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Photoacoustic endoscopy offers in vivo examination of the visceral tissue using endogenous contrast, but its typical B-scan rate is ∼10  Hz, restricted by the speed of the scanning unit and the laser pulse repetition rate. Here, we present a transvaginal fast-scanning optical-resolution photoacoustic endoscope with a 250-Hz B-scan rate over a 3-mm scanning range. Using this modality, we not only illustrated the morphological differences of vasculatures among the human ectocervix, uterine body, and sublingual mucosa but also showed the longitudinal and cross-sectional differences of cervical vasculatures in pregnant women. This technology is promising for screening the visceral pathological changes associated with angiogenesis., ((2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).)

Premature cervical remodeling is a critical precursor of spontaneous preterm birth, and the remodeling process is characterized by an increase in tissue hydration. Nevertheless, current clinical measurements of cervical remodeling are subjective and detect only late events, such as cervical effacement and dilation. Here, we present a photoacoustic endoscope that can quantify tissue hydration by measuring near-infrared cervical spectra. We quantify the water contents of tissue-mimicking hydrogel phantoms as an analog of cervical connective tissue. Applying this method to pregnant women in vivo, we observed an increase in the water content of the cervix throughout pregnancy. The application of this technique in maternal healthcare may advance our understanding of cervical remodeling and provide a sensitive method for predicting preterm birth., ((2018) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).)

Background: Solanum aculeastrum fruits are used by some cancer sufferers as a form of alternative treatment. Scientific literature is scarce concerning its anticancer activity, and thus the aim of the study was to assess the in vitro anticancer and P-glycoprotein inhibitory potential of extracts of S. aculeastrum fruits. Furthermore, assessment of the combinational effect with doxorubicin was also done., Methods: The crude extract was prepared by ultrasonic maceration. Liquid-liquid extraction yielded one aqueous and two organic fractions. Bioactive constituents were isolated from the aqueous fraction by means of column chromatography, solid phase extraction and preparative thin-layer chromatography. Confirmation of bioactive constituent identity was done by nuclear magnetic resonance and ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The crude extract and fractions were assessed for cytotoxicity and P-glycoprotein inhibition in both cancerous and non-cancerous cell lines using the sulforhodamine B and rhodamine-123 assays, respectively., Results: Both the crude extract and aqueous fraction was cytotoxic to all cell lines, with the SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line being most susceptible to exposure (IC 50  = 10.72 μg/mL [crude], 17.21 μg/mL [aqueous]). Dose-dependent P-glycoprotein inhibition was observed for the crude extract (5.9 to 18.9-fold at 100 μg/mL) and aqueous fraction (2.9 to 21.2 at 100 μg/mL). The steroidal alkaloids solamargine and solanine were identified. While solanine was not bioactive, solamargine displayed an IC 50 of 15.62 μg/mL, and 9.1-fold P-glycoprotein inhibition at 100 μg/mL against the SH-SY5Y cell line. Additive effects were noted for combinations of doxorubicin against the SH-SY5Y cell line., Conclusions: The crude extract and aqueous fraction displayed potent non-selective cytotoxicity and noteworthy P-glycoprotein inhibition. These effects were attributed to solamargine. P-glycoprotein inhibitory activity was only present at concentrations higher than those inducing cytotoxicity, and thus does not appear to be the likely mechanism for the enhancement of doxorubicin's cytotoxicity. Preliminary results suggest that non-selective cytotoxicity may hinder drug development, however, further assessment of the mode of cell death is necessary to determine the route forward.

We introduce a new method to construct microfluidic devices especially useful for bulk acoustic wave (BAW)-based manipulation of cells and microparticles. To obtain efficient acoustic focusing, BAW devices require materials that have high acoustic impedance mismatch relative to the medium in which the cells/microparticles are suspended and materials with a high-quality factor. To date, silicon and glass have been the materials of choice for BAW-based acoustofluidic channel fabrication. Silicon- and glass-based fabrication is typically performed in clean room facilities, generates hazardous waste, and can take several hours to complete the microfabrication. To address some of the drawbacks in fabricating conventional BAW devices, we explored a new approach by micromachining microfluidic channels in aluminum substrates. Additionally, we demonstrate plasma bonding of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) onto micromachined aluminum substrates. Our goal was to achieve an approach that is both low cost and effective in BAW applications. To this end, we micromachined aluminum 6061 plates and enclosed the systems with a thin PDMS cover layer. These aluminum/PDMS hybrid microfluidic devices use inexpensive materials and are simply constructed outside a clean room environment. Moreover, these devices demonstrate effectiveness in BAW applications as demonstrated by efficient acoustic focusing of polystyrene microspheres, bovine red blood cells, and Jurkat cells and the generation of multiple focused streams in flow-through systems. Graphical abstract The aluminum acoustofluidic device and the generation of multinode focusing of particles.

The vocabulary of theoretical statistics can be difficult to embrace from the viewpoint of computational proteomics research, even though the notions it conveys are essential to publication guidelines. For example, "adjusted p-values", "q-values", and "false discovery rates" are essentially similar concepts, whereas "false discovery rate" and "false discovery proportion" must not be confused, even though "rate" and "proportion" are related in everyday language. In the interdisciplinary context of proteomics, such subtleties may cause misunderstandings. This article aims to provide an easy-to-understand explanation of these four notions (and a few other related ones). Their statistical foundations are dealt with from a perspective that largely relies on intuition, addressing mainly protein quantification but also, to some extent, peptide identification. In addition, a clear distinction is made between concepts that define an individual property (i.e., related to a peptide or a protein) and those that define a set property (i.e., related to a list of peptides or proteins).

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is among the most important medical imaging modalities. Coil arrays and receivers with high channel counts (16 and more) have to be deployed to obtain the image quality and acquisition speed required by modern clinical protocols. In this paper, we report the theoretical analysis, the system-level design, and the circuit implementation of the first receiver IC (RXIC) for clinical MRI fully integrated in a modern CMOS technology. The dual-channel RXIC sits directly on the sensor coil, thus eliminating any RF cable otherwise required to transport the information out of the magnetic field. The first stage LNA was implemented using a noise-canceling architecture providing a highly reflective input used to decouple the individual channels of the array. Digitization is performed directly on-chip at base-band by means of a delta-sigma modulator, allowing the subsequent optical transmission of data. The presented receiver, implemented in a CMOS technology, is compatible with MRI scanners up to . It reaches sub- noise figure for MRI units and features a dynamic range up to at a power consumption below per channel, with an area occupation of . Mounted on a small-sized printed circuit board (PCB), the receiver IC has been employed in a commercial MRI scanner to acquire in-vivo images matching the quality of traditional systems, demonstrating the first step toward multichannel wearable MRI array coils.

