Robustness of Reliability Predictions for a Series System of Identical Components

Robustness of reliability predictions for series systems with identical components, assuming exponential failure distributio

White lies and black lies: What they have in common and how they differ

In everyday life, people sometimes tell “black lies”, and sometimes “white lies”. For both types of lies (or deceptioni), the deceiver communicates misleading information to another person or group namely the deceived [1]. However, a large difference exists between black lies and white lies: With black lies, the deceiver tries to gain something at the cost of the deceived. In other words, the deceiver exploits the deceived out of self-interest. A classic example is the notorious used car dealer, who lies to customers about the state of the cars that are for sale. Regarding white lies, the picture looks different: The deceiver lies to please the deceived by using affiliative deception. For example, most of us have told a friend that their new hair-cut looks great to please and not irritate the friend, while secretly disliking the hair-cut. Such deception out of affiliative motives means to lie in order to deepen a relationship, or to please the deceived by saying what they would presumably like to hear. Obviously, the deception in the two examples above stems from very different motives, and therefore is usually met with condemnation in case of black lies, versus affiliation in case of white lies. But are white lies thus desirable and without harm? In this article, we highlight that white lies can cause harm precisely because people use them to foster relationships and affiliation. More specifically, when people want to affiliate with others, they tend to agree with all questions and statements of others. Thereby, affiliation biases response behavior, even on neutral questions and even when nothing can be gained from the response. Such a response bias can distort responses to health surveys, public policy questionnaires, or eyewitness interrogations; in other words, white lies can cause harm by undermining the effectiveness of public policy or by incriminating innocent others. To support this argument, we first review the underlying motives of back lies versus white lies, and then illustrate how research on the prevention of black lies might also be used to prevent the negative consequences of white lies

Temperatur und Zustimmung - ein bisher unbekannter Zusammenhang: Einblicke für Praxis und Forschung

Physical temperature can determine physical and psychological experiences. On the psychological level, warmth orients people to others and motivates them to affiliate. Individuals who are motivated to affiliate often do so by answering affirmatively to questions. Consequently, we argue that physical warmth fosters affirmative response behavior. The results of three studies are in line with this argument. In a warm environment, individuals were more likely to respond with “yes” in a memory test (Study 1). The warmer individuals felt, the more they answered affirmatively to the items of a questionnaire (Study 2). If they imagined that a friend would read the answers, this effect was amplified (Study 3). Answering unbiased questions is a key tool in the toolkit of a forensic psychologist. Therefore, the finding that warmth and cold affect responses behavior stipulates multiple points of discussion for their practical work as well as research

In situ magnetic separation of antibody fragments from Escherichia coli in complex media.

BACKGROUND: In situ magnetic separation (ISMS) has emerged as a powerful tool to overcome process constraints such as product degradation or inhibition of target production. In the present work, an integrated ISMS process was established for the production of his-tagged single chain fragment variable (scFv) D1.3 antibodies ("D1.3") produced by E. coli in complex media. This study investigates the impact of ISMS on the overall product yield as well as its biocompatibility with the bioprocess when metal-chelate and triazine-functionalized magnetic beads were used. RESULTS: Both particle systems are well suited for separation of D1.3 during cultivation. While the triazine beads did not negatively impact the bioprocess, the application of metal-chelate particles caused leakage of divalent copper ions in the medium. After the ISMS step, elevated copper concentrations above 120 mg/L in the medium negatively influenced D1.3 production. Due to the stable nature of the model protein scFv D1.3 in the biosuspension, the application of ISMS could not increase the overall D1.3 yield as was shown by simulation and experiments. CONCLUSIONS: We could demonstrate that triazine-functionalized beads are a suitable low-cost alternative to selectively adsorb D1.3 fragments, and measured maximum loads of 0.08 g D1.3 per g of beads. Although copper-loaded metal-chelate beads did adsorb his-tagged D1.3 well during cultivation, this particle system must be optimized by minimizing metal leakage from the beads in order to avoid negative inhibitory effects on growth of the microorganisms and target production. Hereby, other types of metal chelate complexes should be tested to demonstrate biocompatibility. Such optimized particle systems can be regarded as ISMS platform technology, especially for the production of antibodies and their fragments with low stability in the medium. The proposed model can be applied to design future ISMS experiments in order to maximize the overall product yield while the amount of particles being used is minimized as well as the number of required ISMS steps

