Open Access

Lemmatization is a central task in many NLP applications. Despite this importance, the number of (freely) available and easy to use tools for German is very limited. To fill this gap, we developed a simple lemmatizer that can be trained on any lemmatized corpus. For a full form word the tagger tries to find the sequence of morphemes that is most likely to generate that word. From this sequence of tags we can easily derive the stem, the lemma and the part of speech (PoS) of the word. We show (i) that the quality of this approach is comparable to state of the art methods and (ii) that we can improve the results of Part-of-Speech (PoS) tagging when we include the morphological analysis of each word.

Radioisotope-guided sentinel lymph node dissection (sLND) has shown high diagnostic reliability in prostate (PCa) and other cancers. To overcome the limitations of the radioactive tracers, magnetometer-guided sLND using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) has been successfully used in PCa. This prospective study (SentiMag Pro II, DRKS00007671) determined the diagnostic accuracy of magnetometer-guided sLND in intermediate- and high-risk PCa. Fifty intermediate- or high-risk PCa patients (prostate-specific antigen (PSA) >= 10 ng/mL and/or Gleason score >= 7; median PSA 10.8 ng/mL, IQR 7.4–19.2 ng/mL) were enrolled. After the intraprostatic SPIONs injection a day earlier, patients underwent magnetometer-guided sLND and extended lymph node dissection (eLND, followed by radical prostatectomy. SLNs were detected in in vivo and in ex vivo samples. Diagnostic accuracy of sLND was assessed using eLND as the reference. SLNs were detected in all patients (detection rate 100%), with 447 sentinel lymph nodes SLNs (median 9, IQR 6–12) being identified and 966 LNs (median 18, IQR 15–23) being removed. Thirty-six percent (18/50) of patients had LN metastases (median 2, IQR 1–3). Magnetometer-guided sLND had 100% sensitivity, 97.0% specificity, 94.4% positive predictive value, 100% negative predictive value, 0.0% false negative rate, and 3.0% additional diagnostic value (LN metastases only in SLNs outside the eLND template). In vivo, one positive SLN/LN-positive patient was missed, resulting in a sensitivity of 94.4%. In conclusion, this new magnetic sentinel procedure has high accuracy for nodal staging in intermediate- and high-risk PCa. The reliability of intraoperative SLN detection using this magnetometer system requires verification in further multicentric studies.

Die allgemeine Digitalisierung und besonders die IT Branche in Hannover, stellen Arbeitgeber_innen und Arbeitnehmer_innen vor große Herausforderungen. Berufsbezeichnungen im IT Sektor zeichnen sich im Gegensatz zu klassischen Berufsfeldern nicht dadurch aus, dass sie vereinheitlicht sind. Unterschiedlichste Berufsbezeichnungen verlangen oftmals identische Kompetenzen. Die Kompetenzen und Fähigkeiten der Arbeitnehmer_innen stehen ebenso immer mehr im Fokus der Arbeitgeber_innen, wie die Bereitschaft der permanenten Weiterbildung. Zielgebend der vorliegenden Abschlussarbeit ist eine Datenbasis für ein kompetenzbasiertes IT Tool zu liefern, welches den Anspruch hat, die bereits beschriebenen Herausforderungen zu analysieren und zu klassifizieren. Zunächst ist daher eine Klassifikation, der auf dem hannoverschen Jobmarkt gesuchten IT Kompetenzen, zu erstellen. Vorbereitend wird eine Marktanalyse angefertigt, die sowohl Jobsuchmaschinen auf ihre Kompetenzorientierung als auch IT Kompetenzklassifikationen untersucht. Die erstellte Klassifikation bildet anschließend die Grundlage für das Kompetenzmatching zwischen Klassifikation und den Kompetenzen, die hannoversche IT Studierende erlernen, um zu verdeutlichen, in welchen Kompetenzen Weiterbildungsbedarf besteht. Die entstandene Datenbasis wird in einer MySQL Datenbank präsentiert, um eine möglichst flexible Verwendung und Weiterentwicklung des Datenbestands zu ermöglichen.

