, and 6) behaviour control.

PSI-B-22 Analysis of the development of high-quality corpus luteum of the ovaries in recipient heifers

For effective embryo transplants, it is important to select among the repair heifers recipients with high-quality corpus luteum, corresponding in morphometric parameters to the development of 7–8 days of the estrous cycle. It is known that ipsilateral embryo transplants are more effective than contralateral ones. Therefore, for the effective organization of groups of recipients, it is necessary to have a prognosis for the development of corpus luteum differentially on the left or right ovary. The data on the ratio of these indicators have been insufficiently studied. To resolve this issue, sexually mature repair heifers of the Ukrainian red dairy breed (n = 201) were rectally examined during spontaneous (n = 92) and induced (n = 109) cycles (first time on day 0, again - on 7–8 day). In the group of heifers with a spontaneous cycle, it was found that after ovulation of the follicle on the right ovary, high-quality yellow bodies are formed in 71.4% of individuals, and premature lysis of the yellow bodies was found in 28.6%. On the left ovary, respectively -58.3% and 41.7%. In the induced group of recipients, after ovulation, high-quality yellow bodies were formed on the right ovary in 65.2% of individuals, prematurely lysed yellow bodies - in 34.8%; on the left, respectively - 55.8 and 44.2%. The study found that the right pair gonad is functionally dominant in repair heifers. In induced cycles, premature lysis of the corpus luteum (more by 6.28%; P < 0.001) occurs more often than spontaneous ones. The data obtained reveal the morphological and functional patterns of development of high-quality corpus luteum of the ovaries, the presence of which undoubtedly increases the level of engraftment of preimplantation embryos in cattle.

Impact of Key Marketing Tools on Global Car Market Development

The purpose of the proposed study was to identify the functional patterns of influence of the marketing tools on sales of cars on the global market, to be able to predict sales volumes in the future, taking into account certain marketing tools that the company may use in a particular international market. For the purpose of this research the method of correlationregression analysis is used to construct the corresponding economic and mathematical models of impact on the sales volumes of various instruments of product, price, promotion policy, etc. Using the models offered in the article, the feasibility of introducing certain measures can be determined, when entering new markets in order to increase car sales. Each instrument to which potential buyers are sensitive determines the effect of its use. Considering this effect, budgets can be set up for appropriate action.

Taxonomic and Functional Patterns of Benthic Communities in Southern Temperate Tidal Flats

Coastal ecosystems are vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances which can cause loss of benthic macrofauna and their ecosystem functioning. Despite the importance of functional assessments for conservation and management, knowledge gaps persist on the generality of how the diversity and functional traits of benthic communities influence ecosystem functioning. We investigated eight sites in three different habitats across ~1,260 km of coastline, to evaluate patterns between taxonomic and functional diversity of benthic macrofauna, and the relationship between benthic macrofauna, functional traits and environmental conditions. A total of 74 benthic macrofauna taxa were identified. Significant differences across sites and season were found for metrics based on taxonomic and functional traits. Multivariate analysis revealed spatial-temporal differences, which were more evident based on taxa than functional traits. Functional diversity also showed spatial and temporal differences and was positively correlated with the number of taxa. The dominant functional traits modalities were deposit feeders, with large (>20 mm) body size, burrowers, bioirrigators, deeper than 3 cm in sediments, and irregular morphology. Novel Generalized Linear Latent Variable Models (GLLVM) uncovered several site-dependent relationships between taxa, traits and environmental conditions. Functional redundancy was lowest in a highly modified lagoon, and highest in a more pristine embayment. The outcomes from this study showed site-dependent patterns of benthic communities based on either taxonomic or functional metrics, highlighting that both perspectives are complementary to obtain a holistic understanding of the functioning in marine sediments under environmental change.