Most input devices, also traditional ones like keyboard and mouse involve at least a certain amount of haptic experience. For instance, they require direct physical contact between user and device and provide direct haptic feedback (e.g., through the physical resistance of a key). However, in the past years, also touchless input devices and techniques gained broader attention as they e.g., allow for a restriction of physical boundaries that limit the possible range of user input activities. This paper discusses the role of haptics in user input with a particular focus on the needs of people with impairments and presents the results of a study comparing three input devices, each involving a different amount of haptic experience.

DAPAR and ProStaR are software tools to perform the statistical analysis of label-free XIC-based quantitative discovery proteomics experiments. DAPAR contains procedures to filter, normalize, impute missing value, aggregate peptide intensities, perform null hypothesis significance tests and select the most likely differentially abundant proteins with a corresponding false discovery rate. ProStaR is a graphical user interface that allows friendly access to the DAPAR functionalities through a web browser., Availability and Implementation: DAPAR and ProStaR are implemented in the R language and are available on the website of the Bioconductor project (http://www.bioconductor.org/). A complete tutorial and a toy dataset are accompanying the packages., Contact: samuel.wieczorek@cea.fr, florence.combes@cea.fr, thomas.burger@cea.fr., (© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Electrocatalytic hydrogenation (ECH) is a sustainable pathway for the synthesis of value-added organic compounds, provided affordable catalysts with high activity, selectivity and durability are developed. Here, we synthesize Cu/C, Ni/C, and CuNi/C nanoparticles and compare their performance to Pt/C, Ru/C, PtRu/C for the ECH of hydroxyacetone, a bio-derived feedstock surrogate containing a carbonyl and a hydroxyl functional group. The non-precious metal electrocatalysts show promising conversion-time behavior, product selectivities, and Faradaic efficiencies. Ni/C forms propylene glycol with a selectivity of 89 % (at 80 % conversion), while Cu/C catalyzes ECH (52 % selectivity) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO, 48 % selectivity, accounting for evaporation). CuNi/C shows increased turnover frequencies but reduced ECH selectivity (80 % at 80 % conversion) as compared to the Ni/C catalyst. Importantly, stability studies show that the non-precious metal catalysts do not leach at operating conditions., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Recently, guidelines regarding diagnosis and treatment of periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) have been published, but it is unknown how well these are -followed in the Netherlands and Belgium. Therefore, a survey study was performed in the Netherlands and Belgium. 81 orthopedic departments responded (54% in the Netherlands, 52% in Belgium). The majority used protocols for antibiotic and surgical treatment. To discriminate between early and late infection, differences in periods used were seen between respondents, and between countries. Empirical antibiotic treatment varied greatly. Debridement, antibiotics, irrigation and retention of the prosthesis (DAIR) is the -almost unanimous treatment of choice for early PJI. Guidelines are available, but seem not (yet) to be -followed accurately, and do not have answers to all possible treatment options. Perhaps, national guidelines might produce more standardized care, and -consequentially, easier comparison for research, more transparency for patients, and less health care costs.

Selecting proteins with significant differential abundance is the cornerstone of many relative quantitative proteomics experiments. To do so, a trade-off between p-value thresholding and fold-change thresholding can be performed because of a specific parameter, named fudge factor, and classically noted s0 . We have observed that this fudge factor is routinely turned away from its original (and statistically valid) use, leading to important distortion in the distribution of p-values, jeopardizing the protein differential analysis, as well as the subsequent biological conclusion. In this article, we provide a comprehensive viewpoint on this issue, as well as some guidelines to circumvent it., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Missing values are a genuine issue in label-free quantitative proteomics. Recent works have surveyed the different statistical methods to conduct imputation and have compared them on real or simulated data sets and recommended a list of missing value imputation methods for proteomics application. Although insightful, these comparisons do not account for two important facts: (i) depending on the proteomics data set, the missingness mechanism may be of different natures and (ii) each imputation method is devoted to a specific type of missingness mechanism. As a result, we believe that the question at stake is not to find the most accurate imputation method in general but instead the most appropriate one. We describe a series of comparisons that support our views: For instance, we show that a supposedly "under-performing" method (i.e., giving baseline average results), if applied at the "appropriate" time in the data-processing pipeline (before or after peptide aggregation) on a data set with the "appropriate" nature of missing values, can outperform a blindly applied, supposedly "better-performing" method (i.e., the reference method from the state-of-the-art). This leads us to formulate few practical guidelines regarding the choice and the application of an imputation method in a proteomics context.

Schizophrenia accompanied by comorbid substance use disorder is common and can complicate treatment. For the patient long-term compulsory abstinence can be seen as an extremely serious measure. Nevertheless, the measure can be justified both ethically and juridically as part of integrated treatment for psychosis and substance use disorder. We describe a case in which long-term compulsory abstinence kept the patient out of danger, increased her psychiatric stability and strengthened her autonomy.

