20 years of BILDUNGSNETZWERK STEIERMARK (EDUCATION NETWORK STYRIA). Networks thrive on human qualities

Das Bildungsnetzwerk Steiermark ist die Service- und Koordinationsstelle der Erwachsenenbildungseinrichtungen in der Steiermark und bietet Bildungsinformation und -beratung wie auch eine Weiterbildungsdatenbank für die steirische Bevölkerung. Es ist mit rund 170 Einrichtungen vernetzt. Das Bildungsnetzwerk hat verschiedene Kommunikationsformate etabliert, damit die Netzwerkarbeit gelingen kann: großflächige schriftliche Information an die Mitglieder ebenso wie persönliches Nachsetzen bei einzelnen Netzwerkpartner*innen, interne ARGE-Netzwerktreffen, monatliche informelle "Donnerstags-Austausche" oder der jährliche Tag der Weiterbildung zur Vernetzung auch außerhalb der Partnereinrichtungen. Ihre Netzwerkarbeit resümierend schreiben die Autorinnen: Netzwerke leben von menschlichen Qualitätsfaktoren. Sie brauchen kontinuierliches Anstoßen, aber auch Geduld und Wertschätzung, persönliches Engagement, persönliche Beziehungsarbeit und geeignete Kommunikationsformate. Um nachhaltig wirken zu können, brauchen sie aber auch Ressourcen, finanziell wie personell. (DIPF/Orig.)Education Network Styria is the service and coordination centre for adult education institutions in Styria and offers educational information and guidance as well as a continuing education databank for the Styrian population. It has ties to around 170 institutions. The network has established different forms of communication for successful networking: frequent electronic mailings to members as well as individual follow-ups with specific network partners, internal working group network meetings, informal "Thursday exchanges" once a month or the annual Continuing Education Day for networking outside the partner institutions. The authors summarize their networking as follows: Networks thrive on human qualities. They require continual nudging as well as patience and appreciation, personal commitment, personal relationship building and suitable communication formats. To have a sustainable effect, however, they need resources - financial as well as human. (DIPF/Orig.

Effect of feeding Alphitobius diaperinus meal on fattening performance and meat quality of growing-finishing pigs

A total of 48 piglets with an average weight of 26 kg were allocated to 4 experimental groups of 12 animals, balanced according to litter, sex and weight, and fattened on feed containing 0, 3, 6, or 9% of Alphitobius diaperinus meal (ADM) replacing soybean meal (SOY) as protein source. The control feed contained 10.7% SOY while in the 9% ADM feed SOY was completely replaced. Feed was accessible ad libitum in transponder-controlled feeders. Feed consumption and fattening performance records started when the animals reached 35 kg. The 3-way crossbred animals (Landrace x Large White sows mated to Duroc, Pietrain, or Large White sire line bores) were slaughtered at a target carcass weight of 86 kg. No linear effect of ADM on daily gain and feed consumption was found. No effect on lean meat content nor on any of the meat quality traits was observed. The content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the backfat increased with increasing amount of ADM in the feed. It is concluded that ADM may replace SOY in pig feed without exerting detrimental effects on growth performance, carcass composition and meat quality except for a higher PUFA-content in the adipose tissue

DAPHNE: An Open and Extensible System Infrastructure for Integrated Data Analysis Pipelines

Integrated data analysis (IDA) pipelines—that combine data management (DM) and query processing, high-performance computing (HPC), and machine learning (ML) training and scoring—become increasingly common in practice. Interestingly, systems of these areas share many compilation and runtime techniques, and the used—increasingly heterogeneous—hardware infrastructure converges as well. Yet, the programming paradigms, cluster resource management, data formats and representations, as well as execution strategies differ substantially. DAPHNE is an open and extensible system infrastructure for such IDA pipelines, including language abstractions, compilation and runtime techniques, multi-level scheduling, hardware (HW) accelerators, and computational storage for increasing productivity and eliminating unnecessary overheads. In this paper, we make a case for IDA pipelines, describe the overall DAPHNE system architecture, its key components, and the design of a vectorized execution engine for computational storage, HW accelerators, as well as local and distributed operations. Preliminary experiments that compare DAPHNE with MonetDB, Pandas, DuckDB, and TensorFlow show promising results

Monitoring Procalcitonin in Febrile Neutropenia: What Is Its Utility for Initial Diagnosis of Infection and Reassessment in Persistent Fever?

