Corporate Responsibility and Corporate Philanthropy

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2011 gives good grounds for optimism: "lives have been saved or changed for the better;" "poverty continues to decline in many countries and regions;" and "targeted interventions have succeeded in reducing child mortality". Yet in spite of continuing national and international efforts to alleviate poverty, the sad reality is that over a billion human beings continue to live on USD 1.25 or less a day. The scale and complexity of tackling this greatest social challenge of our time requires that national governments, the international community, business and civil society each commit their share of resources, skills and know-how to achieving sustainable solutions

Book Review of "Leprosy in Premodern Medicine. A Malady of the Whole Body" by Luke Demaitre PhD

Luke Demaitre's Leprosy in Premodern Medicine: A Malady of the Whole Body is a highly interesting study of the medical history of leprosy and the medical and social perceptions on leprosy that have been around for centuries. Remarkably, it is likely that leprosy will disappear from the face of the Earth in our generation, thanks to the development of a curative treatment and its increasing availability (although the battle has not yet been won completely). Demaitre's book is a very good read not only for its information about leprosy but also for all interested in or affected by the social phenomenon of stigma. In illnesses such as leprosy, HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia, the stigma attached to the condition may be worse than the condition itself

Six billion and counting

In 1999 global population surpassed 6 billion people, and this number rises by about 70-80 million people each year. "Six Billion and Counting" examines the consequences of continuing population growth for the world's resource systems and for national and global food security. Leisinger, Schmitt, and Pandya-Lorch offer here a sober analysis of a complex and alarming situation. They assess the progress the world has made in controlling population growth and point to the areas where future difficulties will lie. They describe the effects of rapid population growth on social and economic conditions and on natural resources, and they consider what population growth will mean for the food security of poor people and poor countries. In addition, the authors make clear how the roles of women and children in traditional societies affect birth rates. "Six Billion and Counting" shows that neither the population pessimists, who predict a catastrophic exhaustion of natural resources, nor the population optimists, who foresee technological solutions for all of the problems raised by population growth, offer the most useful approach to this problem. Instead, Leisinger and his coauthors argue that new technologies mitigating the harmful effects of rapid population growth can give the world valuable time to take the complex and multifaceted steps needed to reduce population growth rates to sustainable levels.Population forecasting. ,Population Economic aspects. ,Food security. ,Population Environmental aspects ,Technological innovations. ,Population policy. ,

Vom Bauhaus zur Bauakademie. Carl Fieger Architekt und Designer (1893-1960)

