Paraclimbing coach: a qualitative needs analysis of competencies and skills from the perspective of elite paraclimbers

Background: Despite the exponential growth of Paraclimbing as a sports discipline in recent years, there is a significant gap in research concerning the specific training needs of paraclimbing coaches(PC). The unique challenges posed by the athletes’ disabilities require coaches to possess specialized knowledge and competencies in both physical training and psychological support. Objective: This study aims to explore the elite paraclimbing athletes (EPCA) expectations and perceived training needs regarding their coaches to understand better how coaching can be optimized for this emerging sport. Methods: A qualitative, cross-sectional study design was employed, utilizing semi-structured interviews with six ( N = 6) EPCA from German-speaking countries. The interview guide was developed based on the expertise from the field and competence model by Zeuner and Hummel (2006), focusing on four domains: professional, methodological, self-expertise, and social skills. Interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis. Results: The findings reveal that while general climbing training covers many relevant aspects, it inadequately addresses the specific needs of athletes with disabilities. Key areas identified for improvement include integrating disability-specific knowledge into training programs, including mental health support strategies, and the need for better coordination with external professionals such as psychologists and medical experts. Moreover, the athletes emphasized the importance of social and professional expertise. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for specialized training programs for paraclimbing coaches incorporating disability-specific knowledge and mental health competencies. Addressing these gaps and needs is essential for supporting the development and success of para-athletes, and for ensuring that coaching in paraclimbing evolves alongside the sport’s growing demands

Semantic Systems and Visual Tools to Support Environmental Communication

Given the intense attention that environmental topics such as climate change attract in news and social media coverage, scientists and communication professionals want to know how different stakeholders perceive observable threats and policy options, how specific media channels react to new insights, and how journalists present scientific knowledge to the public. This paper investigates the potential of semantic technologies to address these questions. After summarizing methods to extract and disambiguate context information, we present visualization techniques to explore the lexical, geospatial, and relational context of topics and entities referenced in these repositories. The examples stem from the Media Watch on Climate Change, the Climate Resilience Toolkit and the NOAA Media Watch—three applications that aggregate environmental resources from a wide range of online sources. These systems not only show the value of providing comprehensive information to the public, but also have helped to develop a novel communication success metric that goes beyond bipolar assessments of sentiment

The efficacy of islet autoantibody screening with or without genetic pre-screening strategies for the identification of presymptomatic type 1 diabetes

Early detection of type 1 diabetes, in its presymptomatic stage, offers significant clinical advantages, including treatment that can delay disease onset. Current screening focuses on identifying islet autoantibody positivity, with proposed optimal testing at ages 2, 6 and 10 years potentially achieving up to 80% sensitivity. However, challenges arise from participation rates and costs associated with multiple screenings. Genetic pre-screening has been suggested as a complementary strategy to target high-risk individuals prior to autoantibody testing, but its real-world benefits remain uncertain. Broad genetic selection strategies, based on family history, HLA typing or polygenic risk scores, can identify subsets of the population at elevated risk. However, these approaches face issues like low recall rates, socioeconomic biases and limited applicability across diverse ancestries. Additionally, the cost-effectiveness and infrastructure requirements of integrating genetic testing into routine healthcare remain significant hurdles. The combined use of genetic and autoantibody testing could improve predictive value, especially with innovations like point-of-care genetic testing. Yet, the ultimate success of any screening programme depends less on specific strategies and more on maximising public and healthcare-provider engagement, ensuring high participation, and addressing socioeconomic and demographic disparities. Digital-health infrastructure may play a crucial role in improving recall rates and maintaining follow-up adherence. In conclusion, while repeated islet autoantibody screening remains the most effective standalone approach, conducting genetic screening prior to islet autoantibody testing may be practical in certain contexts, provided that sufficient resources and equitable strategies are employed. Public engagement and robust infrastructure are essential to realising the full potential of early type 1 diabetes detection programmes.</p

Characterization of caspase‐2 inhibitors based on specific sites of caspase‐2‐mediated proteolysis

