Productivity of Telemedical Services: A State of the Art Analysis of Input and Output Factors

Peters C, Drees A, Leppert F, et al. Productivity of Telemedical Services: A State of the Art Analysis of Input and Output Factors. In: Ganz W, Kicherer F, Schletz A, eds. Productivity of services NextGen : beyond output/input ; RESER 2011, conference proceedings, September 8th - 9th 2011, Hamburg, Germany. Stuttgart: Fraunhofer-Verl.; 2011

QCD Corrections to B -> X_{d,s} nu nubar, B_{d,s} -> l^+l^-, K -> pi nu nubar and K_L -> mu^+ mu^- in the MSSM

We compute for the first time QCD corrections to the rare decays B -> X_{d,s} nu nubar, B_{d,s} -> l^+ l^-, K -> pi nu nubar and K_L -> mu^+ mu^-, where l=e or mu, in the context of a supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (SM) with minimal flavour violation and new operators, in addition to those present in the SM. Assuming that the gluino is heavy, we consider an effective theory which consists of charged and neutral Higgs particles, charginos and squarks. We evaluate the QCD corrections to box and Z^0-penguin diagrams with top-quark, charged Higgs boson, chargino and squark exchanges, as well as to neutral Higgs boson penguin diagrams. We provide a compendium of analytic formulae for the Wilson coefficients, which are valid for arbitrary values of tan(beta) (the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs fields) except for the case of the neutral Higgs-boson contributions. These contributions have been obtained at large tan(beta), which may compensate for the inevitable suppression by the masses of the light leptons in decays based on the b -> s (d) l^+ l^- transition. We investigate the dependence of the various branching ratios on the renormalization scale mu, which is the main theoretical uncertainty in the short-distance calculation. We find that the mu dependence of the branching ratios is considerably reduced once the QCD corrections are taken into account. The contributions of new operators are found to be dominant at large tan(beta) in B_{d,s} -> mu^+ mu^- while they are subleading in B -> X_{d,s} nu nubar and completely negligible in kaon decays.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figures; version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Exposure to radial extracorporeal shock waves modulates viability and gene expression of human skeletal muscle cells: a controlled in vitro study

Background: Recent clinical and animal studies have shown that extracorporeal shock wave therapy has a promoting influence on the healing process of musculoskeletal disorders. However, the underlying biological effects of extracorporeal shock wave therapy on human skeletal muscle cells have not yet been investigated. Methods: In this study, we investigated human skeletal muscle cells after exposure to radial extracorporeal shock waves in a standardized in vitro setup. Cells were isolated from muscle specimens taken from adult patients undergoing spine surgery. Primary muscle cells were exposed once or twice to radial extracorporeal shock waves in vitro with different energy flux densities. Cell viability and gene expression of the paired box protein 7 (Pax7), neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), and myogenic factor 5 (Myf5) and MyoD as muscle cell markers were compared to non-treated muscle cells that served as controls. Results: Isolated muscle cells were positive for the hallmark protein of satellite cells, Pax7, as well as for the muscle cell markers NCAM, MyoD, and Myf5. Exposure to radial extracorporeal shock waves at low energy flux densities enhanced cell viability, whereas higher energy flux densities had no further significant impact. Gene expression analyses of muscle specific genes (Pax7, NCAM, Myf5, and MyoD) demonstrated a significant increase after single exposure to the highest EFD (4 bar, 0.19 mJ/mm(2)) and after double exposure with the medium EFDs (2 and 3 bar;0.09 and 0.14 mJ/mm(2), respectively). Double exposure of the highest EFD, however, results in a significant down-regulation when compared to single exposure with this EFD. Conclusions: This is the first study demonstrating that radial extracorporal shock wave therapy has the potential to modulate the biological function of human skeletal muscle cells. Based on our experimental findings, we hypothesize that radial extracorporal shock wave therapy could be a promising therapeutic modality to improve the healing process of sports-related structural muscle injuries

Indirect dark matter searches as a probe of degenerate particle spectra

We consider the possibility that the cosmological dark matter consists of particles very close in mass to new colored particles below the TeV scale. While such a scenario is inherently difficult to directly confirm at colliders, we find that indirect dark matter searches may be a powerful alternative. In particular, we show that in this case dark matter annihilation to quark-quark-gluon final states can give rise to significant antiproton (but also gamma-ray) fluxes, and compare the resulting constraints to bounds from direct searches at LEP, the Tevatron and the LHC. For supersymmetric neutralinos degenerate with squarks, e.g., antiprotons can give rise to more stringent constraints for masses below around 45-80 GeV.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; minor updates to match the published versio

PLEKHA7 Is an Adherens Junction Protein with a Tissue Distribution and Subcellular Localization Distinct from ZO-1 and E-Cadherin

The pleckstrin-homology-domain-containing protein PLEKHA7 was recently identified as a protein linking the E-cadherin-p120 ctn complex to the microtubule cytoskeleton. Here we characterize the expression, tissue distribution and subcellular localization of PLEKHA7 by immunoblotting, immunofluorescence microscopy, immunoelectron microscopy, and northern blotting in mammalian tissues. Anti-PLEKHA7 antibodies label the junctional regions of cultured kidney epithelial cells by immunofluorescence microscopy, and major polypeptides of Mr ∼135 kDa and ∼145 kDa by immunoblotting of lysates of cells and tissues. Two PLEKHA7 transcripts (∼5.5 kb and ∼6.5 kb) are detected in epithelial tissues. PLEKHA7 is detected at epithelial junctions in sections of kidney, liver, pancreas, intestine, retina, and cornea, and its tissue distribution and subcellular localization are distinct from ZO-1. For example, PLEKHA7 is not detected within kidney glomeruli. Similarly to E-cadherin, p120 ctn, β-catenin and α-catenin, PLEKHA7 is concentrated in the apical junctional belt, but unlike these adherens junction markers, and similarly to afadin, PLEKHA7 is not localized along the lateral region of polarized epithelial cells. Immunoelectron microscopy definitively establishes that PLEKHA7 is localized at the adherens junctions in colonic epithelial cells, at a mean distance of 28 nm from the plasma membrane. In summary, we show that PLEKHA7 is a cytoplasmic component of the epithelial adherens junction belt, with a subcellular localization and tissue distribution that is distinct from that of ZO-1 and most AJ proteins, and we provide the first description of its distribution and localization in several tissues

Nutzung von Prozessreferenzmodellen zur Produktivitätsmessung und -steigerung von Dienstleistungen: Konzept und Umsetzung am Beispiel der Effizienzbewertung telemedizinischer Dienstleistungen

Drees A, Langkau T, Leppert F, Peters C, Soltani N. Nutzung von Prozessreferenzmodellen zur Produktivitätsmessung und -steigerung von Dienstleistungen: Konzept und Umsetzung am Beispiel der Effizienzbewertung telemedizinischer Dienstleistungen. Controlling. 2011;23(10):514-521