Assessing old-age long-term care using the concepts of healthy life expectancy and care duration: the new parameter "Long-Term Care-Free Life-Expectancy (LTCF)"

Achieving old ages is also connected with prevalence of illness and long-term care. With the introduction of the statutory long-term care insurance in 1996 and the long-term care statistics in 1999 research data of about 2.3 million people receiving long-term care benefits is available. Average life expectancy can be qualitatively divided into lifetime spent in good health and lifetime spent in long-term care dependence (average care duration). In Germany women’s and men’s average care duration amount 3.6 years respectively 2.1 years.Germany, ageing, laboratories, life expectancy

Thelma and Louise and Sense and Sensibility: New Approaches to Challenging Dichotomies in Women\u27s History Through Literature and Film

The article offers a methodological approach that examines the relationship between film and women\u27s history at the turn of the twentieth century. It highlights the close comparison of two Hollywood films including Sense and Sensibility and Thelma and Louise. In addition, the comparison between the two films intend to draw attention to the ways the respective receptions of the films created a binary opposition between the poles of feminism and conservatism. It also mentions that the films shared the same literary structure that concentrates the complexity of female character by exhibiting the ways of equality in different women

Zur Sterblichkeitsdifferenz von Männern im Ost-West-Vergleich

Die Untersuchung der Sterblichkeit der sozialversicherungspflichtigen Beschäftigten des Jahres 2004 deckt die Gründe für die Unterschiede der Lebenserwartung bei Männern im Ost-West-Vergleich auf. Es wird gezeigt, dass die bestehenden strukturellen Unterschiede des Arbeitsmarktes in Ost- und Westdeutschland die Lebenserwartungsdifferenz bei Männern im Alter bis 65 Jahre erklären können. Die multivariate Analyse von Individualdaten der 20 Millionen "Aktiv Versicherten" (Datensätze des Forschungsdatenzentrum der Rentenversicherung (FDZ-RV)) zeigt, dass die Berücksichtigung der Merkmale Beschäftigung, Arbeitslosigkeit, Selbstständigkeit, Versicherungsart und Staatsbürgerschaft geeignet sind, eine bis zu 30 % erhöhte Sterblichkeit der ostdeutschen Männer im Altersbereich von 35 bis 55 Jahre zu erklären. Die Differenzen sind ein Ergebnis der unterschiedlichen Arbeitsmarktlage und der damit verbundenen kumulativen Migration in den letzten 30 Jahren.Germany, Germany (Alte Bundesländer), Germany (Neue Bundesländer), life expectancy, male mortality, unemployment, working-age population

The Normal Fetal Heart Rate Study: Analysis Plan

Recording of fetal heart rate via CTG monitoring has been routinely performed as an important part of antenatal and subpartum care for several decades. The current guidelines of the FIGO (ref1) recommend a normal range of the fetal heart rate from 110 to 150 bpm. However, there is no agreement in the medical community whether this is the correct range (ref2). We aim to address this question by computerized analysis (ref 3) of a high quality database (HQDb, ref 4) of about one billion electronically registered fetal heart rate measurements from about 10,000 pregnancies in three medical centres over seven years. In the present paper, we lay out a detailed analysis plan for this evidence-based project in the vein of the validation policy of the Sylvia Lawry Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research (ref 5) with a split of the database into an exploratory part and a part reserved for validation. We will perform the analysis and the validation after publication of this plan in order to reduce the probability of publishing false positive research findings (ref 6-7)

Wissensmanagement in der Altenpflege: der Umgang mit der Ressource Wissen in Pflegeeinrichtungen - eine explorative Untersuchung

