Konzeption und Durchführung eines Stakeholder-Involvements in BiKF (am Beispiel der ersten Phase von "Wald- und Forstsysteme der Zukunft")

Im folgenden Paper wird die Konzeption des Stakeholder-Involvements für das BiKF-Projekt "Wald- und Forstsysteme der Zukunft" zusammenfassend dargestellt. In Zeiten der Diskussion um Art und Ausmaß der Klimaerwärmung ist es auch in der Forstwirtschaft an der Zeit, sich auf mögliche neue Verhältnisse einzustellen. Dies betrifft vor allem das waldbauliche Vorgehen. Je nach Intensität des Klimawandels müssen neue Konzepte entwickelt werden. Das Projekt hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, zusammen mit Stakeholdern (Anspruchsgruppen) des Waldes naturwissenschaftliche Szenarien zu bewerten und daraus Handlungsempfehlungen abzuleiten. Ausgehend von dieser Forschungsfrage wurde in der ersten Phase dieses Projektes ein Stakeholder-Workshop (WS) durchgeführt. Bei diesem Workshop sollten Themenfelder und aufbauend auf einem Impulsreferat weiterführende Diskussionsfelder erarbeitet werden. Der Auswahl der Stakeholder ging eine Diskursfeldanalyse voraus, aus der eine vorläufige Liste möglicher Anspruchsgruppen abgeleitet wurde. Eine hessenbezogene Auswahl von Repräsentanten dieser Stakeholder wurde über das Forschungsvorhaben informiert und eingeladen. Die meisten der Eingeladenen kamen zum Workshop am 2. Februar 2010. Verschiedene Referate zu den Themen Baumartenwahl und Entscheiden unter Unsicherheit wurden gehalten und das erarbeitete Szenario vorgestellt. Darüber hinaus wurden zwei moderierte Arbeitsgruppen zu verschiedenen Aspekten des Szenarios eingerichtet und Platz für Diskussionen vorgesehen. ...This paper summarizes the conception of the stakeholders' involvement in the first stage of the project BiKF "Forest and forestry systems of the future". In times of climate change forestry faces new conditions and challenges. This applies especially to silvicultural methods. Depending on the intensity of climate change new concepts have to be developed. The project’s goal was set to discuss and to rate scientific scenarios and to derive recommendations of action in co-operation with stakeholder groups of forestry and forest research. With regard to this objective, a stakeholder workshop was held in the project’s first stage to establish issues and topics of dis-cussion. Potential stakeholders were chosen based on a discourse field analysis. A selection was informed on the project’s endeavour and was invited to the workshop. Most of the invited came to the workshop on 2nd February 2010 in Frankfurt/Main. At the workshop three speakers gave talks on the central topics "Deciding in times of uncertainty" and "Choosing tree species for climate change" and presented the scenario on the effects of Mediterranean oaks in Central European forests. Furthermore, two working groups on different topics have been set up and room for plenum discussions was given. Evaluating the workshop, some important insights for the conception of the stakeholders' involvement and the organisation of future stakeholder workshops have been gained. The different behaviour of participants during the discussion allowed deriving four hypotheses which will be tested in the future. In addition, some recommendations for issues and contents can be made. Also some flaws in planning and preparation became obvious

Sensitivity to cdk1-inhibition is modulated by p53 status in preclinical models of embryonal tumors

Dysregulation of the cell cycle and cyclin-dependent kinases (cdks) is a hallmark of cancer cells. Intervention with cdk function is currently evaluated as a therapeutic option in many cancer types including neuroblastoma (NB), a common solid tumor of childhood. Re-analyses of mRNA profiling data from primary NB revealed that high level mRNA expression of both cdk1 and its corresponding cyclin, CCNB1, were significantly associated with worse patient outcome independent of MYCN amplification, a strong indicator of adverse NB prognosis. Cdk1 as well as CCNB1 expression were readily detectable in all embryonal tumor cell lines investigated. Pharmacological inhibition or siRNA-mediated knockdown of cdk1/CCNB1 induced proliferation arrest independent of MYCN status in NB cells. Sensitivity to cdk1 inhibition was modulated by TP53, which was demonstrated using isogenic cells with wild-type TP53 expressing either dominant-negative p53 or a short hairpin RNA directed against TP53. Apoptosis induced by cdk1 inhibition was dependent on caspase activation and was concomitant with upregulation of transcriptional targets of TP53. Our results confirm an essential role for the cdk1/CCNB1 complex in tumor cell survival. As relapsing embryonal tumors often present with p53 pathway alterations, these findings have potential implications for therapy approaches targeting cdks

