ONE | Organisations- & Netzwerkentwicklung. Beratungskonzept zur Deckung des Unterstützungsbedarfs von Netzwerkkooperationenin Nordrhein-Westfalen

Angetrieben durch technische Innovationen und den Prozess der Globalisierung tendieren Organisationen seit rund einem Jahrzehnt dazu, Kooperationsnetzwerke mit anderen Unternehmen höher zu gewichten als die Arbeit in monobetrieblichen Strukturen. Diese Tendenz zeigt sich sowohl in bedarfswirtschaftlichen als auch erwerbswirtschaftlichen Organisationen. Beide „organisationalen Felder“ sind in verschiedene organisationale Kontexte eingebettet und verfolgen Kooperationsstrategien, die zu unterschiedlichen Kooperationsmustern führen. Um das Fachwissen über netzwerkorientierte Organisationsentwicklung weiter zu entwickeln und marktfähig zu machen, wurde an der Fachhochschule Köln ein interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt initiiert. An dem Forschungsvorhaben sind die Fakultäten für angewandte Sozialwissenschaften, für Wirtschaftswissen-schaften und für Fahrzeugsysteme und Produktion beteiligt, die unterschiedliche organisationale Felder repräsentieren. Die Fakultät für angewandte Sozial-wissenschaften fokussiert auf bedarfswirtschaftliche Organisationen im Feld der Sozialwirtschaft. Im Blickfeld der Fakultäten für Wirtschaftswissenschaften und für Fahrzeugsysteme und Produktion stehen erwerbswirtschaftliche Organisationen aus den Feldern der mittelständischen Wirtschaft und der Mobilitätswirtschaft. Im Verlauf des Forschungsprozesses wurden (1) im Rahmen einer Situationsanalyse eine quantitative Befragung von Profit- und Non-Profit-Organisationen in Nordrhein-Westfalen durchgeführt und Ergebnisse zum Stellenwert der Netzwerk-organisation in den aktuellen Organisationsstrategien und -konzepten gewonnen. Durch vertiefende qualitative Fallanalysen in Form von Bedarfsanalysen (2) sind Erfolgsfaktoren und Unterstützungsbedarfe bei einer Einbindung von Organisationen in eine Netzwerkkooperation aufgedeckt worden. In diesem Bericht erfolgt (3) die Beschreibung und Begründung induktiv abgeleiteter Beratungs-instrumente. Dafür werden zunächst relevante Forschungsergebnisse zusammengefasst und anschließend die von ihnen abgeleiteten Erfolgsfaktoren sowie Beratungs- und Unterstützungsbedarfe tabellarisch geclustert. Auf dieser Grundlage werden die Entwicklung von Beratungs- und Unterstützungsinstrumenten und die Modifizierung bestehender Ansätze für die Netzwerkberatung - differenziert nach den besonderen Anforderungen des bedarfswirtschaftlichen und des erwerbs-wirtschaftlichen Bereiches - theoretisch begründet. Die entwickelten Beratungsinstrumente werden nach Netzwerkentwicklungsphasen katalogisiert. Zusätzlich wird angegeben, was das jeweilige Instrument leistet und wo seine Grenzen sind. Zudem erfolgt für jedes Instrument die detaillierte Beschreibung der Ziele und des Anwendungsprozesses. Schließlich werden ausgewählte Module Beratungsinstrumente in zwei der drei organisationalen Felder zur Anwendung gebracht. Ziel ist die Beschreibung eines Best-Practice-Beratungsprozesses

Posture as Index for Approach-Avoidance Behavior

Approach and avoidance are two behavioral responses that make people tend to approach positive and avoid negative situations. This study examines whether postural behavior is influenced by the affective state of pictures. While standing on the Wii™ Balance Board, participants viewed pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures (passively viewing phase). Then they had to move their body to the left or the right (lateral movement phase) to make the next picture appear. We recorded movements in the anterior-posterior direction to examine approach and avoidant behavior. During passively viewing, people approached pleasant pictures. They avoided unpleasant ones while they made a lateral movement. These findings provide support for the idea that we tend to approach positive and avoid negative situations

Acquired immune responses to three malaria vaccine candidates and their relationship to invasion inhibition in two populations naturally exposed to malaria

Background: Malaria still represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality predominantly in several developing countries, and remains a priority in many public health programmes. Despite the enormous gains made in control and prevention the development of an effective vaccine represents a persisting challenge. Although several para site antigens including pre-erythrocytic antigens and blood stage antigens have been thoroughly investigated, the identification of solid immune correlates of protection against infection by Plasmodium falciparum or clinical malaria remains a major hurdle. In this study, an immuno-epidemiological survey was carried out between two populations naturally exposed to P. falciparum malaria to determine the immune correlates of protection. Methods: Plasma samples of immune adults from two countries (Ghana and Madagascar) were tested for their reactivity against the merozoite surface proteins MSP1-19, MSP3 and AMA1 by ELISA. The antigens had been selected on the basis of cumulative evidence of their role in anti-malarial immunity. Additionally, reactivity against crude P. falciparum lysate was investigated. Purified IgG from these samples were furthermore tested in an invasion inhibition assay for their antiparasitic activity. Results: Significant intra- and inter- population variation of the reactivity of the samples to the tested antigens were found, as well as a significant positive correlation between MSP1-19 reactivity and invasion inhibition (p < 0.05). Interestingly, male donors showed a significantly higher antibody response to all tested antigens than their female counterparts. In vitro invasion inhibition assays comparing the purified antibodies from the donors from Ghana and Madagascar did not show any statistically significant difference. Although in vitro invasion inhibition increased with breadth of antibody response, the increase was not statistically significant. Conclusions: The findings support the fact that the development of semi-immunity to malaria is probably con tingent on the development of antibodies to not only one, but a range of antigens and that invasion inhibition in immune adults may be a function of antibodies to various antigens. This supports strategies of vaccination including multicomponent vaccines as well as passive vaccination strategies with antibody cocktails

The Potential for Augmented Reality to Bring Balance betweenthe Ease of Pedestrian Navigation and the Acquisition of Spatial Knowledge

Being completely lost in an unfamiliar environment can be inconvenient, stressful and, at times, even dangerous. Maps are the traditional tools used for guidance but many people find maps difficult to use. In recent years, new tools like outdoor Augmented Reality (AR) have become available which allow virtual navigation cues to be directly overlaid on the real world, potentially overcoming the limitations of maps. However, it has been hypothesized that lower effort invested in processing navigation guidance may lead to diminished spatial knowledge (SK) thereby making users of such navigation tools far more vulnerable to getting lost should the tools fail for any reason. This thesis explores the research question of how AR and maps compare as tools for pedestrian navigation guidance as well as for SK acquisition and if there is a potential for AR tools be developed that would balance the two. We present a series of studies to better understand the consequences of using AR in a pedestrian navigation tool. The first two studies compared time-on-task performance and user preferences for AR and Map navigation interfaces on an outdoor navigation task. The results were not aligned with expectations, which led us to build a controlled testing environment for comparing AR and map navigation. Using this simulated setting, our third study verified the assumption that AR can indeed result in more efficient navigation performance and it supported the hypothesis that this would come at the cost of weaker SK. In our fourth study, we used a dual task design to compare the relative cognitive resources required by map and AR interfaces. The quantitative data collected indicated that users could potentially accept additional workload designed to improve SK without incurring significantly more effort. Our fifth and final study explored an interface with additional AR cues that could potentially balance navigation guidance with SK acquisition. The contributions of this thesis include insights into performance issues relating to AR, a classification of user types based on navigation tool usage behavior, a testbed for simulating perfect AR tracking in a virtual setting, objective measures for determining route knowledge, the capacity that pedestrian navigation tool users may have for performing additional tasks, and guidelines that would be helpful in the design of pedestrian navigation tools

Expression of the progenitor marker NG2/CSPG4 predicts poor survival and resistance to ionising radiation in glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumour, where patients respond poorly to radiotherapy and exhibit dismal survival outcomes. The mechanisms of radioresistance are not completely understood. However, cancer cells with an immature stem-like phenotype are hypothesised to play a role in radioresistance. Since the progenitor marker neuron-glial-2 (NG2) has been shown to regulate several aspects of GBM progression in experimental systems, we hypothesised that its expression would influence the survival of GBM patients. Quantification of NG2 expression in 74 GBM biopsies from newly diagnosed and untreated patients revealed that 50% express high NG2 levels on tumour cells and associated vessels, being associated with significantly shorter survival. This effect was independent of age at diagnosis, treatment received and hypermethylation of the O6-methylguanine methyltransferase (MGMT) DNA repair gene promoter. NG2 was frequently co-expressed with nestin and vimentin but rarely with CD133 and the NG2 positive tumour cells harboured genetic aberrations typical for GBM. 2D proteomics of 11 randomly selected biopsies revealed upregulation of an antioxidant, peroxiredoxin-1 (PRDX-1), in the shortest surviving patients. Expression of PRDX-1 was associated with significantly reduced products of oxidative stress. Furthermore, NG2 expressing GBM cells showed resistance to ionising radiation (IR), rapidly recognised DNA damage and effectuated cell cycle checkpoint signalling. PRDX-1 knockdown transiently slowed tumour growth rates and sensitised them to IR in vivo. Our data establish NG2 as an important prognostic factor for GBM patient survival, by mediating resistance to radiotherapy through induction of ROS scavenging enzymes and preferential DNA damage signalling

„CESSAR“: Configuration and Evaluation of Service Systems in Air-Catering with RFID. Betriebswirtschaftliche Konfiguration, Demonstration, exemplarischer Workflow

Multiagentensysteme sind eine „wissensverarbeitende Technologie“, die im Fall von CESSAR mit in einer Ontologie abgelegten semantischen Objektbeschreibungen arbeitet und die z. B. zur Suche und Vernetzung von Inhalten zu zuvor bestimmten operativen Zwecken verwendet werden kann. Ziel des iC-RFID-Projektes war die Entwicklung und Demonstration eines durchgängig „end-to-end“ RFID-gestützten Dienstleistungsprozesses im Luftverkehrscatering. Im Ergebnis zeigen die betriebswirtschaftlichen Studien zu CESSAR eine Reihe konkreter Nutzenpotenziale auf

Integriertes Knowledge-Management: Konzepte, Methoden, Instrumente und Fallbeispiele

Das Buch behandelt die konzeptionellen Grundlagen verschiedener Facetten des Knowledge-Management (Portale, Data-Mining, Content- und Workflow-Management, Customer-und Supplier-Relationship-Management, Agenten). Es gibt einen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand, stellt Methoden und Instrumente vor und zeigt anhand konkreter Fallbeispiele aus mehreren Unternehmen konkrete Einsatzmöglichkeiten auf