Airborne measurements of turbulent fluxes during LITFASS-98: Comparison with ground measurements and remote sensing in a case study

Simultaneous flight measurements with the research aircraft Do 128 and the helicopter-borne turbulence probe Helipod were performed on 18 June 1998 during the LITFASS-98 field experiment. The area-averaged turbulent vertical fluxes of momentum, sensible, and latent heat were determined on a 15 km x 15 km and a 10 km x 10 km flight pattern, respectively. The flights were carried out over heterogeneous terrain at different altitudes within a moderately convective boundary layer with Cumulus clouds. Co-spectra-analysis demonstrated that the small scale turbulent transport was completely sampled, while the comparatively small flight patterns were possibly of critical size regarding the large-scale turbulence. The phygoide of the airplane was identified as a significant peak in some cospectra. The turbulent fluxes of momentum and sensible heat at 80m above the ground showed systematic dependence on the location of the flight legs above the heterogeneous terrain. This was not observed for the latent heat flux, probably due to the vertical distribution of humidity in the boundary layer. Statistical error analysis of the fluxes F showed that the systematic statistical error was one order of magnitude smaller than the standard deviation . The difference between area-averaged fluxes derived from simultaneous Helipod and Do 128 measurements was much smaller than the statistical error, indicating that the systematic statistical error was possibly over-estimated by the usual method. In the upper half of the boundary layer the airborne-measured sensible heat flux agreed well with windprofiler/RASS data. A linear fit was the best approximation for the height dependence of all three fluxes. The linear extrapolations of the latent and sensible heat fluxes to the ground were in good agreement with tower, scintillometer, and averaged groundstation measurements on various surface types. Systematic discrepancies between airborne and ground-based measurements were not found

Epidemiology and infection control of vancomycin-resistant enterococci at a German university hospital: A three-year retrospective cohort study.

Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) occur in hospitalized patients, causing both infection and colonization. In recent years, there has been an increase in VRE in German and other hospitals, raising the question of how to control this epidemic best. To better understand the specific epidemiology and to guide infection control, we conducted a retrospective cohort study analyzing all patients with VRE at Hannover Medical School, a tertiary university clinic in Germany that specializes in solid organ transplantation. Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of patients with VRE from 2015-2017 were collected. Basic epidemiologic parameters, including VRE incidence and incidence density, were calculated. Independent risk factors for nosocomial VRE infection compared to colonization were assessed using a logistic regression model. There were 1,492 VRE cases corresponding to 822 individual patients. The incidence was 0.8 VRE cases per 100 cases. A total of 536 (35.9%) of the 1,492 VRE cases were acquired nosocomially. Of the 1,492 cases, 912 cases had VRE-positive samples (894 Enterococcus (E.) faecium and 18 E. faecalis) in our hospital laboratory and the remaining cases were known VRE carriers. The vanB-phenotype was observed in 369 of the 894 (41.3%) E. faecium isolates and in 6 of the 18 (33.3%) E. faecalis isolates. There was an increase over time in the vanB-phenotype proportion in E. faecium (2015: 63 of 171, 36.8%, 2016: 115 of 322, 35.7% and 2017: 191 of 401, 47.6%). A total of 107 cases had a VRE infection (7.2% of all VRE cases) according to the criteria of the German National Reference Center for Surveillance of Nosocomial Infections. The remaining cases were only colonized. Among other factors, leukocytopenia (<1,000/μL), the use of a central venous catheter and the visceral surgery medical specialty were independently associated with nosocomial VRE infection. VRE imposed a relevant and increasing infection control burden at our hospital. Nosocomial VRE infection was predominantly found in certain medical specialties, such as hematology and oncology and visceral surgery. Infection control efforts should focus on these highly affected patient groups/specialties

Zur Situation von Alleinerziehenden

'Seit Anfang der siebziger Jahre steigt der Anteil der Alleinerziehenden an allen Familien mit Kindern kontinuierlich an. Im Jahr 1995 war in Hamburg mehr als jede vierte Familie mit Kindern unter 18 Jahren eine Einelternfamilie. Alleinerziehende Muetter und Vaeter sehen sich in ihrem taeglichen Leben mit vielfaeltigen Problemen konfrontiert. Diese Schwierigkeiten resultieren jedoch nur zum Teil aus der Situation als Einelternfamilie an sich. Vielfach kommen Probleme hinzu, die sich aus materieller Unterversorgung ergeben. In Hamburg waren 1993 fast ein Drittel aller Mutter-Kind-Familien von laufender Hilfe zum Lebensunterhalt abhaengig. Besonders betroffen von materieller Unterversorgung sind Alleinerziehende mit Kindern unter drei Jahren und mit mehr als einem Kind. Die Moeglichkeiten der Jugendhilfe, die Situation der Alleinerziehenden zu verbessern, sind begrenzt. Zum einen ist es erforderlich, dass die Jugendhilfe als Lobby der Alleinerziehenden und vor allem ihrer Kinder auftritt. Zum anderen muss sie ihre Angebote besser als bisher auf die Beduerfnisse der Alleinerziehenden abstimmen.' (Autorenreferat)Available from UuStB Koeln(38)-970106545 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Epidemiology and infection control of carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae at a German university hospital: a retrospective study of 5 years (2015–2019)