Die Option für die Armen

Überlegungen zum Thema Armut, soziale Gerechtigkeit und Befreiung erlangen in einer Zeit zunehmend feststellbarer Zivilisationskrisen (Globalisierung, Migration, Arbeitslosigkeit etc.) als bisher unbekannte Herausforderungen in Europa immer größere Bedeutung. Globalisierung und wirtschaftliches Wachstum versprechen zwar Reichtum und Wohlstand, bewirken aber in ihrer aktuellen Form Unfreiheiten bzw. Ausbeutung einer Vielzahl von Menschen, die damit zu Opfern werden. Durch den Versuch, diesen Zustand durch zum Beispiel die Modernisierungstheorie zu legitimieren, werden diese Menschen ein zweites Mal zu Opfern und auch noch ihrer Subjekthaftigkeit beraubt. Glaubte man in Europa lange, dass die negativen Konsequenzen der Globalisierung lediglich ein Problem der sogenannten Dritten Welt seien, bekommen auch zunehmend Menschen in Europa die Folgen der Zivilisationskrise zu spüren. Ausgehend davon beschäftigt sich die Arbeit mit der Frage, wie eine der Option für die Armen verpflichtete Pastoral in Europa bzw. Österreich mit den oftmals strukturell und nicht individuell begründeten Folgen für den bzw. die Einzelne umgehen kann. Oder anders formuliert: Wie kann Kirche aktiv zur Subjektwerdung jedes Einzelnen in einer zunehmend globalisierten Welt beitragen? Um für die späteren Überlegungen zu einer befreienden Praxis eine präzise Zielvorstellung zu haben, wird in einem ersten Teil definiert, was unter den Termini Armut, Option für die Armen und Befreiung verstanden wird. Auf dieser Grundlage werden drei historisch bedeutsam gewordene Modelle von Befreiung vorgestellt, zwischen denen es große Schnittflächen gibt: Die Pädagogik der Befreiung von Paulo Freire, die Philosophie der Befreiung von Enrique Dussel und die Theologie der Befreiung. Im Anschluss an dieses Kapitel wird die soziale Kompetenz des Glaubens näher untersucht. Was bedeutet Solidarität konkret, an wen richtet sie sich, nach welchen Kriterien kann sie erfolgen und auf welchen Ebenen kann sie in einer pluralen Welt überhaupt ansetzen? Vor allem wird auf die Frage eingegangen, wie Solidarität intersubjektiv verhandelt und weitergegeben werden kann. Ein Exkurs widmet sich der Genese und dem aktuellen Stand von Befreiungstheologie in El Salvador und zeigt Möglichkeiten auf, wie durch sogenannte Exposureprogramme im Diskurs mit den Menschen Solidarität gelebt und durch gemeinsames Nachdenken auch viel für die Ansatzpunkte der Armutsbekämpfung in Europa gelernt werden kann. In einer abschließenden Synthese wird schließlich versucht, die theologischen Überlegungen zur Solidarität mit den konkreten Lebensbedingungen der Menschen in Europa bzw. Österreich zusammenzuführen, pastorale Handlungsfelder und ihre Schwierigkeiten aufzuzeigen und damit die moraltheologische Relevanz der Option für die Armen in Europa zu verdeutlichen

BET bromodomain protein inhibition is a therapeutic option for medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor of childhood, and represents a significant clinical challenge in pediatric oncology, since overall survival currently remains under 70%. Patients with tumors overexpressing MYC or harboring a MYC oncogene amplification have an extremely poor prognosis. Pharmacologically inhibiting MYC expression may, thus, have clinical utility given its pathogenetic role in medulloblastoma. Recent studies using the selective small molecule BET inhibitor, JQ1, have identified BET bromodomain proteins, especially BRD4, as epigenetic regulatory factors for MYC and its targets. Targeting MYC expression by BET inhibition resulted in antitumoral effects in various cancers. Our aim here was to evaluate the efficacy of JQ1 against preclinical models for high-risk MYC-driven medulloblastoma. Treatment of medulloblastoma cell lines with JQ1 significantly reduced cell proliferation and preferentially induced apoptosis in cells expressing high levels of MYC. JQ1 treatment of medulloblastoma cell lines downregulated MYC expression and resulted in a transcriptional deregulation of MYC targets, and also significantly altered expression of genes involved in cell cycle progression and p53 signalling. JQ1 treatment prolonged the survival of mice harboring medulloblastoma xenografts and reduced the tumor burden in these mice. Our preclinical data provide evidence to pursue testing BET inhibitors, such as JQ1, as molecular targeted therapeutic options for patients with high-risk medulloblastomas overexpressing MYC or harboring MYC amplifications

Targeting tachykinin receptors in neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial tumor in children. Despite aggressive multimodal treatment, high-risk neuroblastoma remains a clinical challenge with survival rates below 50%. Adding targeted drugs to first-line therapy regimens is a promising approach to improve survival in these patients. TACR1 activation by substance P has been reported to be mitogenic in cancer cell lines. Tachykinin receptor (TACR1) antagonists are approved for clinical use as an antiemetic remedy since 2003. Tachykinin receptor inhibition has recently been shown to effectively reduce growth of several tumor types. Here, we report that neuroblastoma cell lines express TACR1, and that targeting TACR1 activity significantly reduced cell viability and induced apoptosis in neuroblastoma cell lines. Gene expression profiling revealed that TACR1 inhibition repressed E2F2 and induced TP53 signaling. Treating mice harboring established neuroblastoma xenograft tumors with Aprepitant also significantly reduced tumor burden. Thus, we provide evidence that the targeted inhibition of tachykinin receptor signaling shows therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models for high-risk neuroblastoma

Road pavement crack detection using deep learning with synthetic data

The improvement of road system quality is a critical task. The mechanism to address such important issue is close monitoring of road pavement condition. Traditional approach requires manual identification of damages. Taking into account considerable length of road system it is essential to create an effective automatic pavement defects detection tool. This approach will extremely reduce time for monitoring of current road state. In this paper global experience in solution of detection issues of road pavement's distress is reviewed. The article includes information about the existing datasets of road defects, which are commonly used for detection and segmentation. The present work is based on deep learning approach with the use of synthetic generated training data for segmentation of cracks in driver-view image. The novelty of the approach lies in creating synthetic dataset for training state-of-the-art deep learning frameworks. The relevance of the research is emphasized by processing of wide-view images in which heterogeneous pixel intensity, complex crack topology, different illumination condition and complexity of background make the task challenging

I-BEAT: New ultrasonic method for single bunch measurement of ion energy distribution

The shape of a wave carries all information about the spatial and temporal structure of its source, given that the medium and its properties are known. Most modern imaging methods seek to utilize this nature of waves originating from Huygens' principle. We discuss the retrieval of the complete kinetic energy distribution from the acoustic trace that is recorded when a short ion bunch deposits its energy in water. This novel method, which we refer to as Ion-Bunch Energy Acoustic Tracing (I-BEAT), is a generalization of the ionoacoustic approach. Featuring compactness, simple operation, indestructibility and high dynamic ranges in energy and intensity, I-BEAT is a promising approach to meet the needs of petawatt-class laser-based ion accelerators. With its capability of completely monitoring a single, focused proton bunch with prompt readout it, is expected to have particular impact for experiments and applications using ultrashort ion bunches in high flux regimes. We demonstrate its functionality using it with two laser-driven ion sources for quantitative determination of the kinetic energy distribution of single, focused proton bunches.Comment: Paper: 17 Pages, 3 figures Supplementary Material 16 pages, 7 figure

ХУЛІГАНСТВО ТА ЙОГО ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА

Abstract BACKGROUND: Temporal lobe gray-white matter abnormalities (GWMA) are frequent morphological aberrances observed on MRI in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in addition to hippocampal sclerosis (HS). OBJECTIVE: To study the influence of temporal pole GWMA on clinical characteristics and seizure outcome in patients with HS operated on for TLE. METHODS: A cohort of 370 patients undergoing surgery for intractable TLE was prospectively collected in an epilepsy surgery data base. Clinical characteristics and seizure outcome of all 58 TLE patients with identified HS and GWMA (group 1) were compared with those of a matched control group of 58 HS patients without GWMA (group 2). Both groups were further subdivided into patients undergoing transsylvian selective amygdalohippocampectomy (sAH) and anterior temporal lobectomy with amygdalohippocampectomy (ATL). RESULTS: The HS plus GWMA patients were significantly younger at epilepsy onset than those without GWMA. In the HS plus GWMA group, 41% of patients were younger than 2 years when they experienced their first seizure in contrast to only 17% of patients with pure HS (P = .004). Seizure outcome was not statistically different between the 2 groups: 75.9% of the patients in group 1 were seizure free (Engel class I) compared with 81% of patients in group 2. Seizure outcome in both groups was about equally successful with selective amygdalohippocampectomy and anterior temporal lobectomy (ns). CONCLUSION: Limited and standard resections in TLE patients with HS are equally successful regardless of the presence of GWMA