Human Deoxycytidine Kinase Is a Valuable Biocatalyst for the Synthesis of Nucleotide Analogues

Natural ribonucleoside-5’-monophosphates are building blocks for nucleic acids which are used for a number of purposes, including food additives. Their analogues, additionally, are used in pharmaceutical applications. Fludarabine-5´-monophosphate, for example, is effective in treating hematological malignancies. To date, ribonucleoside-5’-monophosphates are mainly produced by chemical synthesis, but the inherent drawbacks of this approach have led to the development of enzymatic synthesis routes. In this study, we evaluated the potential of human deoxycytidine kinase (HsdCK) as suitable biocatalyst for the synthesis of natural and modified ribonucleoside-5’-monophosphates from their corresponding nucleosides. Human dCK was heterologously expressed in E. coli and immobilized onto Nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) superflow. A screening of the substrate spectrum of soluble and immobilized biocatalyst revealed that HsdCK accepts a wide range of natural and modified nucleosides, except for thymidine and uridine derivatives. Upon optimization of the reaction conditions, HsdCK was used for the synthesis of fludarabine-5´-monophosphate using increasing substrate concentrations. While the soluble biocatalyst revealed highest product formation with the lowest substrate concentration of 0.3 mM, the product yield increased with increasing substrate concentrations in the presence of the immobilized HsdCK. Hence, the application of immobilized HsdCK is advantageous upon using high substrate concentration which is relevant in industrial applications.DFG, 392246628, Chemo-enzymatische Synthese von Selen-modifizierten Nukleosiden, Nukleotiden und OligonukleotidenTU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Das Newsvendor Modell mit nicht-linearer Kostenfunktion und seine Anwendung bei nicht-proportionalen Rückversicherungsverträgen

Rückversicherung kann als Überwälzung von versicherungstechnischem Risiko vom Erst- auf den Rückversicherer definiert werden, kurz gesagt: "Rückversicherung ist Versicherung von Versicherungen". Einen entscheidenden Aspekt bei der Ausgestaltung von Rückversicherungsverträgen stellt die Bestimmung von Selbstbehalten und Deckungsgrenzen dar. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt zunächst einen Überblick über die Ziele und Formen der Rückversicherung. Anschließend wird das Newsvendor Modell, ein Modell zur Bestellmengenoptimierung, kurz vorgestellt. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, diesen Ansatz aus dem Supply Chain Management zur Modellierung von Deckungsgrenzen sowie Selbstbehalten von nichtproportionalen Rückversicherungsverträgen anzuwenden.Newsvendor, Risiko, Rückversicherung, Entscheidungstheorie

Feasible fraud and auditing probabilities for insurance companies and policyholders

Insurance claims fraud is counted among the major concerns in the insurance industry, the reason being that excess payments due to fraudulent claims account for a large percentage of the total payments each year. We formulate optimization problems from the insurance company as well as the policyholder perspective based on a costly state verification approach. In this setting—while the policyholder observes his losses privately—the insurance company can decide to verify the truthfulness of incoming claims at some cost. We show simulation results illustrating the agreement range which is characterized by all valid fraud and auditing probability combinations both stakeholders are willing to accept. Furthermore, we present the impact of different valid probability combinations on the insurance company's and the policyholder's objective quantities and analyze the sensitivity of the agreement range with respect to a relevant input parameter. This contribution summarizes the major findings of a working paper written by Müller etal. (Working Papers on Risk Management and Insurance (IVW-HSG), No. 92, 2011

Sedimentary and tectonic evolution of ancient Lake Ohrid (Macedonia/Albania)

Lake Ohrid (Macedonia / Albania) is probably the oldest lake in Europe (2-5 Ma), and is considered an important sedimentary archive to study the evolution of a graben system over several million years. Multichannel seismic profiles were acquired in 2007 and 2008 showing that the lake can be divided into two main parts, the slope areas and a large, deep central basin. The basin is bordered by the major eastern and western graben fault, additional faults were identifi ed in the northern part of the lake. These faults are active, as we can trace them from the basement up to the lake floor. Clinoforms mainly found in the southern part of the lake indicate that the Lake has undergone major lake level fluctuations. The central basin shows widespread areas with thick, undisturbed sedimentary successions. No indications for a dry lake are found in this part of the lake, hence, offering the possibility to recover long, continuous archives for the entire lifetime of Lake Ohrid in the frame of the proposed SCOPSCO(Scientific Collaboration On Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid)-ICDP(International Continental Drilling Program) campaign. Five primary drilling locations have been chosen as ICDP sites. One 680 m long record in the central part will provide substantial information on age and origin of the lake, as well as a complete record of environmental history (incl. e.g. tephra deposition, evolutionary changes and their relation to geological events). Furthermore, four additional drill sites closer to the shore of the lake will provide information on major changes of the hydrological regime, the age of ancient foresets, lake level changes, the tectonic activity, and mass movements. The drilling proposal is approved by ICDP and will be realized in summer 2011 or 2012

Is It Human? The Role of Anthropomorphism as a Driver for the Successful Acceptance of Digital Voice Assistants

The market of digital voice has grown significantly over the recent years. Big players like Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are focusing on the development and expansion of their assistants. Especially smart speakers are on the rise but also in smartphone integrated voice applications are getting more popular. The main characteristics of this new technology are both elements of human-computer-interaction and especially the attribution of human characteristics. Although there is an increase of the number of current users as well as of consumers intending to use digital voice assistants in the future, drivers and barriers of digital voice assistants have not yet been sufficiently empirically investigated, especially concerning the phenomenon of anthropomorphism. This study points to additional key factors that are important to foster broader acceptance. Our empirical study is based on the UTAUT2 and highlights the importance of anthropomorphism in relation to other determinants known from the literature

WILL RENTING SUBSTITUTE BUYING? DRIVERS OF USER INTENTION TO PARTICIPATE IN RENTAL-COMMERCE

In recent years, consumer consumption has undergone massive change. Different consumption forms, such as collaborative consumption or access-based consumption, are on the rise in the environment of the sharing economy. A relatively new field is rental-commerce, in which users rent everyday products via an online website for a fixed period of time and a fixed (e.g. daily or monthly) price. To investigate this new phenomenon, we examined what drives inexperienced users to take part in rental-commerce. Our results showed that sustainability, economic benefits, trust, safety, complexity, and knowledge of rental-commerce serve as predictors of the intention to rent products via a rental-commerce website. Surprisingly, knowledge of terms of use has no significant influence on this behavioral intention. As such, rental-commerce retailers should pay special attention to these results and highlight the advantages to determine users’ willingness to take part in this business model

Plattform Adipositas: Psychosoziale Variablen und deren prädiktiver Wert eines erfolgreichen Beendens des Diagnostikprogrammes und des resultierenden Therapiepfades

