Referenzprozesse für elektronische Ausschreibungen aus Sicht des industriellen Einkaufs

Many companies and purchasing departments only possess a limited knowledge about the modelling of inter-company business processes for electronic procurement. In the past the discussion about electronic procurement was mostly focused on technical aspects. This article introduces a reference process model for procurement auctions. The process model is made up of a basic process, which describes a minimal process for procurement auctions, and a number of process alternatives, which allow for the adoption of the basic process to changing parameters and individual company requirements.     

3 Jahre Akkreditierung Stand, Erfahrungen, Probleme

Vor 3 Jahren ist ein beispielloser Prozess zur Umgestaltung des deutschen Hochschulwesens angelaufen. Mit dem Übergang zu Bachelor- und Masterstudiengängen wurde eine Qualitätssicherung nach Art der international üblichen Akkreditierung erforderlich.     

Formula creatinine clearance as a substitute for 24-hour creatine clearance in children with kidney transplantation

A 10-year-old German shepherd dog presented with a periodontal 10 mm interproximal defect between the left mandibular fourth premolar and first molar teeth. Bone graft removed from the caudoventral portion of the ipsilateral hemimandible was placed in the defect as a component of the periodontal treatment plan. The use of bone graft likely contributed to periodontal pocket reduction.     

The High Field Project at Dresden/Rossendorf: A Pulsed 100 T/10 ms Laboratory at an Infrared Free-Electron-Laser Facility

This article describes the project to build a pulsed magnetic field user laboratory at the Forschungszentrum Rossendorf near Dresden. Using a 50 MJ/24 kV capacitor bank, pulsed fields and rise times of 100 T/10 ms, 70 T/100 ms, and 60 T/1 s should be achieved. The laboratory will be built next to a free-electron-laser-facility for the middle and far infrared (5 to 150 µm, 2 ps, cw). We describe the work which has been performed until now to start the construction of the laboratory in 2003: coil concepts and computer simulations, materials development for the high field coils, and design of the capacitor bank modules. In addition, a pilot laboratory has been set up where fields up to 62 T/15 ms have been obtained with a 1 MJ/10 kV capacitor module. It is used to gain experience in the operation of such a facility and to test various parts of it. In this test laboratory special devices have been developed for measurements of magnetization and magnetoresistance, and have been successfully used to investigate various materials including semiconductors and Heavy Fermion compounds. In particular, metamagnetic transitions in intermetallic compounds and the irreversibility field of a high-T _c superconductor have been determined. Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations have been observed in the semimetallic compound CeBiPt. Resistance relaxation has been observed to start less than 1second after the field pulse. It could be shown for the first time that nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is detectable in pulsed fields.     

Perthes disease--results of a containment-oriented therapy concept

INTRODUCTION: In a retrospective study a treatment concept for Perthes' disease dependent on the containment was applied. PATIENTS/METHODS: 49 hips of 41 children (9 female, 32 male) were treated between 01. 01. 1990 and 31. 12. 1995. In our concept of treatment a varus femoral osteotomy was performed in 28 cases with not contained hips or less than 4/5 coverage of the femoral head (X-ray/MRI). The other 21 well contained hips with 4/5 coverage or more were treated conservatively with physiotherapy and in case of joint effusion and pain additionally with the use of crutches (partial weight bearing) and anti-inflammatory medication. The average age in the non-operative group at the time of first investigation was 4 years and 9 months (3 y./1 m. to 7 y./1 m.) and 6 years and 3 months (4 y/2 m. to 10 y/0 m.) at our last examination (mean follow up 17.7 months, range of 6 to 72 months). At the time of indication for a varus femoral osteotomy the patients had an average age 6 years and 1 month (3 y./6 m. to 10 y./2 m.), the mean age at the last postoperative examination was 7 years and 11 months (4 y./8 m. to 12 y./5 m.) with an average follow up of 21.5 months (6 to 77 months). RESULTS: For the conservatively treated children we achieved good results (still well contained hips with 4/5 coverage, no decrease of function, no increase of pain) in 85.7% (18 of 21 cases). In 85.7% (24 of 28 cases) we found good results (well contained hips, increase of coverage, no decrease of function, no increase of pain) in the operation group. CONCLUSIONS: The presented concept of therapy in Perthes' disease was practicable for all patients and included the possibility of decision for operative or non-operative treatment. In both groups we achieved good results in 85.7% of the cases.     