Since the discovery of the caspase-2 (Casp2)-mediated ∆tau314 cleavage product and its associated impact on tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease, the design of selective Casp2 inhibitors has become a focus in medicinal chemistry research. In the search for new lead structures with respect to Casp2 selectivity and drug-likeness, we have taken an approach by looking more closely at the specific sites of Casp2-mediated proteolysis. Using seven selected protein cleavage sequences, we synthesized a peptide series of 53 novel molecules and studied them using in vitro pharmacology, molecular modeling, and crystallography. Regarding Casp2 selectivity, AcITV(Dab)D-CHO (23) and AcITV(Dap)D-CHO (26) demonstrated the best selectivity (1–6-fold), although these trends were only moderate. However, some analogous tetrapeptides, most notably AcDKVD-CHO (45), showed significantly increased Casp3 selectivities (>100-fold). Tetra- and tripeptides display decreased or no Casp2 affinity, supporting the assumption that a motif of five amino acids is required for efficient Casp2 inhibition. Overall, the results provide a reasonable basis for the development of both selective Casp2 and Casp3 inhibitors

Loss of NOTCH2 Positively Predicts Survival in Subgroups of Human Glial Brain Tumors

The structural complexity of chromosome 1p centromeric region has been an obstacle for fine mapping of tumor suppressor genes in this area. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) on chromosome 1p is associated with the longer survival of oligodendroglioma (OD) patients. To test the clinical relevance of 1p loss in glioblastomas (GBM) patients and identifiy the underlying tumor suppressor locus, we constructed a somatic deletion map on chromosome 1p in 26 OG and 118 GBM. Deletion hotspots at 4 microsatellite markers located at 1p36.3, 1p36.1, 1p22 and 1p11 defined 10 distinct haplotypes that were related to patient survival. We found that loss of 1p centromeric marker D1S2696 within NOTCH2 intron 12 was associated with favorable prognosis in OD (P = 0.0007) as well as in GBM (P = 0.0175), while 19q loss, concomitant with 1p LOH in OD, had no influence on GBM survival (P = 0.918). Assessment of the intra-chromosomal ratio between NOTCH2 and its 1q21 pericentric duplication N2N (N2/N2N-test) allowed delineation of a consistent centromeric breakpoint in OD that also contained a minimally lost area in GBM. OD and GBM showed distinct deletion patterns that converged to the NOTCH2 gene in both glioma subtypes. Moreover, the N2/N2N-test disclosed homozygous deletions of NOTCH2 in primary OD. The N2/N2N test distinguished OD from GBM with a specificity of 100% and a sensitivity of 97%. Combined assessment of NOTCH2 genetic markers D1S2696 and N2/N2N predicted 24-month survival with an accuracy (0.925) that is equivalent to histological classification combined with the D1S2696 status (0.954) and higher than current genetic evaluation by 1p/19q LOH (0.762). Our data propose NOTCH2 as a powerful new molecular test to detect prognostically favorable gliomas

Früherkennung von Typ-1-Diabetes durch Inselautoantikörper-Screening: ein Positionspapier der Fr1daPlex-Projektleiter und -Schulungszentren, des BVKJ Bayern und PaedNetz Bayern e.V.

Dieses Positionspapier basiert auf der langjährigen klinischen Erfahrung und grundlagen-wissenschaftlichen Forschung der Autoren zur Diagnose und Behandlung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit einem präsymptomatischen Frühstadium des Typ-1-Diabetes. Der Nutzen sowie potenzielle Nachteile der Früherkennung von Typ-1-Diabetes durch ein Inselautoantikörper-Screening werden kritisch diskutiert. Zudem werden die Perspektiven einer Verzögerung des Ausbruchs der klinischen Stoffwechselerkrankung durch eine Teplizumab-Behandlung adressiert. Wir sehen heute die Chance einer relevanten Verbesserung der therapeutischen Möglichkeiten und der Lebensperspektive betroffener Kinder und Jugendlicher. Wichtige nächste Schritte für die Implementierung eines Inselautoantikörper-Screenings in Deutschland sind die Fortbildung der Kinder- und Jugendärzte, die über das Screening aufklären sollen, die Etablierung von wenigen überregionalen Laboratorien, die die Testung durchführen, und die Ausweitung regionaler Kapazitäten für Schulung und Betreuung der Kinder mit einem Frühstadium des Typ-1-Diabetes

