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For the German context, we investigate whether the number of children ever born differs between mixed unions (exogamous unions between natives and migrants or migrant descendants) and endogamous unions (unions among co-ethnics). Our theoretical considerations are derived from assimilation theories, which view exogamous unions as indicators of assimilation processes, and the framework on migrant fertility. The migrant (or descendant) partner in an exogamous union may adapt to the majority group, both partners may adapt to each other, or both partners may constitute a selected group in their fertility preferences. However, due to the higher likelihood of conflicts within the partnership and of separation, exogamy may disrupt family formation processes and depress couples\' fertility. Drawing on data from the GSOEP (1984-2020), we estimate generalized Poisson regressions. The results reveal that the number of children ever born is higher in exogamous unions than in endogamous native couples. This general pattern largely persists across migrant generations and regions of origin, but we identify gender differences. While fertility in exogamous unions of native women/migrant (descendant) men is not statistically different from fertility in native/native couples, unions of migrant (descendant) women/native men have more children, especially when controlling for socio-demographic confounders. Our results demonstrate that in the German context, exogamy does not lead to fertility disruptions, and is not straightforwardly associated with assimilation to the fertility of the majority group. Instead, differences in gendered partner choice patterns and life-course transitions may influence the number of children exogamous couples have.

BackgroundSince its emergence in December 2019, over 700 million people worldwide have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 up to May 2024. While early rollout of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 has saved many lives, there was increasing immune escape of new virus variants. Longitudinal monitoring of population-wide SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses from regular sample collection irrespective of symptoms provides representative data on infection and seroconversion/seroreversion rates.AimTo examine adaptive and cellular immune responses of a German SARS-CoV-2 outbreak cohort through several waves of infection with different virus variants.MethodsUtilising a 31-month longitudinal seroepidemiological study (n = 1,446; mean age: 50 years, range: 2-103) initiated during the first SARS-CoV-2 superspreading event (February 2020) in Heinsberg, Germany, we analysed acute infection, seroconversion and virus neutralisation at five follow-up visits between October 2020 and November 2022; cellular and cross-protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants were also examined.ResultsSARS-CoV-2 spike (S)-specific IgAs decreased shortly after infection, while IgGs remained stable. Both increased significantly after vaccination. We predict an 18-month half-life of S IgGs upon infection. Nucleocapsid (N)-specific responses declined over 12 months post-infection but increased (p < 0.0001) during Omicron. Frequencies of SARS-CoV-2-specific TNF-alpha+/IFN-gamma+ CD4+  T-cells declined over 12 months after infection (p < 0.01). SARS-CoV-2 S antibodies and neutralisation titres were highest in triple-vaccinated participants infected between April 2021 and November 2022 compared with infections between April 2020 and January 2021. Cross neutralisation against Omicron BQ.1.18 and XBB.1.5 was very low in all groups.ConclusionInfection and/or vaccination did not provide the population with cross-protection against Omicron variants.

UNASSIGNED: Acknowledging peer support as the cornerstone in mitigating the psychosocial burden arising from the second victim phenomenon, this study assesses the economic benefits of a Peer Support Program (PSP), compared to data of the Resilience In Stressful Events (RISE) program in the US, within the acute inpatient care sector in Germany.
UNASSIGNED: Employing a Markov model, this economic evaluation analyzes the cost benefits, including sick day and dropout costs, over a 1-year period, comparing scenarios with and without the Peer Support Program from a hospital perspective. The costs were calculated as an example based on a hospital with 1,000 employees. The estimations are considered conservative.
UNASSIGNED: The anticipated outcomes demonstrate an average cost saving of €6,672 per healthcare worker participating in the Peer Support Program, leading to an annual budgetary impact of approximately €6,67 Mio. for the studied hospital.
UNASSIGNED: The integration of a PSP proves economically advantageous for German hospitals, not only preserving financial resources but also reducing absenteeism, and mitigating turnover, thereby enhancing overall patient care.

