Entwicklung eines Qualitätssicherungssystems für Öko-Futtermittel

Gesamtziel des Vorhabens war die Beschreibung eines Qualitätssicherungssystems für Öko-Futtermittel, verknüpft mit dem Ziel, die Produktsicherheit für die Hersteller und Anwender von Öko-Futtermitteln zu erhöhen. Der im Rahmen dieses Projektes erarbeitete Leitfaden "Qualitätssicherung Öko-Futtermittel" ist ein umfassendes Kompendium, welches alle notwendigen Schritte zu einer systematischen Qualitätssicherung von Öko-Futtermitteln beschreibt. Moderne Prinzipien der Qualitätssicherung, nämlich Eigenkontrolle und Risikoorientierung, finden ausdrücklich Berücksichtigung. Die strenge Orientierung an der EU-Öko-Futtermittelverordnung stellt für den Leitfadennutzer sicher, dass die Anforderungen des Gesetzgebers mit Hilfe dieses Handbuchs erfüllt werden können. Die Betrachtung bezog sich dabei auf den gesamten Herstellungsprozess, von der Rohstoffbereitstellung über die Verarbeitung bis zum eigentlichen Anwender. Mit der Entwicklung einer „Guten Kontrollpraxis“ für Öko-Futtermittel wurde den Verbänden, Behörden und Kontrollorganisationen des Ökologischen Landbaus darüber hinaus eine fundierte Arbeitsgrundlage zur Verfügung gestellt, die den Anstoß für eine harmonisierte Auslegung der „EU-Öko-Futtermittelverordnung“ gibt. Möglicherweise kritische Punkte bei der Herstellung von Futtermitteln für die Ökologische Tierhaltung wurden im Zuge dieses Projektes sorgfältig analysiert. Eigenkontrolle und Risikoorientierung bedeuten allerdings, dass die Analyse von Kritischen Kontrollpunkten letztendlich unter den Produktionsbedingungen im Unternehmen selbst zu erfolgen hat. Die dargelegte „Übersicht über typische Gefahren bei der Herstellung von Öko-Futtermitteln“ bietet jedem Unternehmen den notwendigen systematischen Einstieg in die Risikoanalyse und benennt bewährte Maßnahmen, die zur Beherrschung dieser Gefahren geeignet sind. Dies hat sich durch begleitende Erhebungen und Recherchen in der Praxis erwiesen und wurde während der zwei durchgeführten Workshops von den Betroffenen bestätigt. Die lösungs- und anwendungsorientierte, zum Teil sehr ausführliche Beschreibung qualitätssichernder Maßnahmen berücksichtigt den derzeitigen Stand der Qualitätssicherung bei den Herstellern, Händlern und dem Erfassungshandel für Öko-Futtermittel

Biochemical and genetic analysis of RNA cap guanine-N2 methyltransferases from Giardia lamblia and Schizosaccharomyces pombe

RNA cap guanine-N2 methyltransferases such as Schizosaccharomyces pombe Tgs1 and Giardia lamblia Tgs2 catalyze methylation of the exocyclic N2 amine of 7-methylguanosine. Here we performed a mutational analysis of Giardia Tgs2, entailing an alanine scan of 17 residues within the minimal active domain. Alanine substitutions at Phe18, Thr40, Asp76, Asn103 and Asp140 reduced methyltransferase specific activity to <3% of wild-type Tgs2, thereby defining these residues as essential. Alanines at Pro142, Tyr148 and Pro185 reduced activity to 7–12% of wild-type. Structure–activity relationships at Phe18, Thr40, Asp76, Asn103, Asp140 and Tyr148, and at three other essential residues defined previously (Asp68, Glu91 and Trp143) were gleaned by testing the effects of 18 conservative substitutions. Our results engender a provisional map of the Tgs2 active site, which we discuss in light of crystal structures of related methyltransferases. A genetic analysis of S. pombe Tgs1 showed that it is nonessential. An S. pombe tgs1Δ strain grows normally, notwithstanding the absence of 2,2,7-trimethylguanosine caps on its U1, U2, U4 and U5 snRNAs. However, we find that S. pombe requires cap guanine-N7 methylation catalyzed by the enzyme Pcm1. Deletion of the pcm1(+) gene was lethal, as were missense mutations in the Pcm1 active site. Thus, whereas m(7)G caps are essential in both S. pombe and S. cerevisiae, m(2,2,7)G caps are not

Offenen Zugang zu Wissen verwirklichen!: Interview mit Prof. Dr. Beate Schücking über Preissteigerungen für Online-Journals, neue Allianzen und Nationallizenzen

