Was ist Gesundheitspolitologie? Entwicklungsstand und Entwicklungspotenziale des politikwissenschaftlichen Beitrages zur Gesundheitssystemforschung

Die Gesundheitssystemforschung ist durch das Zusammenwirken unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen gekennzeichnet. Gleichwohl bringen diese durch eine kooperative Arbeitsteilung gemeinsame Forschungsergebnisse hervor. Die Politikwissenschaft ist bis heute in das wissenschaftliche Netzwerk der Gesundheitssystemforschung schlecht integriert. Während die Soziologie, die Medizin und die Ökonomie auf den Gegenstand Gesundheitssystem spezialisierte Subdisziplinen ausbildeten, und bei der Forschung eng kooperieren, finden Forschungsergebnisse der Politikwissenschaft bisher wenig Eingang. Die vorliegende Arbeit plädiert für eine Integration der Politikwissenschaft in die Gesundheitssystemforschung. Hierzu erscheint es erforderlich, wie die übrigen Disziplinen, eine spezifische Subdisziplin auszubilden. Wesentliche Voraussetzungen für die Entwicklung der Gesundheitspolitologie sind die Definition des Forschungsgegenstandes und der Forschungsfragen. Hierzu soll dieser Aufsatz Vorschläge unterbreiten. -- Health systems research is characterized by a cooperation of various scientific disciplines producing joint research results through a division of labour. To this day, political science is poorly integrated into the scientific network of health systems research. Whereas, sociology, medicine, and economics cooperate closely, having created sub-disciplines specializing on the subject; the results of political science research have hardly impacted the field. This paper argues for an integration of political science into health systems research. For this purpose the creation of a specific sub-discipline is indispensable. A requirement for the development of a health politology is defining the object of research, the focus of this paper.

Thermally Curved Glass - Research and Standardisation of the Four-Point Bending Test

Research has shown that the general approach to determine the bending strength of thermally curved glass with the aid of the four-point bending test for flat glass according to EN 1288-3 is applicable. At the moment, however, there is no statutory method available for directly extrapolating the breaking strain from the breaking load without the use of expensive strain gauges. Such a method is developed by means of an experimental and numerical study in a research project between the Bundesverband Flachglas e.V. (Federal Flat Glass Association) and the Fachverband Konstruktiver Glasbau e.V. (Professional Association Structural Glass Constructions), the Institute of Building Construction at the Technische Universität Dresden and four glass bending specialists. Moreover, it will provide the basis for testing cylindrically curved glass of any bending radius. The project partners have already submitted a proposal for a new standard to the Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (German Institute for Standardisation). The paper gives the theoretical background for determining the strength of flat glass according to EN 1288‑3 and quantifies the additional effects for the testing of thermally curved glass. Furthermore, the testing method of the executed experimental study on thermally curved glass is described. The range of parameters for the tested specimens included the glass thickness from 3 mm to 12 mm and the bending radii from 400 mm to 2000 mm. We recorded the strain at selected points at the tensioned side and the input force for each specimen. The measured relation between strain and load validates a numerical model, which is able to depict the actual two-dimensional stress distribution for thermally curved glass and includes non-linear aspects. The model allows for the determination of correction factors. With those, the bending strength of thermally curved glass can be calculated by measuring merely the input force during the four-point bending tests. The correction factors are summarised in charts depending on the radius and the thickness of the glass sample

Distributed Interior Point Methods for Optimization in Energy Networks

This note discusses an essentially decentralized interior point method, which is well suited for optimization problems arising in energy networks. Advantages of the proposed method are guaranteed and fast local convergence also for problems with non-convex constraints. Moreover, our method exhibits a small communication footprint and it achieves a comparably high solution accuracy with a limited number of iterations, whereby the local subproblems are of low computational complexity. We illustrate the performance of the proposed method on a problem from energy systems, i.e., we consider an optimal power flow problem with 708 buses

