Im Fokus: Wie fördern Bund und Länder die Energieeffizienz im Gebäudebestand?

In addition to the increasing rigidity of minimum requirements in regulative law, the federal government and the Länder provide a broad range of subsidy programs to force the refurbishment of those parts of a building, that determine the building’s energetic quality-level. In regard of energetic refurbishment quality, the federal government boosts investments, which exceed the minimum requirements of regulative law. Whereas the federal government – with exeption of different financing conditions of investors - applies equal funding requirements to all investors and building-types older than 15 years, the Länder focus their programs on specific regional housing market conditions. A further analysis concerning the influence of the subsidy environment on regional refurbishment output level should be topic of further research.efficiency, residential real estate, state subsidies, urban development policy

Non-contrast renal magnetic resonance imaging to assess perfusion and corticomedullary differentiation in health and chronic kidney disease

AIMS Arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI measures perfusion without administration of contrast agent. While ASL has been validated in animals and healthy volunteers (HVs), application to chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been limited. We investigated the utility of ASL MRI in patients with CKD. METHODS We studied renal perfusion in 24 HVs and 17 patients with CKD (age 22-77 years, 40% male) using ASL MRI at 3.0T. Kidney function was determined using estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). T1 relaxation time was measured using modified look-locker inversion and xFB02;ow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery true-fast imaging and steady precession was performed to measure cortical and whole kidney perfusion. RESULTS T1 was higher in CKD within cortex and whole kidney, and there was association between T1 time and eGFR. No association was seen between kidney size and volume and either T1, or ASL perfusion. Perfusion was lower in CKD in cortex (136 ± 37 vs. 279 ± 69 ml/min/100 g; p < 0.001) and whole kidney (146 ± 24 vs. 221 ± 38 ml/min/100 g; p < 0.001). There was significant, negative, association between T1 longitudinal relaxation time and ASL perfusion in both the cortex (r = -0.75, p < 0.001) and whole kidney (r = -0.50, p < 0.001). There was correlation between eGFR and both cortical (r = 0.73, p < 0.01) and whole kidney (r = 0.69, p < 0.01) perfusion. CONCLUSIONS Significant differences in renal structure and function were demonstrated using ASL MRI. T1 may be representative of structural changes associated with CKD; however, further investigation is required into the pathological correlates of reduced ASL perfusion and increased T1 time in CKD

Rapid syndromic PCR testing in patients with respiratory tract infections reduces time to results and improves microbial yield

Lack of rapid and comprehensive microbiological diagnosis in patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) hampers appropriate antimicrobial therapy. This study evaluates the real-world performance of the BioFire FilmArray Pneumonia panel plus (FAP plus) and explores the feasibility of evaluation in a randomised controlled trial. Patients presenting to hospital with suspected CAP were recruited in a prospective feasibility study. An induced sputum or an endotracheal aspirate was obtained from all participants. The FAP plus turnaround time (TAT) and microbiological yield were compared with standard diagnostic methods (SDs). 96/104 (92%) enrolled patients had a respiratory tract infection (RTI); 72 CAP and 24 other RTIs. Median TAT was shorter for the FAP plus, compared with in-house PCR (2.6 vs 24.1 h, p < 0.001) and sputum cultures (2.6 vs 57.5 h, p < 0.001). The total microbiological yield by the FAP plus was higher compared to SDs (91% (162/179) vs 55% (99/179), p < 0.0001). Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and influenza A virus were the most frequent pathogens. In conclusion, molecular panel testing in adults with CAP was associated with a significant reduction in time to actionable results and increased microbiological yield. The impact on antibiotic use and patient outcome should be assessed in randomised controlled trials.publishedVersio

Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System

Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde

Discovery and Fine-Mapping of Glycaemic and Obesity-Related Trait Loci Using High-Density Imputation

Reference panels from the 1000 Genomes (1000G) Project Consortium provide near complete coverage of common and low-frequency genetic variation with minor allele frequency ≥0.5% across European ancestry populations. Within the European Network for Genetic and Genomic Epidemiology (ENGAGE) Consortium, we have undertaken the fi

The upgrade of the ALICE TPC with GEMs and continuous readout

The upgrade of the ALICE TPC will allow the experiment to cope with the high interaction rates foreseen for the forthcoming Run 3 and Run 4 at the CERN LHC. In this article, we describe the design of new readout chambers and front-end electronics, which are driven by the goals of the experiment. Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) detectors arranged in stacks containing four GEMs each, and continuous readout electronics based on the SAMPA chip, an ALICE development, are replacing the previous elements. The construction of these new elements, together with their associated quality control procedures, is explained in detail. Finally, the readout chamber and front-end electronics cards replacement, together with the commissioning of the detector prior to installation in the experimental cavern, are presented. After a nine-year period of R&D, construction, and assembly, the upgrade of the TPC was completed in 2020.publishedVersio

Fine-Scale Mapping of the 4q24 Locus Identifies Two Independent Loci Associated with Breast Cancer Risk

Background: A recent association study identified a common variant (rs9790517) at 4q24 to be associated with breast cancer risk. Independent association signals and potential functional variants in this locus have not been explored. Methods: We conducted a fine-mapping analysis in 55,540 breast cancer cases and 51,168 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Results: Conditional analyses identified two independent association signals among women of European ancestry, represented by rs9790517 [conditional P = 2.51 × 10−4; OR, 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02–1.07] and rs77928427 (P = 1.86 × 10−4; OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.02–1.07). Functional annotation using data from the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project revealed two putative functional variants, rs62331150 and rs73838678 in linkage disequilibrium (LD) with rs9790517 (r2 ≥ 0.90) residing in the active promoter or enhancer, respectively, of the nearest gene, TET2. Both variants are located in DNase I hypersensitivity and transcription factor–binding sites. Using data from both The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC), we showed that rs62331150 was associated with level of expression of TET2 in breast normal and tumor tissue. Conclusion: Our study identified two independent association signals at 4q24 in relation to breast cancer risk and suggested that observed association in this locus may be mediated through the regulation of TET2. Impact: Fine-mapping study with large sample size warranted for identification of independent loci for breast cancer risk

Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume

The hippocampal formation is a brain structure integrally involved in episodic memory, spatial navigation, cognition and stress responsiveness. Structural abnormalities in hippocampal volume and shape are found in several common neuropsychiatric disorders. To identify the genetic underpinnings of hippocampal structure here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 33,536 individuals and discover six independent loci significantly associated with hippocampal volume, four of them novel. Of the novel loci, three lie within genes (ASTN2, DPP4 and MAST4) and one is found 200 kb upstream of SHH. A hippocampal subfield analysis shows that a locus within the MSRB3 gene shows evidence of a localized effect along the dentate gyrus, subiculum, CA1 and fissure. Further, we show that genetic variants associated with decreased hippocampal volume are also associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (rg =-0.155). Our findings suggest novel biological pathways through which human genetic variation influences hippocampal volume and risk for neuropsychiatric illness

Search for a low-mass pseudoscalar Higgs boson produced in association with a bb⁻ pair in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV

A search is reported for a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson decaying to a pair of tau leptons, produced in association with a b (b) over bar pair, in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models. The results are based on pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). Pseudoscalar boson masses between 25 and 80 GeV are probed. No evidence for a pseudoscalar boson is found and upper limits are set on the product of cross section and branching fraction to tau pairs between 7 and 39 pb at the 95% confidence level. This excludes pseudoscalar A bosons with masses between 25 and 80 GeV, with SM-like Higgs boson negative couplings to down-type fermions, produced in association with bb pairs, in Type II, two-Higgs-doublet models. (C) 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommonnorg/licensesiby/4.01)