Berufsbegleitende Weiterbildung und Personalentwicklungsplanung

Mit der Qualifikation und Weiterbildungsbeteiligung älterer Arbeitnehmer und Arbeitnehmerinnen ist es durchschnittlich betrachtet keineswegs schlecht bestellt. Alternskritisch sind allerdings bestimmte Erwerbsverlaufsmuster, die Risiken der Dequalifizierung und der beruflichen Stagnation bergen. Darauf bezogene gezielte alternsadäquate Interventionen sind geboten, um den demografischen Wandel in der Arbeitswelt produktiv zu gestalten. Entsprechende Beispiele guter Praxis, denen bislang Seltenheitswert zukommt, verdeutlichen, dass Maßnahmen beruflicher Weiterbildung erst dann wirksam werden, wenn sie mit einer lern- und entwicklungsförderlichen Gestaltung von Arbeit und einem entsprechenden Personaleinsatz einhergehen. Eine breitere Umsetzung entsprechender umfassender Qualifizierungsstrategien ist an eine langfristig ausgerichtete betriebliche Personalpolitik, aber auch an staatliche Unterstützungsangebote gebunden.Qualification and participation in professional training of older employees does not look bleak - at an average examination. Though there are some patterns in career backgrounds which bear risks of deskilling and stagnation of the career for older employees. Relating to this fact age-appropriate interventions are necessary to shape the demographical change in work environments productivity. Corresponding examples - which are quite seldom - are showing that measures of professional training will take effect only if they are combined with developmental and educational promotion of work and personnel placement. An extensive implementation of such broad qualification strategies is bound to long-term personnel policy in companies but as well to governmental support

Regulation and binding properties of S fimbriae cloned from E. coli strains causing urinary tract infection and meningitis

S fimbriae are able to recognize receptor molecules containing sialic acid and are produced by pathogenic E. coli strains causing urinary tract infection and menigitis. In order to characterize the corresponding genetic determinant, termed S fimbrial adhesin ( sfa) gene duster, we have cloned the S-specific genes from a urinary pathogen and from a meningitis isolate. Nine genes are involved in the production of S fimbriae, two of these, sfaB and sfaC code for regulatory proteins being necessary for the expression of S fimbriae. Two promoters, PB and Pc, are located in front of these genes. Transcription of the sfa determinant is influenced by activation of the promotersvia SfaB and SfaC, the action of the H-NS protein and an RNaseE-specific mRNA processing. In addition, a third promoter, P A• located in front of the major subunit gene sfaA, can be activated under special circumstances. Four genes of the sfa determinant code for the subunit-specific proteins, SfaA (16 kda), SfaG (17 kda), SfaS (14 kda) and SfaH (29 kda). It was demonstrated that the protein SfaA is the major subunit protein while SfaS is identical to the sialic-acid-specific adhesin of S fimbriae. The introduction of specific mutations into sfaS revealed that a region of six amino acids of the adhesin which includes two lysine and one arginine residues is involved in the receptor specific interaction of S fimbriae. Additionally, it has been shown that SfaS is necessary for the induction of fimbriation while SfaH plays a role in the stringency of binding of S fimbriae to erythrocytes

The Transcription Factor Ndt80 Does Not Contribute to Mrr1-, Tac1-, and Upc2-Mediated Fluconazole Resistance in Candida albicans

The pathogenic yeast Candida albicans can develop resistance to the widely used antifungal agent fluconazole, which inhibits ergosterol biosynthesis, by the overexpression of genes encoding multidrug efflux pumps or ergosterol biosynthesis enzymes. Zinc cluster transcription factors play a central role in the transcriptional regulation of drug resistance. Mrr1 regulates the expression of the major facilitator MDR1, Tac1 controls the expression of the ABC transporters CDR1 and CDR2, and Upc2 regulates ergosterol biosynthesis (ERG) genes. Gain-of-function mutations in these transcription factors result in constitutive overexpression of their target genes and are responsible for fluconazole resistance in many clinical C. albicans isolates. The transcription factor Ndt80 contributes to the drug-induced upregulation of CDR1 and ERG genes and also binds to the MDR1 and CDR2 promoters, suggesting that it is an important component of all major transcriptional mechanisms of fluconazole resistance. However, we found that Ndt80 is not required for the induction of MDR1 and CDR2 expression by inducing chemicals. CDR2 was even partially derepressed in ndt80Δ mutants, indicating that Ndt80 is a repressor of CDR2 expression. Hyperactive forms of Mrr1, Tac1, and Upc2 promoted overexpression of MDR1, CDR1/CDR2, and ERG11, respectively, with the same efficiency in the presence and absence of Ndt80. Mrr1- and Tac1-mediated fluconazole resistance was even slightly enhanced in ndt80Δ mutants compared to wild-type cells. These results demonstrate that Ndt80 is dispensable for the constitutive overexpression of Mrr1, Tac1, and Upc2 target genes and the increased fluconazole resistance of strains that have acquired activating mutations in these transcription factors