Die vorliegende Dissertation leistet Grundlagenarbeit in der Erforschung von Leben und Werk des Architekten und Designer Carl Fieger (1893 Mainz - 1960 Dessau). Sie gliedert sich in drei Teile, einen Textteil I, ein chronologisch aufgebautes, teilkommentiertes Werkverzeichnis II und einen Abbildungsteil III. In der Arbeit wird der Bogen von Fiegers frühesten erhaltenen Studienarbeiten an der Kunstgewerbeschule Mainz aus den Jahren 1909/10 bis hin zu seinem Spätwerk an der Deutschen Bauakademie in (Ost-) Berlin 1952/53 geschlagen. Die Erstellung und quellenkritische Auswertung von Fiegers Oeuvre erlaubt erstmals eine unmittelbare entwicklungsgeschichtliche wie stilistische Interpretation seines Werdegangs als Architekt und Gestalter der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Insbesondere konnten seine Arbeiten mit der Entwicklung von Architektur und Design der Moderne im 20. Jahrhundert und der Geschichte des Bauhauses in Beziehung gesetzt und eine kritische Einordnung und Neubewertung der Entwurfsleistungen Carl Fieger vorgenommen werden. Im Fokus stehen insbesondere sein Künstlerhaus, die Gaststätte Kornhaus, der Entwurf einer runden Wohnmaschine sowie Stahlrohrmöbel. Aus der Untersuchung der Entwürfe Carl Fiegers resultieren zwei grundlegende Erkenntnisstränge: Der erste führt zu Carl Fiegers selbständigem Werk als Architekt und Gestalter, der zweite zu seinen Auftragsarbeiten in den Architekturbüros Peter Behrens und Walter Gropius, seiner Tätigkeit als Stadtverordneter der Stadt Dessau sowie als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter der Deutschen Bauakademie Berlin (Ost). Die Entwicklung des Oeuvres Carl Fiegers vollzieht sich in sechs Entwicklungsschritten: Zunächst seine vierjährige Arbeitszeit im Büro Peter Behrens von 1911 bis 1914 und 1919 bis 1920, gefolgt von einer kurzen expressionistischen Phase in Weimar 1920-1921, an die sich dann Fiegers Hauptschaffenszeit von 1922 bis 1933 in Weimar, Dessau und Berlin anschließt, die durch den Funktionalismus geprägt ist. Der vierte Einschnitt ergibt sich durch die Zeit des Dritten Reichs von 1933 bis 1945 in Berlin, gefolgt von der fünften Phase der Nachkriegszeit in Dessau von 1945 bis 1952, an die sich abschließend die sechste und letzte Phase durch Fiegers Wirken an der Deutschen Bauakademie in Berlin zwischen 1952/53 anfügt. Carl Fieger nahm 1920 eine Tätigkeit im privaten Architekturbüro Walter Gropius in Weimar auf und gehörte neben Adolf Meyer zu seinen ersten Mitarbeitern. Aufgrund der strukturellen Verbindung von Büro Gropius und Bauhaus war Carl Fieger damit von Anfang an maßgeblich in die Architektur des Staatlichen Bauhauses Weimar, wie auch später in die des Dessauer Bauhauses involviert. Carl Fieger wird bislang in der Fachliteratur nahezu ausschließlich als Zeichner, meistens auch als „Chefzeichner“ von Walter Gropius benannt. Ausgehend von meiner kritischen Erforschung seines Gesamtwerkes lässt sich dieses einseitige Bild nicht länger aufrecht halten. Fieger arbeitete nicht nur als exzellenter graphischer Darsteller, sondern war während seiner insgesamt dreizehn Jahre dauernden Tätigkeit im Architekturbüro Walter Gropius in den Entwurfsprozess aller bedeutenden Projekte der Klassischen Moderne zwischen 1920 und 1933 eingebunden. Carl Fieger war damit maßgeblich an der Entstehung der Ikonen der Moderne beteiligt

Impact of a clinical decision support system on paediatric drug dose prescribing: a randomised within-subject simulation trial

BACKGROUND Drug dosing errors are among the most frequent causes of preventable harm in paediatrics. Due to the complexity of paediatric pharmacotherapy and the working conditions in healthcare, it is not surprising that human factor is a well-described source of error. Thus, a clinical decision support system (CDSS) that supports healthcare professionals (HCP) during the dose prescribing step provides a promising strategy for error prevention. METHODS The aim of the trial was to simulate the dose derivation step during the prescribing process. HCPs were asked to derive dosages for 18 hypothetical patient cases. We compared the CDSS PEDeDose, which provides a built-in dose calculator to the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) used together with a pocket calculator in a randomised within-subject trial. We assessed the number of dose calculation errors and the time needed for calculation. Additionally, the effect of PEDeDose without using the built-in calculator but with a pocket calculator instead was assessed. RESULTS A total of 52 HCPs participated in the trial. The OR for an erroneous dosage using the CDSS as compared with the SmPC with pocket calculator was 0.08 (95% CI 0.02 to 0.36, p<0.001). Thus, the odds of an error were 12 times higher while using the SmPC. Furthermore, there was a 45% (95% CI 39% to 51%, p<0.001) time reduction when the dosage was derived using the CDSS. The exploratory analysis revealed that using only PEDeDose but without the built-in calculator did not substantially reduce errors. CONCLUSION Our results provide robust evidence that the use of the CDSS is safer and more efficient than manual dose derivation in paediatrics. Interestingly, only consulting a dosing database was not sufficient to substantially reduce errors. We are confident the CDSS PEDeDose ensures a higher safety and speeds up the prescribing process in practice

Comparative transcription map of the wobbler critical region on mouse chromosome 11 and the homologous region on human chromosome 2p13-14

