Rice Yellow Mottle Virus resistance by genome editing of the Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica nucleoporin gene OsCPR5.1 but not OsCPR5.2.

Rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) causes one of the most devastating rice diseases in Africa. Management of RYMV is challenging. Genetic resistance provides the most effective and environment-friendly control. The recessive resistance locus rymv2 (OsCPR5.1) had been identified in African rice (Oryza glaberrima), however, introgression into Oryza sativa ssp. japonica and indica remains challenging due to crossing barriers. Here, we evaluated whether CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of the two rice nucleoporin paralogs OsCPR5.1 (RYMV2) and OsCPR5.2 can be used to introduce RYMV resistance into the japonica variety Kitaake. Both paralogs had been shown to complement the defects of the Arabidopsis atcpr5 mutant, indicating partial redundancy. Despite striking sequence and structural similarities between the two paralogs, only oscpr5.1 loss-of-function mutants were fully resistant, while loss-of-function oscpr5.2 mutants remained susceptible, intimating that OsCPR5.1 plays a specific role in RYMV susceptibility. Notably, edited lines with short in-frame deletions or replacements in the N-terminal domain (predicted to be unstructured) of OsCPR5.1 were hypersusceptible to RYMV. In contrast to mutations in the single Arabidopsis AtCPR5 gene, which caused severely dwarfed plants, oscpr5.1 and oscpr5.2 single and double knockout mutants showed neither substantial growth defects nor symptoms indicative lesion mimic phenotypes, possibly reflecting functional differentiation. The specific editing of OsCPR5.1, while maintaining OsCPR5.2 activity, provides a promising strategy for generating RYMV-resistance in elite Oryza sativa lines as well as for effective stacking with other RYMV resistance genes or other traits.

Control charts for measurement error models.

We consider a linear measurement error model (MEM) with AR(1) process in the state equation which is widely used in applied research. This MEM could be equivalently re-written as ARMA(1,1) process, where the MA(1) parameter is related to the variance of measurement errors. As the MA(1) parameter is of essential importance for these linear MEMs, it is of much relevance to provide instruments for online monitoring in order to detect its possible changes. In this paper we develop control charts for online detection of such changes, i.e., from AR(1) to ARMA(1,1) and vice versa, as soon as they occur. For this purpose, we elaborate on both cumulative sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts and investigate their performance in a Monte Carlo simulation study. The empirical illustration of our approach is conducted based on time series of daily realized volatilities.

10-Year Survival of Navigated Versus Conventional TKAs: A Retrospective Study.

The computer-assisted navigation of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) offers a radiologically demonstrated higher precision of implantation than conventional implantation in relation to the axis alignment. The impact on long-term clinical outcomes is currently unknown. In 1999, 217 consecutive TKAs were performed in a total of 213 patients (113 navigated and 104 conventional). After 10 years, it was possible to follow up on 94 patients with 96 TKAs, of which 46 were conventional and 50 were navigated. The radiographs were evaluated using the Knee Society protocol. In addition to the Hospital for Special Surgery Score and Knee Society Score, the current authors also used the patient-focused 36-item Short Form Health Survery. After 10 years, 8 TKAs were revised because of aseptic loosening, 7 in the conventional group and 1 in navigated group. This equates to an 87% survival rate for conventional and 98% for navigated implantation. This difference was statistically significant (P<.05). After conclusion of the follow-up, 17% of the conventional and 9.8% of the navigated TKAs were found to have undergone aseptic loosening. All of the TKAs subject to aseptic loosening presented a mechanical femorotibial angle outside the optimal zone of ±3° around neutral axis. The study indicates a clinically significant advantage of the navigation technique compared with the conventional procedure. [Orthopedics. 2016; 39(3):S72-S76.].

Blepharospasm: long-term treatment with either Botox®, Xeomin® or Dysport®.

