TY - GEN A1 - Hiemann, Rico A1 - Hilger, Nadja A1 - Michel, Jörg A1 - Nitschke, Jörg A1 - Böhm, Alexander A1 - Anderer, Ursula A1 - Weigert, Martin A1 - Sack, Ulrich T1 - Automatic Analysis of Immunofluorescence Patterns of HEp‐2 Cells T2 - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences N2 - The standard screening test for the recognition of autoimmune diseases is the proof of autoantibodies in serum of patients by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) based on HEp‐2 cells. Manual evaluation of this test is very subjective, slow, and there are no objective parameters as guidelines available. Interlaboratory tests showed occasionally large deviations in the test evaluation resulting in a high variance of results. The aim of this project is fast, objective, safe, and economical automatic analysis of HEp‐2 IIF patterns. Images of IIF patterns were completely and automatically captured using an inverse motorized fluorescence microscope. Thereby, device‐specific parameters were controlled automatically, too. For fast analysis of IIF patterns new algorithms of image processing were developed. Artifacts were recognized and excluded from analysis by the developed software. Analysis of more than 80,000 images clearly demonstrated full automatization and fast processing of IIF patterns. Additionally serum‐specific fluorescence could be easily distinguished from background. Even very weak but positive patterns can be recognized and used for diagnosis. A detailed separation into different basic patterns is possible. Objective, fast, and disease‐related economical analysis of HEp‐2 immunofluorescence patterns is feasible. The implemented software algorithms allowed a mathematical way of describing IIF patterns and can therefore be a useful tool for the needed standardization process. KW - Autoimmune diagnostics KW - HEp-2 cell KW - Immunofluorescence KW - Automatic analysis KW - Screening Y1 - 2007 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1398.042 SN - 0077-8923 VL - 1109 IS - 1 SP - 358 EP - 371 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Charissé, Daniel A1 - Erus, Guray A1 - Pomponio, Raymond A1 - Gorges, Martin A1 - Schmidt, Nele A1 - Schneider, Christine A1 - Liepelt-Scarfone, Inga A1 - Riedel, Oliver A1 - Reetz, Kathrin A1 - Schulz, Jörg B. A1 - Berg, Daniela A1 - Storch, Alexander A1 - Witt, Karsten A1 - Dodel, Richard A1 - Kalbe, Elke A1 - Kassubek, Jan A1 - Hilker-Roggendorf, Rüdiger A1 - Baudrexel, Simon T1 - Brain age and Alzheimer's-like atrophy are domain-specific predictors of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease T2 - Neurobiology of Aging N2 - Recently, it was shown that patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who exhibit an “Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like” pattern of brain atrophy are at greater risk for future cognitive decline. This study aimed to investigate whether this association is domain-specific and whether atrophy associated with brain aging also relates to cognitive impairment in PD. SPARE-AD, an MRI index capturing AD-like atrophy, and atrophy-based estimates of brain age were computed from longitudinal structural imaging data of 178 PD patients and 84 healthy subjects from the LANDSCAPE cohort. All patients underwent an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or dementia were found to have higher SPARE-AD scores as compared to patients with normal cognition and healthy controls. All patient groups showed increased brain age. SPARE-AD predicted impairment in memory, language and executive functions, whereas advanced brain age was associated with deficits in attention and working memory. Data suggest that SPARE-AD and brain age are differentially related to domain-specific cognitive decline in PD. The underlying pathomechanisms remain to be determined. KW - Alzheimer's disease KW - Brain Age KW - MRI KW - Parkinson's disease KW - Pattern classification Y1 - 2022 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197458021002748?via%3Dihub U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.08.020 SN - 0197-4580 VL - 109 SP - 31 EP - 42 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Häusser, Martin A1 - Aryal, Sugam A1 - Barth, Johannes A. C. A1 - Bendix, Jörg A1 - Garel, Emilie A1 - Geldern, Robert van A1 - Huneau, Frédéric A1 - Juhlke, Tobias R. A1 - Knerr, Isabel A1 - Santoni, Sébastien A1 - Szymczak, Sonja A1 - Trachte, Katja A1 - Bräuning, Achim T1 - Xylem formation patterns from Mediterranean to subalpine climate conditions reveal high growth plasticity of pine species on Corsica T2 - Trees N2 - Investigating seasonal wood formation is crucial to understand tree growth responses to climate impact. The present study quantifies the variability of xylogenesis along an elevation gradient on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, where two native pine species (Pinus nigra Arnold ssp. laricio Maire and Pinus pinaster Aiton) grow from the upper tree line to sea level, partly in sympatry. We extracted microcores from 35 trees at 5 sites along an East–West transect from the coasts (10 m asl) to the island's central mountain ridge (1600 m asl) during bi-weekly sampling campaigns between 2017 and 2019. We applied generalised additive models to detect radial growth differences in elevation and species along with minimum temperatures for growth initiation. We found that trees in low elevations experienced over 2 months longer growth periods with higher maximum growth rates than in high elevations. The results show a 1-month delay for the beginning of tracheid formation between the low, mid and high-elevation belts but comparable timing for its termination. At the sites where both species co-occur, P. nigra accumulates more radial cells in a shorter time than P. pinaster. Trees at the two contrasting coastal sites have similar growth period lengths, but exhibit a time shift of over a month. Minimum temperatures around growth initiation vary between 3.1 °C for P. nigra and 9.9 °C for P. pinaster. These findings emphasise the high plasticity in the growth behaviour of one of the most widespread tree genera in Mediterranean and temperate zones. KW - Generalised additive models (GAM) KW - Corsican black pine KW - Maritime pine KW - Cambial dynamics KW - Xylogenesis KW - Mediterranean Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-023-02402-8 SN - 0931-1890 SN - 1432-2285 VL - 37 IS - 4 SP - 1027 EP - 1039 PB - Springer Berlin Heidelberg ER - TY - GEN A1 - Voss, Heike A1 - Zahedi-Azad, Setareh A1 - Ernst, Owen C. A1 - Lucaßen, Jan A1 - Mann, Guido A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Boeck, Torsten A1 - Martin, Jens A1 - Schmid, Martina A1 - Krüger, Jörg T1 - Chemical vapor deposition of indium precursors for solar micro-absorbers using continuous laser radiation T2 - Applied physics. A, Materials science & processing N2 - Localized deposition of indium on an amorphous glass surface covered with a thin molybdenum layer is demonstrated utilizing laser-assisted chemical vapor deposition. A continuous-wave laser causes a temperature rise on the molybdenum layer resulting in the selective aggregation of liquid and ultimately crystalline structures of indium. The formation sites of the indium are determined by the decomposition of gaseous trimethylindium. The deposited indium islands can serve as precursors and could be further processed into compound semiconductors like CuInSe2 for micro-concentrator solar cells. The experimental investigations were supported by theoretical simulations of the laser heating process to calculate the local temperature distribution on the surface of the molybdenum-covered glass substrate. KW - Chemical Vapor Deposition KW - Laser Technology KW - Microconcentrator KW - Solar Cell KW - Materials Science KW - Materials Chemistry KW - Materials Engineering KW - Optical Materials KW - Laser Material Processing Y1 - 2025 UR - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00339-025-08895-z U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-025-08895-z SN - 1432-0630 VL - 131 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ; Heidelberg ER -