BACKGROUND: To support the positional cloning of the mouse mutation wobbler (wr) the corresponding regions on human Chr2p13-14 and mouse Chr11 were analyzed in detail and compared with respect to gene content, order, and orientation. RESULTS: The gene content of the investigated regions was highly conserved between the two species: 20 orthologous genes were identified on our BAC/YAC contig comprising 4.5 Mb between REL/Rel and RAB1A/Rab1a. Exceptions were pseudogenes ELP and PX19 whose mouse counterparts were not located within the analyzed region. Two independently isolated genomic clones indicate an inversion between man and mouse with the inverted segment being identical to the wobbler critical interval. We investigated the wobbler critical region by extensive STS/EST mapping and genomic sequencing. Additionally, the full-length cDNA sequences of four newly mapped genes as well as the previously mapped gene Otx1 were established and subjected to mutation analysis. Our data indicate that all genes in the wr critical region have been identified. CONCLUSION: Unexpectedly, neither mutation analysis of cDNAs nor levels of mRNAs indicated which of the candidate genes might be affected by the wr mutation. The possibility arises that there might be hitherto unknown effects of mutations, in addition to structural changes of the mRNA or regulatory abnormalities

ヘテロ三量体タンパク質連結体を足場とする人工セルロソームに関する研究

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学教授 長棟 輝行, 東京大学教授 片岡 一則, 東京大学教授 津本 浩平, 東京大学教授 山東 信介, 東京大学准教授 カプラル オラシオUniversity of Tokyo(東京大学

Genomic island excisions in Bordetella petrii

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among the members of the genus <it>Bordetella B. petrii </it>is unique, since it is the only species isolated from the environment, while the pathogenic Bordetellae are obligately associated with host organisms. Another feature distinguishing <it>B. petrii </it>from the other sequenced Bordetellae is the presence of a large number of mobile genetic elements including several large genomic regions with typical characteristics of genomic islands collectively known as integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs). These elements mainly encode accessory metabolic factors enabling this bacterium to grow on a large repertoire of aromatic compounds.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During <it>in vitro </it>culture of <it>Bordetella petrii </it>colony variants appear frequently. We show that this variability can be attributed to the presence of a large number of metastable mobile genetic elements on its chromosome. In fact, the genome sequence of <it>B. petrii </it>revealed the presence of at least seven large genomic islands mostly encoding accessory metabolic functions involved in the degradation of aromatic compounds and detoxification of heavy metals. Four of these islands (termed GI1 to GI3 and GI6) are highly related to ICE<it>clc </it>of <it>Pseudomonas knackmussii </it>sp. strain B13. Here we present first data about the molecular characterization of these islands. We defined the exact borders of each island and we show that during standard culture of the bacteria these islands get excised from the chromosome. For all but one of these islands (GI5) we could detect circular intermediates. For the <it>clc</it>-like elements GI1 to GI3 of <it>B. petrii </it>we provide evidence that tandem insertion of these islands which all encode highly related integrases and attachment sites may also lead to incorporation of genomic DNA which originally was not part of the island and to the formation of huge composite islands. By integration of a tetracycline resistance cassette into GI3 we found this island to be rather unstable and to be lost from the bacterial population within about 100 consecutive generations. Furthermore, we show that GI3 is self transmissible and by conjugation can be transferred to <it>B. bronchiseptica </it>thus proving it to be an active integrative and conjugative element</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results show that phenotypic variation of <it>B. petrii </it>is correlated with the presence of genomic islands. Tandem integration of related islands may contribute to island evolution by the acquisition of genes originally belonging to the bacterial core genome. In conclusion, <it>B. petrii </it>appears to be the first member of the genus in which horizontal gene transfer events have massively shaped its genome structure.</p

Non-electrical sensing and storing an alternative to electrical energy harvesting

In many applications, a summarized result, e.g. the number of critical off-limit conditions or an integral result over a specific period of time are of interest to draw implications for the future. Among these applications are the shelf life monitoring of consumables, pharmaceutics or food as well as the condition monitoring of technical infrastructure. Sensors usually require an electrical energy source for measurement and storage of data. Here, two non-electrical examples are presented that register data without the need of electrical energy: a passive temperature-time integrator (TTI) and a mechanical binary counter for threshold events. The TTI makes use of microfluidic flow of specific food ingredients into microcapillaries that depends on viscosity and time. The binary counter based on surface MEMS allows counting and storing threshold events, e.g. mechanical shocks. Both sensors can easily be read out e.g. by RFID