Lokalisierte Sklerodermie (Morphea) im Kindesalter

Zusammenfassung: Die lokalisierte (oder zirkumskripte) Sklerodermie (LS) oder Morphea ist eine sklerosierende Bindegewebserkrankung der Haut, die auch darunterliegende Gewebe wie Subkutis, Muskulatur und Skelett betreffen kann. Viele Patienten weisen extrakutane Symptome und antinukleäre Antikörper auf. Ein Übergang in eine systemische Sklerose wird jedoch nicht beobachtet. Die LS beginnt oft im Kindesalter und zeigt ein breites klinisches Spektrum. Der lineäre Subtyp ist dabei die häufigste Form und zeichnet sich durch Progredienz und ein erhebliches Komplikationsrisiko aus. Die Erkrankung kann über Jahre fortschreiten und insbesondere während des Körperwachstums zu schweren funktionellen und ästhetischen Einbußen führen. Die Ursache der LS ist nicht geklärt. Ein genetischer Hintergrund wird vermutet, und Triggerfaktoren wie Traumen, Impfungen und Infektionen werden diskutiert, die sekundäre Immunphänomene auslösen. Die LS bleibt oft lange unerkannt, was zu einer Therapieverzögerung führt. Für die progrediente (meist lineäre) LS ist heute die Kombination von systemischen Kortikosteroiden und Methotrexat die Therapie der Wahl, während für oberflächliche lokalisierte Formen bei Jugendlichen die Lichttherapie (UVA-1 oder "UVB-narrow band") geeignet is

Development of an Organic Table Grape Production and Market in Switzerland

In Switzerland there is an increasing consumer demand for residue-free, organic table grapes. The organic cultivation of table grapes, however, is very delicate in humid climates and experience to advice organic growers is still lacking. The goal of our project that has started in 2004 is to develop and establish a cultivation system for organic table grapes under Swiss climatic and economic conditions with a high yield security and fulfilling the high quality demands of the market. Preliminary results: Interesting cultivars to produce are e.g. Fanny, Lilla, Palatina. However they are disease susceptible and must be produced under a rain roof. Better suited cultivars still need to be found. Consumer acceptance for organic table grapes produced in Switzerland is very positive. However changes towards new cultivars and lower production costs are necessary. Spray programs to achieve sufficient disease protection and no spray blotch seem to be realizable, mainly for production under rain roof

Potential and Limits of Pesticide Free Apple Growing by a Self-Regulating Orchard Set-Up: Project Presentation and First Experiences

Different research groups have already proven that flowering plants in orchards can enhance beneficial arthropods. Even within the tree rows different beneficial can be supported by selected plant species. In most experimental work done to stabilize the apple production system only single interaction effects were tested. However until now, no research group has quantified the additive effects of multiple measures on systembiodiversity and on the production economy. Our experiment combines all known measures of indirect pest and disease control measures in a near-to practical production model orchard without the use of any pesticide (not even organic ones). The orchard is split in 4 blocks: in two of them bio-control measures e.g. application of Granulosis Virus against codling moth (C. Pomonella) are applied; in the other two blocks no bio-control is applied. Standard commercial organic and integrated orchards with the disease-susceptible cultivar Gala in the vicinity of the model orchard are assessed by the same methods and serve as reference. Our intermediate results reveal that the self-regulating orchard developed already in the 2nd and 3rd leaf a clearly higher flora and fauna biodiversity compared to the reference orchards. The same happened in relation to the specific fruit beneficial e.g. the populations of aphid predators. In the self-regulating orchard they were capable to keep the aphid damages – in particular of the powdery apple aphid (D. plantaginea) - on trees and fruits under a commercially relevant level although the initial abundance of aphid colonies in spring was by far over the common threshold value. It is planned to continue the experiment until 2016

Optimization of permeable membrane microchannel heat sinks for additive manufacturing

The design freedom brought by additive manufacturing (AM) can be leveraged in the design of microchannel heat sinks to improve their cooling performance. The permeable membrane microchannel (PMM) heat sink geometry was inspired by the ability of powder bed AM processes to fabricate partially porous metal parts having small internal flow features on the order of the powder size. The design routes coolant through a parallel array of thin permeable membranes arranged in a single-layer-manifold configuration. The permeable membranes provide effective heat exchange surfaces and the manifold configuration yields a low flow resistance across the PMM heat sink, all incorporated in a single layer by the use of AM. Past work has introduced the PMM heat sink concept, but the optimal geometric feature sizes were not explored or identified. The n current study is first to explore design optimization of the PMM heat sink to identify target feature sizes for AM fabrication, assessment of the conditions under which the PMM geometry outperforms other standard microchannel heat sink designs, and inspection of the ability of metal 3D printing process to produce the optimal features. To this end, a reduced-order PMM heat sink model is developed, a gradient-based-multi-objective optimization is performed to identify the optimal feature sizes for different coolants (water and 48/52 water/ethylene glycol mixture) at different flow rates (100 – 500 mL/min), footprint areas (49 – 900 mm2), and channel heights (0.5 – 2.5 mm). The optimization results are benchmarked against an optimized straight microchannel (SMC) heat sink design. Optimized PMM designs offer up to 68% lower thermal resistance at a set pressure drop compared to optimized SMC designs. A pair of SMC and PMM heat sinks optimized for the same operating conditions are 3D printed using direct-metal-laser-sintering (DMLS) of AlSi10Mg. X-ray microtomography is used to characterize the geometry of the 3D-printed parts. The model identifies that optimal membrane gap sizes on the order of ~10s μm are required for the PMM to realize performance advantages compared to SMC heat sinks under the same operating conditions. The performance is predicted to be highly sensitive to this pore size, and even though DMLS is shown to produce parts with gaps as small as 26.7 microns, morphological deviations between the design and as-printed part are shown to lead to noticeable performance differences. Albeit excellent performance potential reinforced by this work, these findings call for further AM process development to ensure reliable, as-predicted PMM heat sinks to realize this potential

