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Noch bis vor wenigen Jahren galt die interne Kommunikation in den meisten Unternehmen im Vergleich zur Kommunikation mit externen Zielgruppen als deutlich weniger anspruchsvoll oder gar als in irgendeiner Weise wettbewerbsrelevant. Wurde sie lange als reine Sozialleistung betrachtet, rückt sie nun - insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund voranschreitender Globalisierung und ihren Auswirkungen auf die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Unternehmen - langsam als strategisches Führungsinstrument in das Bewusstsein vieler Unternehmenslenker. Denn mehr und mehr wird deutlich, dass die eigenen Mitarbeiter ausschlaggebender Faktor bei der Bewältigung von Veränderungen sind.
Objectives: To assess the relation between the number of clinical trials conducted and respective new drug approvals in India and South Africa.
Design: Construction and analysis of a comprehensive database of completed randomised controlled clinical trials based on clinicaltrials.gov from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2010 and drug approval data from 2006 until 2013 for India and South Africa.
Setting: USA, the EU, India and South Africa.
Main outcome measures: Percentage of completed randomised clinical trials for an Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) leading to new drug approval in India and South Africa.
Results: A total of 622 eligible randomised controlled trials were identified as per search criteria for India and South Africa. Clustering them for the same sponsor and the same Investigational New Drug (IND) resulted in 453 eligible trials, that is, 224 for India and 229 for South Africa. The distribution of the market application approvals between the EU/USA as well as India and South Africa revealed that out of clinical trials with the participation of test centres in India and/or South Africa, 39.6% (India) clinical trials and 60.1% (South Africa) clinical trials led to market authorisation in the EU/USA without a New Drug Application (NDA) approval in India or South Africa.
Conclusions: Despite an increase in clinical trial activities, there is a clear gap between the number of trials conducted and market availability of these new drugs in India and South Africa. Drug regulatory authorities, investigators, institutional review boards and patient groups should direct their efforts to ensuring availability of new drugs in the market that have been tested and researched on their population.
BACKGROUND: Even though physician rating websites (PRWs) have been gaining in importance in both practice and research, little evidence is available on the association of patients' online ratings with the quality of care of physicians. It thus remains unclear whether patients should rely on these ratings when selecting a physician. The objective of this study was to measure the association between online ratings and structural and quality of care measures for 65 physician practices from the German Integrated Health Care Network "Quality and Efficiency" (QuE). METHODS: Online reviews from two German PRWs were included which covered a three-year period (2011 to 2013) and included 1179 and 991 ratings, respectively. Information for 65 QuE practices was obtained for the year 2012 and included 21 measures related to structural information (N = 6), process quality (N = 10), intermediate outcomes (N = 2), patient satisfaction (N = 1), and costs (N = 2). The Spearman rank coefficient of correlation was applied to measure the association between ratings and practice-related information. RESULTS: Patient satisfaction results from offline surveys and the patients per doctor ratio in a practice were shown to be significantly associated with online ratings on both PRWs. For one PRW, additional significant associations could be shown between online ratings and cost-related measures for medication, preventative examinations, and one diabetes type 2-related intermediate outcome measure. There again, results from the second PRW showed significant associations with the age of the physicians and the number of patients per practice, four process-related quality measures for diabetes type 2 and asthma, and one cost-related measure for medication. CONCLUSIONS: Several significant associations were found which varied between the PRWs. Patients interested in the satisfaction of other patients with a physician might select a physician on the basis of online ratings. Even though our results indicate associations with some diabetes and asthma measures, but not with coronary heart disease measures, there is still insufficient evidence to draw strong conclusions. The limited number of practices in our study may have weakened our findings.
In this paper, we consider the route coordination problem in emergency evacuation of large smart buildings. The building evacuation time is crucial in saving lives in emergency situations caused by imminent natural or man-made threats and disasters. Conventional approaches to evacuation route coordination are static and predefined. They rely on evacuation plans present only at a limited number of building locations and possibly a trained evacuation personnel to resolve unexpected contingencies. Smart buildings today are equipped with sensory infrastructure that can be used for an autonomous situation-aware evacuation guidance optimized in real time. A system providing such a guidance can help in avoiding additional evacuation casualties due to the flaws of the conventional evacuation approaches. Such a system should be robust and scalable to dynamically adapt to the number of evacuees and the size and safety conditions of a building. In this respect, we propose a distributed route recommender architecture for situation-aware evacuation guidance in smart buildings and describe its key modules in detail. We give an example of its functioning dynamics on a use case.
