Open Access

Gleichlaufgelenke als Teil der Antriebswellen (Seitenwellen und Längswellen) sind in allen maßgeblichen Triebstrangkonfigurationen im direkten Leistungsfluss angeordnet. Ihre Hauptfunktion ist die Übertragung einer Antriebsleistung unter Ermöglichung von Abbeugung und Axialverschiebung. Dieser Beitrag soll einen Überblick zu den wesentlichen, auf dem heutigen Markt verbreiteten Bauweisen und ihren jeweiligen Einsatzgebieten geben. Besonders berücksichtigt werden hierbei neue Gelenkkonzepte, die sich aufgrund ihrer besonderen Gestaltung durch deutlich höhere Wirkungsgrade auszeichnen. Der Einfluss auf den Energieverbrauch soll quantifiziert werden, hierzu wird ein neuartiger Berechnungsansatz vorgestellt, der eine einfache Abschätzung des Einflusses von Wirkungsgradverbesserungen auf den Energieverbrauch für verschiedener Antriebskonzepte (ICE / Hybrid / E-Fahrzeuge) erlaubt.

The aim of design science research (DSR) in information systems is the user-centred creation of IT-artifacts with regard to specific social environments. For culture research in the field, which is necessary for a proper localization of IT-artifacts, models and research approaches from social sciences usually are adopted. Descriptive dimension-based culture models most commonly are applied for this purpose, which assume culture being a national phenomenon and tend to reduce it to basic values. Such models are useful for investigations in behavioural culture research because it aims to isolate, describe and explain culture-specific attitudes and characteristics within a selected society. In contrast, with the necessity to deduce concrete decisions for artifact-design, research results from DSR need to go beyond this aim. As hypothesis, this contribution generally questions the applicability of such generic culture dimensions’ models for DSR and focuses on their theoretical foundation, which goes back to Hofstede’s conceptual Onion Model of Culture. The herein applied literature-based analysis confirms the hypothesis. Consequently, an alternative conceptual culture model is being introduced and discussed as theoretical foundation for culture research in DSR.

Basic demand from enterprises towards academic education: provide students not only methodological/theoretical knowledge, but also prepare them for the future tasks in the world of works! This contradicts academia’s focus on sustainably teaching basic principles. With the extra-curricular international online program erp4students, we successfully managed to bridge this "conflict-of-interest”.

Job-related migration has been fostered across Europe balancing unemployment in one country with demands for employees in others. However, the numbers of early school leavers and university dropouts significantly increased in the hosting countries. We propose a higher measure of cultural sensitivity in education in order to prevent frustration. The Learning Culture Survey investigates learners’ expectations towards and perceptions of education on international level with the aim to make culture in the context of education better understandable. After a brief introduction, we subsume the steps taken during the past seven years and found results. Subsequently, we introduce a method for the determination of conflict potential, which bases on the understanding of culture as the level to which people within a society accept deviations from the usual. We close with demonstrating the usefulness of the data and insights from our Learning Culture Survey in the context of practical scenarios.

The efficiency of nitrous oxide in an equimolar mixture with oxygen or in concentrations up to 70% is approved for short painful procedures. Evaluation of the vitamin B12 levels in anesthetic staff applying nitrous oxide showed reduced vitamin B12 plasma levels. This study examines the vitamin B12 status of medical staff working with nitrous oxide in a pediatric emergency department (ED). Medical staff of the ED at the University Children's Hospital Zurich participated. The vitamin B12 status was evaluated by measuring homocysteine, methylmalonic acid, vitamin B12, blood count, and the MTHFR C677T genotype. As a control group, medical personnel working in the “nitrous oxide–free” pediatric intensive care unit were recruited.