In MS-based quantitative proteomics, the FDR control (i.e. the limitation of the number of proteins that are wrongly claimed as differentially abundant between several conditions) is a major postanalysis step. It is classically achieved thanks to a specific statistical procedure that computes the adjusted p-values of the putative differentially abundant proteins. Unfortunately, such adjustment is conservative only if the p-values are well-calibrated; the false discovery control being spuriously underestimated otherwise. However, well-calibration is a property that can be violated in some practical cases. To overcome this limitation, we propose a graphical method to straightforwardly and visually assess the p-value well-calibration, as well as the R codes to embed it in any pipeline. All MS data have been deposited in the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD002370 (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/dataset/PXD002370)., (© 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Wearable devices offer interesting features, such as low cost and user friendliness, but their use for medical applications is an open research topic, given the limited hardware resources they provide. In this paper, we present an embedded solution for real-time EMG-based hand gesture recognition. The work focuses on the multi-level design of the system, integrating the hardware and software components to develop a wearable device capable of acquiring and processing EMG signals for real-time gesture recognition. The system combines the accuracy of a custom analog front end with the flexibility of a low power and high performance microcontroller for on-board processing. Our system achieves the same accuracy of high-end and more expensive active EMG sensors used in applications with strict requirements on signal quality. At the same time, due to its flexible configuration, it can be compared to the few wearable platforms designed for EMG gesture recognition available on market. We demonstrate that we reach similar or better performance while embedding the gesture recognition on board, with the benefit of cost reduction. To validate this approach, we collected a dataset of 7 gestures from 4 users, which were used to evaluate the impact of the number of EMG channels, the number of recognized gestures and the data rate on the recognition accuracy and on the computational demand of the classifier. As a result, we implemented a SVM recognition algorithm capable of real-time performance on the proposed wearable platform, achieving a classification rate of 90%, which is aligned with the state-of-the-art off-line results and a 29.7 mW power consumption, guaranteeing 44 hours of continuous operation with a 400 mAh battery.

The aims of the present multi-center study were to investigate the extent of mental health problems in adolescents with a hearing loss and cochlear implants (CIs) in comparison to normal hearing (NH) peers and to investigate possible relations between the extent of mental health problems of young CI users and hearing variables, such as age at implantation, or functional gain of CI. The survey included 140 adolescents with CI (mean age = 14.7, SD = 1.5 years) and 140 NH adolescents (mean age = 14.8, SD = 1.4 years), their parents and teachers. Participants were matched by age, gender and social background. Within the CI group, 35 adolescents were identified as "risk cases" due to possible and manifest additional handicaps, and 11 adolescents were non-classifiable. Mental health problems were assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in the versions "Self," "Parent," and "Teacher." The CI group showed significantly more "Peer Problems" than the NH group. When the CI group was split into a "risk-group" (35 "risk cases" and 11 non-classifiable persons) and a "non-risk group" (n = 94), increased peer problems were perceived in both CI subgroups by adolescents themselves. However, no further differences between the CI non-risk group and the NH group were observed in any rater. The CI risk-group showed significantly more hyperactivity compared to the NH group and more hyperactivity and conduct problems compared to the CI non-risk group. Cluster analyses confirmed that there were significantly more adolescents with high problems in the CI risk-group compared to the CI non-risk group and the NH group. Adolescents with CI, who were able to understand speech in noise had significantly less difficulties compared to constricted CI users. Parents, teachers, and clinicians should be aware that CI users with additionally special needs may have mental health problems. However, peer problems were also experienced by CI adolescents without additional handicaps.

Combining pieces of information provided by several sources without or with little prior knowledge about the behavior of the sources is an old yet still important and rather open problem in the belief function theory. In this paper, we propose an approach to select the behavior of sources based on a very general and expressive fusion scheme, that has the important advantage of making clear the assumptions made about the sources. The selection process itself relies on two cornerstones that are the notions of specificity and consistency of a knowledge representation, and that we adapt to the considered fusion scheme. We illustrate our proposal on different examples and show that the proposed approach actually encompasses some important existing fusion strategies.

Photosynthesis has shaped atmospheric and ocean chemistries and probably changed the climate as well, as oxygen is released from water as part of the photosynthetic process. In photosynthetic eukaryotes, this process occurs in the chloroplast, an organelle containing the most abundant biological membrane, the thylakoids. The thylakoids of plants and some green algae are structurally inhomogeneous, consisting of two main domains: the grana, which are piles of membranes gathered by stacking forces, and the stroma-lamellae, which are unstacked thylakoids connecting the grana. The major photosynthetic complexes are unevenly distributed within these compartments because of steric and electrostatic constraints. Although proteomic analysis of thylakoids has been instrumental to define its protein components, no extensive proteomic study of subthylakoid localization of proteins in the BBY (grana) and the stroma-lamellae fractions has been achieved so far. To fill this gap, we performed a complete survey of the protein composition of these thylakoid subcompartments using thylakoid membrane fractionations. We employed semiquantitative proteomics coupled with a data analysis pipeline and manual annotation to differentiate genuine BBY and stroma-lamellae proteins from possible contaminants. About 300 thylakoid (or potentially thylakoid) proteins were shown to be enriched in either the BBY or the stroma-lamellae fractions. Overall, present findings corroborate previous observations obtained for photosynthetic proteins that used nonproteomic approaches. The originality of the present proteomic relies in the identification of photosynthetic proteins whose differential distribution in the thylakoid subcompartments might explain already observed phenomenon such as LHCII docking. Besides, from the present localization results we can suggest new molecular actors for photosynthesis-linked activities. For instance, most PsbP-like subunits being differently localized in stroma-lamellae, these proteins could be linked to the PSI-NDH complex in the context of cyclic electron flow around PSI. In addition, we could identify about a hundred new likely minor thylakoid (or chloroplast) proteins, some of them being potential regulators of the chloroplast physiology., (© 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.)

Quantitative mass-spectrometry-based spatial proteomics involves elaborate, expensive, and time-consuming experimental procedures, and considerable effort is invested in the generation of such data. Multiple research groups have described a variety of approaches for establishing high-quality proteome-wide datasets. However, data analysis is as critical as data production for reliable and insightful biological interpretation, and no consistent and robust solutions have been offered to the community so far. Here, we introduce the requirements for rigorous spatial proteomics data analysis, as well as the statistical machine learning methodologies needed to address them, including supervised and semi-supervised machine learning, clustering, and novelty detection. We present freely available software solutions that implement innovative state-of-the-art analysis pipelines and illustrate the use of these tools through several case studies involving multiple organisms, experimental designs, mass spectrometry platforms, and quantitation techniques. We also propose sound analysis strategies for identifying dynamic changes in subcellular localization by comparing and contrasting data describing different biological conditions. We conclude by discussing future needs and developments in spatial proteomics data analysis., (© 2014 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.)