BACKGROUND: Mosquitoes are important vectors of pathogens. They are usually collected with CO2-baited traps and subsequently identified by morphology. This procedure is very time-consuming. Automatic counting traps could facilitate timely evaluation of the local risk for mosquito-borne pathogen transmission or decision-making on vector control measures, but the counting accuracy of such devices has rarely been validated in the field.
METHODS: The Biogents (BG)-Counter 2 automatically counts mosquitoes by discriminating the size of captured objects directly in the field and transmits the data to a cloud server. To assess the accuracy of this counting device, 27 traps were placed at 19 sampling sites across Germany and used in daily, weekly or bimonthly intervals from April until October 2021. The BG-Counter 2 was attached to a CO2-trap (BG-Pro trap = CO2-Pro) and the same trap was converted to also attract gravid mosquitoes (upside-down BG-Pro trap with a water container beneath = CO2-Pro-gravid). All captured mosquitoes were identified by morphology. The number of females (unfed and gravid), mosquito diversity and the number of identified specimens in relation to the counting data of the BG-Counter were compared between the two trapping devices to evaluate sampling success and counting accuracy.
RESULTS: In total 26,714 mosquitoes were collected during 854 trap days. The CO2-Pro-gravid trap captured significantly more mosquitoes per trap day for all specimens, gravid females and non-gravid females, while there was no difference in the mosquito diversity. The linear model with the captured mosquitoes as a response and the counted specimens as a predictor explained only a small degree of the variation within the data (R2 = 0.16), but per individual trap the value could reach up to 0.62 (mean R2 = 0.23). The counting accuracy for the daily samples had a significant positive correlation with sample size, resulting in higher accuracy for the CO2-Pro-gravid trap and higher accuracy for sites and sampling months with high mosquito abundance.
CONCLUSIONS: While the accuracy of the BG-Counter 2 is quite low, the device is able to depict mosquito phenology and provide information about local population dynamics.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson\'s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor and nonmotor system manifestations and psychiatric symptoms. The aim of this study was to estimate the age- and sex-specific incidence of PD in Germany using an illness-death model and a corresponding partial differential equation (PDE) based on prevalence and mortality data.
METHODS: Based on a PDE that describes the dynamics in an illness-death model, the age- and sex-specific incidence of PD in Germany was estimated using published prevalence and mortality rates. Prevalence rates were provided by the Central Institute for Statutory Health Insurance (Zi) for the period from 2010 to 2019. Parkinson\'s related mortality was estimated based on comparable population data from Norway. Bootstrapping was used for incidence estimation (median of 5000 samples) and to obtain 95% confidence intervals to interpret the accuracy of the incidence estimation.
RESULTS: Men had higher incidences of PD than women at all ages. The highest incidences (median of 5000 bootstrap samples) for both groups were estimated for the age of 85 years with an incidence of 538.49 per 100,000 person-years (py) in men and 284.09 per 100,000 py in women, with an increasing width of bootstrapping 95% CIs showing greater uncertainty in the estimation at older ages.
CONCLUSIONS: The illness-death model and the corresponding PDE, which describes changes in prevalence as a function of mortality and incidence, can be used to estimate the incidence of PD as a chronic disease. As overestimation of incidence is less likely with this method, we found incidence rates of Parkinson\'s disease that are suitable for further analyses with a lower risk of bias.

BACKGROUND: Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumour in children. Relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma is associated with a poor outcome. We assessed the combination of irinotecan-temozolomide and dasatinib-rapamycin (RIST) in patients with relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma.
METHODS: The multicentre, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 2, RIST-rNB-2011 trial recruited from 40 paediatric oncology centres in Germany and Austria. Patients aged 1-25 years with high-risk relapsed (defined as recurrence of all stage IV and MYCN amplification stages, after response to treatment) or refractory (progressive disease during primary treatment) neuroblastoma, with Lansky and Karnofsky performance status at least 50%, were assigned (1:1) to RIST (RIST group) or irinotecan-temozolomide (control group) by block randomisation, stratified by MYCN status. We compared RIST (oral rapamycin [loading 3 mg/m2 on day 1, maintenance 1 mg/m2 on days 2-4] and oral dasatinib [2 mg/kg per day] for 4 days with 3 days off, followed by intravenous irinotecan [50 mg/m2 per day] and oral temozolomide [150 mg/m2 per day] for 5 days with 2 days off; one course each of rapamycin-dasatinib and irinotecan-temozolomide for four cycles over 8 weeks, then two courses of rapamycin-dasatinib followed by one course of irinotecan-temozolomide for 12 weeks) with irinotecan-temozolomide alone (with identical dosing as experimental group). The primary endpoint of progression-free survival was analysed in all eligible patients who received at least one course of therapy. The safety population consisted of all patients who received at least one course of therapy and had at least one post-baseline safety assessment. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01467986, and is closed to accrual.
RESULTS: Between Aug 26, 2013, and Sept 21, 2020, 129 patients were randomly assigned to the RIST group (n=63) or control group (n=66). Median age was 5·4 years (IQR 3·7-8·1). 124 patients (78 [63%] male and 46 [37%] female) were included in the efficacy analysis. At a median follow-up of 72 months (IQR 31-88), the median progression-free survival was 11 months (95% CI 7-17) in the RIST group and 5 months (2-8) in the control group (hazard ratio 0·62, one-sided 90% CI 0·81; p=0·019). Median progression-free survival in patients with amplified MYCN (n=48) was 6 months (95% CI 4-24) in the RIST group versus 2 months (2-5) in the control group (HR 0·45 [95% CI 0·24-0·84], p=0·012); median progression-free survival in patients without amplified MYCN (n=76) was 14 months (95% CI 9-7) in the RIST group versus 8 months (4-15) in the control group (HR 0·84 [95% CI 0·51-1·38], p=0·49). The most common grade 3 or worse adverse events were neutropenia (54 [81%] of 67 patients given RIST vs 49 [82%] of 60 patients given control), thrombocytopenia (45 [67%] vs 41 [68%]), and anaemia (39 [58%] vs 38 [63%]). Nine serious treatment-related adverse events were reported (five patients given control and four patients given RIST). There were no treatment-related deaths in the control group and one in the RIST group (multiorgan failure).
CONCLUSIONS: RIST-rNB-2011 demonstrated that targeting of MYCN-amplified relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma with a pathway-directed metronomic combination of a multkinase inhibitor and an mTOR inhibitor can improve progression-free survival and overall survival. This exclusive efficacy in MYCN-amplified, relapsed neuroblastoma warrants further investigation in the first-line setting.
BACKGROUND: Deutsche Krebshilfe.

