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Language, time, and diversity:Ghanaian and Syrian newcomers' perceptions of inequalities and opportunities in Germany's tracked secondary-school system
No full textIn Germany, newcomer students are usually directed toward lower-track schools due to perceived language deficiencies, commonly attending preparatory classes primarily offered in such schools. This tracking phenomenon raises questions about educational inequalities and institutional discrimination. Drawing on interview data from Syrian students in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg and ethnographic data on transnationally mobile Ghanaian youth in Hamburg, this paper investigates how newcomer students perceive their schooling in relation to their German language acquisition. Two themes emerge from our analysis: 'language and time', which captures how students experience preparatory classes as a waste of time while recognizing the linguistic benefits of slower-paced learning environments; and 'language and diversity', which reflects how students value being surrounded by others who are learning German or share similar migration experiences. We analyze these perceptions through the lenses of institutional discrimination and temporalities, and belonging and Spracherleben (the lived experience of language), respectively, showing how students simultaneously question and appreciate aspects of their school placement. The paper thus argues for conceptual complexity, whereby experiences of inequalities and opportunities can co-exist in migrant newcomers' educational trajectories
Parental Education Predicts Longitudinal IQ Trajectories in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome:A Three-Cohort European Study
No full textBackground22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a genetic disorder characterised by a wide range of physical, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms. Current knowledge on 22q11DS highlights considerable variation in cognitive outcomes, but the role of environmental factors in shaping these trajectories over time remains poorly understood.AimsThis study investigates how environmental factors contribute to variability in intelligence quotient (IQ) among individuals with 22q11DS across three European cohorts. By examining these influences over time, the research aims to identify potential drivers of IQ differences and uncover modifiable factors that may support improved cognitive outcomes in individuals with 22q11DS.MethodsData were collected from 297 individuals with 22q11DS across three European cohorts. Cognitive assessments included full-scale IQ (FSIQ), verbal IQ (VIQ) and performance IQ (PIQ). Environmental measures encompassed parental education, sleep, stress and substance use, gathered through questionnaires and interviews. Baseline associations between environmental measures and IQ were evaluated with ANOVA at the first assessment. To examine within-person IQ change across three visits, we used linear mixed-effects models.ResultsWe found a significant decline in FSIQ, VIQ and PIQ over time, with linear trends observed for all three measures. Parental education, particularly the father's education, explained a significant proportion of the variance of all IQ-based measures.ConclusionsParental education emerged as a key predictor of IQ, suggesting that socioeconomic factors contribute to cognitive performance variability in individuals with 22q11DS. Even in high-penetrance genetic variants, such as the 22q11.2 deletion, environmental factors and gene-environment interactions may make significant contributions to the severity of phenotypes
Patients' Attitude toward Less Frequent Surveillance of Low-Risk Pancreatic Cysts:A Multicenter European Cohort Study
No full textBackground: Recent studies show that low-risk pancreatic cysts may require less frequent monitoring. Future guidelines will likely adapt their recommendations accordingly. Our goal was to explore the willingness of individuals with a low-risk pancreatic cyst to undergo less frequent surveillance and to identify associated characteristics with such willingness. Methods: This is a side study of the international PACYFIC study, which prospectively collects data on cyst surveillance, including questionnaires to assess participants’ attitude toward surveillance. Individuals with low-risk cysts at baseline, without given standardized information by the study protocol, were enrolled. Their responses to the baseline question, “Would you prefer less frequent surveillance? Yes/No,” were correlated with baseline characteristics using multivariable logistic regression, namely, age, country of residence, symptoms, medical and family history, time since first cyst detection, and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale score. Results: Of the 215 participants included from the Netherlands (n = 185) and Italy (n = 30), only 47 (22%) were willing to undergo less surveillance. Characteristics positively associated with this willingness were older age (odds ratio [OR] 1.87 per 10 y, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.15–3.04) and Italian residency (OR 16.35, 95% CI: 5.65–47.31). A medical history of cancer was negatively associated (OR 0.28, 95% CI: 0.09–0.90). No other associations were observed. Conclusion: Most participants appear unwilling to undergo less frequent cyst surveillance. Older age and residing in Italy were associated with a greater willingness toward less rigorous surveillance, while a history of cancer did the opposite. Identifying which individuals are hesitant to undergo less frequent surveillance may help clinicians tailor their counseling and can support implementation of future guideline with fewer surveillance recommendations. Highlights: Most low-risk individuals were reluctant toward less frequent pancreatic cyst surveillance.Older age and residency in Italy were associated with a higher willingness.A medical history of cancer was associated with an unwillingness.Standardized patient information may increase the willingness, but such information has yet to be developed.</p
