Nanofasern als neuartige Träger für flüchtige Signalstoffe zur biotechnischen Regulierung von Schadinsekten im integrierten und ökologischen Landbau

Using nanofibers as dispensers for pheromones and kairomones in plant protection for disrupting insect chemical communication is a novel approach aiming at popularizing this technique in organic and integrated plant production. Expected advantages of the nanofibers are highly controlled spatiotemporal release rates of pheromones / kairomones, improved climatic stability, and mechanized application. Dispenser types used so far show deficiencies in one or more of these requirements. Mechanical application of pheromones is a new approach to reduce the costs of manual labour and therefore the environmentally compatible, highly specific and efficient technique of mating disruption may become an alternative to the use of synthetic pesticides in integrated pest management. The nanofibers are highly elastic, which prevents breakoff of smaller pieces, and polymers used are biocompatible. Due to the scale of nanofibers the mass input both for pheromones and for polymeric nanofibers is very low. Major environmental benefits are high control specificity, very low concentrations of residues and reduced risk of development towards insect resistance

IT-Organisationen wirksam verändern: Innovative KVP-Praxis: Mit kleinen Schritten zu nachhaltigem Erfolg

In jedem Unternehmen gibt es Stellen, an denen es nicht rund läuft. In manchen Organisationseinheiten ist Sand im Getriebe, es knirscht und knackt – schon bereits bei der Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Abteilungen. Was kann man tun? Eine Möglichkeit besteht darin, ein großes Veränderungsprojekt aufzusetzen und alle Mitarbeiter und Führungskräfte ins kalte Wasser zu werfen. Doch viele dieser großen Veränderungsprojekte scheitern. Hauptgrund ist, dass Führungskräfte von der Notwendigkeit der Änderungen nicht überzeugt sind. Die Autoren dieses Buchs haben daher einen anderen Ansatz entwickelt: Veränderung ja, aber in kleinen, nachhaltigen Schritten. In einem solchen kontinuierlichen Veränderungsprozess geht es darum, nach und nach stabil laufende Prozesse einzuführen bzw. bestehende Prozesse zu optimieren. Mit dieser Methode wird die Akzeptanz der Mitarbeiter erreicht. Sie bietet Führungskräften die Möglichkeit, Veränderungen und Prozesse mitzugestalten und sich im Rahmen ihrer Linienverantwortung gezielt einzubringen

Evaluating Tannins and Flavonoids from Traditionally Used Medicinal Plants with Biofilm Inhibitory Effects against MRGN E. coli

In the search for alternative treatment options for infections with multi-resistant germs, traditionally used medicinal plants are currently being examined more intensively. In this study, the antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activities of 14 herbal drugs were investigated. Nine of the tested drugs were traditionally used in Europe for treatment of local infections. For comparison, another five drugs monographed in the European Pharmacopoeia were used. Additionally, the total tannin and flavonoid contents of all tested drugs were analyzed. HPLC fingerprints were recorded to ob- tain further insights into the components of the extracts. The aim of the study was to identify herbal drugs that might be useable for treatment of infectious diseases, even with multidrug resistant E. coli, and to correlate the antimicrobial activity with the total content of tannins and flavonoids. The agar diffusion test and anti-biofilm assay were used to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of dif- ferent extracts from the plants. Colorimetric methods (from European Pharmacopeia) were used for determination of total tannins and flavonoids. The direct antimicrobial activity of most of the tested extracts was low to moderate. The anti-biofilm activity was found to be down to 10 µg mL −1 for some extracts. Tannin contents between 2.2% and 10.4% of dry weight and total flavonoid contents between 0.1% and 1.6% were found. Correlation analysis indicates that the antimicrobial and the anti-biofilm activity is significantly (p < 0.05) dependent on tannin content, but not on flavonoid content. The data analysis revealed that tannin-rich herbal drugs inhibit pathogens in different ways. Thus, some of the tested herbal drugs might be useable for local infections with multi-re- sistant biofilm-forming pathogens. For some of the tested drugs, this is the first report about anti- biofilm activity, as well as total tannin and flavonoid content

Entwicklung der stationären Versorgungsqualität operativ behandelter Patienten mit einer proximalen Femurfraktur in Nordrhein-Westfalen

