The German Career Service `Studierende & Arbeitswelt (S&A)´ focus Technology guidance at Career Service work - The transfer of the concept of Blended Learning to the Career Service work

As a result of increasing competition caused by globalization in the working world, there is a need of high quality support in the university offers. The high quality mentoring during the academic periods should be accompanied by the progressive and concurrent attendance of the Career Service (CS) work. Comprehensive analysis of the CS offers in Germany, showed that the main concept of CS work consists of four basic elements: information, consultation, career qualification and partnership management. All these issues are covered and intensified by a special CS Concept “Studierende & Arbeitswelt” (S&A) from the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne. Since 1989, S&A has been offering the opportunity to supplement studies with career orientation and practical training that significantly increase the students chances at the job market. The program is limited to twenty students, so the focus on new steps into technology guidance is important to rise up the number of participants. The variety of CS in Germany is mainly covered by “present” approach, like “face to face” consulting or courses for career qualification including recruiting management. For a lot of CS organisations the aspect of partnership management is limited to notices, individual work-consultation and job exchange with non-specific study field offers. In addition, the number of participants on career courses has to be limited due to the requirement of CS to offer a high quality support. This causes a neglect of the high participation need on the part of the students and leads to a deficient coverage of service requirements. The qualifications and information offers of the CS are targeted prevalently on the internal high education level. The embedding of the job market as well as the national and international high education offers usually does not take place. Considering these problems and high requirements of CS work, web-based offers could give a chance to provide high quality and multidisciplinary services to a big variety of students. The electronic CS could assure a flexible and common access to the support and placement for students of all study fields, employers and university stuff members. In Germany the development of methodology and didactic concepts extending CS work to an electronic platform is in an early stadium. By reason of the virtual interest and the advantages of an electronic platform, various universities in Germany have E-Learning modules and web-based national and international job exchange by now. The global development of an electronic platform for CS could give the opportunity for national and international partnerships in the fields of internships, work quotes and thesis topics, as well as cooperation between employers and universities

Mental health and developmental disorders in infancy and early childhood. The PDM-2

We provide a general introduction to the theoretical and empirical sources informing the development of the Infancy and Early Childhood Section (IEC) of the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2). We offer a brief exploration of the evolution of developmental psychoanalysis and its applications to infant mental health, along with an example of applying the IEC framework to clinical and developmental data from a longitudinal study based on developmental and psychodynamic principles. This article illustrates the evolution of theory in the context of interdisciplinary integration and explores its implications for diagnosis and clinical formulatio

Short-term Heart Rate Turbulence Analysis Versus Variability and Baroreceptor Sensitivity in Patients With Dilated Cardiomyopathy

New methods for the analysis of arrhythmias and their hemodynamic consequences have been applied in risk stratification, in particular to patients after myocardial infarction. This study investigates the suitability of short-term heart rate turbulence (HRT) analysis in comparison to heart rate and blood pressure variability as well as baroreceptor sensitivity analyses to characterise the regulatory differences between patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and healthy controls. In this study, 30 minutes data of non-invasive continuous blood pressure and ECGs of 37 DCM patients and 167 controls measured under standard resting conditions were analysed. The results show highly significant differences between DCM patients and controls in heart rate and blood pressure variability as well as in baroreceptor sensitivity parameters. Applying a combined heart rate-blood pressure trigger, ventricular premature beats were detected in 24.3% (9) of the DCM patients and 11.3% (19) of the controls. This fact demonstrates the limited applicability of short-term HRT analyses. However, the HRT parameters showed significant differences in this subgroup with ventricular premature beats (turbulence onset: DCM: 1.80±2.72, controls: - 4.34±3.10, p<0.001; turbulence slope: DCM: 6.75±5.50, controls: 21.30±17.72, p=0.021). Considering all (including HRT) parameters in the subgroup with ventricular beats, a discrimination rate between DCM patients and controls of 88.0% was obtained (max. 6 parameters). The corresponding value obtained for the total group was 86.3% (without HRT parameters). Comparable classification rates and high correlations between heart rate turbulence and variability and baroreflex parameters point to a more universal applicability of the latter methods

Analysis of trace amounts to detect exposure to triclosan and triclocarban in crops grown in soil amended with human biosolids

2018 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.A method to detect trace amounts of both triclosan, (TCS) and triclocarban (TCC) using gas chromatography with an electron capture detector (GC/ECD) was created to test compound uptake by dryland corn from biosolids fertilization. Corn was harvested from a field that had been amended with human biosolids since 1982 which was part of a research study being conducted by Colorado State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, Soil and Crop Sciences Department. Both TCS and TCC are lipid soluble and contain functional groups that could be derivatized. Derivatization of the compounds improved chromatography results by making compounds more volatile and stable at higher temperatures and increase detection limits to 0.05 ng/ml for TCS and 0.1 ng/ml for TCC. Derivatization was done with BSTFA (N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl) trifluoroacetamide) + 1% TMCS (trimethylchlorosilane ). The method described in this paper holds the potential for detecting other pharmaceutical products, compounds from personal care products, and over-the-counter agents that contain halogenated phenol groups. Triclocarban was not detected in corn from the control or biosolid amended fields at statistically significant amounts. Triclosan was found in increased amounts in corn that was grown in fields that were amended with biosolids. The mean results for TCS in corn from the control field were 11 μg/ml and for the bio-solid amended field the mean was 140 μg/ml, indicating that corn from bio-solid amended fields had a greater than 10-fold increase in concentrations of TCS compared to fields not amended with human biosolids

