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Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is well known as a highly toxic environmental chemical threat. Prolonged exposure to H2S can lead to the formation of pulmonary edema. However, the mechanisms of how H2S facilitates edema formation are poorly understood. Since edema formation can be enhanced by an impaired clearance of electrolytes and, consequently, fluid across the alveolar epithelium, it was questioned whether H2S may interfere with transepithelial electrolyte absorption. Electrolyte absorption was electrophysiologically measured across native distal lung preparations (Xenopus laevis) in Ussing chambers. The exposure of lung epithelia to H2S decreased net transepithelial electrolyte absorption. This was due to an impairment of amiloride-sensitive sodium transport. H2S inhibited the activity of the Na+/K+-ATPase as well as lidocaine-sensitive potassium channels located in the basolateral membrane of the epithelium. Inhibition of these transport molecules diminishes the electrochemical gradient which is necessary for transepithelial sodium absorption. Since sodium absorption osmotically facilitates alveolar fluid clearance, interference of H2S with the epithelial transport machinery provides a mechanism which enhances edema formation in H2S-exposed lungs.
The introduction of new steering conceptsSteer-by-Wire (SBW) gives possibility to replace theconventional steering wheel by an alternative userinterface such as a sidestick. In SBW system the sidestickcan be used as user input element instead of a steeringwheel. The implementation of sidestick in the Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) allows combiningthe conventional steering consisting of a steeringwheel, an accelerator and a brake pedal into a singleelement. Also the implementation of the sidestickcreates new, interesting and flexible design optionswhich can be used to transform the driver’s spatialenvironment. This article describes an active sidestickfor a vehicle which has been developed, integrated andtested in accordance of haptic, ergonomic and safetyrelevant requirements. The control strategies used forthe active attenuators of the sidestick have beeninvestigated and optimised using a Simulink model.
Adaptability as a Special Demand on Open Educational Resources: The Cultural Context of e-Learning
(2011)
Producing and providing Open Educational Resources (OERs) is driven by the concepts of openness and sharing. Although there already are a lot of free high-quality resources available, practitioners often rather rewrite learning resources than creatively embed (and thus, reuse) existing OERs. In this paper, we analyse the reasons for this in two different educational contexts. As a result of this analysis, we found that the uncertainty on possible adaptation needs is one of the major barriers. In order to overcome this barrier and make different learning contexts comparable, we analysed the context of learners and in particular, in the research project ‘Learning Culture’, we investigated the field of culturally motivated expectations and attitudes of learners. This paper shows the results of this research project and discusses which cultural issues should be taken into consideration when OERs are to be adapted from one to another cultural context.
Adaptation of e-Learning Environments: Determining National Differences through Context Metadata
(2008)
The paper shows how existing e-learning modules can be internationalized using structured information on the context and specifically culture. Reusing e-Learning contents is a promising concept for the internationalization or cross-cultural purposes. However, most adaptation efforts are often limited to pure language translation.
As the only alternative is rewriting, reusability allows a massive cost reduction by implementing and adapting already established courses, for example into developing countries on a low-cost level. Our approach provides a basis for international and cross-cultural adaptation. In the approach, we identify, collect and store as many parameters about the source and target context and culture as available. After comparing contexts, we determine changing needs by analyzing the impacting differences.
To implement this approach on a large-scale, we plan a public database containing the necessary information for the comparison process. In our research, we have identified a set of around 170 parameters describing national and, more specifically, cultural attributes related to various situations. Utilizing those in an adequate way will lead to an easier and efficient adaptation process.
Low power dissipation is a current topic in digital design, and therefore, it should be covered in a state-of-the-art electrical engineering curriculum. This paper describes how low-power design can be addressed within a digital design course. Doing so would be beneficial for both topics because low-power design is not detached from the systems perspective, and the digital design course would be enriched by references to current challenges and applications. Thus, the presented course should serve as an example of how a course can be developed to also teach students about sustainable engineering.
