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We propose that the same mechanism which leads to light-adaptation in invertebrate photoreceptors is responsible for the excitation of the receptor potential in vertebrates. Several qualitative and quantitative features of the vertebrate receptor response support this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change carries important effects on human wellbeing and performance, and increasingly research is documenting the negative impacts of out-of-comfort temperatures on workplace performance. In this study, we investigate the plausibly causal effect of extreme temperatures, i.e., out-of-comfort, on language complexity among politicians, leveraging a fixed effects strategy. We analyze language complexity in over seven million parliamentary speeches across eight countries, connecting them with precise daily meteorological information. We find hot days reduce politicians' language complexity, but not cold days. Focusing on one country, we explore marginal effects by age and gender, suggesting high temperatures significantly impact older politicians at lower thresholds. The findings propose that political rhetoric is not only driven by political circumstances and strategic concerns but also by physiological responses to external environmental factors. Overall, the study holds important implications on how climate change could affect human cognitive performance and the quality of political discourse., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024 The Author(s).)

Background: Germline variant evaluation in precision oncology opens new paths toward the identification of patients with genetic tumor risk syndromes and the exploration of therapeutic relevance. Here, we present the results of germline variant analysis and their clinical implications in a precision oncology study for patients with predominantly rare cancers., Patients and Methods: Matched tumor and control genome/exome and RNA sequencing was carried out for 1485 patients with rare cancers (79%) and/or young adults (77% younger than 51 years) in the National Center for Tumor Diseases/German Cancer Consortium (NCT/DKTK) Molecularly Aided Stratification for Tumor Eradication Research (MASTER) trial, a German multicenter, prospective, observational precision oncology study. Clinical and therapeutic relevance of prospective pathogenic germline variant (PGV) evaluation was analyzed and compared to other precision oncology studies., Results: Ten percent of patients (n = 157) harbored PGVs in 35 genes associated with autosomal dominant cancer predisposition, whereof up to 75% were unknown before study participation. Another 5% of patients (n = 75) were heterozygous carriers for recessive genetic tumor risk syndromes. Particularly, high PGV yields were found in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) (28%, n = 11/40), and more specifically in wild-type GISTs (50%, n = 10/20), leiomyosarcomas (21%, n = 19/89), and hepatopancreaticobiliary cancers (16%, n = 16/97). Forty-five percent of PGVs (n = 100/221) supported treatment recommendations, and its implementation led to a clinical benefit in 40% of patients (n = 10/25). A comparison of different precision oncology studies revealed variable PGV yields and considerable differences in germline variant analysis workflows. We therefore propose a detailed workflow for germline variant evaluation., Conclusions: Genetic germline testing in patients with rare cancers can identify the very first patient in a hereditary cancer family and can lead to clinical benefit in a broad range of entities. Its routine implementation in precision oncology accompanied by the harmonization of germline variant evaluation workflows will increase clinical benefit and boost research., Competing Interests: Disclosure AJ: Honoraria: AstraZeneca. CH: Honoraria: Roche, Novartis; research funding: Boehringer Ingelheim; consulting or advisory board: Boehringer Ingelheim. CVG: Employed by Illumina since August 2021. LM reports non-financial support from Celgene outside the submitted work (travel expenses). MAu: Consulting or advisory board membership: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ipsen, Merck KGaA, MSD Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, PharmaMar; research funding: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Exelixis, Ipsen, Merck KGaA, Novartis, Pfizer, PharmaMar, Roche; honoraria: Blueprint Medicines, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ipsen, Janssen-Cilag, Merck KGaA, Pfizer, PharmaMar. PHoh: Advisory board membership: Roche, Deciphera, PharmaMar, Pfizer, BluMedicine, GSK; honoraria: Bristol-Meyers-Squibb, Astrazeneca; research funding: Novartis, Siemens. MK: Honoraria: Bayer, MSD, Eisai, Ipsen, Eli Lilly; research funding: Eli Lilly, Ipsen, Loxo Oncology. RFS: Consulting or advisory board membership: Astellas, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Pfizer; research funding: AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer, PharmaMar, Roche; honoraria: Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer. GF: Honoraria: Amgen, Armo Biosciences, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, HRA Pharma, Merck KGaA, MSD Sharp & Dohme, Pierre Fabre, Roche, Sanofi, Servier, Shire; research funding: Merck KGaA. SB: Consulting or advisory board membership: ADC Therapeutics, Blueprint Medicines, Daichii-Sankyo, Deciphera, Eli Lilly, Exelixis, Janssen-Cilag, Mundipharma, Novartis, Plexxikon; honoraria: Bayer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Pfizer, PharmaMar; research funding: Blueprint Medicines, Incyte, Novartis. JTS: Consulting or advisory board membership: AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Immunocore, Novartis, Roche, Shire; honoraria: AstraZeneca, Aurikamed, Baxalta, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Falk Foundation, iomedico, Immunocore, Novartis, Roche, Shire; research funding: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Roche; minor equity in iTheranostics and Pharma15; member of the Board of Directors for Pharma15, all outside the submitted work. ALI: Honoraria: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Roche. NvB: Consulting or advisory board membership: Novartis; honoraria: Novartis, Takeda. PJJ: Consulting or advisory board membership, honoraria, research funding, travel or accommodation expenses: Abbvie, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Servier. KHM: Consulting: Celgene/BMS, Novartis, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer; honoraria: Celgene/BMS, Daiichi Sankyo, Astellas, AbbVie, Novartis; research funding: Celgene. AS: Consulting or advisory board membership, honoraria: AGCT, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chugai, Eli Lilly, Illumina, Janssen, MSD Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Seattle Genetics, Takeda, Thermo Fisher; research funding: Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chugai. WW: Consulting or advisory board membership, honoraria: Agilent, Amgen, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Illumina, Merck, MSD Sharp & Dohme, Pfizer, NewOncology, Novartis, Roche, Takeda; research funding: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MSD Sharp & Dohme, Roche. SF: Consulting or advisory board membership: Bayer, Illumina, Roche; honoraria: Amgen, Eli Lilly, PharmaMar, Roche; research funding: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, PharmaMar, Roche; travel or accommodation expenses: Amgen, Eli Lilly, Illumina, PharmaMar, Roche. ES: Honoraria: AstraZeneca, Illumina. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest. Data sharing All evaluated germline variants can be found in Supplementary Table S5, available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2022.07.008. Sequencing data have been deposited in the European Genome-phenome Archive (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ega/datasets) under accession EGAS00001005537., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The water swelling and subsequent solvent exchange including co-nonsolvency behavior of thin films of a doubly thermo-responsive diblock copolymer (DBC) are studied via spectral reflectance, time-of-flight neutron reflectometry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The DBC consists of a thermo-responsive zwitterionic (poly(4-((3-methacrylamidopropyl) dimethylammonio) butane-1-sulfonate)) (PSBP) block, featuring an upper critical solution temperature transition in aqueous media but being insoluble in acetone, and a nonionic poly( N -isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM) block, featuring a lower critical solution temperature transition in water, while being soluble in acetone. Homogeneous DBC films of 50-100 nm thickness are first swollen in saturated water vapor (H 2 O or D 2 O), before they are subjected to a contraction process by exposure to mixed saturated water/acetone vapor (H 2 O or D 2 O/acetone-d6 = 9:1 v/v). The affinity of the DBC film toward H 2 O is stronger than for D 2 O, as inferred from the higher film thickness in the swollen state and the higher absorbed water content, thus revealing a pronounced isotope sensitivity. During the co-solvent-induced switching by mixed water/acetone vapor, a two-step film contraction is observed, which is attributed to the delayed expulsion of water molecules and uptake of acetone molecules. The swelling kinetics are compared for both mixed vapors (H 2 O/acetone-d6 and D 2 O/acetone-d6) and with those of the related homopolymer films. Moreover, the concomitant variations of the local environment around the hydrophilic groups located in the PSBP and PNIPMAM blocks are followed. The first contraction step turns out to be dominated by the behavior of the PSBP block, whereas the second one is dominated by the PNIPMAM block. The unusual swelling and contraction behavior of the latter block is attributed to its co-nonsolvency behavior. Furthermore, we observe cooperative hydration effects in the DBC films, that is, both polymer blocks influence each other's solvation behavior.

Research shows that emotions matter in politics, and they matter during a public health crisis. Yet, a comprehensive analysis of emotional political rhetoric during the COVID-19 crisis is still missing. Based on parties' position in the political arena (government versus populist radical parties), I expect differences in how specific emotions are employed and in how these messages actually influence the public. To test my hypotheses, I use word embeddings and neural network classifiers to measure fear and hope appeals in social media messages of political parties in four European countries. Furthermore, I rely on more than 1,400,000 public tweets of random citizens to estimate the impact of party messages. To do so, I employ vector autoregression (VAR) analysis to compare retweet volumes of political messages to emotional expressions in public tweets. Results indicate two main findings, (1) populist radical parties communicate less about the pandemic and decrease fear and increase hope appeals while COVID case numbers are rising whereas government parties exhibit the opposite pattern; (2) increased diffusion of party tweets consistently precedes change in partisans' emotional expressions the following day. The findings can carry important implications for (affective) polarization and the level of protective behavior among the population., (© 2022 The Author. Political Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society of Political Psychology.)