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are popular for indexing library records. We studied the possibility of assigning LCSH automatically by training classifiers for terms used frequently in a large collection of abstracts of the literature on hand and by extracting headings from those abstracts. The resulting classifiers reach an acceptable level of precision, but fail in terms of recall partly because we could only train classifiers for a small number of LCSH. Extraction, i.e., the matching of headings in the text, produces better recall but extremely low precision. We found that combining both methods leads to a significant improvement of recall and a slight improvement of F1 score with only a small decrease in precision.
Background: After kidney transplantation, immunosuppressive therapy causes impaired cellular immune defense leading to an increased risk of viral complications. Trough level monitoring of immunosuppressants is insufficient to estimate the individual intensity of immunosuppression. We have already shown that virus-specific T cells (Tvis) correlate with control of virus replication as well as with the intensity of immunosuppression. The multicentre IVIST01-trial should prove that additional steering of immunosuppressive and antiviral therapy by Tvis levels leads to better graft function by avoidance of over-immunosuppression (for example, viral infections) and drug toxicity (for example, nephrotoxicity).
Methods/design: The IVIST-trial starts 4 weeks after transplantation. Sixty-four pediatric kidney recipients are randomized either to a non-intervention group that is only treated conservatively or to an intervention group with additional monitoring by Tvis. The randomization is stratified by centre and cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis. In both groups the immunosuppressive medication (cyclosporine A and everolimus) is adopted in the same target range of trough levels. In the non-intervention group the immunosuppressive therapy (cyclosporine A and everolimus) is only steered by classical trough level monitoring and the antiviral therapy of a CMV infection is performed according to a standard protocol. In contrast, in the intervention group the dose of immunosuppressants is individually adopted according to Tvis levels as a direct measure of the intensity of immunosuppression in addition to classical trough level monitoring. In case of CMV infection or reactivation the antiviral management is based on the individual CMV-specific immune defense assessed by the CMV-Tvis level. Primary endpoint of the study is the glomerular filtration rate 2 years after transplantation; secondary endpoints are the number and severity of viral infections and the incidence of side effects of immunosuppressive and antiviral drugs.
Discussion: This IVIST01-trial will answer the question whether the new concept of steering immunosuppressive and antiviral therapy by Tvis levels leads to better future graft function. In terms of an effect-related drug monitoring, the study design aims to realize a personalization of immunosuppressive and antiviral management after transplantation. Based on the IVIST01-trial, immunomonitoring by Tvis might be incorporated into routine care after kidney transplantation.
The objective of this student project was for the students to develop, conduct, and supervise a training course for basic work place applications (word processing and business graphics). Students were responsible for the planning, organizing and the teaching of the course. As participants, underprivileged adolescents took part in order to learn the handling of IT applications and therefore, improve their job skills and have a better chance to get into employment. Therefore the adolescents do the role of trainees at the course. Our students worked with a population that is continually overlooked by the field.
As a result, the students trained to design and implement training courses, exercised to manage projects and increased their social responsibility and awareness concerning the way of life and living conditions of other young people. The underprivileged adolescents learned to use important business applications and increased their job skills and job chances. The overall design of our concept required extensive resources to supervise and to steer the students and the adolescents. The lecturers had to teach and to counsel the students and had to be on “stand-by” just in case they were needed to solve critical situations between the two groups of young people.
Background: India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world. The Indian epidemic is characterized by low levels in the general population and elevated concentrations among high-risk groups. The present study was planned to determine the awareness of HIV among students from Mumbai University.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among students from Mumbai University, India during May–June 2017. Two hundred and fifty students were approached to participate in the study of which 199 agreed to participate (males: 132; females: 67). Pretested questionnaire was distributed and collected data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.
Results: Study participants had high knowledge (86%) and attitude score (87%). There was no significant difference between males and female participants for attitude and knowledge, except for one question regarding knowledge about HIV transmission via breastfeeding to child.
Conclusions: Present study showed that there are no misconceptions or negative attitudes regarding HIV among students. A longitudinal study with a larger sample size across India is recommended for further investigation.
Background: Immunization is the most cost-effective intervention for infectious diseases which are the major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is a scarcity of information on the vaccination status of young adults and the role of socioeconomic conditions in India. Objectives: Present study explored the adult vaccination status and influence of income and education of parents on adult vaccination status in university students from Mumbai, India.
Methods: On the basis of the eligibility criterion 149 students were selected for the present study. A total of 8 vaccines namely Tdap/DTP, Varicella, MMR, Influenza, Pneumococcal, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Meningococcal were included in this study for all the respondents. In addition to these vaccines, Human Papilloma Virus vaccine was also included for female respondents.
Results: There were total of 149 (75 male and 74 females) respondents with the mean age of 21.5 years. The top 3 immunizations were Td/Tdap (97.3%), MMR (66.4%) and Hepatitis B (55%) among the respondents. Only 4 (5.5%) female respondents have been immunized against the HPV. Conclusions: Td/Tdap (97.3%) and MMR (66.4%) coverage was in line with the recommendations. For all the other vaccines the coverage was low varying from 5.5% to 35.4%. The vaccination coverage was better in respondents with higher educated and higher income parents. We suggest that patient education, planning by government for the implementation of policy for adult vaccination and involvement of physicians are must for better adult vaccination coverage.
The drugs we use to treat any condition – from an innocuous cough to a life-threatening cancer – are the outcome of painstaking human clinical trials. These trials are the only way to credibly determine the safety and efficacy of drugs. In recent years there has been a clear shift in clinical trial sites from core developed countries like USA, European countries to developing countries like India, China, South American countries. This shift is related to challenges and opportunities like costs of trials, recruitment issues, and regulatory challenges in developed vs. developing countries. Developing countries and developed countries have their unique disease burden patterns based on various parameters like but not limited to age, health care facilities, health insurance, sanitary conditions, environmental issues, education, nutrition
and GDP. Previous studies have reported that many of the important global diseases are not much explored in clinical trials and many published clinical trials have very less international health relevance. This study was aimed at finding the correlation between disease burdens, number of clinical trials done and trial success rates. We compared 2005 - 2010 Global Burden of Disease data for Germany, India and number of clinical trials from clinicaltrials.gov database done in the same period. Our findings indicated that there was a good correlation between the disease burden and clinical trials for Germany in 2005 and 2010. For India in 2005 there was a moderate positive correlation, 2010 data showed the improvement in India in terms of match between disease burden and clinical trials. But careful observation of the data shows still a need for more trials on Communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional disorders.
Background: Pharmacovigilance (PV); also known as drug safety surveillance, is the science of enhancing patient care and patient safety regarding the use of medicines by collecting, monitoring, assessing, and evaluating information from healthcare providers and patients. Pharmacists are pivotal players in adverse drug event (ADE) monitoring and reporting. However, most pharmacists are unaware or not knowledgeable about the guidelines used by their respective countries’ drug regulatory bodies. It is the need of the hour to train pharmacy students on the concept of pharmacovigilance.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among pharmacy students from Mumbai University, India during May-June 2017. On the basis of the eligibility criterion 352 students were selected for the present study. Four hundred students were approached to participate in the study of which 201 agreed to participate (males: 179; females: 173). Pretested questionnaire was distributed and collected data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.
Results: Overall pharmacovigilance knowledge (44%) and perception (58%) was low among the participants of the present study. Seventy four percent of the participants felt that adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting should be made compulsory for healthcare professionals. And only 21% agreed that the topic of Pharmacovigilance is well covered in pharmacy curriculum.
Conclusions: Pharmacy council of India, pharmacy teacher’s association and respective pharmacy college should take necessary steps to increase the knowledge and create awareness regarding pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction reporting among pharmacy students.
A systematic review of the literature on survey questionnaires to assess self-medication practices
(2017)
Self-medication is of great public health importance as it often bypasses regulatory mechanisms to assure quality of health care. Nevertheless there are no established standards on how to assess self-medication. We therefore intended to systematically retrieve questionnaires and survey tools used to capture self-medication, with the aim to identify the scope of information investigated in this context and commonalities between the tools. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on questionnaires used for self-medication assessment by searching PubMed and Web of Science databases using the combinations of following keywords; self-medication, self-prescription, non-prescription, questionnaire. Truncation was used to ensure retrieval of all possible variations of search terms. The search was limited to articles published between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2015, human studies and English language. Duplicate and irrelevant studies were excluded from the final review. A total of 158 studies were included in the review. Studies were from diverse geographical locations, most of the studies were from Nigeria 16 (10.1%) followed by India 10 (6.3%) and Iran 8 (5%). Forty-three studies (27.2%) focused on antibiotic self-medication. Majority of the studies (106; 67%) were done with adult populations. The components addressed by the questionnaires covered: reasons for self-medications in 147 (93%) studies, purchasing source in 136 (86%) studies, medical conditions to be treated in 153 (96.8%) studies, adverse events in 67 (42.4%) studies, use of prescribing information in 24 (15.1%) studies and antibiotic resistance awareness in 20 (46.5%) antibiotic studies. For 74 (46.8%) studies, survey questionnaires were self-administered and most studies (57; 36%) were done at homes of respondents. Thirty-seven (23.4%) studies did not report any recall period for self-medication practices. Study response rates varied from 17.9% to 100%, and while validity of the study questionnaire was reported for 100 (63.3%) studies, 15 (9.5%) studies reported reliability test of the study questionnaire. There is a large variety of questionnaires being used for investigating self-medication practices making comparability and meta-analyses very difficult. It is desirable to have a basic set of standardized survey questions on this topic to make available for future research groups in this field.