Background: Management of febrile neutropenic episodes (FE) is challenged by lacking microbiological and clinical documentation of infection. We aimed at evaluating the utility of monitoring blood procalcitonin (PCT) in FE for initial diagnosis of infection and reassessment in persistent fever.Methods: PCT kinetics was prospectively monitored in 194 consecutive FE (1771 blood samples): 65 microbiologically documented infections (MDI, 33.5%; 49 due to non-coagulase-negative staphylococci, non-CNS), 68 clinically documented infections (CDI, 35%; 39 deep-seated), and 61 fever of unexplained origin (FUO, 31.5%).Results: At fever onset median PCT was 190 pg/mL (range 30-26'800), without significant difference among MDI, CDI and FUO. PCT peak occurred on day 2 after onset of fever: non-CNS-MDI/deep-seated-CDI (656, 80-86350) vs. FUO (205, 33-771; p<0.001). PCT >500 pg/mL distinguished non-CNS-MDI/deep-seated-CDI from FUO with 56% sensitivity and 90% specificity. PCT was >500 pg/ml in only 10% of FUO (688, 570-771). A PCT peak >500 pg/mL (1196, 524-11950) occurred beyond 3 days of persistent fever in 17/21 (81%) invasive fungal diseases (IFD). This late PCT peak identified IFD with 81% sensitivity and 57% specificity and preceded diagnosis according to EORTC-MSG criteria in 41% of cases. In IFD responding to therapy, median days to PCT <500 pg/mL and defervescence were 5 (1-23) vs. 10 (3-22; p = 0.026), respectively.Conclusion: While procalcitonin is not useful for diagnosis of infection at onset of neutropenic fever, it may help to distinguish a minority of potentially severe infections among FUOs on day 2 after onset of fever. In persistent fever monitoring procalcitonin contributes to early diagnosis and follow-up of invasive mycose

Energy Consumption and Hardware Utilization of Standard Software: Methods and Measurements for Software Sustainability

The ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICT) results in substantial amounts of energy consumption and thus, CO2 -emissions. Since software induces the energy consumption of hardware, some reliable procedures and tests for measuring software are necessary. We present such a method and prove our measurement concept by applying it to two software product groups: word processors and content management systems. Even though the two groups are very different in terms of their requirements, we were successful in the creation of a measurement environment that supports the production of reliable, verifi able results, allowing the comparison of the energy consumption induced by software systems with similar functionality. The method shows viable results for desktop and client-server systems, paving the way for further setups like e.g. mobile and embedded devices

Traffic user equilibrium and proportionality

We discuss the problem of proportionality and uniqueness for route flows in the classical traffic user equilibrium model. It is well-known that under appropriate assumptions the user equilibrium $(f,x)$ is unique in the link flow $x$ but typically not in the route flow $f$. We consider the concept of proportionality in detail and re-discuss the well-known relation between the so-called bypass proportionality and entropy maximization. We exhibit special proportionality conditions which uniquely determine the route flow $f$. The results are illustrated with some simple example networks

Table_1_School students' burdens and resources after 2 years of COVID-19 in Austria: a qualitative study using content analysis.docx

IntroductionThe mental health of young people has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures associated with it. Mental health symptoms increased across various domains during the pandemic and subjective wellbeing decreased.MethodsThis study examined the burdens and resources of Austrian school students (M = 16.63 years old) in the third year of the pandemic and compared them descriptively with the burdens and resources identified in a comparative study in 2021. A cross-sectional online survey with open-ended questions from April to May 2022 provided data that was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. A sub-sample of N = 214 was selected from the larger sample. This sub-sample is representative for the Austrian population aged 15–19 in terms of gender and migrant background.ResultsAnalysis of the open-ended questions showed that concerns about the pandemic and the burdens of the measures were no longer on young people's minds at the time of the survey in 2022. On the other hand, stress at school was increasing and the opening of schools and the resumption of face-to-face teaching were challenging for respondents. While resuming social contacts and leisure activities was mentioned as a resource by many respondents, some also expressed a desire for more time off and a retreat into coping strategies such as sleeping more or avoiding problems.DiscussionOur findings suggest that there is a need for low-threshold support from teachers and parents to help students catch up on missed lessons and to empathize with the mas they make the transition back to “old normal”.</p

RHAMM-R3 peptide vaccination in patients with acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, and multiple myeloma elicits immunologic and clinical responses.

The receptor for hyaluronic acid-mediated motility (RHAMM) is an antigen eliciting both humoral and cellular immune responses in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and multiple myeloma (MM). We initiated a phase 1 clinical trial vaccinating 10 patients with R3 (ILSLELMKL), a highly immunogenic CD8(+) T-cell epitope peptide derived from RHAMM. In 7 of 10 patients, we detected an increase of CD8(+)/HLA-A2/RHAMM R3 tetramer(+)/CD45RA(+)/CCR7(-)/CD27(-)/CD28(-) effector T cells in accordance with an increase of R3-specific CD8(+) T cells in enzyme linked immunospot (ELISpot) assays. In chromium release assays, a specific lysis of RHAMM-positive leukemic blasts was shown. Three of 6 patients with myeloid disorders (1/3 AML, 2/3 MDS) achieved clinical responses: one patient with AML and one with MDS showed a significant reduction of blasts in the bone marrow after the last vaccination. One patient with MDS no longer needed erythrocyte transfusions after 4 vaccinations. Two of 4 patients with MM showed a reduction of free light chain serum levels. Taken together, RHAMM-R3 peptide vaccination induced both immunologic and clinical responses, and therefore RHAMM constitutes a promising target for further immunotherapeutic approaches. This study is registered at http://ISRCTN.org as ISRCTN32763606 and is registered with EudraCT as 2005-001706-37