Motivation: Experimental spatial proteomics, i.e. the high-throughput assignment of proteins to sub-cellular compartments based on quantitative proteomics data, promises to shed new light on many biological processes given adequate computational tools., Results: Here we present pRoloc, a complete infrastructure to support and guide the sound analysis of quantitative mass-spectrometry-based spatial proteomics data. It provides functionality for unsupervised and supervised machine learning for data exploration and protein classification and novelty detection to identify new putative sub-cellular clusters. The software builds upon existing infrastructure for data management and data processing.

In our study of 596 men hospitalized in the last 3 years for deep venous thrombosis-pulmonary emboli (DVT-PE), we determined the prevalence of exogenous testosterone (T) use with subsequent development of DVT-PE. Of the 596 men, 110 were now dead, 97 had cancer thought to cause DVT-PE, 250 could not be contacted, leaving 139, of whom 7 had taken T before and at the time of their admissions, 1.2% of the total cohort, a conservative estimate of the prevalence of T-associated DVT-PE. In all, 5 of the 7 DVT-PE events occurred within 3 months of initiation of T, with mean and median intervals between initiation of T and hospitalization with DVT-PE 6.7 and 2 months. Of the 7 men treated with exogenous T, all 5 men who had evaluation of thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis were found to have previously undiagnosed familial or acquired thrombophilia or hypofibrinolysis, suggesting a thrombotic interaction between exogenous T and thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis.

We describe thrombosis, deep venous thrombosis (DVT) pulmonary embolism (PE; n = 9) and hip-knee osteonecrosis (n = 5) that developed after testosterone therapy (median 11 months) in 14 previously healthy patients (13 men and 1 woman; 13 Caucasian and 1 African American), with no antecedent thrombosis and previously undiagnosed thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis. Of the 14 patients, 3 were found to be factor V Leiden heterozygotes, 3 had high factor VIII, 3 had plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 4G4G homozygosity, 2 had high factor XI, 2 had high homocysteine, 1 had low antithrombin III, 1 had the lupus anticoagulant, 1 had high anticardiolipin antibody Immunoglobulin G, and 1 had no clotting abnormalities. In 4 men with thrombophilia, DVT-PE recurred when testosterone was continued despite therapeutic international normalized ratio on warfarin. In 60 men on testosterone, 20 (33%) had high estradiol (E2 >42.6 pg/mL). When exogenous testosterone is aromatized to E2, and E2-induced thrombophilia is superimposed on thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis, thrombosis occurs. The DVT-PE and osteonecrosis after starting testosterone are associated with previously undiagnosed thrombophilia-hypofibrinolysis. Thrombophilia should be ruled out before administration of exogenous testosterone.

Background: Incentives based on quality indicators such as the Surgical Care Improvement Project core measures (SCIP 1) encourage implementation of evidence-based guidelines consistently into clinical practice. Information systems with point-of-care electronic prompts (POCEPs) can facilitate adoption of processes and benchmark performance. We evaluated the effectiveness of POCEPs on rates of antibiotic administration within 60 minutes of surgical incision and effect on outcome in a prospective observational trial., Methods: SCIP 1 compliance and the corresponding outcome variable (surgical site infection [SSI]) were examined prospectively over 2 consecutive 6-month periods before (A) and after (B) POCEPs implementation at a regional health system. Secondary analysis extended the observation to two 12-month periods (A' and B'). A 2-year (C and D) sustainability phase followed., Results: The 19,744 procedures included 9127 and 10,617 procedures before (A) and after (B) POCEPs implementation, respectively. POCEPs increased compliance with SCIP indicators in period B by 31% (95% CI, 30.0%-32.2%) from 62% to 92% (P < 0.001) and were associated with a sustainable, contemporaneous decrease in the incidence of SSI from 1.1% to 0.7% (P = 0.003; absolute risk reduction, 0.4%; 95% CI, 0.1%-0.7%). Secondary and sustainability analysis revealed that compliance rates remained >95% with mean SSI rates lower for all periods compared with pre-POCEPs SSI rates (0.8%, 0.7%, and 0.5% vs 1.1%; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: POCEPs increased compliance with SCIP indicators by >30% and were associated with a 0.4% absolute risk reduction in the incidence of SSI. POCEPs may be useful to modulate provider behavior and demonstrate intraoperative quality and value.

In this Letter we report on the fabrication and testing of an extremely thin variable aperture stop based on the design of a single chamber adaptive membrane lens with integrated actuation. The aperture consists of a ring-shaped piezoelectric bending actuator with an elastic silicone membrane in the center. The formed cavity is filled with a nontransparent fluid and sealed with a glass platelet. In a voltage range up to 80 V, an opening of the aperture of 4.55 mm in diameter is obtained. The transmission in comparison to a standard mechanical aperture stop is maximum 6% lower., (© 2011 Optical Society of America)

The neural substrate subserving magnetoreception and magnetic orientation in mammals is largely unknown. Previous experiments have demonstrated that the processing of magnetic sensory information takes place in the superior colliculus. Here, the effects of magnetic field conditions on neuronal activity in the rodent navigation circuit were assessed by quantifying c-Fos expression. Ansell's mole-rats (Fukomys anselli), a mammalian model to study the mechanisms of magnetic compass orientation, were subjected to natural, periodically changing, and shielded magnetic fields while exploring an unfamiliar circular arena. In the undisturbed local geomagnetic field, the exploration of the novel environment and/or nesting behaviour induced c-Fos expression throughout the head direction system and the entorhinal-hippocampal spatial representation system. This induction was significantly suppressed by exposure to periodically changing and/or shielded magnetic fields; discrete decreases in c-Fos were seen in the dorsal tegmental nucleus, the anterodorsal and the laterodorsal thalamic nuclei, the postsubiculum, the retrosplenial and entorhinal cortices, and the hippocampus. Moreover, in inactive animals, magnetic field intensity manipulation suppressed c-Fos expression in the CA1 and CA3 fields of the hippocampus and the dorsal subiculum, but induced expression in the polymorph layer of the dentate gyrus. These findings suggest that key constituents of the rodent navigation circuit contain populations of neurons responsive to magnetic stimuli. Thus, magnetic information may be integrated with multimodal sensory and motor information into a common spatial representation of allocentric space within this circuit.

