Schlüsselfaktoren der Mitgliederbindung im Wirtschaftsverband

Wirtschaftsverbände können ihre Mitgliederbasis am besten dadurch stabilisieren, indem sie sich auf ihre Kernaufgabe konzentrieren, für die sie ursprünglich gegründet wurden, und darüber hinaus eine lebendige Austauschplattform bereitstellen. Das zeigen Untersuchungen bei zwei Schweizer Verbänden, dem Ausbildungsverband flexo suisse und dem Berufsverband Baukader Schweiz. Die beiden Studien bestätigen zudem die Vermutung, dass zusätzlichen Leistungsangeboten vom Mitgliederstandpunkt aus eine deutlich geringere Rolle zukommt, obwohl aktuelle Bestrebungen häufig auf eine Erweiterung des Dienstleistungsspektrums über eine Ausweitung von Individualleistungen gerichtet sind

Automated On-Demand Generation Of Patient Summary Documents

Patient summary documents provide crucial information about a patient, like allergies and adverse reactions, which are necessary for an efficient and safe treatment and offer a quick overview of the patient’s health status. Automatically generating patient summaries from Electronic Health Records (EHR) reduces the workload of medical personnel. Nevertheless, existing approaches do not take several challenges that occur in live operation into account . Based on a health standard-compliant approach, a system for on-demand generation of patient summaries was implemented and evaluated using real data. This work shows several problems which could be identified. Those problems are not covered sufficiently by current research. Possible approaches to a solution are suggested, which have to be further investigated in future work

A Comparison of Data Traffic in Standardized Personal Health Monitoring Solutions

The publication of the HL7-FHIR standard offers new possibilities for integrated applications in healthcare. Although trial implementations have only recently started, the application of FHIR in context of a Personal Health Monitoring solution is worth investigating. Most of the existing telemonitoring solutions in healthcare rely on guidelines defined by the Continua Health Alliance (CHA). This paper compares the requirements of CHA and HL7-FHIR with respect to data traffic between client devices and server side applications. Therefore an existing CHA-compliant telemonitoring solution is extended towards supporting HL7-FHIR. Both approaches were simultaneously evaluated in a live system with 68 participants. The results of the evaluation show that the FHIR approach offers the possibility of reducing data traffic in comparison to the CHA solution

Can Self-Tracking Solutions Help with Understanding Quality of Smart, Connected Products?

Smart connected products (SCPs) have gained significant attention in different domains because they offer numerous benefits and change the form of competition and value creation. While quality is im-portant for SCPs, no holistic quality model is available to target the present quality problems. Further-more, since the concept of an SCP is quite abstract, a bottom-up approach that starts with a concrete example seems suitable. Therefore, this paper identifies the five key components of SCPs and maps them to self-tracking solutions (STS) in order to show that STSs are appropriate examples. We also analyse quality models in corresponding areas to verify the absence of a holistic quality model for the selected example. This contribution identifies the research gap regarding holistic, stakeholder-oriented quality models and helps researchers understand SCPs better

Hexagonal wavelet processing of digital mammography

This paper introduces a novel approach for accomplishing mammographic feature analysis through overcomplete multiresolution representations. We show that efficient representations may be identified from digital mammograms and used to enhance features of importance to mammography within a continuum of scale-space. We present a method of contrast enhancement based on an overcomplete, non-separable multiscale representation: the hexagonal wavelet transform. Mammograms are reconstructed from transform coefficients modified at one or more levels by local and global non-linear operators. Multiscale edges identified within distinct levels of transform space provide local support for enhancement. We demonstrate that features extracted from multiresolution representations can provide an adaptive mechanism for accomplishing local contrast enhancement. We suggest that multiscale detection and local enhancement of singularities may be effectively employed for the visualization of breast pathology without excessive noise amplification

Identifying Quality Factors for Self-Tracking Solutions: A Systematic Literature Review

Self-tracking solutions have become globally widespread, as they promise numerous advantages (e.g. improving health) to their users. Despite their benefits, such solutions are often abandoned due to quality issues. This phenomenon can also be observed for digitized products in general. As self-tracking solutions are hybrid products, combining digital and physical components, traditional domain-independent and abstract quality models like the prominent ISO 25000 standard seem to not cover quality in an appropriate way. We address these issues by answering the research question of which factors affect quality perceptions of different stakeholder groups when interacting in a wearable ecosystem. We use a systematic literature review based on a research protocol to identify and analyze 98 quality-influencing factors from 19 studies that we cluster in a map. The identified factors are compared to the ISO 25000 standard, showing that certain factors like hedonic motivation are unconsidered thoroughly in the existing standard