$\textbf {Hintergrund und Fragestellung}$ Pro Jahr erleiden in Deutschland über 100.000 Menschen, überwiegend höheren Alters, eine proximale Femurfraktur. Steigende Fallzahlen im Zusammenhang mit einer alternden Bevölkerung und eine relativ große Zahl behandlungsbedürftiger Begleiterkrankungen erschweren die alltägliche Versorgung. Daher ist die Beobachtung der Versorgungsqualität dieser Patienten anhand relevanter Qualitätsparameter von großer Bedeutung, um Implikationen für die alltägliche Behandlungspraxis ableiten zu können. $\textbf {Material und Methoden}$ Die Daten der externen stationären Qualitätssicherung aus Nordrhein-Westfalen der Jahre 2007 und 2008 sowie 2017 und 2018 wurden analysiert und die Zeiträume vergleichend gegenübergestellt. Zusätzlich wurde anhand der dokumentierten Nebendiagnosen und weiterer Einflussparameter eine Risikoadjustierung mithilfe eines logistischen Regressionsmodells in Bezug auf die Zielgrößen der allgemeinen und chirurgischen Komplikationen sowie der Letalität durchgeführt. Es wurden sowohl osteosynthetisch als auch endoprothetisch versorgte Patienten berücksichtigt. Insgesamt konnten 61.249 Fälle in die Studie eingeschlossen werden. $\bf Ergebnisse$ Positive Entwicklungen konnten im Bereich der chirurgischen Komplikationen und der Wundinfektionen mit Rückgängen um 1,2 % bzw. 0,8 % beobachtet werden. Bei Vorliegen einer Herz-Kreislauf-Erkrankung war das Outcome der Patienten besonders schlecht. Hierbei zeigten sich für die allgemeinen Komplikationen im Verlauf Verbesserungen in der Subkategorie der kardiovaskulären Ereignisse. Die Letalität lag unverändert bei 6 %. Deutlich gesteigert wurde die operative Tätigkeit an den Wochenenden. Patienten, deren Krankenhausaufnahme in zeitlichem Bezug zum Wochenende lag, wiesen kein erhöhtes Komplikations- oder Letalitätsrisiko auf. Obwohl der Anteil der erst nach über 48 h operierten Patienten von 11,4 % auf 8,2 % gesenkt werden konnte, verzögert sich die Operation (> 24 h) immer noch in 26,8 % der Fälle. $\bf Schlussfolgerungen$ Vor dem Hintergrund steigender Leistungsanforderungen an das Gesundheitssystem dokumentieren die Ergebnisse Verbesserungen in einigen zentralen Bereichen der stationären Behandlung. Dennoch ist die Entwicklung von Strategien zur weiteren Reduktion der präoperativen Liegezeiten in medizinisch vertretbarer Weise zu fordern. Internistische Begleiterkrankungen beeinflussen das Outcome der Patienten maßgeblich. Somit ist eine adäquate Behandlung des multimorbiden Patientenkollektivs auf der Grundlage einer engen Kooperation zwischen alterstraumatologischen und geriatrisch-internistischen Fachabteilungen in der Alltagspraxis zu etablieren.$\textbf {Background and objective}$ Every year in Germany over 100,000 people, mostly of older age, suffer a proximal femoral fracture. Increasing case numbers in connection with an aging population and a relatively large number of concomitant diseases requiring treatment make everyday care more difficult. It is therefore of great importance to observe the quality of care for these patients using relevant quality parameters in order to be able to derive implications for everyday treatment practice. $\textbf {Material and methods}$ The data of the external inpatient quality assurance from North Rhine-Westphalia for the years 2007–2008 and 2017–2018 were analyzed and the time periods compared. In addition, based on the documented secondary diagnosis and other influencing parameters, a risk adjustment was carried out with the aid of a logistic regression model with respect to the outcomes of general and surgical complications and mortality. Both osteosynthetically and endoprosthetically treated patients were taken into account. A total of 61,249 cases were included in the study. $\bf Results$ Positive developments could be observed in the area of surgical complications and wound infections with decreases of 1.2% and 0.8%, respectively. Patients with cardiovascular diseases had a particularly poor outcome. Here, improvements in the subcategory of cardiovascular events were found for general complications. The mortality remained unchanged at 6%. Operative activity on the weekends increased significantly. Patients whose hospital admission was related to the weekend did not show an increased risk of complications or mortality. Although the proportion of patients who were operated on after more than 48 h was reduced from 11.4% to 8.2%, the operation (> 24 h) was still delayed in 26.8% of cases. $\bf Conclusion$ Against the background of increasing performance demands on the healthcare system, the results document improvements in some central areas of inpatient treatment. Nevertheless, the development of strategies for the further reduction of the preoperative waiting times in a medically justifiable manner is required. Internal concomitant diseases have a decisive influence on patient outcome. Thus, an adequate treatment of the multimorbid patient collective is to be established in everyday practice on the basis of close cooperation between geriatric traumatology and geriatric internal medicine departments

