Efficient fuel use in agricultural Technology - EKoTech

Die Reduktion von klima- und gesundheitsschädlichen Emissionen nimmt einen immer wichtigeren Platz ein. Da im Bereich von Motoren und Maschinen bereits große Fortschritte errungen wurden und einige Potentiale bereits ausgeschöpft sind oder nur noch geringe Fortschritte zu erwarten sind, ist es nun nötig, die Betrachtung zu erweitern. Im Gebiet der Landwirtschaft bieten sich viele Optimierungsmöglichkeiten über die gesamte Prozesskette hinweg. Wird diese als Ganzes betrachtet, ergeben sich große Einsparmöglichkeiten bei Kraftstoff und Emissionen. Hier setzt das EKoTech-Projekt an. Es analysiert die vorhandenen Prozesse, zeigt deren Entwicklung auf und verdeutlicht Möglichkeiten zur Effizienzsteigerung. Diese werden mit Hilfe der im Projekt erzielten Ergebnisse zu Handlungsempfehlungen verarbeitet. Die enge Zusammenarbeit von Industrie und Wissenschaft soll somit für den Anwender nutzbar werden und Industrie und Forschung die Möglichkeit bieten, Innovationen im landwirtschaftlichen Prozess voranzutreiben.The reduction of emissions that are harmful to climate and health is becoming increasingly important. Since great progress has already been made in the field of engines and machines, and if only slight progress is to be expected, it is now necessary to extend the consideration. In the field of agriculture, many opportunities for optimization are available throughout the entire process chain. If these chains are considered holistically, there are great potentials for saving fuel and emissions. This is where the EKoTech project starts. It analyzes the existing processes, shows their development and shows possibilities for increasing efficiency. The results will lead to recommendations for action. The close cooperation between industry and science is thus to be made available to the user and enable industry and research to advance innovations in the agricultural process

Independent domains of daily mobility in patients with neurological gait disorders

The aim of this study was to establish a comprehensive and yet parsimonious model of daily mobility activity in patients with neurological gait disorders. Patients (N = 240) with early-stage neurological (peripheral vestibular, cerebellar, hypokinetic, vascular or functional) gait disorders and healthy controls (N = 35) were clinically assessed with standardized scores related to functional mobility, balance confidence, quality of life, cognitive function, and fall history. Subsequently, daily mobility was recorded for 14~days by means of a body-worn inertial sensor (ActivPAL\circledR). Fourteen mobility measures derived from ActivPAL recordings were submitted to principle component analysis (PCA). Group differences within each factor obtained from PCA were analyzed and hierarchical regression analysis was performed to identify predictive characteristics from clinical assessment for each factor. PCA yielded five significant orthogonal factors (i.e., mobility domains) accounting for 92.3% of the total variance from inertial-sensor-recordings: ambulatory volume (38.7%), ambulatory pattern (22.3%), postural transitions (13.3%), sedentary volume (10.8%), and sedentary pattern (7.2%). Patients' mobility performance only exhibited reduced scores in the ambulatory volume domain but near-to-normal scores in all remaining domains. Demographic characteristics, clinical scores, and fall history were differentially associated with each domain explaining 19.2-10.2% of their total variance. This study supports~a low-dimensional five-domain model for daily mobility behavior in patients with neurological gait disorders that may facilitate monitoring the course of disease or therapeutic intervention effects in ecologically valid and clinically relevant contexts. Further studies are required to explore the determinants that may explain performance differences of patients within each of these domains and to examine the consequences of altered mobility behavior with respect to patients' risk of falling and quality of life

Quantification of pathological gait parameter thresholds of idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus patients in clinical gait analysis

The aim of the study was to distinguish the hypokinetic gait disorder in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) patients from the gait decline in the elderly population by quantifying pathological gait parameter thresholds utilizing a multiple condition gait assessment. 55 NPH patients and 55 age-matched healthy subjects underwent a standardized gait assessment with eight gait conditions. Spatiotemporal gait parameters were assessed through a pressure-sensitive carpet. Statistical analysis consisted of a binary logistic regression (BLR) model, logistic curve-fit evaluated by a Chi-square goodness-of-fit-test, receiver operating characteristic models with area under the curves (AUC), and inverse BLR. Most discriminative gait parameter thresholds were observed in pace, gait cycle, and support gait domains. The most distinct gait conditions were preferred walking speed and semantic dual task. During preferred walking speed, the most significant gait parameter thresholds were stride length ≤ 1.02 m (sensitivity 0.93/specificity 0.91/AUC 0.96), gait velocity ≤ 0.83 m/s (0.80/0.91/0.93), double support phase ≥ 27.0% (0.96/0.76/0.91), and stride length coefficient of variation ≥ 3.4% (0.93/0.72/0.90). In conclusion, the hypokinetic gait disorder in NPH can be quantitatively differentiated from gait patterns of the elderly population. In future studies, this approach may be useful to differentiate clinical entities with similar gait disorders utilizing instrumented gait analysis procedures

sv kompakt: quadratisch.praktisch.infomiert.

In diesem kleinen quadratischen Heft werden auf 20 Seiten die wichtigsten Themen rund um die Schülervertretungsarbeit angeschnitten. Das »sv kompakt« ist z.B. dafür gedacht, neu gewählte Klassensprecherinnen und Klassensprecher über ihre Aufgaben zu informieren, aber auch allen sächsischen Schülerinnen und Schülern einen Einblick in die Arbeit ihrer Vertretung zu geben. Das »sv kompakt« informiert kurz, übersichtlich und verständlich über Aufgaben der Klassensprecher, Schülersprecher und Schulkonferenz sowie der Kreis- und Stadtschülerräte und des LandesSchülerRat Sachsen. Redaktionsschluss: 31.10.202

Recent artificial selection in U.S. Jersey cattle impacts autozygosity levels of specific genomic regions

Background: Genome signatures of artificial selection in U.S. Jersey cattle were identified by examining changes in haplotype homozygosity for a resource population of animals born between 1953 and 2007. Genetic merit of this population changed dramatically during this period for a number of traits, especially milk yield. The intense selection underlying these changes was achieved through extensive use of artificial insemination (AI), which also increased consanguinity of the population to a few superior Jersey bulls. As a result, allele frequencies are shifted for many contemporary animals, and in numerous cases to a homozygous state for specific genomic regions. The goal of this study was to identify those selection signatures that occurred after extensive use of AI since the 1960, using analyses of shared haplotype segments or Runs of Homozygosity. When combined with animal birth year information, signatures of selection associated with economically important traits were identified and compared to results from an extended haplotype homozygosity analysis. Results: Overall, our results reveal that more recent selection increased autozygosity across the entire genome, but some specific regions increased more than others. A genome-wide scan identified more than 15 regions with a substantial change in autozygosity. Haplotypes found to be associated with increased milk, fat and protein yield in U.S. Jersey cattle also consistently increased in frequency. Conclusions: The analyses used in this study was able to detect directional selection over the last few decades when individual production records for Jersey animals were available

Cardiac myosin binding protein C phosphorylation in cardiac disease

Perturbations in sarcomeric function may in part underlie systolic and diastolic dysfunction of the failing heart. Sarcomeric dysfunction has been ascribed to changes in phosphorylation status of sarcomeric proteins caused by an altered balance between intracellular kinases and phosphatases during the development of cardiac disease. In the present review we discuss changes in phosphorylation of the thick filament protein myosin binding protein C (cMyBP-C) reported in failing myocardium, with emphasis on phosphorylation changes observed in familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy caused by mutations in MYBPC3. Moreover, we will discuss assays which allow to distinguish between functional consequences of mutant sarcomeric proteins and (mal)adaptive changes in sarcomeric protein phosphorylation

Semantic wikis for personal knowledge management

Abstract. Wikis are successful tools for collaborative information collection. Wikis are becoming popular knowledge management tools, but do not fully support the requirements for such tools, namely structured search and knowledge reuse. Adding semantic annotations to Wikis helps to address these limitations by offering advanced information access (navigation and querying) and allowing knowledge reuse (through embedded queries and semantic information exchange). We present an architecture for Semantic Wikis and present our prototype SemperWiki.