Applicability of mixed-mode chromatography for the simultaneous analysis of C1-C18 perfluoroalkylated substances

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02434-wA new analytical method for the determination of 22 perfluoroalkylated (carboxylic and sulfonic) acids in water samples is presented. The method's objective was to achieve the simultaneous quantification of compounds with different chain lengths (from C1 to C18). To this end, 500 mL of water were extracted with Oasis WAX solid-phase extraction cartridges and eluted with 3 mL of 5% ammonia in methanol. After evaporation to dryness, extracts were reconstituted in methanol:ultrapure water (1:1) and analyzed by mixed-mode liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (MMLC-MS/MS) using a weak anion exchange/reversed-phase column. The method provided good results, with limits of quantification lower than 1 ng/L in river water for most of compounds, except the two perfluorocarboxylic acids with the longest alkyl chain (>C14) and trifluoroacetic acid, for which a blank contamination problem was observed. The method proved good trueness and precision in both ultrapure and river water (R ≥ 81%, RSD ≤ 15%). After validation, the method was applied to the analysis of nine water samples where nine perfluoroalkylated acids were quantified. Seven of them were ultrashort- (C1-C4) and short-chain (C4-C8) perfluoroalkylated acids, pointing out the importance of developing methods capable to target such substances for further monitoringThis work was supported by the Water Challenges for a Changing World Joint Program Initiative (Water JPI) Pilot Call (ref. WATERJPI2013 – PROMOTE), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness/Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (refs. JPIW2013-117 and CTM2017-84763-C3-2-R), the Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities (ref. ED431C2017/36) and FEDER/EDRF fundingS

Mobility in a Globalised World 2015

The term mobility has different meanings in the following science disciplines. In economics, mobility is the ability of an individual or a group to improve their economic status in relation to income and wealth within their lifetime or between generations. In information systems and computer science, mobility is used for the concept of mobile computing, in which a computer is transported by a person during normal use. Logistics creates by the design of logistics networks the infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods. Electric mobility is one of today’s solutions from engineering perspective to reduce the need of energy resources and environmental impact. Moreover, for urban planning, mobility is the crunch question about how to optimise the different needs for mobility and how to link different transportation systems. In this publication we collected the ideas of practitioners, researchers, and government officials regarding the different modes of mobility in a globalised world, focusing on both domestic and international issues

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele

Die Evaluation von Qualität – Ein Methodenvergleich anhand von Nachwuchsleistungszentren im deutschen Profifußball

In this paper for the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation (GIO)”, a more economic evaluation strategy—based on assumptions and effort—is developed and empirically tested on the basis of publicly available data. Until now, the success of youth academies in German professional football (NLZ) has been measured by means of elaborate expert estimates of the quality of the organisational resources they have built up. A correction of attentuation, convergent validity of r = 0.84 was found between the input-oriented, extremely personnel- and cost-intensive previous procedure and our output-oriented indicator. The results will be discussed and combined with advice for further implementation

„Das perfekte Opfer“ – eine Analyse sicherheitsbezogener Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen im Internet in Abhängigkeit der Nutzerpersönlichkeit

Jüngere theoretische Beiträge und empirische Studien zur Informations- und Datensicherheit widmen sich diesem Themenbereich des Social Engineering verstärkt interdisziplinär und rücken dabei neben täterbezogenen Analysen (z.B. Watson, Holz & Mueller, 2008) vor allem gruppen- bzw. kulturbezogenen Aspekte (Flores, Holm, Nohlberg & Ekstedt, 2014; Tembe et al., 2014) als auch individuelle Charakteristika wie Persönlichkeitsmerkmale der (potentiellen) Opfer in den Fokus (z.B. Uebelacker & Quiel, 2014; Pattinson, Jerram, Parsons, McCormac & Butavicius, 2012;Vishwanath, Herath, Chen, Wang & Raghav Rao, 2011). Trotz der gegenwärtigen intensiven Beschäftigung mit dem Thema fehlen jedoch weiterhin eindeutige bedingungs- und personenbezogene Handlungsimplikationen zum Umgang mit den genannten Formen des Datendiebstahls (Gupta, Tewari, Jain & Agrawal, 2017). Ein möglicher Grund mag in der vergleichsweise häufigen Reduktion individueller Charakteristika auf die zentralen Persönlichkeitsmerkmale („Big 5“; Rammstedt, Kemper, Klein, Beierlein & Kovalena, 2012) liegen. Zugrundeliegende Motive oder Werte von Personen werden hingegen bislang unzureichend betrachtet (Fazio, Blascovich & Driscoll, 1992). Darüber hinaus beziehen bislang nur wenige Studien sowohl umfassende psychologische Befragungsinventare zu sicherheitsbezogenen Einstellungen, Verhaltensweisen und individuellen Personenmerkmalen als auch die Beurteilung von E-Mails oder Websites hinsichtlich der Vertrauenswürdigkeit und Handlungsbereitschaft in ihre Analysen ein. Der vorliegende Beitrag verfolgt mit einem entsprechenden Studiendesign das Ziel, diese Lücke weiter zu schließen und Erkenntnisse zu personenbezogenen Einflüssen auf die Informations- und Datensicherheit zu generieren. [Aus der Einleitung.

