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The activated sludge respiration inhibition test and the luminescent bacteria test with Vibrio fischeri are important bacterial test systems for evaluation of the toxicity of chemical compounds. These test systems were further optimized to result in better handling, reliability and sensitivity. Concerning the Vibrio fischeri test, media components such as yeast extract and bivalent cation concentrations like Ca2+ and Mg2+ were optimized. The cultivation, storage conditions and reactivation process of the stored bacteria were also improved, which enabled simpler handling and led to good reproducibility. Additionally, the respiration inhibition test with a prolonged incubation time was further analyzed using different chlorinated phenols as reference compounds. It could be stated that a longer incubation period significantly improved the sensitivity of the test system.
In the modern Web, service providers often rely heavily on third parties to run their services. For example, they make use of ad networks to finance their services, externally hosted libraries to develop features quickly, and analytics providers to gain insights into visitor behavior.
For security and privacy, website owners need to be aware of the content they provide their users. However, in reality, they often do not know which third parties are embedded, for example, when these third parties request additional content as it is common in real-time ad auctions.
In this paper, we present a large-scale measurement study to analyze the magnitude of these new challenges. To better reflect the connectedness of third parties, we measured their relations in a model we call third party trees, which reflects an approximation of the loading dependencies of all third parties embedded into a given website. Using this concept, we show that including a single third party can lead to subsequent requests from up to eight additional services. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the third parties embedded on a page load are not always deterministic, as 50 % of the branches in the third party trees change between repeated visits. In addition, we found that 93 % of the analyzed websites embedded third parties that are located in regions that might not be in line with the current legal framework. Our study also replicates previous work that mostly focused on landing pages of websites. We show that this method is only able to measure a lower bound as subsites show a significant increase of privacy-invasive techniques. For example, our results show an increase of used cookies by about 36 % when crawling websites more deeply.
BACKGROUND: In cartilage repair, scaffold-assisted single-step techniques are used to improve the cartilage regeneration. Nevertheless, the fixation of cartilage implants represents a challenge in orthopaedics, particularly in the moist conditions that pertain during arthroscopic surgery. Within the animal kingdom a broad range of species has developed working solutions to intermittent adhesion under challenging conditions. Using a top-down approach we identified promising mechanisms for biomimetic transfer OBJECTIVE: The tree-frog adhesive system served as a test case to analyze the adhesion capacity of a polyglycolic acid (PGA) scaffold with and without a structural modification in a bovine articular cartilage defect model. METHODS: To this end, PGA implants were modified with a simplified foot-pad structure and evaluated on femoral articular bovine cartilage lesions. Non-structured PGA scaffolds were used as control. Both implants were pressed on 20 mm × 20 mm full-thickness femoral cartilage defects using a dynamometer. RESULTS: The structured scaffolds showed a higher adhesion capacity on the cartilage defect than the non-structured original scaffolds. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the adhesion ability can be increased by means of biomimetic structured surfaces without the need of additional chemical treatment and thus significantly facilitate primary fixation procedures.
Biomimetics is a well-known approach for technical innovation. However, most of its influence remains in the academic field. One option for increasing its application in the practice of technical design is to enhance the use of the biomimetic process with a step-by-step standard, building a bridge to common engineering procedures. This article presents the endeavor of an interdisciplinary expert panel from the fields of biology, engineering science, and industry to develop a standard that links biomimetics to the classical processes of product development and engineering design. This new standard, VDI 6220 Part 2, proposes a process description that is compatible and connectable to classical approaches in engineering design. The standard encompasses both the solution-based and the problem-driven process of biomimetics. It is intended to be used in any product development process for more biomimetic applications in the future.
The one-phonon inelastic low energy helium atom scattering theory is adapted to cases where the target monolayer is a p(1x1) commensurate square lattice. Experimental data for para-H2/NaCl(001) are re-analyzed and the relative intensities of energy loss peaks in the range 6 to 9 meV are determined. The case of the H2/NaCl(001) monolayer for 26 meV scattering energy is computationally challenging and difficult because it has a much more corrugated surface than those in the previous applications for triangular lattices. This requires a large number of coupled channels for convergence in the wave-packet-scattering calculation and a long series of Fourier amplitudes to represent the helium-target potential energy surface. A modified series is constructed in which a truncated Fourier expansion of the potential is constrained to give the exact value of the potential at some key points and which mimics the potential with fewer Fourier amplitudes. The shear horizontal phonon mode is again accessed by the helium scattering for small misalignment of the scattering plane relative to symmetry axes of the monolayer. For 1° misalignment, the calculated intensity of the longitudinal acoustic phonon mode frequently is higher than that of the shear horizontal phonon mode in contrast to what was found at scattering energies near 10 meV for triangular lattices of Ar, Kr, and Xe on Pt(111).
