Outcome der Assistierten Reproduktionstechnik bei Patientinnen mit polyzystischem Ovar-Syndrom mit versus ohne Insulinresistenz unter präkonzeptioneller Metformintherapie

Retrospektive Datenanalyse von 153 Patientinnen mit PCOS, die sich einer ART unterzogen. Es wird besonderes Augenmerk auf den Glukosestoffwechsel prä-, peri- und postkonzeptionell gelegt, zudem die Rate an Gestationsdiabetes ermittelt. Es zeigt sich eine präkonzeptionelle Glukosestoffwechselstörungsrate von 11,2 %, eine präkonzeptionelle Insulinresistenzrate von 53,9 %. Die Gestationsdiabetesrate liegt bei 50 %, davon können 91,5 % bereits in den ersten 4 Wochen der Schwangerschaft festgestellt werden. Eine präkonzeptionelle Therapie mit Metformin zeigt eine Verbesserung von Schwangerschafts- und Abortrate

Knowledge about aerosol injection does not reduce individual mitigation efforts

Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is a climate engineering method that is reputed to be very effective in cooling the planet but is also thought to involve major risks and side effects. As a new option in the bid to counter climate change, it has attracted an increasing amount of research and the debate on its potential gained momentum after it was referred to in the 5th IPCC assessment report (IPCC 2013). One major objection to SAI and the research done on it is that it could undermine commitment to the mitigation of greenhouse gases. Policymakers, interest groups or individuals might wrongly perceive SAI as an easy fix for climate change and accordingly reduce their mitigation efforts. This is the first study to provide an empirical evaluation of this claim for individuals. In a large-scale framed field experiment with more than 650 participants, we provide evidence that people do not back-pedal on mitigation when they are told that the climate change problem could be partly addressed via SAI. Instead, we observe that people who have been informed about SAI mitigate more than people who have not. Our data suggest that the increase is driven by a perception of SAI as potential threat

Guess What …?—How Guessed Norms Nudge Climate-Friendly Food Choices in Real-Life Settings

Social norms, also called social comparison nudges, have been shown to be particularly effective in promoting healthy food choices and environmentally friendly behaviors. However, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of these nudges for promoting sustainable and climate-friendly food choices and their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the related SDGs. The paper reports a field experiment that tests the effectiveness of two social norms in a real-life setting based on revealed preferences. The study distinguishes between the widely researched descriptive norms and guessed norms, the latter being tested in this context for the first time. While descriptive norms communicate typical patterns of behavior (e.g., 50% of canteen visitors choose vegetarian meals), guessed norms are determined by the individual’s best guess about the norm in a specific context. The results confirm a remarkable nudging effect of guessed norms: The higher the presumed proportion of vegetarian dishes sold, the lower the probability of choosing a vegetarian dish. Surprisingly, this effect is independent of the respective norm specification (meat or vegetarian norm). The paper provides advice for policy makers about when and how to use guessed norms

Charging and discharging of graphene in ambient conditions studied with scanning probe microscopy

4 páginas, 3 figuras.-- Trabajo presentado como comunicación oral a la "European Conference on Surface Science ECOSS27" celbrado en Holanda en septiembre de 2010: http://www.ecoss27.eu/By means of scanning probe microscopy we are able to inject charges in isolated graphene sheets deposited on SiO2/Si wafers and characterize the discharge induced by water in controlled ambient conditions. Contact potential differences between the graphene surface and the probe tip, measured by Kelvin probe microscopy, show a linear relationship with the tip bias during charge injection. The discharge depends on relative humidity and decays exponentially with time constants of the order of tens of minutes. We propose that graphene discharges through the water film adsorbed on the SiO2 surface.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC), Spain, through Grant No. FIS2006-12117- C04-01, and by the EXPLORA program NAN2007-29375-E.Peer reviewe

Nachhaltigkeit im industriellen Umfeld

Im Rahmen der Lehrveranstaltung "Nachhaltigkeit im industriellen Umfeld" im Masterstudiengang Umwelt- und Verfahrenstechnik der Hochschulen Konstanz und Ravensburg-Weingarten wurde 2015 eine studentische Fachkonferenz durchgeführt. Die Studierenden entwickelten in Einzelarbeit oder als Zweierteam Konferenzbeiträge zu folgenden Themen: - Innovationen und Spannendes aus dem Bereich der Energieerzeugung und -wandlung - Aspekte der Schließung von Stoffkreisläufen und Vermeidung von Schadstoffeinträgen in die Umwelt - Chancen und Herausforderungen Nachwachsender Rohstoffe bei verschiedenen Einsatzmöglichkeiten sowie Themen der Nachhaltigkeit in der Landwirtschaft - verschiedene Blickwinkel auf das Thema Wasser (von der Abwasserreinigung bis zum Wasserkonsum der Konsumenten) - die Betrachtung spezifischer Industrien und Unternehmen sowie deren Werkzeuge zur Umsetzung von Nachhaltigkeit Die Ergebnisse der studentischen Fachkonferenz zur „Nachhaltigkeit im industriellen Umfeld“ werden in der vorliegenden Publikation präsentiert

Direct visualization of newly synthesized target proteins in situ

Protein synthesis is a dynamic process that tunes the cellular proteome in response to internal and external demands. Metabolic labeling approaches identify the general proteomic response but cannot visualize specific newly synthesized proteins within cells. Here we describe a technique that couples noncanonical amino acid tagging or puromycylation with the proximity ligation assay to visualize specific newly synthesized proteins and monitor their origin, redistribution and turnover in situ

Validity of willingness to pay measures under preference uncertainty

This paper is part of the project ACCEPT, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (grant number 01LA1112A). The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access fund of the Leibniz Association. All data is available on the project homepage (https://www.ifw-kiel.de/forschung/umwelt/projekte/accept) and from Figshare (https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3113050.v1).Recent studies in the marketing literature developed a new method for eliciting willingness to pay (WTP) with an open-ended elicitation format: the Range-WTP method. In contrast to the traditional approach of eliciting WTP as a single value (Point-WTP), Range-WTP explicitly allows for preference uncertainty in responses. The aim of this paper is to apply Range-WTP to the domain of contingent valuation and to test for its theoretical validity and robustness in comparison to the Point-WTP. Using data from two novel large-scale surveys on the perception of solar radiation management (SRM), a little-known technique for counteracting climate change, we compare the performance of both methods in the field. In addition to the theoretical validity (i.e. the degree to which WTP values are consistent with theoretical expectations), we analyse the test-retest reliability and stability of our results over time. Our evidence suggests that the Range-WTP method clearly outperforms the Point-WTP method.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe