Herausforderungen im Sozial- und Gesundheitsbereich in Österreich aus Sicht einer Gesundheitsdienstleistungsorganisation

Der Artikel basiert auf praktischen Erfahrungen einer Organisation, die seit drei Jahrzehnten auf dem Gesundheitsmarkt tätig ist. Der Text versteht sich als Beitrag zur Diskussion von Herausforderungen, die dabei zu bewältigen sind, und von Anforderungen an gute Arbeit im Bereich der Gesundheitsdienstleistung. Ausgehend von einer Situationsbeschreibung des Gesundheitsbereiches und einer kurzen Darstellung der Organisation PROGES werden die zentralen Herausforderungen in der Projektarbeit, beim Personalmanagement und in der Steuerung der Organisation benannt. Daraus ergeben sich Konsequenzen für die Gestaltung der Arbeit und der Führung durch Stakeholder-Orientierung, Prozessgestaltung und Ergebnisorientierung: Die Ökonomisierung des Gesundheitsbereiches führt zu Verdrängungseffekten, eingeschränkter Planbarkeit und hohen Anforderungen an die strategische Ausrichtung. Die Ökonomisierung wirkt auch auf der Ebene der Beschäftigten: Prekäre Beschäftigung, hohe Fluktuation und hohe Arbeitsbelastung sind die Folge. Führung und Leitung von Expertinnen-/Expertenorganisationen erfordern ein differenziertes Verständnis von Strukturinterventionen.This article is based upon the experience of an organisation active in the health sector for three decades. The article contributes to the discussion of challenges to be managed thereby and of demands providing "good work" in this field. First the article characterises the situation in the health sector, next the organisation PROGES is described shortly and finally the challenges concerning project work, personnel management and organisational development are pointed out. Subsequent consequences related to the organisation of work, job design, leadership and management have to focus on stakeholder orientation, process planning and outcome: The health sector is subject to an increasing economisation. This leads to crowding out effects, restrictions on planning and high demands on the strategic focus of an organisation. The economisation also has impacts on the employees: consequences are precarious employment, high levels of fluctuation and heavy workload. Leadership and management of expert organisations require a special understanding of structural measures and interventions

Der Garten ist kein Paradies!: Eine Ausstellung über Pflegeerfordernisse historischer Gärten

"Rasen, Rosen und Rabatten" - so lautete das Motto des alljährlich stattfindenden "Tags des offenen Denkmals" am 10. September 2006

Maximizing the Total Resolution of Graphs

A major factor affecting the readability of a graph drawing is its resolution. In the graph drawing literature, the resolution of a drawing is either measured based on the angles formed by consecutive edges incident to a common node (angular resolution) or by the angles formed at edge crossings (crossing resolution). In this paper, we evaluate both by introducing the notion of "total resolution", that is, the minimum of the angular and crossing resolution. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time where the problem of maximizing the total resolution of a drawing is studied. The main contribution of the paper consists of drawings of asymptotically optimal total resolution for complete graphs (circular drawings) and for complete bipartite graphs (2-layered drawings). In addition, we present and experimentally evaluate a force-directed based algorithm that constructs drawings of large total resolution

Extraction and Characterization of Biogenic Silica Obtained from Selected Agro-Waste in Africa

Increased amounts of available biomass residues from agricultural food production are present widely around the globe. These biomass residues can find essential applications as bioenergy feedstock and precursors to produce value-added materials. This study assessed the production of biogenic silica (SiO2) from different biomass residues in Africa, including cornhusk, corncob, yam peelings, cassava peelings and coconut husks. Two processes were performed to synthesize the biogenic silica. First, the biomass fuels were chemically pre-treated with 1 and 5% w/v citric acid solutions. In the second stage, combustion at 600 °C for 2 h in a muffle oven was applied. The characterization of the untreated biomasses was conducted using Inductively coupled plasma—optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The resulting ashes from the combustion step were subjected to ICP, nitrogen physisorption, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) as well as X-ray diffraction (XRD). ICP results revealed that the SiO2 content in the ashes varies between 42.2 to 81.5 wt.% db and 53.4 to 90.8 wt.% db after acidic pre-treatment with 1 and 5 w/v% acid, respectively. The relative reductions of K2O by the citric acid in yam peel was the lowest (79 wt.% db) in comparison to 92, 97, 98 and 97 wt.% db calculated for corncob, cassava peel, coconut husk and cornhusk, respectively. XRD analysis revealed dominant crystalline phases of arcanite (K2SO4), sylvite (KCl) and calcite (CaCO3) in ashes of the biomass fuels pre-treated with 1 w/v% citric acid due to potassium and calcium ions present. In comparison, the 5 w/v% citric acid pre-treatment produced amorphous, biogenic silica with specific surface areas of up to 91 m2/g and pore volumes up to 0.21 cm3/g. The examined biomass residues are common wastes from food production in Africa without competition in usage with focus application. Our studies have highlighted a significant end-value to these wastes by the extraction of high quality, amorphous silica, which can be considered in applications such as catalyst support, construction material, concrete and backing material

