Regional-biologische Schulverpflegung - Erstellung einer Broschüre zur Außer-Haus-Verpflegung

Die Außer-Haus-Verpflegung von Kindern und Jugendlichen ist nachwie vor ein aktuelles Thema. Aus diesem Grund wurden im Rahmen des Bundesprogramms Ökologischer Landbau Modellprojekte zu diesem Thema eingeworben. Das Ziel war, mehr Bio in der Schulverpflegung und in Kindertagesstätten zu etablieren. Aus der Vielzahl von Vorschlägen wurden vier Modellprojekte ausgewählt, die die Einführung von Biokost in Schulen und Kindertagesstätten mit allen möglichen Fragen und Stolpersteinen aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln beleuchten. Als Projektstandorte wurden Hamburg, Berlin, Rhein-Main-Gebiet und der Schwalm-Eder-Kreis in Nordhessen ausgewählt. Die Ergebnisse aus den Projekten zeigen, wie vielseitig die Problematik, aber auch die Herangehensweise zur Lösung der Probleme sein kann

Plastic ingestion by juvenile polar cod (Boreogadus saida) in the Arctic Ocean

One of the recently recognised stressors in Arctic ecosystems concerns plastic litter. In this study, juvenile polar cod (Boreogadus saida) were investigated for the presence of plastics in their stomachs. Polar cod is considered a key species in the Arctic ecosystem. The fish were collected both directly from underneath the sea ice in the Eurasian Basin and in open waters around Svalbard. We analysed the stomachs of 72 individuals under a stereo microscope. Two stomachs contained non-fibrous microplastic particles. According to µFTIR analysis, the particles consisted of epoxy resin and a mix of Kaolin with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). Fibrous objects were excluded from this analysis to avoid bias due to contamination with airborne micro-fibres. A systematic investigation of the risk for secondary micro-fibre contamination during analytical procedures showed that precautionary measures in all procedural steps are critical. Based on the two non-fibrous objects found in polar cod stomachs, our results show that ingestion of microplastic particles by this ecologically important fish species is possible. With increasing human activity, plastic ingestion may act as an increasing stressor on polar cod in combination with ocean warming and sea-ice decline in peripheral regions of the Arctic Ocean. To fully assess the significance of this stressor and its spatial and temporal variability, future studies must apply a rigorous approach to avoid secondary pollution

Assessment of the quality of life of care providers of hearing-impaired elderly : influence of the use of a hearing aids

A deficiência auditiva em idosos gera incapacidade, tornando necessária à presença do cuidador. Avaliar a qualidade de vida de cuidadores de idosos com deficiência auditiva e identificar a contribuição do uso da prótese auditiva na qualidade de vida dos cuidadores de idosos usuários e não usuários. Entrevistaram-se 30 cuidadores, divididos em dois grupos. O primeiro foi composto por 10 cuidadores de idosos usuários de prótese auditiva e o segundo por 20 cuidadores de idosos não usuários de prótese auditiva. Para a avaliação foram utilizados entrevista e o questionário abreviado de avaliação de qualidade de vida da Organização Mundial da Saúde, o WHOQOL-bref. A amostra foi composta predominantemente por cuidadores do sexo feminino (80%), com média de idade de 58,5±13,07 anos. Entre eles, 96,5% eram familiares dos idosos, com mediana do tempo de atuação de seis anos. Em relação à qualidade de vida, verificou-se que estava menos comprometida no grupo de cuidadores de idosos usuários de próteses auditivas, especialmente no domínio social. Foi encontrada correlação entre a idade dos cuidadores e o domínio psicológico e entre o número de medicamentos que o cuidador utilizava e o domínio físico do WHOQOL-bref. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que a qualidade de vida dos cuidadores de idosos com deficiência auditiva é afetada. O uso de prótese auditiva pelos idosos, porém, parece contribuir para a qualidade de vida dos cuidadores, pois os escores deste grupo foram superiores aos do grupo responsável por idosos não usuários do dispositivo.Hearing impairment in the elderly causes incapacity to advise to need of a care provider. To assess the quality of life of care providers of hearing disabled elders and identify the role-played by the use of hearing aids in the quality of life of care providers of elders who use or do not use hearing aids. Thirty care providers were interviewed, divided in two groups considering the use or non-use of hearing aids by the elderly. The first group comprised 10 care providers of elders who used hearing aids, and the second group comprised 20 care providers of elders who did not use. An interview and a questionnaire to assess quality of life, from the World Health Organization, the WHOQOL-bref, were used for the assessment. The sample was predominantly by female care providers (80%), with average age of 58.5±13.07 years. By the total, 96.5% were family members of the elder individuals. Regarding quality of life, it was noticed that it was less compromised in care providers of elders who used hearing aids, mainly in the social domain. It was found a correlation between the age of the care providers and the psychological domain, and between the number of drugs used by the care provider and the physical domain of the WHOQOL-bref. The results suggest that quality of life of care providers of hearing impaired elders is affected. The usage of hearing aids by the elders seems to provide for the care providers’ quality of life