Adipositas ist eine in den letzten Jahren zunehmende Erkrankung in Deutschland. Aufgrund zahlreicher Folgeerkrankungen, welche Lebensqualität und Lebenserwartung erheblich einschränken können, ist eine effektive Therapie der Adipositas von großer Bedeutung. Dazu ist ein interdisziplinärer und langfristig angesetzter Therapieansatz notwendig, der eine hohe Motivation und Compliance der Patienten erfordert. Ziel dieser Studie war, das Patientenkollektiv der Tübinger Plattform Adipositas erstmalig zu beschreiben und mögliche Prädiktionsfaktoren für ein vollständiges Durchlaufen der Plattform zu evaluieren. Desweiteren wurde der Frage nachgegangen, welche Prädiktionsfaktoren für Therapieempfehlungen der Patienten existieren. Untersucht wurden 681 Patienten mittels mehrerer Fragebögen (Basisdoku-mentation, PHQ-d, EDI-2, FKB-20, FEV, SIAB-S und PSQ). Das Durchschnittsalter betrug 42 Jahre und der Durchschnitts-BMI 45,3 kg/m2. 72% der Patienten waren weiblich. 368 Patienten (54%) durchliefen den diagnostischen Pfad der Plattform Adipositas vollständig und erhielten somit eine interdisziplinär erstellte Therapieempfehlung. Davon erhielten 276 Patienten (75%) eine Empfehlung für eine bariatrische Operation. Es zeigte sich, dass Patienten, die den diagnostischen Pfad vollständig durchliefen, einen höheren BMI, eine geringere Depressivität und Stressempfinden, ein negativeres Körperselbstbild und vermehrt somatische Erkrankungen aufweisen als Patienten, die den diagnostischen Pfad vorzeitig beendeten. Kein Unterschied bestand hinsichtlich Alter, Geschlecht, Nationalität und dem Essverhalten. Es ließ sich lediglich der BMI als Prädiktor ermitteln. Das heißt, nur das Körpergewicht der Patienten hat einen signifikanten Einfluss darauf, ob Patienten den diagnostischen Pfad beenden oder vorzeitig abbrechen. Bei der Frage nach der Art der Therapieempfehlung zeigte sich, dass Patienten mit einer Empfehlung für eine bariatrische Operation im Vergleich zu Patienten mit konservativer Therapieempfehlung einen höheren BMI, ein höheres Stressempfinden, ein negativeres Körperbild, im Sinne einer ablehnenden Körperbewertung nach FEV und eine höhere Rate an somatischen Erkrankungen aufweisen als Patienten mit einer konservativen Therapieempfehlung. Auch bei dieser Fragestellung zeigte sich der BMI als Prädiktor. Es konnte jedoch noch zusätzlich ein negatives Körperbild der Patienten als Prädiktor für eine bariatrische Operation ermittelt werden, was möglicherweise mit der Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung der Patienten in Zusammenhang steht und somit die Therapieentscheidung zusätzlich beeinflusst. Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass mit dieser Studie die Wichtigkeit des BMIs und des Körperbildes der Patienten in der Diagnostik und bei der Therapieentscheidung gezeigt werden konnte. Die genannten Faktoren sollten berücksichtigt werden um für jeden Patienten einen individuellen Therapieplan zu erstellen und um auch möglichst viele Patienten zu solch einem Therapieplan zu führen. Denn nur so kann die Adipositas bei jedem einzelnen Patienten langfristig und erfolgreich behandelt werden

Ethics and Morality in AI - A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of our daily lives in recent years. At the same time, the topic of ethics and morality in the context of AI has been discussed in both practical and scientific discourse. Either it deals with ethical concerns, concrete application areas, the programming of AI or its moral status. However, no article can be found that provides an overview of the combination of ethics, morality and AI and systematizes them. Thus, this paper provides a systematic literature review on ethics and morality in the context of AI examining the scientific literature between the years 2017 and 2021. The search resulted in 1,641 articles across five databases of which 224 articles were included in the evaluation. Literature was systematized into seven topics presented in this paper. Implications of this review can be valuable not only for academia, but also for practitioners

Außerhäusliche Kinderbetreuung in Ostdeutschland vor und nach der Wiedervereinigung. Ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland in den Jahren 1990-1999

This paper provides first a concise overview of institutional day-care arrangements and their extent in the former GDR. Then institutional and infrastructural changes since German re-unification in 1990 are briefly discussed. In the empirical part, data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the period 1990 to 1999 are used to analyze the actual day-care situation for children living in eastern Germany. The paper concludes with considerations of the consequences of a changing day-care situation for the opportunities of women (particularly mothers) in the New Länder to participate in the labor force. (AUTHORS)

“Help! I Have a Problem” – Differences between a Humanlike and Robot-like Chatbot Avatar in Complaint Management

To distinguish from other competitors, companies have to establish good quality and price but also an excellent service policy. Especially the after-sales service should guarantee that customers having problems are supported and satisfied. Following, good complaint management is important. With the increase of economically profitable chatbots, there is a possibility to provide a 24/7 online service to the customers. To investigate what kind of chatbot avatar, which compensation, and what kind of reaction lead to a higher behavioral intention, a 2x2x2 between-subject design was conducted (N=389). The results show that the choice of the avatar, the reaction, as well as the compensation, play a decisive role in influencing user behavior and, thus, increase the probability that the customer, despite a complaint, returns and buys again from the retailer. Further, the behavioral intention can be explained by the mediating influences of anthropomorphism and the evaluation of redress