Biologischer Materialabbau – Wiederaufbereitung und Rückgewinnung von Stoffen

Microorganisms have been used since many years to synthesize organic acids, solvents, vitamins, enzymes, etc. and for the cleaning of waste waters. Within the last decade a variety of biological techniques have been improved, not only for water treatment but also waste recycling and detoxifying contaminated materials. Techniques such as bioremediation, composting, and anaerobic fermentation have been developed. EMPA St. Gall department Biology is studying the transformation of organic compounds in bioremediation, composting, and anaerobic degradation processes. Our goal is to acquire more knowledge about the transformation of xenobiotics in contaminated soils and ground waters by bioremediation processes. We also focus our research on studying degradation processes of 'biodegradable polymers' under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Despite our research which has continued up to the present, there are many aspects still unknown. Our group is especially interested to study the chemical and microbial processes which occur during degradation of xenobiotics and biodegradable polymers under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Metabolites which were produced from xenobiotic compounds and biodegradable polymers under special transformation conditions will be analysed. Further more our intentions are to study and characterize the microorganisms involved in the degradation of these compounds

Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) affect cell physiology and cell architecture

Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) find their way in various industrial applications. Due to the expected increased production of various carbon nanotubes and nanoparticle containing products, exposure to engineered nanoparticles will also increase dramatically in parallel. In this study the effects of SWCNT raw material and purified SWCNT (SWCNT bundles) on cell behaviour of mesothelioma cells (MSTO-211H) and on epithelial cells (A549) had been investigated. The effect on cell behaviour (cell proliferation, cell activity, cytoskeleton organization, apoptosis and cell adhesion) were dependent on cell type, SWCNT quality (purified or not) and SWCNT concentratio

Use of Transition Probabilities to Estimate the Effect of Smoking on the Duration of Episodes of Respiratory Symptoms in Diary Data: The Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA)

Incompletely documented symptom episodes pose methodological problems in the analysis of diary data. The aim of this study was to develop a method of estimating the average durations of symptomatic and nonsymptomatic episodes, respectively, coping with the problem of bias due to undocumented days and censored episodes that is found in most diary studies. The authors derived their outcome variables from a Markov model using transition probabilities. To evaluate this method, the authors assessed the impact of active smoking on the duration of episodes of bronchitis symptoms and the corresponding nonsymptomatic periods, respectively, using diary data (1992-1993) obtained from 801 participants in the Swiss Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults. Covariate-adjusted distribution curves for the mean durations of individual episodes were estimated by Cox regression. Median values for light smokers (<10 cigarettes/day) were 60.0 sympton-free days (95% confidence interval (CI) 42.0-78.5) and 4.0 symptomatic days (95% CI 3.0-6.0), respectively, compared with medians of only 21.0 days 95% CI 16.2-29.8) for periods without bronchitis symptoms and 6.0 days (95% CI 4.9-9.0) for episodes of bronchitis symptoms in heavy smokers(≥30 cigarettes/day). The authors suggest that the Markov method is a feasible approach to the assessment of long term effects of smoking and environmental risk factors on the average duration of symptomatic and nonsymptomatic respiratory episodes. Am J Epidemiol 1998;148:600-

Séminaire collectif du Groupe de recherches sur les missions religieuses dans le monde ibérique moderne

Bernard Vincent et Pierre-Antoine Fabre, directeurs d’étudesJean-Paul Zuñiga, maître de conférences à l’Université de Reims Cette année le séminaire s’est organisé pour l’essentiel autour des recherches personnelles des membres du groupe ainsi que de l’enquête collective en cours sur les lettres de demande de départ en mission des jeunes jésuites aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles (Indipetae). Les questions abordées ont cependant été axées autour de deux grands thèmes : la confrontation entre les fond..

Comparison of clinical presentation of respiratory tract infections in H1N1/09-positive and H1N1/09-negative patients

The true burden of influenza in children is difficult to assess and is probably underestimated as clinical signs are usually nonspecific, and formal viral identification is rarely searched. In this study, we compare the clinical features of infections related to the new H1N1/09 influenza virus with infections due to other respiratory viruses in children consulting in a tertiary care pediatric hospital in Geneva. Between October 1, 2009 and February 10, 2010, 109 patients were recruited, with a median of age of 7years (range 0.1-18). There were 75 H1N1/09-positive patients (69%), and 32 (43%) had identified risk factors such as asthma or a history of wheezing. Fever (87%), cough (92%), and rhinitis (85%) were the most frequent reported presenting symptoms in both patient groups. H1N1/09-positive patients were significantly older (median of 8.2 vs. 4.6years) and were more likely to have risk factors (43% vs. 24%) and myalgias (41% vs. 20%). H1N1/09-negative patients had more wheezing episodes (29% vs. 9%), higher rates of dyspnea (28% vs. 20%) and of hospital admissions (35% vs. 16%). Conclusion: Clinical signs cannot reliably differentiate H1N1/09-positive and H1N1/09-negative patients, although we found a higher proportion of myalgias in H1N1/09-positive patients. Severity of disease was lower in H1N1/09-positive than in H1N1/09-negative patients, mostly because of a higher proportion of asthma/wheezing episodes among H1N1/09-negative patient