Background: We sought to develop and test an objective scorecard-based system for assessing and categorizing available research sites in Lassa fever-affected countries based on their preparedness and capability to host Lassa fever vaccine clinical trials.
Methods: We mapped available clinical research sites through interrogation of online clinical trial registries and relevant disease-based consortia. A structured online questionnaire was used to assess the capability of clinical trial sites to conduct Lassa fever vaccine clinical trials. We developed a new scoring template by allocating scores to questionnaire parameters based on perceived importance to the conduct of clinical trials as described in the WHO/TDR Global Competency Framework for Clinical Research. Cutoff points of 75% and 50% were used to categorize sites into categories A, B, or C.
Results: This study identified 44 clinical trial sites in 8 Lassa fever-affected countries. Out of these, 35 sites were characterized based on their capacity to hold Lassa fever vaccine clinical trials. A total of 14 sites in 4 countries were identified as ready to host Lassa fever vaccine trials immediately or with little support.
Conclusion: It is feasible to hold Lassa fever vaccine trials in affected countries based on the outcome of the survey. However, the findings are to be validated through sites' visits. This experience with a standardized and objective method of the site assessment is encouraging, and the site selection method used can serve as an orientation to sponsors and researchers planning clinical trials in the region.
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.
During the intraoperative radiograph generation process with mobile image intensifier systems (C-arm) most of the radiation exposure for patient, surgeon and operation room personal is caused by scattered radiation. The intensity and propagation of scattered radiation depend on different parameters, e.g. the intensity of the primary radiation, and the positioning of the mobile image intensifier. Exposure through scattered radiation can be minimized when all these parameters are adjusted correctly. Because radiation is potentially dangerous and could not be perceived by any human sense the current education on correct adjustment of a C-arm is designed very theoretical. This paper presents an approach of scattered radiation calculation and visualization embedded in a computer based training system for mobile image intensifier systems called virtX. With the help of this extension the virtX training system should enrich the current radiation protection training with visual and practical training aspects.
Background: Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used as simulation technology in emergency medicine education and training, in particular for training nontechnical skills. Experimental studies comparing teaching and learning in VR with traditional training media often demonstrate the equivalence or even superiority regarding particular variables of learning or training effectiveness.
Objective: In the EPICSAVE (Enhanced Paramedic Vocational Training with Serious Games and Virtual Environments) project, a highly immersive room-scaled multi-user 3-dimensional VR simulation environment was developed. In this feasibility study, we wanted to gain initial insights into the training effectiveness and media use factors influencing learning and training in VR.
Methods: The virtual emergency scenario was anaphylaxis grade III with shock, swelling of the upper and lower respiratory tract, as well as skin symptoms in a 5-year-old girl (virtual patient) visiting an indoor family amusement park with her grandfather (virtual agent). A cross-sectional, one-group pretest and posttest design was used to evaluate the training effectiveness and quality of the training execution. The sample included 18 active emergency physicians.
Results: The 18 participants rated the VR simulation training positive in terms of training effectiveness and quality of the training execution. A strong, significant correlation (r=.53, P=.01) between experiencing presence and assessing training effectiveness was observed. Perceived limitations in usability and a relatively high extraneous cognitive load reduced this positive effect.
Conclusions: The training within the virtual simulation environment was rated as an effective educational approach. Specific media use factors appear to modulate training effectiveness (ie, improvement through “experience of presence” or reduction through perceived limitations in usability). These factors should be specific targets in the further development of this VR simulation training.
Fenster versorgen die Innenräume mit Tageslicht, dienen der Lufterneuerung in den Räumen und schützen vor Umwelteinflüssen wie Kälte, Wärme, Lärm, Wind und Niederschlägen. Entsprechend weitgefächert ist das Spektrum deer planungsrelevanten Aspekte. Sowohl licht-, lüftungs-, wärme-, schall und wohntechnische als auch hygienische, psychologische und nicht zuletzt wirtschaftliche Gesichtspunkte sind bei edr täglichen Arbeit zu beachten.
