Early motor trajectories predict motor but not cognitive function in preterm- and term-born adults without pre-existing neurological conditions

Very preterm (VP; 0.05). Motor problems in childhood were homotypically associated with poorer motor competence in adulthood. Similarly, early cognitive problems were homotypically associated with adult cognitive outcomes. Thus, both motor and cognitive function should be assessed in routine follow-up during childhood

Design of Injection and Extraction Systems with Optimisation of Lattice and Layout for the CERN PS2 Synchrotron

The CERN Proton Synchrotron PS2 is one of the foreseen accelerators for the LHC injector upgrade. This upgrade aims first at increasing the instantaneous luminosity of LHC and second at providing a reliable beam for the CERN accelerator complex. From this aspect, the main characteristics of the PS2 are high reliability for high intensity beams. The goal of this thesis was the design of the machine’s lattice and injection/extraction systems meeting the constraints coming mainly from the LHC beam type but also from beam requirements of experiments at PS2 and the SPS. In the design, the given energy range together with filling schemes for different beam types and RF cogging were first used to define the circumference of the machine. Estimates on the space requirements of injection/extraction systems were made in order to divide the total machine length between arc and long straight section. Existing tunnels for transfer lines together with the minimisation of the total transfer line length favoured a race track shape machine. The energy range of PS2 does not allow to omit transition crossing by injecting above or extracting below transition. Two significantly different lattice types were therefore designed, one with a real value of gamma transition and another with negative momentum compaction (NMC) with imaginary value of gamma transition and thereby no transition crossing. In case of the real gamma transition lattice, diff erent cell structures were studied according to their bending power and optics behaviour. A FODO cell with 90˚ horizontal phase advance met the constraints best and was chosen to build a closed lattice. This lattice was optimised to use as few quadrupole families as possible with a missing magnet scheme chosen to suppress the dispersion in the long straight section. Concerning transition crossing, longitudinal space charge and impedance from the existing PS were scaled to the PS2 to estimate the necessary parameters of a gamma transition jump. A first- and second-order jump scheme were designed and their influence on the bare optics analysed. The second lattice design approach was the NMC. Here, the dispersion function is forced to oscillate between negative and positive values and by placing dipoles mainly in areas of negative dispersion the value of gamma transition can be made imaginary. This lattice suffers from complexity in hardware and operation but it has the big advantage of avoiding transition. The decision for a 40 MHz RF system which does not impinge on the choice of gamma transition simplified designing an NMC lattice that meets the aperture constraints. Concluding the lattice choice, the NMC is presently the PS2 baseline because it avoids the complexities of transition crossing and the inevitable beam loss, which for a high intensity machine is a prime concern. The second part of this thesis concerns the desig n of beam transfer systems. Different beam types necessitate two injection and three extraction systems. On the basis of the constraints from these systems a concept for the whole long straight section was chosen. The structure was decided to be a central split triplet with two FODO cells attached on each side. This allows to place the challenging H- injection in one drift and accomodate the other systems in the FODO cells. Constraints of the different systems were determined and accordingly the optics was optimised. A resulting concept is given for the injection/extraction straight which is interchangeable between the two lattice options

Informationen zu oralen Krebsmedikamenten im Internet: eine qualitative Analyse von Webseiten

Bei der Entscheidung von Krebspatienten für oder wider die Einnahme von oralen Krebsmedikamenten, sowie zur Unterstützung bei der Einnahme selbst, benötigen diese Zugang zu hochqualitativen Informationen. Eine häufig verwendete Quelle stellt hierbei das Internet da. Die hier zur Verfügung stehenden Quellen weisen jedoch eine stark unterschiedliche Qualität auf. Daher war das Ziel dieser Arbeit die Qualität von Webseitenanbietern zu evaluieren. Hierzu wurden 100 Webseiten anhand von inhaltsbezogenen und formalen Kriterien analysiert. Diese Kriterien wurden aus 3 bestehenden Evaluationsmethoden ausgewählt: Ein von Liebl et al. entwickeltes Instrument zur Bewertung von Webseiten zum Thema Krebs, Prinzipien, die der Erstellung von Fakten-Boxen zugrunde liegen, sowie die Richtlinien des Ärztlichen Zentrums für Qualität in der Medizin (ÄZQ) zur Erstellung medizinischer Informationen. Um die Webseiten auszuwählen, wurde eine Interrecherche simuliert. Mittels ANOVA wurden Unterschiede zwischen den 4 Anbietergruppen gemeinnützige Webseiten (n=23), online Zeitungen bzw. Zeitschriften (n=14), profitorientierte Webseiten (n=57) und Webseiten privater oder nicht ermittelbarer Anbieter (n=6) ermittelt. Insgesamt wurden so 100 Artikel analysiert, die von 39 Webseiten bereitgestellt wurden. Inhaltsbezogen wiesen online Zeitungen bzw. Zeitschriften eine geringere Qualität als profitorientierte oder gemeinnützige Webseiten auf. Bezüglich der formalen Kriterien zeigte sich ein heterogenes Bild. Während sich bei dem Aspekt Datenschutz keine Unterschiede zwischen profitorientierten und gemeinnützigen Webseiten ergab, schnitten bei dem Aspekt Transparenz gemeinnützige Webseiten signifikant besser ab. Insgesamt sollten gemeinnützige Webseiten aufgrund ihrer hohen inhaltlichen Qualität sowie ihrer Transparenz bevorzugt empfohlen werden. Die Förderung von digitaler Gesundheitskompetenz wäre wünschenswert