Assessment of Forever Earth Curriculum 2009-2010: Final Report

Forever Earth is a floating environmental laboratory and learning center at Lake Mead National Recreation Area that provides hands-on science experiences for students in the Clark County School District. The Forever Earth program was brought about through the efforts of numerous partners including Forever Resorts, a division of Forever Learning LLC, the National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Outside Las Vegas Foundation; and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute. In 2005, a formal written agreement was reached between Fun Country Marine Industries and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute to operate and manage the Forever Earth houseboat for the purpose of enhancing outdoor environmental education efforts in Southern Nevada. During the first year of the assessment program, knowledge, attitude, and performance assessments were developed to document the effectiveness of program events over the duration of the program. The findings from the first three years of assessment revealed that students’ knowledge and attitudes increased substantially as a result of participating in the Forever Earth field trips. Results also demonstrated that teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum were very favorable. In this final year of assessment (2009/2010), students again completed knowledge, attitude, and performance assessment and results indicated that students’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills increased substantially as a result of participating in the Forever Earth field trips

Assessment of Forever Earth Curriculum 2008-2009: Final Report

Forever Earth is a floating environmental laboratory and learning center at Lake Mead National Recreation Area that provides hands-on science experiences for students in the Clark County School District. The Forever Earth program was brought about through the efforts of numerous partners including Forever Resorts, a division of Forever Learning LLC, the National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Outside Las Vegas Foundation; and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute. In 2005, a formal written agreement was reached between Fun Country Marine Industries and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute to operate and manage the Forever Earth houseboat for the purpose of enhancing outdoor environmental education efforts in Southern Nevada. During the first year of the assessment program, knowledge, attitude, and performance assessments were developed to document the effectiveness of program events over the duration of the program. The findings from the first two years of assessment revealed that students’ knowledge and attitudes increased substantially as a result of participating in the Forever Earth field trips. Results also demonstrated that teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum were very favorable. In 2008-2009, the third year of assessing the program, students again completed knowledge, attitude, and performance assessment and results indicated that students’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills increased substantially as a result of participating in the Forever Earth field trips. Teachers’ perceptions of the Forever Earth curriculum continued to be positive

Assessing “Discover Mojave”, Year Two: Final Report

Discover Mojave Outdoor World is a hands-on outdoor recreation program for urban, economically disadvantaged youth. In Year One of the program, knowledge, attitude, and performance assessments were developed to document the effectiveness of program events over the duration of the program. Year One findings revealed that knowledge, attitudes, and performance increased substantially as a result of participating in the outdoor recreation events. The assessment plan was modified in Year Two by creating assessments for teachers and parents, as well as a developing a structured interview protocol. Changes were made to existing assessments and two new assessment tools were implemented. Findings from Year Two’s assessment plan again demonstrated the effectiveness of Discover Mojave Outdoor World in that participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and performance increased over the course of program events. Additionally, results demonstrated that teachers and parents had very favorable attitudes towards the program

Assessing “Discover Mojave” Instrument Development and Analysis: Final Report

We developed curriculum and a comprehensive assessment plan to determine whether hands-on outdoor recreation events promote knowledge, attitudes, and performance among at-risk urban children. Knowledge, attitude, and performance assessments were developed, refined and conducted through various stages based on cultural and language barriers as well a variety of age groups participating within the events. Findings revealed that knowledge, attitudes, and performance increased substantially as a result of participating in the outdoor recreation events. We conclude that the implementation and assessment of the program is strong. We also make several recommendations for future programs

Assessment of Forever Earth Curriculum 2006/2007: Final Report

Forever Earth is a floating environmental laboratory and learning center at Lake Mead National Recreation Area that provides hands-on science experiences for students in the Clark County School District. The Forever Earth program was brought about through the efforts of numerous partners including Forever Resorts, a division of Forever Learning, LLD: the National Park Service, Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Outside Las Vegas Foundation; and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute. In 2005, a formal written agreement was reached between Fun Country Marine Industries and UNLV’s Public Lands Institute to operate and manage the Forever Earth houseboat for the purpose of enhancing outdoor environmental education efforts in Southern Nevada. In Year One of the program, knowledge, attitude, and performance assessments were developed to document the effectiveness of program events over the duration of the program. Year One findings revealed that students’ knowledge and attitudes increased substantially as a result of participating in the Forever Earth field trips. Results also demonstrated that teachers’ perceptions of the curriculum were very favorable