Botulinum toxin (BT) therapy is the treatment of choice for blepharospasm (BPS). Currently available BT type A drugs include Botox(®), Dysport(®) and Xeomin(®). Until now, there are few long-term studies on BT therapy for BPS. This is the first long-term study comparing all three major BT drugs. We collected treatment, efficacy and adverse effect data on BPS patients treated with either Botox(®), Dysport(®) or Xeomin(®) for at least eight consecutive treatments. Two hundred and eighty-eight patients (208 females, 80 males, age 62 ± 12 years) were included in this study. The treatment time was 11.2 ± 4.1 years covering 10,701 injection series. Doses were 47 ± 10 MU for Botox(®), 120 ± 35 MU for Dysport(®) and 62 ± 11 MU for Xeomin(®) (Botox(®) dose vs Xeomin(®) dose: p < 0.001, unpaired t test). 85 % of all patients had stable doses. The onset of the therapeutic effect was after 6.1 ± 3.3 days and its duration lasted 10.2 ± 3.5 weeks. The Global Clinical Improvement (GCI, 0 = no, 1 = slight, 2 = moderate, 3 = marked improvement in severity and function) as estimated by the patient was 2.5 ± 0.6. It was stable in 90% of the patients. Adverse effect frequency was 3.0% (ptosis 2.3%, dry eye 0.5%, diplopia 0.2%). None of these findings was significantly different between Botox(®), Dysport(®) and Xeomin(®). Our study, one of the largest studies on BT therapy of BPS and the study with the longest follow-up, confirms that BT therapy produces robust clinical improvement which is stable throughout the treatment time. Therapeutic effects start after 6.1 days and last for about 10 weeks before they start to vanish. With this, they are approximately 2 weeks shorter than the recommended inter-injection interval. Adverse effects were rare, mild and always transient. BT therapy is a safe and effective treatment for BSP. Shorter inter-injection intervals may improve therapeutic results.

The development of an application for data privacy by applying an audit repository based on IHE ATNA.

It is necessary to optimize workflows and communication between institutions involved in patients' treatment to improve quality and efficiency of the German healthcare. To achieve these in the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, a personal, cross-institutional patient record (PEPA) is used. Given the immense sensitivity of health-related information saved in the PEPA, it is imperative to obey the data protection regulations in Germany. One important aspect is the logging of access to personal health data and all other safety-related events. For gathering audit information, the IHE profile ATNA can be used, because it provides a flexible and standardized infrastructure. There are already existing solutions for gathering the audit information based on ATNA. In this article one solution (OpenATNA) is evaluated, which uses the method of evaluation defined by Peter Baumgartner. In addition, a user interface for a privacy officer is necessary to support the examination of the audit information. Therefore, we will describe a method to develop an application in Liferay (an OpenSource enterprise portal project) which supports examinations on the gathered audit information.

Clinical study on the primary stability of two dental implant systems with resonance frequency analysis.

Primary stability has a major impact on the long-term success of dental implants. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation of resonance frequency analysis (RFA) and insertion torque of self-tapping and non-self-tapping implants and their respective differences in primary stability. A group of 263 patients were treated with a total of 602 conically formed dental implants: 408 non-self-tapping Ankylos and 194 self-tapping Camlog. The maximum insertion torque during implant placement was recorded. Resonance frequency, measured as the implant stability quotient (ISQ), was assessed once immediately after insertion and twice 3 months later. Torque values of the non-self-tapping implants were significantly higher than those in the self-tapping group (p = 0.023). RFA did not show differences between the 2 groups (p = 0.956), but a correlation between ISQ values after implantation and 3 months after implant placement was measured (r = 0.712). Within the implant systems, no correlation between insertion torque and resonance frequency values could be determined (r = 0.305). Our study indicates that the ISQ values obtained from different implant systems are not comparable. The RFA does not appear suitable for the evaluation of implant stability when used as a single method. Higher insertion torque of the non-self-tapping implants appeared to confirm higher clinical primary stability.

Consistency of implantation of a total knee arthroplasty with a non-image-based navigation system: a case-control study of 235 cases compared with 235 conventionally implanted prostheses.

The aim of the study was to assess the consistency of the non-image-based navigation system OrthoPilot, Aesculap, Tuttlingen, Germany, in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) implantation in 5 European centers. Two hundred thirty-five TKAs implanted with this navigation system were matched (according to severity of the preoperative coronal deformation and body mass index) to a historical control group of 235 TKAs implanted with a conventional technique. Consistency of implantation was studied on a 3-month postoperative radiological control with coronal long-leg and sagittal standard x-rays. The use of the OrthoPilot navigation system allowed a statistically significant improvement in the consistent placement of both tibial and femoral components. In accordance with current literature, survival of the navigated implanted prostheses is expected to be longer.