Age dependent breath methane in the German population

Methane which can sometimes be found in exhaled breath of humans is known to reflect in situ intestinal methanogenic activity. In recent years, several factors have been studied in order to understand their relevance to methane production in the intestinal tract. However, the relationship between age and methane producing status has hitherto not been sufficiently investigated. In the present study we evaluated the relationship between age and percentage of breath methane producers in the German population in 428 subjects with ages ranging from 4 to 95 years. When subjects were divided into age groups of 15 years, an increase in the percentage of breath methane producers with age was observed. The near linear increase (R-2 = 0.977) from 5% for children (1-15 years) to 57% for the elderly (> 75 years) may indicate a continuous development in the human gut methanogenic flora throughout lifetime. However, when subjects were compared on 5 year age intervals, an interruption in the percentage of methane producers in the sixth and seventh decade was noted. We further revealed an age dependence on the ratio of female to male producers. This is shown by a dominance in female breath methane producers during the first half of life which afterwards is replaced by a dominance in male breath methane producers with an approximately linear decrease in the ratio between 20 and 65 years (R-2 = 0.926). These observations might suggest a relationship between methanogenic activity and hormonal factors. Using our data, we predict that the percentage of breath CH4 producers within the German population will increase from its current value of 30% (2013) to 35% by 2050. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Degenerativer Vorfuß

The hallux valgus deformity is the most common toe deformity of the forefoot and is often associated with asplayfoot. Malpositioning of the small toes may be isolated but are more common in other foot deformities. The understanding of the complex pathoanatomy of the foot is necessary for orthopedic treatment. Conservative treatment is reserved for the early stages. The indications for surgery should be based on clinical and radiographic findings. Countless surgical procedures are available and minimally invasive surgical techniques are also increasingly being used

Klinische Untersuchung des Fußes

Asystematic clinical examination of the foot, including astructured medical history, is essential for the diagnostics of foot disorders. The foot and ankle, with a total of 28bones and numerous joints, require avariety of musculotendinous and neuromuscular structures for stabilization and faultless gait. Almost all anatomical structures of the foot are easily accessible for a manual clinical examination due to the sparse soft tissue covering. This requires differentiated and well-founded anatomical knowledge as well as examination experience to be able to distinguish anormal finding from apathological abnormality. The examination of the contralateral foot is always necessary. A targeted supplementary imaging examination completes the diagnosis

Rheumaoperationen im Wandel – „Fuß“

Surgical management of rheumatic feet has dramatically changed over the last decades influenced by the development of new pharmacological drugs and tissue-preserving surgical procedures. It has switched from joint resection to joint-sparing procedures as the method of choice. Nevertheless, the surgical interventions commonly used for non-rheumatic patients cannot be applied to rheumatic patients without reflection: in addition to the basic treatment, comorbidities, degree of mobilization of the patient, orthopedic shoe engineering and orthotic treatment play a major role. Due to the decreasing incidence of the classical rheumatic foot, it has become even more important for physicians, physiotherapists and ergotherapists to recognize the development of such a disease as early as possible and immediately start the appropriate treatment

Development and Validation of a Chip Integration Concept for Multi-Die GaAs Front Ends for Phased Arrays up to 60 GHz

High-gain steerable antenna arrays in the K-, Ka-, and V-frequency bands have the potential to facilitate high-bandwidth satellite communication for a variety of applications. Copper-core printed circuit boards (PCBs) can offer a cost-effective integration platform for such systems by simultaneously addressing both the high frequency and thermal challenges. Integrating GaAs dies into test vehicles has shown that copper-core PCBs can be automatically assembled and provide high-frequency systems that show adequate reliability during thermal cycling. A single 60-GHz transmitter front end, designed to drive a single element of a phased array, with a 2-GHz bandwidth signal, composed of four GaAs dies, including a phase shifter, integrated onto a copper-core PCB produces an output power of -4 dBm and maintains an on-chip temperature under 51 °C

A Generalisation of Pre-logical Predicates to Simply Typed Formal Systems

We generalise the notion of pre-logical predicates [HS02] to arbitrary simply typed formal systems and their categorical models. We establish the basic lemma of pre-logical predicates and composability of binary pre-logical relations in this generalised setting. This generalisation takes place in a categorical framework for typed higher-order abstract syntax and semantics [Fio02,MS03]