Introduction: The paper analyses – basing itself on reports and other documents created by different parts of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) – the process which led to the adoption of Social Protection Floor Recommendation No. 202 and the shift in focus of social policy advice towards basic protection and to the Global South countries. We look at the actions of different actors which shape the standard setting and policy stand of the organisation. Objective: To provide a comprehensive analysis of the historical trajectory of ILO social security standards, examining the evolution of principles, conventions, and the global dynamics that have shaped the organization's approach to social protection over time. Materials and methods: The methods include examining ILO documents, relevant subject literature, and the author's participant observations from over twenty-years of service in the ILO's Social Security Department, aiming to provide insights into the decision-making processes within the organization. Conclusion: We conclude that change was brought by: 1) shift in the membership of the ILO and of its decision-making bodies towards the increased presence and powers of representatives from countries of the Global South, 2) the shift in the global development community policy priorities towards poverty reduction, 3) emergence of experimental social assistance schemes in Global South countries, with designs often ignoring principles embedded in the ILO standards. The Social Protection Floor Recommendation complements previous standards in response to the challenges of widespread poverty and informality and spreading atypical forms of employment. It provides two directions of policy responses: 1) formalizing informal employment relationships and 2) expanding universal or targeted rights-based social assistance schemes. Assistance provided by ILO to member states focuses now more on building the non-contributory schemes and on identifying the fiscal space necessary to close the coverage gaps. Nowadays, the ILO must collaborate more than before with other development partners and the main challenge is to build among them awareness and acceptance of the principles of the ILO social security standards.
The steadily decreasing prices of display technologies and computer graphics hardware contribute to the increasing popularity of multiple-display environments, like large, high-resolution displays. It is therefore necessary that educational organizations give the new generation of computer scientists an opportunity to become familiar with this kind of technology. However, there is a lack of tools that allow for getting started easily. Existing frameworks and libraries that provide support for multi-display rendering are often complex in understanding, configuration and extension. This is critical especially in educational context where the time that students have for their projects is limited and quite short. These tools are also rather known and used in research communities only, thus providing less benefit for future non-scientists. In this work we present an extension for the Unity game engine. The extension allows – with a small overhead – for implementation of applications that are apt to run on both single-display and multi-display systems. It takes care of the most common issues in the context of distributed and multi-display rendering like frame, camera and animation synchronization, thus reducing and simplifying the first steps into the topic. In conjunction with Unity, which significantly simplifies the creation of different kinds of virtual environments, the extension affords students to build mock-up virtual reality applications for large, high-resolution displays, and to implement and evaluate new interaction techniques and metaphors and visualization concepts. Unity itself, in our experience, is very popular among computer graphics students and therefore familiar to most of them. It is also often employed in projects of both research institutions and commercial organizations; so learning it will provide students with qualification in high demand.
Adoption of Modern Maize Varieties in India: Insights Based on Expert Elicitation Methodology
(2018)
Advanced thermal gradient mechanical fatigue testing of CMSX-4 with an oxidation protection coating
(2008)
This paper presents recent research on an active multispectral scanning sensor capable of classifying an object's surface material in order to distinguish between different kinds of materials and human skin. The sensor itself has already been presented in previous work and can be used in conjunction with safeguarding equipment at manually-fed machines or robot workplaces, for example. This work shows how an extended sensor system with advanced material classifiers can be used to provide additional value by distinguishing different materials of work pieces in order to suggest different tools or parameters for the machine (e.g. the use of a different saw blade or rotation speed at table saws). Additionally, a first implementation and evaluation of an active multispectral camera system addressing new safety applications is described. Both approaches intend to increase the productivity and the user's acceptance of the sensor technology.
The clear-sky radiative effect of aerosol–radiation interactions is of relevance for our understanding of the climate system. The influence of aerosol on the surface energy budget is of high interest for the renewable energy sector. In this study, the radiative effect is investigated in particular with respect to seasonal and regional variations for the region of Germany and the year 2015 at the surface and top of atmosphere using two complementary approaches.
