Die Honigbiene: ein Modellorganismus der Neurobiologie : Kognition, Krankheiten und die Moleküle des Lernens bei einem sozialen Insekt

Bienen sind wegen ihres Honigs beliebt und wegen ihrer Bestäubungsleistung wirtschaftlich unverzichtbar. Nicht nur in den Vereinigten Staaten nimmt das Bienensterben allerdings bisweilen dramatische Ausmaße an. Auch unsere heimischen Bienenvölker sind bedroht. Das hat eine Vielzahl von Forschungsprojekten zur Biologie der Biene und zu ihrem Schutz initiiert. Das Institut für Bienenkunde der Polytechnischen Gesellschaft und der Goethe-Universität in Oberursel untersucht in einem integrierten Forschungsansatz die kognitiven Leistungen von Bienen und wie sie durch Krankheit, Stress und Insektizidvergiftungen beeinträchtig werden

Long-term results and complications following uvulopalatopharyngoplasty in 116 consecutive patients

A modified uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) was carried out between January 1992 and December 2003 at the ENT Department of the Inselspital in Bern in 146 patients with habitual or complicated rhonchopathy. The operation consisted of a classical tonsillectomy or residual tonsil resection and additional shortening of the uvula. The natural mucosal fold between the uvula and the upper pole of the tonsils was carefully preserved. A wide opening to the rhinopharynx was created by asymmetric suturing of the glossopalantine and pharyngopalatine arches. A retrospective questionnaire with regard to rhonchopathy, phases of apnea, daytime drowsiness, obstruction of nasal breathing, long-term complications and patient satisfaction was used to evaluate the short-term and long-term effectiveness of the modified UPPP as well as the incidence of adverse side effects. Complete postoperative courses were evaluated in 116 patients. Surgical complications were restricted to one case with postoperative hemorrhage. A velum insufficiency or postoperative rhinopharyngeal stenosis did not occur. Eighty-three patients (72%) confirmed a persistent suppression or substantial improvement of the rhonchopathy. Disappearance or decrease of sleep apnea was confirmed in 12 (63%) out of 19 postoperative polysomnographic follow-up investigations. Long-term complications occurred in a total of 27 (23%) of 116 patients. They were confined to minor problems such as dryness of the mouth (n=12), slight difficulty in swallowing (n=7), discrete speech disturbances (n=1), and slight pharyngeal dysesthesias (n=7) with feeling of a lump in the throat and compulsive clearing of the throat. Eighty-five patients (73%) reported that they were satisfied with the postoperative result even several years after the operation. Looking back, 31 patients (27%) would no longer have the operation performed. The inadequate result of the rhonchopathy was specified as the reason by 21 patients. Ten patients had unpleasant memories of the operation because of intensive postoperative pain. Snoring and apneic phases are suppressed or improved by non-traumatic UPPP in the majority of patients. This effect persisted even years after the operatio

Scalable Synthesis of Acridinium Catalysts for Photoredox Deuterations

The continuous development of photocatalytic methods incentivizes the design of organic catalysts to complement the frequently used and precious polypyridyl transition metal systems. Herein, a scalable synthesis of suitable acridinium dyes and their application in photoredox deuterations are described. The acridinium catalysts, prepared on multi-gram scale, allowed the deuteration of a pharmaceutically relevant scaffold in high yield and selectivity under mild conditions

Impact Study of Numerical Discretization Accuracy on Parameter Reconstructions and Model Parameter Distributions

In optical nano metrology numerical models are used widely for parameter reconstructions. Using the Bayesian target vector optimization method we fit a finite element numerical model to a Grazing Incidence X-Ray fluorescence data set in order to obtain the geometrical parameters of a nano structured line grating. Gaussian process, stochastic machine learning surrogate models, were trained during the reconstruction and afterwards sampled with a Markov chain Monte Carlo sampler to determine the distribution of the reconstructed model parameters. The numerical discretization parameters of the used finite element model impact the numerical discretization error of the forward model. We investigated the impact of the polynomial order of the finite element ansatz functions on the reconstructed parameters as well as on the model parameter distributions. We showed that such a convergence study allows to determine numerical parameters which allows for efficient and accurate reconstruction results.Comment: Submitted to Metrologia Focus Issue on MATHMET 2023 conferenc

Stellenwert von Wasserstoff- und Methanatemtests sowie von Blutzuckertests bei der Diagnostik von Laktose- und Fruktosemalabsorption bei Kindern und Jugendlichen

Gastrointestinale Symptome nach Aufnahme von Fruktose/Laktose und Kohlenhydratmalabsorption sind bei Kindern/Jugendlichen häufig. In dieser Studie wurden nicht-invasive Wasserstoffatemtests mit Methanatemtests (MBT), Blutzuckertests (BST) und Symptomen bei Patienten (2-18 Jahre) mit Verdacht auf Fruktose-/Laktosemalabsorption (FM/LM) verglichen. Als Ergebnis konnten wir u.a. zeigen, dass BST bei V.a. LM eine normale Kohlenhydratabsorption identifizieren und MBT eine LM in den meisten Fällen diagnostizieren. Bei FM hingegeben haben MBT und BST mit aktuellen Grenzwerten keinen Zusatznutzen