Browsing by Author "Schmidt, R."

Cerebrolysin (Cere) is a compound with neurotrophic activity which has been shown to be effective in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in earlier trials. The efficacy and safety of repeated treatments with Cere were investigated in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study. One hundred and forty-nine patients were enrolled (76 Cere, 73 placebo). Patients received i.v. infusions of 30 ml Cere or placebo 5 days per week for 4 weeks. This treatment was repeated after a 2-month therapy-free interval. Effects on cognition and clinical global impressions were evaluated 4, 12, 16, and 28 weeks after the beginning of the infusions using the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - cognitive subpart (ADAS-cog). All assessments, including the 28-week follow-up visit were performed under double-blind conditions. At week 16, the responder rate of the Cere group was 63.5% on the CGI, compared to 41.4% in the placebo group (P < 0.004). In the ADAS-cog, an efficacy difference of 3.2 points in favour of Cere was observed (P < 0.0001). Notably, improvements were largely maintained in the Cere group until week 28, 3 months after the end of treatment. Adverse events were recorded in 43% of Cere and 38% of placebo patients. Cere treatment was well tolerated and led to significant improvement in cognition and global clinical impression. A sustained benefit was still evident 3 months after drug withdrawal. Int Clin Psychopharmacol 16:253-263 (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

The axial (z-) resolution of similar to 100 nm provided by 4Pi and (IM)-M-5 fluorescence microscopy relies on the coherent addition of spherical wavefronts of two opposing high aperture angle lenses. Both microscopes feature a point-spread function (PSF) with a sharp central spot that is accompanied by axially shifted sidelobes which leads to replication artefacts in the raw image data. In a 4Pi-microscope the sidelobes are less pronounced than in (IM)-M-5 and without relevant lateral (x,y) substructure, making their posterior removal in the image reliable and fast. On the other hand, high speeds of raw data acquisition are more easily gained by (IM)-M-5. Moreover, (IM)-M-5 features a stronger signal as compared to the commonly employed two-photon excitation (2PE) 4Pi-imaging mode. We investigate here the capability of both techniques to image (aqueous) specimens without artefacts. To this end, we consider the optical transfer function (OTF) of the two microscopes in conjunction with the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of the object to be imaged. The imaging of E. coli bacteria with an interconvertable setup enabled a direct comparison of the two imaging modes. As both systems rely on high aperture angles, water-immersion lenses of the largest numerical aperture available (NA = 1.2) were employed. The experimental results are corroborated by simulations assuming the signal strength encountered in the experiment. The comparison of the theoretical with the experimental PSFs/OTFs showed that our setup operated close to theory in both imaging modes. Although (IM)-M-5 provided about 10 times brighter raw image data as compared to (2PE) 4Pi-microscopy, the (IM)-M-5 data could not be entirely cleared of artefacts. In conclusion, with the current aperture angles and fluorescence signal strengths, it is not advisable to trade in the suppression of the sidelobes for a larger image signal.

Aims. With the aim of characterizing the flux and color variations of the multiple components of the gravitationally lensed quasar UM673 as a function of time, we have performed multiepoch and multiband photometric observations with the Danish 1.54 m telescope at the La Silla Observatory. Methods. The observations were carried out in the VRi spectral bands during four seasons (2008-2011). We reduced the data using the point spread function photometric technique as well as aperture photometry. Results. Our results show for the brightest lensed component some significant decrease in flux between the first two seasons (+0.09/+0.11/+0.05 mag) and a subsequent increase during the following ones (-0.11/-0.11/-0.10 mag) in the V/R/i spectral bands, respectively. Comparing our results with previous studies, we find smaller color variations between these seasons as compared with previous ones. We also separate the contribution of the lensing galaxy from that of the fainter and close lensed component.

Quails (Coturnix japonica) was evaluated with special attention to possible quality aberrations. The distinct sex-dimorphism of quails was considered in the experimental setup. Forty Japanese Quails (n = 20 per sex) were fattened in groups of two quails in cages. At the age of 170 days the quails were slaughtered and early post mortem characteristics of meat quality were measured. Specimens were taken from the M. pectoralis superficialis to investigate the structure of muscle fibres by histological-histochemical methods. Significant differences between the sexes in regard to live weight, weight and proportion of breast muscle, protein and fat content and colour value a and brightness L of breast meat were observed. Increasing carcass weights and higher proportions of breast muscle were related to higher crude protein and lower fat contents. The content of crude protein was positively correlated with an enlargement of muscle fibres. This effect was stronger in male quails. Generally, breast muscle of quails is made up of only 13 to 14% of white (glycolytic) muscle fibres. There is a tendency for female quails to have thicker breast muscle fibres compared to the males. In general, the condition and quality of meat from breast muscle of Japanese Quails can be characterized as good. During intensive selection on high final weights aberrations in meat quality occur in the economically important poultry species turkey and chicken. It is therefore of interest, whether and to what extent. other poultry species may be negatively influenced by similar selection strategy. In the present investigation meat quality of Japanese Quails can be characterized as good.

1. M. iliotibialis (MIT) and M. pectoralis (MP) of the BUT Big 6 and Kelly BBB turkey were characterised with respect to physical properties, mitochondrial function, metabolic state, morphology and meat quality. 2. Mitochondrial enzyme activity and respiration rates in MP declined with increasing age while glycolytic enzyme activity remained nearly constant. 3. There were no major differences between BUT Big 6 and Kelly BBB with respect to histological, histochemical or biochemical variables. In spite of the greater adult weight of BUT Big 6, body proportion was equal in both strains. 4. In agreement with the histochemical findings MIT showed higher oxidative capacities, while glycolytic enzyme activity was higher in MP. 5. Pyruvate was the best substrate for oxidative phosphorylation in MIT, but not in MP. Pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) activity was up to 15 times less in MP and blood lactate was correlated with intramuscular pH. 6. Turkey breast muscle was restricted in its ability to oxidise pyruvate, especially in those animals that tended to develop intramuscular acidosis post mortem. 7. It is concluded that the in vivo metabolic environment results in acidosis and impaired meat quality, at least in turkey M. pectoralis.

We present a combined analysis of the observations of the gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-0479 taken both from the ground and by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The light curves seen from the ground and from space exhibit a time offset of similar to 13 days between the caustic spikes, indicating that the relative lens-source positions seen from the two places are displaced by parallax effects. From modeling the light curves, we measure the space-based microlens parallax. Combined with the angular Einstein radius measured by analyzing the caustic crossings, we determine the mass and distance of the lens. We find that the lens is a binary composed of two G-type stars with masses of similar to 1.0 M-circle dot and similar to 0.9 M-circle dot located at a distance. of similar to 3 kpc. In addition, we are able to constrain the complete orbital parameters of the lens thanks to the precise measurement of the microlens parallax derived from the joint analysis. In contrast to the binary event OGLE-2014-BLG-1050, which was also observed by Spitzer, we find that the interpretation of OGLE-2015-BLG-0479 does not suffer from the degeneracy between (+/-, +/-) and (+/-, -/+) solutions, confirming that the four-fold parallax degeneracy in single-lens events collapses into the two-fold degeneracy for the general case of binary-lens events. The location of the blend in the color-magnitude diagram is consistent with the lens properties, suggesting that the blend is the lens itself. The blend is bright enough for spectroscopy and thus this possibility can be checked from future follow-up observations.