Background!#!Carbapenem resistant (CR) Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) and Acinetobacter baumannii (Ab) are emerging multidrug resistant bacteria with very limited treatment options in case of infection. Both are well-known causes of nosocomial infections and outbreaks in healthcare facilities.!##!Methods!#!A retrospective study was conducted to investigate the epidemiology of inpatients with CR Kp and CR Ab in a 1500-bed German university hospital from 2015 to 2019. We present our infection control concept including a weekly microbiologic screening for patients who shared the ward with a CR Kp or CR Ab index patient.!##!Results!#!Within 5 years, 141 CR Kp and 60 CR Ab cases were hospitalized corresponding to 118 unique patients (74 patients with CR Kp, 39 patients with CR Ab and 5 patients with both CR Ab and CR Kp). The mean incidence was 0.045 (CR Kp) and 0.019 (CR Ab) per 100 inpatient cases, respectively. Nosocomial acquisition occurred in 53 cases (37.6%) of the CR Kp group and in 12 cases (20.0%) of the CR Ab group. Clinical infection occurred in 24 cases (17.0%) of the CR Kp group and in 21 cases (35.0%) of the CR Ab group. 14 cases (9.9%) of the CR Kp group and 29 cases (48.3%) of the CR Ab group had a history of a hospital stay abroad within 12 months prior to admission to our hospital. The weekly microbiologic screening revealed 4 CR Kp cases caused by nosocomial transmission that would have been missed without repetitive screening.!##!Conclusions!#!CR Kp and CR Ab cases occurred infrequently. A history of a hospital stay abroad, particularly in the CR Ab group, warrants pre-emptive infection control measures. The weekly microbiologic screening needs further evaluation in terms of its efficiency

Picosecond time-resolved photon antibunching measures nanoscale exciton motion and the true number of chromophores

The particle-like nature of light becomes evident in the photon statistics of fluorescence from single quantum systems as photon antibunching. In multichromophoric systems, exciton diffusion and subsequent annihilation occurs. These processes also yield photon antibunching but cannot be interpreted reliably. Here we develop picosecond time-resolved antibunching to identify and decode such processes. We use this method to measure the true number of chromophores on well-defined multichromophoric DNA-origami structures, and precisely determine the distance-dependent rates of annihilation between excitons. Further, this allows us to measure exciton diffusion in mesoscopic H- and J-type conjugated-polymer aggregates. We distinguish between one-dimensional intra-chain and three-dimensional inter-chain exciton diffusion at different times after excitation and determine the disorder-dependent diffusion lengths. Our method provides a powerful lens through which excitons can be studied at the single-particle level, enabling the rational design of improved excitonic probes such as ultra-bright fluorescent nanoparticles and materials for optoelectronic devices

Efficacy Profiles of Daptomycin for Treatment of Invasive and Noninvasive Pulmonary Infections with Streptococcus pneumoniae▿

Daptomycin is a novel lipopeptide antibiotic with excellent activity against Gram-positive bacterial pathogens, but its therapeutic value for the treatment of invasive pneumococcal disease compared to that for the treatment of pneumococcal pneumonia is incompletely defined. We investigated the efficacy of daptomycin in two models of Streptococcus pneumoniae-induced lung infection, i.e., pneumococcal pneumonia and septic pneumococcal disease. Mice were infected with a bioluminescent, invasive serotype 2 S. pneumoniae strain or a less virulent serotype 19 S. pneumoniae strain and were then given semitherapeutic or therapeutic daptomycin or ceftriaxone. Readouts included survival; bacterial loads; and septic disease progression, as determined by biophotonic imaging. Semitherapeutic daptomycin treatment fully protected the mice against the progression of septic disease induced by serotype 2 S. pneumoniae, while therapeutic treatment of the mice with daptomycin or ceftriaxone led to ∼70% or ∼60% survival, respectively. In contrast, mice infected with serotype 19 S. pneumoniae developed severe pneumonia and lung leakage even in the presence of increased intra-alveolar daptomycin levels, resulting in only 40% survival, whereas the ceftriaxone-treated mice had 100% survival. Together, although daptomycin demonstrates little efficacy in the treatment of pneumococcal pneumonia, daptomycin is highly effective in preventing S. pneumoniae-induced septic death, thus possibly offering a therapeutic option for patients with life-threatening septic pneumococcal disease

Gewalt: Von der Enttabuisierung zur einflussnehmenden Forschung

Müller U. Gewalt: Von der Enttabuisierung zur einflussnehmenden Forschung. In: Becker R, Kortendiek B, eds. Handbuch Frauen und Geschlechterforschung. Geschlecht &amp; Gesellschaft. Vol 35. 2., erw. und aktualisierte Aufl. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag; 2008: 660-668

Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of the patients’ MRSA isolates (n = 24 patients, n = 26 MRSA isolates).

Arabic numbers indicate patients. For patient 19 and patient 21, two isolates from each two different hospital stays are shown (Roman numbers). Row order is based on the hierarchical clustering of susceptibility patterns using maximum distance and Ward’s linkage.</p