Die Umsetzung der an sich seit längerem bekannten Logistikkonzepte stößt in vielen Unternehmen auf Schwierigkeiten. Oft fehlen durchgängige, prozessorientierte Gesamtlösungen. Zum Teil liegt dies daran, dass die üblichen PPS-Systeme im Feinplanungs- und Steuerungsbereich die gestiegenen logistischen Anforderungen nicht erfüllen können.
Logistische Funktionsketten mit der Integration von Information, Arbeits- und Materialflüssen für einen durchgängigen Auftragsabwicklungsprozeß müssen auch Qualitätssicherungsfunktionen mit beinhalten. Dies ist nur über eine entsprechende QS-Systemarchitektur zu realisieren, die an jeder Stelle im dispositiven und operativen Ablauf im Sinne der Fehlervermeidung dafür sorgt, daß die angestrebten Qualitätsziele erreicht werden.
Antimicrobial resistance in livestock is a matter of general concern. To develop hygiene measures and methods for resistance prevention and control, epidemiological studies on a population level are needed to detect factors associated with antimicrobial resistance in livestock holdings. In general, regression models are used to describe these relationships between environmental factors and resistance outcome. Besides the study design, the correlation structures of the different outcomes of antibiotic resistance and structural zero measurements on the resistance outcome as well as on the exposure side are challenges for the epidemiological model building process. The use of appropriate regression models that acknowledge these complexities is essential to assure valid epidemiological interpretations. The aims of this paper are (i) to explain the model building process comparing several competing models for count data (negative binomial model, quasi-Poisson model, zero-inflated model, and hurdle model) and (ii) to compare these models using data from a cross-sectional study on antibiotic resistance in animal husbandry. These goals are essential to evaluate which model is most suitable to identify potential prevention measures. The dataset used as an example in our analyses was generated initially to study the prevalence and associated factors for the appearance of cefotaxime-resistant Escherichia coli in 48 German fattening pig farms. For each farm, the outcome was the count of samples with resistant bacteria. There was almost no overdispersion and only moderate evidence of excess zeros in the data. Our analyses show that it is essential to evaluate regression models in studies analyzing the relationship between environmental factors and antibiotic resistances in livestock. After model comparison based on evaluation of model predictions, Akaike information criterion, and Pearson residuals, here the hurdle model was judged to be the most appropriate model.
The antimicrobial activity of a phagemixture and a lactic acid bacteriumagainst Staphylococcus aureus isolates from bovine origin was investigated in vitro with regard to possible applications in the therapy of udder inflammation (mastitis) caused by bacterial infections. The S. aureus isolates used for inoculation derived from quarter foremilk samples of mastitis cases. For the examination of the antimicrobial activity, the reduction of the S. aureus germ density was determined [log10 cfu/mL]. The phage mixture consisted of the three obligatory lytic and S. aureus-specific phages STA1.ST29, EB1.ST11 and EB1.ST27 (1:1:1). The selected Lactobacillus plantarum strain with proven antimicrobial properties and the phage mixture were tested against S. aureus in milk, both alone and in combination. The application of the lactic acid bacterium showed only a low reduction ability for a 24 h incubation period. The bacteriophage mixture as well as its combination with the lactic acid bacterium showed high antimicrobial activity against S. aureus for a 24 h incubation period at 37 C, with only the phage mixture showing significance.
In this article, we present the software architecture of a new generation of advisory systems using Intelligent Agent and Semantic Web technologies. Multi-agent systems provide a well-suited paradigm to implement negotiation processes in a consultancy situation. Software agents act as clients and advisors, using their knowledge to assist human users. In the presented architecture, the domain knowledge is modeled semantically by means of XML-based ontology languages such as OWL. Using an inference engine, the agents reason, based on their knowledge to make decisions or proposals. The agent knowledge consists of different types of data: on the one hand, private data, which has to be protected against unauthorized access; and on the other hand, publicly accessible knowledge spread over different Web sites. As in a real consultancy, an agent only reveals sensitive private data, if they are indispensable for finding a solution. In addition, depending on the actual consultancy situation, each agent dynamically expands its knowledge base by accessing OWL knowledge sources from the Internet. Due to the standardization of OWL, knowledge models easily can be shared and accessed via the Internet. The usefulness of our approach is proved by the implementation of an advisory system in the Semantic E-learning Agent (SEA) project, whose objective is to develop virtual student advisers that render support to university students in order to successfully organize and perform their studies.
Untersuchungen zu Berufen der Wirtschaftsinformatik bleiben weiterhin
interessant, wenn sie helfen können, dem mittlerweile länger anhaltenden
IT-Fachkräftemangel entgegenzuwirken. Eine Untersuchung der Hochschule
Hannover zu Wirtschaftsinformatikern/-informatikerinnen in den ersten zehn Jahren im Beruf zeigt deren berufliche Ziele und die berufliche Zufriedenheit, die sie erlangen. Deutlich wird, dass Frauen und Männer das Arbeitsklima und die Arbeitsbedingungen sehr unterschiedlich wahrnehmen und daher auch unterschiedlich zufrieden sind. Dabei bemängeln Frauen vor allem Merkmale, die mit „fehlender Fairness“ zu beschreiben sind.
In this paper various techniques in relation to large-scale systems are presented. At first, explanation of large-scale systems and differences from traditional systems are given. Next, possible specifications and requirements on hardware and software are listed. Finally, examples of large-scale systems are presented.
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.
OSGi is a popular Java-based platform, which has its roots in the area of embedded systems. However, nowadays it is used more and more in enterprise systems. To fit this new application area, OSGi has recently been extended with the Remote Services specification. This specification enables distribution, which OSGi was previously lacking. However, the specification provides means for synchronous communication only and leaves out asynchronous communication. As an attempt to fill a gap in this field, we propose, implement and evaluate an approach for the integration of asynchronous messaging into OSGi.
Obwohl durchgängige CIM- und Logistik-Konzepte zur Erfüllung der permanent steigenden Kundenforderungen hinsichtlich spezifischer Produktausführungen bei qualitätsgerechter und termintreuer Auslieferung in den meisten Unternehmen noch nicht realisiert sind, beginnt bereits die Diskussion um eine neue Unternehmensstrategie: die "Lean Production". Das Ziel heißt diesmal, in allen Bereichen Ressourcen zu minimieren, um mit Hilfe einer schlanken Fertigung bei den Kosten Weltstandard zu erreichen.
For indexing archived documents the Dutch Parliament uses a specialized thesaurus. For good results for full text retrieval and automatic classification it turns out to be important to add more synonyms to the existing thesaurus terms. In the present work we investigate the possibilities to find synonyms for terms of the parliaments thesaurus automatically. We propose to use distributional similarity (DS). In an experiment with pairs of synonyms and non-synonyms we train and test a classifier using distributional similarity and string similarity. Using ten-fold cross validation we were able to classify 75% of the pairs of a set of 6000 word pairs correctly.
In order to reduce antimicrobial treatment and prevent environmental mastitis, the aim of the present study was to investigate associations between herd level factors and microbial load on teat ends with environmental mastitis pathogens. Quarterly farm visits of 31 dairy farms over a one-year period were used for statistical analysis. During each farm visit, teat-skin swabs, bedding and air samples were taken and management practices and herd parameters were documented. Total mesophilic bacteria, esculin-positive streptococci and coliform bacteria were examined in the laboratory procedures from teat skin and environmental samples. Esculin-positive streptococci and coliform bacteria on teat ends increased with high temperature–humidity indices (THI) in the barn during the spring and summer. Significantly more coliform bacteria on teat ends were found in herds with an increased percentage of normal or slightly rough teat ends. Cleaning cubicles more frequently, pre-cleaning teats before milking as well as post-dipping them after milking had a decreasing effect of teat-skin load with total mesophilic and coliform bacteria at the herd level. To conclude, teat-skin bacterial load with environmental pathogens is subject to fluctuations and can be influenced by aspects of farm hygiene.
Die Anpassungsfähigkeit eines Unternehmens an rasch wechselnde Wettbewerbssituationen bei kundenwunschorientierter Produktion mit veränderlichen Losgrößen und unterschiedlichen Terminrestriktoren kann nur über ausgefeilte Strategien und durch DV-Einsatz erzeugt werden. Anforderungsgerechte CIM- und Logistik-Konzepte sind eine wesentliche Vorraussetzung, damit die geforderte Flexibilität erreicht wird. Den unabdingbaren Informationsfluss schafft hierbei die Betriebsdatenerfassung.
Wegen der Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Teile in variierenden Losgrößen ist es in der spanenden Fetigung besonders wichtig, Hardware und Software für logistische Aufgaben anforderungsgerecht auszuwählen. Ausgehend von den logistischen Grundfunktionen im Betrieb sind die Grunddatenbereitstellung, die Prozessstruktur, die Produktgestaltung, das Beschaffen und das Lagern auf die rechnergestützte Logistik auszurichten.
In der philosophischen Ethik wird unterschieden zwischen deskriptiver Ethik, normativer Ethik und Metaethik. In diesem Beitrag steht die normative Ethik im Mittelpunkt. Es soll die Frage erörtert werden, welche ethischen Kriterien für die Praxis von Beratung gelten sollten. Zu diesem Zweck werden zunächst beratungskritische Traditionen angeführt und im Anschluss professionsethische Überlegungen mit Rückgriff auf Impulse aus Foucaults Philosophie angestellt.