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between teat skin colonization and intramammary infection (IMI) with Staphylococcus aureus or Streptococcus agalactiae at the quarter level in herds with automatic milking systems. Milk and teat skin samples from 1,142 quarters were collected from 300 cows with somatic cell count >200,000 cells/mL from 8 herds positive for Strep. agalactiae. All milk and teat skin samples were cultured on calf blood agar and selective media. A subset of samples from 287 quarters was further analyzed using a PCR assay (Mastit4 PCR; DNA Diagnostic A/S, Risskov, Denmark). Bacterial culture detected Staph. aureus in 93 (8.1%) of the milk samples and 75 (6.6%) of the teat skin samples. Of these, 15 (1.3%) quarters were positive in both the teat skin and milk samples. Streptococcus agalactiae was cultured in 84 (7.4%) of the milk samples and 4 (0.35%) of the teat skin samples. Of these, 3 (0.26%) quarters were positive in both the teat skin and milk samples. The PCR detected Staph. aureus in 29 (10%) of the milk samples and 45 (16%) of the teat skin samples. Of these, 2 (0.7%) quarters were positive in both the teat skin and milk samples. Streptococcus agalactiae was detected in 40 (14%) of the milk samples and 51 (18%) of the teat skin samples. Of these, 16 (5.6%) quarters were positive in both the teat skin and milk samples. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association between teat skin colonization and IMI at the quarter level. Based on bacterial culture results, teat skin colonization with Staph. aureus resulted in 7.8 (95% confidence interval: 2.9; 20.6) times higher odds of Staph. aureus IMI, whereas herd was observed as a major confounder. However, results from the PCR analyses did not support this association. Streptococcus agalactiae was isolated from the teat skin with both PCR and bacterial culture, but the number of positive teat skin samples detected by culture was too low to proceed with further analysis. Based on the PCR results, Strep. agalactiae on teat skin resulted in 3.8 (1.4; 10.1) times higher odds of Strep. agalactiae IMI. Our results suggest that Staph. aureus and Strep. agalactiae on teat skin may be a risk factor for IMI with the same pathogens. Focus on proper teat skin hygiene is therefore recommended also in AMS.

Das Thema Elektromagnetische Verträglichkeit (EMV) ist noch immer ein wesentlicher Aspekt bei der Planung, bei der Installation und beim Betrieb von Automatisierungssystemen. Kommunikationsnetzwerke wie zum Beispiel PROFIBUS und PROFINET sind als robuste und zuverlässige Übertragungssysteme bekannt. Dennoch ist für deren Funktion die Beachtung einiger grundlegender Prinzipien wichtig, um einen störungsfreien Betrieb über ein langes Anlagenleben zu gewährleisten. Der Beitrag beschreibt zunächst einige Grundlagen der EMV. Basierend auf diesen Grundlagen werden dann sechs Handlungsempfehlungen abgeleitet, die bei der Planung eines Automatisierungssystems für den Einsatz in der Fertigungsindustrie zu beachten sind. Abschließend wird ein Ausblick auf die weiterführenden Arbeiten für Anlagen der Prozessindustrie gegeben.

Dieser Beitrag adressiert einleitend die aktuelle Bedrohungslage aus Sicht der Industrie mit einem Fokus auf das Feld und die Feldgeräte. Zentral wird dann die Frage behandelt, welchen Beitrag Feldgeräte im Kontext von hoch vernetzten Produktionsanlagen für die künftige IT-Sicherheit leisten können und müssen. Unter anderem werden auf Basis der bestehenden Standards wie IEC 62443-4-1, IEC 62443-4-2 oder der VDI 2182-1 und VDI 2182-4 ausgewählte Methoden und Maßnahmen am Beispiel eines Durchflussmessgerätes vorgestellt, die zur künftigen Absicherung von Feldgeräten notwendig sind.

