The German National Registry of Primary Immunodeficiencies (2012-2017)

Introduction: The German PID-NET registry was founded in 2009, serving as the first national registry of patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) in Germany. It is part of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) registry. The primary purpose of the registry is to gather data on the epidemiology, diagnostic delay, diagnosis, and treatment of PIDs. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data was collected from 2,453 patients from 36 German PID centres in an online registry. Data was analysed with the software Stata® and Excel. Results: The minimum prevalence of PID in Germany is 2.72 per 100,000 inhabitants. Among patients aged 1-25, there was a clear predominance of males. The median age of living patients ranged between 7 and 40 years, depending on the respective PID. Predominantly antibody disorders were the most prevalent group with 57% of all 2,453 PID patients (including 728 CVID patients). A gene defect was identified in 36% of patients. Familial cases were observed in 21% of patients. The age of onset for presenting symptoms ranged from birth to late adulthood (range 0-88 years). Presenting symptoms comprised infections (74%) and immune dysregulation (22%). Ninety-three patients were diagnosed without prior clinical symptoms. Regarding the general and clinical diagnostic delay, no PID had undergone a slight decrease within the last decade. However, both, SCID and hyper IgE- syndrome showed a substantial improvement in shortening the time between onset of symptoms and genetic diagnosis. Regarding treatment, 49% of all patients received immunoglobulin G (IgG) substitution (70%-subcutaneous; 29%-intravenous; 1%-unknown). Three-hundred patients underwent at least one hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Five patients had gene therapy. Conclusion: The German PID-NET registry is a precious tool for physicians, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, politicians, and ultimately the patients, for whom the outcomes will eventually lead to a more timely diagnosis and better treatment.

The geomorphology, color, and thermal properties of Ryugu: Implications for parent-body processes

The near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid 162173 Ryugu is thought to have been produced from a parent body that contained water ice and organic molecules. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft has obtained global multicolor images of Ryugu. Geomorphological features present include a circum-equatorial ridge, east-west dichotomy, high boulder abundances across the entire surface, and impact craters. Age estimates from the craters indicate a resurfacing age of [Formula: see text] years for the top 1-meter layer. Ryugu is among the darkest known bodies in the Solar System. The high abundance and spectral properties of boulders are consistent with moderately dehydrated materials, analogous to thermally metamorphosed meteorites found on Earth. The general uniformity in color across Ryugu's surface supports partial dehydration due to internal heating of the asteroid's parent body.

Recent advances in the chemistry of uranium halides in anhydrous ammonia

This article presents an overview of recent advancements in the field of uranium chemistry, paying special attention to the preparation of starting materials and to the chemistry of uranium halides in liquid ammonia. Where suitable, insights into the chemistry of thorium are also presented. Herein, we report upon the crystal structures of several ammine complexes as well as their deprotonation products. Specific examples of hydrolysis products in liquid ammonia are showcased. Additionally, advancements in the preparation of uranium cyanides are presented.

Crystal structure of Ag2(μ-SCN)2(NH3)4

The mol­ecular structure of Ag₂(SCN)₂(NH₃)₄ consists of [Ag(SCN)(NH₃)₂]₂ dimers with an Ag⋯Ag separation of 3.0927 (6) Å.

Di-μ-thio­cyanato-bis­[diamminesilver(I)], [Ag₂(μ-SCN)₂(NH₃)₄], was synthesized by the reaction of AgSCN with anhydrous liquid ammonia. In the binuclear mol­ecule, the Ag^I atom is coordinated by two ammine ligands and the S atom of one thio­cyanate ligand. Two of these [Ag(SCN)(NH₃)₂] units are bridged by the S atoms of the thio­cyanate anions at longer distances, leading to a dimer with point group symmetry C₂. The distance between the Ag^I atoms in the dimer is at 3.0927 (6) Å within the range of argentophilic inter­actions. The crystal structure displays N—H⋯N and N—H⋯S hydrogen-bonding inter­actions that build up a three-dimensional network.

