Workforce Rostering for Tomorrow's Industry: The Workforce Scheduling Dilemma in Decentrally Controlled Production Systems

The workforce rostering for tomorrow’s industry needs to be reconsidered. The development of new types of production control mechanisms, like decentralized production control, impacts the effectivity and efficiency of workforce rostering methods, too. Simultaneously, social trends, like the growing demand of flexible working time models and labor shortages, take their influence on the rostering process. We are facing these requirements by developing a new rostering method which is appropriate for decentrally controlled production systems, the consideration of individual preferred working times independent of rigid shift systems and the simultaneous targeting of production-related performance variables. Therefore, we apply a simulation-based optimization approach which is based on a genetic algorithm

Selenium-Binding Protein 1 Indicates Myocardial Stress and Risk for Adverse Outcome in Cardiac Surgery

Selenium-binding protein 1 (SELENBP1) is an intracellular protein that has been detected in the circulation in response to myocardial infarction. Hypoxia and cardiac surgery affect selenoprotein expression and selenium (Se) status. For this reason, we decided to analyze circulating SELENBP1 concentrations in patients (n = 75) necessitating cardioplegia and a cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) during the course of the cardiac surgery. Serum samples were collected at seven time-points spanning the full surgical process. SELENBP1 was quantified by a highly sensitive newly developed immunological assay. Serum concentrations of SELENBP1 increased markedly during the intervention and showed a positive association with the duration of ischemia (ρ = 0.6, p < 0.0001). Elevated serum SELENBP1 concentrations at 1 h after arrival at the intensive care unit (post-surgery) were predictive to identify patients at risk of adverse outcome (death, bradycardia or cerebral ischemia, "endpoint 1"; OR 29.9, CI 3.3-268.8, p = 0.00027). Circulating SELENBP1 during intervention (2 min after reperfusion or 15 min after weaning from the CPB) correlated positively with an established marker of myocardial infarction (CK-MB) measured after the intervention (each with ρ = 0.5, p < 0.0001). We concluded that serum concentrations of SELENBP1 were strongly associated with cardiac arrest and the duration of myocardial ischemia already early during surgery, thereby constituting a novel and promising quantitative marker for myocardial hypoxia, with a high potential to improve diagnostics and prediction in combination with the established clinical parameters

Modulation der Aufnahme von magnetischen Nanopartikeln durch Tumorzellen und Leukozyten: Einsatz von Zuckerderivaten

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Aufnahme magnetischer Nanopartikel in Tumorzellen und Leukozyten unter Einsatz verschiedener Partikelhüllen untersucht. Zur Modifikation der Hüllstruktur kamen die Zuckerderivate Dextran, Carboxy- Dextran, Carboxymethyl-Dextran und Carboxymethyl-Cellulose zum Einsatz. Weiterhin wurden gebrauchsfertige Nanopartikel von Innovent e.V., Jena zur Testung zur Verfügung gestellt: V 200 mit Amino-Dextran-Hülle; V 207 mit Carboxymethyl- Chitosan-Hülle; V 208/2 mit Carboxymethyl-gamma-Cyclodextrin-Hülle sowie V 209 mit Carboxymethyl-beta-Cyclodextrin als Hüllstruktur. Es ist bekannt, dass magnetische Nanopartikel endozytotisch in Zellen aufgenommen werden. Dabei führt eine Umhüllung mit Dextranderivaten zu einer zelltyp-spezifischen Interaktion. Tumorzellen zeigen in der Regel eine schnelle Aufnahmekinetik, während Leukozyten durch eine vergleichsweise langsamere Interaktion mit magnetischen Nanopartikeln charakterisiert sind. Mittels Magnetseparation können so markierte Tumorzellen separiert und damit aus dem Blut von Krebspatienten entfernt werden. Die Untersuchungen erfolgten an Tumorzellen, stellvertretend dafür wurde die Brustkrebszelllinie MCF7 gewählt, sowie an Blutproben von Mammakarzinom- Patientinnen der Universitätsfrauenklinik Jena. Der höchste Anteil von Tumorzellen in der Positivfraktion ist bei Carboxymethyl-Dextran umhüllten Nanopartikeln zu verzeichnen. Dieses Ergebnis konnte auf ein experimentell erzeugtes Tumorzell-Leukozytengemisch übertragen werden. Hier ließen sich Tumorzellen um das 4-fache in der Positivfraktion anreichern. Beim Abgleich der in vitro Daten mit Patientenblut wurden Tumorzellen unter Einsatz von Dextran, Carboxy-Dextran und Carboxymethyl-Dextran-Partikeln signifikant in der Positivfraktion angereichert. Diese Arbeit unterstreicht damit die Favorisierung von Carboxymethyl-Dextran umhüllten Nanopartikeln zur Tumorzelldepletion. (Zeichen: 1917

