Polizeidienst in Krisenzeiten: Beschäftigtenbefragung zur Corona-Pandemie in der Polizei Sachsen

Wie hat die Corona-Pandemie den Polizeidienst verändert? Wie haben die Beschäftigten ihren Dienst während des Lockdowns ganz persönlich erlebt? Welche Einstellungen und Sichtweisen prägen ihren Blick auf die Pandemiebekämpfung? Wie hat sich das auf ihre mentale Belastung und ihre dienstliche Handlungssicherheit ausgewirkt? Und was lässt sich aus alldem für das zukünftige Krisenmanagement von Behörden und Organisationen mit Sicherheitsaufgaben lernen? Zu diesen Fragen führte das Sächsische Institut für Polizei- und Sicherheitsforschung (SIPS) im Zeitraum von Mitte Oktober bis Mitte November 2020 eine Umfrage in der Sächsischen Polizei durch – also genau in jener Zeit, als sich die Pandemie in Sachsen erneut zuspitzte. Dieser Forschungsbericht gibt Auskunft über die Befunde der quantitativen und qualitativen Analysen des so entstandenen Datenmaterials – und gewährt erstmals belastbare Einblicke in Lebens- und Erfahrungswelten der Beschäftigten einer Sicherheitsbehörde während der Corona-Pandemie

Early signs of tinnitus in a simulation of the mammalian primary auditory cortex

© 2011 Metzner et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited[Poster presentation] The majority of tinnitus cases are related to cochlear dysfunction, leading to altered peripheral input to the central auditory system. These alterations are believed to increase the basic level of neural activity during off-conditions of sound and to diminish the increase in neural activity when sound is presented. As a compensatory means the affected region of primary auditory cortex tries to maximize the difference between basic level activity and sound-induced activity by adapting inhibitory and excitatory influences towards less GABAergic inhibition. This adaptation in turn triggers unmasking of dormant synapses and creation of new connections through axonal sprouting and finally results in a reorganization of tonotopic receptive fields and the manifestation of tinnitusPeer reviewe

From In Vitro to Perioperative Vascular Tissue Engineering: Shortening Production Time by Traceable Textile-Reinforcement

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Development of Functional Filter Materials for Virus Protective Face Masks

Wearing face masks during pandemics is an important protective measure against the spreading of virus-related infectious diseases. Nevertheless, the risk of indirect transmission of virus by handling masks is one of the earliest concerns. This problem can be minimized by supplementing the masks’ textile structure with virus protective coatings. Therefore, in this concept, suitable techniques for manufacturing virus protective filter media should be evaluated. In this study, nonwoven polyamide 6 (PA6) filter material is functionalized with negatively charged linear polyglycerol sulfate (LPGS) as a virus binding functional group. Two coating conditions are investigated in which the direct covalent coating with LPGS has emerged as the optimum coating method, showing no damage to the PA6 nanofiber structure. The uncoated PA6 and LPGS-coated PA6 filter materials exhibited virus particle filtration efficiencies of 95% and 94% for airborne feline coronavirus, 98% and 86% for airborne equine herpesvirus 1(EHV-1), respectively. However, the SARS-CoV-2 absorption assay in solution indicates that the LPGS coating reduces viral titres up to 71% when incubating with the LPGS-coated PA6 filter media for one-hour. Thus, such an effect is not seen for uncoated PA6 materials. These findings confirm the suitability of LPGS coating as a suitable platform for suppression the spreading of viruses in different pandemics

Candidate Gustatory Interneurons Modulating Feeding Behavior in the Drosophila Brain

Feeding is a fundamental activity of all animals that can be regulated by internal energy status or external sensory signals. We have characterized a zinc finger transcription factor, klumpfuss (klu), which is required for food intake in Drosophila larvae. Microarray analysis indicates that expression of the neuropeptide gene hugin (hug) in the brain is altered in klu mutants and that hug itself is regulated by food signals. Neuroanatomical analysis demonstrates that hug-expressing neurons project axons to the pharyngeal muscles, to the central neuroendocrine organ, and to the higher brain centers, whereas hug dendrites are innervated by external gustatory receptor-expressing neurons, as well as by internal pharyngeal chemosensory organs. The use of tetanus toxin to block synaptic transmission of hug neurons results in alteration of food intake initiation, which is dependent on previous nutrient condition. Our results provide evidence that hug neurons function within a neural circuit that modulates taste-mediated feeding behavior

