The German Geophysical Society (Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft, DGG) was founded in 1922 in Leipzig, Germany, on the initiative of the famous German seismologist Emil Wiechert (1861–1928), known for his fundamental work to record earthquake waves to study the earth's interior. Facing the German historical background of the early 20th century, the 24 founding members wanted to lead German g

Background: Maternal psychopathology can be an important factor associated with psychological adjustment of children. However, there is limited research on long-term impacts of maternal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on children's mental health. This study examined how PTSD trajectories of women exposed to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China predicted their children's mental health symptom

Early onset cerebellar Ataxia (EOAc) comprises a large group of rare heterogeneous disorders. Determination of the underlying etiology can be difficult given the broad differential diagnosis and the complexity of the genotype–phenotype relationships. This may change the diagnostic work-up into a time-consuming, costly and not always rewarding task. In this overview, the Childhood Ataxia and Cerebe

Phenotypic and biochemical categorization of humans with detrimental variants can provide valuable information on gene function. We illustrate this with the identification of two different homozygous variants resulting in enzymatic loss-of-function in LDHD, encoding lactate dehydrogenase D, in two unrelated patients with elevated D-lactate urinary excretion and plasma concentrations. We establish

Although movement disorders (MDs) are known complications, the exact frequency and severity remains uncertain in patients with classical galactosemia, especially in children. We determined the frequency, classification and severity of MDs in a cohort of pediatric and adult galactosemia patients, and assessed the association with nonmotor neuropsychological symptoms and daily functioning. Patients

Evacuation planning is an important activity in disaster management to reduce the effects of disasters on urban communities. It is regarded as a multi-objective optimization problem that involves conflicting spatial objectives and constraints in a decision-making process. Such problems are difficult to solve by traditional methods. However, metaheuristics methods have been shown to be proper solut

The aim of this research was to develop a method to produce a Dust Source Susceptibility Map (DSSM). For this purpose, we applied remote sensing and statistical-based machine learning algorithms for experimental dust storm studies in the Khorasan Razavi Province, in north-eastern Iran. We identified dust sources in the study area using MODIS satellite images during the 2005–2016 period. For dust s

Background: Rare and ultra-rare diseases (URDs) are often chronic and life-threatening conditions that have a profound impact on sufferers and their families, but many are notoriously difficult to detect. Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) serves to illustrate the challenges, benefits and pitfalls associated with screening for ultra-rare inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs). A comprehensive, non-sys

Inborn errors of metabolism in adults are still largely unexplored. Despite the fact that adult-onset phenotypes have been known for many years, little attention is given to these disorders in neurological practice. The adult-onset presentation differs from childhood-onset phenotypes, often leading to considerable diagnostic delay. The identification of these patients at the earliest stage of dise

Background: The clinical demarcation of the syndrome progressive myoclonus ataxia is unclear, leading to a lack of recognition and difficult differentiation from other neurological syndromes. Objectives: The objective of this study was to apply a refined definition of progressive myoclonus ataxia and describe the clinical characteristics in patients with progressive myoclonus ataxia and with isola

Background: DYT6 dystonia can have an unpredictable clinical course and the result of deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the internal part of the globus pallidus (GPi) is known to be less robust than in other forms of autosomal dominant dystonia. Patients who had previous stereotactic surgery with insufficient clinical benefit form a particular challenge with very limited other treatment options avai

Patients with an ADCY5 gene mutation reveal a heterogenous clinical presentation including axial hypotonia, motor milestone delay, fluctuating dyskinesias, dystonia, and/or myoclonus with episodic exacerbations during drowsiness and sleep.1,2 Phenotype-genotype correlations and somatic mosaicism are suggested to explain the wide phenotypic spectrum.1 The ADCY5 gene encodes 1 of 9 membrane-bound ad

Background: The purpose of this project was to develop a telemedicine platform that supports home site monitoring and integrates biochemical, physiological, and dietary parameters for individual patients with hepatic glycogen storage disease (GSD). Methods and results: The GSD communication platform (GCP) was designed with input from software developers, GSD patients, researchers, and healthcare p

There are many rare movement disorders, and new ones are described every year. Because they are not well recognized, they often go undiagnosed for long periods of time. However, early diagnosis is becoming increasingly important. Rapid advances in our understanding of the biological mechanisms responsible for many rare disorders have enabled the development of specific treatments for some of them.

The article ‘Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health [M. Jefferson, “Whither plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world,” Energy Res. Soc.

Background: Ketogenic diet in children with epilepsy has a considerable impact on daily life and is usually adopted for at least 3 months. Our aim was to evaluate whether the introduction of an all-liquid ketogenic diet in an outpatient setting is feasible, and if an earlier assessment of its efficacy can be achieved.Methods: The authors conducted a prospective, observational study in a consecutiv

Background: Diagnosis of less common young-onset movement disorders is often challenging, requiring a broad spectrum of skills of clinicians regarding phenotyping, normal and abnormal development and the wide range of possible acquired and genetic etiologies. This complexity often leads to considerable diagnostic delays, paralleled by uncertainty for patients and their families. Therefore, we hypo