Mastitis poses a considerable threat to productivity and to animal welfare on modern dairy farms. However, the common way of antibiotic treatment does not always lead to a cure. Unsuccessful cures can, among other reasons, occur due to biofilm formation of the causative agent. This has attracted interest from researchers to introduce promising alternative therapeutic approaches, such as the use of beneficial lactic acid bacteria (LAB). In fact, using LAB for treating mastitis probably requires the formation of a beneficial biofilm by the probiotic bacteria. The present study investigated the ability of five LAB strains, selected on the basis of results from previous studies, to remove and to replace pathogenic biofilms in vitro. For this purpose, Staphylococcus (S.) aureus ATCC 12,600 and two strains—S. xylosus (35/07) and S. epidermidis (575/08)—belonging to the group of coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS) were allowed to form biofilms in a 96-well plate. Subsequently, the LAB were added to the well. The biofilm challenge was evaluated by scraping off and suspending the biofilm cells, followed by a plate count of serial dilutions using selective media. All the LAB strains successfully removed the staphylococcal biofilms. However, only Lactobacillus (L.) rhamnosus ATCC 7469 and L. plantarum 2/37 formed biofilms of their own to replace the pathogenic ones.

Background In the past years, it became apparent that health status and performance differ considerably within dairy farms in Northern Germany. In order to obtain clues with respect to possible causes of these differences, a case-control study was performed. Case farms, which showed signs of health and performance problems, and control farms, which had none of these signs, were compared. Risk factors from different areas such as health management, housing, hygiene and nutrition were investigated as these are known to be highly influential. The aim of this study was to identify major factors within these areas that have the strongest association with health and performance problems of dairy herds in Northern Germany. Results In the final model, a lower energy density in the roughage fraction of the diet, more pens with dirty lying areas and a low ratio of cows per watering spaces were associated with a higher risk for herd health problems. Moreover, case farms were affected by infections with intestinal parasites, lungworms, liver flukes and Johne’s Disease numerically more often than control farms. Case farms more often had pens with raised cubicles compared to the deep bedded stalls or straw yards found in control farms. In general, the hygiene of the floors and beddings was worse in case farms. Concerning nutrition, the microbiological and sensory quality of the provided silages was often insufficient, even in control farms. Less roughage was provided to early lactating cows and the feed was pushed to the feeding fence less frequently in case farms than in control farms. Conclusions The results show that milk yield and health status were associated with various factors from different areas stressing the importance of all aspects of management for good animal health and performance. Moreover, this study confirmed well-known risk factors for health problems and performance losses. These should better be taken heed of in herd health management.

For the analysis of contract texts, validated model texts, such as model clauses, can be used to identify used contract clauses. This paper investigates how the similarity between titles of model clauses and headings extracted from contracts can be computed, and which similarity measure is most suitable for this. For the calculation of the similarities between title pairs we tested various variants of string similarity and token based similarity. We also compare two additional semantic similarity measures based on word embeddings using pre-trained embeddings and word embeddings trained on contract texts. The identification of the model clause title can be used as a starting point for the mapping of clauses found in contracts to verified clauses.

Die Dunkle Triade besteht aus den Konstrukten Machiavellismus, Narzissmus sowie Psychopathie. Nachfolgend wird eine Untersuchung des Zusammenhangs zwischen den Konstrukten der Dunklen Triade und Studienerfolg berichtet. Studienerfolg wurde mittels Durchschnittsnote, Studiendauer, Kompetenzerwerb sowie Studienzufriedenheit operationalisiert und jeweils separat überprüft. Insgesamt wurden 98 Studierende der Hochschule Hannover befragt. Es konnten keine statistisch signifikanten Zusammenhänge zwischen den drei Konstrukten der Dunklen Triade und Durchschnittsnote sowie Studiendauer festgestellt werden. Ebenfalls konnten keine statistisch signifikanten Zusammenhänge zwischen Machiavellismus und Kompetenzerwerb sowie Studienzufriedenheit festgestellt werden. Auch für Narzissmus konnten keine statistisch signifikanten Zusammenhänge mit Kompetenzerwerb sowie Studienzufriedenheit festgestellt werden. Die Effekte dieser statistisch insignifikanten Ergebnisse sind in ihrer Höhe gering (r < 0,10). Als statistisch signifikant erwiesen sich die Zusammenhänge zwischen Psychopathie und Kompetenzerwerb (p = 0,01, r = -0,23) sowie zwischen Psychopathie und Studienzufriedenheit (p = 0,03, r = -0,20).