Ecological study of aquatic midges and some related insects with special reference to feeding habits

Die Schweiz ist ein reiches Land. Sie verfügt über viele Millionäre. Der große Reichtum konzentriert sich auf wenige Familien und Personen. In der Schweiz leben aber auch eine halbe Million der Bevölkerung (7,5 Mio.) in Haushalten von Erwerbstätigen, die weniger als das Existenzminimum verdienen. Über 200‘000 Personen sind auf Sozialhilfe angewiesen. Bei den Vermögen und den verfügbaren Einkommen hat sich in den letzten Jahren die Kluft zwischen den obersten und untersten zehn Prozent verschärft. Die Zunahme der sozialen Ungleichheit erhöht die soziale Brisanz, was mehr zu ergründen ist. Die soziale Differenzierung dokumentiert Prozesse der Globalisierung. Sie reproduziert und spezifiziert alte soziale Ungleichheiten. Wichtig ist, dass die Soziale Arbeit das thematisiert und weiter theoretisiert

Choosing the devil you don’t know : evidence for limited sensitivity to sample-size based uncertainty when it offers an advantage

Many decision makers seek to optimize choices between uncertain options such as strategies, employees, or products. When performance targets must be met, attending to observed past performance is not enough to optimize choices—option uncertainty must also be considered. For example, for stretch targets that exceed observed performance, more uncertain options are often better bets. A significant determinant of option uncertainty is sample size: for a given option, the smaller the sample of information we have about it, the greater the uncertainty. In two studies, choices were made between pairs of uncertain options with the goal of exceeding a specified performance target. Information about the options differed in the size of the sample drawn from them, sample size, and the observed performance of those samples, the proportion of successes or “hits” in the sample. We found people to be sensitive to sample size–based uncertainty only when differences in observed performance were negligible. We conclude that in the presence of performance targets, people largely fail to capitalize on the value advantages of small samples in the presence of stretch targets

Linfoma Não Hodgkin de Células T Citotóxico: uma Apresentação Clínica Atípica

Cytotoxic lymphomas comprise a spectrum of peripheral T-cell lymphomas that can have a initial or late cutaneous presentation. We describe a 46-year-old man from Cape Verde, with a dermatosis involving his face and trunk, consisting of monomorphic papules with a smooth surface and both motor and sensory polyneuropathy.The hypothesis of leprosy was supported by the clinical and initial hystopathological findings and the patient was referred to our hospital with suspected Hansen's disease. In the new skin and lymph node biopsies a lymphocyte population was identified whose immunohystochemistry study allowed the diagnosis of T-cell lymphoma with expression of cytotoxic markers. The patient was started on chemotherapy with initial remission of the skin lesions but, subsequently, progression of systemic disease.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Long-term monitoring of black carbon across Germany

Lately, black carbon (BC) has received significant attention due to its climate-warming properties and adverse health effects. Nevertheless, long-term observations in urban areas are scarce, most likely because BC monitoring is not required by environmental legislation. This, however, handicaps the evaluation of air quality models which can be used to assess the effectiveness of policy measures which aim to reduce BC concentrations. Here, we present a new dataset of atmospheric BC measurements from Germany constructed from over six million measurements at over 170 stations. Data covering the period between 1994 and 2014 were collected from twelve German Federal States and the Federal Environment Agency, quality checked and harmonized into a database with comprehensive metadata. The final data in original time resolution are available for download (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.881173). Though assembled in a consistent way, the dataset is characterized by differences in (a) measurement methodologies for determining evolved carbon and optical absorption, (b) covered time periods, and (c) temporal resolutions that ranged from half hourly to measurements every 6th day. Usage and interpretation of this dataset thus requires a careful consideration of these differences. Our analysis focuses on 2009, the year with the largest data coverage with one single methodology, as well as on the relative changes in long-term trends over ten years. For 2009, we find that BC concentrations at traffic sites were at least twice as high as at urban background, industrial and rural sites. Weekly cycles are most prominent at traffic stations, however, the presence of differences in concentrations during the week and on weekends at other station types suggests that traffic plays an important role throughout the full network. Generally higher concentrations and weaker weekly cycles during the winter months point towards the influence of other sources such as domestic heating. Regarding the long-term trends, advanced statistical techniques allow us to account for instrumentation changes and to separate seasonal and long-term changes in our dataset. Analysis shows a downward trend in BC at nearly all locations and in all conditions, with a high level of confidence for the period of 2005–2014. In depth analysis indicates that background BC is decreasing slowly, while the occurrences of high concentrations are decreasing more rapidly. In summary, legislation – both in Europe and locally – to reduce particulate emissions and indirectly BC appear to be working, based on this analysis. Adverse human health and climate impacts are likely to be diminished because of the improvements in air quality

Mode analysis of numerical geodynamo models

It has been suggested in Hoyng (2009) that dynamo action can be analysed by expansion of the magnetic field into dynamo modes and statistical evaluation of the mode coefficients. We here validate this method by analysing a numerical geodynamo model and comparing the numerically derived mean mode coefficients with the theoretical predictions. The model belongs to the class of kinematically stable dynamos with a dominating axisymmetric, antisymmetric with respect to the equator and non-periodic fundamental dynamo mode. The analysis requires a number of steps: the computation of the so-called dynamo coefficients, the derivation of the temporally and azimuthally averaged dynamo eigenmodes and the decomposition of the magnetic field of the numerical geodynamo model into the eigenmodes. For the determination of the theoretical mode excitation levels the turbulent velocity field needs to be projected on the dynamo eigenmodes. We compare the theoretically and numerically derived mean mode coefficients and find reasonably good agreement for most of the modes. Some deviation might be attributable to the approximation involved in the theory. Since the dynamo eigenmodes are not self-adjoint a spectral interpretation of the eigenmodes is not possible

Sinonasal mucosal melanoma: Molecular profile and therapeutic implications from a series of 32 cases

BACKGROUND: Primary sinonasal mucosal melanomas are aggressive tumors with a poor clinical control by current treatments, raising the urgent need of novel strategies. METHODS: By fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), direct sequencing, and immunohistochemistry, we investigate the spectrum of molecular abnormalities in a cohort of 32 cases of primary sinonasal mucosal melanomas. RESULTS: We found that all primary sinonasal mucosal melanomas lack BRAF V600E mutation; in addition, they are characterized by somatic mutations of NRAS (22%) and KIT (12.5%), together with amplification of RREB1 (100%) and loss of MYB (76%). The large majority of cases showed KIT protein expression (96.9%). Among tumor suppressor genes, primary sinonasal mucosal melanomas showed loss of PTEN (48.1%) and p16/INK4a (55.2%). All tested cases showed expression of pAkt and pErk, suggesting a combined activation of PI3K/Akt and RAS-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. CONCLUSIONS: This molecular fingerprint strongly argues against the clinical efficacy of BRAF-inhibitors, but could candidate primary sinonasal mucosal melanomas to therapeutic strategies targeting RAS and KIT mutations or inhibiting PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway