Umweltbildung im Naturpark und Biosphärenreservat Bayerische Rhön – Ansatz und Beispiele

Das Angebot „Frühstückswochen“ stellt die gesunde Ernährung in den Mittelpunkt und wurde als offizielles Projekt der UN-Dekade „Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung“ ausgezeichnet. Der Verein „Naturpark und Biosphärenreservat Bayerische Rhön“ wird sich um die Verlängerung der Anerkennung der „Frühstückswochen“ als ein UNESCO-Dekade Projekt „Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung“ bemühen

Muscle-derived factors that support survival and promote fiber outgrowth from embryonic chick spinal motor neurons in culture

The purpose of the experiments reported is to provide an unambiguous demonstration that embryonie skeletal muscle contains factors that act directly on embryonie spinal motor neurons both to support their survival and to stimulate the outgrowth of neurites. Cells of lumbar and brachial ventral spinal cords from 6-day-old chick embryos were separated by centrifugation in a two-step metrizamide gradient, and a motor neuron enriched fraction was obtained. Motor neurons were identified by retrogradely labeling with rhodamine isothiocyanate, and were enriched fourfold in the motor neuron fraction relative to unfractionated cells. In culture, the isolated motor neurons died within 3-4 days unless they were supplemented with embryonie chick skeletal muscle extract. Two functionally distinct entities separable by ammonium sulfate precipitation were responsible for the effects of muscle extracts on motor neurons. The 0-25% ammonium sulfate precipitate contained molecules that alone bad no effect on neuronal survival but when bound to polyornithine-coated culture substrata, stimulated neurite outgrowth and potentiated the survival activity present in muscle. Most of this activity was due to a laminin-like molecule being immunoprecipitated with antisera against laminin, and immunoblotting demonstrated the presence of both the A and B chains of laminin. A long-term survival activity resided in the 25-70% ammonium sulfate fraction, and its apparent total and specific activities were strongly dependent on the culture substrate. In contrast to the motor neurons, the cells from the other metrizamide fraction (including neuronal cells) could be kept in culture for a prolonged time without addition of exogenous factor(s)

Niemann–Pick disease type C1 presenting with psychosis in an adolescent male

Niemann–Pick disease, a neurovisceral lysosomal lipid storage disorder, is a rare disorder that is unknown to many clinicians. The disease, that often has its onset during childhood or adolescence, shows a polymorphic clinical picture, including psychiatric symptoms. Because of its infrequence, Niemann–Pick disease is diagnosed with an average delay of 6 years. This report presents a case of an adolescent male whose symptoms had led to various hospitalisations and psychiatric diagnoses. When he presented with psychotic symptoms in our department, thorough diagnosis revealed Niemann–Pick disease type C1 as the underlying disease

Effect of the strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42 on the microbial community in the rhizosphere of lettuce under field conditions analyzed by whole metagenome sequencing

doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00252 Effect of the strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42 on the microbial community in the rhizosphere of lettuce under field conditions analyzed by whole metagenome sequencin

Study of exclusive one-pion and one-eta production using hadron and dielectron channels in pp reactions at kinetic beam energies of 1.25 GeV and 2.2 GeV with HADES

We present measurements of exclusive ensuremathπ+,0 and η production in pp reactions at 1.25GeV and 2.2GeV beam kinetic energy in hadron and dielectron channels. In the case of π+ and π0 , high-statistics invariant-mass and angular distributions are obtained within the HADES acceptance as well as acceptance-corrected distributions, which are compared to a resonance model. The sensitivity of the data to the yield and production angular distribution of Δ (1232) and higher-lying baryon resonances is shown, and an improved parameterization is proposed. The extracted cross-sections are of special interest in the case of pp → pp η , since controversial data exist at 2.0GeV; we find \ensuremathσ=0.142±0.022 mb. Using the dielectron channels, the π0 and η Dalitz decay signals are reconstructed with yields fully consistent with the hadronic channels. The electron invariant masses and acceptance-corrected helicity angle distributions are found in good agreement with model predictions

Meta-analysis of pre-clinical studies of early decompression in acute spinal cord injury:a battle of time and pressure

The use of early decompression in the management of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) remains contentious despite many pre-clinical studies demonstrating benefits and a small number of supportive clinical studies. Although the pre-clinical literature favours the concept of early decompression, translation is hindered by uncertainties regarding overall treatment efficacy and timing of decompression.We performed meta-analysis to examine the pre-clinical literature on acute decompression of the injured spinal cord. Three databases were utilised; PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Embase. Our inclusion criteria consisted of (i) the reporting of efficacy of decompression at various time intervals (ii) number of animals and (iii) the mean outcome and variance in each group. Random effects meta-analysis was used and the impact of study design characteristics assessed with meta-regression.Overall, decompression improved behavioural outcome by 35.1% (95%CI 27.4-42.8; I(2)=94%, p<0.001). Measures to minimise bias were not routinely reported with blinding associated with a smaller but still significant benefit. Publication bias likely also contributed to an overestimation of efficacy. Meta-regression demonstrated a number of factors affecting outcome, notably compressive pressure and duration (adjusted r(2)=0.204, p<0.002), with increased pressure and longer durations of compression associated with smaller treatment effects. Plotting the compressive pressure against the duration of compression resulting in paraplegia in individual studies revealed a power law relationship; high compressive forces quickly resulted in paraplegia, while low compressive forces accompanying canal narrowing resulted in paresis over many hours.These data suggest early decompression improves neurobehavioural deficits in animal models of SCI. Although much of the literature had limited internal validity, benefit was maintained across high quality studies. The close relationship of compressive pressure to the rate of development of severe neurological injury suggests that pressure local to the site of injury might be a useful parameter determining the urgency of decompression