Building in Quatar - Field excursion of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the HTWG Konstanz

Die große Exkursion 2010 der Fakultät Bauingenieurwesen führte in das Emirat Qatar am persischen Golf. Qatar verfügt über 15% der weltweiten Reserven anErdgas und investiert u.a. in Infrastruktur- und Bau¬maßnahmen. Deutsche Firmen sind an diesem Aufbau beteiligt. Bei der Exkursion wurden verschiedene Hoch- und Tiefbaustellen, „Mega-Projekte“ deutscher Unternehmen, aber auch eines arabischen Baukonzerns besucht. Auch das Ausstellungszentrum der Deutschen Bahn stand auf dem Programm. Der Bericht gibt die Eindrücke beim Besuch der Projekte wie auch die Reiseerlebnisse wieder.The student excursion of the University of Applied Sciences, Konstanz, Germany, lead to the Emirat of Qatar at the Persian Gulf. The country possesses 15% of the reserves of natural gas and is investing in building and infrastructures measures. German companies are part of this development. During the excursion different structural sites of “mega-projects” of German and Arabic Companies as well as the exposition Center of the “Deutsche Bahn” have been visited

Peripheral nerve injury associated with a subdermal contraceptive implant: illustrative cases and systematic review of literature

BACKGROUND: Despite demonstrable safety and efficacy of subdermal contraceptive implants (SCIs), both insertion and removal of SCIs in the arm have been associated with neurovascular complications. The aim of this study was to investigate type and prognosis of nerve injuries associated with SCIs. METHODS: We performed a comprehensive search of 4 electronic databases for studies pertaining to patients with nerve injury and concurrent SCI. Studies published between January 1987 and June 2017 were included. Implant location, damaged nerves, clinical presentation, preoperative imaging (x-ray, ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging), neurologic evaluation (nerve conduction studies, electromyography), and treatment methods were reviewed. To outline management strategies, 2 illustrative cases of major nerve injury caused by SCI removal were presented. RESULTS: We analyzed 10 studies including 12 patients. Fourteen nerve injuries in 12 patients were reported during SCI insertion (n = 1) and removal (n = 11). Medial antebrachial cutaneous (n = 5) and median (n = 5) nerves were primarily affected. Neuropathic pain was the main symptom. Primary reasons for nerve injury were pulling or grasping of the nerve (n = 9) after mistaking it for the implant. Neurapraxia (n = 7) was the most common lesion and was treated with implant removal and clinical surveillance (n = 6). Five patients completely recovered; the remaining patients continued to have motor and/or sensory deficit at mean follow-up of 0.7 year (range, 0-2 years). CONCLUSIONS: Nerve injuries related to SCIs are rare but potentially serious. For nonpalpable SCIs, a multidisciplinary approach, including practitioners with experience treating peripheral nerve injuries, is invaluable

Acoustic Oddball during NREM Sleep: A Combined EEG/fMRI Study

Background: A condition vital for the consolidation and maintenance of sleep is generally reduced responsiveness to external stimuli. Despite this, the sleeper maintains a level of stimulus processing that allows to respond to potentially dangerous environmental signals. The mechanisms that subserve these contradictory functions are only incompletely understood. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using combined EEG/fMRI we investigated the neural substrate of sleep protection by applying an acoustic oddball paradigm during light NREM sleep. Further, we studied the role of evoked K-complexes (KCs), an electroencephalographic hallmark of NREM sleep with a still unknown role for sleep protection. Our main results were: (1) Other than in wakefulness, rare tones did not induce a blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal increase in the auditory pathway but a strong negative BOLD response in motor areas and the amygdala. (2) Stratification of rare tones by the presence of evoked KCs detected activation of the auditory cortex, hippocampus, superior and middle frontal gyri and posterior cingulate only for rare tones followed by a KC. (3) The typical high frontocentral EEG deflections of KCs were not paralleled by a BOLD equivalent. Conclusions/Significance: We observed that rare tones lead to transient disengagement of motor and amygdala responses during light NREM sleep. We interpret this as a sleep protective mechanism to delimit motor responses and to reduce the sensitivity of the amygdala towards further incoming stimuli. Evoked KCs are suggested to originate from a brain state wit