Nietzsche und die Bedeutung von Musik in seinem Leben und seinen Werken

In dem vorliegenden Werk habe ich mir zur Aufgabe gemacht, die Bedeutung von Musik im Leben und in den Werken von Friedrich Nietzsche herauszufinden. Einerseits werden seine biographischen Bezüge zur Musik und seine Freundschaft und Feindschaft zu Richard Wagner betrachtet, andererseits werden seine Gedanken über Kunst, und Musik im Speziellen, zusammengefasst. Nietzsches Betrachtungen über Musik ändern sich stark im Laufe seines Lebens, und auch diesen Aspekt habe ich versucht herauszuheben. Auch werden seine Bezugspunkte und Gedankenanreger behandelt, wie Schopenhauer, Wagner oder Hölderlin. Wichtige Begrifflichkeiten und Konzepte, wie Herleitungen habe ich versucht zu sammeln und so ist, im besten Fall, ein Potpourri des Musikverständnisses Nietzsches entstanden. Zu Beginn wird sein Leben unter dem Aspekt der Wichtigkeit und Wirkung von Musik skizziert, dann beschreibe ich zentrale Gedankenmuster von Nietzsche in Bezug auf Kunst und Musik und schließlich betrachte ich ausgewählte Werke genauer. Der Weiteren werden Themenkreise angeschnitten die mit Musik oder Kunst nur entfernter zu tun haben, mir jedoch wichtig für das Verständnis des Hauptthemas erscheinen. Auch werden Briefe, öffentliche Korrespondenzen oder Stellungnahmen in diesem Werk auftauchen die dazu dienen sollen den Menschen Nietzsche und sein Umfeld, sowie die Vorkommnisse seiner Zeit zu beschreiben

Implicit sensing of building occupancy count with information and communication technology data sets

Occupancy count, i.e., the number of people in a space or building, is becoming an increasingly important measurement to model, predict, and minimize operational energy consumption. Explicit, hardware-based, occupancy counters have been proposed but wide scale adoption is limited due to the cost and invasiveness of system implementation. As an alternative approach, researchers propose using data from existing information and communication technology (ICT) systems to infer occupancy counts. In the reported work, three different data streams, security access data, wireless connectivity data, and computer activity data, from ICT systems in a medium sized office building were collected and compared to the counts of a commercially available occupancy counter over 59 working days. The occupancy counts from the ICT systems are compared to the commercial counter with and without calibration to determine the ability of the data sets to measure occupancy. Various transformations were explored as calibration techniques for the ICT data sets. Training sets of 24, 48, and 120 hours were employed to determine how long an external calibration system would need to be installed. The analysis found that calibration is required to provide accurate counts. While each ICT data set provides similar magnitudes and time series behavior, incorporating all three data streams in a two layer neural network with 1 week of training data provides the most accurate estimates against 5 performance metrics. Whilst 1 week of data provides the best results, 24 hours is sufficient to develop similar levels of performance

Analysis of shared common genetic risk between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy

Because hyper-excitability has been shown to be a shared pathophysiological mechanism, we used the latest and largest genome-wide studies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 36,052) and epilepsy (n = 38,349) to determine genetic overlap between these conditions. First, we showed no significant genetic correlation, also when binned on minor allele frequency. Second, we confirmed the absence of polygenic overlap using genomic risk score analysis. Finally, we did not identify pleiotropic variants in meta-analyses of the 2 diseases. Our findings indicate that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy do not share common genetic risk, showing that hyper-excitability in both disorders has distinct origins

An approach for building occupancy modelling considering the urban context

Building occupancy, which reflects occupant presence, movements and activities within the building space, is a key factor to consider in building energy modelling and simulation. Characterising complex occupant behaviours and their determinants poses challenges from the sensing, modelling, interpretation and prediction perspectives. Past studies typically applied time-dependent models to predict regular occupancy patterns for commercial buildings. However, this prevalent reliance on purely time-of-day effects is typically not sufficient to accurately characterise the complex occupancy patterns as they may vary with building’s surrounding conditions, i.e. the urban environment. Therefore, this research proposes a conceptual framework to incorporate the interactions between urban systems and building occupancy. Under the framework, we propose a novel modelling methodology relying on competing risk hazard formulation to analyse the occupancy of a case study building in London, UK. The occupancy profiles were inferred from the Wi-Fi connection logs extracted from the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure. When compared with the conventional discrete-time Markov Chain Model (MCM), the hazard-based modelling approach was able to better capture the duration dependent nature of the transition probabilities as well as incorporate and quantify the influence of the local environment on occupancy transitions. The work has demonstrated that this approach enables a convenient and flexible incorporation of urban dependencies leading to accurate occupancy predictions whilst providing the ability to interpret the impacts of urban systems on building occupancy

A Multi-Agent System Performing One-to-Many Negotiation for Load Balancing of Electricity Use

