Konjunktur 2015: Weichenstellung für den globalen Aufschwung

Das Jahr 2014 konnte die zu Jahresbeginn gehegten konjunkturellen Erwartungen nicht erfüllen. Sowohl in Deutschland als auch im Euroraum hat sich die Dynamik im Jahresverlauf deutlich abgeschwächt. Auch die Weltwirtschaft insgesamt ist schwächer als erwartet expandiert. Dies obwohl die USA und das Vereinigte Königreich ihren moderaten, aber robusten Aufschwung fortsetzen konnten. Die globale Konjunktur hat sich insbesondere durch eine Reihe von geopolitischenKonflikten eingetrübt. Diese haben sich vor allem negativ auf die Investitionstätigkeit der Unternehmen ausgewirkt, die deutlich schwächer als zu Jahresbeginn erwartet ausfiel. Der im Jahresverlauf einsetzende Attentismus hat die Aufwärtsdynamik spürbar gebremst. Hinzu kommt nach wie vor die Unsicherheit über die Stabilität und die generelle Verfassung der Weltwirtschaft. Auch im sechsten Jahr nach der globalen Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise von 2008/09 sind die Risiken eines erneuten Einbruchs anden Märkten substantiell. Von Seiten der Fiskal- und Geldpolitik gab es angesichts der Schuldensituation in vielen europäischen Krisenländern und einer an der Nullzinsgrenze agierenden Geldpolitik kaum noch expansive Impulse. Insgesamt haben sich damit die Hoffnungen auf einen selbsttragenden Aufschwung nicht erfüllt. Dieser ist bis mindestens in das nächste Jahr hinein aufgeschoben

Generation of InN nanocrystals in organic solution through laser ablation of high pressure chemical vapor deposition-grown InN thin film

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We report the synthesis of colloidal InN nanocrystals (InN-NCs) in organic solution through nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of high pressure chemical vapor deposition-grown InN thin film on GaN/sapphire template substrate. The size, the structural, the optical, and the chemical characteristics of InN-NCs demonstrate that the colloidal InN crystalline nanostructures in ethanol are synthesized with spherical shape within 5.9-25.3, 5.45-34.8, 3.24-36 nm particle-size distributions, increasing the pulse energy value. The colloidal InN-NCs solutions present strong absorption edge tailoring from NIR region to UV region. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of asthma in ethnically diverse North American populations.

Asthma is a common disease with a complex risk architecture including both genetic and environmental factors. We performed a meta-analysis of North American genome-wide association studies of asthma in 5,416 individuals with asthma (cases) including individuals of European American, African American or African Caribbean, and Latino ancestry, with replication in an additional 12,649 individuals from the same ethnic groups. We identified five susceptibility loci. Four were at previously reported loci on 17q21, near IL1RL1, TSLP and IL33, but we report for the first time, to our knowledge, that these loci are associated with asthma risk in three ethnic groups. In addition, we identified a new asthma susceptibility locus at PYHIN1, with the association being specific to individuals of African descent (P = 3.9 × 10(-9)). These results suggest that some asthma susceptibility loci are robust to differences in ancestry when sufficiently large samples sizes are investigated, and that ancestry-specific associations also contribute to the complex genetic architecture of asthma

Safeguarding against failure in intellectual character education:The case of the eristic agent

The vast majority of contemporary scholars working in intellectual character education endeavor to identify those elements that render an educational program reliably successful at fostering the growth of intellectual excellences in students. In this article, I adopt an opposite perspective: I examine potential reasons as to why virtue-based approaches to education might fail to enable students to acquire intellectual virtues. Given the scarcity of accounts of educational failure in contemporary intellectual character education, I search for such accounts in the philosophical roots of the concept of intellectual virtues. In this article, I focus on Plato’s discussion of the eristic agent, namely, an individual who has developed epistemically valuable cognitive abilities but, due to insufficient moral character education, results in misusing them to pursue non-epistemic and quite often also non-moral ends. I argue that Plato’s account of the eristic practice has much to offer to intellectual character education today. It strongly indicates that intellectual virtues cannot be fostered in isolation from moral virtues and that the development of the students’ (1) epistemic emotions and (2) moral virtues should take place prior to the fostering of intellectual excellences in them

Risk factors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Turkey - an epidemiological survey of the anatolian society of medical oncology

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare disease in most parts of the world with a multifactorial etiology involving an interaction of genetic, viral, environmental and dietary risk factors. This is the first epidemiologic study aimed to evaluate the risk factors of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in the Turkish population. Methods: We conducted a multicentric, retrospective, case-control study using a standardized questionnaire which captured age, sex, occupation, household type, blood group, dietary habits, smoking, alcohol consumption and oral hygiene. The study included 183 cases and 183 healthy controls matched by sex and age. Multiple logistic regression and univariate analysis were employed. Results: The peak age incidence was 40-50 years and the male to female ratio was 2:1. We observed significant associations between elevated nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk and low socioeconomic status, rural household type (OR:3.95, p0.05); furthermore salty foods had a borderline p value (OR:2.14, p=0.053). Blood type A increased the risk (OR:2.03, p=0.002) while blood type 0 was a protective factor (OR:0.53, p=0.009). Rare habit of teeth brushing (OR:6.17, p<0.001) and ≥10 decayed teeth before diagnosis (OR:2.17, p<0.001) increased the risk. Conclusions: The nasopharyngeal carcinoma risk factors described in the literature are also applicable for the Turkish population. People with type A blood are at risk in Turkey. Salted foods have also a border risk out of the endemic regions. This is the only study showing that poor oral hygene is a serious risk factor for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Lateral overgrowth of germanium for monolithic integration of germanium-on-insulator on silicon

A technique to locally grow germanium-on-insulator (GOI) structure on silicon (Si) platform is studied. On (001) Si wafer, silicon dioxide (SiO2) is thermally grown and patterned to define growth window for germanium (Ge). Crystalline Ge is grown via selective hetero-epitaxy, using SiO2 as growth mask. Lateral overgrowth of Ge crystal covers SiO2 surface and neighboring Ge crystals coalesce with each other. Therefore, single crystalline Ge sitting on insulator for GOI applications is achieved. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is performed to planarize the GOI surface. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) show high quality crystalline Ge sitting on SiO2. Optical response from metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector shows good optical absorption at 850 nm and 1550 nm wavelength. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Biomarker-driven drug development for allergic diseases and asthma:An FDA public workshop

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosted a workshop on February 22, 2024, to discuss the status of biomarkers in drug development for allergic asthma and food allergy. The workshop provided a forum for open discussion among regulators, academicians, National Institutes of Health staff and industry to inform stakeholders of the requirements for the FDA to adopt a biomarker as a surrogate end point for a clinical trial, and to inform FDA of the status of various biomarkers in development. The workshop was divided into 3 sessions: (1) FDA and European Union regulators discussing regulatory perspectives on use of biomarkers in drug development programs, (2) investigators discussing biomarkers for pediatric and adult asthma, and (3) investigators discussing biomarkers for food allergy. In this report, we review the information presented at the workshop and summarize the current status of potential biomarkers for these allergic diseases.</p

Microbiotyping the Sinonasal Microbiome

This study offers a novel description of the sinonasal microbiome, through an unsupervised machine learning approach combining dimensionality reduction and clustering. We apply our method to the International Sinonasal Microbiome Study (ISMS) dataset of 410 sinus swab samples. We propose three main sinonasal “microbiotypes” or “states”: the first is Corynebacterium-dominated, the second is Staphylococcus-dominated, and the third dominated by the other core genera of the sinonasal microbiome (Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Moraxella, and Pseudomonas). The prevalence of the three microbiotypes studied did not differ between healthy and diseased sinuses, but differences in their distribution were evident based on geography. We also describe a potential reciprocal relationship between Corynebacterium species and Staphylococcus aureus, suggesting that a certain microbial equilibrium between various players is reached in the sinuses. We validate our approach by applying it to a separate 16S rRNA gene sequence dataset of 97 sinus swabs from a different patient cohort. Sinonasal microbiotyping may prove useful in reducing the complexity of describing sinonasal microbiota. It may drive future studies aimed at modeling microbial interactions in the sinuses and in doing so may facilitate the development of a tailored patient-specific approach to the treatment of sinus disease in the future

Heterogeneity of magnitude, allergen immunodominance, and cytokine polarization of cockroach allergen-specific T cell responses in allergic sensitized children.

Background: Characterization of allergic responses to cockroach (CR), a common aeroallergen associated with asthma, has focused mainly on IgE reactivity, but little is known about T cell responses, particularly in children. We conducted a functional evaluation of CR allergen-specific T cell reactivity in a cohort of CR allergic children with asthma. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from 71 children, with mild-to-moderate asthma who were enrolled in a CR immunotherapy (IT) clinical trial, prior to treatment initiation. PBMC were stimulated with peptide pools derived from 11 CR allergens, and CD4+ T cell responses assessed by intracellular cytokine staining. Results: Highly heterogeneous responses in T cell reactivity were observed among participants, both in terms of the magnitude of cytokine response and allergen immunodominance. Reactivity against Bla g 9 and Bla g 5 was most frequent. The phenotype of the T cell response was dominated by IL-4 production and a Th2 polarized profile in 54.9% of participants, but IFNγ production and Th1 polarization was observed in 25.3% of the participants. The numbers of regulatory CD4+ T cells were also highly variable and the magnitude of effector responses and Th2 polarization were positively correlated with serum IgE levels specific to a clinical CR extract. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that in children with mild-to-moderate asthma, CR-specific T cell responses display a wide range of magnitude, allergen dominance, and polarization. These results will enable examination of whether any of the variables measured are affected by IT and/or are predictive of clinical outcomes