Geneva

The smoothened (Smo) receptor facilitates hedgehog signaling between kidney fibroblasts and tubules during acute kidney injury (AKI). Tubule-derived hedgehog is protective in AKI, but the role of fibroblast-selective Smo is unclear. Here, we report that Smo-specific ablation in fibroblasts reduced tubular cell apoptosis and inflammation, enhanced perivascular mesenchymal cells activities, and preserved kidney function after AKI. Global proteomics of these kidneys identified extracellular matrix proteins, and nidogen-1 glycoprotein in particular, as key response markers to AKI...

OBJECTIVES: In response to calls for inventive ways to mitigate risks of physical distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic for older adults living in residential care, the JAVA Music Club-Digital (JMC-D) was developed. The current feasibility study investigated benefits, usability, and implementation of weekly JMC-D sessions over 6 months. METHOD: Employing a pre-post mixed methods study, depressive symptoms, loneliness, social isolation, and quality of life were measured at baseline, 3 and 6 months...

Although genome-scale data generation is becoming more tractable for phylogenetics, there are large quantities of single gene fragment data in public repositories and such data are still being generated. We therefore investigated whether single mitochondrial genes are suitable proxies for phylogenetic reconstruction as compared to the application of full mitogenomes. With near complete taxon sampling for the southern African dwarf chameleons ( Bradypodion ), we estimated and compared phylogenies for the complete mitogenome with topologies generated from individual mitochondrial genes and various combinations of these genes...

Freshwater algae exhibit complex dynamics, particularly in meso-oligotrophic lakes with sudden and dramatic increases in algal biomass following long periods of low background concentration. While the fundamental prerequisites for algal blooms, namely light and nutrient availability, are well-known, their specific causation involves an intricate chain of conditions. Here we examine a recent massive Uroglena bloom in Lake Geneva (Switzerland/France). We show that a certain sequence of meteorological conditions triggered this specific algal bloom event: heavy rainfall promoting excessive organic matter and nutrients loading, followed by wind-induced coastal upwelling, and a prolonged period of warm, calm weather...

Trimethylamine N -oxide (TMAO), a molecule produced by the microbiota, has been associated with human health and illness. Its early discovery in body fluids may affect our understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of many illnesses. Therefore, our knowledge of the pathophysiology and diagnostics of disorders associated with TMAO might be enhanced by the creation of dependable and fast methods for TMAO detection. Therefore, we developed a fluorescent probe for detecting TMAO utilizing an on-off-on strategy...

Understanding the processes that drive phenotypic diversification and underpin speciation is key to elucidating how biodiversity has evolved. Although these processes have been studied across a wide array of clades, adaptive radiations (ARs), which are systems with multiple closely related species and broad phenotypic diversity, have been particularly fruitful for teasing apart the factors that drive and constrain diversification. As such, ARs have become popular candidate study systems for determining the extent to which ecological features, including aspects of organisms and the environment, and inter- and intraspecific interactions, led to evolutionary diversification...

This study aimed to construct prognostic mathematical models utilizing multifactorial regression analysis to assess the risk of developing drug-induced neutralizing antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis treated with tumor necrosis factor alpha blockers.

BACKGROUND: Negative symptoms in schizophrenia (SZ), such as apathy and diminished expression, have limited treatments and significantly impact daily life. Our study focuses on the functional division of the striatum: limbic-motivation and reward, associative-cognition, and sensorimotor-sensory and motor processing, aiming to identify potential biomarkers for negative symptoms. STUDY DESIGN: This longitudinal, 2-center resting-state-fMRI (rsfMRI) study examines striatal seeds-to-whole-brain functional connectivity...

Compartmental models that describe infectious disease transmission across subpopulations are central for assessing the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions, behavioral changes and seasonal effects on the spread of respiratory infections. We present a Bayesian workflow for such models, including four features: (1) an adjustment for incomplete case ascertainment, (2) an adequate sampling distribution of laboratory-confirmed cases, (3) a flexible, time-varying transmission rate, and (4) a stratification by age group...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pandemic-related life changes may have had a deleterious impact on suicidal behaviours. Early detection of suicidal ideation and identification of subgroups at increased risk could help prevent suicide, one of the leading causes of death among adolescents worldwide. Here, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of and risk factors for suicidal ideation in adolescents using a population-based sample from Switzerland, two years into the pandemic. METHODS: Between December 2021 and June 2022, adolescents aged 14 to 17 years already enrolled in a population-based cohort study (State of Geneva, Switzerland) were asked about suicidal ideation over the previous year...