Emerging technologies allowing two-way communication between utility companies and their customers are changing the rules of the energy market. Deregulation makes it even more demanding for utility companies to create new business processes for the mutual benefit of the companies and their customers. Dynamic load management of the power grid is essential to make better and more cost-effective use of electricity production capabilities, and to increase customer satisfaction. In this paper, methods from Agent Technology and Knowledge Technology have been used to analyse, design, and implement a component-based multi-agent system capable of negotiation for load management. The proof-of-concept prototype system NALM (Negotiating Agents for Load Management) developed shows how under certain assumptions peaks in power load can be reduced effectively based on a negotiation process

Changes of deep gray matter magnetic susceptibility over 2years in multiple sclerosis and healthy control brain

In multiple sclerosis, pathological changes of both tissue iron and myelin occur, yet these factors have not been characterized in a longitudinal fashion using the novel iron- and myelin-sensitive quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) MRI technique. We investigated disease-relevant tissue changes associated with myelin loss and iron accumulation in multiple sclerosis deep gray matter (DGM) over two years. One-hundred twenty (120) multiple sclerosis patients and 40 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included in this prospective study. Written informed consent and local IRB approval were obtained from all participants. Clinical testing and QSM were performed both at baseline and at follow-up. Brain magnetic susceptibility was measured in major DGM structures. Temporal (baseline vs. follow-up) and cross-sectional (multiple sclerosis vs. controls) differences were studied using mixed factorial ANOVA analysis and appropriate t-tests. At either time-point, multiple sclerosis patients had significantly higher susceptibility in the caudate and globus pallidus and lower susceptibility in the thalamus. Over two years, susceptibility increased significantly in the caudate of both controls and multiple sclerosis patients. Inverse thalamic findings among MS patients suggest a multi-phase pathology explained by simultaneous myelin loss and/or iron accumulation followed by iron depletion and/or calcium deposition at later stages. Keywords: Quantitative susceptibility mapping, QSM, Iron, Multiple sclerosis, Longitudinal stud

Hepatic Arterial Infusion Pump Chemotherapy for Unresectable Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Patients with unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) have poor survival. This systematic review describes the survival outcomes of hepatic arterial infusion pump (HAIP) chemotherapy with floxuridine for patients with unresectable iCCA. Patients and Methods: A literature search was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed, Medline (Ovid), Embase, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Cochrane to find studies that reported data on the survival of patients with unresectable iCCA treated with HAIP chemotherapy using floxuridine. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa quality assessment Scale (NOS). Overall survival (OS) was the primary outcome measure, and progression-free survival (PFS), response rates, resection rates, and toxicity were defined as secondary outcome measures. Results: After removing duplicates, 661 publications were assessed, of which nine studies, representing a total of 478 patients, met the inclusion criteria. Three out of nine studies were phase II clinical trials, one study was a prospective dose-escalation study, and the remaining five studies were retrospective cohort studies. After accounting for overlapping cohorts, 154 unique patients were included for pooled analysis. The weighted median OS of patients with unresectable iCCA treated with HAIP chemotherapy with floxuridine was 29.0 months (range 25.0–39 months). The pooled 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year OS were 86.4, 55.5, 39.5, and 9.7%, respectively. Conclusion: HAIP chemotherapy with floxuridine for patients with unresectable iCCA was associated with a 3-year OS of 39.5%, which is favorable compared with systemic chemotherapy for which no 3-year survivors were reported in the Advanced Biliary Cancer (ABC) trials

ASO Visual Abstract: Hepatic Arterial Infusion Pump Chemotherapy for Unresectable Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Hepatic arterial infusion pump (HAIP) chemotherapy with floxuridine has been explored as a means to control cancer in the liver. In this systematic review (https://doi.org/10.1245/ s10434-022-11439-x), 478 patients with unresectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) were identified from nine studies; survival outcomes of 154 patients were used in the meta-analysis. HAIP chemotherapy with floxuridine for patients with unresectable iCCA was associated with a pooled 3-year overall survival (OS) of 39.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) 31.5–47.4%) and a weighted median OS of 29.0 months (range 25.0–39 months)

Quality Control Optimization for Minimizing Security Risks Associated with Mesenchymal Stromal Cell-Based Product Development

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been considered a therapeutic strategy in regenerative medicine because of their regenerative and immunomodulatory properties. The translation of MSC-based products has some challenges, such as regulatory and scientific issues. Quality control should be standardized and optimized to guarantee the reproducibility, safety, and efficacy of MSC-based products to be administered to patients. The aim of this study was to develop MSC-based products for use in clinical practice. Quality control assays include cell characterization, cell viability, immunogenicity, and cell differentiation; safety tests such as procoagulant tissue factor (TF), microbiological, mycoplasma, endotoxin, genomic stability, and tumorigenicity tests; and potency tests. The results confirm that the cells express MSC markers; an average cell viability of 96.9%; a low expression of HLA-DR and costimulatory molecules; differentiation potential; a high expression of TF/CD142; an absence of pathogenic microorganisms; negative endotoxins; an absence of chromosomal abnormalities; an absence of genotoxicity and tumorigenicity; and T-lymphocyte proliferation inhibition potential. This study shows the relevance of standardizing the manufacturing process and quality controls to reduce variability due to the heterogeneity between donors. The results might also be useful for the implementation and optimization of new analytical techniques and automated methods to improve safety, which are the major concerns related to MSC-based therapy