TY - JOUR A1 - Bernecker, Andreas T1 - A European Private Company: Is Europe’s single legal form for SMEs close to approval? JF - Research Briefing N2 - This Research Briefing, issued in July 2010, concluded that: - Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe have long called for a matching legal form valid across the EU (similar to that of the European company (SE) for large firms) - The main benefits would be the availability of uniform Europe-wide company structures, significant cost reductions for businesses and further integration of the internal market - Given the differing national views regarding the concrete features of the new legal form there is currently no sign of an agreement being reached at the European level in the short term; however, it is possible that progress will be made in negotiations during the year - The key issues being discussed in depth are company formation, transnationality and employee participation rights in the new European private company (SPE). Y1 - 2010 SN - 2193-5955 PB - Deutsche Bank Research CY - Frankfurt a. M. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grottke, O. A1 - Braunschweig, T. A1 - Philippen, B. A1 - Gatzweiler, Karl-Heinz A1 - Gronloh, N. A1 - Staat, Manfred A1 - Rossaint, R. A1 - Tolba, R. T1 - A new model for blunt liver injuries in the swine JF - European Surgical Research N2 - Background: To elaborate the impact of new haemostatic agents we developed an instrument for the pressure-controlled induction of blunt liver injuries in a porcine animal model. Materials and Methods: A dilutional coagulopathy of 80% of animal blood volume was induced in 9 anaesthetized pigs. Animals were randomly assigned to be injured with a force of 112 Newton (N) (n = 1), 224 ± 19 N (n = 4) or 355 ± 35 N (n = 4). The impact of injury was measured by blood loss, survival time and coagulation parameters. Liver histology was obtained to evaluate the degree of liver injury. Results: The profound haemodilution resulted in a significant alteration of all coagulation parameters. After inflicting the injury with 355 ± 35 N, both the survival time (30 ± 9 min; p = 0.006) and blood loss (68 ± 16 ml min–1, p = 0.002) were significantly different as compared to injuries with 224 ± 19 N (survival time: 76 ± 20 min, blood loss: 23 ± 4 ml min–1). In contrast, an injury with 112 N led to an insignificant blood loss of only 239 ml. Conclusion: We developed a pressure-controlled clamp that allows for the induction of blunt liver traumas with highly reproducible injuries with a positive correlation with blood loss and survival. Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1159/000265053 SN - 1421-9921 VL - 44 IS - 2 SP - 65 EP - 73 PB - Karger CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hirschfeld, Julian A. A1 - Lustfeld, Hans A1 - Reißel, Martin A1 - Steffen, Bernhard T1 - A novel scheme for precise diagnostics and effective stabilization of currents in a fuel cell stack JF - International Journal of Energy Research N2 - A novel scheme for detecting inhomogeneous internal currents in a fuel cell stack is presented. In this paper the scheme is investigated for the case that the flow field plates consist of graphite. Then plates of high conductivity, e.g. aluminium between the flow field plates together with small slits in these plates have three effects: (a) Whenever a local inhomogeneity of the electric current occurs at a particular cell in the stack, this will induce a surface current close to that cell perpendicular to the averaged current. This current can be detected. (b) The plates of high conductivity completely prevent the inhomogeneities from spreading to neighbouring cells. (c) Even at the particular cell the inhomogeneity is suppressed as far as possible. Thus this scheme leads to much better diagnostic possibilities and at the same time reduces electric instabilities to an extent, where they probably become harmless. This scheme will first be explained for a simple model to clarify the idea. However, very precise three dimensional computations using realistic parameters are presented, corroborating the results of the simple model. Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/er.1662 SN - 0363-907X VL - 34 IS - 3 SP - 293 EP - 301 PB - Wiley CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Frauenrath, Tobias A1 - Hezel, Fabian A1 - Renz, Wolfgang A1 - de Geyer d'Orth, Thibaut A1 - Dieringer, Matthias A1 - von Knobelsdorf-Brenkenhoff, Florian A1 - Prothmann, Marcel A1 - Schulz-Menger, Jeanette A1 - Niendorf, Thoralf T1 - Acoustic cardiac triggering: a practical solution for synchronization and gating of cardiovascular magnetic resonance at 7 Tesla JF - Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance N2 - Background To demonstrate the applicability of acoustic cardiac triggering (ACT) for imaging of the heart at ultrahigh magnetic fields (7.0 T) by comparing phonocardiogram, conventional vector electrocardiogram (ECG) and traditional pulse oximetry (POX) triggered 2D CINE acquisitions together with (i) a qualitative image quality analysis, (ii) an assessment of the left ventricular function parameter and (iii) an examination of trigger reliability and trigger detection variance derived from the signal waveforms. Results ECG was susceptible to severe distortions at 7.0 T. POX and ACT provided waveforms free of interferences from electromagnetic fields or from magneto-hydrodynamic effects. Frequent R-wave mis-registration occurred in ECG-triggered acquisitions with a failure rate of up to 30% resulting in cardiac motion induced artifacts. ACT and POX triggering produced images free of cardiac motion artefacts. ECG showed a severe jitter in the R-wave detection. POX also showed a trigger jitter of approximately Δt = 72 ms which is equivalent to two cardiac phases. ACT showed a jitter of approximately Δt = 5 ms only. ECG waveforms revealed a standard deviation for the cardiac trigger offset larger than that observed for ACT or POX waveforms. Image quality assessment showed that ACT substantially improved image quality as compared to ECG (image quality score at end-diastole: ECG = 1.7 ± 0.5, ACT = 2.4 ± 0.5, p = 0.04) while the comparison between ECG vs. POX gated acquisitions showed no significant differences in image quality (image quality score: ECG = 1.7 ± 0.5, POX = 2.0 ± 0.5, p = 0.34). Conclusions The applicability of acoustic triggering for cardiac CINE imaging at 7.0 T was demonstrated. ACT's trigger reliability and fidelity are superior to that of ECG and POX. ACT promises to be beneficial for cardiovascular magnetic resonance at ultra-high field strengths including 7.0 T. KW - Interval Time Series KW - Image Quality Score KW - Image Quality Assessment KW - Sound Pressure Level KW - Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1532-429X-12-67 SN - 1532-429X VL - 12 IS - 1 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gebhardt, Andreas A1 - Schmidt, Frank-Michael A1 - Hötter, Jan-Steffen A1 - Sokalla, Wolfgang A1 - Sokalla, Patrick T1 - Additive manufacturing by selective laser melting the realizer desktop machine and its application for the dental industry JF - Physics Procedia N2 - Additive Manufacturing of metal parts by Selective Laser Melting has become a powerful tool for the direct manufacturing of complex parts mainly for the aerospace and medical industry. With the introduction of its desktop machine, Realizer targeted the dental market. The contribution describes the special features of the machine, discusses details of the process and shows manufacturing results focused on metal dental devices. KW - scan strategy KW - dental bridges KW - cobald chrome KW - Selective Laser Melting (SLM) KW - additive manufacturing Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phpro.2010.08.082 SN - 1875-3892 N1 - Laser Assisted Net Shape Engineering 6, Proceedings of the LANE 2010, Part 2 VL - 5 B IS - 2 SP - 543 EP - 549 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zhubanova, Azhar A. A1 - Aknazarov, S. K. A1 - Mansurov, Zulkhair A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Kozhalakova, A. A. A1 - Akimbekov, Nuraly S. A1 - O'Heras, Carlos A1 - Tazhibayeva, S. A1 - Artmann, Gerhard A1 - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül T1 - Adsorption of bacterial Lipopolysaccharides and blood plasma proteins on modified carbonized materials N2 - Bacterial lipopolysaccharides (endotoxins) show strong biological effects at very low concentrations in human beings and many animals when entering the blood stream. These include affecting structure and function of organs and cells, changing metabolic functions, raising body temperature, triggering the coagulation cascade, modifying hemodynamics and causing septic shock. Because of this toxicity, the removal of even minute amounts is essential for safe parenteral administration of drugs and also for septic shock patients' care. The absence of a general method for endotoxin removal from liquid interfaces urgently requires finding new methods and materials to overcome this gap. Nanostructured carbonized