Auswirkungen des Duengungssystems auf chemische Bodeneigenschaften und Schwermetallgehalte eines Schwarzerdestandortes in Nord-Ost Rumaenien

Eines der wichtigsten Ziele der Agrarwissenschaft ist die Verbesserung und die Erhaltung der Bodenfruchtbarkeit. Dieses kann durch konservierende Bodenbearbeitung und organische duengung, wie Klaerschlamm, Kompost und Ernte-und Wurzelrueckstaende, erreicht werden. Seit August 2007 werden auf einem Schwarzerdestandort bei Ezareni die Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher Bodenbearbeitung (Konventionell, Minimalbodenbearbeitung, Direktsaat) auf die chemischen Bodeneigenschaften untersucht. Weiterhin wird der Einfluss des Duengungssystems (mineralische Duengung, organische Duengung, organische und mineralische Duengung)auf die chemischen Bodeneigenschaften dargestellt. In der Studie werden die Akkumulation organischer Bodensubstanz und der Hauptnaehrstoffe, sowie eine potentielle Kontamination durch Schwermetalle (Zn, Ni, Mn, Cr, Cu, Cd, Pb) aus der Anwendung von Klaerschlamm anhand von Pflanzen- und Bodenproben untersucht. Die Ergebnisse fuer die Schwermetalluntersuchungen werden im Folgenden praesentiert

The involvement of cancer patients in the four stages of decision-making preceding continuous sedation until death: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Involving patients in decision-making is considered to be particularly appropriate towards the end of life. Professional guidelines emphasize that the decision to initiate continuous sedation should be made in accordance with the wishes of the dying person and be preceded by their consent. AIM: To describe the decision-making process preceding continuous sedation until death with particular attention to the involvement of the person who is dying. DESIGN: Qualitative case studies using interviews. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Interviews with 26 physicians, 30 nurses and 24 relatives caring for 24 patients with cancer who received continuous sedation until death in Belgium, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. RESULTS: We distinguished four stages of decision-making: initiation, information exchange, deliberation and the decision to start continuous sedation until death. There was wide variation in the role the patient had in the decision-making process. At one end of the spectrum (mostly in the United Kingdom), the physician discussed the possible use of sedation with the patient, but took the decision themselves. At the other end (mostly in Belgium and the Netherlands), the patient initiated the conversation and the physician's role was largely limited to evaluating if and when the medical criteria were met. CONCLUSION: Decision-making about continuous sedation until death goes through four stages and the involvement of the patient in the decision-making varies. Acknowledging the potential sensitivity of raising the issue of end-of-life sedation, we recommend building into clinical practice regular opportunities to discuss the goals and preferences of the person who is dying for their future medical treatment and care

Public Attitudes Towards Moral Enhancement. Evidence that Means Matter Morally

To gain insight into the reasons that the public may have for endorsing or eschewing pharmacological moral enhancement for themselves or for others, we used empirical tools to explore public attitudes towards these issues. Participants (N = 293) from the United States were recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and were randomly assigned to read one of several contrastive vignettes in which a 13-year-old child is described as bullying another student in school and then is offered an empathy-enhancing program. The empathy-enhancing program is described as either involving taking a pill or playing a video game on a daily basis for four weeks. In addition, participants were asked to imagine either their own child bullying another student at school, or their own child being bullied by another student. This resulted in a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. In an escalating series of morally challenging questions, we asked participants to rate their overall support for the program; whether they would support requiring participation; whether they would support requiring participation of children who are at higher risk to become bullies in the future; whether they would support requiring participation of all children or even the entire population; and whether they would be willing to participate in the program themselves. We found that people were significantly more troubled by pharmacological as opposed to non-pharmacological moral enhancement interventions. The results indicate that members of the public for the greater part oppose pharmacological moral bioenhancement, yet are open to non-biomedical means to attain moral enhancement. [248 words]

TFOS European ambassador meeting:Unmet needs and future scientific and clinical solutions for ocular surface diseases

The mission of the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS) is to advance the research, literacy, and educational aspects of the scientific field of the tear film and ocular surface. Fundamental to fulfilling this mission is the TFOS Global Ambassador program. TFOS Ambassadors are dynamic and proactive experts, who help promote TFOS initiatives, such as presenting the conclusions and recommendations of the recent TFOS DEWS II™, throughout the world. They also identify unmet needs, and propose future clinical and scientific solutions, for management of ocular surface diseases in their countries. This meeting report addresses such needs and solutions for 25 European countries, as detailed in the TFOS European Ambassador meeting in Rome, Italy, in September 2019

Transconjunctival Lower Lid Blepharoplasty Made Easy by Everting the Eyelid

Purpose: To evaluate the transconjunctival lower lid blepharoplasty using a Desmarres lid retractor to evert the eyelid. Design: Prospective study. Methods: Twenty-one cases of inferior blepharoplasty in 11 patients, performed through a transconjunctival approach are reported. The author describes the surgical technique with Radio Frequency surgery, the use of a Desmarres lid retractor to evert the eyelid and the results. Results: Radio Frequency surgery and the use of a Desmarres lid retractor appear to give excellent results in transconjunctival lower lid blepharoplasty. Everting instead of retracting the eyelid provides excellent access to the fat pockets in the lower lids with less bleeding thanks to the traction on the eyelid. The transconjunctival approach has a lower complication rate than the classic transcutaneous approach, with no visible scar and less risk of postoperative scleral show or ectropion. Conclusion: Radiosurgically assisted transconjunctival blepharoplasty of the lower lid with the use of a Desmarres lid retractor is associated with a good functional and cosmetic outcome

Bottom–up protein identifications from microliter quantities of individual human tear samples. Important steps towards clinical relevance.

A relatively simple combination of Schirmer strip sampling with straightforward sensitive nanoLC quadrupole-Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry after a minimum of sample processing steps allows for replicate proteomic analysis of single human tears, i.e., without the requirement for sample pooling. This opens the way to clinical applications of the analytical workflow, e.g., to monitor disease progression or treatment efficacy within individual patients. Proof of concept is provided by triplicate analyses of a singular sampling of tears of a dry eye patient, before and one and two months after minor salivary gland transplantation. To facilitate comparison with the outcome of previously reported analytical protocols, we also include the data from a typical healthy young adult tear sample as obtained by our streamlined method.With 375 confidently identified proteins in the healthy adult tear, the obtained results are comprehensive and in large agreement with previously published observations on pooled samples of multiple patients. We conclude that, to a limited extent, bottom–up tear protein identifications from individual patients may have clinical relevance. Keywords: Human tears, Schirmer strip sampling, Quadrupole Orbitrap, Bottom–up protein identification, Individual sample analysis, Clinical applicabilit