Reinforcing steel bridges with category-2-damages

Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über Instandsetzung und Verstärkung von Stahlbrücken mit Schäden im Bereich von Anschlüssen im Längssystem orthotroper Stahlbrücken, im speziellen bei Längssteifen aus Y-Profilen. Basierend auf Literatur und Recherche, wurden im Projekt Ermüdungsrisse, die an existierenden Stahlbrücken mit Y-Profilen beobachtet wurden, zusammengestellt und kategorisiert. Eine Reihe der im Rahmen des Projektes ausgewerteten Erfahrungsberichte zeigte, dass rein schweißtechnische Instandsetzungen auf Dauer nicht erfolgreich waren. Deshalb wurden für die detaillierten Untersuchungen nur Maßnahmen mit mechanischen Verbindungsmitteln vorgesehen. Die an Y-Profilen entwickelten Instandsetzungs- und Verstärkungsmaßnahmen wurden in 20 Ermüdungsversuchen experimentell analysiert. Die originalen Prüfkörper wurden entsprechend den Fertigungsplänen bestehender Brücken hergestellt. Nach den Ermüdungsversuchen wurden die Prüfkörper repariert und unter den gleichen Randbedingungen erneut geschwungen. Bei der ersten Versuchsreihe wurde eine Verstärkung mit Seitenwinkel und Lasche vorgesehen, bei denen die Winkel im geschlossenen Teil der Y-Profile mit Blindnieten befestigt waren. Die Blindnieten zeigten kein Versagen und erst bei deutlich höherer Schwingzahl als im Originalzustand ging z.T. von der künstlichen Rissspitze ein neuer Riss aus. Bei der zweiten Versuchsreihe mit Stegverstärkung konnten nach der gleichen maximalen Schwingspielzahl, die im Originalzustand zu Rissen geführt hatte, keine Risse dokumentiert werden. In der 3. Versuchsreihe, die im Bereich des 1/2 I-Profils mit einer Zusatzlasche repariert worden war, ging nach Verstärkung mit Zusatzlasche bei geringerer Schwingzahl als im Originalzustand ein Riss vom künstlichen Ermüdungsriss bzw. vom Bohrloch der angeschraubten Lasche aus. Bei der Auswertung wurden mit Hilfe eines numerischen Modells die Ermüdungsversuche validiert, um die Wirksamkeit der Maßnahmen zu bewerten. Insgesamt konnte das Vorhaben erfolgreich beendet werden. In weiterfühgrenden Untersuchungen sollten vor allem die versuchstechnischen Untersuchungen systematisch ergänzt werden.This contribution gives an overview over maintenance methods of orthotropic steel bridge decks, especially considering longitudinal Y-stiffeners. Based on literature study and research, i. a. on documents of existing fatigue cracks at orthotropic steel bridge decks, fatigue cracks observed at existing bridges with Y-stiffeners were summarized and categorized. Within this research project a lot of evaluated reports proved that a pure maintenance with welding was not successful on a permanent basis. Therefore, only maintenance methods with mechanical fasteners were used for the detailed investigations. The maintenance methods for Y-stiffeners were investigated experimentally. A total of 20 large scale fatigue tests were realized. The original test specimens have been fabricated according to construction plans of existing bridges. After testing, these test specimens were repaired and tested again under the same loading condition. In the first test series, reinforcement with side angles and straps was tested, whereby the angles were fixed to the closed Y-stiffeners by blind rivets. The blind rivets didn't fail during the tests. The repaired test specimens only failed after a higher amount of applied load cycles than the original ones, with fatigue cracks partially starting from the artificial crack tip. The second test series with a reinforcement of the crossbeam web reached the same amount of load cycles than the original test series, without showing any fatigue cracks. The 3rd test series was repaired with an additional strap at the 1/2 I-profile, since the butt weld of the 1/2 I-profile failed and not the welded splice joint of the side plates. This repaired test series reached less load cycles than the original test series, with fatigue cracks starting from the artificial crack tip and also from the drilled hole of the screwed strap. The evaluation based on a numerical model compared the fatigue tests with corresponding detail categories from Eurocode, in order to estimate the effectiveness of the maintenance methods. On the whole, the research project with its results could be finalized successfully. In continuative research projects especially the experimental investigations should be complemented systematically