[New ways in hearing rehabilitation after cochlear implantation]. / Neue Wege in der Hörrehabilitation nach Cochleaimplantation.

INTRODUCTION: After cochlear implantation, auditory and speech training is usually necessary. Up until now, this has been performed on an out- or inpatient basis in direct contact with a therapist. Due to technical advances but also particularly because of an increasing use of digital media and a desire for mobility and independence, the demand for digital training programs is increasing in the field of hearing rehabilitation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a first step, the most important elements of auditory training were determined on the basis of commonly used auditory and speech processing models, and the core features of a computer-based teletherapeutic hearing platform were defined. This process considered motivational elements and adaptive mechanisms as regularly used in educational and speech and language therapy. In a second step, an initial prototype of the "train2hear" teletherapeutic hearing platform was developed by an interdisciplinary research team. RESULTS: The core of the train2hear platform is an initial analysis according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), on the basis of which an individual training plan is designed. Various adaptive mechanisms enable the level of difficulty to be continually adapted to the individual user's learning progress. A videoconference tool enables contact between the patient and the therapist. CONCLUSION: The train2hear platform represents a first prototype of a computer-based auditory rehabilitation program in German. Further evaluation and development in a clinical study are needed to determine the feasibility and efficacy of the platform.

Intra-oral microbial profiles of beagle dogs assessed by checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization using human probes.

Some investigators suggest a similarity between the oral microbiota of dogs and humans. The in vivo assessment of ecologic relationships among bacterial species and between bacterial species and their habitat is difficult to carry out. Consequently, this aspect is often neglected in animal oral microbiological studies. This study aimed to examine the proportions of 40 bacterial species in samples from five intra-oral habitats in beagle dogs using checkerboard DNA-DNA hybridization. Microbial samples were taken from subgingival and supra-gingival plaque, the tongue, tonsils and cheek mucosa in seven beagle dogs. Samples were individually evaluated for their content of 40 bacterial species and the percentage of total DNA probe count was determined for each species, at each habitat. All tested species could be detected in all sampled habitats but each habitat had a distinct community structure. The microbiotas colonizing the hard surfaces in the oral cavity were quite different from the microbiotas colonizing the soft tissues. Bacterial species that are in humans considered to be periodontopathogens are present in high proportions. This study underlines the importance of the habitat and the host on the local microbial profile.

New 3-D microarray platform based on macroporous polymer monoliths.

Polymer macroporous monoliths are widely used as efficient sorbents in different, mostly dynamic, interphase processes. In this paper, monolithic materials strongly bound to the inert glass surface are suggested as operative matrices at the development of three-dimensional (3-D) microarrays. For this purpose, several rigid macroporous copolymers differed by reactivity and hydrophobic-hydrophilic properties were synthesized and tested: (1) glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate (poly(GMA-co-EDMA)), (2) glycidyl methacrylate-co-glycerol dimethacrylate (poly(GMA-co-GDMA)), (3) N-hydroxyphthalimide ester of acrylic acid-co-glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate (poly(HPIEAA-co-GMA-co-EDMA)), (4) 2-cyanoethyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate (poly(CEMA-co-EDMA)), and (5) 2-cyanoethyl methacrylate-co-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate (poly(CEMA-co-HEMA-co-EDMA)). The constructed devices were used as platforms for protein microarrays construction and model mouse IgG-goat anti-mouse IgG affinity pair was used to demonstrate the potential of developed test-systems, as well as to optimize microanalytical conditions. The offered microarray platforms were applied to detect the bone tissue marker osteopontin directly in cell culture medium.

Synthesis of fructans in tubers of transgenic starch-deficient potato plants does not result in an increased allocation of carbohydrates.

Inhibition of starch biosynthesis in transgenic potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Désirée) plants (by virtue of antisense inhibition of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase) has recently been reported to influence tuber formation and drastically reduce dry matter content of tubers, indicating a reduction in sink strength (Müller-Röber et al. 1992, EMBO J 11: 1229-1238). Transgenic tubers produced low levels of starch, but instead accumulated high levels of soluble sugars. We wanted to know whether these changes in tuber development/sink strength could be reversed by the production of a new high-molecular-weight polymer, i.e. fructan, that incorporates sucrose and thereby should reduce the level of osmotically active compounds. To this end the enzyme levan sucrase from the gram-negative bacterium Erwinia amylovora was expressed in tubers of transgenic potato plants inhibited for starch biosynthesis. Levan sucrase was targeted to different subcellular compartments (apoplasm, vacuole and cytosol). Only in the case of apoplastic and vacuolar targeting was significant accumulation of fructan observed, leading to fructan representing between 12% and 19% of the tuber dry weight. Gel filtration and 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that the molecular weight and structure of the fructan produced in transgenic plants is identical to levan isolated from E. amylovora. Whereas apoplastic expression of levansucrase had deleterious effects on tuber development, tubers containing the levansucrase in the vacuole did not differ in phenotype from tubers of the starch-deficient plants used as starting material for transformation with the levansucrase. When tuber yield was analysed, no increase but rather a further decrease relative to ADP-glucose pyro-phosphorylase antisense plants was observed.