„Das perfekte Opfer“ – eine Analyse sicherheitsbezogener Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen im Internet in Abhängigkeit der Nutzerpersönlichkeit

Jüngere theoretische Beiträge und empirische Studien zur Informations- und Datensicherheit widmen sich diesem Themenbereich des Social Engineering verstärkt interdisziplinär und rücken dabei neben täterbezogenen Analysen (z.B. Watson, Holz & Mueller, 2008) vor allem gruppen- bzw. kulturbezogenen Aspekte (Flores, Holm, Nohlberg & Ekstedt, 2014; Tembe et al., 2014) als auch individuelle Charakteristika wie Persönlichkeitsmerkmale der (potentiellen) Opfer in den Fokus (z.B. Uebelacker & Quiel, 2014; Pattinson, Jerram, Parsons, McCormac & Butavicius, 2012;Vishwanath, Herath, Chen, Wang & Raghav Rao, 2011). Trotz der gegenwärtigen intensiven Beschäftigung mit dem Thema fehlen jedoch weiterhin eindeutige bedingungs- und personenbezogene Handlungsimplikationen zum Umgang mit den genannten Formen des Datendiebstahls (Gupta, Tewari, Jain & Agrawal, 2017). Ein möglicher Grund mag in der vergleichsweise häufigen Reduktion individueller Charakteristika auf die zentralen Persönlichkeitsmerkmale („Big 5“; Rammstedt, Kemper, Klein, Beierlein & Kovalena, 2012) liegen. Zugrundeliegende Motive oder Werte von Personen werden hingegen bislang unzureichend betrachtet (Fazio, Blascovich & Driscoll, 1992). Darüber hinaus beziehen bislang nur wenige Studien sowohl umfassende psychologische Befragungsinventare zu sicherheitsbezogenen Einstellungen, Verhaltensweisen und individuellen Personenmerkmalen als auch die Beurteilung von E-Mails oder Websites hinsichtlich der Vertrauenswürdigkeit und Handlungsbereitschaft in ihre Analysen ein. Der vorliegende Beitrag verfolgt mit einem entsprechenden Studiendesign das Ziel, diese Lücke weiter zu schließen und Erkenntnisse zu personenbezogenen Einflüssen auf die Informations- und Datensicherheit zu generieren. [Aus der Einleitung.

Future Science Prospects for AMI

The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) is a telescope specifically designed for high sensitivity measurements of low-surface-brightness features at cm-wavelength and has unique, important capabilities. It consists of two interferometer arrays operating over 13.5-18 GHz that image structures on scales of 0.5-10 arcmin with very low systematics. The Small Array (AMI-SA; ten 3.7-m antennas) couples very well to Sunyaev-Zel'dovich features from galaxy clusters and to many Galactic features. The Large Array (AMI-LA; eight 13-m antennas) has a collecting area ten times that of the AMI-SA and longer baselines, crucially allowing the removal of the effects of confusing radio point sources from regions of low surface-brightness, extended emission. Moreover AMI provides fast, deep object surveying and allows monitoring of large numbers of objects. In this White Paper we review the new science - both Galactic and extragalactic - already achieved with AMI and outline the prospects for much more.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures; white paper. Revised author list, section IB, section IIIC2, reference