Tierwohl - Biolandwirte leisten Pionierarbeit

Gewinnbringend gesunde Nahrungsmittel zu produzieren und dabei Tierwohl und -gesundheit gleichermaßen zu berücksichtigen, ist eine große Herausforderung. Der Biolandbau hat sich hier anspruchsvolle Ziele gesetzt und geht damit der konventionellen Landwirtschaft auf einem schwierigen Weg voran

Perfusion of the interventricular septum during ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP)

Objective: To determine whether regional hypoperfusion of the interventricular septum occurs during ventilation with positive end-expiratory pressure. Design: Animal study. Animals: Anesthetized, closed chest dogs (n = 8). Interventions: Induction of experimental adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and then ventilation with 10,15, and 20 cm H2O of positive end-expiratory pressure. Measurements and Main Results: Cardiac output and regional interventricular septum blood flow 'were assessed at control, at induction of experimental ARDS, and at each level of positive end-expiratory pressure. Ventilation with 20 cm H2O of positive end-expiratory pressure decreased cardiac output (-32% vs. control, p <.05), and did not change absolute, but increased relative (to cardiac output) interventricular septum blood flow. During experimental ARDS and ventilation at 20 cm H2O end-expiratory pressure, there was a redistribution of flow toward the right ventricular free wall (+93%, p < .001) and the right ventricular part of the interventricular septum (+68%, p < .01), while flow to the left ventricular interventricular septum and to the left ventricular free wall remained unchanged. Locally hypoperfused interventricular septum areas or findings indicative of interventricular septum ischemia were not observed during positive end-expiratory pressure. Conclusions: The decrease in cardiac output during positive end-expiratory pressure is not caused by impaired interventricular septum blood supply. The preferential perfusion of the right ventricular interventricular septum indicates increased local right ventricular interventricular septum oxygen-demand and suggests that during positive end-expiratory pressure, this part of the interventricular septum functionally dissociates from the left ventricular interventricular septum and the left ventricular free wall to support the stressed right ventricle

Einführung eines Hilfsmittels zur Einschätzung der Standortgerechtheit der Milchviehzucht und -haltung auf ökologischen Betrieben

In organic agriculture site related factors of animal environment can’t be changed to a great extend by using remedies like additional food, concentrates and medicines as it is common in conventional agriculture. Therefore site related environment factors have a great influence on the possibilities of dairy cow breeding and husbandry on an organic farm. Non site related animal breeding can elevate the risk of (metabolic) stress and diseases in cows. The goal of this project was to introduce a new tool for advisers and farmers to estimate and ameliorate the site relatedness of dairy cow breeding and husbandry. The tool should help to characterize and compare “farm types” and “dairy cow types” and to judge if they fit together or not. 12 site related factors concerning roughage production and animal husbandry were chosen to char-acterize “farm types” and 9 cow associated factors concerning milk production, dairy type, height and weight to characterize “dairy cow types”. All factors are scored from 1 to 4. Low scores for farm type factors represent a low flexibility of the farm (extensive environment, poor roughage quality). Low scores for cow type factors indicate a high flexibility (robustness, unpretentiousness) of the cow type. On farms with many low scored factors it is of advantage to have animals with many low scored factors as well (and vice versa). The tool is programmed in a work sheet application (Microsoft Ex-cel). It provides a report for the farm, which shows a graph with all the factors and the percentage of the highest possible scores of all factors of the farm type and the cow type, respectively. The similarity of those two percentage figures can be applied as a standard to judge site relatedness of animal breeding and husbandry. If the cow fac-tors are scored more than 5% higher than the farm factors site relatedness is as-sessed as “weak” and should be improved. If the cow factors are scored lower than the farm factors the potential of the farm for milk production is not fully utilized. An example of such a report is presented. First experiences with this tool on 19 organic farms showed coherence between site relatedness of dairy cow breeding and longev-ity of the animals. The estimating tool was developed for conditions in Switzerland. It can be adjusted for other countries and regions as well

A Tool For Economic Development Agencies For The Model-Based Business Consultation In Location Planning

