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In many virtual reality applications the movement is done with simple pointing and teleportation to the designated location. On the other side there is a need of combining treadmill walking with virtual reality environments to train participants in demanding but controlled walking scenarios. In this demonstration we therefore combined the VR capabilities of the Oculus Quest system with a mechanical treadmill in order to create a framework for cognitive and motoric testing and training. A test subject has the control over increasing and decreasing the speed at any given time during the experiment. A supervisor can actively communicate with the test subject with simple lines of text and also has the means to intervene in case of emergency., ICAT-EGVE 2021 - International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence and Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments - Posters and Demos, Demo, 9, 10, N. Fischer and M. Schellenbach, CCS Concepts: Human-centered computing --> Virtual reality

An increasing number of older patients are suffering from aggressive lymphoma. Effective and more tolerable treatment regimens are urgently needed for this growing patient population. Patients with aggressive lymphoma not eligible for anthracycline based first line therapy or intensive salvage regimens were treated with the rituximab bendamustine lenalidomide (R BL) regimen (rituximab 375 mg/m(2) day 1 bendamustine 70 mg/m(2) d 1 2 lenalidomide 10 mg d 1 21) for six cycles every 4 weeks. Forty one patients with a median age of 75 (range 40 94) years were enrolled: 33 patients had substantial co morbidities. 13 patients were not eligible for anthracycline based first line chemotherapy 28 patients had relapsed/refractory disease. The primary endpoint overall response was achieved by 25 (61) patients (95 confidence interval 45 76). Grade = 3 toxicity comprised haematological (59) skin (15) constitutional (15) and neurological (12) events. 9 patients died during trial treatment: 5 from lymphoma progression 2 from toxicity 2 with sudden death. After a median follow up of 25·9 (interquartile range 20·4 31·6) months 13 patients were still alive. Median overall survival was 14·5 months. In conclusion R BL can be considered a treatment option for elderly patients with treatment naïve or relapsed/refractory aggressive lymphoma not eligible for standard aggressive regimens.

Wie denken BerlinerInnen über die Zukunft ihrer Stadt? Was sind ihre Wünsche, was mögliche Zukunftsängste? Studierende des Masterstudiums Zukunftsforschung haben Antworten auf diese Fragen gesucht und sich in verschiedenen Milieus der Stadt aufgehalten, um – angelehnt an den ethnographischen Ansatz der teilnehmenden Beobachtung – mit den Menschen vor Ort intensive Gespräche zu führen. Sechs Gruppen standen dabei im Fokus: die Gäste und BetreiberInnen alteingesessener Kneipen in Berliner Szenekiezen, TaxifahrerInnen, BewohnerInnen eines Mehrfamilienhauses in Berlin-Pankow, homosexuelle Männer, VerkäuferInnen des Obdachlosenmagazins »Straßenfeger« sowie junge UnternehmerInnen aus dem Bereich der »Social Startups«. Herausgekommen sind einzigartige Blicke auf die Zukunft Berlins, die aus teilweise vernachlässigten Perspektiven vielfältige Hoffnungen, Erwartungen und Ängste von BerlinerInnen zeigen. Die »Gespräche« zeigen, dass die von ihrer jeweils eigenen Geschichte und sozialen Gegenwart geprägten »subkulturellen« Zukunftsbilder eine elementare Rolle für die Wahrnehmung von Berlin spielen. Zentral in allen Zukunftsvorstellungen ist dabei die Auseinandersetzung mit dem zukünftigen Zusammenleben unter den Bedingungen eines sich stetig wandelnden sozialen Umfelds. Das Konzept und die Umsetzung entstand im Wintersemester 2014/15 in einer Übung im »Einsatzfeld Gesellschaft« des Masterstudiengangs Zukunftsforschung an der Freien Universität Berlin, geleitet von Björn Theis.