Es werden die Kosten der H-Milchabteilung bei drei verschiedenen Kapazitätsgrößen mit jeweils variierter Kapazitätsauslastung nach einer speziellen Form der Teilkostenrechnung bestimmt. Die Kapazitätsgrößen betragen 3300, 6600 und 9900 1-l-Packungen pro Stunde. Im Jahr werden zwischen 2,9 und 53,6 Mio. Einheiten hergestellt; dabei variieren die Stückkosten zwischen 30,65 und 18,85 Pf/1-l-Packung. Es zeigt sich dabei, daß die Kostendegression entscheidend stärker durch den Grad der Kapazitätsauslastung als durch die Kapazitätsgröße beeinflußt wird.
Im Rahmen dieser Veröffentlichungsreihe wird der Kostenverlauf von ausgewählten Molkereiabteilungen in Abhängigkeit von der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung ermittelt. Die Bestimmung der Kosten erfolgt mit Hilfe von Modellkalkulationen, deren Daten in zahlreichen Molkereibetrieben sowie bei Herstellern von Molkereimaschinen, Verpackungsmaterial und sonstigen Bedarfsartikeln erhoben wurden. Die Grundlage der Verrechnung dieser Daten bildet eine spezielle Form der Teilkostenrechnung.
Für die Produktion von drei Sorten stichfestem Joghurt (Natur, mit unterlegter Frucht und Mix) werden die Kosten nach einer speziellen Form der Teilkostenrechnung in Abhängigkeit von der Kapazitätsauslastung bestimmt. Es werden drei Modelle mit unterschiedlicher Kapazitätsgröße dargestellt: 6500, 13.000 und 26.000 Becher/h. Durch Variationen der Produktmenge, Produktionstage und Produktanteile ergeben sich Kosten zwischen 12,6 und 9,3 Pf/Becher Joghurt Natur bzw. 18,7 und 15,5 Pf/Becher Joghurt mit unterlegter Frucht bzw. 17,0 und 14,0 Pf/Becher Joghurt Mix. Je nach Produktionsbedingungen können Stückkostendifferenzen von über 20 Pfennig je kg Produkt auftreten.
Im Rahmen dieser Veröffentlichungsreihe wird der Kostenverlauf von ausgewählten Molkereiabteilungen in Abhängigkeit von der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung ermittelt. Die Bestimmung der Kosten erfolgt mit Hilfe von Modellkalkulationen, deren Daten in umfangreichen Feldanalysen erhoben wurden. Die Grundlage der Verrechnung dieser Daten bildet eine spezielle Form der Teilkostenrechnung.
Im Rahmen dieser Veröffentlichungsreihe wird der Kostenverlauf von ausgewählten Molkereiabteilungen in Abhängigkeit von der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung ermittelt. Die Bestimmung der Kosten erfolgt mit Hilfe von Modellkalkulationen, deren Daten in umfangreichen Feldanalysen erhoben wurden. Die Grundlage der Verrechnung dieser Daten bildet eine spezielle Form der Teilkostenrechnung.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Produktionskosten für Sauerrahmbutter nach einer speziellen Form der Teilkostenrechnung in Abhängigkeit der Kapazitätsgröße und -auslastung bestimmt. Die untersuchten 3 Modelle haben eine Kapazität von 1350, 2700 und 4050 kg Butter/h. Durch Variation der Produktionsmengen von rd. 1600 bis 24 000 t/Jahr und der Produktionstage (360/252/180) ergeben sich Kosten der Buttereiabteilung zwischen 19,3 Pf/kg und 34,3 Pf/kg Butter. Bei einer mittleren Auslastung von 50% bewegen sich die Kosten von 20,3 bis 23,6 Pf/kg. Die Kostenanalyse zeigt, daß die Kostendegression bedeutend stärker durch den Kapazitätsauslastungsgrad als durch die Kapazitätsgröße beeinflußt wird.
