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Objective: The question whether elective meningioma surgery should be performed in patients at higher ages is complex. The expected health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for these patients is a crucial point. In this study we evaluated the hypothesis that health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in elderly[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 67. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), 1. Joint Meeting mit der Koreanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (KNS)

Rhinovirus infections occur frequently throughout life and have been reported in about one-third of asymptomatic cases. The clinical significance of sequential rhinovirus infections remains unclear. To determine the incidence and clinical relevance of sequential rhinovirus detections, nasopharyngeal samples from 2485 adults with acute cough/lower respiratory illness were analysed. Patients were enrolled prospectively by general practitioners from 12 European Union countries during three consecutive years (2007–2010). Nasopharyngeal samples were collected at the initial general practitioner consultation and 28 days thereafter and symptom scores were recorded by patients over that period. Rhinovirus RNA was detected in 444 (18%) out of 2485 visit one samples and in 110 (4.4%) out of 2485 visit two respiratory samples. 21 (5%) of the 444 patients had both samples positive for rhinovirus. Genotyping of both virus detections was successful for 17 (81%) out of 21 of these patients. Prolonged rhinovirus shedding occurred in six (35%) out of 21 and re-infection with a different rhinovirus in 11 (65%) out of 21. Rhinovirus re-infections were significantly associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (p=0.04) and asthma (p=0.02) and appeared to be more severe than prolonged infections. Our findings indicate that in immunocompetent adults rhinovirus re-infections are more common than prolonged infections, and chronic airway comorbidities might predispose to more frequent rhinovirus re-infections. Chronic airway comorbidities might predispose to more frequent rhinovirus re-infections in immunocompetent adults

Objective: Real-time RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) is often used to analyse gene expression. In human meningiomas, many different reference genes are frequently used, however, no study has been performed yet to validate these “reference genes” with respect to the degree of malignancy. Moreover, no [for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 65. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)

Recurring RNA structural motifs are important sites of tertiary interaction and as such, are integral to RNA macromolecular structure. Although numerous RNA motifs have been classified and characterized, the identification of new motifs is of great interest. In this study, we discovered four new conformationally recurring motifs: the pi-turn, the Omega-turn, the alpha-loop and the C2'-endo mediated flipped adenosine motif. Not only do they have complex and interesting structures, but they participate in contacts of high biological significance. In a first for the RNA field, new motifs were discovered by a fully automated algorithm. This algorithm, COMPADRES, utilized a reduced representation of the RNA backbone and was highly successful at discerning unique structural relationships. This study also shows that recurring RNA substructures are not necessarily accompanied by consistent primary or secondary structure.

Given the availability of sequence information for many species, one can examine how the sequence of a gene varies among different organisms. This is accomplished by aligning the sequences and observing patterns of conservation, mutation and counter-mutation at different positions in the gene. Imbedded in these patterns is information on energetic coupling and macromolecular interactions, which can be deciphered by application of statistical algorithms. Here we report a robust approach for predicting interactions within (or between) any type of biopolymer, including proteins, RNAs and RNA-protein complexes. Rather than maximize the number of predictions, this approach is designed to detect a limited number of highly significant interactions, thereby providing accurate results from alignments that contain a modest number of sequences (20-60). The versatility and accuracy of the algorithm is demonstrated by the successful prediction of important intramolecular interactions within RNAs, modified RNAs, and proteins, as well as the prediction of RNA-protein and protein-protein interactions.

Given the wealth of new RNA structures and the growing list of RNA functions in biology, it is of great interest to understand the repertoire of RNA folding motifs. The ability to identify new and known motifs within novel RNA structures, to compare tertiary structures with one another and to quantify the characteristics of a given RNA motif are major goals in the field of RNA research; however, there are few systematic ways to address these issues. Using a novel approach for visualizing and mathematically describing macromolecular structures, we have developed a means to quantitatively describe RNA molecules in order to rapidly analyze, compare and explore their features. This approach builds on the alternative eta,theta convention for describing RNA torsion angles and is executed using a new program called PRIMOS. Applying this methodology, we have successfully identified major regions of conformational change in the 50S and 30S ribosomal subunits, we have developed a means to search the database of RNA structures for the prevalence of known motifs and we have classified and identified new motifs. These applications illustrate the powerful capabilities of our new RNA structural convention, and they suggest future adaptations with important implications for bioinformatics and structural genomics.

Gravitational waves provide a laboratory for general relativity and a window to energetic astrophysical phenomena invisible with electromagnetic radiation. Several terrestrial detectors are currently under construction, and a space-based interferometer is envisioned for launch early next century to detect test-mass motions induced by waves of relatively short wavelength. Very-long-wavelength gravitational waves can be detected using the plasma in the early Universe as test masses; the motion induced in the plasma by a wave is imprinted onto the cosmic microwave background (CMB). While the signature of gravitational waves on the CMB temperature fluctuations is not unique, the polarization pattern can be used to unambiguously detect gravitational radiation. Thus, forthcoming CMB polarization experiments, such as MAP and Planck, will be the first space-based gravitational-wave detectors., 5 pages, 3 postscript figures