Crystal structure of [Co(NH3)6][Co(CO)4]2

Hexaamminecobalt(II) bis-[tetra-carbonyl-cobaltate(-I)], [Co(NH3)6][Co(CO)4]2, was synthesized by reaction of liquid ammonia with Co2(CO)8. The Co(II) atom is coordinated by six ammine ligands. The resulting polyhedron, the hexa-amminecobalt(II) cation, exhibits point group symmetry -3. The Co(-I) atom is coordinated by four carbonyl ligands, leading to a tetra-carbonyl-cobaltate(-I) anion in the shape of a slightly distorted tetra-hedron, with point group symmetry 3. The crystal structure is related to that of high-pressure BaC2 (space group R-3m), with the [Co(NH3)6](2+) cations replacing the Ba sites and the [Co(CO)4](-) anions replacing the C sites. N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds between cations and anions stabilize the structural set-up in the title compound.

The Unusual Coordination Sphere in the Octaammine Calcium(II) Ions of [Ca(NH3)8]Br2 and [Ca(NH3)8]I2 and the Thermal Decomposition of the Iodide to [Ca(NH3)6]I2

We report on the synthesis and crystal structure of the octaammine calcium(II) halides [Ca(NH3)8]Br2, and [Ca(NH3)8]I2, which were synthesized by the reaction of the respective calcium( II) halides with dry liquid ammonia. The compounds form colorless crystals which crystallize isotypically at 123 K with Z = 4 in the orthorhombic space group Pnma with a = 12:0478(3), b = 7:4406(2), c = 15:7216(4) Å, V = 1409:33(6) Å3 for the bromide, and a = 12:1113(4), b = 7:7706(3), c = 16:7145(6) Å, V = 1573:0(1) Å3 for the iodide. Instead of the expected tetragonal antiprism for the eightfold-coordinated Ca2+ ions, we observed a coordination polyhedron best described as a twofold capped trigonal prism. After evaporation of the liquid ammonia and warming of [Ca(NH3)8]I2 to room temperature, [Cu(NH3)6]I2 was obtained as a colorless powder. The hexaammine calcium(II) iodide crystallizes isotypically to [Mn(NH3)6]I2 (CaF2 type) in the cubic space group Fm3̅m with a = 11:18580(6) Å, V = 1399:59(1) Å3, Z = 4 at 293 K

Aperiodic flow-induced oscillations of collapsible tubes: a critical reappraisal

The evidence for the aperiodic self-excited oscillations of flow-conveying collapsible tubes being mathematically chaotic is re-examined. Many cases which powerfully suggest nonlinear deterministic behaviour have not been recorded over time-spans which allow their exhaustive examination. The present investigation centred on a previously recorded robust and generic oscillation, but more recent and more discerning tests were applied. Despite hints that a low embedding dimension might suffice, the data appeared on most indices high-dimensional. A U-shaped return map was found and modelled using both radial basis functions and polynomials, but lack of detailed structure in the map prevented effective parameter estimation. On the basis of power-law rather than exponential divergence of nearby trajectories, and of inability to discriminate against behaviour which would also be manifested by a surrogate consisting of a noise-perturbed nonlinear periodic oscillator, it is concluded that the data do not support the idea that the aperiodicity in the particular oscillation examined is caused by deterministic chaos. There was evidence that the distributed nature of the physical system might underlie aspects of the high dimensionality. We advocate equally searching testing of any future candidate chaotic oscillations in the investigation of collapsed-tube flows.

Parameter identification in dynamical models of anaerobic waste water treatment

Biochemical reactions can often be formulated mathematically as ordinary differential equations. In the process of modeling, the main questions that arise are concerned with structural identifiability, parameter estimation and practical identifiability. To clarify these questions and the methods how to solve them, we analyze two different second order models for anaerobic waste water treatment processes using two data sets obtained from different experimental setups. In both experiments only biogas production rate was measured which complicates the analysis considerably. We show that proving structural identifiability of the mathematical models with currently used methods fails. Therefore, we introduce a new, general method based on the asymptotic behavior of the maximum likelihood estimator to show local structural identifiability. For parameter estimation we use the multiple shooting approach which is described. Additionally we show that the Hessian matrix approach to compute confidence intervals fails in our examples while a method based on Monte Carlo Simulation works well.