We present for the first time a fully MEMS-integrated technology to manufacture 3D geometrically perfect solenoidal microcoils for microscale MRI applications. We report 25 microm isotropic resolution MR images of a copper sulfate aqueous phantom. These images are acquired using microcoils with 5 windings of insulated 25 microm diameter Au wire and with quality factors as high as 46 at the operating frequency (400 MHz).

Integration experiences of hearing impaired German elementary school students in separate educational settings (n = 31) were compared with those of counterparts at the same level in integrated settings (n = 26), and evaluated in regard to psychosocial behavior, semantic-lexical abilities, and communicative skills. Analysis of questionnaire responses and intelligence subtests showed that the only difference between the samples concerned perceived well-being in school, and favored the integrated students. Other percentages of variance are explainable by school type (10%), parents' hearing status (12%), and use of bimodal communication (11%). The integrated students demonstrated a higher level of integration experience, associated with fewer psychosocial abnormalities and better communicative skills. The results indicate that educational setting is not the only factor influencing students' perceived well-being. Other contextual factors, e.g., hearing status of parents and communicative skills, have a similar positive impact on integration experiences

In seasonally breeding mammals, in particular hibernators, reproduction underlies severe energetic and temporal constraints to enable the allocation of sufficient body fat reserves before winter. Thus, the timing of conception in spring can be crucial in terms of reproductive success. This study investigates follicular development in European ground squirrels (Spermophilus citellus) in three phases of the annual cycle: at vernal emergence, after weaning the offspring and shortly before hibernation. The animals were kept in outdoor enclosures within the natural habitat of the species. They were captured in weekly intervals, weighed and reproductive status was determined. Unilateral ovariectomy was scheduled such that the three periods were sampled. Numbers and diameters of tertiary follicles (TF) and corpora lutea (CL) in each ovary were determined, and plasma oestradiol and progesterone levels were analysed. The highest numbers of TF, including Graafian follicles, were found in ovaries at vernal emergence. During post-lactation, the number of TF was lower and active CL appeared in the investigated ovaries. Shortly before hibernation, active CL were present, but luteolysis had started in some individuals. Both oestradiol and progesterone secretion peaked after the termination of lactation and decreased before hibernation. The results demonstrate a second oestrus cycle in European ground squirrels after weaning, including an active luteal phase. This non-reproductive oestrus cycle with its endocrine output is an intriguing phenomenon. It may positively affect both prehibernatory fattening and reproduction in the subsequent season.

Background: In models, hearing impairment in children is linked to parental distress. Empiric data about coping with this stress is small, however, as there are virtually only cross section studies which we can refer to., Methods: 124 mothers and fathers of 61 children with a hearing impairment, who had their first hearing aid fitted respectively, had been presented to the pre-examination for a Cochlear Implantation (CI). Over a period of two years five respectively six measurements of their psycho-social distress were taken. In addition, the speech status of the children was evaluated., Results: Shortly after the diagnosis and before implantation parental quality of life is significantly reduced. Enduring parental distress could not be established. However, particularly when the CI-indication is unclear parents were found to be negatively affected in their well-being. Social support and positive self-awareness were found to moderate parental distress., Conclusions: The significant reduction of parental quality of life at the onset of the treatment would indicates the need of special psychological support of the parents in this phase. The stabilisation of the parents' well-being over the course of the treatment signifies that a "normal every day life" can be attained for affected families despite the impairment.

Background: This study sought to establish a benchmark of resistant organism rates among a cohort of regional hospitals., Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) definitions were used to standardize the methodology for obtaining rates per 1000 patient days of nosocomial infection and colonization with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), and nosocomial infection with Clostridium difficile (CDIF). Only newly acquired nosocomial cases were counted. Data were reported as individual hospital control charts and as cohorted aggregate data. VHA East Coast Infection Control Professionals from 32 hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were involved., Results: Benchmarks were established with pooled mean rates for each cohort. During the observational period, a statistically significant downward trend was observed for VRE and MRSA (P = .02 and .0007, respectively), and an upward trend was observed for CDIF (P = .0256)., Conclusion: Benchmarks were established to compare nosocomial MRSA, VRE, and CDIF rates. Although significant changes in rates were observed, no attempt was made to establish a causal relationship between infection control practices and observed rates. However, a secondary gain was achieved through sharing best practices.

Objective: This study was performed to analyze psychic stress and quality of life in the parents of children with hearing impairment in the course of various phases of treatment., Design: At three measuring points over a course of 12 months, the degree of parental stress and the quality of life was surveyed prospectively. In addition, the children's hearing and speech status was surveyed. Parents whose children were treated with hearing aids or cochlear implants were the target of this survey. At the outset of the study, data of 123 parents were available. The average age of the children was 38 months., Results: It was not possible to demonstrate generally heightened psychic stress in any phase of treatment. Differentiation into subgroups must be performed, as parental stress depends on possible changes of treatment and the child's speech status. Initially, quality of life was clearly reduced but gradually became statistically insignificant., Conclusions: The results point out the necessity of supporting the parents with counseling and psychosocial support, especially in the initial fitting phase and in the various decision and orientation phases.

Background: The diagnosis of APD (Auditory Perception Disorder) is a time consuming procedure. In Germany at the present, no screening test for APD exists which makes it possible to differentiate between children who are not likely to suffer from an APD and those who need to be diagnosed in detail., Method: The Munich Auditory Screening of Perception Disorders (MAUS) contains the following subtests: Series of Syllables, Words in Noise and Identification and Differentiation of Phonemes (test duration: 15 minutes)., Patients: The MAUS was standardized using 359 primary school children between 6 and 11 years of age. Furthermore, the MAUS was used in addition to the complete, extensive APD-diagnostics in testing 52 children (36 with APD and 16 without APD) within the age group mentioned., Results: T-scores for each subtest were established by the standardization of the MAUS. The internal consistency of the test was sufficient. The intercorrelation between subtests was very slight. Therefore, each subtest seems to play an independent part in defining the construct of APD. Because of the results of the pilot study which formed the basis for the development of the screening instrument used, and because of the sensitivity scores reached in testing a group of 36 children with diagnosed APD, it can be expected that the MAUS will show a high sensitivity with regard to APD., Conclusion: Using the MAUS, it can be determined if and to what extent the test results of an individual deviate from those of the normal primary school population. The MAUS can identify children at risk of having an APD and can differentiate these children from those who are unlikely to suffer from an APD.

Background: Both psychometric questionnaires and structured psychodiagnostic interviews are used to identify medically-ill inpatients requiring psychotherapeutic treatment. The study examines the accordance between the diagnosis of a mental disorder (ICD-10) and self-rated psychosocial distress of unselected inpatients within the framework of a psychosomatic liaison service., Methods: Of n=532 consecutive patients hospitalized in five departments of the University Hospital Freiburg, n=357 patients underwent a structured psychodiagnostic interview (Mini-DIPS) to obtain diagnoses according to ICD-10 F. Psychosocial distress (HADS), somatoform symptoms (SOMS-2 J), quality of life (EDLQ) and coping strategies (FQCI) were evaluated by self-rating questionnaires., Results: A mental disorder requiring treatment was diagnosed in 44% of the patients. Predictors for the diagnosis of a mental disorder were the depression subscale of the HADS, the frequency of somatoform symptoms and depressive coping. The greatest accordance between mental disorders and screening instruments was found for the depression subscale of the HADS at a cut-off 8+. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.75. With a specificity of 87% and a sensitivity of 53%, nearly half of all mental disorders requiring treatment were not identified by the HADS, especially in patients with neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (F4), most of them cancer patients with adjustment disorders., Conclusions: Case selection by the HADS is successfull in disorders, where depressive symptoms are prevalent. For F4-diagnoses a lower cut-off of 6+ is recommended. The importance of a clinical interview is underlined. Other screening procedures, specific for the general hospital population, are discussed.

Microcystins, toxins produced by cyanobacteria, may play a role in fish kills, although their specific contribution remains unclear. A better understanding of the eco-toxicological effects of microcystins is hampered by a lack of analyses at different trophic levels in lake foodwebs. We present 3 years of monitoring data, and directly compare the transfer of microcystin in the foodweb starting with the uptake of (toxic) cyanobacteria by two different filter feeders: the cladoceran Daphnia galeata and the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha. Furthermore foodwebs are compared in years in which the colonial cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa or the filamentous cyanobacterium Planktothrix agardhii dominated; there are implications in terms of the types and amount of microcystins produced and in the ingestion of cyanobacteria. Microcystin concentrations in the seston commonly reached levels where harmful effects on zooplankton are to be expected. Likewise, concentrations in zooplankton reached levels where intoxication of fish is likely. The food chain starting with Dreissena (consumed by roach and diving ducks) remained relatively free from microcystins. Liver damage, typical for exposure to microcystins, was observed in a large fraction of the populations of different fish species, although no relation with the amount of microcystin could be established. Microcystin levels were especially high in the livers of planktivorous fish, mainly smelt. This puts piscivorous birds at risk. We found no evidence for biomagnification of microcystins. Concentrations in filter feeders were always much below those in the seston, and yet vectorial transport to higher trophic levels took place. Concentrations of microcystin in smelt liver exceeded those in the diet of these fish, but it is incorrect to compare levels in a selected organ to those in a whole organism (zooplankton). The discussion focuses on the implications of detoxication and covalent binding of microcystin for the transfer of the toxin in the foodweb. It seems likely that microcystins are one, but not the sole, factor involved in fish kills during blooms of cyanobacteria.

The results of previous cross-section studies suggest that childhood hearing impairment may lead to parental psychosocial stress. The present study investigated whether modifications in parental psychic state can be ascertained in connection with the child's treatment events and the child's hearing and speech status, in a prospective study design. Data were available on 116 fathers and mothers regarding the pre-cochlear implant examination or hearing aid fitting of their child. In the course of the child's treatment, parental quality of life improved from a low to a normal level. Among children who were at the stage of pre-examination for a cochlear implant, better hearing and speech capacity was linked to more severe impairment of the parental state. It is emphasized that the parents whose children showed comparatively good language development at the time of pre-examination for a cochlear implant were especially subjected to stress.

Objective: The goal of the study was to ascertain psychological distress and quality of life in the parents of children with a cochlear implant, and to test whether a poorer speech status of those children correlates directly with heightened parental psychological distress and reduction of quality of life., Methods: In a cross-sectional study design, 52 mothers and 42 fathers of 55 children with cochlear implants completed the Symptom Checklist 90-R and the Everyday Life Questionnaire. The speech status of the children was ascertained by means of the scales of Geers and Moog., Results: Twenty-one per cent of the parents showed heightened psychological distress. The parents' mean quality of life was reduced, lying between that of somatically ill patients and healthy persons. No statistically positive correlation was shown between the speech status of the children with cochlear implants and the parents' condition.

Central Serous Chorioretinopathy (CSC) is a degenerative retinal disease still considered within ophthalmology as being of psychosomatic origin. Psychotherapeutic treatment of CSC patients has been demanded by several authors who, however, have failed to investigate the relevant preconditions. The present study examined subjective illness experience, treatment preconditions, and psychodynamic conflicts in 31 patients with CSC by means of axes I and III of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostics (OPD). Illness experience, psychological symptoms, capacity for insight into psychodynamic contexts and motivation towards psychotherapy were but slight. The conflicts of one half of the patients was evaluated as important. Predominant conflicts were dependency vs. autonomy, submission vs. control, providing vs. autarchy and self-esteem conflicts. All in all, the patients examined were more or less clinically inconspicuous, giving rather few reasons for psychotherapy. In order to control the results, further studies with higher case numbers are required.