Meningitis after acute Borrelia burgdorferi infection in HIV infection

HISTORY AND CLINICAL FINDINGS: A 39-year-old HIV positive patient developed myalgia, headache and cough 4 weeks after a tick bite. His temperature was 37.4 degrees C and a circular pale erythema was noted over the left lower leg. INVESTIGATIONS: C-reactive protein was raised to 120 mg/l, white blood cell count was 5860/microliter, CD4-lymphocyte count 250/microliter. The chest radiogram showed pneumonitic infiltration in the left lower lobe. There were IgM antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi. TREATMENT AND COURSE: Left lower lobe pneumonia and chronic erythema migrans were diagnosed and he was given oral azithromycin (500 mg on the first day and 250 mg for 4 days). The pneumonia cleared up, but 2 weeks later he developed symptoms of meningitis (496 cells per microliter, 87% lymphocytes, positive Borrelia burgdorferi antibody titer), which quickly and lastingly responded to ceftriaxon (2 g daily by brief infusion for 14 days). CONCLUSION: This immune-compromised HIV-infected patient developed disseminated borreliosis with CNS involvement 2 weeks after the occurrence of chronic erythema migrans. The initial treatment of the latter with azithromycin was unable to prevent the meningitis. It is unlikely that there was a causal connection between the borreliosis and the pneumonia.     

Image analysis of comet assay measurements

In the last decade the 'comet assay' or 'single cell gel electrophoresis assay' has been established as a sensitive method for the detection of DNA damage and the measurement of its recovery. The results published in the literature have often been obtained with different methods for comet structure measurement. In most cases these data are not comparable with each other. Even when using similar systems for the analysis, it is difficult to obtain matching data. This presentation will describe some technical aspects of our measurement equipment and evaluation software. It focuses on necessary experimental conditions to minimize errors in obtaining such data. The software developed here allows the rapid analysis of the microscopic samples (< 2 s per image). The image analysis was designed with respect to the morphological shapes of comet cells, which were investigated with a confocal laser microscope. The system is built with standard components which are commercially available. As a measure of the amount of DNA damage the ratio of fluorescence intensity was used inside the comet tail and the fluorescence intensity of the comet head. Other parameters such as DNA content, comet area, head radius, tail length and tail moment are also determined. The reproducibility of the system has been evaluated in several experiments over a period of 5 years.     

T cells of the human intestinal lamina propria are high producers of interleukin-10

BACKGROUND: The transmission of hepatitis A virus (HAV) has been associated with the use of a number of solvent/detergent-treated factor VIII concentrates and possibly a factor IX concentrate. These reports have emphasized the necessity of using virus-inactivation methods for plasma products that are capable of inactivating nonenveloped viruses such as HAV. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A simple, highly accurate titration procedure for HAV, which allows extensive kinetic investigations of virus-inactivation procedures, has been developed. This system has now been used to evaluate the efficacy of vapor heating in inactivating HAV after the addition of the virus to a range of human plasma products. RESULTS: It was demonstrated that HAV was significantly more thermostable than other picornaviruses, which reinforced the fact that such viruses cannot be used as model viruses for HAV-inactivation studies. A one-step vapor-heating procedure was demonstrated to inactivate between 5.9 and > 6.3 log10 of HAV in different products. A two-step vapor-heating procedure had the capacity to inactivate between > 8.7 and > 10.4 log10 of HAV. Both procedures were more effective in inactivating HAV than was the pasteurization procedure used for virus inactivation in human albumin solutions. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate the efficacy of vapor heating in inactivating high-titer HAV after the spiking of plasma products with virus. This study confirms and explains the results of controlled clinical trials and long-term clinical usage with respect to the lack of HAV transmission by such vapor-heated products.     

Actin and fimbrin are required for the internalization step of endocytosis in yeast

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, alpha-factor is internalized by receptor-mediated endocytosis and transported via vesicular intermediates to the vacuole where the pheromone is degraded. Using beta-tubulin and actin mutant strains, we showed that actin plays a direct role in receptor-mediated internalization of alpha-factor, but is not necessary for transport from the endocytic intermediates to the vacuole. beta-tubulin mutant strains showed no defect in these processes. In addition, cells lacking the actin-binding protein, Sac6p, which is the yeast fimbrin homologue, are defective for internalization of alpha-factor suggesting that actin filament bundling might be required for this step. The actin dependence of endocytosis shows some interesting similarities to endocytosis from the apical membrane in polarized mammalian cells.