Akquieszenz in Umfragen: eine wenig beachtete Fehlerquelle

Erfolgreiche Unternehmen bedienen nicht nur die Wünsche des Marktes, sondern haben auch stetig ein Ohr am Puls ihrer wichtigsten Resource: Ihrer Mitarbeiter. Nicht erst seitdem die japanische Unternehmensphilosophie kaizen bekannt wurde, die Mitarbeiter zu regelmäßigen Verbesserungsverschlägen anregt, sind die Gedanken und Meinungen der Mitarbeiter als wertvolle Informationsquelle anerkannt. Diese Quelle wird überwiegend mit einer einfachen und zugleich zeiteffizienten Methode angezapft, nämlich mit Mitarbeiterbefragungen. Solche Befragungen verwenden häufig quantitative Umfragetechniken wie Fragebögen. Diese werden eingesetzt, um Verändungen zu begleiten (sei es die neue Cafeteria oder die Umstellung auf Homeoffice durch COVID-19), um Feedback zu sammeln zu Führungskräften, Mitarbeitenden und Unternehmenstrategien oder um Fortbildungsmassnahmen zu evaluieren. Fragebögen bieten zahlreiche Vorteile, wie etwa, dass sie leicht zu erstellen und auszuwerten sind und objektive und vergleichbare Daten liefern können. Allerdings setzen Umfragen einen Vertrauensvorschuss seitens der Befragenden voraus: Die Annahme, dass an der Umfrage Teilnehmende ihre ehrlichen Einstellungen und Meinungen preisgeben. Selbst wenn Teilnehmende die Absicht haben ehrlich zu antworten, hat die Forschung einige systematische Antwortverzerrungen dokumentiert, die völlig ohne bewusste Täuschungsabsicht auftreten können. Diese Verzerrungen vermindern die Zuverlässigkeit von Umfrageergebnissen und führen dazu, dass diese nicht die Realität widerspiegeln (Tellis & Chandrasekaran, 2010)

Process Engineering of Biopharmaceutical Production in Moss Bioreactors via Model-Based Description and Evaluation of Phytohormone Impact

The moss Physcomitrella is an interesting production host for recombinant biopharmaceuticals. Here we produced MFHR1, a synthetic complement regulator which has been proposed for the treatment of diseases associated to the complement system as part of human innate immunity. We studied the impact of different operation modes for the production process in 5 L stirred-tank photobioreactors. The total amount of recombinant protein was doubled by using fed-batch or batch compared to semi-continuous operation, although the maximum specific productivity (mg MFHR1/g FW) increased just by 35%. We proposed an unstructured kinetic model which fits accurately with the experimental data in batch and semi-continuous operation under autotrophic conditions with 2% CO$_{2}$ enrichment. The model is able to predict recombinant protein production, nitrate uptake and biomass growth, which is useful for process control and optimization. We investigated strategies to further increase MFHR1 production. While mixotrophic and heterotrophic conditions decreased the MFHR1-specific productivity compared to autotrophic conditions, addition of the phytohormone auxin (NAA, 10 µM) to the medium enhanced it by 470% in shaken flasks and up to 230% and 260%, in batch and fed-batch bioreactors, respectively. Supporting this finding, the auxin-synthesis inhibitor L-kynurenine (100 µM) decreased MFHR1 production significantly by 110% and 580% at day 7 and 18, respectively. Expression analysis revealed that the MFHR1 transgene, driven by the Physcomitrella actin5 (PpAct5) promoter, was upregulated 16 h after NAA addition and remained enhanced over the whole process, whereas the auxin-responsive gene PpIAA1A was upregulated within the first 2 hours, indicating that the effect of auxin on PpAct5 promoter-driven expression is indirect. Furthermore, the day of NAA supplementation was crucial, leading to an up to 8-fold increase of MFHR1-specific productivity (0.82 mg MFHR1/g fresh weight, 150 mg accumulated over 7 days) compared to the productivity reported previously. Our findings are likely to be applicable to other plant-based expression systems to increase biopharmaceutical production and yields