Untersuchungen von Expositions-Effekt-Beziehungen bei Amalgamfüllungsträgern anhand von Biomonitoringdaten und psychometrischen Testverfahren

Wesentliches Ziel der Arbeit war es festzustellen, ob bei Amalgamfüllungsträgern quecksilber-assoziierte Gesundheitsstörungen im Bereich des Nervensystems mittels psychometrischer Test-verfahren nachweisbar sind. In diesem Zusammenhang galt es abzuklären, ob die auf objektiver testpsychologischer Basis gewonnenen Ergebnisse der neuropsychologischen Untersuchungs-verfahren mit den Urin-Biomonitoringdaten korrelieren. Es wurde bei 126 zahnärztlichen Pro-banden die Zahl der Amalgamfüllungen erfasst und Urinproben gesammelt. Die Probanden mussten die psychometrischen Testverfahren: Beschwerdenliste nach von Zerssen, Psychologisch Neurologischer Fragebogen und Q16 modifiziert bearbeiten. In der Arbeit ließ sich eine signifi-kante Beziehung zwischen der Anzahl der vorhandenen Amalgamfüllungen und der Quecksilber-konzentration im Harn nachweisen. Es fanden sich aber keine signifikanten Beziehungen zwischen der Quecksilberbelastung im Urin und den aufgetretenen Beschwerdenangaben im PNF, der Beschwerdenliste nach v. Zerssen und dem Q16-mod.. Es bestanden ebenfalls hoch signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den erreichten Ergebnissen der Testverfahren und dem Geschlecht der Probanden, wobei die Frauen deutlich höhere Werte und somit mehr Beschwer-den als die männlichen Probanden angaben. Eine Altersabhängigkeit der psychometrischen Untersuchungsverfahren und der Urin-Biomonitoringdaten ließ sich nicht finden. Psychome-trische Screeningfragebögen sind empfindliche Instrumente für die Erfassung von allgemeinen körperlichen und expositionsbedingten Beschwerden in der umweltmedizinischen Sprechstunde. Ihre Ergebnisse stehen in keiner Beziehung zur Quecksilberkonzentration von Amalgamfüllungs-trägern. Es fanden sich keine Hinweise auf eine subklinische Expositions-Effekt-Beziehung. Die Quecksilberbelastungen aus den Amalgamfüllungen im Niedrig-Dosis-Bereich sind nicht die Ursache für die in den psychometrischen Tests angegebenen Beschwerden und Befindlichkeiten der Probanden

Interaktive und kollaborative Webformate

Das Web 2.0 ist die Form des Internets, die im Gegensatz zu traditionellen Massenmedien, wie dem Fernsehen, durch spezielle Software-Programme eine aktive Beteiligung der User und Userinnen mit Medieninhalten möglich macht. Diese User und Userinnen-Partizipation wird zum Anlass genommen um herausgefunden, wodurch sich interaktive und kollaborative Webformate auszeichnen und worin die Faszination an der Partizipation und Entwicklung dieser Formate liegt. Die inhaltliche Präzisierung der Begriffe Interaktivität und Kollaboration dient einer medienwissenschaftlichen Herangehensweise an die Themenstellung sowie einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit ausgewählten Web 2.0- Formaten, die auf interaktive und kollaborative Merkmale zur inhaltlichen Einflussnahme untersucht werden. Eine aktive Einflussnahme zeigt sich u.a. durch die Möglichkeit zur Produktion und Veröffentlichung von user generated content, der zu den Hauptmerkmalen von Web 2.0- Angeboten zählt. Dabei zeigt sich neben den Vor- und Nachteilen in den Webformaten, dass die User/innen- Faszination nicht nur in der inhaltlichen Partizipation sondern auch in der Selbstdarstellung der eigenen Person und in der Weiterentwicklung medienspezifischer Fertigkeiten begründet liegt. User generated content ist somit zu einem geeigneten und populären Ausdrucksmittel dieser Bedürfnisse geworden, von dem auch die Betreiber/innen von Web 2.0 Plattformen profitieren. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht daher auch das Interesse der Unternehmen an der Entwicklung und Bereitstellung von interaktiven bzw. kollaborativen Webformaten. Es zeigt sich, dass das Interesse großer Unternehmen wie YouTube und das der Game-Industrie nicht nur in der Förderung der Amateurkulturen sondern vielmehr in der Weiterverarbeitung und Nutzung ihrer Inhalte liegt, durch die sie wirtschaftliche Ziele erreichen und neue Geschäftsideen entwickeln können. Diese Aspekte wären ohne die Zuhilfenahme von user generated content kaum realisierbar. Darin zeigt sich, dass die medialen Produkte der Amateurkultur längst mit professionell produzierten Inhalten mithalten können.In contrast to traditional mass media, special applications on the internet, known as Web 2.0, make it possible for the consumer to take an active role in the production of media content. Based on this new form of media participation, this thesis project first investigates what the main characteristics of the interactive and collaborative web format are and why users like to participate and invent them. The content specification of "interactivity“ and "collaboration“ leads to a media-scientific approach and to a critical dialogue with the chosen examples. These examples are analyzed in terms of their interactive and collaborative criteria and examine how users can specifically influence the content. For example, a direct influence arises from the opportunity to produce and publish user-generated content, which is one of the main characteristics from Web 2.0. It becomes obvious that in addition to an interest in direct participation, the user's fascination also lies in their desire to express themselves. It is this mode of self-expression that has made user-generated content so popular. However, it has also simultaneously established a new format by which companies can gain commercial profits. Large websites such as YouTube don’t simply support the amateur culture; they also exploit it and employ the user-generated content for economical interests. This thesis explores also the business interests in the development and appropriation of interactive and collaborative web formats