First, an ensemble of clear-sky models which explicitly consider aerosols is utilized to retrieve the aerosol optical depth and the surface direct radiative effect of aerosols by means of a clear-sky fitting technique. For this, short-wave broadband irradiance measurements in the absence of clouds are used as a basis. A clear-sky detection algorithm is used to identify cloud-free observations. Considered are measurements of the short-wave broadband global and diffuse horizontal irradiance with shaded and unshaded pyranometers at 25 stations across Germany within the observational network of the German Weather Service (DWD). The clear-sky models used are the Modified MAC model (MMAC), the Meteorological Radiation Model (MRM) v6.1, the Meteorological–Statistical solar radiation model (METSTAT), the European Solar Radiation Atlas (ESRA), Heliosat-1, the Center for Environment and Man solar radiation model (CEM), and the simplified Solis model. The definition of aerosol and atmospheric characteristics of the models are examined in detail for their suitability for this approach.
Second, the radiative effect is estimated using explicit radiative transfer simulations with inputs on the meteorological state of the atmosphere, trace gases and aerosol from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reanalysis. The aerosol optical properties (aerosol optical depth, Ångström exponent, single scattering albedo and asymmetry parameter) are first evaluated with AERONET direct sun and inversion products. The largest inconsistency is found for the aerosol absorption, which is overestimated by about 0.03 or about 30 % by the CAMS reanalysis. Compared to the DWD observational network, the simulated global, direct and diffuse irradiances show reasonable agreement within the measurement uncertainty. The radiative kernel method is used to estimate the resulting uncertainty and bias of the simulated direct radiative effect. The uncertainty is estimated to −1.5 ± 7.7 and 0.6 ± 3.5 W m−2 at the surface and top of atmosphere, respectively, while the annual-mean biases at the surface, top of atmosphere and total atmosphere are −10.6, −6.5 and 4.1 W m−2, respectively.
The retrieval of the aerosol radiative effect with the clear-sky models shows a high level of agreement with the radiative transfer simulations, with an RMSE of 5.8 W m−2 and a correlation of 0.75. The annual mean of the REari at the surface for the 25 DWD stations shows a value of −12.8 ± 5 W m−2 as the average over the clear-sky models, compared to −11 W m−2 from the radiative transfer simulations. Since all models assume a fixed aerosol characterization, the annual cycle of the aerosol radiation effect cannot be reproduced. Out of this set of clear-sky models, the largest level of agreement is shown by the ESRA and MRM v6.1 models.
One of the main aims of current social robotic research is to improve the robots’ abilities to interact with humans. In order to achieve an interaction similar to that among humans, robots should be able to communicate in an intuitive and natural way and appropriately interpret human affects during social interactions. Similarly to how humans are able to recognize emotions in other humans, machines are capable of extracting information from the various ways humans convey emotions-including facial expression, speech, gesture or text-and using this information for improved human computer interaction. This can be described as Affective Computing, an interdisciplinary field that expands into otherwise unrelated fields like psychology and cognitive science and involves the research and development of systems that can recognize and interpret human affects. To leverage these emotional capabilities by embedding them in humanoid robots is the foundation of the concept Affective Robots, which has the objective of making robots capable of sensing the user’s current mood and personality traits and adapt their behavior in the most appropriate manner based on that. In this paper, the emotion recognition capabilities of the humanoid robot Pepper are experimentally explored, based on the facial expressions for the so-called basic emotions, as well as how it performs in contrast to other state-of-the-art approaches with both expression databases compiled in academic environments and real subjects showing posed expressions as well as spontaneous emotional reactions. The experiments’ results show that the detection accuracy amongst the evaluated approaches differs substantially. The introduced experiments offer a general structure and approach for conducting such experimental evaluations. The paper further suggests that the most meaningful results are obtained by conducting experiments with real subjects expressing the emotions as spontaneous reactions.
Agiles IT-Controlling
(2022)
Während im IT-Projektmanagement agile Methoden seit vielen Jahren in der Praxis Zuspruch finden, werden im IT-Controlling überwiegend noch klassische Methoden eingesetzt. Der Beitrag untersucht die Fragestellung, ob und wie die im IT-Controlling eingesetzten Methoden auch agilen Paradigmen folgen und Methoden des agilen IT-Projektmanagements adaptiert werden können.
Seit vielen Jahren ist der Übergang von der Schule zur Hochschule eines der zentralen Themen für didaktische Theorien, empirische Untersuchungen und bildungspolitische Diskussionen. Ein dabei identifiziertes großes Problem vieler Studierender ist, dass mit dem Abitur „eine Lebensphase mit meist klar definierten Zielen in überschaubaren räumlichen, familiären und schulischen Strukturen endet“.1) Entscheidet man sich als Studierender gegen die nicht akademische Laufbahn und nimmt ein Hochschulstudium auf, trifft man auf Studienstrukturen und -bedingungen, die einem fremd und chaotisch vorkommen können. Der Weg an die Hochschulen ermöglicht den Individuen eine Reihe von Optionen, ist aber leider auch immer mit Risiken und Unsicherheiten behaftet. Entscheidungen müssen nun selbstständig vorbereitet und getroffen werden und dies in einem Umfeld, das sehr unterschiedlich im Vergleich zur bekannten Schulstruktur sein kann.
The following work presents algorithms for semi-automatic validation, feature extraction and ranking of time series measurements acquired from MOX gas sensors. Semi-automatic measurement validation is accomplished by extending established curve similarity algorithms with a slope-based signature calculation. Furthermore, a feature-based ranking metric is introduced. It allows for individual prioritization of each feature and can be used to find the best performing sensors regarding multiple research questions. Finally, the functionality of the algorithms, as well as the developed software suite, are demonstrated with an exemplary scenario, illustrating how to find the most power-efficient MOX gas sensor in a data set collected during an extensive screening consisting of 16,320 measurements, all taken with different sensors at various temperatures and analytes.
Alleine Bowling spielen?
(2021)
Womöglich ist das social distancing dieser Tage gar kein soziales sondern einfach nur ein körperliches, ein body distancing. Sozial können wir heute auch sein, ohne uns physisch zu begegnen. Wir können sogar "gemeinsam einsam" musizieren oder im Chor singen. Trotzdem geht etwas verloren - und am Ende wissen wir Zusammenkünfte in Vereinen welcher Art auch immer vielleicht wieder besonders zu schätzen.
Allgemeines Steuerrecht
(2015)
Many workers experience their jobs as effortful or even stressful, which can result in strain. Although recovery from work would be an adaptive strategy to prevent the adverse effects of work-related strain, many workers face problems finding enough time to rest and to mentally disconnect from work during nonwork time. What goes on in workers’ minds after a stressful workday? What is it about their jobs that makes them think about their work? This special issue aims to bridge the gap between research on recovery processes mainly examined in Occupational Health Psychology, and research on work stress and working hours, often investigated in the field of Human Resource Management. We first summarize conceptual and theoretical streams from both fields of research. In the following, we discuss the contributions of the five special issue papers and conclude with key messages and directions for further research.
The development of pulmonary edema can be considered as a combination of alveolar flooding via increased fluid filtration, impaired alveolar-capillary barrier integrity, and disturbed resolution due to decreased alveolar fluid clearance. An important mechanism regulating alveolar fluid clearance is sodium transport across the alveolar epithelium. Transepithelial sodium transport is largely dependent on the activity of sodium channels in alveolar epithelial cells. This paper describes how sodium channels contribute to alveolar fluid clearance under physiological conditions and how deregulation of sodium channel activity might contribute to the pathogenesis of lung diseases associated with pulmonary edema. Furthermore, sodium channels as putative molecular targets for the treatment of pulmonary edema are discussed.