Is Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics Suitable as Core for an Event Processing Network Model?

This article looks at a proposed list of generalized requirements for a unified modelling of event processing networks (EPNs) and its application to Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics. It enhances our previous work in this area, in which we recently analyzed Apache Storm and earlier also the EPiA model, the BEMN model, and the RuleCore model. Our proposed EPN requirements look at both: The logical model of EPNs and the concrete technical implementation of them. Therefore, our article provides requirements for EPN models based on attributes derived from event processing in general as well as existing models. Moreover, as its core contribution, our article applies those requirements by an in depth analysis of Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics as a concrete implementation foundation of an EPN model

Experimental investigations of plasma dynamics in the hysteresis regime of reactive RF sputter processes

Reactive radio frequency (RF) sputter processes are highly relevant for thin film deposition, but there is no complete understanding of the fundamentals of their operation. While the Berg model describes the hysteresis regime considering the oxygen coverage of the boundary surfaces, a complete fundamental understanding of the plasma–surface interactions and their effects on the discharge is still missing. In this work, we provide such fundamental insights based on an extensive experimental analysis of the physics in the hysteresis regime of magnetized reactive sputter processes, where the same reactive gas admixture can lead to different discharge characteristics depending on the previous state of the plasma. A variety of plasma and surface diagnostics is used to reveal these insights. A low pressure capacitively coupled RF discharge (CCP, 13.56 MHz) with a magnetron-like magnetic field topology adjacent to the target is operated in argon gas with a variable admixture of O$_2$. The applied RF power, the gas flows/pumping speed, as well as the neutral gas pressure are changed systematically to understand the effects of these external control parameters on the hysteresis regime. The magnetic asymmetry effect is found to play an important role, since an axially non-uniform magnetic field is used to realize a local electron confinement at the target. Similar to process control in applications, the DC self-bias is measured to stabilize the surface composition using a feedback controller with the oxygen gas flow as the manipulated variable

Effects of cadmium on non-mycorrhizal and mycorrhizal Norway spruce seedlings [Picea abies (L.) Karst.] and its ectomycorrhizal fungus Laccaria laccata (Scop, ex Fr.) Bk. & Br.: Sulphate reduction, thiols and distribution of the heavy metal

The effect of cadmium on assimilatory sulphate reduction and thiol content was studied in non-mycorrhizal and mycorrhizal Norway spruce seedlings (Picea abies) and its ectomycorrhtzal fungus Laccaria laccata. The distribution of cadmium was also investigated. Isotope dilution experiments indicated that the fungus reduced sulphate via adenosine 3′-phosphate 5′-phosphosulphate sulphotransferase, whereas Norway spruce seedlings assimilated sulphate via adenosine 5′-phosphosulphate sulphotransferase in both roots and needles. In mycorrhizal roots only the plant sulphotransferase activity could be measured. Mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal roots and the mycelium of Laccaria laccata contained increased activities of sulphotransferase and more acid-soluble thiols when cultivated with cadmium. The increase in acid-soluble thiols was due to phytochelatins in roots and to glutathione in Laccaria laccata, where neither phytochelatins nor metallothioneins could be detected. Even though the cadmium content of mycorrhizal roots was slightly higher than that of non-mycorrhizal roots, concentrations of phytochelatin were only half as high as in non-mycorrhizal roots. Cadmium content of needles of mycorrhizal plants was significantly lower than that of non-mycorrhizal plants. Most of the cadmium in Laccaria laccata was associated with the cell walls and could be exchanged with Ni2+