Benzene degradation by Ralstonia pickettii PKO1 in the presence of the alternative substrate succinate

The regulation of benzene degradation by Ralstonia pickettii PKO1 in the presence of the alternative substrate succinate was investigated in batch and continuous culture. In batch culture, R. pickettii PKO1 achieved a maximum specific growth rate with benzene of 0.18h−1, while succinate allowed much faster growth (μmax=0.5h−1). Under carbon excess conditions succinate repressed benzene consumption resulting in diauxic growth whereas under carbon-limited conditions in the chemostat both substrates were used simultaneously. Moreover, the effect of succinate on the adaptation towards growth with benzene was investigated in carbon-limited continuous culture at a dilution rate of 0.1h−1 by changing the inflowing carbon substrate from succinate to different mixtures of benzene and succinate. The adaptation process towards utilisation of benzene was rather complex. Three to sevenhours after the medium shift biomass production from benzene started. Higher proportions of succinate in the mixture had a positive effect on both the onset of biomass production and on the time required for induction of benzene utilisation. Strikingly, after the initial increase in biomass and benzene-catabolising activities, the culture collapsed regularly and wash-out of biomass was observed. After a transient phase of low biomass concentrations growth on benzene resumed so that finally rather stable and high biomass concentrations were reached. The decrease in biomass and degradative activities cannot be explained so far, but the possibilities of either intoxication of the cells by benzene itself, or of inhibition by degradation intermediates were ruled ou

Assessing the Development of Apprentice Principals in Traditional and Residency Programs

AbstractProblem Statement and Purpose: Assessing the development of apprentice principals’ knowledge and skills is challenging. The purpose of the study is to compare the outcomes of apprentice principals in a traditional training program and in an alternative residency program.Research Methods: Researchers conducted a survey of current administrative students and a survey of graduates of both the traditional educational administration program and of the alternative residency principal program. They collected self-report data and job status data.Findings: Findings showed that students in the residency program were significantly more likely to be satisfied with their program and were significantly more likely to report being knowledgeable in their field, compared with students in the traditional program. Graduates of residency programs were more likely than traditional graduates to report that their primary job status was “teacher leader”, assistant principal or principal, compared with traditional graduates.Conclusions: Findings will inform the ongoing development of the educational leadership program at the university. It can also inform faculty from other educational leadership programs who seek to develop transformational leaders

A Web-based Platform for E-Learning and Blended Learning in Modelling and Simulation

The Mathematics Modelling and Tools (MMT) e-learning system is a platform used for supporting lectures and tutoring at the Vienna University and Technology. Additionally to traditional e-learning properties like up- and download of lecture notes, videos and slides the MMT system provides the surface for a virtual modelling and simulation laboratory. Very powerful calculation software like MATLAB, Java or Octave, running in behind, allows experimenting with targeted modelling and simulation examples prepared and developed by experts. These are first of all used to support the presentation directly at the lecture and can afterwards be accessed by students given a password at home. As especially MATLAB also allows development of suitable examples dealing with mathematics, so far about ten percent of all examples treat this specific topic and are used in math lectures. It showed that especially the live experience fiddling on pre-implemented examples poses a big improvement for lectures

A Web-based Platform for E-Learning and Blended Learning in Modelling and Simulation

The Mathematics Modelling and Tools (MMT) e-learning system is a platform used for supporting lectures and tutoring at the Vienna University and Technology. Additionally to traditional e-learning properties like up- and download of lecture notes, videos and slides the MMT system provides the surface for a virtual modelling and simulation laboratory. Very powerful calculation software like MATLAB, Java or Octave, running in behind, allows experimenting with targeted modelling and simulation examples prepared and developed by experts. These are first of all used to support the presentation directly at the lecture and can afterwards be accessed by students given a password at home. As especially MATLAB also allows development of suitable examples dealing with mathematics, so far about ten percent of all examples treat this specific topic and are used in math lectures. It showed that especially the live experience fiddling on pre-implemented examples poses a big improvement for lectures

An Empirical Survey on Co-simulation: Promising Standards, Challenges and Research Needs