Amino acids perform multiple essential physiological roles in humans, and accordingly, their importance to health has been the subject of extensive attention. In this special issue of the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, we focus on the various inborn errors of amino acid metabolism, their diagnostic challenges, new treatment approaches, and recent advances in patient monitoring as well as clinical outcomes.
Gene expression and cell growth rely on the intracellular concentration of amino acids, which in metazoans depends on extracellular amino acid availability and transmembrane transport. To investigate the impact of extracellular amino acid concentrations on the expression of a concentrative amino acid transporter, we overexpressed the main kidney proximal tubule luminal neutral amino acid transporter B0AT1-collectrin (SLC6A19-TMEM27) in MDCK cell epithelia. Exogenously expressed proteins co-localized at the luminal membrane and mediated neutral amino acid uptake. However, the transgenes were lost over few cell culture passages. In contrast, the expression of a control transgene remained stable. To test whether this loss was due to inappropriately high amino acid uptake, freshly transduced MDCK cell lines were cultivated either with physiological amounts of amino acids or with the high concentration found in standard cell culture media. Expression of exogenous transporters was unaffected by physiological amino acid concentration in the media. Interestingly, mycoplasma infection resulted in a significant increase in transgene expression and correlated with the rapid metabolism of L-arginine. However, L-arginine metabolites were shown to play no role in transgene expression. In contrast, activation of the GCN2 pathway revealed by an increase in eIF2α phosphorylation may trigger transgene derepression. Taken together, high extracellular amino acid concentration provided by cell culture media appears to inhibit the constitutive expression of concentrative amino acid transporters whereas L-arginine depletion by mycoplasma induces the expression of transgenes possibly via stimulation of the GCN2 pathway.
This paper proposes an approach to an ANN-based temperature controller design for a plastic injection moulding system. This design approach is applied to the development of a controller based on a combination of a classical ANN and integrator. The controller provides a fast temperature response and zero steady-state error for three typical heaters (bar, nozzle, and cartridge) for a plastic moulding system. The simulation results in Matlab Simulink software and in comparison to an industrial PID regulator have shown the advantages of the controller, such as significantly less overshoot and faster transient (compared to PID with autotuning) for all examined heaters. In order to verify the proposed approach, the designed ANN controller was implemented and tested using an experimental setup based on an STM32 board.
The design of a fully superconducting wind power generator is influenced by several factors. Among them, a low number of pole pairs is desirable to achieve low AC losses in the superconducting stator winding, which greatly influences the cooling system design and, consecutively, the efficiency of the entire wind power plant. However, it has been identified that a low number of pole pairs in a superconducting generator tends to greatly increase its output voltage, which in turn creates challenging conditions for the necessary power electronic converter. This study highlights the interdependencies between the design of a fully superconducting 10 MW wind power generator and the corresponding design of its power electronic converter.
For many different applications, current information about the bandwidth-related metrics of the utilized connection is very useful as they directly impact the performance of throughput sensitive applications such as streaming servers, IPTV and VoIP applications. In literature, several tools have been proposed to estimate major bandwidth-related metrics such as capacity, available bandwidth and achievable throughput. The vast majority of these tools fall into one of Packet Pair (PP), Variable Packet Size (VPS), Self-Loading of Periodic Streams (SLoPS) or Throughput approaches. In this study, seven popular bandwidth estimation tools including nettimer, pathrate, pathchar, pchar, clink, pathload and iperf belonging to these four well-known estimation techniques are presented and experimentally evaluated in a controlled testbed environment. Differently from the rest of studies in literature, all tools have been uniformly classified and evaluated according to an objective and sophisticated classification and evaluation scheme. The performance comparison of the tools incorporates not only the estimation accuracy but also the probing time and overhead caused.
An exploratory study: Analysis of Serbian tourism market and identification of major market segments
(2016)
The limited sodium availability of freshwater and terrestrial environments was a major physiological challenge during vertebrate evolution. The epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) is present in the apical membrane of sodium-absorbing vertebrate epithelia and evolved as part of a machinery for efficient sodium conservation. ENaC belongs to the degenerin/ENaC protein family and is the only member that opens without an external stimulus. We hypothesized that ENaC evolved from a proton-activated sodium channel present in ionocytes of freshwater vertebrates and therefore investigated whether such ancestral traits are present in ENaC isoforms of the aquatic pipid frog Xenopus laevis. Using whole-cell and single-channel electrophysiology of Xenopus oocytes expressing ENaC isoforms assembled from alpha beta gamma- or delta beta gamma-subunit combinations, we demonstrate that Xenopus delta beta gamma-ENaC is profoundly activated by extracellular acidification within biologically relevant ranges (pH 8.0-6.0). This effect was not observed in Xenopus alpha beta gamma-ENaC or human ENaC orthologs. We show that protons interfere with allosteric ENaC inhibition by extracellular sodium ions, thereby increasing the probability of channel opening. Using homology modeling of ENaC structure and site-directed mutagenesis, we identified a cleft region within the extracellular loop of the delta-subunit that contains several acidic amino acid residues that confer proton-sensitivity and enable allosteric inhibition by extracellular sodium ions. We propose that Xenopus delta beta gamma-ENaC can serve as a model for investigating ENaC transformation from a proton-activated toward a constitutively-active ion channel. Such transformation might have occurred during the evolution of tetrapod vertebrates to enable bulk sodium absorption during the water-to-land transition.
The analysis of used engine oils from industrial engines enables the study of engine wear and oil degradation in order to evaluate the necessity of oil changes. As the matrix composition of an engine oil strongly depends on its intended application, meaningful diagnostic oil analyses bear considerable challenges. Owing to the broad spectrum of available oil matrices, we have evaluated the applicability of using an internal standard and/or preceding sample digestion for elemental analysis of used engine oils via inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP OES). Elements originating from both wear particles and additives as well as particle size influence could be clearly recognized by their distinct digestion behaviour. While a precise determination of most wear elements can be achieved in oily matrix, the measurement of additives is performed preferably after sample digestion. Considering a dataset of physicochemical parameters and elemental composition for several hundred used engine oils, we have further investigated the feasibility of predicting the identity and overall condition of an unknown combustion engine using the machine learning system XGBoost. A maximum accuracy of 89.6% in predicting the engine type was achieved, a mean error of less than 10% of the observed timeframe in predicting the oil running time and even less than 4% for the total engine running time, based purely on common oil check data. Furthermore, obstacles and possibilities to improve the performance of the machine learning models were analysed and the factors that enabled the prediction were explored with SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP). Our results demonstrate that both the identification of an unknown engine as well as a lifetime assessment can be performed for a first estimation of the actual sample without requiring meticulous documentation.
Nitrosamines have been identified as a probable human carcinogen and thus are of high concern in many manufacturing industries and various matrices (for example pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food products, workplace air or potable- and wastewater). This study aims to analyse nine nitrosamines relevant in the field of occupational safety using a gas chromatography-drift tube ion mobility spectrometry (GC-DT-IMS) system. To do this, single nitrosamine standards as well as a standard mix, each at 0.1 g/L, were introduced via liquid injection. A GC-DT-IMS method capable of separating the nitrosamine signals according to retention time (first dimension) and drift time (second dimension) in 10 min was developed. The system shows excellent selectivity as each nitrosamine gives two signals pertaining to monomer and dimer in the second dimension. For the first time, reduced ion mobility values for nitrosamines were determined, ranging from 1.18 to 2.03 cm2s−1V−1. The high selectivity of the GC-DT-IMS method could provide a definite advantage for monitoring nitrosamines in different manufacturing industries and consumer products.
Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency is an infrequently described autosomal recessive disorder of the pyrimidine degradation pathway and can lead to mental and motor retardation and convulsions. DPD deficiency is also known to cause a potentially lethal toxicity following administration of the antineoplastic agent 5-fluorouracil. In an ongoing study of 72 DPD deficient patients, we analysed the molecular background of 5 patients in more detail in whom initial sequence analysis did not reveal pathogenic mutations. In three patients, a 13.8 kb deletion of exon 12 was found and in one patient a 122 kb deletion of exon 14–16 of DPYD. In the fifth patient, a c.299_302delTCAT mutation in exon 4 was found and also loss of heterozygosity of the entire DPD gene. Further analysis demonstrated a de novo deletion of approximately 14 Mb of chromosome 1p13.3–1p21.3, which includes DPYD. Haploinsufficiency of NTNG1, LPPR4, GPSM2, COL11A1 and VAV3 might have contributed to the severe psychomotor retardation and unusual craniofacial features in this patient. Our study showed for the first time the presence of genomic deletions affecting DPYD in 7% (5/72) of all DPD deficient patients. Therefore, screening of DPD deficient patients for genomic deletions should be considered.
PURPOSE
Cervical cancer (CC) is caused by a persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) infection. The cervico-vaginal microbiome may influence the development of (pre)cancer lesions. Aim of the study was (i) to evaluate the new CC screening program in Germany for the detection of high-grade CC precursor lesions, and (ii) to elucidate the role of the cervico-vaginal microbiome and its potential impact on cervical dysplasia.
METHODS
The microbiome of 310 patients referred to colposcopy was determined by amplicon sequencing and correlated with clinicopathological parameters.
RESULTS
Most patients were referred for colposcopy due to a positive hrHPV result in two consecutive years combined with a normal PAP smear. In 2.1% of these cases, a CIN III lesion was detected. There was a significant positive association between the PAP stage and Lactobacillus vaginalis colonization and between the severity of CC precursor lesions and Ureaplasma parvum.
CONCLUSION
In our cohort, the new cervical cancer screening program resulted in a low rate of additional CIN III detected. It is questionable whether these cases were only identified earlier with additional HPV testing before the appearance of cytological abnormalities, or the new screening program will truly increase the detection rate of CIN III in the long run. Colonization with U. parvum was associated with histological dysplastic lesions. Whether targeted therapy of this pathogen or optimization of the microbiome prevents dysplasia remains speculative.
Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent diseases in Western societies. A large percentage of European and American populations suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. One successful approach to address lower back pain is postural training, which can be supported by wearable devices, providing real-time feedback about the user’s posture. In this work, we analyze the changes in posture induced by postural training. To this end, we compare snapshots before and after training, as measured by the Gokhale SpineTracker™. Considering pairs of before and after snapshots in different positions (standing, sitting, and bending), we introduce a feature space, that allows for unsupervised clustering. We show that resulting clusters represent certain groups of postural changes, which are meaningful to professional posture trainers.
Cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) in combination with dendritic cells (DCs) have shown favorable outcomes in renal cell carcinoma (RCC), yet some patients exhibit recurrence or no response to this therapy. In a broader perspective, enhancing the antitumor response of DC-CIK cells may help to address this issue. Considering this, herein, we investigated the effect of anti-CD40 and anti-CTLA-4 antibodies on the antitumor response of DC-CIK cells against RCC cell lines. Our analysis showed that, a) anti-CD40 antibody (G28.5) increased the CD3+CD56+ effector cells of CIK cells by promoting the maturation and activation of DCs, b) G28.5 also increased CTLA-4 expression in CIK cells via DCs, but the increase could be hindered by the CTLA-4 inhibitor (ipilimumab), c) adding ipilimumab was also able to significantly increase the proportion of CD3+CD56+ cells in DC-CIK cells, d) anti-CD40 antibodies predominated over anti-CTLA-4 antibodies for cytotoxicity, apoptotic effect and IFN-g secretion of DC-CIK cells against RCC cells, e) after ipilimumab treatment, the population of Tregs in CIK cells remained unaffected, but ipilimumab combined with G28.5 significantly reduced the expression of CD28 in CIK cells. Taken together, we suggest that the agonistic anti-CD40 antibody rather than CTLA-4 inhibitor may improve the antitumor response of DC-CIK cells, particularly in RCC. In addition, we pointed towards the yet to be known contribution of CD28 in the crosstalk between anti-CTLA-4 and CIK cells.