Bandwidth, expansion, treewidth, separators, and universality for bounded degree graphs

We establish relations between the bandwidth and the treewidth of bounded degree graphs G, and relate these parameters to the size of a separator of G as well as the size of an expanding subgraph of G. Our results imply that if one of these parameters is sublinear in the number of vertices of G then so are all the others. This implies for example that graphs of fixed genus have sublinear bandwidth or, more generally, a corresponding result for graphs with any fixed forbidden minor. As a consequence we establish a simple criterion for universality for such classes of graphs and show for example that for each gamma>0 every n-vertex graph with minimum degree ((3/4)+gamma)n contains a copy of every bounded-degree planar graph on n vertices if n is sufficiently large

The Clinical and Socio-Economic Relevance of Increased IPMN Detection Rates and Management Choices

Background: Increased usage of computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging has led to a large increase in identified pancreatic cysts of up to 25% in population-based studies. The clinical and economic relevance of identifying so many cystic lesions has not been established. Compared to other organs such as liver or kidney, dysontogenetic pancreatic cysts are rare. Pancreatic cysts comprise a variety of benign, premalignant or malignant lesions; however, precise diagnosis before resection has an accuracy of only 80%. The focus of recent research was the malignant potential of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) with the aim of establishing clinical pathways addressing risk of malignancy, age and comorbidity, treatment-related morbidity and mortality as well as cost-effectiveness of treatment and surveillance. The focus of this review is to analyze the clinical and socio-economic relevance as well as the cost-benefit relation for IPMNs. Methods: For analysis, the following MESH terms were used to identify original articles, reviews, and guidelines in PubMed: (‘intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm' OR ‘pancreatic cysts') and (incidence OR relevance OR socio-economic OR economic OR cost-effectiveness OR cost-benefit). The retrieved publications were reviewed with a focus on clinical and socio-economic relevance in relation to the increasing incidence of IPMN. Results: Addressing the increasing prevalence of pancreatic cystic lesions, recent consensus guidelines suggested criteria for risk stratification according to ‘worrisome features' and ‘high-risk stigmata'. Recent prospective cohort studies evaluated whether these can be applied in clinical practice. Evaluation of three different clinical scenarios with regard to costs and quality-adjusted life years suggested a better effectiveness of surveillance after initial risk stratification by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration with cyst fluid analysis compared with immediate resection or follow-up without further intervention. Of interest, the ‘immediate surgery' strategy was lowest for cost-effectiveness. Conclusions: The increasing incidence of identified pancreatic cysts requires an improved strategy for non-invasive risk stratification based on advanced imaging strategies. In light of a malignancy risk of 2% for branch-duct IPMN, the socio-economic necessity of a balance between surveillance and resection has to be agreed on

Virtual Testing of Geometrically Imperfect Additively Manufactured Lattice Structures

Additively manufactured lattice structures increase the lightweight potential of components for technical applications. When modelling the mechanical behaviour of those lattice structures, imperfections within the structures need to be considered. In this contribution we investigate the effect of process induced pores of varying size and location inside the lattice structure during pressure tests using a 2D minimal model in two configurations. It shows that the location of pores with respect to the configuration of the model has a strong influence on whether the imperfection decreases the mechanical performance

Globally important plant functional traits for coping with climate change

The last decade has seen a proliferation of studies that use plant functional traits to assess how plants respond to climate change. However, it remains unclear whether there is a global set of traits that can predict plants’ ability to cope or even thrive when exposed to varying manifestations of climate change. We conducted a systematic global review which identified 148 studies to assess whether there is a set of common traits across biomes that best predict positive plant responses to multiple climate changes and associated environmental changes. Eight key traits appear to best predict positive plant responses to multiple climate/environmental changes across biomes: lower or higher specific leaf area (SLA), lower or higher plant height, greater water-use efficiency (WUE), greater resprouting ability, lower relative growth rate, greater clonality/bud banks/below-ground storage, higher wood density, and greater rooting depth. Trait attributes associated with positive responses appear relatively consistent within biomes and climate/environmental changes, except for SLA and plant height, where both lower and higher trait attributes are associated with a positive response depending on the biome and climate/environmental change considered. Overall, our findings illustrate important and general trait-climate responses within and between biomes that help us understand which plant phenotypes may cope with or thrive under current and future climate change.publishedVersio