Lameness in dairy cows is an expression of pain most likely originating from a claw disorder, causing impaired animal wellbeing and substantial economic losses for farmers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of access to pasture, time spent on pasture, and season on farm level lameness prevalence. The survey was part of a cross-sectional observational study, in which farms in three regions of Germany (North, East and South) were visited by study veterinarians. On each farm (total: 659, N: 240, E: 247, S: 172), management data were recorded, and cows were scored for locomotion, according to Sprecher. Median farm-level lameness prevalence (Score 3/5 or higher) was 29.4% (IQR: 18.7% - 42.0%), and 8.2% (IQR: 3.7% - 14.0%) for severe lameness (Score 4/5 or higher). Farm-level lameness prevalence continuously decreased with increasing time spent on pasture (up to approximately 10 hours per cow per day). On farms that did not offer their cows access to pasture lameness prevalence did not show a seasonal variation. On farms where cows had pasture access for up to three hours per day lameness prevalence peaked in autumn. In contrast, on farms offering their cows access to pasture beyond three hours per day the peak of lameness was observed in spring. Our results revealed that even short periods of pasture access of at least two hours per cow and day (on average per year) are beneficial for the locomotion of dairy cows.

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the 12-month prevalence rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, including psychological, physical, and sexual forms, in women and men. It also aims to identify changes in IPV victimization during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore factors associated with the occurrence of any IPV victimization during this period.
METHODS: Data from the DREAMCORONA study in Germany collected from May 2020 to February 2021 included 737 participants, i.e., (expectant) mothers (64%) and fathers (36%). The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2S) short form was used to assess the 12-month IPV victimization. Prevalence of IPV victimization as well as changes in IPV victimization during the pandemic were analyzed descriptively, with results stratified by sex. Multiple logistic regression was employed to identify risk factors for IPV.
RESULTS: Psychological IPV was found to be the most prevalent form of violence, with the occurrence of any psychological IPV affecting 48.5% of women and 39.4% of men, while 2.6% of women and 3.3% of men reported the occurrence of any physical IPV victimization, and 2.8% of women and 1.5% of men reported the occurrence of any sexual IPV victimization. Of those who experienced the occurrence of any IPV in the last 12 months, 89.7% of women and 89.8% of men were victimized by one single act of violence. The majority of affected participants reported no change in psychological and physical IPV victimization during the pandemic. Nevertheless, for certain IPV behaviors on the psychological and physical IPV victimization subscales, both affected women and men also reported higher frequencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple logistic regression revealed that higher levels of relationship satisfaction were negatively associated with the occurrence of any IPV victimization for women and men, whereas greater levels of own anger-hostility symptoms were positively associated with the occurrence of any IPV victimization.
CONCLUSIONS: Psychological IPV was present in almost every second (expectant) couple. The majority of affected women and men reported no change in their psychological and physical IPV victimization, suggesting that they continued to experience IPV during the pandemic. This underlines the importance of promoting healthier relationship dynamics, coping strategies, and emotional well-being to reduce the risk of IPV, even in times of crisis. Our study sheds light on the early stages of the pandemic and highlights the ongoing need for research into the temporal dynamics of IPV.

Today, the name Friedrich Dessauer is almost forgotten; however, his scientific, social, and political works should not be. Dessauer\'s professional career began at a young age as a professor of physics in Frankfurt am Main. It is said that he published 400 papers and 65 book chapters and pamphlets. He was a technical inventor who established laws that dealt with theories to explain the limited understanding of the effects of radiation on cells. He advocated for methods to improve the therapeutic ratio. As a devout Catholic politician, Dessauer was an early opponent of National Socialism. This led to him being thrown into prison for political reasons in 1933. He did not leave until 1934, and then for Istanbul, largely thanks to Turkish efforts and his appointment as director of a large new institution. While he was already a well-known physicist in Germany, he had to start from scratch in order to build a modern institute. A recent article in the journal Radiotherapy and Oncology celebrated his important contributions to radiology from Turkey. After his contract in Istanbul expired in 1937, he left for the small University of Fribourg in Switzerland, where he was unfortunately unable to continue his scientific productivity. Dessauer wrote textbooks as well as political and philosophical books, and attempted to bridge the gap between Catholicism and science. Additionally, after the war, he began to teach again in Frankfurt. In photos of Dessauer, radiation-induced skin changes on his face and hands were clearly visible. Towards the end of his life, he received many medals and honors for his achievements in Germany, some of them posthumously.