Co-simulation is a promising approach for the modelling and simulation of complex systems, that makes use of mature simulation tools in the respective domains. It has been applied in wildly different domains, oftentimes without a comprehensive study of the impact to the simulation results. As a consequence, over the recent years, researchers have set out to understand the essential challenges arising from the application of this technique. This paper complements the existing surveys in that the social and empirical aspects were addressed. More than 50 experts participated in a two-stage Delphi study to determine current challenges, research needs and promising standards and tools. Furthermore, an analysis of the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of co-simulation utilizing the analytic hierarchy process resulting in a SWOT-AHP analysis is presented. The empirical results of this study show that experts consider the FMI standard to be the most promising standard for continuous time, discrete event and hybrid co-simulation. The results of the SWOT-AHP analysis indicate that factors related to strengths and opportunities predominate

Análisis de hábitos de la Comunidad Universitaria. Consumo de drogas (alcohol, síntesis, y plantas) Detección y Prevención. Relación con el rendimiento académico y laboral.

Estudio descriptivo y análisis de hábitos de la Comunidad Universitaria. Consumo de drogas (alcohol, síntesis, y plantas) Detección y Prevención. Relación con el rendimiento académico y laboral. Estudio realizado en la Facultad de Farmacia, UCM, durante el curso académico 2016-2017 a los alumnos de todos los cursos mediante la aplicación de del cuestionario ASSITS v3.0 y una encuesta de resultados académicos. En el trabajo se exponen los resultados de 877 encuestas (37 % del total de alumnos).Depto. de Farmacia Galénica y Tecnología AlimentariaDepto. de Farmacología, Farmacognosia y BotánicaFac. de FarmaciaFALSEsubmitte

FGFR3, HRAS, KRAS, NRAS and PIK3CA Mutations in Bladder Cancer and Their Potential as Biomarkers for Surveillance and Therapy

Background: Fifty percent of patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MI-BC) die from their disease and current chemotherapy treatment only marginally increases survival. Novel therapies targeting receptor tyrosine kinases or activated oncogenes may improve outcome. Hence, it is necessary to stratify patients based on mutations in relevant oncogenes. Patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMI-BC) have excellent survival, however two-thirds develop recurrences. Tumor specific mutations can be used to detect recurrences in urine assays, presenting a more patient-friendly diagnostic procedure than cystoscopy. Methodology/Principal Findings: To address these issues, we developed a mutation assay for the simultaneous detection of 19 possible mutations in the HRAS, KRAS, and NRAS genes. With this assay and mutation assays for the FGFR3 and PIK3CA oncogenes, we screened primary bladder tumors of 257 patients and 184 recurrences from 54 patients. Additionally, in primary tumors p53 expression was obtained by immunohistochemistry. Of primary tumors 64% were mutant for FGFR3, 11% for RAS, 24% for PIK3CA, and 26% for p53. FGFR3 mutations were mutually exclusive with RAS mutations (p = 0.001) and co-occurred with PIK3CA mutations (p = 0.016). P53 overexpression was mutually exclusive with PIK3CA and FGFR3 mutations (p≤0.029). Mutations in the RAS and PIK3CA genes were not predictors for recurrence-free, progression-free and disease-specific survival. In patients presenting with NMI-BC grade 3 and MI-BC, 33 and 36% of the primary tumors were mutant. In patients with low-grade NMI-BC, 88% of the primary tumors carried a mutation and 88% of the recurrences were mutant. Conclusions/Significance: The mutation assays present a companion diagnostic to define patients for targeted therapies. In addition, the assays are a potential biomarker to detect recurrences during surveillance. We showed that 88% of patients presenting with low-grade NMI-BC are eligible for such a follow-up. This may contribute to a reduction in the number of cystoscopical examinations

Possibilities of co-simulation with the Building Controls Virtual Test Bed in the field of object-oriented modelling of physical systems

Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des VerfassersZsfassung in engl. SpracheIn dieser Arbeit werden die Möglichkeiten der Co-Simulation (kurz für engl. Cooperative Simulation) mithilfe des Co-Simulationstools BCVTB (kurz für Building Controls Virtual Test Bed) untersucht. Basierend auf dem Wunsch der Energieoptimierung in Fertigungsbetrieben soll dem Problem der Simulation eines Gebäudemodells sowie mehreren Maschinenmodellen durch Co-Simulation begegnet werden. Durch eine Co-Simulation können verschiedene Modellbildungsansätze und Teile mit unterschiedlichen Anforderungen an die Simulationsmethodik in einer umfassenden Gesamtsimulation zusammengeführt werden.Als Einführung wird in den ersten Kapiteln die Methode der objektorientierten Modellbildung physikalischer Systeme, die die Grundlage für die meisten im Zuge dieser Arbeit entwickelten Modelle bildet, beschrieben. Anschließend werden verschiedene Arten der Co- Simulation vorgestellt und ein Überblick über die zugrunde liegende Numerik gegeben, um diese Vorgehensweise hinsichtlich Stabilität und Konsistenz zu rechtfertigen.Im Hinblick auf die Implementierung wird zunächst auf die Synchronisation der einzelnen Simulatoren mit deren individuellen Solveralgorithmen eingegangen, da diese für eine erfolgreiche Co-Simulation unabdingbar ist. Es folgen detaillierte Beschreibungen der Einzelmodelle, die in der Co-Simulation für den Raum und die darin befindlichen Maschinen verwendet werden, darunter die Entwicklung eines Compartmentmodells für die thermische Modellierung eines Raumes in Modelica via Dymola, verschiedene Maschinenmodelle, die in MATLAB, Simscape und Dymola implementiert wurden, sowie eine mithilfe von Simulink realisierte Temperaturregelung.In Fallstudien werden nach der Validierung des entwickelten Raummodells zunächst Vor- und Nachteile der Aufspaltung in Einzelsysteme für die Co-Simulation einzelner Maschinenmodelle mit einem Raummodell aufgezeigt. Nach der erfolgreichen Kopplung aller beteiligten Simulatoren wird die Zuverlässigkeit bei der Co-Simulation komplexer Einzelmodelle als auch einer hohen Anzahl an beteiligter Software und Instanzen derer erörtert.Zusätzlich zum Compartmentmodell des Raumes, das im Zuge dieser Arbeit entwickelt wurde, werden anhand eines in EnergyPlus erstellten Gebäudemodells die Unterschiede der beiden Modellierungs- und Simulationsarten dargelegt.Abschließend werden die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Co-Simulation mit BCVTB zusammenfassend aufgeführt, ehe im Schlusswort die Erkenntnisse dieser Arbeit und mögliche weiterführende Methoden zusammengefasst werden.This thesis considers the possibilities of cooperative simulation (abbr. co-simulation) with the co-simulation tool BCVTB (short for Building Controls Virtual Test Bed).For the aim of energy optimization in the manufactoring industry a building model as well as several machine models have to be combined. This problem is faced with co-simulation.Co-simulation enables the overall simulation of models requiring different modelling approaches and hugely differing step sizes or even solver algorithms.The introductory chapters describe the method of object-oriented modelling of physical systems since most of the included models are implemented based on this approach.Subsequently different co-simulation methods are discussed.Additionally, the basics concerning numerics of co-simulation are described to justify this method considering numerical stability and consistency.The first part of the implementation section deals with the synchronization of all simulators in spite of their individual solver algorithms since accurate synchronization is necessary to even enable cooperative simulation. The following sections contain a detailed description of all partial models of the room and the machines which will be used in the co-simulation.Thus the development of a thermal compartment model for the machine hall in Modelica via Dymola and individual machine models implemented in MATLAB, Simscape and Dymola as well as a Simulink model for temperature control are described.The beginning of the following case studies deals with the validation of the Dymola room model and the advantages and disadvantages of separating huge models into partial ones for co-simulation. Besides co-simulating individual machine models with the room model, the BCVTB's performance at the co-simulation of many instances of all simulators and complex partial models is evaluated. Additionally the differences of the modelling and simulation methods of the room model developed in this thesis and an EnergyPlus model of the same building are discussed.A summary of the possibilities and limits of cooperative simulation with the BCVTB followed by general results of this work and possibilities for further studies concludes the thesis.12