What helps, what hinders?-Focus group findings on barriers and facilitators for mobile service robot use in a psychosocial group therapy for people with dementia.

Introduction: Many countries are facing a shortage of healthcare workers. Furthermore, healthcare workers are experiencing many stressors, resulting in psychological issues, impaired health, and increased intentions to leave the workplace. In recent years, different technologies have been implemented to lighten workload on healthcare workers, such as electronic patient files. Robotic solutions are still rather uncommon. To help with acceptance and actual use of robots their functionalities should correspond to the users' needs. Method: In the pilot study Care4All-Initial, we developed and field-tested applications for a mobile service robot in a psychosocial, multimodal group therapy for people with dementia. To guide the process and assess possible facilitators and barriers, we conducted a reoccurring focus group including people with dementia, therapists, professional caregivers as well as researchers from different disciplines with a user-centered design approach. The focus group suggested and reviewed applications and discussed ethical implications. We recorded the focus group discussions in writing and used content analysis. Results: The focus group discussed 15 different topics regarding ethical concerns that we used as a framework for the research project: Ethical facilitators were respect for the autonomy of the people with dementia and their proxies regarding participating and data sharing. Furthermore, the robot had to be useful for the therapists and attendees. Ethical barriers were the deception and possible harm of the people with dementia or therapists. The focus group suggested 32 different applications. We implemented 13 applications that centered on the robot interacting with the people with dementia and lightening the workload off the therapists. The implemented applications were facilitated through utilizing existing hard- and software and building on applications. Barriers to implementation were due to hardware, software, or applications not fitting the scope of the project. Discussion: To prevent barriers of robot employment in a group therapy for people with dementia, the robot's applications have to be developed sufficiently for a flawless and safe use, the use of the robot should not cause irritation or agitation, but rather be meaningful and useful to its users. To facilitate the development sufficient time, money, expertise and planning is essential.

Is cell segregation like oil and water: Asymptotic versus transitory regime.

Understanding the segregation of cells is crucial to answer questions about tissue formation in embryos or tumor progression. Steinberg proposed that separation of cells can be compared to the separation of two liquids. Such a separation is well described by the Cahn-Hilliard (CH) equations and the segregation indices exhibit an algebraic decay with exponent 1/3 with respect to time. Similar exponents are also observed in cell-based models. However, the scaling behavior in these numerical models is usually only examined in the asymptotic regime and these models have not been directly applied to actual cell segregation data. In contrast, experimental data also reveals other scaling exponents and even slow logarithmic scaling laws. These discrepancies are commonly attributed to the effects of collective motion or velocity-dependent interactions. By calibrating a 2D cellular automaton (CA) model which efficiently implements a dynamic variant of the differential adhesion hypothesis to 2D experimental data from Méhes et al., we reproduce the biological cell segregation experiments with just adhesive forces. The segregation in the cellular automaton model follows a logarithmic scaling initially, which is in contrast to the proposed algebraic scaling with exponent 1/3. However, within the less than two orders of magnitudes in time which are observable in the experiments, a logarithmic scaling may appear as a pseudo-algebraic scaling. In particular, we demonstrate that the cellular automaton model can exhibit a range of exponents ≤1/3 for such a pseudo-algebraic scaling. Moreover, the time span of the experiment falls into the transitory regime of the cellular automaton rather than the asymptotic one. We additionally develop a method for the calibration of the 2D Cahn-Hilliard model and find a match with experimental data within the transitory regime of the Cahn-Hilliard model with exponent 1/4. On the one hand this demonstrates that the transitory behavior is relevant for the experiment rather than the asymptotic one. On the other hand this corroborates the ambiguity of the scaling behavior, when segregation processes can be only observed on short time spans.

Model-Based Prediction of an Effective Adhesion Parameter Guiding Multi-Type Cell Segregation.

The process of cell-sorting is essential for development and maintenance of tissues. Mathematical modeling can provide the means to analyze the consequences of different hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms. With the Differential Adhesion Hypothesis, Steinberg proposed that cell-sorting is determined by quantitative differences in cell-type-specific intercellular adhesion strengths. An implementation of the Differential Adhesion Hypothesis is the Differential Migration Model by Voss-Böhme and Deutsch. There, an effective adhesion parameter was derived analytically for systems with two cell types, which predicts the asymptotic sorting pattern. However, the existence and form of such a parameter for more than two cell types is unclear. Here, we generalize analytically the concept of an effective adhesion parameter to three and more cell types and demonstrate its existence numerically for three cell types based on in silico time-series data that is produced by a cellular-automaton implementation of the Differential Migration Model. Additionally, we classify the segregation behavior using statistical learning methods and show that the estimated effective adhesion parameter for three cell types matches our analytical prediction. Finally, we demonstrate that the effective adhesion parameter can resolve a recent dispute about the impact of interfacial adhesion, cortical tension and heterotypic repulsion on cell segregation.

Purification of antibodies by affinity chromatography.

This review focusses on affinity purification of immunoglobulins, a methodology which is a powerful tool to obtain pure and intact antibodies. Affinity techniques allow antibody purification both in a single step chromatographic procedure as well as in complex purification protocols depending on the intention to use the target antibody. The purification strategies for antibodies by interaction with affinity ligands such as antibodies and Fe receptors or low molecular weight compounds are described.

Persistence of memory type lymphocytes in an experimental model of chronic pancreatitis in rats.

There is growing evidence that immunocompetent cells are involved in the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis. Using a model of chronic pancreatitis induced by dibutyltin dichloride (DBTC) in rats, we have immunohistochemically phenotyped the infiltrating T lymphocytes, CD45RC+ cells, macrophages, as well as the IL-2 receptor as an activation marker during a time course of two months. In addition, the expression of CD44, of the integrin component CD18, and of MHC class II was determined. Furthermore, the isoforms of CD45 which are generated by alternative mRNA splicing were analysed using reverse transcription followed by the polymerase chain reaction-technique (RT-PCR). The pattern of the local leukocytes in the DBTC pancreatitis suggests that the acute unspecific inflammation is followed by an activation of T lymphocytes resulting in the chronic course of the disease.