Applying logic to pulmonary artery catheter use

Mansour and colleagues recommend not routinely using the pulmonary artery catheter to guide hemodynamic management in the intensive care unit, because the perceived benefits are largely intangible [1]. Pulmonary artery catheter monitoring of the right ventricular ejection fraction (RVef) and of the right ventricular end-diastolic volume (EDV), however, reflects powerful yet underutilized relationships that assess right ventricular performance. Since the cardiac output equals the product of the RVef, the EDV and the heart rate, one can assess the RVef to EDV relations as direct measures of right ventricular performance. A series of RVef, EDV and heart rate combinations can give the same cardiac output (Figure 1); monitoring or targeting cardiac output alone ignores this reality. For example, in hypovolemia the EDV is low and the RVef is increased

Influence of Light Intensity and Light Duration on Plant Growth

Michael Martinez, Andres N. Gomez, and Qianiqan Liu's poster on the influence of light intensity and light duration on plant growth

Unternehmensnachfolge im sächsischen Handwerk

Die Unternehmen des sächsischen Handwerks sehen sich vielseitigen Herausforderungen gegenüber. Das Verteidigen der Wettbewerbsposition gegenüber anderen Handwerkern aus dem Inland und dem osteuropäischen Ausland gestaltet sich schwierig. Zudem stehen viele Betriebe in den kommenden Jahren vor einem Generationswechsel. Das Thema Generationswechsel erhält vor dem Hintergrund der sich abzeichnenden demographischen Entwicklung noch zusätzlich Brisanz. Zur Problematik von Unternehmensnachfolgen in Sachsen erstellte die Niederlassung Dresden des ifo Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung eine Studie im Auftrag des Sächsischen Staatsministeriums für Wirtschaft und Arbeit. Der vorliegende Beitrag fasst die wesentlichen Ergebnisse speziell zu den sächsischen Handwerksunternehmen, die auch im sächsischen Mittelstandsbericht 2005/2006 veröffentlicht wurden, zusammen.Unternehmensnachfolge; Handwerk; Sachsen

Promoting less complex and more honest price negotiations in the online used car market with authenticated data

Online peer-to-peer (P2P) sales of used and or high-value goods are gaining more and more relevance today. However, since potential buyers cannot physically examine product quality during online sales, information asymmetries and consequently uncertainty and mistrust that already exist in offline sales are exacerbated in online markets. Authenticated data platforms have been proposed to solve these problems by providing authenticated data about the negotiation object, integrating it into text-based channels secured by IT. Yet, we know little about the dynamics of online negotiations today and the impact of the introduction of authenticated data on online negotiation behaviors. We address this research gap based on two experimental studies along with the example of online used-car trade. We analyze users’ communicative and strategic actions in current P2P chat-based negotiations and examine how the introduction of authenticated data affects these behaviors using a conceptional model derived from literature. Our results show that authenticated data can promote less complex negotiation processes and more honest communication behavior between buyers and sellers. Further, the results indicate that chats with the availability of authenticated data can positively impact markets with information asymmetries. These insights provide valuable contributions for academics interested in the dynamics of online negotiations and the effects of authenticated data in text-based online negotiations. In addition, providers of trade platforms who aim to advance their P2P sales platforms benefit by achieving a competitive advantage and a higher number of customers

miRA: adaptable novel miRNA identification in plants using small RNA sequencing data

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short regulatory RNAs derived from longer precursor RNAs. miRNA biogenesis has been studied in animals and plants, recently elucidating more complex aspects, such as non-conserved, species-specific, and heterogeneous miRNA precursor populations. Small RNA sequencing data can help in computationally identifying genomic loci of miRNA precursors. The challenge is to predict a valid miRNA precursor from inhomogeneous read coverage from a complex RNA library: while the mature miRNA typically produces many sequence reads, the remaining part of the precursor is covered very sparsely. As recent results suggest, alternative miRNA biogenesis pathways may lead to a more diverse miRNA precursor population than previously assumed. In plants, the latter manifests itself in e.g. complex secondary structures and expression from multiple loci within precursors. Current miRNA identification algorithms often depend on already existing gene annotation, and/or make use of specific miRNA precursor features such as precursor lengths, secondary structures etc. Consequently and in view of the emerging new understanding of a more complex miRNA biogenesis in plants, current tools may fail to characterise organism-specific and heterogeneous miRNA populations. RESULTS: miRA is a new tool to identify miRNA precursors in plants, allowing for heterogeneous and complex precursor populations. miRA requires small RNA sequencing data and a corresponding reference genome, and evaluates precursor secondary structures and precursor processing accuracy; key parameters can be adapted based on the specific organism under investigation. We show that miRA outperforms the currently best plant miRNA prediction tools both in sensitivity and specificity, for data involving Arabidopsis thaliana and the Volvocine algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; the latter organism has been shown to exhibit a heterogeneous and complex precursor population with little cross-species miRNA sequence conservation, and therefore constitutes an ideal model organism. Furthermore we identify novel miRNAs in the Chlamydomonas-related organism Volvox carteri. CONCLUSIONS: We propose miRA, a new plant miRNA identification tool that is well adapted to complex precursor populations. miRA is particularly suited for organisms with no existing miRNA annotation, or without a known related organism with well characterized miRNAs. Moreover, miRA has proven its ability to identify species-specific miRNAs. miRA is flexible in its parameter settings, and produces user-friendly output files in various formats (pdf, csv, genome-browser-suitable annotation files, etc.). It is freely available at https://github.com/mhuttner/miRA .The authors acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 960), the Bavarian Genome Research Network (BayGene), and the Bavarian Biosystems Network (BioSysNet)