Background: Literature reporting [18F]fluorodexoyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) of small bowel adenocarcinoma, a rare tumor, is sparse. To assess FDG uptake in small bowel adenocarcinoma, we retrospectively analyzed a large, single-center database and determined the expression of glucose-transporter type 1 (GLUT-1)., Methods: Screening of PET datasets in the database (N.=28,961 scans) for untreated histologically-confirmed primary small bowel adenocarcinoma revealed evaluable PET datasets for eight patients. Maximum and peak standardized uptake values (SUVmax and SUVpeak, respectively) were calculated via volume-of-interest (VOI) analysis. Additionally, GLUT-1 expression on tumor specimens was prospectively immunohistochemically assessed., Results: All primary tumors showed high FDG uptake: mean SUVmax was 9.5±2.6 (range: 5.0-13.0) and SUVpeak, 8.1±2.3 (range: 3.9-10.7). Corresponding biopsy specimens (N.=7) demonstrated high GLUT-1 expression., Conclusions: Primary small bowel adenocarcinomas have a high GLUT-1 expression. Tumor lesions consistently demonstrated high FDG uptake pre-treatment, suggesting FDG-PET utility in staging and follow-up of these tumors.

The water vapor-induced swelling, as well as subsequent phase-transition kinetics, of thin films of a diblock copolymer (DBC) loaded with different amounts of the salt NaBr, is investigated in situ. In dilute aqueous solution, the DBC features an orthogonally thermoresponsive behavior. It consists of a zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine) block, namely, poly(4-( N -(3'-methacrylamidopropyl)- N , N -dimethylammonio) butane-1-sulfonate) (PSBP), showing an upper critical solution temperature, and a nonionic block, namely, poly( N -isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM), exhibiting a lower critical solution temperature. The swelling kinetics in D 2 O vapor at 15 °C and the phase transition kinetics upon heating the swollen film to 60 °C and cooling back to 15 °C are followed with simultaneous time-of-flight neutron reflectometry and spectral reflectance measurements. These are complemented by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The collapse temperature of PNIPMAM and the swelling temperature of PSBP are found at lower temperatures than in aqueous solution, which is attributed to the high polymer concentration in the thin-film geometry. Upon inclusion of sub-stoichiometric amounts (relative to the monomer units) of NaBr in the films, the water incorporation is significantly increased. This increase is mainly attributed to a salting-in effect on the zwitterionic PSBP block. Whereas the addition of NaBr notably shifts the swelling temperature of PSBP to lower temperatures, the collapse temperature of PNIPMAM remains unaffected by the presence of salt in the films.

In neutron scattering on soft matter, an important concern is the control and stability of environmental conditions surrounding the sample. Complex sample environment setups are often expensive to fabricate or simply not achievable by conventional workshop manufacturing. We make use of state-of-the-art 3D metal-printing technology to realize a sample environment for large sample sizes, optimized for investigations on thin film samples with neutron reflectometry (NR) and grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering (GISANS). With the flexibility and freedom of design given by 3D metal-printing, a spherical chamber with fluidic channels inside its walls is printed from an AlSi10Mg powder via selective laser melting (SLM). The thin channels ensure a homogeneous heating of the sample environment from all directions and allow for quick temperature switches in well-equilibrated atmospheres. In order to optimize the channel layout, flow simulations were carried out and verified in temperature switching tests. The spherical, edgeless design aids the prevention of condensation inside the chamber in case of high humidity conditions. The large volume of the sample chamber allows for high flexibility in sample size and geometry. While a small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurement through the chamber walls reveals a strong isotropic scattering signal resulting from the evenly orientated granular structure introduced by SLM, a second SANS measurement through the windows shows no additional background originating from the chamber. Exemplary GISANS and NR measurements in time-of-flight mode are shown to prove that the chamber provides a stable, background free sample environment for the investigation of thin films.

The orientation of block copolymer (BCP) features in thin films can be obtained by spin-coating a BCP solution on a substrate surface functionalized by a polymer brush layer of the appropriate random copolymer (RCP). Although this approach is well established, little work reporting the amount and distribution of residual solvent in the polymer film after the spin-coating process is available. Moreover, no information can be found on the effect of trapped solvent on the interface between the BCP film and RCP brush. In this work, systems consisting of poly(styrene)- b -poly(methyl methacrylate) thin films deposited on poly(styrene- r -methyl methacrylate) brush layers are investigated by combining neutron reflectivity (NR) experiments with simulation techniques. An increase in the amount of trapped solvent is observed by NR as the BCP film thickness increases accompanied by a significant decrease of the interpenetration length between the BCP and RCP, thus suggesting that the interpenetration between grafted chains and block copolymer chains is hampered by the solvent. Hybrid particle-field molecular dynamics simulations of the analyzed system confirm the experimental observations and demonstrate a clear correlation between the interpenetration length and the amount of trapped solvent.