This study investigates differences between treatment plans generated by Ray Tracing (RT) and Monte Carlo (MC) calculation algorithms in homogeneous and heterogeneous body regions. Particularly, we focus on the head and on the thorax, respectively, for robotic stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery with Cyberknife. Radiation plans for tumors located in the head and in the thorax region have been calculated and compared to each other in 47 cases and several tumor types.
Background: By reviewing image quality and diagnostic perception, the suitability of a statistical model-based iterative reconstruction algorithm in conjunction with low-dose computed tomography for lung cancer screening is investigated.
Methods: Artificial lung nodules shaped as spheres and spiculated spheres made from material with calibrated Hounsfield units were attached on marked positions in the lung structure of anthropomorphic phantoms. The phantoms were scanned using standard high contrast, and two low-dose computed tomography protocols: low-dose and ultra-low-dose. For the reconstruction, the filtered back projection and the iterative reconstruction algorithm ADMIRE at different strength levels (S1–S5) and the kernels Bl57, Br32, Br69 were used. Expert radiologists assessed image quality by performing 4-field-ranking tests and reading all image series to examine the aptitude for the detectability of lung nodules. Signal-to-noise ratio was investigated as objective image quality parameter.
Results: In ranking tests for lung foci detection expert radiologists prefer medium to high iterative reconstruction strength levels. For the standard clinical kernel Bl57 and varying phantom diameter, a noticeable preference for S4 was detected. Experienced radiologists graded filtered back projection reconstructed images with the highest perceptibility. Less experienced readers assessed filtered back projection and iterative reconstruction equally with the highest grades for the Bl57 kernel. Independently of the dose protocol, the signal-to-noise ratio increases with the iterative reconstruction strength level, specifically for Br69 and Bl57.
Conclusions: Subjective image perception does not significantly correlate with the experience of the radiologist, which presumably mirrors reader’s training and accustomed reading adjustments. Regarding signal-to-noise ratio, iterative reconstruction outperforms filtered back projection for spheres and spiculated spheres. Iterative reconstruction matters. It promises to be an alternative to filtered back projection allowing for lung-cancer screening at markedly decreased radiation exposure but comparable or even improved image quality.
This introduction to a special issue about concepts and facets of entrepreneurial diversity serves as a starting point for further discussion and research in this field. For this purpose, we provide information about the roots of the study of diversity and current trends in entrepreneurship research and present a frame for (researching) entrepreneurial diversity. Additionally, we briefly summarize the three papers selected for inclusion in this special issue. Together, they offer insights into the intersections of different diversity dimensions, personality as a deep dimension of team composition, and a general critical reflection on the conceptualization of entrepreneurial diversity. Taken together, the papers in this special issue present new findings and contribute to further advancing the long overdue research on and discussion about diversity in the field of entrepreneurship.
Gaining customer loyalty is an important goal of marketing, and loyalty programs are intended to help in reaching it. Research on loyalty programs suggests that customers differentiate between loyalty to a company and loyalty to a loyalty program, yet little is known about the consequences of these two types of loyalty. Therefore, our study intends to make two main contributions: (1) improving our understanding of the constructs “program loyalty” and “company loyalty”, (2) investigating the relative impact of the two types of loyalty on preference, intention, and purchase behavior for the case of a multi-firm loyalty program. Results indicate that company loyalty influences a customer’s choice to visit a particular provider and to prefer it over competitors, but it is not a strong predictor of purchase behavior. Conversely, program loyalty is a far more important driver of purchase behavior. This implies that company loyalty primarily attracts customers to a particular provider and program loyalty ensures that once inside the store, more money is spent.
The wireless data logger system “Cor/log® BAN BT” (CL) allows seamless 24/7 monitoring of relevant vital sign parameters. CL covers the entire period of acute point of care inside the hospital and the recovery period, when first mobility is achieved and when the patient is released into an ambulatory or homecare environment. The CL records the relevant vital signs such as ECG, respiration, pulse oximetry with plethysmogram and movement. The vital data collected with the CL data logger is saved on a memory card for further analysis and is simultaneously transmitted in real-time to a telemedicine server via a smartphone or tablet. The smartphone also provides GPS location information. In addition Cor/log View, an Android Application for viewing recorded vital sign data originating from the CL, was developed. CL has also a connector to the generic MedM health cloud. MedM is a generic patient data management system (PDMS) consisting of a cloud portal and a mobile health app. The app runs on Android, iOS and Windows. The app can connects wirelessly to the CL physiologic monitor and stores the vital signs in the cloud.