Causes and effects of 2008 financial crisis

Beginning in the mid 2007’s the US financial market started to slide into the “worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the early 1930’s” (Thakor, 2015: p.156). The domino effect of several events and occasions were leading first to a countrywide recession in the USA then later spreading globally. In the following this term paper will deal with the main causes and effects of 2008 financial crisis. Unlike other topics in literature there is no consensus about the question of guilt in this sense. Among economists there are different approaches to explain the main causes of the financial crisis

An Evaluation of Conservation Reserve Lands in Relation to Pheasant Production and Survival

The ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) is one of the most important upland game species over much of the nation. It is also one of the most difficult to effectively manage for the increasing hunter population. The high value of agricultural lands renders habitat improvement programs by state agencies a financial impossibility except on an extremely localized basis. Therefore, the primary pheasant management tool largely remains hunting season manipulation. The federal government through various agricultural programs may have an influence upon pheasant habitat. Public Law 540 entitled Agricultural Act of 1956, more commonly referred to as the Soil Bank Act (Congress, 84th, 2d Session 1956, 1957), seemed quite promising in this respect. This act provided for two programs, the Acreage Reserve and the Conservation Reserve. The first was a short term program and of negligible value for pheasants. The second was of longer duration and is the one under which remaining Soil Bank lands are included. Under the Conservation Reserve, cropland was taken out of production and a sound conservation practice established in an attempt to balance the total production and demand of surplus crops. Farmers signed contracts for periods of three to ten years. The federal government then shared the cost of establishing conservation practices and made annual payments for maintaining them during the contract periods. The Conservation Reserve program has not been extended since 1960. Consequently, all remaining contracts will have expired by the end of 1971. Relatively little Conservation Reserve land has been put into G practices specifically designed for wildlife. These include such things as wildlife food and cover plantings, development or restoration of shallow water areas, and construction of ponds and wildlife watering facilities. Instead, the bulk of wildlife benefits will have to be derived from the A-2 practice, the establishment of permanent vegetative cover, since this is the one most widely employed. Any appraisal of the Conservation Reserve then is, in actuality, an evaluation of habitat provided by the A-2 practice

Diagnostic orientation values for ACTH and other parameters for clinically healthy donkeys and mules (insulin, triglycerides, glucose, fructosamines, and ɣ‐GT)

Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction is the most prevalent endocrine disease in horses. Although donkeys and mules may also be affected, only a few data have been published. Reference values for diagnostic parameters, such as adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), are especially scarce or even lacking. Therefore, in the present study, available data from the literature have been verified and completed to facilitate a reliable diagnosis. Clinical inspections and haematological and biochemical examinations were carried out four times in a three‐month interval (February to November) in 44 donkeys and 31 mules. Data from clinically healthy animals were used as an orientation. Plasma ACTH concentrations showed seasonal changes in both animal groups. However, it was generally higher in donkeys than mules. Although blood glucose (EDTA plasma) showed no difference between groups, serum insulin concentrations were consistently higher in donkeys. Serum fructosamine levels were slightly higher in mules, whereas, in some cases, serum triglyceride levels were considerably higher in donkeys. Serum gamma‐glutamyltransferase showed a striking peak in mules in August, whereas the remaining gamma‐glutamyltransferase values were lower compared to donkeys. By comparing donkeys and mules, the present work reveals differences in various blood parameters which should be considered for diagnoses and future studies

Beam Losses and Collimation Considerations for PS2

The high intensity beams with different emittances foreseen to be delivered by the PS2, an upgraded version of the actual CERN Proton Synchrotron, require strict control of beam losses in order to protect the machine components and enable their hands-on maintenance. Beam loss simulations based on dedicated numerical tools are undertaken for a variety of PS2 beams and for different loss mechanisms, along the whole accelerating cycle. In this respect, a first iteration of the collimation system is presented

General cognitive but not mathematic abilities predict very preterm and healthy term born adults’ wealth

Objective Very preterm (<32 weeks gestation; VP) and/or very low birth weight (<1500g; VLBW) children often have cognitive and mathematic difficulties. It is unknown whether VP/VLBW children’s frequent mathematic problems significantly add to the burden of negative life-course consequences over and above effects of more general cognitive deficits. Our aim was to determine whether negative consequences of VP/VLBW versus healthy term birth on adult wealth are mediated by mathematic abilities in childhood, or rather explained by more general cognitive abilities. Methods 193 VP/VLBW and 217 healthy term comparison participants were studied prospectively from birth to adulthood as part of a geographically defined study in Bavaria (South Germany). Mathematic and general cognitive abilities were assessed at 8 years with standardized tests; wealth information was assessed at 26 years with a structured interview and summarized into a comprehensive index score. All scores were z-standardized. Results At 8 years, VP/VLBW (n = 193, 52.3% male) had lower mathematic and general cognitive abilities than healthy term comparison children (n = 217, 47.0% male). At 26 years, VP/VLBW had accumulated significantly lower overall wealth than term born comparison adults (-0.57 (1.08) versus -0.01 (1.00), mean difference 0.56 [0.36–0.77], p < .001). Structural equation modeling confirmed that VP/VLBW birth (β = -.13, p = .022) and childhood IQ (β = .24, p < .001) both directly predicted adult wealth, but math did not (β = .05, p = .413). Analyses were controlled for small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birth, child sex, and family socioeconomic status. Conclusion This longitudinal study from birth to adulthood shows that VP/VLBW survivors’ general cognitive rather than specific mathematic problems explain their diminished life-course success. These findings are important in order to design effective interventions at school age that reduce the burden of prematurity for those individuals who were born at highest neonatal risk