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Ex vivo human skin models are valuable tools in skin research due to their physiological relevance. Traditionally, standard cultivation is performed in a cell culture incubator with a defined temperature of 37 °C and a specific atmosphere enriched with CO2 to ensure media stability. Maintaining the model under these specific conditions limits its flexibility in assessing exposures to which the skin is exposed to in daily life, for example changes in atmospheric compositions. In this study we demonstrated that the foreskin-derived skin model can be successfully cultured at room temperature outside a CO2 incubator using a CO2-independent, serum-free media. Over a cultivation period of three days, the integrity of the tissue and the preservation of immune cells is well maintained, indicating the models stability and resilience under the given conditions. Exposing our Medical University of Graz - human Organotypic Skin Explant Culture (MUG-hOSEC) model to cytotoxic and inflammatory stimuli results in responses analyzable within the supernatant. Besides the common analysis of released proteins upon treatment, such as cytokines and enzymes, we have included extracellular vesicle to obtain a more comprehensive picture of cell communication.

The aim of this study was to assess whether adolescents following anorectal malformation repair have a decreased cardiorespiratory performance capacity and impaired motor skills. All eligible children treated for ARMs between 2000 and 2014 were invited to participate in a prospective study consisting of a clinical examination, evaluation of Bowel function and Quality of Life, spirometry, spiroergometry and assessment of the motor activity. The results were compared to a healthy age- and sex-matched control group. There was no statistically significant difference in height, weight, BMI, muscle mass or body fat percentage between the study and the control group. Nine out of 18 patients (50%) had an excellent functional outcome with a normal Bowel Function Score. Spirometry revealed no significant differences between ARM patients and controls, four patients showed a ventilation disorder. Spiroergometry revealed a significantly lower relative performance capacity and the overall rating of the motor activity test showed significantly decreased grades in ARM patients. ARM patients were affected by an impaired cardiopulmonary function and decreased motor abilities. Long-term examinations consisting of routine locomotor function evaluation and spiroergometry are advisable to detect impaired cardiopulmonary function and to prevent a progression of associated complications and related impaired quality of life.

Lignocellulosic biomass is composed of three major biopolymers: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Analytical tools capable of quickly detecting both glycan and lignin deconstruction are needed to support the development and characterization of efficient enzymes/enzyme cocktails. Previously we have described nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry-based assays for the analysis of glycosyl hydrolase and most recently an assay for lignin modifying enzymes. Here we integrate these two assays into a single multiplexed assay against both classes of enzymes and use it to characterize crude commercial enzyme mixtures. Application of our multiplexed platform based on nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry enabled us to characterize crude mixtures of laccase enzymes from fungi Agaricus bisporus (Ab) and Myceliopthora thermophila (Mt) revealing activity on both carbohydrate and aromatic substrates. Using time-series analysis we determined that crude laccase from Ab has the higher GH activity and that laccase from Mt has the higher activity against our lignin model compound. Inhibitor studies showed a significant reduction in Mt GH activity under low oxygen conditions and increased activities in the presence of vanillin (common GH inhibitor). Ultimately, this assay can help to discover mixtures of enzymes that could be incorporated into biomass pretreatments to deconstruct diverse components of lignocellulosic biomass.

In the early stages of an outbreak, the term pandemic can be used to communicate about infectious disease risk, particularly by those who wish to encourage a large-scale public health response. However, the term lacks a widely accepted quantitative definition. We show that, under alternate quantitative definitions of pandemic, an epidemiological metapopulation model produces different estimates of the probability of a pandemic. Critically, we show that using different definitions alters the projected effects of key parameters-such as inter-regional travel rates, degree of pre-existing immunity, and heterogeneity in transmission rates between regions-on the risk of a pandemic. Our analysis provides a foundation for understanding the scientific importance of precise language when discussing pandemic risk, illustrating how alternative definitions affect the conclusions of modelling studies. This serves to highlight that those working on pandemic preparedness must remain alert to the variability in the use of the term pandemic, and provide specific quantitative definitions when undertaking one of the types of analysis that we show to be sensitive to the pandemic definition.

Gut hyperpermeability can be caused by either apoptosis of the intestinal epithelium or altered status, permeability or porosity of tight junctions. This project aims to elucidate these mechanisms in the early phase of sepsis. Eighteen male wild type mice were randomized to two groups. All mice received one single gavage of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) dextran 30 min before intervention. One group (n = 10) underwent cecal ligation and puncture to induce sepsis. The other group (n = 8) was sham operated. Septic animals exhibited significantly increased permeability for FITC 8 h post-operatively. Significantly increased serum interleukin-6, tumor-necrosis-factor-alpha and interleukin-1-beta confirmed sepsis. Septic animals showed significant bowel wall inflammation of ileum and colon samples. PCR revealed significantly increased expression of claudin-2 and decreased expressions of claudin-4, tight-junction-protein-1 and occludin-1 resembling increased permeability of tight junctions. However, these alterations could not be confirmed at the protein level. Light microscopy revealed significant dilatation of intercellular spaces at the basal sections of intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) in septic animals confirmed by increased intercellular spaces at the level of tight junctions and adherens junctions in electron microscopy (TEM). In small angle X-ray scattering no increase in number or size of nanopores could be shown in the bowel wall. HOECHST staining and PCR of ileum samples for apoptosis markers proofed no relevant differences in intestinal epithelial cell apoptosis between the groups. Intestinal hyperpermeability in septic animals was most likely caused by alterations of the intercellular contacts and not by apoptosis or increased size/number of nanopores of intestinal epithelial cells in this murine model of early sepsis.

With the rapid development of short-pulse intense laser sources, studies of matter under extreme irradiation conditions enter further unexplored regimes. In addition, an application of X-ray Free-Electron Lasers (XFELs) delivering intense femtosecond X-ray pulses, allows to investigate sample evolution in IR pump - X-ray probe experiments with an unprecedented time resolution. Here we present a detailed study of the periodic plasma created from the colloidal crystal. Both experimental data and theory modeling show that the periodicity in the sample survives to a large extent the extreme excitation and shock wave propagation inside the colloidal crystal. This feature enables probing the excited crystal, using the powerful Bragg peak analysis, in contrast to the conventional studies of dense plasma created from bulk samples for which probing with Bragg diffraction technique is not possible. X-ray diffraction measurements of excited colloidal crystals may then lead towards a better understanding of matter phase transitions under extreme irradiation conditions.

The UCSC Cancer Genomics Browser (https://genome-cancer.ucsc.edu) offers interactive visualization and exploration of TCGA genomic, phenotypic, and clinical data, as produced by the Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network. Researchers can explore the impact of genomic alterations on phenotypes by visualizing gene and protein expression, copy number, DNA methylation, somatic mutation and pathway inference data alongside clinical features, Pan-Cancer subtype classifications and genomic biomarkers. Integrated Kaplan-Meier survival analysis helps investigators to assess survival stratification by any of the information.