Health care insurers in Germany fund long-term psychotherapy of up to 240 sessions as well as brief psychotherapeutic interventions of up to 25 sessions. In a former study, it was observed that a substantial proportion of interventions initially designed as brief psychotherapy were changed into long-term therapy. The present study investigated the criteria of such decisions to change treatment plans and is part of a more comprehensive auditing study in outpatient psychotherapy. Twenty-six psychotherapists in private practice participated in the study. During a 12-month recruitment period, 70 patients started with brief psychodynamic psychotherapy. Thirty-six therapies were evaluated according to the study protocol. The results provide evidence that motivation for psychotherapy, satisfaction with the results of therapy, persistence of psychological symptoms at the end of short-term intervention, and aspects of the patient's personality are factors predictive of treatment selection. Patients who changed from short-term to long-term therapy were more motivated towards their therapy (prognostic indication), displayed more severe symptoms, were less satisfied with the results of short-term psychotherapy (adaptive indication), and scored higher on the "structure of personality organization" parameter according to the OPD diagnostic system.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to compare the parents of children with a hearing aid (HA) and children with a cochlear implant (CI) regarding their psychological distress, their expectations from treatment, their family climate, and the way they first obtained information on HA/CI., Methods: 154 parents (return quota 41%; 81 mothers and 73 fathers) of 90 children with a HA and 103 parents (return quota 59%; 57 mothers and 46 fathers) of 57 children with a CI were interviewed by means of a questionnaire., Results: Both groups of parents felt distressed, particularly at the time of diagnosis. Their psychological well-being was gradually stabilized in the further course of rehabilitation. Due to the operation associated with it, fitting with a CI brought on a phase of heightened parental psychological distress compared with less invasive treatment with a HA. Regarding family climate, more distress was found in parents of CI children than in parents of HA children. Expectations from therapy appeared realistic in both parental groups; however, after CI fitting, the parents of the CI children showed heightened expectations by comparison with the parents of the HA children., Conclusions: The results of our study suggest that the parents of hearing impaired children fitted with a HA or a CI may be divided into two subgroups with divergent psychosocial parameters. For the counseling of the parents of hearing impaired children in clinical practice, it would seem important to take these specific differences into consideration.

Aims: Patients with central serous chorioretinopathy were tested for psychosomatic symptoms and social support at the onset of their ailments; their personality profiles were also tested., Methods: 24 consecutive outpatients at the department of ophthalmology, Freiburg University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany, presenting with central serous chorioretinopathy filled in the following standardised questionnaires: Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL 90-R), Symptom List, Questionnaire on Social Support, and Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire., Results: The sample (n=24) included 22 male patients with an average age of 44.1 years. Three quarters of the patients have children and live with their families; three quarters are white collar workers or self employed; one quarter are skilled blue collar workers. 12 patients were suffering from the ailment for the first time; 12 patients were undergoing a relapse. Mean visus of the affected eye was 0.8. The Symptom List yielded an inconspicuous total score for psychosomatic symptoms. In the SCL 90-R, nine out of 24 patients (37%) evinced elevated psychic stress. The total value of the questionnaire on social support showed good social support. In the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, the patients showed heightened emotional instability and insecurity as well as flexibility and spontaneity., Conclusion: The sociodemographic data confirm that central serous chorioretinopathy is predominantly an ailment of middle aged, socially well integrated men. This study suggests elevated psychic stress a few weeks after the onset of the ailment. The personality factors in the patients with central serous chorioretinopathy found in this study have to be verified with other populations. These results did not clearly show that psychosocial factors have a definite role in the aetiology of central serous chorioretinopathy. In order to make any clear assertions about this matter, further longitudinal studies on the progression of psychosocial parameters with larger patient samples would be indispensable.

Purpose: Infectious complications following orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in both adults and children. In adults, surgical site infections complicating OLT have been shown to significantly increase resource utilization, but their impact in children has not been studied. In this study we identify risk factors for surgical site infections in children undergoing primary OLT for end-stage liver disease and estimate their impact on patient survival, graft survival, length of stay, and charges., Methods: All pediatric liver transplants (n = 77) less than 16 years of age from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Liver Transplantation Database were included in the analysis. Surgical site infections (n = 25) were defined as wound infections, abdominal abscesses, and bacterial or fungal infections of the liver, intestine, or peritoneum during the initial transplant admission. Risk of infection was estimated using logistic regression, survival rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and length of stay and charges were compared using Student's t-test. Multivariate analysis of charges was performed using linear regression., Results: Of the 77 patients, 25 (32.5%) developed a surgical site infection. Several factors were associated with increased risk of infections, including a leak at the biliary anastomosis (odds ratio [OR] 115, P = 0.003), preoperative white blood cell count (OR = 1.28, P = 0.009), surgery > 7 h (OR = 15.0, P = 0.011), HLA mismatches (OR = 6.0, P = 0.03), and female gender (OR = 8.0, P = 0.038). Surgical site infections did not significantly decrease either patient survival or graft survival, and increased hospital stay by an average of 21 days (P = 0.14). After controlling for other factors, patients who developed surgical site infections incurred on average $132,507 (P = 0.03) more in charges than patients who did not develop infections., Conclusions: Surgical site infections in pediatric patients following liver transplantation are significantly influenced by surgical technique and endogenous patient characteristics. Though survival outcomes are not different, the development of such infections has significant implications for resource utilization in the care of these patients.

Objectives: The study addresses the evaluation of psychosocial distress, the need for care as determined by a psychotherapist and patients, and the realization of psychotherapeutic interventions within a routine psychosomatic liaison service., Material and Methods: A total of 84 patients from one unit at the Department of Neurology of the University of Freiburg, Germany, underwent a structured psychodiagnostic interview and filled out self-rating instruments to evaluate mental disorders, psychosocial distress, ways of coping strategies and quality of life. The need for treatment and the motivation of patients were estimated by both patients and a liaison psychotherapist., Results: Using ICD-10-F criteria, mental and behavioral disorders were diagnosed in 35% of cases. Professional assessment indicated a need for psychotherapeutic treatment in 37% of patients; actual intervention occurred in 27%. Only slight agreement was found between the estimated need for treatment and the interventions actually performed., Conclusions: The realization of psychotherapeutic interventions is subject to a complex interaction between the needs of a patient, the "objective" psychosocial distress of the patient, and institutional factors. About 10% of the hospitalized patients considered in the study need continuous psychotherapeutic treatment.

In this naturalistic prospective longitudinal study, the authors evaluated the treatment selection decisions of 24 psychotherapists in private practice over a 12-month period. A comparison of the treatment selection criteria for patients who were accepted for treatment and for those who were not yielded 3 results: (a) Motivation was the outstanding factor determining whether a patient was accepted for treatment; (b) selection of short-term or long-term psychotherapy depended on the therapists' emotional response to the patient; and (c) psychiatric diagnosis and symptom severity contributed relatively little to treatment selection. These findings suggest that treatment selection in private practice psychodynamic psychotherapy is based on specific aspects of the therapist-patient relationship rather than on patient characteristics related to symptom severity or psychiatric diagnosis.