Im theoretischen Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der State of the Art und diesbezügliche Diskussionen zum Thema Wissensmanagement dargestellt. Es wird ferner detailliert aufgezeigt, welche Wissensarten, -formen und -quellen für die Arbeit in der Altenpflege notwendig erscheinen und in welcher Form oder an welchem Ort diese vorhanden sind bzw. erlangt werden können. Im Anschluss daran wird eine empirische Untersuchung zu den Methoden und Instrumenten eines Wissensmanagements und deren Einsatz in Einrichtungen der Altenpflege vorgestellt. Im Fokus steht die Frage, wie - unter der Berücksichtigung der Aspekte Wissensarten, Wissensformen, Wissensquellen, Bausteine bzw. Aktivitätsfelder und Elemente oder Formen des Wissensmanagements - mit dem Wissen der MitarbeiterInnen in Einrichtungen der Altenpflege umgegangen wird. Dabei wird sowohl die besondere Bedeutung des impliziten Wissens hervorgehoben als auch der generelle Umgang mit der Ressource Wissen verdeutlicht. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auch auf die zunehmend feststellbare Vernetzung zwischen Organisationen bzw. Einrichtungen zur Betreuung und Pflege alter Menschen eingegangen. Exemplarisch wird im zweiten Schritt ein innovatives Unternehmen der Altenpflege und dessen Umgang mit der Ressource Wissen vorgestellt. Dessen innovative Ideen und Lösungsansätze, aber auch bestehende Probleme und Barrieren verdeutlichen die Vor- und Nachteile bei der Umsetzung eines Wissensmanagements in derartigen Einrichtungen

"Josef K von 1963...": Orson Welles' ‘Americanized’ Version of The Trial and the changing functions of the Kafkaesque in Postwar West Germany

This article investigates the reception of the American auteur and actor Orson Welles' adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial in West Germany in 1963. It argues that the film’s ambivalent reception by German critics was closely tied to the process of “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” (coming to terms with the past) that had developed in Germany during the mid-1950s with the widespread circulation and publication of visual images of Nazi war crimes, and that was in the process of a more politicized transformation in the early sixties. Through the figure of Welles, this essay also explores the ways U.S. culture could influence this process. Welles’ reading of Kafka as a “prophet of fascism”, whose Josef K. actively resists his oppressors—even if to no apparent avail—set off a timely discussion among commentators about the meaning and function of Kafka’s works in post-war West Germany. In 1963, in the midst of spectacular court cases and “trials” that began to highlight the widespread complicity of Germans in National Socialist war crimes, the theme of “active resistance” to tyranny that Welles’ version of The Trial offered did not fit the picture. It was, as one critic suggested, a distorted, “Americanized” fantasy. Others, however, appreciated the didactic value of Welles’ international co-production, which coincided with the beginnings of the New German Cinema movement, a confrontational effort to engage with questions of the past through film

Harmonization of growth hormone measurements with different immunoassays by data adjustment

Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the between-assay variability of commercially available immunoassays for the measurement of human growth hormone (hGH). In addition, we asked whether the comparability of the diagnosis of childhood onset growth hormone deficiency could be improved by adjusting hGH results by statistical methods, such as linear regression, conversion factors, and quantile transformation. Methods: In archived sera from 312 children and adolescents (age: 17 days-17 years) hGH values between 0.01 and 16.5 ng/mL were determined by using the following immunoassays: AutoDELFIA (PerkinElmer), BC-IRMA (Beckman-Coulter), ELISA (Mediagnost), IMMULITE 2000 (Siemens), iSYS (IDS), Liaison (DiaSorin), UniCel DxI 800 Access (BeckmanCoulter) and "In house"-RIA (Tubingen). Results: The assays differed in median hGH concentrations by as much as 5.44 ng/mL (Immulite), and as little as 2.67 ng/mL (BC-IRMA). The mean difference between assays ranged from 0.35 to 2.71 ng/mL, whereas several samples displayed differences up to 11.4 ng/mL. The best correlation (r=0.992) was found between AutoDELFIA and Liasion, the lowest (r=0.864) was between an in-house RIA and iSYS. The between-assay CV (mean +/- SD) of values within the cut-off range was 24.3%+/- 7.4%, resulting in an assay-dependent diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in more than 27% of patients. Yet, adjustment of this data by linear regression or a conversion factor reduced the CV below 14%, and the ratio of assay-dependent diagnoses below 8%. Using quantile transformation, the CV and ratio were reduced to 11.4% and < 1%, respectively. Conclusions: hGH measurements using different assays vary significantly. Linear regression, conversion factors, or particularly quantile transformation are useful tools to improve comparability in the diagnostic procedure for the confirmation of GHD in childhood and adolescence

Social identity modelling

This is an editorial to the special section on “Social Identity Modelling”, published in Volume 26, Issues 2 and 3, 2023 of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. It provides information on how the Social Identity Approach (SIA) and the research using its theoretical framework explains collective behaviour, tailored specifically for modellers. The discussion centres around describing and reflecting on the state of the art in modelling SIA. The editorial ends with looking ahead towards formalising SIA as a means to enable more collective behavioural realism in agent-based social simulations.Energie and Industri