Multiscale Molecular Approach towards Complex Systems

This thesis reports on multiscalar studies of two different complex systems, namely ionic liquids and the supramolecular structures rotaxanes. To obtain insights into the complex interactions present in these systems, static quantum chemical calculations, ab initio molecular dynamics and classical molecular dynamics simulations were carried out, considering the most sophisticated methods and force fields, which are applicable. The primary goal was to develop a multiscale approach, using a combined set of methods adapted to the characteristic size and time scale of the studied systems, to describe how the complex interactions present influence the physicochemical properties, with a special focus on interactions like hydrogen bonding and dispersion interactions. For ionic liquids, the formation of ion pairs and the evaporation were the objects of this research. Dynamical probing of the interactions by means of ab initio molecular dynamics simulations pointed to a temperature-dependent structural rearrangement of the interactions in the transition from the bulk to the gas phase. With the aid of classical molecular dynamics simulations, applying the same force field, which was shown to be able to reproduce the molecular structure and to describe the surface of ionic liquids properly, a qualitative picture of the formation of an ion pair at the surface as well as of its departure into the vacuum was gained. From this qualitative picture, a multistep evaporation mechanism is proposed. Furthermore, the effect of charge transfer on the formation of ion pairs in ionic liquids has been probed using different population analysis techniques, indicating that the ion pairing in the bulk phase of ionic liquids seems to be less important than thought before. The object of the rotaxane research was to understand the complexity of their binding patterns. Static quantum chemical calculations were conducted to probe substitution and flexibility effects of the axle in these host-guest complexes. In agreement with experimental data, it was shown that substitution on the diamid axle of Vögtle-type rotaxanes changes the binding properties in several ways and that depending on the substituent the binding is driven either by enthalpic or entropic effects. Increasing the flexibility of the axle increases the binding energy of Leigh-type rotaxanes independent of the substitution of the axle. Stoppers on the axle, which are attributed a minor role in the binding of rotaxanes, showed an influence on intramolecular interactions, as the trend of hydrogen bonding symmetry observed for different flexibility of axles is reversed in their presence. Including solvent effects through an implicit solvent model, weakens the complex binding for all systems, as the different parts of the host-guest complexes are differently stabilized

Optimal color channel combination across skin tones for remote heart rate measurement in camera-based photoplethysmography

Objective: The heart rate is an essential vital sign that can be measured remotely with camera-based photoplethysmography (cbPPG). Systems for cbPPG typically use cameras that deliver red, green, and blue (RGB) channels. The combination of these channels has been proven to increase signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and heart rate measurement accuracy (ACC). However, many combinations remain untested, the comparison of proposed combinations on large datasets is insufficiently investigated, and the interplay with skin tone is rarely addressed. Methods: Eight regions of interest and eight color spaces with a total of 25 color channels were compared in terms of ACC and SNR based on the Binghamton-Pittsburgh-RPI Multimodal Spontaneous Emotion Database (BP4D+). Additionally, two systematic grid searches were performed to evaluate ACC in the space of linear combinations of the RGB channels. Results: Glabella and forehead regions of interest provided highest ACC (up to 74.1 %) and SNR (> -3 dB) with the hue channel H from HSV color space and the chrominance channel Q from NTSC color space. The grid searches revealed a global optimum of linear RGB combinations (ACC: 79.2 %). This optimum occurred for all skin tones, although ACC dropped for darker skin tones. Conclusion: Through systematic grid searches we were able to identify the skin tone independent optimal linear RGB color combination for measuring heart rate with cbPPG. Our results proved on a large dataset that the identified optimum outperformed conventionally used color channels. Significance: The presented findings provide useful evidence for future considerations of algorithmic approaches for cbPPG

T Wave Amplitude Correction of QT Interval Variability for Improved Repolarization Lability Measurement

Objectives: The inverse relationship between QT interval variability (QTV) and T wave amplitude potentially confounds QT variability assessment. We quantified the influence of the T wave amplitude on QTV in a comprehensive dataset and devised a correction formula. Methods: Three ECG datasets of healthy subjects were analyzed to model the relationship between T wave amplitude and QTV. To derive a generally valid correction formula, linear regression analysis was used. The proposed correction formula was applied to patients enrolled in the Evaluation of Defibrillator in Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation trial (DEFINITE) to assess the prognostic significance of QTV for all-cause mortality in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy. Results: A strong inverse relationship between T wave amplitude and QTV was demonstrated, both in healthy subjects (R2 = 0.68, p < 0.001) and DEFINITE patients (R2 = 0.20, p < 0.001). Applying the T wave amplitude correction to QTV achieved 2.5-times better group discrimination between patients enrolled in the DEFINITE study and healthy subjects. Kaplan-Meier estimator analysis showed that T wave amplitude corrected QTVi is inversely related to survival (p < 0.01) and a significant predictor of all-cause mortality. Conclusion: We have proposed a simple correction formula for improved QTV assessment. Using this correction, predictive value of QTV for all-cause mortality in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy has been demonstrated