Tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica: A rare cause of chronic cough with haemoptysis

A case of tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastic (TPO) was diagnosed in a 69-year old male with prolonged cough. TPO is a rare condition of unknown cause and only sporadic cases have been reported. The condition is benign, characterized by submucosal nodules growing from the submucosal layer of the airways, protruding into the bronchial lumen. The bronchscopic view together with bronchial cartilage with abnormal distributed mineralization of the histologic examination of theses nodules leads to the correct diagnosis. Mild cases are treated symptomatically, whereas we tried an inhaled corticosteroid. Prominent protrusions in the trachea or the bronchi must be removed. In most cases the disease is stable over years but progressive forms have been reported. TPO may cause chronic refractory cough, which eventually is the only prominent symptom of this disease

Ophthalmoinnovation Thüringen

Ophthalmolnnovation Thüringen is focused on the development of innovative products and Services for ophthalmology with the following mainpoints of emphasis: Systems for objective fimctional diagnostics of vision, metabolism and microcirculation of the eye, therapeutic Systems for loser applications in ophthalmology. Current research projects are oriented to fimctional imaging ofto reanal microcirculation, to objective perimetry, to optimising re/ractive loser surgery and to photodynamic therapy methods. - The very open cooperation between research institutions and companies in the OFT network ensures an effective wayfrom a research result to an innovative product

W(h)-Clefts im Deutschen und Englischen: eine quantitative Untersuchung auf Grundlage des Europarl-Korpus

Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit einem Vergleich der englischen wh-Clefts und deren Entsprechungen im Deutschen, den ,Sperrsätzen‘ oder ‚w-Clefts‘. Auf Grundlage einer umfangreichen Korpusstudie werden zunächst Unterschiede in der Verteilung bestimmter w/h-Cleftsatztypen ermittelt. Ein generelles quantitatives Übergewicht der englischen wh-Clefts gegenüber den deutschen w-Clefts wird mit der flexibleren Wortstellung des Deutschen in Verbindung gebracht. Spezifisch werden die beobachteten Asymmetrien durch Unterschiede in der Möglichkeit der Erfüllung bestimmter struktureller Bedingungen erklärt. Vier Motivationen für die Bildung von Cleftsätzen werden identifiziert: (i) lineare Synchronisierung von Informationsstruktur und Syntax, (ii) strukturelle Trennung von Quaestio (= im Diskurs gegebener Frage) und Responsio (= Antwort auf die Quaestio), (iii) Trennung von propositionalem Gehalt und Äußerungskommentar (,Ebenentrennung‘) und (iv) Rechtslastigkeit (Behaghels ‚Gesetz der wachsenden Glieder‘). Während all diese Faktoren die Bildung von wh-Cleftsätzen im Englischen zu begünstigen scheinen, sind deutsche w-Clefts meist durch den in (ii) genannten Faktor motiviert. Die anderen Motivationen führen seltener zur Bildung von w-Cleftsätzen als im Englischen, da die entsprechenden strukturellen Effekte auch ohne Cleftsatzbildung — z.B. in einem kanonischen Verbzweitsatz — erzielt werden können

Annotations: 1478 instances of wh-clefts in English and German (Europarl corpus)

These annotations were created for a contrastive study of wh-cleft sentences in English and German. The study has been published as: Gast, V. & D. Wiechmann (2012). 'W(h)-Clefts im Deutschen und Englischen. Eine quantitative Untersuchung auf Grundlage des Europarl-Korpus'. In Gunkel, L. & G. Zifonun (eds.): Jahrbuch des IDS 2011, 333-362. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. It compares the distributions of wh-clefts in English and German on the basis of data from the Europarl corpus. A general tendency for English to use cleft sentences more frequently than German is related to the more rigid word order of English. The observed distributional asymmetries are regarded as emerging from different possibilities of meeting specific structural conditions. Four motivations for the use of cleft sentences are identified: (i) linear synchronization of information structure and syntax, (ii) structural separation of Quaestio and Responsio, (iii) separation of propositional content and utterance comment, and (iv) the heaviness principle. While all of these factors seem to favour the use of cleft sentences in English, German cleft sentences are mostly motivated by factor (ii), as the other conditions can also be met without forming a cleft sentence, due to the relatively free word order of German, e.g. in canonical verb-second sentences

Energy conservation in the acetogenic bacterium clostridium aceticum

In times of global warming caused by the extensive use of fossil fuels, the need to capture gaseous carbon compounds is growing bigger. Several groups of microorganisms can fix the greenhouse gas CO2. Out of these, acetogenic bacteria are role models in their ability to reduce CO2 with hydrogen to acetate, which makes acetogens prime candidates for genetic modification towards biotechnological production of value-added compounds from CO2, such as biofuels. However, growth of acetogens on gaseous substrates is strongly energy-limited, and successful metabolic engineering requires a detailed knowledge of the bioenergetics. In 1939, Clostridium aceticum was the first acetogen to be described. A recent genomic study revealed that this organism contains cytochromes and therefore may use a proton gradient in its respiratory chain. We have followed up these studies and will present data that C. aceticum does not use a H+ but a Na+ gradient for ATP synthesis, established by a Na+-Rnf. Experimental data and in silico analyses enabled us to propose the biochemistry and bioenergetics of acetogenesis from H2 + CO2 in C. aceticum

Homologous production, one-step purification, and proof of Na+ transport by the Rnf complex from Acetobacterium woodii, a model for acetogenic conversion of C1 substrates to biofuels

Background: Capture and storage of the energy carrier hydrogen as well as of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are two major problems that mankind faces currently. Chemical catalysts have been developed, but only recently a group of anaerobic bacteria that convert hydrogen and carbon dioxide to acetate, formate, or biofuels such as ethanol has come into focus, the acetogenic bacteria. These biocatalysts produce the liquid organic hydrogen carrier formic acid from H2 + CO2 or even carbon monoxide with highest rates ever reported. The autotrophic, hydrogen-oxidizing, and CO2-reducing acetogens have in common a specialized metabolism to catalyze CO2 reduction, the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway (WLP). The WLP does not yield net ATP, but is hooked up to a membrane-bound respiratory chain that enables ATP synthesis coupled to CO2 fixation. The nature of the respiratory enzyme has been an enigma since the discovery of these bacteria and has been unraveled in this study. Results: We have produced a His-tagged variant of the ferredoxin:NAD oxidoreductase (Rnf complex) from the model acetogen Acetobacterium woodii, solubilized the enzyme from the cytoplasmic membrane, and purified it by Ni2+–NTA affinity chromatography. The enzyme was incorporated into artificial liposomes and catalyzed Na+ transport coupled to ferredoxin-dependent NAD reduction. Our results using the purified enzyme do not only verify that the Rnf complex from A. woodii is Na+-dependent, they also demonstrate for the first time that this membrane-embedded molecular engine creates a Na+ gradient across the membrane of A. woodii which can be used for ATP synthesis. Discussion: We present a protocol for homologous production and purification for an Rnf complex. The enzyme catalyzed electron-transfer driven Na+ export and, thus, our studies provided the long-awaited biochemical proof that the Rnf complex is a respiratory enzyme