The Role of the Individual – A Key to Learning in Preparedness Organizations

A well functioning societal response to crises is benefited by individuals having adequate skills and knowledge. From a municipal perspective this requires the creation of a learning organization. The objective of this study is to determine whether individual municipal employees, who have the responsibility for preparedness planning, reason and act in ways that promote learning about crises and preparedness issues throughout the municipal organization. Analysis of interviews with preparedness planners in six Swedish municipalities on their strategies for preparedness planning, reveal that preparedness planning too often becomes a demarcated activity, restricted to not more than a handful of individuals. This study indicates that one reason for why the preparedness work becomes demarcated is that individuals central to the preparedness planning are not taking on roles for acting in ways that are required in order for a learning organization to be established.     

Synthesis of Functionalized δ-Hydroxy-β-keto Esters and Evaluation of Their Anti-inflammatory Properties

δ-Hydroxy-β-keto esters and δ,β-dihydroxy esters are characteristic structural motifs of statin-type natural products and drug candidates. Here, we describe the synthesis of functionalized δ-hydroxy-β-keto esters in good yields and excellent enantioselectivities using Chan's diene and modified Mukaiyama-aldol reaction conditions. Diastereoselective reduction of δ,β-dihydroxy esters afforded the respective syn- and anti-diols, and saponification yielded the corresponding acids. All products were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory properties, which uncovered a surprising structure-activity relationship.     

70 Jahre Verfahrenstechnik an der TU Dresden

At the Technische Hochschule Dresden, the predecessor institution of the TU Dresden, a specialization “Engineer for Process Engineering” was established in 1953 with the filling of the specialist professorship for chemical engineering, and the present Institute for Process and Environmental Engineering was founded. Since then, the profile in education and research of the institute within the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering of the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) has been considerably extended. Based on this development, the current main research areas of the five chairs and research groups are presented.     

A DNA Segregation Module for Synthetic Cells

The bottom-up construction of an artificial cell requires the realization of synthetic cell division. Significant progress has been made toward reliable compartment division, yet mechanisms to segregate the DNA-encoded informational content are still in their infancy. Herein, droplets of DNA Y-motifs are formed by liquid–liquid phase separation. DNA droplet segregation is obtained by cleaving the linking component between two populations of DNA Y-motifs. In addition to enzymatic cleavage, photolabile sites are introduced for spatio-temporally controlled DNA segregation in bulk as well as in cell-sized water-in-oil droplets and giant unilamellar lipid vesicles (GUVs). Notably, the segregation process is slower in confinement than in bulk. The ionic strength of the solution and the nucleobase sequences are employed to regulate the segregation dynamics. The experimental results are corroborated in a lattice-based theoretical model which mimics the interactions between the DNA Y-motif populations. Altogether, engineered DNA droplets, reconstituted in GUVs, can represent a strategy toward a DNA segregation module within bottom-up assembled synthetic cells.     

Rißbreitennachweis für Kreisquerschnitte

Verification of Crack Limitation for Circular Cross Section The verification of the crack limitation for circular cross sections such as bored piles is often neglected. In some cases for instance for predominantly bending members the crack limitation is the fundamental proof. Thus all necessary principals for the crack limitation of circular cross sections were provided. The analytical approaches are proved by experiments. There is a good conformance between the theoretical approach provided and the tests.     

The Ralph knife in practice

Long edge glass knives, ‘Ralph knives’, were produced in an LKB Histo KnifeMaker. The edge angles were measured by light microscopy; depending on the breaking conditions the angles varied between 12° and 58°, as measured close to the edge in the mid-portion of the knives. Hackle marks were more common in the left portion of the edge than in the middle and right portions. Some of the knives were used for cutting sections from urinary bladder tumours embedded in paraffin or in glycol methacrylate. Following microtomy the sections were allowed to stretch on a water surface; this procedure resulted in an increased width of the plastic sections, whereas the paraffin sections were not affected. The compression of the whole sections averaged 15% in the paraffin sections and 11% in the plastic sections; in both cases the compression factors were positively correlated to the angle of the knife edge. Smaller compression factors were found for the cell nuclei in the embedded tissue.     

Well-being and organizational attitudes in alternative employment: The role of contract and job preferences.

This study focuses upon the heterogeneity in the contemporary workforce in relation to well-being and organizational attitudes. This heterogeneity may concern (a) the specific type of contract (permanent full-time vs. alternative arrangements; e.g., permanent part-time, fixed-term, and on-call work), (b) job and contract preferences, or (c) specific combinations of contract type and preferences. The authors argue that working in alternative employment, but also being in a nonpreferred contract or job may imply stress and, hence, strain (i.e., poor well-being). This may lead to withdrawal from the organization (i.e., poor organizational attitudes). A combination of the stressors may strengthen these effects. Analyses of questionnaire data from Sweden collected in 2004 (N = 716) reveal that preferences, particularly preferences for the job and partly also for the contract, were associated with the outcomes. Contract heterogeneity was not informative for well-being, while it was for differences in reported organizational attitudes. Type of employment contract interacted with job and contract preferences: for permanent full-time workers, job preferences displayed stronger associations with well-being and attitudes than for workers in alternative employment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When does and ostrich become a bird? The role of typicality in early word comprehension.

Which objects and animals are children willing to accept as referents for words they know? To answer this question, the authors assessed early word comprehension using the preferential looking task. Children were shown 2 stimuli side by side (a target and a distractor) and heard the target stimulus named. The target stimulus was either a typical or an atypical exemplar of the named category. It was predicted that children first connect typical examples with the target name and broaden the extension of the name as they get older to include less typical examples. Experiment 1 shows that when targets are named, 12-month-olds display an increase in target looking for typical but not atypical targets whereas 24-month-olds display an increase for both. Experiment 2 shows that 18-month-olds display a pattern similar to that of 24-month-olds. Implications for the early development of word comprehension are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)