Location planning is crucial to a company’s long-term success. The increasing concentration of companies in urban areas poses new challenges for regional location planning. For companies to make good long-term location planning and development decisions, they must increasingly cooperate with Economic Development Agencies (EDAs). Against this background, a tool was developed in the DFG research project "TransferMetroPlant" that supports companies in regional location assessment and decision-making by comparing location requirements with assessed and stored locations. This tool makes it possible for EDAs to systematically and objectively carry out location consultancy and to derive development measures for the managed locations in the process. Company and municipal measures for the development of locations over time can be taken into account. This paper presents the structure of the tool and the corresponding workflow and provides insights into its development. In addition, essential findings of the workshop-based validation of the developed planning approach are described

A detailed guideline for the fabrication of single bacterial probes used for atomic force spectroscopy

The atomic force microscope (AFM) evolved as a standard device in modern microbiological research. However, its capability as a sophisticated force sensor is not used to its full capacity. The AFM turns into a unique tool for quantitative adhesion research in bacteriology by using “bacterial probes”. Thereby, bacterial probes are AFM cantilevers that provide a single bacterium or a cluster of bacteria as the contact-forming object. We present a step-by-step protocol for preparing bacterial probes, performing force spectroscopy experiments and processing force spectroscopy data. Additionally, we provide a general insight into the field of bacterial cell force spectroscopy

Vergleich von zwei unterschiedlichen Methoden der Körperkonditionsbeurteilung beim Milchvieh

Two different methods to reveal body condition scores (BCS), called independent BCS (iBCS) and dependent BCS (dBCS; similar to the method of Ferguson et al. 1994), were applied in 1111 Swiss Brown dairy cows. Ultrasound measurement of the back fat thickness (BFT) served as validation method. Aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of assessor’s subjective impression of the overall appearance of the cow on the scoring process. With 67.3% of the BFT variance, the dBCS with its consideration of the overall impression of the cow and its more open approach was more suitable to predict the subcutaneous fat appositions. The strictly formularized iBCS could only explain 47.3% of the BFT variance. The pin bone region was identified to cause the biggest assessing problems. To summarize, including the overall impression of the cow is decisive to gain valid results, especially when the body condition scoring system is applied to different cattle types and breeds

Stability of ZnSe-Passivated Laser Facets Cleaved in Air and in Ultra-High Vacuum

Catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) is one of the main failure mechanisms limiting the reliability of GaAs based laser diodes. Here, we compare the facet stability of ZnSe-passivated ridge-waveguide lasers (RWLs) that are cleaved in air and subsequently cleaned using atomic hydrogen with RWLs that are cleaved in ultra-high vacuum. RWLs cleaved in ultra-high vacuum show a superior performance and reach power densities up to 58 MW/cm 2 under extended continuous wave operation at 1064 nm. This is attributed to the reduction of defects at the interface between ZnSe and the cleaved facet as evidenced by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction

Procedural validity of standardized symptoms questions for the assessment of psychotic symptoms: A comparison of the CIDI with two clinical methods

The study examines to what degree well-documented present and life-time psychotic symptoms in a group of former psychiatric inpatients are ascertained when using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). The Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale (IMPS) and the Manual for the Assessment and Documentation of Psychopathology/Diagnostische Sichtlochkartei (AMDP/DiaSika) Interview-Checklist approach were used for the &quot;clinical&quot; evaluations of symptoms. The results indicate fair concordance between the two clinical approaches and the DIS with regard to the presence of any delusional or hallucination symptoms. Low to poor agreement was found in the assessment of many of the rather specific hallucinations and delusions. Generally, the concordance found was higher when compared to the more clinical AMDP/DiaSiKa approach than to the IMPS. More detailed comparisons with diagnostic subgroups of schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients substantiated the findings in the overall sample. Overall it was reconfirmed that the DIS approach is limited to those patients who are cooperative and at least partly remitted. TO INCREASE THE RELIABILITY The DIS has been used extensively in many studies by clinicians and trained lay interviewers in general population survey