Short telomeres in ESCs lead to unstable differentiation

SummaryFunctional telomeres are critical for stem cell proliferation; however, whether they are equally important for the stability of stem cell differentiation is not known. We found that mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with critically short telomeres (Tert−/− ESCs) initiated normal differentiation after leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) withdrawal but, unlike control ESCs, failed to maintain stable differentiation when LIF was reintroduced to the growth medium. Tert−/− ESCs expressed higher levels of Nanog and, overall, had decreased genomic CpG methylation levels, which included the promoters of Oct4 and Nanog. This unstable differentiation phenotype could be rescued by telomere elongation via reintroduction of Tert, via suppression of Nanog by small hairpin RNA (shRNA) knockdown, or via enforced expression of the de novo DNA methyltransferase 3b. These results demonstrate an unexpected role of functional telomeres in the genome-wide epigenetic regulation of cell differentiation and suggest a potentially important role of telomere instability in cell fate during development or disease

Управление качеством российского инженерного образования

В данном исследовании предложена модель управления качеством образования, методика проведения занятия, в которой используется компетентностная модель, основанная на проектно-ориентированном, сетецентрическом (кибефизическом) подходе.This study proposes a model for managing the quality of education, a methodology for conducting a lesson, which uses a competency model based on a project-oriented, network-centric (cybephysical) approach

Effects of deletion of the Streptococcus pneumoniae lipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase gene lgt on ABC transporter function and on growth in vivo

Lipoproteins are an important class of surface associated proteins that have diverse roles and frequently are involved in the virulence of bacterial pathogens. As prolipoproteins are attached to the cell membrane by a single enzyme, prolipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase (Lgt), deletion of the corresponding gene potentially allows the characterisation of the overall importance of lipoproteins for specific bacterial functions. We have used a Δlgt mutant strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae to investigate the effects of loss of lipoprotein attachment on cation acquisition, growth in media containing specific carbon sources, and virulence in different infection models. Immunoblots of triton X-114 extracts, flow cytometry and immuno-fluorescence microscopy confirmed the Δlgt mutant had markedly reduced lipoprotein expression on the cell surface. The Δlgt mutant had reduced growth in cation depleted medium, increased sensitivity to oxidative stress, reduced zinc uptake, and reduced intracellular levels of several cations. Doubling time of the Δlgt mutant was also increased slightly when grown in medium with glucose, raffinose and maltotriose as sole carbon sources. These multiple defects in cation and sugar ABC transporter function for the Δlgt mutant were associated with only slightly delayed growth in complete medium. However the Δlgt mutant had significantly reduced growth in blood or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and a marked impairment in virulence in mouse models of nasopharyngeal colonisation, sepsis and pneumonia. These data suggest that for S. pneumoniae loss of surface localisation of lipoproteins has widespread effects on ABC transporter functions that collectively prevent the Δlgt mutant from establishing invasive infection

Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis Is Reflected by Increased Susceptibility to the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion

Objective: To determine whether the performance of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the sound-induced flash illusion (SiFi), a multisensory perceptual illusion, would reflect their cognitive impairment.Methods: We performed the SiFi task as well as an extensive neuropsychological testing in 95 subjects [39 patients with relapse-remitting MS (RRMS), 16 subjects with progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS) and 40 healthy control subjects (HC)].Results: MS patients reported more frequently the multisensory SiFi than HC. In contrast, there were no group differences in the control conditions. Essentially, patients with progressive type of MS continued to perceive the illusion at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) that were more than three times longer than the SOA at which the illusion was already disrupted for healthy controls. Furthermore, MS patients' degree of cognitive impairment measured with a broad neuropsychological battery encompassing tests for memory, attention, executive functions, and fluency was predicted by their performance in the SiFi task for the longest SOA of 500 ms.Conclusions: These findings support the notion that MS patients exhibit an altered multisensory perception in the SiFi task and that their susceptibility to the perceptual illusion is negatively correlated with their neuropsychological test performance. Since MS lesions affect white matter tracts and cortical regions which seem to be involved in the transfer and processing of both crossmodal and cognitive information, this might be one possible explanation for our findings. SiFi might be considered as a brief, non-expensive, language- and education-independent screening test for cognitive deficits in MS patients

Gitelman-Like Syndrome Caused by Pathogenic Variants in mtDNA

Background: Gitelman syndrome is the most frequent hereditary salt-losing tubulopathy characterized by hypokalemic alkalosis and hypomagnesemia. Gitelman syndrome is caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in SLC12A3, encoding the Na+-Cl− cotransporter (NCC) expressed in the distal convoluted tubule. Pathogenic variants of CLCNKB, HNF1B, FXYD2, or KCNJ10 may result in the same renal phenotype of Gitelman syndrome, as they can lead to reduced NCC activity. For approximately 10 percent of patients with a Gitelman syndrome phenotype, the genotype is unknown. Methods: We identified mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variants in three families with Gitelman-like electrolyte abnormalities, then investigated 156 families for variants in MT-TI and MT-TF, which encode the transfer RNAs for phenylalanine and isoleucine. Mitochondrial respiratory chain function was assessed in patient fibroblasts. Mitochondrial dysfunction was induced in NCC-expressing HEK293 cells to assess the effect on thiazide-sensitive 22Na+ transport. Results: Genetic investigations revealed four mtDNA variants in 13 families: m.591C>T (n=7), m.616T>C (n=1), m.643A>G (n=1) (all in MT-TF), and m.4291T>C (n=4, in MT-TI). Variants were near homoplasmic in affected individuals. All variants were classified as pathogenic, except for m.643A>G, which was classified as a variant of uncertain significance. Importantly, affected members of six families with an MT-TF variant additionally suffered from progressive chronic kidney disease. Dysfunction of oxidative phosphorylation complex IV and reduced maximal mitochondrial respiratory capacity were found in patient fibroblasts. In vitro pharmacological inhibition of complex IV, mimicking the effect of the mtDNA variants, inhibited NCC phosphorylation and NCC-mediated sodium uptake. Conclusion: Pathogenic mtDNA variants in MT-TF and MT-TI can cause a Gitelman-like syndrome. Genetic investigation of mtDNA should be considered in patients with unexplained Gitelman syndrome-like tubulopathies

Gravitational Waves From Known Pulsars: Results From The Initial Detector Era

We present the results of searches for gravitational waves from a large selection of pulsars using data from the most recent science runs (S6, VSR2 and VSR4) of the initial generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) and Virgo. We do not see evidence for gravitational wave emission from any of the targeted sources but produce upper limits on the emission amplitude. We highlight the results from seven young pulsars with large spin-down luminosities. We reach within a factor of five of the canonical spin-down limit for all seven of these, whilst for the Crab and Vela pulsars we further surpass their spin-down limits. We present new or updated limits for 172 other pulsars (including both young and millisecond pulsars). Now that the detectors are undergoing major upgrades, and, for completeness, we bring together all of the most up-to-date results from all pulsars searched for during the operations of the first-generation LIGO, Virgo and GEO600 detectors. This gives a total of 195 pulsars including the most recent results described in this paper.United States National Science FoundationScience and Technology Facilities Council of the United KingdomMax-Planck-SocietyState of Niedersachsen/GermanyAustralian Research CouncilInternational Science Linkages program of the Commonwealth of AustraliaCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalySpanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadConselleria d'Economia Hisenda i Innovacio of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNetherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchPolish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationFOCUS Programme of Foundation for Polish ScienceRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationOTKA of HungaryLyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of Ontario through the Ministry of Economic Development and InnovationNational Science and Engineering Research Council CanadaCarnegie TrustLeverhulme TrustDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationResearch CorporationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationAstronom

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far