plant parts is a promising material that showed good adsorption properties due to its vast pore network and high surface area. The aim of this study was comparative measurement of endotoxin- and blood proteins-related adsorption rate and adsorption capacity for different carboneous materials produced at different temperatures and under different surface modifications. As a main surface modificator, positively cbarged polymer, polyethileneimine (PEl) was used. Activated carbon materials showed good adsorption properties for LPS and some proteins used in the experiments. During the batch experiments, several techniques (dust removal, autoclaving) were used and optimized for improving the material's adsorption behavior. Also, with the results obtained it was possible to differentiate the materials according to their adsorption capacity and kinetic characteristics. Modification of the surface apparently has not affected hemoglobin binding to the adsorbent's surface. Obtained adsorption isotherms can be used as a powerful tool for designing of future column-based setups for blood purification from LPS, which is especially important for septic shock treatment. KW - Kohlenstofffaser KW - Lipopolysaccharide KW - nanostrukturierte carbonisierte Pflanzenteile KW - lipopolysaccharides KW - nanostructured carbonized plant parts Y1 - 2010 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kozhalakova, A. A. A1 - Zhubanova, Azhar A. A1 - Mansurov, Z. A. A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Tazhibayeva, S. M. A1 - Artmann, Gerhard A1 - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül T1 - Adsorption of bacterial lipopolysaccharides on carbonized rice shell JF - Science of Central Asia Y1 - 2010 SP - 50 EP - 54 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kraff, Oliver A1 - Bitz, Andreas A1 - Dammann, Philipp A1 - Ladd, Susanne C. A1 - Ladd, Mark E. A1 - Quick, Harald H. T1 - An eight-channel transmit/receive multipurpose coil for musculoskeletal MR imaging at 7 T JF - Medical Physics N2 - Purpose: MRI plays a leading diagnostic role in assessing the musculoskeletal (MSK) system and is well established for most questions at clinically used field strengths (up to 3 T). However, there are still limitations in imaging early stages of cartilage degeneration, very fine tendons and ligaments, or in locating nerve lesions, for example. 7 T MRI of the knee has already received increasing attention in the current published literature, but there is a strong need to develop new radiofrequency (RF) coils to assess more regions of the MSK system. In this work, an eight-channel transmit/receive RF array was built as a multipurpose coil for imaging some of the thus far neglected regions. An extensive coil characterization protocol and first in vivo results of the human wrist, shoulder, elbow, knee, and ankle imaged at 7 T will be presented. Methods: Eight surface loop coils with a dimension ofurn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp7176:mp7176-math-0001 were machined from FR4 circuit board material. To facilitate easy positioning, two coil clusters, each with four loop elements, were combined to one RF transmit/receive array. An overlapped and shifted arrangement of the coil elements was chosen to reduce the mutual inductance between neighboring coils. A phantom made of body-simulating liquid was used for tuning and matching on the bench. Afterward, the S-parameters were verified on a human wrist, elbow, and shoulder. For safety validation, a detailed compliance test was performed including full wave simulations of the RF field distribution and the corresponding specific absorption rate (SAR) for all joints. In vivo images of four volunteers were assessed with gradient echo and spin echo sequences modified to obtain optimal image contrast, full anatomic coverage, and the highest spatial resolution within a reasonable acquisition time. The performance of the RF coil was additionally evaluated by in vivo B1 mapping. Results: A comparison of B1 per unit power, flip angle distribution, and anatomic images showed a fairly homogeneous excitation for the smaller joints (elbow, wrist, and ankle), while for the larger joints, the shoulder and especially the knee, B1 inhomogeneities and limited penetration depth were more pronounced. However, the greater part of the shoulder joint could be imaged.In vivo images rendered very fine anatomic details such as fascicles of the median nerve and the branching of the nerve bundles. High-resolution images of cartilage, labrum, and tendons could be acquired. Additionally, turbo spin echo (TSE) and inversion recovery sequences performed very well. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the concept of two four-channel transmit/receive RF arrays can be used as a multipurpose coil for high-resolutionin vivo MR imaging of the musculoskeletal system at 7 T. Not only gradient echo but also typical clinical and SAR-intensive sequences such as STIR and TSE performed well. Imaging of small structures and peripheral nerves could in particular benefit from this technique. Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1118/1.3517176 SN - 2473-4209 VL - 37 IS - 12 SP - 6368 EP - 6376 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken, NJ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Siqueira, José R. Jr. A1 - Bäcker, Matthias A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Zucolotto, Valtencir A1 - Oliveira, Osvaldo N. Jr. A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Associating biosensing properties with the morphological structure of multilayers containing carbon nanotubes on field-effect devices JF - Physica Status Solidi (A) N2 - The control of molecular architecture provided by the layer-by-layer (LbL) technique has led to enhanced biosensors, in which advantageous features of distinct materials can be combined. Full optimization of biosensing performance, however, is only reached if the film morphology is suitable for the principle of detection of a specific biosensor. In this paper, we report a detailed morphology analysis of LbL films made with alternating layers of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers, which were then covered with a layer of penicillinase (PEN). An optimized performance to detect penicillin G was obtained with 6-bilayer SWNT/PAMAM LbL films deposited on p-Si-SiO2-Ta2O5 chips, used in biosensors based on a capacitive electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) and a light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) structure, respectively. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images indicated that the LbL films were porous, with a large surface area due to interconnection of SWNT into PAMAM layers. This morphology was instrumental for the adsorption of a larger quantity of PEN, with the resulting LbL film being highly stable. The experiments to detect penicillin were performed with constant-capacitance (ConCap) and constant-current (CC) measurements for EIS and LAPS sensors, respectively, which revealed an enhanced detection signal and sensitivity of ca. 100 mV/decade for the field-effect sensors modified with the PAMAM/SWNT LbL film. It is concluded that controlling film morphology is essential for an enhanced performance of biosensors, not only in terms of sensitivity but also stability and response time. Y1 - 2010 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.200983301 SN - 1862-6300 N1 - Special Issue: Engineering of Functional Interfaces EnFI 2009 VL - 207 IS - 4 SP - 781 EP - 786 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Christen, Marc A1 - Bartelt, Perry A1 - Kowalski, Julia T1 - Back calculation of the In den Arelen avalanche with RAMMS: Interpretation of model results JF - Annals of Glaciology N2 - Two- and three-dimensional avalanche dynamics models are being increasingly used in hazard-mitigation studies. These models can provide improved and more accurate results for hazard mapping than the simple one-dimensional models presently used in practice. However, two- and three-dimensional models generate an extensive amount of output data, making the interpretation of simulation results more difficult. To perform a simulation in three-dimensional terrain, numerical models require a digital elevation model, specification of avalanche release areas (spatial extent and volume), selection of solution methods, finding an adequate calculation resolution and, finally, the choice of friction parameters. In this paper, the importance and difficulty of correctly setting up and analysing the results of a numerical avalanche dynamics simulation is discussed. We apply the two-dimensional simulation program RAMMS to the 1968 extreme avalanche event In den Arelen. We show the effect of model input variations on simulation results and the dangers and complexities in their interpretation. KW - avalanche Y1 - 2010 SN - 1727-5644 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3189/172756410791386553 VL - 51 IS - 54 SP - 161 EP - 168 PB - Cambridge University Press CY - Cambridge ER -