The Transcription Factor Mrr1p Controls Expression of the MDR1 Efflux Pump and Mediates Multidrug Resistance in Candida albicans

Constitutive overexpression of the MDR1 (multidrug resistance) gene, which encodes a multidrug efflux pump of the major facilitator superfamily, is a frequent cause of resistance to fluconazole and other toxic compounds in clinical Candida albicans strains, but the mechanism of MDR1 upregulation has not been resolved. By genome-wide gene expression analysis we have identified a zinc cluster transcription factor, designated as MRR1 (multidrug resistance regulator), that was coordinately upregulated with MDR1 in drug-resistant, clinical C. albicans isolates. Inactivation of MRR1 in two such drug-resistant isolates abolished both MDR1 expression and multidrug resistance. Sequence analysis of the MRR1 alleles of two matched drug-sensitive and drug-resistant C. albicans isolate pairs showed that the resistant isolates had become homozygous for MRR1 alleles that contained single nucleotide substitutions, resulting in a P683S exchange in one isolate and a G997V substitution in the other isolate. Introduction of these mutated alleles into a drug-susceptible C. albicans strain resulted in constitutive MDR1 overexpression and multidrug resistance. By comparing the transcriptional profiles of drug-resistant C. albicans isolates and mrr1Δ mutants derived from them and of C. albicans strains carrying wild-type and mutated MRR1 alleles, we defined the target genes that are controlled by Mrr1p. Many of the Mrr1p target genes encode oxidoreductases, whose upregulation in fluconazole-resistant isolates may help to prevent cell damage resulting from the generation of toxic molecules in the presence of fluconazole and thereby contribute to drug resistance. The identification of MRR1 as the central regulator of the MDR1 efflux pump and the elucidation of the mutations that have occurred in fluconazole-resistant, clinical C. albicans isolates and result in constitutive activity of this trancription factor provide detailed insights into the molecular basis of multidrug resistance in this important human fungal pathogen

Arbeitsteilung, Qualifikation, Kooperation -Entwicklung neuer Konfliktfelder bei der Einführung neuer Technologien in der Automobilindustrie.

Der gegenwärtig beobachtbare Einsatz Neuer Technologien in Produktion und Verwaltung zieht eine massive Veränderung von Struktur und Inhalt gesellschaftlicher Arbeit nach sich und stellt insofern eine große Herausforderung für die gewerkschaftliche Politik, ihre Strategiebildung und Perspektiven dar ( vgl. Briefs, 1980). Diese Entwicklung in Teilbereichen der Automobilindustrie in ihrer konkreten Ausformung zu analysieren und für die Arbeitenden so aufzubereiten, daß feststellbare Tendenzen diskutiert und in gewerkschaftliche Praxis integriert werden können, ist das Ziel unserer Forschungsarbeit. Wir haben dabei die jeweilige konkrete betriebliche Praxis des Einsatzes Neuer Technologien ebenso genau untersucht, wie die verschiedenen Auseinandersetzungsformen der Arbeitenden mit den neuen Bedingungen ihres Arbeitens und die sich daraus entwickelnden Konflikte (als Ansatzpunkte gewerkschaftlicher Interessenvertretungspolitik)

Biofilm-inhibiting effect and anti-infective activity of N,C-linked aryl isoquinolines and the use thereof

Anti-infective and biofilm-inhibiting activities of aryl isoquinoline-derivatives of the general formulae 1 to 3 Figure US08173673-20120508-C00001 are described

Furfural Synthesis from d-Xylose in the Presence of Sodium Chloride: Microwave versus Conventional Heating

We investigate the existence of specific/nonthermal microwave effects for the dehydration reaction of xylose to furfural in the presence of NaCl. Such effects are reported for sugars dehydration reactions in several literature reports. To this end, we adopted three approaches that compare microwave-assisted experiments with a) conventional heating experiments from the literature; b) simulated conventional heating experiments using microwave-irradiated silicon carbide (SiC) vials; and at c) different power levels but the same temperature by using forced cooling. No significant differences in the reaction kinetics are observed using any of these methods. However, microwave heating still proves advantageous as it requires 30 % less forward power compared to conventional heating (SiC vial) to achieve the same furfural yield at a laboratory scale