Fatigue tester achieves true axial motion through flex plates and bars

Lever load-amplifying fatigue testing machine with a load cycle frequency of 100 to 900 cycles per minute applies the load through true axial motion. Pivot friction and bearing wear are eliminated by replacing these parts with flex plates and bars

Anwendung des öffentlichen Vergaberechts auf moderne IT-Softwareentwicklungsverfahren

Die öffentliche Hand ist der größte Auftraggeber in Deutschland, Europa und wohl auch in anderen Ländern der Welt wie USA und England. Nach der ?International Market Scoreboard-Statistik July 2009? betrug das Gesamtvolum aller EU-weit ausgeschriebenen öffentlichen Aufträge 2 Billionen Euro. Damit besitzt die öffentliche Hand eine beträchtliche Marktmacht, die geeignet ist, massiven Einfluss auf die Wettbewerbsverhältnisse auf den Märkten zu nehmen. Angesichts dieser Gefahr für den Wettbewerb hat das öffentliche Vergaberecht (§§ 100 f GWB, VOB/A,VOL/A usw.) die Aufgabe, diese Marktmacht der öffentlichen Auftraggeber in Grenzen zu halten und den Wettbewerb auf den Beschaffungsmärkten zu schützen. Absolute Priorität der Vergabeordnungen (§ 101 GWB) hat daher die öffentlichen Vergabe im Wettbewerb. Besondere Vergabeprobleme zeigen sich immer wieder bei der öffentlichen Vergabe von IT Anwendungsentwicklungen. Hierbei werden aus betriebswirtschaftlichen Gründen zunehmend Technologiekonzepte (iterative Verfahren) verwandt, bei denen die wirtschaftlichen und technischen Ziele erst in Form eines iterativen Prozesses zwischen Anbieter und Kunde erarbeitet und realisiert werden. Der nachfolgende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die öffentlichen Vergabearten und behandelt die Frage, ob und in welcher Weise Software-Entwicklungsprozesse mit den Vergabearten der öffentlichen Hand in Einklang stehen oder gebracht werden können

Anwendung des öffentlichen Vergaberechts auf moderne IT Softwareentwicklungsverfahren

Das öffentliche Vergaberecht, die UFAB und das V Modell XT schließen kein Vorgehensmodell bei der IT Beschaffung aus. Falls bei komplexen IT Beschaffungen keine geeignete Lösungsmöglichkeit vom Auftraggeber aufgezeigt werden kann, bieten das Verhandlungsverfahren und der wettbewerbliche Dialog eine Alternative, dass der öffentlichen Auftraggeber und die Anbieter unterschiedliche Lösungsmöglichkeiten und Vorgehensverfahren in einem Dialog zu erörtern bzw. suchen, die eine wirtschaftlichste Beschaffung auf der Grundlage von angemessenen Vertragsbedingungen und Vergütungsarten ermöglichen. --

Genetically determined height and coronary artery disease.

BACKGROUND: The nature and underlying mechanisms of an inverse association between adult height and the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) are unclear. METHODS: We used a genetic approach to investigate the association between height and CAD, using 180 height-associated genetic variants. We tested the association between a change in genetically determined height of 1 SD (6.5 cm) with the risk of CAD in 65,066 cases and 128,383 controls. Using individual-level genotype data from 18,249 persons, we also examined the risk of CAD associated with the presence of various numbers of height-associated alleles. To identify putative mechanisms, we analyzed whether genetically determined height was associated with known cardiovascular risk factors and performed a pathway analysis of the height-associated genes. RESULTS: We observed a relative increase of 13.5% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.4 to 22.1; P<0.001) in the risk of CAD per 1-SD decrease in genetically determined height. There was a graded relationship between the presence of an increased number of height-raising variants and a reduced risk of CAD (odds ratio for height quartile 4 versus quartile 1, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.84; P<0.001). Of the 12 risk factors that we studied, we observed significant associations only with levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides (accounting for approximately 30% of the association). We identified several overlapping pathways involving genes associated with both development and atherosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS: There is a primary association between a genetically determined shorter height and an increased risk of CAD, a link that is partly explained by the association between shorter height and an adverse lipid profile. Shared biologic processes that determine achieved height and the development of atherosclerosis may explain some of the association. (Funded by the British Heart Foundation and others.)

Stories of students with autism, their lived experiences and journey throughout education: A narrative analysis

Students with autism face a multitudinous array of day-to-day internal horizontal transitions, and school-to-school external vertical transitions, during their educational journey. This research explores the educational and lived experiences of five students with autism. Its intentional aim is to promote greater understanding about their unique needs, to positively inform, influence, policy, and practice. To contribute towards the reduction of autistic disabling educational barriers, in turn enabling students to reach their full potential. Narrative analysis methods were used to explore participants unique first-person experiences, to interpret and analyse their fabula, transcribed spoken words, and sjuzet, non-verbal cues, as a means to represent their true reality. Transition and change theory models were adapted as a tool to represent these findings. Case comparisons were made to identify common themes, which were then compared with general and reviewed literature, to gain a comprehensive understanding about the educational experiences of the wider autistic population. Findings indicated that all participants faced a wide range of academic and emotional-social difficulties, termed concurrent stressors. It was evident that a diagnosis and autism specific support did not guarantee a reduction in stressors and improvement in state of health, due to core autistic features such as co-occurring depression, obsessive phobias, and inescapable social difficulties. All participants experienced the greatest number of stressors and a major deterioration in health, during the secondary phase. All participants experienced a reduction in stressors and improvement in health, during the sixth form phase. The university phase had mixed results with the minority of participants’ health deteriorating, or remaining stable, and the majority of participants showing an improvement overall. This research concludes, autism is a lifelong disabling condition, requiring early diagnosis, to ensure that stressors are understood, supported through autism specific support, to minimise deterioration in state of health, and to improve educational, academic, emotional-social, experiences

The narrow-sense and common single nucleotide polymorphism heritability of early repolarization.

BACKGROUND: Early repolarization (ER) is a risk marker for sudden cardiac death. Higher risk is associated with horizontal/descending ST-segment ER in the inferior or inferolateral ECG leads. Studies in family cohorts have demonstrated substantial heritability for the ER pattern, but genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have failed to identify statistically significant and replicable genetic signals. METHODS AND RESULTS: We assessed the narrow-sense and common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) heritability of ER and ER subtypes using ECG data from 5829 individuals (TwinsUK, BRIGHT and GRAPHIC cohorts). ER prevalence was 8.3%. In 455 monozygous vs 808 dizygous twin pairs, concordances and twin correlations for ER subtypes (except horizontal/descending ST-segment ER) were higher and familial resemblance (except notched ER) was significant. Narrow-sense heritability estimates derived from 1263 female twin pairs using the structural equation program Mx ranged from 0.00-0.47 and common SNP heritability estimates derived from 4009 unrelated individuals of both sexes using Genome-wide Restricted Maximum Likelihood (GREML) ranged from 0.00-0.36, but none were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: From our data, ER shows limited genetic predisposition. There appears to be significant environmental influence and these modest narrow-sense and common SNP heritability estimates may explain why previous GWAS have been unsuccessful