Patienten mit schizophrenen Störungen im psychiatrischen Maßregelvollzug: Ergeben sich Konsequenzen für die Allgemeinpsychiatrie?

Zusammenfassung: Es wurde eine Erhebung zu soziodemographischen, kriminologischen und psychiatrischen Merkmalen der 2007 gemäß §63 StGB und §126a StPO in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern untergebrachten Patienten mit Erkrankungen aus dem schizophrenen Formenkreis durchgeführt. Dabei konnten Daten zu allen im Untersuchungszeitraum untergebrachten 45Probanden erhoben werden. Diese stellen einen Anteil von 22% an der Gesamtzahl der 202 im Erhebungszeitraum untergebrachten Patienten. Dieser Wert liegt deutlich unter den Daten westlicher und auch eher städtisch geprägter Bundesländer. Ähnlich wie in anderen Untersuchungen aus Deutschland und Österreich zeigt sich eine hohe Rate von Vorbehandlungen in der Allgemeinpsychiatrie. Es bleibt eine wichtige Aufgabe, adäquate Interventionsstrategien für fremdaggressive Patienten mit kombinierten psychischen Störungen (z.B. Schizophrenie und Sucht), strafrechtlicher Vorgeschichte und fehlenden sozialen Perspektiven zu entwickel

On the feasibility of a user-operated mobile content distribution network

The vast majority of mobile data transfers today follow the traditional client-server model. Although in the fixed network P2P approaches have been exploited and shown to be very efficient, in the mobile domain there has been limited attempt to leverage on P2P (D2D) for large-scale content distribution (i.e., not DTN-like, point-to-point message transfers). In this paper, we explore the potential of a user-operated, smartphone-centric content distribution model for smartphone applications. In particular, we assume source nodes that are updated directly from the content provider (e.g., BBC, CNN), whenever updates are available; destination nodes are then directly updated by source nodes in a D2D manner. We leverage on sophisticated information-aware and application-centric connectivity techniques to distribute content between mobile devices in densely-populated urban environments. Our target is to investigate the feasibility of an opportunistic content distribution network in an attempt to achieve widespread distribution of heavy content (e.g., video files) to the majority of the destination nodes. We propose ubiCDN as a ubiquitous, user-operated and distributed CDN for mobile applications

Projected Benefits of New Residential Evaporative Cooling Systems: Progress Report #2

The use of conventional evaporative cooling has rapidly declined in the United States despite the fact that it has high potential for energy savings in dry climates. Evaporative systems are very competitive in terms of first cost and provide significant reductions in operating energy use, as well as peak-load reduction benefits. Significant market barriers still remain and can be addressed through improved systems integration. This report investigates the first of these approaches, exploring innovative components. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building America research teams are investigating the use of two promising new pieces of residential cooling equipment that employ evaporative cooling as a part of their system design. The OASys unit, which is a combination of direct and indirect evaporative cooling stages developed by Davis Energy Group (DEG) and manufactured by Speakman CRS, is used to ultimately provide outside air to the living space. The outdoor air provided is indirectly and directly evaporatively cooled in two stages to a condition that can be below the wet-bulb (wb) temperature of the outside air, thus outperforming a conventional single-stage direct evaporative cooler

Water Use in Parabolic Trough Power Plants: Summary Results from WorleyParsons' Analyses

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) contracted with WorleyParsons Group, Inc. to examine the effect of switching from evaporative cooling to alternative cooling systems on a nominal 100-MW parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) plant. WorleyParsons analyzed 13 different cases spanning three different geographic locations (Daggett, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Alamosa, Colorado) to assess the performance, cost, and water use impacts of switching from wet to dry or hybrid cooling systems. NREL developed matching cases in its Solar Advisor Model (SAM) for each scenario to allow for hourly modeling and provide a comparison to the WorleyParsons results.Our findings indicate that switching from 100% wet to 100% dry cooling will result in levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) increases of approximately 3% to 8% for parabolic trough plants throughout most of the southwestern United States. In cooler, high-altitude areas like Colorado's San Luis Valley, WorleyParsons estimated the increase at only 2.5%, while SAM predicted a 4.4% difference. In all cases, the transition to dry cooling will reduce water consumption by over 90%. Utility time-of-delivery (TOD) schedules had similar impacts for wet- and dry-cooled plants, suggesting that TOD schedules have a relatively minor effect on the dry-cooling penalty

A Survey on Content Retrieval on the Decentralised Web

The control, governance, and management of the web have become increasingly centralised, resulting in security, privacy, and censorship concerns. Decentralised initiatives have emerged to address these issues, beginning with decentralised file systems. These systems have gained popularity, with major platforms serving millions of content requests daily. Complementing the file systems are decentralised search engines and name registry infrastructures, together forming the basis of a decentralised web. This survey paper analyses research trends and emerging technologies for content retrieval on the decentralised web, encompassing both academic literature and industrial projects. Several challenges hinder the realisation of a fully decentralised web. Achieving comparable performance to centralised systems without compromising decentralisation is a key challenge. Hybrid infrastructures, blending centralised components with verifiability mechanisms, show promise to improve decentralised initiatives. While decentralised file systems have seen more mature deployments, they still face challenges such as usability, performance, privacy, and content moderation. Integrating these systems with decentralised name-registries offers a potential for improved usability with human-readable and persistent names for content. Further research is needed to address security concerns in decentralised name-registries and enhance governance and crypto-economic incentive mechanisms

Cellular development and evolution of the mammalian cerebellum

\ua9 2023, The Author(s).The expansion of the neocortex, a hallmark of mammalian evolution 1,2, was accompanied by an increase in cerebellar neuron numbers 3. However, little is known about the evolution of the cellular programmes underlying the development of the cerebellum in mammals. In this study we generated single-nucleus RNA-sequencing data for around 400,000 cells to trace the development of the cerebellum from early neurogenesis to adulthood in human, mouse and the marsupial opossum. We established a consensus classification of the cellular diversity in the developing mammalian cerebellum and validated it by spatial mapping in the fetal human cerebellum. Our cross-species analyses revealed largely conserved developmental dynamics of cell-type generation, except for Purkinje cells, for which we observed an expansion of early-born subtypes in the human lineage. Global transcriptome profiles, conserved cell-state markers and gene-expression trajectories across neuronal differentiation show that cerebellar cell-type-defining programmes have been overall preserved for at least 160 million years. However, we also identified many orthologous genes that gained or lost expression in cerebellar neural cell types in one of the species or evolved new expression trajectories during neuronal differentiation, indicating widespread gene repurposing at the cell-type level. In sum, our study unveils shared and lineage-specific gene-expression programmes governing the development of cerebellar cells and expands our understanding of mammalian brain evolution

Tracing silicate weathering processes in the permafrost-dominated Lena River watershed using lithium isotopes

Increasing global temperatures are causing widespread changes in the Arctic, including permafrost thawing and altered freshwater inputs and trace metal and carbon fluxes into the ocean and atmosphere. Changes in the permafrost active layer thickness can affect subsurface water flow-paths and water-rock interaction times, and hence weathering processes. Riverine lithium isotope ratios (reported as δ7Li) are tracers of silicate weathering that are unaffected by biological uptake, redox, carbonate weathering and primary lithology. Here we use Li isotopes to examine silicate weathering processes in one of the largest Russian Arctic rivers: the Lena River in eastern Siberia. The Lena River watershed is a large multi-lithological catchment, underlain by continuous permafrost. An extensive dataset of dissolved Li isotopic compositions of waters from the Lena River main channel, two main tributaries (the Aldan and Viliui Rivers) and a range of smaller sub-tributaries are presented from the post-spring flood/early-summer period at the onset of active layer development and enhanced water-rock interactions. The Lena River main channel (average δ7Lidiss ∼ 19‰) has a slightly lower isotopic composition than the mean global average of 23‰ (Huh et al., 1998a). The greatest range of [Li] and δ7Lidiss are observed in catchments draining the south-facing slopes of the Verkhoyansk Mountain Range. South-facing slopes in high-latitude, permafrost-dominated regions are typically characterised by increased summer insolation and higher daytime temperatures relative to other slope aspects. The increased solar radiation on south-facing catchments promotes repeated freeze-thaw cycles, and contributes to more rapid melting of snow cover, warmer soils, and increased active layer thaw depths. The greater variability in δ7Li and [Li] in the south-facing rivers likely reflect the greater infiltration of melt water and enhanced water-rock interactions within the active layer. A similar magnitude of isotopic fractionation is observed between the low-lying regions of the Central Siberian Plateau (and catchments draining into the Viliui River), and catchments draining the Verkhoyansk Mountain Range into the Aldan River. This is in contrast to global rivers in non-permafrost terrains that drain high elevations or areas of rapid uplift, where high degrees of physical erosion promote dissolution of freshly exposed primary rock typically yielding low δ7Lidiss, and low-lying regions exhibit high riverine δ7Li values resulting from greater water-rock interaction and formation of secondary mineral that fractionates Li isotopes. Overall, the range of Li concentrations and δ7Lidiss observed within the Lena River catchment are comparable to global rivers located in temperate and tropical regions. This suggests that cryogenic weathering features specific to permafrost regions (such as the continual exposure of fresh primary minerals due to seasonal freeze-thaw cycles, frost shattering and salt weathering), and climate (temperature and runoff), are not a dominant control on δ7Li variations. Despite vastly different climatic and weathering regimes, the same range of riverine δ7Li values globally suggests that the same processes govern Li geochemistry – that is, the balance between primary silicate mineral dissolution and the formation (or exchange with) secondary minerals. This has implications for the use of δ7Li as a palaeo-weathering tracer for interpreting changes in past weathering regimes

Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) External Stakeholders Workshop

On October 9, 2008, NREL hosted a workshop to provide an opportunity for external stakeholders to offer insights and recommendations on the design and functionality of DOE's planned Energy Systems Infrastructure Facility (ESIF). The goal was to ensure that the planning for the ESIF effectively addresses the most critical barriers to large-scale energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) deployment. This technical report documents the ESIF workshop proceedings

A phase I randomized therapeutic MVA-B vaccination improves the magnitude and quality of the T cell immune responses in HIV-1-infected subjects on HAART

Trial Design Previous studies suggested that poxvirus-based vaccines might be instrumental in the therapeutic HIV field. A phase I clinical trial was conducted in HIV-1-infected patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), with CD4 T cell counts above 450 cells/mm3 and undetectable viremia. Thirty participants were randomized (2:1) to receive either 3 intramuscular injections of MVA-B vaccine (coding for clade B HIV-1 Env, Gag, Pol and Nef antigens) or placebo, followed by interruption of HAART. Methods The magnitude, breadth, quality and phenotype of the HIV-1-specific T cell response were assayed by intracellular cytokine staining (ICS) in 22 volunteers pre- and post-vaccination. Results MVA-B vaccine induced newly detected HIV-1-specific CD4 T cell responses and expanded pre-existing responses (mostly against Gag, Pol and Nef antigens) that were high in magnitude, broadly directed and showed an enhanced polyfunctionality with a T effector memory (TEM) phenotype, while maintaining the magnitude and quality of the pre-existing HIV-1- specific CD8 T cell responses. In addition, vaccination also triggered preferential CD8+ T cell polyfunctional responses to the MVA vector antigens that increase in magnitude after two and three booster doses

A systematic review of the effectiveness of art therapy delivered in school-based settings to children aged 5–12 years

Background: School-based art therapy aims to facilitate children's personal change and growth through the use of visual arts media, such as drawing, painting, sculpture, clay, or digital art. Aims: To identify and synthesise the types of school-based art therapy interventions, and appraise the effectiveness for children aged 5-12. Methods: Systematic searching through ten major electronic databases, grey literature, and contact with experts in the field. Results: Six completed and two on-going studies were identified. Art therapy was delivered to children with asthma, behavioural disorders, oppositional defiant disorders, separation anxiety disorders, learning disorders, and disruptive behaviours. All interventions were delivered over 7-25 sessions, and lasted 40-60' per session. The sample sizes ranged between 20-109 participants, involving 247 participants in total. Conclusions: Art therapy can be effective in improving children's quality of life; anxiety; self-concept; problem-solving skills, attitudes towards school; emotional and behavioural difficulties. The follow-up findings were also promising; though confirmatory evidence is needed. Implications: The risk of bias was high and unclear, highlighting the importance of following standardised reporting guidelines. Future research needs to focus on the identification of primary outcomes and measures that are tailored to art therapy interventions, and explore the (cost-) effectiveness of shorter versus longer durations of treatment