Mind–body-medicine in oncology—from patient needs to tailored programs and interventions: a cross-sectional study

IntroductionNational and international guidelines recommend early integration of evidence-based multimodal interventions and programs, especially with a focus on relaxation techniques and other Mind–Body-based methods to maintain the quality of life of oncology patients, improve treatment tolerability, and promote healthy lifestyle behaviors. Consequently, we aim to understand what drives patients and how they navigate integrative medicine to best advise them. This study aimed to detect possible topics of particular interest to patients and identify the patient groups that could benefit most from further programs. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate if patients are open-minded toward integrative oncology concepts and learn about their motivational level to maintain or change behavior.MethodsBetween August 2019 and October 2020 we surveyed patients undergoing oncological therapy in a university oncological outpatient center using a custom-developed questionnaire based on established Mind–Body Medicine concepts.ResultsWe included 294 patients with various cancers. More than half reported problems sleeping through (61%) and 42% felt stressed frequently, invariably rating this as detrimental to their health. Moreover, a slight majority (52%) felt physically limited due to their disease and only 30% performed defined exercise programs. Women were significantly more likely to feel stressed and reported with alarming frequency that they often feel “everything was up to them.” The 40–65-year-olds reported significantly less restful sleep, more stress and were more dissatisfied with their situation. However, this group already used natural remedies most frequently and was most often motivated to use relaxation techniques in the next 6 months. The lower the perceived individual energy level (EL), the less frequently patients did sport, the more frequently they felt their disease impaired their activity, mostly feeling stressed and tense. We also found significant associations between negative emotions/thoughts and the variables “sleep,” “use of relaxation techniques,” “personal stress perception,” and “successful lifestyle modification.”ConclusionMind–Body programs that focus on patient’s individual resources, with tools to explore impairing patterns of self-perception and cognitive biases, can be a valuable resource for oncology patients and should therefore be part of an integrative medical treatment concept

Multiple decisions about one object involve parallel sensory acquisition but time-multiplexed evidence incorporation.

The brain is capable of processing several streams of information that bear on different aspects of the same problem. Here, we address the problem of making two decisions about one object, by studying difficult perceptual decisions about the color and motion of a dynamic random dot display. We find that the accuracy of one decision is unaffected by the difficulty of the other decision. However, the response times reveal that the two decisions do not form simultaneously. We show that both stimulus dimensions are acquired in parallel for the initial ∼0.1 s but are then incorporated serially in time-multiplexed bouts. Thus, there is a bottleneck that precludes updating more than one decision at a time, and a buffer that stores samples of evidence while access to the decision is blocked. We suggest that this bottleneck is responsible for the long timescales of many cognitive operations framed as decisions

Street-level practice, personalisation and co-production in employability: Insights from local services with lone parents

Policymakers in the UK have promised to deliver personalised employability services for vulnerable jobseekers. However, unemployed people often describe their engagement with state-funded services as defined by: the offer of low cost, standardised job search services; and pressure to accept any job, irrespective of quality or appropriateness. This article argues that more progressive, co-produced alternatives are possible. We draw on an evaluation of local, third sector-led services targeting lone parents (LPs) in five local government areas in Scotland. Our research involved more than 100 in-depth interviews with both service providers and LPs. We find that partnership-oriented co-governance mechanisms facilitated collaborative approaches to the management of services and processes of co-production. LPs expressed positive views of the personalised services that were co-produced. We conclude that a commitment to collaboration and co-production may be more effective in promoting personalised services that are responsive to the needs of vulnerable groups

Approximating (k,ℓ)(k,\ell)-center clustering for curves

The Euclidean $k$-center problem is a classical problem that has been extensively studied in computer science. Given a set $\mathcal{G}$ of $n$ points in Euclidean space, the problem is to determine a set $\mathcal{C}$ of $k$ centers (not necessarily part of $\mathcal{G}$) such that the maximum distance between a point in $\mathcal{G}$ and its nearest neighbor in $\mathcal{C}$ is minimized. In this paper we study the corresponding $(k,\ell)$-center problem for polygonal curves under the Fr\'echet distance, that is, given a set $\mathcal{G}$ of $n$ polygonal curves in $\mathbb{R}^d$, each of complexity $m$, determine a set $\mathcal{C}$ of $k$ polygonal curves in $\mathbb{R}^d$, each of complexity $\ell$, such that the maximum Fr\'echet distance of a curve in $\mathcal{G}$ to its closest curve in $\mathcal{C}$ is minimized. In this paper, we substantially extend and improve the known approximation bounds for curves in dimension $2$ and higher. We show that, if $\ell$ is part of the input, then there is no polynomial-time approximation scheme unless $\mathsf{P}=\mathsf{NP}$. Our constructions yield different bounds for one and two-dimensional curves and the discrete and continuous Fr\'echet distance. In the case of the discrete Fr\'echet distance on two-dimensional curves, we show hardness of approximation within a factor close to $2.598$. This result also holds when $k=1$, and the $\mathsf{NP}$-hardness extends to the case that $\ell=\infty$, i.e., for the problem of computing the minimum-enclosing ball under the Fr\'echet distance. Finally, we observe that a careful adaptation of Gonzalez' algorithm in combination with a curve simplification yields a $3$-approximation in any dimension, provided that an optimal simplification can be computed exactly. We conclude that our approximation bounds are close to being tight.Comment: 24 pages; results on minimum-enclosing ball added, additional author added, general revisio

Summary of the First Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE1)

Challenges related to development, deployment, and maintenance of reusable software for science are becoming a growing concern. Many scientists’ research increasingly depends on the quality and availability of software upon which their works are built. To highlight some of these issues and share experiences, the First Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE1) was held in November 2013 in conjunction with the SC13 Conference. The workshop featured keynote presentations and a large number (54) of solicited extended abstracts that were grouped into three themes and presented via panels. A set of collaborative notes of the presentations and discussion was taken during the workshop. Unique perspectives were captured about issues such as comprehensive documentation, development and deployment practices, software licenses and career paths for developers. Attribution systems that account for evidence of software contribution and impact were also discussed. These include mechanisms such as Digital Object Identifiers, publication of “software papers”, and the use of online systems, for example source code repositories like GitHub. This paper summarizes the issues and shared experiences that were discussed, including cross-cutting issues and use cases. It joins a nascent literature seeking to understand what drives software work in science, and how it is impacted by the reward systems of science. These incentives can determine the extent to which developers are motivated to build software for the long-term, for the use of others, and whether to work collaboratively or separately. It also explores community building, leadership, and dynamics in relation to successful scientific software

Partizipative Gestaltung eines gebrauchstauglichen mobilen Assistenzsystems für Instandhalter

Mit dem Einsatz mobiler Produktionsassistenzsysteme entstehen neue Anforderungen an die Gestaltung von Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstellen (MMS). Solche MMS umfassen eine grafische Benutzerschnittstelle über die Softwareoberfläche (GUI) sowie eine tangible Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstelle (tMMS) über hardwaretechnische Funktions- und Bedienelemente. Eine gebrauchstaugliche Gestaltung dieser MMS liefert ein großes Potenzial zur sicheren Bedienung und steigert deren Akzeptanz durch die Anwender. Aufbauend auf den Methoden des Usability Engineering wird die nutzerzentrierte Entwicklung einer gebrauchstauglichen MMS für das Ressourcencockpit Phasen dargestellt. Grundlage hierfür bietet ein Anforderungskatalog, der die Bedarfe von Instandhaltern, Service-Technikern sowie Planungs- und Instandhaltungsleitern zusammenfasst. Auch bei der iterativen Entwicklung, Prototypengestaltung und Evaluation wird eine partizipative Vorgehensweise gemeinsam mit den Anwendern gewählt. Im Ergebnis liegen für Teilaspekte der Gestaltung und den zusammengesetzten Geometrieprototypen bereits hohe Bewertungen der Gebrauchstauglichkeit vor