Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf die Daseinsvorsorge im Gesundheitsbereich

Die Herausforderungen der Sicherung der Daseinsvorsorge in städtischen wie auch ländlichen Räumen sind im Bereich Gesundheit und Pflege besonders gravierend. Digital gestützte Ansätze werden diesen Herausforderungen gerecht und ermöglichen neue Versorgungsstrukturen im Gesundheitswesen. Sie arbeiten in Teilen virtuell und verstärkt bedarfsgerecht, wodurch räumliche Distanz zunehmend an Bedeutung verliert. Zur Implementierung und Nutzung dieser Möglichkeiten sind zunächst grundlegende Voraussetzungen zu erfüllen. Herausforderungen werden überwiegend in rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen und der Anpassung der Organisationsstruktur gesehen. Hinzu kommen Bedenken der Bevölkerung hinsichtlich möglicher Lücken im Datenschutz sowie fehlende Kompetenzen und Akzeptanz in der Gesellschaft. Potenziale zeigen sich vor allem in der besseren Versorgung ländlicher Räume, unabhängig vom stationären Angebot.The challenges facing services of general interest in the health and care sectors are particularly severe, both in urban and rural areas. Digital approaches can meet these challenges and enable new supply structures to be developed in health services. Some of these approaches are virtual and strongly needs-based, which means that spatial distance is of ever less significance. The implementation and use of these options require basic parameters to be met. Creating the appropriate legal framework and adapting organisational structures are particular challenges. Further problems include public concern about possible gaps in data protection, and a lack of competence and acceptance in wider society. Opportunities are related to the possibility of improving services in rural areas, independent of fixed-location services

Effiziente Innovationspolitik und Managementkompetenz in der Biotechnologie

Im letzten Jahrzehnt haben sich die Anstrengungen verstärkt, in der Region Hamburg einen tragfähigen Standort für moderne Biotechnologien zu etablieren. Die wachsende Intensität der Hamburger Biotechnologieförderung kann als Reflex auf den drastischen Einbruch neu gegründeter Biotechnologiefirmen gesehen werden, der sich in den Jahren zuvor vollzog. Zahlreiche Unternehmen verschwanden ungeachtet guter Konzepte und guter Technologien nach kurzer Zeit wieder von der Bildfläche. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde am Forschungsschwerpunkt Biotechnologie, Gesellschaft und Umwelt (BIOGUM) der Universität Hamburg im Wintersemester 2004/2005 die Vortragsreihe "Strategien biotechnischer Innovation" veranstaltet, deren Ziel es sein sollte, aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven die Möglichkeiten, Probleme und Grenzen der Innovationssteuerung zu untersuchen. Die Texte des vorliegenden Bandes gehen auf Vorträge zurück, die von den Beitragenden im Rahmen dieser Vortragsreihe gehalten wurden.Over the past decade, efforts been have intensified to establish a viable location for modern biotechnologies in the Hamburg region. The growing intensity of Hamburg\u27s biotechnological support can be seen as a reflection on the drastic slump of newly founded biotechnology companies that took place in previous years. Numerous companies disappeared from the scene after a short period of time despite good concepts and good technologies. Against this background the lecture series "Strategies of Biotechnological Innovation" was held in the winter semester 2004/2005 at the Research Center for Biotechnology, Society and Environment (BIOGUM) of the University of Hamburg. Its aim was to examine the possibilities, problems and limitations of innovation management from different perspectives. The texts of this volume are based on lectures given by the contributors in the context of this lecture series

Synthetic lethal screening in the mammalian central nervous system identifies Gpx6 as a modulator of Huntington’s disease

Huntington’s disease, the most common inherited neurodegenerative disease, is characterized by a dramatic loss of deep-layer cortical and striatal neurons, as well as morbidity in midlife. Human genetic studies led to the identification of the causative gene, huntingtin. Recent genomic advances have also led to the identification of hundreds of potential interacting partners for huntingtin protein and many hypotheses as to the molecular mechanisms whereby mutant huntingtin leads to cellular dysfunction and death. However, the multitude of possible interacting partners and cellular pathways affected by mutant huntingtin has complicated efforts to understand the etiology of this disease, and to date no curative therapeutic exists. To address the general problem of identifying the disease-phenotype contributing genes from a large number of correlative studies, here we develop a synthetic lethal screening methodology for the mammalian central nervous system, called SLIC, for synthetic lethal in the central nervous system. Applying SLIC to the study of Huntington’s disease, we identify the age-regulated glutathione peroxidase 6 (Gpx6) gene as a modulator of mutant huntingtin toxicity and show that overexpression of Gpx6 can dramatically alleviate both behavioral and molecular phenotypes associated with a mouse model of Huntington’s disease. SLIC can, in principle, be used in the study of any neurodegenerative disease for which a mouse model exists, promising to reveal modulators of neurodegenerative disease in an unbiased fashion, akin to screens in simpler model organisms.National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (U.S.) (Award R01NS085880)William N. and Bernice E. Bumpus Foundation (Early Career Investigator Innovation Award)JPB FoundationEuropean Molecular Biology Organization (Long-term Fellowship

Chaotic flow and efficient mixing in a micro-channel with a polymer solution

Microscopic flows are almost universally linear, laminar and stationary because Reynolds number, $Re$, is usually very small. That impedes mixing in micro-fluidic devices, which sometimes limits their performance. Here we show that truly chaotic flow can be generated in a smooth micro-channel of a uniform width at arbitrarily low $Re$, if a small amount of flexible polymers is added to the working liquid. The chaotic flow regime is characterized by randomly fluctuating three-dimensional velocity field and significant growth of the flow resistance. Although the size of the polymer molecules extended in the flow may become comparable with the micro-channel width, the flow behavior is fully compatible with that in a table-top channel in the regime of elastic turbulence. The chaotic flow leads to quite efficient mixing, which is almost diffusion independent. For macromolecules, mixing time in this microscopic flow can be three to four orders of magnitude shorter than due to molecular diffusion.Comment: 8 pages,7 figure

How Dilute are Dilute Solutions in Extensional Flows?

