Einsatz bioanalytischer Systeme bei der industriellen Produktion von Pharmaaminosäuren

Aminosäuren finden in den verschiedensten Bereichen vielfältigen Einsatz. Hauptanwendungsgebiete sind die Nahrungsmittel- (50%), Futtermittel (30%)- und pharmazeutische (20%) Industrie. In der pharmazeutischen Industrie werden Aminosäuren höchster Reinheit benötigt. Ein sehr wichtiges Beispiel ist die Verwendung für prä- oder postoperative parenterale Ernährung. In der Kosmetikindustrie dienen Aminosäuren als Ausgangssubstanzen für die Herstellung hochwertiger Hautcremes. Für die Gewinnung von Aminosäuren stehen diverse großtechnische Verfahren zur Verfügung: die Extraktion aus nachwachsenden Rohstoffen, die fermentative Gewinnung, die chemische Synthese und die Biotransformation. Über diese Verfahren wird eine geschätzte Jahresproduktion von weltweit ca. 3. Mrd. Tonnen hergestellt. Bei der AMINO GmbH werden Aminosäuren für den pharmazeutischen Markt aus nachwachsenden Rohstoffen wie Zuckerrübenmelasse über chromatographische Verfahren und Biotransformationen (enzymatische Katalyse) gewonnen. Hierbei ist eine On-line-Prozesskontrolle unabdingbar. Durch die optimierte Kontrolle und Führung des Bioprozesses können Ressourcen eingespart werden. Daraus ergeben sich direkt Umweltentlastungen und Kostenersparnisse. Mit den bisher erzielten Ergebnissen kann eine 20% höhere Produktkonzentration erreicht werden. Dieses entspricht – gerechnet auf die nachfolgenden Aufarbeitungsschritte – einer Ersparnis von 200 bis 300 t Dampf pro Jahr (20% der Produkt spezifischen Energiekosten). Ebenfalls einsparen lassen sich bis zu 2000 m3 Abwasser (entsprechend 0,4 t COD) pro Jahr. Letztendlich ist es das Ziel mit Hilfe der bioanalytischen Verfahren pro Jahr 3,5 t Serin und 0,5 t Indol durch eine 30% höhere Produktausbeute einsparen zu können. Es zeigt sich somit, dass der Einsatz moderner bioanalytischer Verfahren wie der 2-D-Fluoreszenzspektroskopie durchaus zu einer Verbesserung der ökonomischen als auch der ökologischen Faktoren eines industriellen Prozesses führen kann

Sixty Years of Modern Human Origins in the American Anthropological Association

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65197/1/aa.2003.105.1.89.pd

Persistent Disadvantages or New Opportunities? The Role of Agency and Structural Constraints for Low-Achieving Adolescents’ School-to-Work Transitions

School leavers with low educational attainment face great difficulties in their school-to-work transitions. They are, however, quite heterogeneous in terms of their personal and social resources. These within-group differences may influence who shows initiative during the school-to-work transition period and thereby helps employers recognize their learning potential at labor market entry. Yet this recognition also depends on the ways employers select applicants, which may prevent them from discovering such within-group differences. We therefore investigate the interplay between agency and its constraints, that is, whether higher cognitive and noncognitive skills and more parental resources provide low-achieving school leavers with new opportunities in the school-to-work transition period or whether their low school attainment causes the persistency of their disadvantages. We use panel data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which started in grade 9. The NEPS also includes school leavers from special-needs schools. Our sample consists of 3417 low-achieving adolescents (42% female), defined as adolescents who leave school with no or only a lower secondary school-leaving certificate. Their average school-leaving age is 16 to 17 years. Our key findings are that the transition period opens up new opportunities only for those low-achieving adolescents with better vocational orientation and higher career aspirations, leading them to make stronger application efforts. The success of youth’s initiative varies considerably by school-leaving certificate and school type but not by competences, noncognitive characteristics, and parental background. Thus, the label of “having low qualifications” is a major obstacle in this transition period - especially for the least educated subgroup. Their poor school attainment strongly disadvantages them when accessing the required training to become economically independent and hence in their general transition to adulthood. Our results are also of interest internationally, because participation in firm-based training programs functions as the entry labor market in Germany. Thus, similar explanations may apply to low-achieving adolescents' difficulties in finding a job

Going across Europe for an apprenticeship? A factorial survey experiment on employers’ hiring preferences in Germany

Owing to the recent recession, the German apprenticeship model is once again praised for smoothing out school-to-work transitions. In line with the social policy shift of favouring education as a key means to combat youth unemployment, European Union (EU) recommendations and German national policies encourage young Southern and Eastern EU citizens to apply for apprenticeship training abroad. Yet, young people wanting to go abroad are not only mobile young people but also immigrants. Given the prevalence of ethnic disparities in the German apprenticeship system, the question arises whether employers would be willing to hire these newcomers. Using a factorial survey experiment, we investigate how employers rate applications from Spanish newcomers compared to those from young immigrant descendants of Spanish origin. The results indicate that newcomers are substantially less preferred than immigrant descendants born in Germany. Employers’ expectations about newcomers' language skills and employers' interest in training for their own skilled labour force are key barriers to policies promoting apprenticeships abroad

Characterization of a canine homolog of hepatitis C virus

An estimated 3% of the world's population is chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Although HCV was discovered more than 20 y ago, its origin remains obscure largely because no closely related animal virus homolog has been identified; furthermore, efforts to understand HCV pathogenesis have been hampered by the absence of animal models other than chimpanzees for human disease. Here we report the identification in domestic dogs of a nonprimate hepacivirus. Comparative phylogenetic analysis of the canine hepacivirus (CHV) confirmed it to be the most genetically similar animal virus homolog of HCV. Bayesian Markov chains Monte Carlo and associated time to most recent common ancestor analyses suggest a mean recent divergence time of CHV and HCV clades within the past 500–1,000 y, well after the domestication of canines. The discovery of CHV may provide new insights into the origin and evolution of HCV and a tractable model system with which to probe the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of diseases caused by hepacivirus infection