A Combination of the Immunotherapeutic Drug Anti-Programmed Death 1 with Lenalidomide Enhances Specific T Cell Immune Responses against Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Immune checkpoint inhibitors can block inhibitory molecules on the surface of T cells, switching them from an exhausted to an active state. One of these inhibitory immune checkpoints, programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) is expressed on T cell subpopulations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). PD-1 expression has been shown to increase with AML progression following allo-haematopoeitic stem cell transplantation, and therapy with hypomethylating agents. We have previously shown that anti-PD-1 can enhance the response of leukemia-associated antigen (LAA)-specific T cells against AML cells as well as leukemic stem and leukemic progenitor cells (LSC/LPCs) ex vivo. In concurrence, blocking of PD-1 with antibodies such as nivolumab has been shown to enhance response rates post-chemotherapy and stem cell transplant. The immune modulating drug lenalidomide has been shown to promote anti-tumour immunity including anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic and anti-angiogenicity. The effects of lenalidomide are distinct from chemotherapy, hypomethylating agents or kinase inhibitors, making lenalidomide an attractive agent for use in AML and in combination with existing active agents. To determine whether anti-PD-1 (nivolumab) and lenalidomide alone or in combination could enhance LAA-specific T cell immune responses, we used colony-forming immune and ELISpot assays. Combinations of immunother-apeutic approaches are believed to increase antigen-specific immune responses against leukemic cells including LPC/LSCs. In this study we used a combination of LAA-peptides with the immune checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD-1 and lenalidomide to enhance the killing of LSC/LPCs ex vivo. Our data offer a novel insight into how we could improve AML patient responses to treatment in future clinical studies

FISHing for ciliates: Catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization for the detection of planktonic freshwater ciliates

Planktonic ciliate species form multiple trophic guilds and are central components of freshwater food webs. Progress in molecular analytical tools has opened new insight into ciliate assemblages. However, high and variable 18S rDNA copy numbers, typical for ciliates, make reliable quantification by amplicon sequencing extremely difficult. For an exact determination of abundances, the classical morphology-based quantitative protargol staining is still the method of choice. Morphotype analyses, however, are time consuming and need specific taxonomic expertise. Catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) may represent a promising tool for the analysis of planktonic ciliates by combining molecular identification with microscopic quantification. We tested the applicability of CARD-FISH using nine cultured ciliate species. Eight species- and three genus-specific oligonucleotide probes were designed based on their 18S rRNA genes. The CARD-FISH protocol was adapted and the specificity of probes was established. We subsequently examined the precision of quantitation by CARD-FISH on single cultures and mock assemblages. Successful tests on lake water samples proved that planktonic ciliates could be identified and quantified in field samples by CARD-FISH. Double hybridizations allowed studying interspecific predator prey interactions between two ciliate species. In summary, we demonstrate that CARD-FISH with species-specific probes can facilitate studies on the population dynamics of closely related, small sized or cryptic species at high sampling frequencies

Enhanced stimulation of antigen-specific immune responses against nucleophosmin 1 mutated acute myeloid leukaemia by an anti-programmed death 1 antibody

Nucleophosmin1 (NPM1) is one of the most commonly mutated genes in AML and is often associated with a favourable prognosis. Immune responses play an increasing role in AML treatment decisions; however, the role of immune checkpoint inhibition is still not clear. To address this, we investigated specific immune responses against NPM1, and three other leukaemia-associated antigens (LAA), PRAME, Wilms' tumour 1 and RHAMM in AML patients. We investigated T cell responses against leukaemic progenitor/stem cells (LPC/LSC) using colony-forming immunoassays and flow cytometry. We examined whether immune checkpoint inhibition with the anti-programmed death 1 antibody increases the immune response against stem cell-like cells, comparing cells from NPM1 mutated and NPM1 wild-type AML patients. We found that the anti-PD-1 antibody, nivolumab, increases LAA stimulated cytotoxic T lymphocytes and the cytotoxic effect against LPC/LSC. The effect was strongest against NPM1mut cells when the immunogenic epitope was derived from the mutated region of NPM1 and these effects were enhanced through the addition of anti-PD-1. The data suggest that patients with NPM1 mutated AML could be treated with the immune checkpoint inhibitor anti-PD-1 and that this treatment combined with NPM1-mutation specific directed immunotherapy could be even more effective for this unique group of patients

International palliative care experts' view on phenomena indicating the last hours and days of life

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