Submitted to J. Rheol.We investigate the concentration-dependence of the characteristic relaxation time of dilute polymer solutions in transient uniaxial elongational flow. A series of monodisperse polystyrene solutions of five different molecular weights (1.8×10^6 ≤ M ≤ 8.3×10^6 g/mol) with concentrations spanning five orders of magnitude were dissolved in two solvents of differing solvent quality (diethyl phthalate and oligomeric styrene). Optical measurements of the rate of filament thinning and the time to break-up in each fluid are used to determine the characteristic relaxation time. A lower sensitivity limit for the measurements was determined experimentally and confirmed by comparison to numerical calculations. Above this sensitivity limit we show that the effective relaxation time of moderately dilute solutions (0.01 ≤ c/c* ≤ 1) in transient extensional flow rises substantially above the fitted value of the relaxation time extracted from small amplitude oscillatory shear flow and above the Zimm relaxation time computed from kinetic theory and intrinsic viscosity measurements. This effective relaxation time exhibits a power-law scaling with the reduced concentration (c/c*) and the magnitude of the exponent varies with the thermodynamic quality of the solvent. This scaling appears to be roughly consistent to that predicted when the dynamics of the partially elongated and overlapping polymer chains are described within the framework of blob theories for semi-dilute solutions.NASA Microgravity Fluid Dynamic

Influence of polymerisation conditions on the properties of polymer/clay nanocomposite hydrogels

Free-radical polymerisation of acrylamide derivatives in the presence of exfoliated clay platelets has recently emerged as a new technique for the synthesis of strong and tough nanocomposite hydrogels (NCHs) with a unique hybrid organic/inorganic network structure. The central intent of many research studies in the field of NCHs conducted so far was to change hydrogel properties with the introduction of various clays and variation of the clay content. Here, we demonstrate that the properties of NCHs significantly vary depending on initiating conditions used for hydrogel synthesis via in situ polymerisation in solutions of high monomer concentrations (above 1 mol L-1 ). A unique, complementary combination of real-time dynamic rheology and pulsed NMR/MRI has been used to study the influence of the composition of a redox initiating system on the gelation process and hydrogel properties. The molar ratio of the persulphate initiator to tertiary amine activator affects the polymerisation kinetics, morphology and mechanical properties of the hydrogels. We further show that activator-dominated systems tend to produce hydrogels with higher storage modulus and lower water intake. This trend is attributed to the increase in the cross-linking degree. From the analysis of the water state in NCH and hydrogels prepared with and without an organic cross-linker, it was concluded that clay platelets did not form covalent bonds with polymer molecules but contributed to the formation of a physical network. There is evidence of self-crosslinking of polymer chains during acrylamide polymerisation at high monomer concentration. The composition of the initiating system influences the number of formed self-crosslinks

Ligand-dependent downregulation of MR1 cell surface expression

The antigen-presenting molecule MR1 presents riboflavin-based metabolites to Mucosal-Associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells. While MR1 egress to the cell surface is ligand-dependent, the ability of small-molecule ligands to impact on MR1 cellular trafficking remains unknown. Arising from an in silico screen of the MR1 ligand-binding pocket, we identify one ligand, 3-([2,6-dioxo-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyrimidin-4-yl]formamido)propanoic acid, DB28, as well as an analog, methyl 3-([2,6-dioxo-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyrimidin-4-yl]formamido)propanoate, NV18.1, that down-regulate MR1 from the cell surface and retain MR1 molecules in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in an immature form. DB28 and NV18.1 compete with the known MR1 ligands, 5-OP-RU and acetyl-6-FP, for MR1 binding and inhibit MR1-dependent MAIT cell activation. Crystal structures of the MAIT T cell receptor (TCR) complexed with MR1-DB28 and MR1-NV18.1, show that these two ligands reside within the A'-pocket of MR1. Neither ligand forms a Schiff base with MR1 molecules; both are nevertheless sequestered by a network of hydrophobic and polar contacts. Accordingly, we define a class of compounds that inhibits MR1 cellular trafficking

Modeling of anionic polymerization in flow with coupled variations of concentration, viscosity and diffusivity

Abstract This paper explains the reasons behind the very low polydispersity index (PDI) obtained in living anionic polymerizations in microstructured reactors. From the results, it can be explained that a narrow molecular weight distribution can be obtained due to the presence of a highly segregated flow behavior, even in microflow conditions, provided that the mean residence time is high enough. This paper investigates the feasibility of a living anionic polymerization reaction under micro-fluidic conditions. This is accomplished using a multiphysics model that accounts for the changes in viscosity and diffusivity. These properties descend with the increase in weight of the polymer, and could not be un-coupled from hydrodynamics and mass transfer. The results of the model are used to understand the reasons behind the very low PDI that can be experimentally obtained in microflow conditions. This leads to the conclusion that the increased viscosity almost "suppresses" the diffusion of the monomer, even at the very short characteristic lengths of a micro-device. These conditions generate a fully segregated flow that yields an almost monodisperse polymer regardless of the effective residence time distribution encountered in the reactor