Heidelberg University

Modulation of neuronal excitability and plasticity by BHLHE41 conveys lithium non-responsiveness

Abstract Many bipolar disorder (BD) patients are non-responsive to lithium. The mechanisms underlying lithium (non-)responsiveness are largely unknown. By using gene-set enrichment analysis methods, we found that core clock gene-sets are significantly associated with lithium resp...

National Implementation of a Tuberculosis Sample Referral Network to Expand Access to Molecular Diagnosis in the Republic of Congo: Pilot Evaluation and Programmatic Analysis (2023–2025)

Background: Limited access to rapid molecular diagnostics remains a major barrier to timely tuberculosis (TB) detection and drug-resistance surveillance in resource-constrained settings. In the Republic of Congo, GeneXpert MTB/RIF platforms remain concentrated in a few laboratori...

Development and internal validation of the Low Cardiac Index Score: a simplified bedside tool for continuous intraoperative screening

<title>Abstract</title> Purpose Advanced haemodynamic monitoring of cardiac index is restricted to selected high-risk cases, leaving most patients undergoing major surgery without real-time assessment. We aimed to develop and internally validate a simplified bedside score for con...

Assessing climate change-related health hazards: An interactive tool for regional risk analysis in Germany

An interactive online health risk assessment has been created to visualize the health risks associated with climate change at the district level (NUTS3) across Germany. The tool provides a comprehensive assessment by depicting both the current risk patterns and projected conditio...

Integrated metabolomics data analysis to generate mechanistic hypotheses with MetaProViz

ABSTRACT With the growing number of metabolomics and lipidomics studies, robust strategies for bioinformatic analyses are increasingly important. However, the absence of standardized and reproducible workflows, coupled with ambiguous metabolite annotations, hampers effective anal...

On Global Weak Solutions for the Magnetic Two-Component Hunter–Saxton System

Abstract We study the magnetic two-component Hunter–Saxton system (M2HS), which was recently derived in [19] as a magnetic geodesic equation on an infinite-dimensional configuration space. While the geometric framework and the global weak flow were outlined there, the present pap...

Longitudinal Tumor, Vascular, and Immune Cell Response in Two Rat Prostate Carcinomas After Isoeffective Photon, Proton, and Carbon Ion Irradiation: Impact of Linear Energy Transfer, Dose Level, and Hypoxia

Background/Objectives: High linear energy transfer (LET) carbon ions achieved more effective and biologically robust tumor control than photons in preclinical prostate cancer models; however, the longitudinal development of histopathological parameters remains insufficiently char...

Molecular characterization of mismatch repair deficient tumors in young Jordanian patients

<title>Abstract</title> In Jordan, approximately 19% of colorectal carcinomas (CRCs) in patients younger than 45 years show mismatch repair deficiency (MMRD) by immunohistochemistry (IHC). MMRD in pediatric high-grade gliomas (HGG) and CRC in Jordan appears substantially more fre...

Can parent–child interactions help reduce socioeconomic differences in language development? Results of a German birth cohort study

Abstract Aim Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families often have lower developmental outcomes than their socioeconomically more advantaged peers. In early childhood, language development (LD) in particular is a key competence for further socialization. There is a ne...

The zlog value: a decade of standardizing laboratory results

Abstract Background The zlog transformation was developed in 2016 as a method-independent and unit-independent standardization of laboratory results for the German Electronic Health Record (ePA). Based on the assumption of a log-normal distribution and the known lower and upper r...

Homicide at home: setting the agenda for an international collaboration to improve support for children bereaved due to family violence

Background: Bereavement due to fatal family violence (e.g. intimate partner homicide, filicide, parricide, siblicide) is a profoundly disruptive experience for children, with lifelong psychosocial consequences. Although the need for fatal family violence prevention is increasingl...

Iron-induced demethoxylation of lignin as an important source for methanol and its oxidation products in the environment

Abstract Lignin, the largest reservoir of aromatic carbon in plants and soils, undergoes well-characterized biological demethylation by fungi and bacteria, and is industrially processed under harsh conditions to generate bio-based aromatics. However, the abiotic fate of lignin-de...

The parameter estimation tables (PEtab) format version 2

Abstract Parameter estimation is a central task in data-driven computational modeling, and a clear, unambiguous, and commonly understood specification of parameter estimation problems is essential for reproducibility and interoperability. PEtab provides a standardized framework f...

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on 30-Day Readmission Rates After Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair and Open Repair

AIM: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) and open aneurysm repair (OAR) are established treatments for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). This meta-analysis evaluated 30-day readmission, patient characteristics, postoperative complications, and length of stay after EVAR and OAR, an...

Hitherto UnrecognizedIntermolecular Coulombic DecayMechanism in Gases

Abstract Excited atoms and molecules can utilize their excess energy to ionize a neighboring system by a process named interatomic and intermolecular Coulombic decay (ICD). ICD is ultrafast, in the femtosecond regime, and has many modes of appearance. Ample applications of ICD ha...

Tracking the baryon number with nuclear collisions

Baryon quantum number is found to be conserved since baryogenesis in the early Universe. Conventionally, each fractionally charged valence quark is understood to carry one-third of a baryon number. An alternative hypothesis posits that baryon number is instead carried by a baryon...

Ipsilateral inhibitory rTMS restores interhemispheric motor cortex balance and reduces phantom limb pain: an exploratory longitudinal nTMS mapping study

Abstract Background Phantom limb pain (PLP) is a debilitating condition associated with maladaptive neuroplastic changes following limb amputation. The prevailing neuromodulatory approach targets the deafferented contralateral motor cortex, yet interhemispheric imbalance is incre...

Implementation barriers, facilitators, and fidelity of a mobile money-based savings tool for pregnant women in the Analamanga region of Madagascar: an ex-post process evaluation

Abstract Background Mobile payment services could improve access to obstetric care by easing saving, raising revenue, and pooling resources. Between 2019 and 2022, a mobile money-based savings tool for obstetric care was implemented in the Analamanga region of Madagascar followin...

Prospective analysis of pre-diagnostic untargeted plasma metabolomics and risk of triple-negative breast cancer in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10–15% of newly diagnosed breast cancer, and its aetiology is poorly understood compared to other breast cancer subtypes. We applied untargeted metabolomics to identify novel biological pathways associated with TNBC risk and poten...

Conservative and surgical treatment of wrist osteoarthritis: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Wrist osteoarthritis leads to pain and functional impairment. Despite conservative treatment options, surgery remains a central therapeutic component. In Germany, the number of patients rose from over 472,000 cases in 2018 to more than 580,000 in 2024. This review e...