The investigation of the response kinetics of smart colloidal microgel films is crucial for their optimization to enable advanced applications. We study the classical thermoresponsive microgel model system N -isopropylacrylamide cross-linked with N , N '-methylenebisacrylamide. Without the typically used polyelectrolyte coating of the substrate, thin microgel films are prepared in a single spin-coating step. Atomic force microscopy measurements reveal an extremely dense packing, resulting in a homogeneous compact thin film of microgel particles. The hydration kinetics of these films in H 2 O and D 2 O atmospheres as well as the kinetics of the solvent exchange between both water species are investigated with in situ time-of-flight neutron reflectometry (TOF-NR) and in situ Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. With accounting for a nonconstant humid atmosphere, the intrinsic diffusion dynamics of water molecules into the thin microgel film are modeled and the specific time constant τ and the effective Flory-Huggins interaction parameter χ eff are determined. Comparing the results in H 2 O and D 2 O atmospheres, TOF-NR and FTIR spectroscopy results show an increased affinity of the microgel films toward H 2 O as compared to D 2 O. From the FTIR spectroscopy data, we further identify different kinetics of intermolecular processes and order them according to their temporal evolution.

Background: Developed countries have a high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. In previous studies, 25(OH)D was predominantly measured by immunoassays. The present study assessed serum 25(OH)D in a very large Southern European outpatient cohort by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)., Materials and Methods: 74,235 serum 25(OH)D results generated under routine conditions between 2015 and 2016 were extracted from the laboratory information system of the Department of Clinical Pathology at Bolzano Hospital (Italy). In 3801 cases, parathyroid hormone (PTH) was requested in parallel. Serum 25(OH)D was measured by a NIST-972 aligned commercial LC-MS/MS method. The distribution of serum 25(OH)D concentrations in males and females of different age groups, the prevalence of 25(OH)D 2 and seasonal variability were studied., Results: The average 25(OH)D concentration in the entire cohort was 68.6 nmol/L (7.5-1880 nmol/L). Females had a 7 nmol/L higher average 25(OH)D concentration than males, which increased significantly with age. 37.9 and 28.3% of males and females, respectively, had a deficient 25(OH)D concentration of < 50 nmol/L. 620 samples (0.84%) had measureable amounts of 25(OH)D 2 . In samples with a normal PTH, 25(OH)D was 11 nmol/L higher than in the entire cohort. Seasonal variation ranged between 20 and 30% and was most pronounced in young individuals. 25(OH)D 2 remained constant throughout the year., Conclusion: Average serum 25(OH)D in South Tyrol is higher than in other parts of Europe. 25(OH)D and PTH show a continuous inverse relationship. Seasonal variation of serum 25(OH)D is an important aspect in young and middle-aged adults, but becomes less relevant in elderly subjects. 25(OH)D 2 is of minor practical importance in South Tyrol.

Hybrid films of zinc oxide (ZnO) and poly(3-hexylthiophen-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) show promising characteristics for application in hybrid bulk-heterojunction solar cells (HBSCs). However, the incompatibility of ZnO and P3HT may lead to a reduced interface area, thus reducing the probability of exciton separation and consequently lowering solar cell efficiencies. Here, a diblock copolymer P3HT- b-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) is introduced to improve the interface between ZnO and P3HT. ZnO is synthesized via a block copolymer assisted sol-gel approach, and the used zinc precursor is directly incorporated into the PEO blocks. Thus, the possibility of aggregation is reduced for both the inorganic and the organic components, and a good intermixing is ascertained. Two deposition methods, namely, spray and spin coating, are compared with respect to the resulting film structure, which is investigated with scanning electron microscopy and time-of-flight grazing-incidence small-angle neutron scattering measurements. Both the surface and inner morphologies reveal that the spin coated samples possess smaller and less diverse domain sizes than the sprayed films. Due to the advantage of spray coating in large-scale production, the morphology of the sprayed samples is tailored more meticulously by changing the weight fraction of ZnO in the films. The sprayed hybrid films show smaller domains and less aggregation with decreasing the amount of ZnO. This reveals that both the deposition method and composition of the ZnO/P3HT/P3HT- b-PEO hybrid films play an important role for tailoring the film morphology and thus for improving the performance of HBSCs in future application.