AIM: We aim to give an insight into the current situation in Switzerland concerning the pathways to care of young people with clinical high risk of psychosis. In a second step we propose a procedure of optimizing pathways to care developed within the project PsyYoung. METHODS: A qualitative survey derived and adapted from Kotlicka-Antczak et al. (2020) was conducted in large early detection services of three Swiss cantons (Geneva, Basel-Stadt, Vaud) focusing on pathways to care...

The medicinal plants of the Asteraceae family are a valuable source of bioactive secondary metabolites, including polyphenols, phenolic acids, flavonoids, acetylenes, sesquiterpene lactones, triterpenes, etc. Under stressful conditions, the plants develop these secondary substances to carry out physiological tasks in plant cells. Secondary Asteraceae metabolites that are of the greatest interest to consumers are artemisinin (an anti-malarial drug from Artemisia annua L.-sweet wormwood), steviol glycosides (an intense sweetener from Stevia rebaudiana Bert...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Ruling out pulmonary embolism (PE) through a combination of clinical assessment and D-dimer level can potentially avoid excessive use of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA). We aimed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the standard approach based on the Wells and Geneva scores combined with a standard D-dimer cut-off (500 ng/ml), with three alternative strategies (age-adjusted and the YEARS and PEGeD algorithms) in patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) with suspected PE...

The Geneva Conventions remain an invaluable, universal standard.

Recent research suggests that serious gaming is a promising strategy for interprofessional education (IPE). This report describes the design and pilot testing of a large-scale, mobile, technology-enhanced serious game embedded in the IPE curriculum in Geneva, Switzerland. Organized into teams of eight, the students were tasked with finding a young patient who had just escaped from the intensive care unit. Through a series of 10 stations, they explored hospital- and community-based locations of the healthcare system and were engaged in various learning and game activities; they were rewarded with cues to unveil the mystery...

STUDY QUESTION: Does linzagolix administered orally once daily for up to 3 months at a dose of 75 mg alone or 200 mg in combination with add-back therapy (ABT) (1.0 mg estradiol; 0.5 mg norethindrone acetate, also known as norethisterone acetate [NETA]) demonstrate better efficacy than placebo in the management of endometriosis-related dysmenorrhea and non-menstrual pelvic pain? SUMMARY ANSWER: Combining 200 mg linzagolix with ABT was found to significantly reduce dysmenorrhea and non-menstrual pelvic pain at 3 months of therapy, while a daily dose of 75 mg linzagolix yielded a significant decrease only in dysmenorrhea at 3 months...

AIMS: Patients undergoing emergency general surgery are at high risk of complications and death. Our objectives were to estimate the incidence of emergency general surgery in a Swiss University Hospital, to describe the characteristics and outcomes of patients undergoing such procedures, and to study the impact of age on clinical outcomes. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of adult patients who visited the emergency department (ED) of Geneva University Hospitals between January 2015 and December 2019...

OBJECTIVE: Although aging has a strong impact on visual acuity (VA) and falls, their interaction is understudied in generally healthy older adults. This study aimed to examine if and to what extent baseline VA is associated with an increased risk of all and injurious falls over 3 years in generally healthy community-dwelling older adults. DESIGN: Observational analysis of DO-HEALTH, a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Multicenter trial with 7 European centers: Zurich, Basel, Geneva (Switzerland), Berlin (Germany), Innsbruck (Austria), Toulouse (France), and Coimbra (Portugal), including 2157 community-dwelling adults aged 70 years and older without any major health events in the 5 years prior to enrollment, sufficient mobility, and good cognitive status...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to measure the ability of ALS patients to process dynamic facial expressions as compared to a control group of healthy subjects and to correlate this ability in ALS patients with neuropsychological, clinical and neurological measures of the disease. METHODS: Sixty-three ALS patients and 47 healthy controls were recruited. All the ALS patients also underwent i) the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test (GERT) in which ten actors express 14 types of dynamic emotions in brief video clips with audio, ii) the Edimburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS) test; iii) the ALS Functional Rating Scale Revised (ALSFRS-R) and iv) the Medical Research Council (MRC) for the evaluation of muscle strength...

A "turn-on" photon up conversion nano couple based on NaYF4 : Yb, Tm UCNPs quenched with MnO2 nanosheet was developed for the rapid and selective detection of cTnT. Herein, MnO2 nanosheet hold on the surface of Antibody cTnT (Ab-cTnT) conjugated blue emitting up conversion nanoprobe (λem at 475 nm), which leads to quenching of fluorescence due to energy transfer from photon up conversion nanoparticles to MnO2 nanosheets. On introducing cTnT antigen to the system, the energy transfer process is hindered due to strong antigen -antibody interface on the surface...