The antiradical and antimicrobial activity of lignin and lignin-based films are both of great interest for applications such as food packaging additives. The polyphenolic structure of lignin in addition to the presence of O-containing functional groups is potentially responsible for these activities. This study used DPPH assays to discuss the antiradical activity of HPMC/lignin and HPMC/lignin/chitosan films. The scavenging activity (SA) of both binary (HPMC/lignin) and ternary (HPMC/lignin/chitosan) systems was affected by the percentage of the added lignin: the 5% addition showed the highest activity and the 30% addition had the lowest. Both scavenging activity and antimicrobial activity are dependent on the biomass source showing the following trend: organosolv of softwood > kraft of softwood > organosolv of grass. Testing the antimicrobial activities of lignins and lignin-containing films showed high antimicrobial activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria at 35 °C and at low temperatures (0-7 °C). Purification of kraft lignin has a negative effect on the antimicrobial activity while storage has positive effect. The lignin release in the produced films affected the activity positively and the chitosan addition enhances the activity even more for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Testing the films against spoilage bacteria that grow at low temperatures revealed the activity of the 30% addition on HPMC/L1 film against both B. thermosphacta and P. fluorescens while L5 was active only against B. thermosphacta. In HPMC/lignin/chitosan films, the 5% addition exhibited activity against both B. thermosphacta and P. fluorescens.
Due to global ecological and economic challenges that have been correlated to the transition from fossil-based to renewable resources, fundamental studies are being performed worldwide to replace fossil fuel raw materials in plastic production. One aspect of current research is the development of lignin-derived polyols to substitute expensive fossil-based polyol components for polyurethane and polyester production. This article describes the synthesis of bioactive lignin-based polyurethane coatings using unmodified and demethylated Kraft lignins. Demethylation was performed to enhance the reaction selectivity toward polyurethane formation. The antimicrobial activity was tested according to a slightly modified standard test (JIS Z 2801:2010). Besides effects caused by the lignins themselves, triphenylmethane derivatives (brilliant green and crystal violet) were used as additional antimicrobial substances. Results showed increased antimicrobial capacity against Staphylococcus aureus. Furthermore, the coating color could be varied from dark brown to green and blue, respectively.
Wie kann der wichtige Austausch von Hochschulen und Unfallversicherungsträgern im Bereich Forschung weiterentwickelt werden? Die Hochschule der DGUV (HGU) und die Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (H-BRS) konzipierten ein interaktives Workshop-Format, das diesem strukturierten und kontinuierlichen Austausch von Wissenschaft und Praxis dienen soll.
BACKGROUND
Neuronal migration is a crucial process that allows neurons to reach their correct target location to allow the nervous system to function properly. AP-2alpha is a transcription factor essential for neural crest cell migration and its mutation results in apoptosis within this cell population, as demonstrated by genetic models.
RESULTS
We down-modulated AP-2alpha expression in GN-11 neurons by RNA interference and observe reduced neuron migration following the activation of a specific genetic programme including the Adhesion Related Kinase (Axl) gene. We prove that Axl is able to coordinate migration per se and by ChIP and promoter analysis we observe that its transcription is directly driven by AP-2alpha via the binding to one or more functional AP-2alpha binding sites present in its regulatory region. Analysis of migration in AP-2alpha null mouse embryo fibroblasts also reveals an essential role for AP-2alpha in cell movement via the activation of a distinct genetic programme.
CONCLUSION
We show that AP-2alpha plays an essential role in cell movement via the activation of cell-specific genetic programmes. Moreover, we demonstrate that the AP-2alpha regulated gene Axl is an essential player in GN-11 neuron migration.