A 48-year-old woman with diabetes mellitus (type IIb) had to be treated with insulin because of poor blood-sugar control. Infiltrates at the sight of injection occurred with two different porcine insulin preparations, necessitating a switch to human insulin. After the third injection of the latter an anaphylactic reaction developed within minutes. During a pregnancy in 1968 the patient had briefly received bovine insulin. Tests now revealed an immediate-type allergy against all three available species insulins, which was successfully treated by hyposensitisation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Non-adherence to fluid intake restrictions is one of the leading problems in hemodialysis patients. The consequences of chronic volume overload and massive hypotensive episodes resulting from enhanced ultrafiltration lead to an increased mortality and incidence of vascular events. Telemetric body weight monitoring (TBWM) suggests itself as a successful way to reduce daily fluid intake PATIENTS AND METHODS: This monocentric, prospective, randomized open study includes 120 patients with end-stage renal failure undergoing chronic hemodialysis (for at least two months) three times a week. The mean interdialytic weight gain (IWG) was more than 1.5 kg/2 days over the four weeks immediately before start of the study. The effect of daily body weight telemonitoring on IWG, blood pressure, haemoglobin variability, hospital stay, vascular events and mortality were observed for three months. All monitored patients (group 1, n = 60) received a weekly report of their weight changes, the number of alarms (automatically sent by email to the study center when daily IWG was greater than 0.75 kg/d) and of the interventions by phone (conducted by the responsible nephrologist when IWG was > 2 kg/day). Hemodynamics (each hemodialysis procedure) and weekly laboratory data were recorded for all patients. RESULTS: Preliminary data of 44 patients showed a significant reduction of daily IWG (weekly average, p = 0.0187) and a smaller number of alarm reports after the whole study period in group 1. Blood pressure monitoring during hemodialysis showed less hyper- and hypotensive episodes in patients with an IWG of less than 1.5 kg/2 days. In the control group there have so far been no changes of the analysed parameters. CONCLUSIONS: TBWM seems to be an effective method for optimizing adherence to fluid intake restrictions in patients on hemodialysis. Hemoglobin variability, mortality rates and the number of vascular events will still have to be analysed in detail for all patients once the entire study period has been completed.

The effect of different doses of the newly developed histamine H2 receptor antagonist ranitidine on the sodium taurocholate-induced decrease of the potential difference across the human gastric mucosa was investigated in 18 healthy persons. It was shown that ranitidine protects the human mucosal epithelium against this agent both in acid-inhibitory and non-acid-inhibitory dosages. The results suggest that besides the prostaglandins histamine H2 receptor antagonists possess cytoprotective properties at least against bile acids.

AIM Epinephrine is the drug of choice in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Its dosage, however, is controversially discussed. The American Heart Association recommends for standard use in adults 1 mg epinephrine every 3-5 minutes, but classifies a medium dose, a high dose and a step-by-step escalating dosage concept as potentially useful alternatives. Aim of this study was to develop a rationale for the escalating dosage concept using an analysis of preclinical resuscitation data. METHODS Bonn city (141 km2, 310,000 residents, 52% female, 13.9% > 65 years) was served by a double-response system of two ALS-units (staffed by physicians) and four BLS-units (staffed by paramedics). All patients were included in this data analysis, which were cardiopulmonary resuscitated according to the AHA guidelines by the ALS-unit Bonn-North (66% of area and 240,000 residents) from 1989 to 1994. All relevant data were documented by the emergency physicians using preformed treatment sheets. Discharge rates were determined by reviewing the hospital records, and one-year survival data were collected by mail contact with the primary physicians. The correlations between duration of cardiac arrest, dosage of epinephrine and outcome were determined by regression analysis in patients older than 17 years suffering from unwitnessed and bystander-witnessed cardiac arrest. Statistical significance was assumed for p 24 h: r = -0.3393; p 1 year: r = -0.2685; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION Based on these data, we recommend an escalating epinephrine dosage concept, which facilitates titration of the drug to an effective level and meets the needs of the individual patient. This concept avoids overdosage in patients who had just collapsed shortly before initiation of CPR, attains higher levels of epinephrine in patients suffering from prolonged cardiac arrest, and takes into consideration that the effective epinephrine dose varies individually and increases with prolongation of the cardiac arrest interval.

In this note, two generalized corollaries to the LaSalle-Yoshizawa Theorem are presented for nonautonomous systems described by nonlinear differential equations with discontinuous right-hand sides. Lyapunov-based analysis methods are developed using differential inclusions to achieve asymptotic convergence when the candidate Lyapunov derivative is upper bounded by a negative semi-definite function.

Failing to reach blood pressure (BP) goals is one of the main problems in hypertension management. Especially in high-risk patients, intensive monitoring including frequently office visits or new techniques to monitor home BP is required. A total of 60 patients with uncontrolled hypertension were included and randomized into a group with telemetric BP monitoring (TBPM) (n=30) and a control group receiving standard care (n=30). During the 3-month study period, patients received in addition to their antihypertensive pre-treatment up to 2 × 300 mg irbesartan to achieve the required target BP. All patients were instructed to measure their BP once daily in the morning. In the TBPM group automatic alerts were generated by the central database server using pre-defined algorithms and patients were subsequently contacted by the physician. At baseline mean 24-h ambulant BP monitoring (ABPM) was 143.3±11.1/82.6±9.9 mm Hg in the TBPM group and 141.4±12.6/82.1±6.5 mm Hg in the standard care group. During treatment mean systolic BP showed a more intensive decrease in the TBPM vs control group (−17.0±11.1 mm Hg vs −9.8±13.7 mm Hg; P=0.032). Patients in the TBPM group had a more pronounced night dipping and a higher reduction of mean pulse pressure than controls (−8.1±5.9 mm Hg vs −2.8±7.4 mm Hg, P=0.004). After 3 months, TBPM-treated patients were given a higher mean daily dose of irbesartan (375±187 mg vs 222±147 mg in controls; P=

