Kardiale Mehrschicht-Computertomographie

Bei 345 Patienten wurde geprüft, ob die Bestimmung des Kalziumscores zusätzliche Informationen zur klinischen Risikoabschätzung liefert und ob mit Hilfe der Kardio-CT Patienten mit einer stenosierenden KHK identifiziert werden können. Durch die Bestimmung des Kalziumscores (>=80) wurden 33/175 Patienten zusätzlich als Hochrisikopatienten identifiziert. Bei 202/345 aller Patienten wurde nach Durchführung der Kardio-CT in Zusammenschau mit der Beschwerdesymptomatik und den durchgeführten Untersuchungen auf eine invasive Diagnostik verzichtet, 143/345 der Patienten eine Herzkatheteruntersuchung empfohlen. Bei 44/94 invasiv untersuchten Patienten konnten Koronarstenosen nachgewiesen werden, die bei 34 Patienten zur Myokardrevaskularisation führten. Die Kardio-CT liefert in Ergänzung zu den konventionellen Untersuchungsverfahren wichtige Zusatzinformationen zur Primärdiagnostik von Patienten mit atypischen Beschwerden oder Risikokonstellation

Declining Orangutan Encounter Rates from Wallace to the Present Suggest the Species Was Once More Abundant

BACKGROUND: Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) currently occur at low densities and seeing a wild one is a rare event. Compared to present low encounter rates of orangutans, it is striking how many orangutan each day historic collectors like Alfred Russel Wallace were able to shoot continuously over weeks or even months. Does that indicate that some 150 years ago encounter rates with orangutans, or their densities, were higher than now? METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We test this hypothesis by quantifying encounter rates obtained from hunting accounts, museum collections, and recent field studies, and analysing whether there is a declining trend over time. Logistic regression analyses of our data support such a decline on Borneo between the mid-19th century and the present. Even when controlled for variation in the size of survey and hunting teams and the durations of expeditions, mean daily encounter rates appear to have declined about 6-fold in areas with little or no forest disturbance. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This finding has potential consequences for our understanding of orangutans, because it suggests that Bornean orangutans once occurred at higher densities. We explore potential explanations-habitat loss and degradation, hunting, and disease-and conclude that hunting fits the observed patterns best. This suggests that hunting has been underestimated as a key causal factor of orangutan density and distribution, and that species population declines have been more severe than previously estimated based on habitat loss only. Our findings may require us to rethink the biology of orangutans, with much of our ecological understanding possibly being based on field studies of animals living at lower densities than they did historically. Our approach of quantifying species encounter rates from historic data demonstrates that this method can yield valuable information about the ecology and population density of species in the past, providing new insight into species' conservation needs

Forensic DNA evidence on trial : science and uncertainty in the courtroom

When juries hear forensic DNA evidence presented in court, what does it mean to them? And does it mean the same for police officers, lawyers and forensic scientists? If jurors, scientists and others have fundamentally different understandings of DNA evidence, what are the implications for criminal justice? This original book asks and answers these challenging questions. Drawing upon their own ground-breaking research, the authors demonstrate that major assumptions about science influence how forensic DNA evidence is interpreted. Forensic scientists appreciate that there is always an element of uncertainty involved in the production of scientific evidence, but this comes as a rude awakening to most jurors who have their faith in the certainty of science undermined. As a result, jurors can become confused and make errors-sometimes overrating and sometimes underrating the value of DNA evidence when deciding on guilt or innocence. This clearly has significance for the role of such evidence in criminal justice. While some people working in the criminal justice system would prefer scientists to hide uncertainty, the authors of this book mount a robust case for both juries and lawyers becoming better informed about the inevitable uncertainties of science

Acoustic Features and Distance Measure to Reduce Vulnerability of ASR Performance Due to the Presence of a Communication Channel and/or Background Noise

this paper we will only discuss results for off-line experiment