Solar Stereoscopy with STEREO/EUVI A and B spacecraft from small (6 deg) to large (170 deg) spacecraft separation angles

We performed for the first time stereoscopic triangulation of coronal loops in active regions over the entire range of spacecraft separation angles ($\alpha_{sep}\approx 6^\circ, 43^\circ, 89^\circ, 127^\circ$, and $170^\circ$). The accuracy of stereoscopic correlation depends mostly on the viewing angle with respect to the solar surface for each spacecraft, which affects the stereoscopic correspondence identification of loops in image pairs. From a simple theoretical model we predict an optimum range of $\alpha_{sep} \approx 22^\circ-125^\circ$, which is also experimentally confirmed. The best accuracy is generally obtained when an active region passes the central meridian (viewed from Earth), which yields a symmetric view for both STEREO spacecraft and causes minimum horizontal foreshortening. For the extended angular range of $\alpha_{sep}\approx 6^\circ-127^{\circ}$ we find a mean 3D misalignment angle of $\mu_{PF} \approx 21^\circ-39^\circ$ of stereoscopically triangulated loops with magnetic potential field models, and $\mu_{FFF} \approx 15^\circ-21^\circ$ for a force-free field model, which is partly caused by stereoscopic uncertainties $\mu_{SE} \approx 9^\circ$. We predict optimum conditions for solar stereoscopy during the time intervals of 2012--2014, 2016--2017, and 2021--2023.Comment: Solar Physics, (in press), 22 pages, 9 figure

Séminaire collectif du Groupe de recherches sur les missions religieuses dans le monde ibérique moderne

Bernard Vincent et Pierre-Antoine Fabre, directeurs d’étudesJean-Paul Zuñiga, maître de conférences Compte rendu non communiqué. Bernard Vincent, Jean-Frédéric Schaub, Wolfgang Kaiser, directeurs d’étudesJordi Canal, Enric Porqueres i Gené, Jean-Paul Zuñiga, maîtres de conférences Histoire et anthropologie du monde hispanique Compte rendu non communiqué

Combined spectroscopy and intensity interferometry to determine the distances of the blue supergiants P Cygni and Rigel

In this paper, we report on the spatial intensity interferometry measurements within the H$\alpha$ line on two stars: the Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) supergiant \PCygni\,and the late-type B supergiant Rigel. The experimental setup has been upgraded to allow simultaneous measurement of two polarization channels and the zero baseline correlation function. Combined with simultaneous spectra measurements and based on radiative transfer models calculated with the code CMFGEN, we were able to fit our measured visibility curves to extract the stellar distances. Our distance determinations for both \PCygni\ (1.61 $\pm$ 0.18 kpc) and Rigel (0.26 $\pm$ 0.02 kpc) agree very well with the values provided by astrometry with the Gaia and Hipparcos missions, respectively. This is the first successful step towards extending the application of the Wind Momentum Luminosity Relation method for distance calibration from an LBV supergiant to a more normal late-type B supergiant

Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires sur l’Allemagne – CRIA

Falk Bretschneider, ATERAlexandre Escudier, chargé de recherche à la FNSPWolfgang Kaiser, Pierre Monnet, Michael Werner, directeurs d’étudesChristine Lebeau, professeur à l’Université Paris-IMarie-Louise Pelus-Kaplan, professeur à l’Université Paris-VIIPatrice Veit, directeur de recherche au CNRS Les mots de l’histoire : historiens allemands et français face à leurs concepts et à leurs outils Pendant l’année, le CRIA a poursuivi le séminaire collectif « Les mots de l’histoire », avec le souti..

Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires sur l’Allemagne – CRIA

Falk Bretschneider, ATERAlexandre Escudier, chargé de recherche à la FNSPWolfgang Kaiser, Pierre Monnet, Michael Werner, directeurs d’étudesChristine Lebeau, professeur à l’Université Paris-IMarie-Louise Pelus-Kaplan, professeur à l’Université Paris-VIIPatrice Veit, directeur de recherche au CNRS Les mots de l’histoire : historiens allemands et français face à leurs concepts et à leurs outils Pendant l’année, le CRIA a poursuivi le séminaire collectif « Les mots de l’histoire », avec le souti..