Interne Kommunikation in Zeiten von Covid-19 : wie die Pandemie die interne Kommunikation verändert hat – eine qualitative Studie

Die Entwicklungen rund um die Covid-19-Pandemie stellten und stellen die interne Kommunikation vor grosse Herausforderungen. Mit der vorliegenden, qualitativen Studie wurde im April 2020 eine Bestandsaufnahme dazu gemacht, wie ausgewählte Schweizer Organisationen mit diesen Herausforderungen umgehen und, ob und wie sich dadurch Strategien, Ziele, Prozesse und Instrumente der internen Kommunikation verändert haben. Die Leitfadeninterviews mit sieben Kommunikationsverantwortlichen zeigen, dass Covid-19 zu einem rasanten Digitalisierungsschub in den Organisationen und auch in der internen Kommunikation geführt hat. Letztere hat zudem an strategischer Relevanz gewonnen. Neben dem Einsatz von neuen, digitalen Instrumenten und einem Bedeutungszuwachs von Videokommunikation, haben sich auch die Themen der internen Kommunikation gewandelt. Besonders herausfordernd für C-Level und Kommunikationsfachleute war es, trotz örtlicher Distanz, die emotionale Bindung zu den Mitarbeitenden aufrecht zu erhalten.The developments surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic have posed and continue to pose major challenges for internal communications. In April 2020, this qualitative study analyzed how selected Swiss organizations are dealing with these challenges as well as whether and how they have changed strategies, goals, processes and instruments of internal communication. The qualitative interviews with seven communication managers show that Covid-19 has led to an accelerated digitalization push in the organizations and also in internal communication. Internal communication has also gained in strategic relevance. Beside the increased use of new digital instruments and an increase in the importance of video communication, the topics within internal communication have also changed. It was particularly challenging for executives and communication professionals to maintain the emotional bond with employees despite the physical distance that Covid-19 has mandated

Year-to-year variation in release of Bet v 1 allergen from birch pollen: evidence for geographical differences between West and South Germany

The release of the aeroallergen Bet v 1 from pollen is a major determinant in the etiology of allergic airway disease due to birch pollen. OBJECTIVE: We determined the release of the major birch pollen allergen Bet v 1 from pollen of birch trees growing in 2 different geographic regions in Germany for 2 consecutive years. METHODS: Catkins were collected during pollination in 2002 and 2003 from 82 healthy trees in South (Munich) and West Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia). The release of Bet v 1 from pollen samples was determined by a Bet v 1-specific ELISA. RESULTS: Pollen from South Germany released about 3 times more Bet v 1 than those from West Germany in both 2002 and 2003 (p = 0.034 and p = 0.007, respectively). This was independent of the number of pollen during the pollen flight season. In 2003, the release of Bet v 1 from pollen was more than 5 times higher than in 2002 in both regions (South Germany 6.1 times, p < 0.001; West Germany 5.4 times, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Despite large individual differences, there seem to be regional and year-to-year variations in Bet v 1 release from birch pollen. Therefore, the combination of pollen count and release of Bet v 1 from this pollen must be assessed to estimate Bet v 1 exposure reliably. 2007 S. Karger AG, Base

Возможность использования высокочастотного CuBr-лазера для создания скоростного лазерного монитора

Представлены оценки максимальных температур источников как внешней, так и собственной засветки, при которых будут иметь место искажения изображений, формируемых посредствам активных оптических систем. Показана возможность использования высокочастотного CuBr-лазера в качестве усилителя яркости лазерного монитора

Has Instagram Fundamentally Altered the 'Family Snapshot'?

This paper considers how parents use the social media platform Instagram to facilitate the capture, curation and sharing of ‘family snapshots’. Our work draws upon established cross-disciplinary literature relating to film photography and the composition of family albums in order to establish whether social media has changed the way parents visually present their families. We conducted a qualitative visual analysis of a sample of 4,000 photographs collected from Instagram using hashtags relating to children and parenting. We show that the style and composition of snapshots featuring children remains fundamentally unchanged and continues to be dominated by rather bland and idealised images of the happy family and the cute child. In addition, we find that the frequent taking and sharing of photographs via Instagram has inevitably resulted in a more mundane visual catalogue of daily life. We note a tension in the desire to use social media as a means to evidence good parenting, while trying to effectively manage the social identity of the child and finally, we note the reluctance of parents to use their own snapshots to portray family tension or disharmony, but their willingness to use externally generated content for this purpose

Richard Löwenherz im Museum : Menschen und Objekte in Bewegung

Irgendwo in unserem sogenannten Allgemeinwissen über das Mittelalter ist auch die Vorstellung verankert, dass das Leben früher ruhiger, gemütlicher und nicht so hektisch war wie heute. Früher, als die Welt noch ‚normal’ war, hatten die meisten Menschen einen festen Lebensmittelpunkt, waren fest verwurzelt in einer Gemeinschaft und verließen ihre Heimat nur dann, wenn es sich gar nicht vermeiden lies. Nur wenige – nämlich die besonders Überprivilegierten und die besonders Unterprivilegierten -, also die, die es sich leisten konnten oder die, die dazu gezwungen wurden, waren unterwegs. Alle anderen blieben ein Leben lang zuhause, an dem Ort, an dem sie ihren festen Lebensmittelpunkt hatten. Soweit unser intuitives Vorwissen darüber, wie es früher, also auch schon im Mittelalter, gewesen sein muss. Dieses mehr ‚gefühlte’ als wissenschaftlich erwiesene Vorwissen haben wir im Rahmen eines Hauptseminars zur Geschichte des Mittelalters im Herbst 2017 gründlich hinterfragt. Ausgangspunkt war die Ausstellung „Richard Löwenherz“, die im September am Historischen Museum der Pfalz in Speyer eröffnet wurde. Ein Seminar zum Thema führte uns auf die Spuren der im Museum gezeigten Objekte, von dort auf die Spuren der Menschen im Umfeld des berühmten Königs von England

Measles transmission from an anthroposophic community to the general population, Germany 2008

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Germany, measles vaccination coverage with two doses is not yet sufficient to prevent regional outbreaks. Among the 16 German federal states, vaccination coverage was lowest in Bavaria with 85% in 2008. From March to mid-April 2008, four neighbouring Bavarian counties reported 55 measles-cases mostly linked to an ongoing measles outbreak in an anthroposophic school in Austria. We investigated this outbreak to guide future public health action.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We applied the German national case-definition for measles and collected data using the national surveillance system and a questionnaire. Measles cases with disease onset a maximum of 18 days apart and spatial contact (e.g. same household, same school) were summed up in clusters. Two different interventions, which were implemented in schools and kindergartens in Bavaria, were compared by their impact on the size and duration of measles clusters. Susceptible persons were excluded from schools or kindergartens either with the first (intervention A) or second (intervention B) measles case occurring in the respective institution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among the 217 Bavarian measles cases identified from March-July 2008, 28 (13%) cases were attendees of the anthroposophic school in Austria. In total, vaccination status was known in 161 (74%) cases and 156 (97%) of them were not vaccinated. The main factor for non-vaccination was "fear of vaccine-related adverse events" (33%). Twenty-nine (18%) of 161 cases suffered complications. Exclusively genotype D5 was detected. Overall, 184 cases could be epidemiologically grouped into 59 clusters. Of those, 41 clusters could be linked to households and 13 to schools or kindergartens. The effect of intervention A and B was analysed in 10 school or kindergarten clusters. Depending on the respective intervention A or B, the median number of cases per cluster was 3 versus 13 (p = 0.05), and the median duration of a cluster was 3 versus 26 days (p = 0.13).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Introduction of measles virus into a pocket of susceptible persons (e.g. vaccination opponents or sceptics) may lead to large outbreaks in the general population, if the general population's vaccination coverage is below the WHO recommended level. Education on the safety of measles vaccine needs to be strengthened to increase measles vaccination coverage. Early intervention may limit spread in schools or kindergartens. Suspected measles has to be reported immediately to the local health authorities in order to allow intervention as early as possible.</p

A New Peptide Ligand for Targeting Human Carbonic Anhydrase IX, Identified through the Phage Display Technology

Carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) is a transmembrane enzyme found to be overexpressed in various tumors and associated with tumor hypoxia. Ligands binding this target may be used to visualize hypoxia, tumor manifestation or treat tumors by endoradiotherapy

Methylglyoxal down-regulates the expression of cell cycle associated genes and activates the p53 pathway in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Abstract Although methylglyoxal (MGO) has emerged as key mediator of diabetic microvascular complications, the influence of MGO on the vascular transcriptome has not thoroughly been assessed. Since diabetes is associated with low grade inflammation causing sustained nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activation, the current study addressed 1) to what extent MGO changes the transcriptome of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) exposed to an inflammatory milieu, 2) what are the dominant pathways by which these changes occur and 3) to what extent is this affected by carnosine, a putative scavenger of MGO. Microarray analysis revealed that exposure of HUVECs to high MGO concentrations significantly changes gene expression, characterized by prominent down-regulation of cell cycle associated genes and up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). KEGG-based pathway analysis identified six significantly enriched pathways of which the p53 pathway was the most affected. No significant enrichment of inflammatory pathways was found, yet, MGO did inhibit VCAM-1 expression in Western blot analysis. Carnosine significantly counteracted MGO-mediated changes in a subset of differentially expressed genes. Collectively, our results suggest that MGO initiates distinct transcriptional changes in cell cycle/apoptosis genes, which may explain MGO toxicity at high concentrations. MGO did not augment TNF-α induced inflammation