Was ist Gesundheitspolitologie? Entwicklungsstand und Entwicklungspotenziale des politikwissenschaftlichen Beitrages zur Gesundheitssystemforschung

"Die Gesundheitssystemforschung ist durch das Zusammenwirken unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen gekennzeichnet. Gleichwohl bringen diese durch eine kooperative Arbeitsteilung gemeinsame Forschungsergebnisse hervor. Die Politikwissenschaft ist bis heute in das wissenschaftliche Netzwerk der Gesundheitssystemforschung schlecht integriert. Während die Soziologie, die Medizin und die Ökonomie auf den Gegenstand Gesundheitssystem spezialisierte Subdisziplinen ausbildeten, und bei der Forschung eng kooperieren, finden Forschungsergebnisse der Politikwissenschaft bisher wenig Eingang. Die vorliegende Arbeit plädiert für eine Integration der Politikwissenschaft in die Gesundheitssystemforschung. Hierzu erscheint es erforderlich, wie die übrigen Disziplinen, eine spezifische Subdisziplin auszubilden. Wesentliche Voraussetzungen für die Entwicklung der 'Gesundheitspolitologie' sind die Definition des Forschungsgegenstandes und der Forschungsfragen. Hierzu soll dieser Aufsatz Vorschläge unterbreiten." (Autorenreferat)"Health systems research is characterized by a cooperation of various scientific disciplines producing joint research results through a division of labour. To this day, political science is poorly integrated into the scientific network of health systems research. Whereas, sociology, medicine, and economics cooperate closely, having created sub-disciplines specializing on the subject, the results of political science research have hardly impacted the field. This paper argues for an integration of political science into health systems research. For this purpose the creation of a specific sub-discipline is indispensable. A requirement for the development of a 'health politology' is defining the object of research, the focus of this paper." (author's abstract

Protein disulfide isomerase acts as an injury response signal that enhances fibrin generation via tissue factor activation

The activation of initiator protein tissue factor (TF) is likely to be a crucial step in the blood coagulation process, which leads to fibrin formation. The stimuli responsible for inducing TF activation are largely undefined. Here we show that the oxidoreductase protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) directly promotes TF-dependent fibrin production during thrombus formation in vivo. After endothelial denudation of mouse carotid arteries, PDI was released at the injury site from adherent platelets and disrupted vessel wall cells. Inhibition of PDI decreased TF-triggered fibrin formation in different in vivo murine models of thrombus formation, as determined by intravital fluorescence microscopy. PDI infusion increased — and, under conditions of decreased platelet adhesion, PDI inhibition reduced — fibrin generation at the injury site, indicating that PDI can directly initiate blood coagulation. In vitro, human platelet–secreted PDI contributed to the activation of cryptic TF on microvesicles (microparticles). Mass spectrometry analyses indicated that part of the extracellular cysteine 209 of TF was constitutively glutathionylated. Mixed disulfide formation contributed to maintaining TF in a state of low functionality. We propose that reduced PDI activates TF by isomerization of a mixed disulfide and a free thiol to an intramolecular disulfide. Our findings suggest that disulfide isomerases can act as injury response signals that trigger the activation of fibrin formation following vessel injury