Questions Under Study: The aim of the study was to evaluate the need for psychotherapeutic interventions and their realisation within the framework of the psychosomatic liaison service. Apart from establishing the diagnosis of psychosocial distress and mental disorders, we assessed the motivation of the patients for psychotherapy., Methods: 62 consecutive patients admitted to the Department of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology) Freiburg University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany, underwent standardised psychodiagnostic interviews and completed psychometric self-rating tests to identify mental disorders, psychosocial distress, and motivation for psychotherapy. In addition, the patients' need for psychotherapeutic treatment was rated by the liaison therapist., Results: Using ICD 10-criteria, mental disorders were diagnosed in two thirds of the patients; most frequent were adjustment disorders, affective disorders, and disorders resulting from alcohol use. One third of the patients reported signs of psychological distress; half of them were interested in psychotherapy. A need for psychotherapeutic interventions, based on motivation of the patients and on expert estimate, was found in approximately one third of the patients. 36% received actual psychotherapy., Conclusions: Our study suggests that - in the patient population studied - the patients' motivation ought to be taken into consideration more strongly when evaluating the need for psychotherapy in clinical practice and further research.

Leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava is a rare mesenchymal tumor. The diagnostic approach, based on general guidelines of oncologic surgery, seems to be relatively routine; specific aspects of treatment, including vascular reconstruction, depend on tumor stage, grade, and location. In this report, the management of this disease in 5 patients is summarized and the literature is reviewed. A thorough diagnostic assessment includes sonography, computed tomography, angiography or duplex ultrasonography, perioperative pathohistologic examination, and appropriate differential diagnosis. Radical resection is associated with the best outcome and long-term survival. In this series, 4 of 5 patients underwent tumor resection. In 2 patients, the disease was classified as R0. Another patient had R1 status found at resection and underwent postoperative radiation after the tumor bed was marked intraoperatively. She has remained stable since treatment. One patient died of pulmonary metastases 32 months after primary R1 tumor resection. The 5th patient has been stable since diagnosis; resection was not possible because of severe accompanying diseases and because consent for surgical intervention could not be obtained from the patient. There is reasonable hope that leiomyosarcoma of the inferior vena cava can be treated successfully, even in advanced stages, with novel antineoplastic drugs and radiotherapeutic protocols. However, general treatment recommendations have not yet been compiled.

A nonlinear, recurrent neural network model of the visual cortex is presented. Orientation maps emerge from adaptable afferent as well as plastic local intracortical circuits driven by random input stimuli. Lateral coupling structures self-organize into DOG profiles under the influence of pronounced emerging cortical activity blobs. The model's simplified architecture and features are modeled to largely mimik neurobiological findings.

Background: Empirical investigations examining the psychosocial distress and need for care of dermatology patients are rare. Little is known about the use of psychotherapeutic interventions in routine care., Objective: To evaluate the psychosocial distress of dermatological inpatients, the need for psychotherapeutic interventions and their realization in the framework of a psychosomatic liaison service., Methods: 86 patients from one unit at the University Dermatology Clinic in Freiburg underwent psychodiagnostic interviews and completed self-rating instruments, elucidating mental disorders, psychosocial distress, coping methods, quality of life, treatment motivation and psychotherapeutic interventions., Results: Using ICD-10 criteria, mental and behavioral disorders were diagnosed in 46%; most frequent were mood and anxiety disorders. Professional assessment indicated a need for psychotherapeutic treatment in 51%, while 28% of the patients wished for psychotherapy; actual intervention occurred in 38%., Conclusions: The need for psychotherapeutic treatment can only be handled within the framework of a liaison service in close collaboration with care givers., (Copyright 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel)

A neural network model with incremental Hebbian learning of afferent and lateral synaptic couplings is proposed,which simulates the activity-dependent self-organization of grating cells in upper layers of striate cortex. These cells, found in areas V1 and V2 of the visual cortex of monkeys, respond vigorously and exclusively to bar gratings of a preferred orientation and periodicity. Response behavior to varying contrast and to an increasing number of bars in the grating show threshold and saturation effects. Their location with respect to the underlying orientation map and their nonlinear response behavior are investigated. The number of emerging grating cells is controlled in the model by the range and strength of the lateral coupling structure.

Two independent methods for determination of the effectively sampled mass per unit area are presented and compared. The first method combines directional-hemispherical transmittance and reflectance measurements. A three-flux approximation of the equation of radiative transfer is used, to separately determine the specific absorption and scattering coefficients of the powder material, which subsequently are used to determine the effective sample size. The second method uses a number of diffuse reflectance measurements on layers of controlled powder thickness in an empirical approach. The two methods are shown to agree well and thus confirm each other. From the determination of the effective sample size at each measured wavelength in the visible-NIR region for two different model powder materials, large differences was found, both between the two analyzed powders and between different wavelengths. As an example, the effective sample size ranges between 15 and 70 mg/cm(2) for microcrystalline cellulose and between 70 and 300 mg/cm(2) for film-coated pellets. However, the contribution to the spectral information obtained from a certain layer decreases rapidly with increasing distance from the powder surface. With both methods, the extent of contribution from various depths of a powder sample to the visible-NIR diffuse reflection signal is characterized. This information is valuable for validation of analytical applications of diffuse reflectance visible-NIR spectrometry.

We present a simplified binocular neural network model of the primary visual cortex with separate ON/OFF-pathways and modifiable afferent as well as intracortical synaptic couplings. Random as well as natural image stimuli drive the weight adaptation which follows Hebbian learning rules stabilized with constant norm and constant sum constraints. The simulations consider the development of orientation and ocular dominance maps under different conditions concerning stimulus patterns and lateral couplings. With random input patterns realistic orientation maps with +/- 1/2-vortices mostly develop and plastic lateral couplings self-organize into mexican hat type structures on average. Using natural greyscale images as input patterns, realistic orientation maps develop as well and the lateral coupling profiles of the cortical neurons represent the two point correlations of the input image used.