The role of the gut microbiota in chemotherapy response, efficacy and toxicity:a systematic review
No full textThere is growing evidence for the relationship between the gut microbiota and the effect of chemotherapy. Therefore, this systematic review provides an overview of the current evidence on the effects of the gut microbiota on chemotherapy response, efficacy and toxicity in patients with cancer. PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE were searched to collect studies on cancer patients treated with chemotherapy that evaluated tumor response, efficacy, or toxicity, and included microbiome analysis through fecal samples. A total of 22 studies were included. Bacteria associated with better response in lung tumors were, amongst others, a relatively higher abundance of Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus casseliflavus, and Bacteroides, while bacteria linked to response in gastrointestinal tumors included, among others, higher relative abundances of Lactobacillaceae, Bacteroides fragilis, and Roseburia faecis. Distinctive bacterial taxa were associated with clinical therapy, although causality was not proven. Targeting the gut microbiota during chemotherapy is considered to be a promising approach to enhance the response and to prevent toxicity of chemotherapy
A compact triaxial active vibration isolator for cryogenic suspended interferometry
No full textSuspended interferometry at cryogenic temperatures down to 10-20 K requires conductive cooling in addition to radiative cooling techniques, which is challenging due to vibrations emanating from the ground and direct force perturbations from the cryogenic system potentially acting back on the seismically isolated mirrors. In this work, the passive and active isolation performance of a triaxial cryogenic active vibration isolator designed to operate at temperatures below 10 K and ultra-high vacuum conditions with pressures below 10(-9) mbar is investigated. While passive isolation of ground motion is effective for frequencies above 6.5 Hz, active suppression of motion and force disturbances can be achieved between 2.46 Hz and 21.4 Hz leading to a reduction of root-mean-square motion by one order of magnitude in the active control band. The performance limits of the current system are evaluated and compared with requirements of ETpathfinder, a prototype facility for investigating cryogenic technologies that enable the target low-frequency sensitivity improvement of the planned Einstein Telescope compared to current terrestrial gravitational-wave detectors
Detecting and Triaging Victims of Mass Casualty Incidents with First Responders and Drones
No full textIn mass casualty incidents, following natural or man-made disasters or incidents, often a high number of victims must be cared for by only a limited number of first responders. As time is crucial in order to increase survival probabilities for the victims, technology advances like drones equipped with cameras and sensors could help detect and triage victims. Then, first responders arriving at the scene could immediately start treatment. In this work, we propose an agent-based simulation model and analyse the expected potential of using drones in addition to first responders. The results show that the use of drones can be especially beneficial for severely injured patients
The FAIR AOP roadmap for 2025:Advancing findability, accessibility, interoperability, and re-usability of adverse outcome pathways
No full textAdverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs) describe the mechanistic interactions of biological entities with a stressor (chemical, nanomaterial, radiation, virus, etc.) that produce an adverse response. How these interactions and associations are catalogued contributes to our ability to understand mechanistic effects and apply this knowledge to New Approach Methods (NAMs) that have the potential to reduce animal testing in chemical, biological, and material safety assessments. Making AOP data align with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) metadata standards relies on technical tools that implement and process AOP data and related metadata, and the establishment of coordinated and consensus computational bioinformatic methods. Herein current efforts in addressing the FAIRification of AOP mechanistic data and metadata, as well as the international, collaborative efforts to document, and improve the (re)-use and reliability of AOP information will be described. These coordinated efforts contribute to the establishment of a directive for the processing and storing of standardized AOP mechanistic data in the AOP-Wiki repository, and application of these data to next generation risk assessment
Plasma Sphingomyelins as Biomarkers for Diabetic Retinal Neurodegeneration:The Maastricht Study