Early diagenesis of trace metals (V, Mo, U) in sediments of the Peruvian upwelling area: response to oxygen dynamics in the water column

The upwelling area in the eastern equatorial Pacific off Peru is one of the most pronounced oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) of the modern ocean. Modeling scenarios predict an expansion of the OMZs in the course of global change in the coming decades. As a consequence, the Peruvian continental margin represents a key locality for studies on biogeochemical dynamics in the future ocean. We present pore water and sediment data for redox-sensitive metals (Fe, Mn, V, Mo, and U) that have been collected along a transect across the Peruvian margin at 11°S. The results are used to evaluate the behavior of trace metals in a wide range of biogeochemical and hydrodynamic settings. In the core of the OMZ, where permanently anoxic conditions prevail, redox sensitive metals exhibit diagenetic behaviors largely consistent with previous studies. Vanadium and Mo are released from Fe oxihydroxides and subsequently recycled through diffusion across the benthic boundary or trapped through formation of authigenic V phases and sequestration of Mo by authigenic pyrite. Some U is delivered through diffusion across the benthic boundary, reduction and precipitation of UO2 and incorporation into phosphorites. The utmost part of the buried U, however, is delivered in particulate form, most likely as bioauthigenic U which cannot be recycled in the suboxic waters overlying the anoxic sediments. In contrast to sediments in the core of the OMZ, sediments on the shelf experience frequent oxygenation episodes related to the passage of internal waves and the regular recurrence of El Niño events. These oxygenation episodes lead to the re-oxidation and remobilization of authigenic U and V. In contrast to that, the authigenic accumulation of Mo is favored by the occasional occurrence of slightly oxidizing conditions. This is most likely due to enhanced formation of sulfur intermediates necessary for pyrite formation and the increased stability of pyrite, the major Mo sink, under oxidizing conditions, compared to authigenic V and U phases. Redox oscillations in the Peruvian OMZ thus lead to a discrimination of U against Mo, a mechanism that should be considered in the interpretation of U/Mo systematics in paleo redox studies. Overall our results provide valuable constraints on how trace metal inventories of marginal sediments may respond to expanding shelf anoxia and to short term perturbations of sediment redox conditions

Erhöhte olfaktorische Sensitivität und vergrößerte Bulbi Olfaktorii bei Jungen mit ADHS

Der Pathomechanismus der Aufmerksamkeits-Defizits/Hyperaktivitäts-Störung konnte bislang nicht geklärt werden. Ergebnisse verschiedener Studien deuten auf eine entscheidende Rolle des Neurotransmitters Dopamin und des dopaminergen Systems hin. Die Studienlage deutete bereits im Vorfeld der vorliegenden Arbeit auf eine erhöhte chemosensorische Sensitivität (Geruchssystem) bei ADHS-betroffenen Kindern hin. Ob es sich bei den beobachteten Abweichungen um eine lediglich das olfaktorische und nicht das gesamte chemosensorische System betreffende Abweichung handelt, wurde bislang nicht untersucht. In der vorliegenden Arbeit fand im Rahmen einer Detektionsschwellen-Testung daher der trigeminale Stoff Menthol Verwendung als Kontrollreiz neben dem olfaktorisch verarbeiteten PEA. Es zeigten sich signifikant niedrigere Detektionsschwellen der ADHS-Patienten für den Reiz PEA, nicht jedoch für Menthol. ADHS-betroffene Jungen nehmen olfaktorische Reize also in geringeren Konzentrationen wahr als ihre gesunden Altersgenossen. Das Ergebnis zeigt, dass das trigeminale System ADHS-Betroffener nicht von dem Gesunder abweicht, Veränderungen der chemosensorischen Sensitivität also exklusiv das olfaktorische System betreffen. In ergänzend durchgeführten strukturellen cMRT-Untersuchungen zeigten sich bei ADHS-Betroffenen vergrößerte Volumina des Bulbus olfaktorius gegenüber denen Gesunder. Als Erklärungsmodelle für beide genannten Befunde bieten sich hier die verschiedenen Mechanismen der synaptischen Plastizität innerhalb des olfaktorischen Systems sowie veränderte kortikale Hemm-Mechanismen an