Internationale Studien zur Erfahrung von Seelsorgenden mit Suizidhilfe und Tötung auf Verlangen

Die seelsorgliche Begleitung von Menschen, die ihr Leben mit einem assistierten Suizid beenden möchten, stellt nicht nur eine neue Herausforderung für die Seelsorgenden dar, sondern wirft auch ethische wie praktisch-theologische Fragen auf. Die Beiträge aus der theologischen Ethik und der Praktischen Theologie behandeln die Suizidhilfe sowohl allgemein als auch die konkreten ethischen und praktischen Herausforderungen der Seelsorge in Situationen des assistierten Suizids. Ausführlich reflektierte Fallbeispiele aus der Seelsorgepraxis geben Einblick in die jeweiligen Herausforderungen und tragen der hohen Relevanz des Themas für Pfarrerinnen und Pfarrer Rechnung. Dies ist umso wichtiger, als das Thema bis jetzt wenig bearbeitet wurde

Digging the population of compact binary mergers out of the noise

Coalescing compact binaries emitting gravitational wave (GW) signals, as recently detected by the Advanced LIGO-Virgo network, constitute a population over the multi-dimensional space of component masses and spins, redshift, and other parameters. Characterizing this population is a major goal of GWobservations and may be approached via parametric models.We demonstrate hierarchical inference for such models with a method that accounts for uncertainties in each binary merger’s individual parameters, for mass-dependent selection effects, and also for the presence of a second population of candidate events caused by detector noise. Thus, the method is robust to potential biases from a contaminated sample and allows us to extract information from events that have a relatively small probability of astrophysical origin

Tagung: „Was willst du, dass ich dir tun soll?“ Ethik in Seelsorge und Spiritual Care

Im Zuge einer zunehmenden Professionalisierung der Medizinethik wie auch der Seelsorge und im Zusammenhang mit der Einbindung von Seelsorge in die interprofessionelle Spiritual Care, rückt seit einiger Zeit die Frage nach dem ethischen Profil und der ethischen Qualifikation von Seelsorge stärker in den Blick auch der Forschung. Empirische Untersuchungen der letzten Jahre haben auf zahlreiche Berührungspunkte zwischen Seelsorge, Spiritual Care und Ethik aufmerksam gemacht, die auch über die strukturierte Einbindung von Seelsorgenden in Entscheidungsprozesse bei ethischen Fragestellungen hinausgehen. Seelsorgende sind somit in ihrer praktischen Tätigkeit herausgefordert, ethische Kompetenzen für das Praxisfeld der klinischen Versorgung auszubilden und im Verhältnis zu ihrer Rolle als Seelsorgende zu reflektieren. Die Tagung in Zürich greift den Bedarf an wissenschaftlichem Austausch und Vernetzung auf und steht im weiteren Zusammenhang mit der Arbeitsgruppe Ethik in Seelsorge und Spiritual Care in der Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin. Im Rahmen der Hauptvorträge wurden einschlägige Forschungsarbeiten im Bereich der Ethik in Seelsorge und Spiritual Care vorgestellt und miteinander ins Gespräch gebracht

Microsurgery in pediatric upper limb reconstructions: An overview

Pediatric microsurgery; Brachial plexus palsy; Upper limbMicrocirugía pediátrica; Parálisis del plexo braquial; Extremidad superiorMicrocirurgia pediàtrica; Paràlisi del plexe braquial; Extremitat superiorThe use of microsurgery has spread during the last decades, making resolvable many complex defects considered hitherto inapproachable. Although the small vessel diameter in children was initially considered a technical limitation, the increase in microsurgical expertise over the past three decades allowed us to manage many pediatric conditions by means of free tissue transfers. Pediatric microsurgery has been shown to be feasible, gaining a prominent place in the treatment of children affected by limb malformations, tumors, nerve injuries, and post-traumatic defects. The aim of this current concepts review is to describe the more frequent pediatric upper limb conditions in which the use of microsurgical reconstructions should be considered in the range of treatment options

Accuracy of inference on the physics of binary evolution from gravitational-wave observations

The properties of the population of merging binary black holes encode some of the uncertain physics of the evolution of massive stars in binaries. The binary black hole merger rate and chirp mass distribution are being measured by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. We consider isolated binary evolution and explore how accurately the physical model can be constrained with such observations by applying the Fisher information matrix to the merging black hole population simulated with the rapid binary population synthesis code COMPAS. We investigate variations in four COMPAS parameters: common envelope efficiency, kick velocity dispersion, and mass loss rates during the luminous blue variable and Wolf--Rayet stellar evolutionary phases. We find that 1000 observations would constrain these model parameters to a fractional accuracy of a few percent. Given the empirically determined binary black hole merger rate, we can expect gravitational-wave observations alone to place strong constraints on the physics of stellar and binary evolution within a few years.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; version accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

The antecedents, consequences, and mediating role of workload among Chinese courier drivers

The growth of e-commerce in China can be regarded as a significant factor in the increase in occupational stress and the voluntary turnover of courier drivers. This paper aims to investigate selected occupational stress factors behind the turnover intentions of Chinese courier drivers. Using data from 229 couriers employed at the largest delivery companies in China, this study applies structural equation modelling to investigate not only the direct relationships between job-stress factors and turnover intentions but also the extent to which workload indirectly mediates turnover intentions among couriers. The results indicate that a combination of high workload with social stressors leads to turnover intentions. In particular, it was found that workload completely mediated the relationship between both the independent variables and the intention to leave the industry, suggesting that when workloads are high, the net effect of negative work experiences with regard to verbal aggression and ambiguous customer expectations increases the likelihood of an intention to leave the industry. Although restricted to China, this is one of the first studies investigating the effects of courier drivers’ job stressors which highlights the importance of delivery companies working with staff to mitigate job stressors to reduce turnover intention

Metabolomic and transcriptomic stress response of Escherichia coli

GC-MS-based analysis of the metabolic response of Escherichia coli exposed to four different stress conditions reveals reduction of energy expensive pathways.Time-resolved response of E. coli to changing environmental conditions is more specific on the metabolite as compared with the transcript level.Cease of growth during stress response as compared with stationary phase response invokes similar transcript but dissimilar metabolite responses.Condition-dependent associations between metabolites and transcripts are revealed applying co-clustering and canonical correlation analysis

Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter estimation and model-selection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd