Trialing Innovative Technologies in Crisis Management - “Airborne and Terrestrial Situational Awareness” as Support Tool in Flood Response

Flooding represents the most-occurring and deadliest threats worldwide among natural disasters. Consequently, new technologies are constantly developed to improve response capacities in crisis management. The remaining challenge for practitioner organizations is not only to identify the best solution to their individual demands, but also to test and evaluate its benefit in a realistic environment before the disaster strikes. To bridge the gap between theoretic potential and actual integration into practice, the EU-funded project DRIVER+ has designed a methodical and technical environment to assess innovation in a realistic but non-operational setup through trials. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) interdisciplinary merged mature technical developments into the “Airborne and terrestrial situational awareness” system and applied it in a DRIVER+ Trial to promote a sustainable and demand-oriented R&D. Experienced practitioners assessed the added value of its modules “KeepOperational” and “ZKI” in the context of large-scale flooding in urban areas. The solution aimed at providing contextual route planning in police operations and extending situational awareness based on information derived through aerial image processing. The user feedback and systematically collected data through the DRIVER + Test-bed approved that DLR’s system could improve transport planning and situational awareness across organizations. However, the results show a special need to consider, for example, cross-domain data-fusion techniques to provide essential 3D geo-information to effectively support specific response tasks during flooding

Quantitative characterization of X-ray lenses from two fabrication techniques with grating interferometry

Refractive X-ray lenses are in use at a large number of synchrotron experiments. Several materials and fabrication techniques are available for their production, each having their own strengths and drawbacks. We present a grating interferometer for the quantitative analysis of single refractive X-ray lenses and employ it for the study of a beryllium point focus lens and a polymer line focus lens, highlighting the differences in the outcome of the fabrication methods. The residuals of a line fit to the phase gradient are used to quantify local lens defects, while shape aberrations are quantified by the decomposition of the retrieved wavefront phase profile into either Zernike or Legendre polynomials, depending on the focus and aperture shape. While the polymer lens shows better material homogeneity, the beryllium lens shows higher shape accuracy

Towards a national ecosystem assessment in Germany

We present options for a National Ecosystem Assessment in Germany (NEA-DE) that could inform decision-makers on the state and trends of ecosystems and ecosystem services. Characterizing a NEA-DE, we argue that its cross-sectoral, integrative approach would have the advantages of increased scientific understanding, addressing specific policy questions and creating science-policy dialogues. Challenges include objections against a utilitarian perspective, reservations concerning power relations, and responsibilities concerning the funding

Informal Caregiving in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): A High Caregiver Burden and Drastic Consequences on Caregivers’ Lives

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive autonomy loss and need for care. This does not only affect patients themselves, but also the patients’ informal caregivers (CGs) in their health, personal and professional lives. The big efforts of this multi-center study were not only to evaluate the caregivers’ burden and to identify its predictors, but it also should provide a specific understanding of the needs of ALS patients’ CGs and fill the gap of knowledge on their personal and work lives. Using standardized questionnaires, primary data from patients and their main informal CGs (n = 249) were collected. Patients’ functional status and disease severity were evaluated using the Barthel Index, the revised Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) and the King’s Stages for ALS. The caregivers’ burden was recorded by the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI). Comorbid anxiety and depression of caregivers were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Additionally, the EuroQol Five Dimension Five Level Scale evaluated their health-related quality of life. The caregivers’ burden was high (mean ZBI = 26/88, 0 = no burden, ≥24 = highly burdened) and correlated with patients’ functional status (rp = −0.555, p < 0.001, n = 242). It was influenced by the CGs’ own mental health issues due to caregiving (+11.36, 95% CI [6.84; 15.87], p < 0.001), patients’ wheelchair dependency (+9.30, 95% CI [5.94; 12.66], p < 0.001) and was interrelated with the CGs’ depression (rp = 0.627, p < 0.001, n = 234), anxiety (rp = 0.550, p < 0.001, n = 234), and poorer physical condition (rp = −0.362, p < 0.001, n = 237). Moreover, female CGs showed symptoms of anxiety more often, which also correlated with the patients’ impairment in daily routine (rs = −0.280, p < 0.001, n = 169). As increasing disease severity, along with decreasing autonomy, was the main predictor of caregiver burden and showed to create relevant (negative) implications on CGs’ lives, patient care and supportive therapies should address this issue. Moreover, in order to preserve the mental and physical health of the CGs, new concepts of care have to focus on both, on not only patients but also their CGs and gender-associated specific issues. As caregiving in ALS also significantly influences the socioeconomic status by restrictions in CGs’ work lives and income, and the main reported needs being lack of psychological support and a high bureaucracy, the situation of CGs needs more attention. Apart from their own multi-disciplinary medical and psychological care, more support in care and patient management issues is required

Compound-specific carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of chlorophyll a and its derivatives reveal the eutrophication history of Lake Zurich (Switzerland)

© 2016 Elsevier B.V. To reconstruct the impact of eutrophication on phototrophic communities and the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the surface water, we investigated the distributions and carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions (d13C and d15N values) of chlorins in the sediments of Lake Zurich. The chlorin distributions were dominated by chlorophyll a (Chl a) and its derivatives, which reflect rapid degradation to the pheopigments in the water column and sediments of the lake. The d13C values of these sedimentary chlorins followed the historical trends of eutrophication and reoligotrophication, except in the surface sediments, which were characterised by higher relative contributions of aged, redeposited organic matter (OM). The d13C values of the sedimentary chlorins together with bulk sediment d13C values and C/N ratios indicate that the phototrophic communities in the lake used a 13C-depleted carbon source, which is mainly of aquatic origin. The d15N values of chlorins reflect the predominance of nitrate assimilating phototrophs, especially the non-N2-fixing cyanobacterium Planktothrix rubescens prevalent during sediment deposition. Shifts in d15N values of Chl a followed mostly the trends in eutrophication and reoligotrophication, but were also affected by community assemblage shifts to diatoms and/or other cyanobacteria at the end of the 19th century and during the eutrophication maximum in the 1970s.The lower d15NChl-a values in the surface sediments coincide with increasing nitrogen to phosphorus ratios and reduced water column mixing that characterise the recent reoligotrophication period and may explain the predominance of P. rubescens in Lake Zurich. In contrast, the higher contributions of laterally transported OM explains the large offset of d15N values of the pheopigments relative to Chl a, which is supported by the high radiocarbon age of the surface sediments

Academia and Industry in Chemistry: The Impact of State Inter­vention, and the Effects of Cultural Values

Reinhardt C, Schröter HG, eds. Academia and Industry in Chemistry: The Impact of State Inter­vention, and the Effects of Cultural Values. Special Issue of Ambix. Vol 51 (2).; 2004