Sequestration of heavy metals and radionuclides in ectomycorrhiza

The involvement of microorganisms such as fungi, present in the environment, take part in the process of element re-distribution. Ectomycorrhiza (ECM) was investigated concerning metal and radionuclide distribution within the system soil-ECM. The development of the ECM tree partners Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris was studied in relation to a symbiosis with the early colonizer ectomycorrhizal fungi Paxillus involutus and Pisolithus tinctorius, as well as the late colonizer fungus Tricholoma vaccinum. With pot experiments, the influence of ECM on metal distribution in soil was analyzed. High bioconcentration factors (BCF) associated with metal enrichment in the fungal cell was found to correlate with low glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities. While early colonizers showed higher GST activity in the mycelium as well as in mycorrhizal roots, the late colonizer T. vaccinum had lower or even lacking GST activity. In this study was shown that basidiomycetes excrete secondary metabolites and nutrients, like sugars or amino acids, via guttation. Additionally, high Pb values were measured in guttation droplets after cultivation in Pb supplemented media, which shows detoxification for survival under harsh environmental conditions. An involvement of aquaporin proteins in guttation, by forming water channels in the membrane, could be shown too. The transfer of water as well as gases or soluble substances can be inhibited by acetazolamide and silver ions which led to less guttation and altered element contents in the guttation fluid. Here, fungi could be shown to determine element concentrations in their host plant, and keep homeostasis within their cells by support of the GST enzyme as well as excreting metals with guttation. Thus, the role of fungi in element cycling can be followed and furthermore potentially find applications

Evaluation of Labeling Strategies for Rotating Maps

We consider the following problem of labeling points in a dynamic map that allows rotation. We are given a set of points in the plane labeled by a set of mutually disjoint labels, where each label is an axis-aligned rectangle attached with one corner to its respective point. We require that each label remains horizontally aligned during the map rotation and our goal is to find a set of mutually non-overlapping active labels for every rotation angle $\alpha \in [0, 2\pi)$ so that the number of active labels over a full map rotation of 2$\pi$ is maximized. We discuss and experimentally evaluate several labeling models that define additional consistency constraints on label activities in order to reduce flickering effects during monotone map rotation. We introduce three heuristic algorithms and compare them experimentally to an existing approximation algorithm and exact solutions obtained from an integer linear program. Our results show that on the one hand low flickering can be achieved at the expense of only a small reduction in the objective value, and that on the other hand the proposed heuristics achieve a high labeling quality significantly faster than the other methods.Comment: 16 pages, extended version of a SEA 2014 pape

Identifying Patterns of Multimorbidity in Older Americans: Application of Latent Class Analysis

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134156/1/jgs14201_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134156/2/jgs14201.pd

Fantasy-driven versus contact-driven users of child sexual exploitation material: offender classification and implications for their risk assessment

Since the advent of the internet, convictions for the possession, display, trading and distribution of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) have risen steadily, but little is known about the appropriate assessment and treatment of this offender group, especially in regards to their risk of reoffending. It has been suggested that a conceptual distinction of fantasy- vs. contact-driven CSEM users might be of merit. Sixty-eight offenders recruited from sex offender treatment providers were assessed via an anonymous computer survey including a variety of clinical and risk-related variables; the findings showed differences in the psychological profiles between CSEM users and contact child sex offenders. Numerical and spatial methods were employed to identify subgroups of CSEM users; these confirmed the two-fold distinction of fantasy vs. contact driven offending. The spatial representation of participants identified three dimensions as crucial in the classification of these subgroups: direct sexual contact with a minor, possession of fantasy-generating material, and social contact with other users with a sexual interest in minors, potentially differentiating distinct offender subgroups with different risks and needs. The current study informed the development of an empirical model of CSEM users that could aid in the assessment of risk of reoffending and cross-over to contact sex offending