The multimodal Munich Clinical Deep Phenotyping study to bridge the translational gap in severe mental illness treatment research

Introduction: Treatment of severe mental illness (SMI) symptoms, especially negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, remains a major unmet need. There is good evidence that SMIs have a strong genetic background and are characterized by multiple biological alterations, including disturbed brain circuits and connectivity, dysregulated neuronal excitation-inhibition, disturbed dopaminergic and glutamatergic pathways, and partially dysregulated inflammatory processes. The ways in which the dysregulated signaling pathways are interconnected remains largely unknown, in part because well-characterized clinical studies on comprehensive biomaterial are lacking. Furthermore, the development of drugs to treat SMIs such as schizophrenia is limited by the use of operationalized symptom-based clusters for diagnosis. Methods: In line with the Research Domain Criteria initiative, the Clinical Deep Phenotyping (CDP) study is using a multimodal approach to reveal the neurobiological underpinnings of clinically relevant schizophrenia subgroups by performing broad transdiagnostic clinical characterization with standardized neurocognitive assessments, multimodal neuroimaging, electrophysiological assessments, retinal investigations, and omics-based analyzes of blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Moreover, to bridge the translational gap in biological psychiatry the study includes in vitro investigations on human-induced pluripotent stem cells, which are available from a subset of participants. Results: Here, we report on the feasibility of this multimodal approach, which has been successfully initiated in the first participants in the CDP cohort; to date, the cohort comprises over 194 individuals with SMI and 187 age and gender matched healthy controls. In addition, we describe the applied research modalities and study objectives. Discussion: The identification of cross-diagnostic and diagnosis-specific biotype-informed subgroups of patients and the translational dissection of those subgroups may help to pave the way toward precision medicine with artificial intelligence-supported tailored interventions and treatment. This aim is particularly important in psychiatry, a field where innovation is urgently needed because specific symptom domains, such as negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction, and treatment-resistant symptoms in general are still difficult to treat

Separation – integration – and now …? - An historical perspective on the relationship between German management accounting and financial accounting

German accounting has traditionally followed a dual ledger approach with strictly separated internal cost accounting, as the basis for management information, and external financial accounting focusing on creditor protection and based on the commercial law. However, the increased adoption of integrated accounting system implies a significant change in the relationship between financial and management accounting systems. We use Hegelian dialectic to trace the historical development of German accounting from separated systems towards antithetical propositions of full integration, and the emergence of partial integration as the synthesis of this transformation process. For this reason, our paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the literature on the relationship between financial and management accounting in Germany. On this basis, we elaborate how financial accounting in Germany has been shaped by its economic context and legislation, and how financial accounting – accompanied by institutional pressures – in turn influenced management accounting. We argue that the changing relationship between management and financial accounting in the German context illustrates how current accounting practice is shaped not only by its environment, but also by its historical path. Based on this reasoning, we discuss several avenues for future research

Entfaltungsmechanismen für den Leichtbau auf Basis bionischer Elemente

Entfaltbare Leichtbaustrukturen spielen in vielen technischen Anwendungen eine zunehmend wichtige Rolle. Grundlegende Designanforderungen nach Mobilität und einfachem Transport, nach geringer Systemkomplexität und damit Robustheit sowie nach einer energieeffizienten Entfaltung finden sich bei technischen Systemen genauso wie bei natürlichen Vorbildern. Biologische Entfaltungsprozesse liefern daher wichtige Ansätze, die auf technische Entwicklungen Einfluss nehmen können. Typische Anwendungsgebiete sind entfaltbare Raumfahrtsysteme und Strukturen der temporären Architektur für den Einsatz im Katastrophenschutz. Der Entfaltungsprozess eines Libellenflügels verläuft zum Beispiel ähnlich dem Aufblasen druckbeaufschlagter technischer Systeme und die Entfaltung eines Chamäleonschwanzes findet ihre Analogie bei einem aufgerollten Ultraleichtbaumast, den das DLR als lasttragendes Element zur Entwicklung treibstoffloser Solar Sail Raumfahrtantriebe einsetzt. Im Rahmen der Studie werden biologische Vorbilder analysiert und ihr Potenzial im Hinblick auf eine technische Anwendung sowohl in der Raumfahrt als auch für terrestrische Strukturen untersucht. Einfache Tests zeigen Möglichkeiten aber auch Grenzen der bionischen Lösungsansätze