Wir haben ständig steigende Studierendenzahlen, Nachwuchswissenschaftlerzahlen, eine ständig steigende Anzahl von Forschungsprojekten an der Universität und entsprechend steigt auch ständig der Bedarf unserer jungen Leute wie unserer etablierten Wissenschaftler nach den Serviceleistungen der UB, nach den Möglichkeiten, die UB für ihre Zwecke einzusetzen und von den in Leipzig ja zum Teil hervorragenden Möglichkeiten auch zu profitieren. Das ist wunderbar, grenzt nur natürlich an die budgetierten Zwänge, mit denen wir im Moment heftiger denn je kämpfen. Diese budgetierten Zwänge – die Etats der UB können wir ja leider nicht entsprechend erhöhen –machen uns doch zunehmend Sorgen

Localization of carbon nanotubes in polyamide 6 blends with non-reactive and reactive rubber

Blending of two immiscible polymer matrices can be an effective way to combine favourable properties of both blend partners. The additional incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in such thermoplastic blends may further enhance the blend properties and especially generate electrical conductivity. In the present study, 20 wt.% of non-reactive rubber and maleic anhydride functionalized rubber were melt blended with polyamide 6 and 3 wt.% MWCNTs by using different incorporation strategies. For the blends containing non-reactive rubber, the MWCNTs were always localized selectively in the thermodynamically preferred polyamide phase as shown by TEM images and electrical measurements. Interestingly, the different strategies resulted in different localization behaviours of the MWCNTs in case of the reactive rubber. These findings demonstrate the significant influence of maleic anhydride groups of the rubber component on localization of MWCNTs in the different blend phases which results in different values of electrical volume resistivity of the blends. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Outpatient multidisciplinary cancer rehabilitation in Switzerland: a status assessment

Aim This study aimed to assess the situation of outpatient multidisciplinary cancer rehabilitation in Switzerland as of March 2018. Subject and methods Seventeen programmes providing outpatient cancer rehabilitation were identified; 12 in the German-speaking, 4 in the French-speaking and 1 in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Structure, organisation, type of programme and details on therapies offered were assessed. Difference by language regions and the status of the programme (running vs in development) were examined in a descriptive analysis. Results Centres in the German- and Italian-speaking parts had mostly individual modular programmes with a longer duration (median: 12 weeks) and low intensity (median: 2.5–3 h per week). The French-speaking part had standard programmes with a shorter duration (median: 9 weeks) but higher intensity (median: 5.5 h per week) and a higher number of obligatory modules a patient must attend (median: 2 instead of 1). The language regions also showed differences in duration of therapies, communication, indications and screening instruments. Conclusion Outpatient cancer rehabilitation in Switzerland is characterized by a wide range of programmes. These differences between language regions, as well as between the individual programmes, highlight important variables that may influence the efficiency and the quality of the different programmes; understanding these variables could lead to improvements in cancer rehabilitation in Switzerland

Recall, clustering, and metamemory in young children

Thirty-two 4-year-olds and thirty-two 6-year-olds were tested for free and cued recall following either play-and-remember or sort-and-remember instructions and assessed for their metamemory of the efficacy of conceptual and perceptual sorting strategies. The younger children recalled significantly more items under sort-and-remember than under play-and-remember instructions, whereas no significant recall differences between instructional conditions were found for the older children. However, 6-year-olds showed higher levels of recall than 4-year-olds in both instructional conditions. Category cues were much more effective than color cues, regardless of age. In addition, clustering scores indicated that conceptual organization at both encoding and retrieval increased with age and with instruction. These results show that from 4 to 6 years of age children are learning to spontaneously employ memory strategies. In addition, they highlight the increasing importance of conceptual organization to retention of young children. Finally, the metamemory data suggest that there may be a lag between children's articulated declarative knowledge about the usefulness of conceptual organization and their procedural use of it.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26155/1/0000232.pd