In dieser Arbeit werden die Grundlagen zur Bestimmung des Kostenverlaufs einzelner ausgewählter Molkereibetriebsabteilungen bei unterschiedlichen Kapazitätsgrößen und -auslastungen bestimmt. Den Produkten (Abteilungen) werden die mengenproportionalen Produkteinzelkosten zugerechnet sowie die Gemeinkosten der Abteilung, die sich aus jahresfixen, tagesfixen und chargenfixen Kosten zusammensetzen. Für Energie werden lediglich mengenproportionale Kosten in Ansatz gebracht. Die sonstigen Kosten der Hilfskostenstellen werden grundsätzlich nicht auf die Produkte bzw. Abteilungen umgelegt; sie werden im letzten Teil dieser Veröffentlichungsreihe behandelt. Die objektive Vergleichbarkeit der Kosten kann so gewährleistet werden. Ein wichtiger Bestandteil dieser Arbeit war die Entwicklung eines für alle Abteilungen brauchbaren Simulationsmodells, das für den Einsatz in der EDV konzipiert wurde. Neben der Berechnung der anfallenden Kosten bei unterschiedlichen Anlagengrößen sind bei dem Computermodell beliebige Variationen der folgenden Faktoren möglich. Dadurch können die Auswirkungen eines veränderten Beschäftigungsgrades bzw. einer anderen Kapazitätsauslastung auf die Stückkosten der einzelnen Produkte ermittelt werden. Es ist vorgesehen, die Daten über Jahre hinaus auf dem neuesten Stand zu halten und zu veröffentlichen.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Kosten der Sprühtrocknung bei drei verschiedenen Kapazitätsgrößen mit jeweils variierender Kapazitätsauslastung nach einer speziellen Form der Teilkostenrechnung bestimmt. Die Kapazitätsgrößen betragen 10800, 21600 und 32400 kg Magermilch pro Stunde. Die verarbeiteten Milchmengen liegen
zwischen 12,8 Mio. und 256,6 Mio. kg im Jahr; dabei variieen die Stückkosten zwischen 4,80 und 1,78 Pf/kg Mm. Es hat sich dabei gezeigt, daß die Kostendegression bedeutend stärker durch den Grad der Kapazitätsauslastung als durch die Kapazitätsgröße beeinflußt wird.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Kosten für die Produktion von Speisequark mager und Speisequark 40 % F.i.Tr. für zwei Kapazitätsgrößen von 4.800 bzw. 9.500 kg Km/h nach einer speziellen Form der Teilkostenrechnung bestimmt. Bei Variationen der Kapazitätsauslastung (Pro
duktionstage X Produktionsstunden/Tag) und der Produktanteile ergeben sich Kosten zwischen 11,99 und 18,95 Pf pro Becher Speisequark mager bzw. 11,73 und 18,45 Pf je Becher Speisequark 40% F.i.Tr. Das entspricht einer Differenz in den Stückkosten von durchschnittlich 27,5 Pf/kg Speisequark. Es zeigt sich dabei, daß die Kostendegression bedeutend stärker durch den Grad der Kapazitätsauslastung als durch die Kapazitätsgröße beeinflußt wird.
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.
A decline in the CD4 count is a common feature in HIV/AIDS, suggesting a compromise in immunity of patients. In response, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is prescribed to slow-down a diminution in the CD4 count and risk of AIDS-related malignancies. However, exercise may improve both the utility and population of innate immune cell components, and may be beneficial for patients with HIV infection. Comparing the effects of different exercises against HAART, on CD4 count, helps in understanding the role and evidence-based application of exercises to ameliorate immune deficiency.
Streptococcus (S.) uberis is a causative agent for clinical and subclinical bovine mastitis which significance for the udder health has increased over the last decades. Molecular diagnosis methods revealed that S. uberis may be subdivided into many different varieties with different epidemiological properties. In addition, some varieties were reclassified as Streptococcus parauberis and Globicatella sanguinis. The present paper reviews S. uberis and its role in modern dairy farming. This pathogen is ubiquitous for which it is considered as environment- associated. Straw bedding and pasture, but also the bovine skin and digestive mucosae are typical localizations inhabited by S. uberis. Due to its capacity to persist within the mammary tissue, some infections may eventually turn cow-associated. In other cases, the infection is short, but in any case, there is a high risk of re-infection. Although many varieties remain susceptible to most antimicrobial agents, the problem for the dairy farm lies in the high rate of re-infection. This paper also reviews risk factors, therapies and measures to control S. uberis at farm level.
Das Versagen von Klebungen kann durch ungenügende Adhäsion, Alterungsprozesse oder mechanische Spannungen erfolgen. In der SMD-Technologie werden Werkstoffe geklebt, die verschiedene Ausdehnungskoeffizienten besitzen. Bei SMD-Klebverbindungen gewährleistet die nachfolgende Lötung deren Langzeitfestigkeit. Wurde für eine gute Adhäsion reichlich Vorsorge getroffen und die Klebung versagt trotzdem, stellt sich die Frage: Spielen mechanische Eigenschaften für den Einsatz von SMD-Klebstoffen eine Rolle?