Objectives: Overweight, the metabolic syndrome and accompanying diseases are dramatically increasing problems. We investigated social and behavioral variables that influence overweight in adolescents and tested their influence on plasma markers related to diabetes and endothelial dysfunction. Methods: 79 male adolescents were enrolled (age 13-17 years). Endothelial progenitor cells were counted by flow cytometry. Adiponectin and soluble E-selectin (sEselectin) were determined by ELISA. Results: Body weight differs significantly if the family's history was positive for arterial hypertension (p < 0.001), diabetes (p < 0.001), hypercholesterolemia (p

The secreted molecule Sonic hedgehog (Shh) is crucial for floor plate and ventral brain development in amniote embryos. In zebrafish, mutations in cyclops (cyc), a gene that encodes a distinct signal related to the TGFβ family member Nodal, result in neural tube defects similar to those of shh null mice. cyc mutant embryos display cyclopia and lack floor plate and ventral brain regions, suggesting a role for Cyc in specification of these structures. cyc mutants express shh in the notochord but lack expression of shh in the ventral brain. Here we show that Cyc signalling can act directly on shh expression in neural tissue. Modulation of the Cyc signalling pathway by constitutive activation or inhibition of Smad2 leads to altered shh expression in zebrafish embryos. Ectopic activation of the shh promoter occurs in response to expression of Cyc signal transducers in the chick neural tube. Furthermore an enhancer of the shh gene, which controls ventral neural tube expression, is responsive to Cyc signal transducers. Our data imply that the Nodal related signal Cyc induces shh expression in the ventral neural tube. Based on the differential responsiveness of shh and other neural tube specific genes to Hedgehog and Cyc signalling, a two-step model for the establishment of the ventral midline of the CNS is proposed.

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Sieben von 8 Patienten mit einem Phaochromocytom zeigten eine uber die Norm erhohte Plasma-Renin-Aktivitat (>3 ng/ml/3 h). Bei 4 der 7 Patienten mit Hyperreninismus konnte gleichzeitig auch ein abnorm hohes Plasma-Aldosteron nachgewiesen werden (>120 pg/ml). Seitengetrennte Bestimmungen der Plasma-Renin-Aktivitat im Nierenvenenblut zweier Patienten zeigten, das als Ursachen des Hyperreninismus sowohl eine Verringerung der Nierendurchblutung durch Tumorkompression im Sinne eines Goldblattmechanismus als auch eine Stimulation der renalen Reninsekretion durch Katecholamine in Frage kommen konnen. Bei 2 unserer Patienten mit einem Phaochromocytom fand sich eine uber die Norm gesteigerte Cortisolsekretion.

Beim Phaochromocytom wird in der Literatur sowohl ein Hyperreninismus [4, 17, 19, 20, 21] als auch ein Hyperaldosteronismus [20, 24] oder ein Hyper-cortisolismus [2, 6, 7, 22, 23] mitgeteilt. Unseres Wissens nach fehlt allerdings eine Untersuchung mit gleichzeitiger Bestimmung von Plasma-Renin-Aktivitat, Plasma-Aldosteron und Plasma-Cortisol. An 9 Patienten mit einem Phaochromocytom fuhrten wir eine entsprechende Studie durch.

BACKGROUND: Histoplasma capsulatum has a worldwide distribution, but reports in Europe remain rare. We present the second report of histoplasmosis in a cat in Europe and, to the best of our knowledge, the first case of feline histoplasmosis infection apparently limited to the skin. CASE REPORT: A 6-year-old male castrated outdoor cat was presented to the dermatology service with a history of skin lesions evolving over 1 month and consisting of multiple papules and nodules on the head and neck. General examination was unremarkable. Cytological examination of the ulcerated nodules revealed a pyogranulomatous infiltrate, with numerous macrophages containing oval yeast-like cells, 2-5 μm in size, with a central, lightly basophilic core surrounded by a clear halo. A tentative diagnosis of fungal infection was made, and skin biopsy specimens were taken. Histological examination confirmed the cytology findings, and Grocott staining showed numerous organisms suggestive of Histoplasma within macrophages. Thoracic radiographs, abdominal ultrasound and routine laboratory testing were unremarkable. Fungal culture of a nodule was negative. PCR of total DNA extracted from the infected tissue and subsequent sequencing confirmed the diagnosis of H. capsulatum var. capsulatum. Surgical excision of the other nodules was performed, and the cat was treated with oral itraconazole 5 mg/kg once daily; 12 weeks after initial consultation, no lesions were visible. No recurrence was observed during an 8 month follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Histoplasmosis should be included in the differential diagnosis of nodular diseases of cats worldwide.

The essay describes the coming out process of LGBT youth in Italy mainly related to structural and cultural dimension, social reaction to stigmatised identities and the need of specific social policies