Cisplatin sensitivity of testis tumour cells is due to deficiency in interstrand-crosslink repair and low ERCC1-XPF expression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cisplatin based chemotherapy cures over 80% of metastatic testicular germ cell tumours (TGCT). In contrast, almost all other solid cancers in adults are incurable once they have spread beyond the primary site. Cell lines derived from TGCTs are hypersensitive to cisplatin reflecting the clinical response. Earlier findings suggested that a reduced repair capacity might contribute to the cisplatin hypersensitivity of testis tumour cells (TTC), but the critical DNA damage has not been defined. This study was aimed at investigating the formation and repair of intrastrand and interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) induced by cisplatin in TTC and their contribution to TTC hypersensitivity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We observed that repair of intrastrand crosslinks is similar in cisplatin sensitive TTC and resistant bladder cancer cells, whereas repair of ICLs was significantly reduced in TTC. γH2AX formation, which serves as a marker of DNA breaks formed in response to ICLs, persisted in cisplatin-treated TTC and correlated with sustained phosphorylation of Chk2 and enhanced PARP-1 cleavage. Expression of the nucleotide excision repair factor ERCC1-XPF, which is implicated in the processing of ICLs, is reduced in TTC. To analyse the causal role of ERCC1-XPF for ICL repair and cisplatin sensitivity, we over-expressed ERCC1-XPF in TTC by transient transfection. Over-expression increased ICL repair and rendered TTC more resistant to cisplatin, which suggests that ERCC1-XPF is rate-limiting for repair of ICLs resulting in the observed cisplatin hypersensitivity of TTC.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data indicate for the first time that the exceptional sensitivity of TTC and, therefore, very likely the curability of TGCT rests on their limited ICL repair due to low level of expression of ERCC1-XPF.</p

Inhibition of HIV-1 in Cell Culture by Synthetic Humate Analogues Derived from Hydroquinone: Mechanism of Inhibition

AbstractHumic acids are natural constituents of soil and ground water and mainly consist of mixtures of polycyclic phenolic compounds. A similar complex of compounds with a mean size of about 1000 Da, designated HS-1500, was synthesized by oxidation of hydroquinone. HS-1500 inhibited HIV-1 infection of MT-2 cells with an IC50of 50–300 ng/ml and showed a mean cell toxicity of about 600 μg/ml. Inhibition of HIV-induced syncytium formation was observed at 10–50 μg/ml. Treatment of free and cell-attached HIV with HS-1500 irreversibly reduced its infectivity, whereas the susceptibility of target cells for the virus was not impaired by treatment prior to infection. The HIV envelope protein gp120SU bound to sepharose-coupled HS-1500 and could be eluted by high salt and detergent. HS-1500 interfered with the CD4-induced proteolytic cleavage of the V3 loop of virion gp120SU. Furthermore, binding of V3 loop-specific antibodies was irreversibly inhibited, whereas binding of soluble CD4 to gp120SU on virus and infected cells was not affected. In conclusion, our data suggest, that the synthetic humic acid analogue inhibits the infectivity of HIV particles by interference with a V3 loop-mediated step of virus entry

National study for multidisciplinary outpatient oncological rehabilitation: online survey to support revised quality and performance criteria

PURPOSE More and more people survive cancer, but the disease and its treatment often lead to impairment. Multidisciplinary ambulatory oncological rehabilitation (OR) programs have thus been developed. SW!SS REHA, the organization of major Swiss rehabilitation clinics, has defined ambulatory OR quality criteria for its members (about 50% of the Swiss rehabilitation capacity). However, SW!SS REHA criteria are not fully implemented and/or interpreted differently by different specialties or in different linguistic regions in Switzerland. The aim of our study was to carry out an online survey of existing outpatient programs to define quality criteria for an ideal OR program in Switzerland. METHODS A mixed methods approach was used for the survey-qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative part consisted of a guided discussion with OR experts and the quantitative part of an online survey. The quantitative part comprised the development and evaluation of an online questionnaire. It served to record the opinions of OR centers in Switzerland on the desired situation of outpatient rehabilitation. RESULTS Eighteen OR centers and 71 (49.7% response rate) OR actors participated in the online survey. The survey results indicate that some of the SW!SS REHA quality and performance criteria only partially match with the desired OR criteria for Switzerland. Key disparities occur particularly in the program design and structure and specifically around how many interventions are required to constitute an OR program, the extent of standardization versus individualization of the program, i.e., how many and which modules in a program should be obligatory, and finally the duration and intensity of the program. The online survey did not generate any statistical evidence that OR requirements vary significantly between different linguistic regions and among different specialties. CONCLUSIONS Cancer patients are heterogeneous with respect to cancer type, prognosis, and disability level, such that a standard program cannot be uniformly applied. Therefore, a flexible program is required with few mandatory modules and additional individual modules to achieve the threshold number of modules that would constitute a multidisciplinary OR program. Intensity and frequency of OR needs to consider the health state of the participants. The results indicate a need to modify some of the existing SW!SS REHA criteria to ensure that more patients can gain access and benefit form evidence-based OR interventions. Furthermore, the survey provides important findings so that the existing OR offer can be improved with the goal that OR centers will be able to be quality certified in the future