OBJECTIVES In this prospective preclinical study, we evaluated T1-weighted signal intensity in the deep cerebellar nuclei (CN) and globus pallidus (GP) up to 24 days after repeated administration of linear and macrocyclic gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) using homologous imaging and evaluation methods as in the recently published retrospective clinical studies. In a second part of the study, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces were evaluated for contrast enhancement by fluid-attenuated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty adult male Wistar-Han rats were randomly divided into a control and 5 GBCA groups (n = 10 per group). The administered GBCAs were gadodiamide, gadopentetate dimeglumine, and gadobenate dimeglumine (linear GBCAs) as well as gadobutrol and gadoterate meglumine (macrocyclic GBCAs) and saline (control). Over a period of 2 weeks, the animals received 10 intravenous injections at a dose of 2.5 mmol Gd/kg body weight, each on 5 consecutive days per week. Before GBCA administration, as well as 3 and 24 days after the last injection, a whole-brain MRI was performed using a standard T1-weighted 3-dimensional turbo spin echo sequence on a clinical 1.5 T scanner. The ratios of signal intensities in deep CN to pons (CN/Po) and GP to thalamus (GP/Th) were determined. For the evaluation of the CSF spaces, 18 additional rats were randomly divided into 6 groups (n = 3 per group) that received the same GBCAs as in the first part of the study. After MR cisternography for anatomical reference, a fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequence was performed before and 1 minute after intravenous injection of a dose of 1 mmol Gd/kg body weight GBCA or saline. RESULTS A significantly increased signal intensity ratio of CN/Po was observed 3 and 24 days after the last injection of gadodiamide and gadobenate dimeglumine. No significant changes were observed between the 2 time points. Gadopentetate dimeglumine injection led to a moderately elevated but statistically not significant CN/Po signal intensity ratio. No increased CN/Po signal intensity ratios were determined in the MRI scans of rats that received macrocyclic GBCAs gadobutrol and gadoterate meglumine or saline. The ratio of signal intensity in GP/Th was not elevated in any group injected with GBCAs or saline. Enhanced signal intensities of CSF spaces were observed in the postcontrast fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images of all animals receiving GBCAs but not for saline. CONCLUSIONS In this animal study in rats, increased signal intensity in the CN was found up to 24 days after multiple, extended doses of linear GBCAs. However, in contrast to clinical reports, the signal enhancement in the GP was not reproduced, demonstrating the limitations of this animal experiment. The elevated signal intensities remained persistent over the entire observation period. In contrast, no changes of signal intensities in either the CN or the GP were observed for macrocyclic GBCAs. However, all GBCAs investigated were able to pass the blood-CSF barrier in rats to a certain, not yet quantified extent.

Der zunehmende Wunsch der Verbraucher nach einem natürlichen Lebensstil führt unter anderem zu einem erhöhten Konsum von Rohmilch und Milchprodukten aus unpasteurisierter Milch (Hudopisk et al., 2013). Rohmilchkonsumenten bevorzugen Rohmilch zum Einen wegen des subjektiven Eindrucks eines besseren Geschmacks und zum Anderen versprechen sie sich gesundheitliche Vorteile, wie eine reduzierte Empfindlichkeit gegen Allergien und eine bessere Qualität der enthaltenen Nährstoffe, durch den Verzehr unbehandelter Milch (Claeys et al., 2014). Mit dem Konsum von Rohmilch gehen allerdings mikrobiologische Risiken einher, da Rohmilch aufgrund ihres neutralen pH-Wertes, dem hohen Nährstoffgehalt und der hohen Wasseraktivität einen guten Nährboden für mikrobielles Wachstum darstellt. Das Wachstum von verschiedenen Mikroorganismen wird dabei größtenteils durch die Temperatur, die kompetitive Begleitflora und die Anwesenheit von Hemmstoffen beeinflusst (Claeys et al., 2013).Mögliche Kontaminationen der Rohmilch resultieren entweder aus einer direkten Abgabe von Mikroorganismen durch das Euter, als Konsequenz von Entzündungen oder durch eine indirekte Kontamination während des Melkvorgangs oder der späteren Handhabung (EFSA, 2015).

Simulating free-surface and pressurised flow is important to many fields of application, especially in network approaches. Modelling equations to describe flow behaviour arising in these problems are often expressed by one-dimensional formulations of the hyperbolic shallow water equations. One established approach to realise their numerical computation is the method of lines based on semi-discretisation in space (Steinebach and Rentrop, An adaptive method of lines approach for modeling flow and transport in rivers. In: Vande Wouwer, Saucez, Schiesser (eds) Adaptive method of lines, pp 181–205. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, London, New York, Washington, DC, 2001; Steinebach and Weiner, Appl Numer Math 62:1567–1578, 2012; Steinebach et al., Modeling and numerical simulation of pipe flow problems in water supply systems. In: Martin, Klamroth, et al. (eds) Mathematical optimization of water networks. International series of numerical mathematics, vol 162, pp 3–15. Springer, Basel, 2012). It leads to index-one DAE systems as algebraic constraints are required to realise coupling and boundary conditions of single reaches.Linearly implicit ROW schemes proved to be effective to solve these DAE systems (Steinebach and Rentrop, An adaptive method of lines approach for modeling flow and transport in rivers. In: Vande Wouwer, Saucez, Schiesser (eds) Adaptive method of lines, pp 181–205. Chapman & Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, London, New York, Washington, DC, 2001). However, under certain conditions an extended partial explicit time-integration of the shallow water equations could be worthwhile to save computational effort. To restrict implicit solution by ROW schemes to stiff components while using explicit solution by RK methods for remaining terms, we adapt ROW method ROS34PRW (Rang, J Comput Appl Math 262:105–114, 2014) to an AMF and IMEX combining approach (Hundsdorfer and Verwer, Numerical solution of time-dependent advection-diffusion-reaction equations. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 2003). Applied to first test problems regarding open channel flow, efficiency is analysed with respect to flow behaviour. Results prove to be advantageous especially concerning dynamical flow.