Leeches of the genus Placobdella Blanchard, 1893 (Annelida: Rhynchobdellida: Glossiphoniidae) are mainly distributed across North and Central America, but at least two species are also present in the palearctic region: the European turtle leech Placobdella costata Müller, 1846, and the North African turtle leech Placobdella nabeulensis Ben Ahmed et al., 2023. All species of the genus are hematophagous and feed on vertebrates,...

Objective This randomized-controlled pilot trial assesses the effects of a 6-week cognitively engaging exercise intervention (CE-EX) vs. repetitive endurance exercise (R-EX), and a control group (CTRL), before (pre), after (post) the intervention and at a 3-month follow-up, for executive functions (EF) in a sample of young adults ( N = 46, m age = 23.76 ± 3.26 years). Methods We performed a linear mixed model with the timepoin...

Muscle synergy analysis has been explored as means to better understand changes in motor control, with the aim to improve treatment outcomes after Single Event Multilevel Surgery (SEMLS) for children with cerebral palsy (CP). In this single-group study, we assess changes between pre- and post-surgery muscle synergies at both patient specific, and cohort levels after surgical intervention for children with CP. We analysed the w...

Global networks of eddy‐covariance flux towers play a pivotal role in enhancing our predictive understanding of carbon and water cycling of biological systems in response to regional and global environmental change. Despite their broad application in numerous studies, the spatial aspects of the flux measurements have often been ignored or treated ambiguously, thereby remaining a primary source of uncertainty. The area contribu...

For successful implementation of healthcare interventions, attitudes of healthcare professionals are a key factor. Research in the field of psychological treatment suggests that attitude towards evidence-based practice (EBP) may play a crucial role. However, little research has been conducted on the extent to which this applies to the field of exercise therapy, where there is a strong need for development regarding the dissemi...

While subarachnoid hemorrhage is the second most common hemorrhagic stroke in epidemiologic studies, the recent DISCHARGE-1 trial has shown that in reality, three-quarters of focal brain damage after subarachnoid hemorrhage is ischemic. Two-fifths of these ischemic infarctions occur early and three-fifths are delayed. The vast majority are cortical infarcts whose pathomorphology corresponds to anemic infarcts. Therefore, we pr...

Endogenous antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play a key role in the host defense against pathogens. AMPs attack pathogens preferentially at the site of entry to prevent invasive infection. Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb ) enters its host via the airways. AMPs released into the airways are therefore likely candidates to contribute to the clearance of Mtb immediately after infection. Since lysozyme is detectable in airway secretio...

This study presents a trilateral test array of new opto-acoustic Underwater Fish Observatories (UFOs) that were operated and tested in Kiel Bight as part of the “UFOTriNet” project. While hydroacoustic and optical techniques have so far been used individually to observe and monitor fish stocks, we present a coupled hybrid system consisting of an optical device intended to scan the near-field as a subsample of a spatially large...

Purpose According to the recently implemented organized cervical cancer screening program in Germany, women older than 35 years with negative cytology but persistent high-risk human papilloma virus (hrHPV) infection > 12 months should be referred to colposcopy for further evaluation. This study aimed to present and dissect colposcopic and histopathological findings with particular focus on associated hrHPV genotypes. Methods T...

Sea ice retreat, changing stratification, and ocean acidification are fundamentally changing the light availability and physico‐chemical conditions for primary producers in the Arctic Ocean. However, detailed studies on ecophysiological strategies and performance of key species in the pelagic and ice‐associated habitat remain scarce. Therefore, we investigated the acclimated responses of the diatoms Thalassiosira hyalina and M...

Ageing provokes a plethora of molecular, cellular and physiological deteriorations, including heart failure, neurodegeneration, metabolic maladaptation, telomere attrition and hair loss. Interestingly, on the molecular level, the capacity to induce autophagy, a cellular recycling and cleaning process, declines with age across a large spectrum of model organisms and is thought to be responsible for a subset of age-induced chang...

We apply and compare three widely applicable methods for estimating ecosystem transpiration ( T ) from eddy covariance (EC) data across 251 FLUXNET sites globally. All three methods are based on the coupled water and carbon relationship, but they differ in assumptions and parameterizations. Intercomparison of the three daily T estimates shows high correlation among methods ( R between .89 and .94), but a spread in magnitudes o...