No full textObjective: Sphingomyelin (SM) may play a role in the early stages of diabetic retinopathy. Early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy is crucial for preventing the irreversible vision loss associated with this condition. This study aimed to examine the link between SM and key indicators of diabetic retinopathy, namely retinal neurodegeneration, including corneal nerve measures, retinal layer thickness, and mean retinal sensitivity. Understanding these relationships may help identify early biomarkers and therapeutic targets for preventing or slowing the progression of diabetic retinopathy. Design: We used data from the Maastricht Study, a large population-based observational cohort with oversampling of individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Subjects: In this study, SM levels were examined across 3 study groups: (1) individuals with normal glucose metabolism; (2) prediabetes; and (3) T2DM. Methods: Fasting plasma SM levels were measured using the nuclear magnetic resonance platform from Nightingale Health. Main Outcomes and Measures: Linear regression analysis was conducted to assess the link between total plasma SM (determinant) and indicators of retinal neurodegeneration (outcomes), including corneal nerve measures, mean retinal sensitivity, and retinal thickness, while adjusting for potential confounders affecting SM metabolism. Results: Among the 3598 individuals examined, the average plasma levels of total SM were significantly lower in individuals with T2DM (P < 0.001) than those with prediabetes and the control group, even after stratification by lipid-modifying medication usage. In regression analysis, after full adjustment, lower levels of SM were associated with reduced mean retinal sensitivity: ß (95% confidence interval) for the right eye (n = 1934), 0.088 (0.012, 0.164) and for the left eye (n = 1925), 0.111 (0.033, 0.189). However, no significant correlations were found with other indicators of retinal neurodegeneration. Conclusions: Lower levels of plasma SMs were linked to reduced retinal sensitivity in individuals with diabetes, indicating their involvement in early neurodegenerative alterations in the diabetic retina. These findings suggest that SMs could be explored as potential biomarkers for detecting diabetic retinal neurodegeneration at an early stage of diabetes. However, further research is essential to clarify the biological pathways involved and to evaluate the effectiveness of SMs as clinical biomarkers. Financial Disclosure(s): The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article
Optimal timing of organs-at-risk-sparing adaptive radiation therapy for head-and-neck cancer under re-planning resource constraints
No full textBackground and purpose: Prior work on adaptive organ-at-risk (OAR)-sparing radiation therapy has typically reported outcomes based on fixed-number or fixed-interval re-planning, which represent one-size-fits-all approaches and do not account for the variable progression of individual patients’ toxicities. The purpose of this study was to determine the personalized optimal timing of re-planning in adaptive OAR-sparing radiation therapy, considering limited re-planning resources, for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Materials and methods: A novel Markov decision process (MDP) model was developed to determine optimal timing of re-planning based on the patient's expected toxicity, characterized by normal tissue complication probability (NTCP), for four toxicities. The MDP parameters were derived from a dataset comprising 52 HNC patients treated between 2007 and 2013. Kernel density estimation was used to smooth the sample distributions. Optimal re-planning strategies were obtained when the permissible number of re-plans throughout the treatment was limited to 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Results: The MDP (optimal) solution recommended re-planning when the difference between planned and actual NTCPs (?NTCP) was greater than or equal to 1%, 2%, 2%, and 4% at treatment fractions 10, 15, 20, and 25, respectively, exhibiting a temporally increasing pattern. The ?NTCP thresholds remained constant across the number of re-planning allowances (1, 2, and 3). Conclusion: In limited-resource settings that impeded high-frequency adaptations, ?NTCP thresholds obtained from an MDP model could derive optimal timing of re-planning to minimize the likelihood of treatment toxicities
Evaluation of a comprehensive set of normal tissue complication probability models for patients with head and neck cancer in an international cohort
No full textBackground/purpose: Normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) models can be used to guide radiation therapy (RT) decisions by estimating side-effect risks pretreatment to minimize (late) side-effects. Recently, a comprehensive individual toxicity risk (CITOR) profile of NTCP models addressing common side-effects in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients was developed. This study investigates the generalizability of these models in an international setting, with different treatment approaches and side-effect assessments, promoting their integration into more widespread clinical practice. Materials/methods: From a prospective registry study, 407 HNC patients were included who were treated with definitive RT with or without systemic therapy between 2015 and 2022. NTCP models predicting dysphagia, aspiration, xerostomia, sticky saliva, taste loss, speech problems, oral pain, and fatigue at 6 and 12 months after RT were evaluated. All side-effects were patient-rated using the MDASI-HN, except dysphagia which was reported by clinicians using the PSS-HN diet normalcy score. Model performance was appraised by discrimination (area under the curve [AUC]) and calibration. Results: CITOR models showed moderate-to-high performance in this cohort (mean AUC = 0.67[range = 0.55-0.80], moderate-to-good calibration). NTCP models for dysphagia, xerostomia, sticky saliva, and fatigue were the top performing models. Models for aspiration, taste loss and speech problems performed moderately well, which was partly explained by lower incidences. Conclusion: Despite differences between the CITOR development and this evaluation cohort, including use of different side-effect scoring systems, most models exhibited moderate-to-high performance. This demonstrated that the dose-effect relations were generalizable. Therefore, this study supports further integration of these NTCP models in clinical practice