A Comparative Study on the Temperature Effect of Solid Birch Wood and Solid Beech Wood under Impact Loading.

In order to use wood for structural and load-bearing purposes in mechanical engineering, basic information on the impact behaviour of the material over a wide temperature range is needed. Diffuse porous hardwoods such as solid birch wood () and solid beech wood () are particularly suited for the production of engineered wood products (EWPs) such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL) or plywood due to their processability in a veneer peeling process. In the frame of this study, solid birch wood and solid beech wood samples (300 × 20 × 20 mm) were characterised by means of an impact pendulum test setup (working capacity of 150 J) at five temperature levels, ranging from -30 °C to +90 °C.

Temperature-Related Properties of Solid Birch Wood under Quasi-Static and Dynamic Bending.

The project WoodC.A.R.

Long-term experience with setup and implementation of an IHE-based image management and distribution system in intersectoral clinical routine.

Purpose: Sharing of medical data is crucial for the proper treatment of patients as it could reduce the risk of duplicated medical tests and speed up the care process if all documents are readily available. Despite great technical progress, sharing patient data while maintaining full control over the process in an intersectoral (in Germany, this describes the different actors in the healthcare system consisting of clinic, ambulatory care, etc.) setting remains a particular challenge.

Modeling Interoperable Information Systems with 3LGM² and IHE.

Background: Strategic planning of information systems (IS) in healthcare requires descriptions of the current and the future IS state. Enterprise architecture planning (EAP) tools like the 3LGM² tool help to build up and to analyze IS models. A model of the planned architecture can be derived from an analysis of current state IS models.

Practice network-based care management for patients with type 2 diabetes and multiple comorbidities (GEDIMAplus): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Care management interventions in the German health-care system have been evaluated with promising results, but further research is necessary to explore their full potential in the context of multi-morbidity. Our aim in this trial is to assess the efficacy of a primary care practice network-based care management intervention in improving self-care behaviour among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and multiple co-occurring chronic conditions.

Methods/design: The study is designed as a prospective, 18-month, multicentre, investigator-blinded, two-arm, open-label, individual-level, randomized parallel-group superiority trial.

Durability and retreatment rates of minimal invasive treatments of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a cross-analysis of the literature.

Background: Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) has been the gold standard of the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). In recent years there has been a significant shift in the treatment of BPH and guidelines emphasize minimally invasive surgery as a new treatment option. Minimal invasive technologies (MITs), such as transurethral microwave thermotherapy (TUMT), laser ablations, transurethral needle ablation (TUNA) have emerged as an alternative to the TURP.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia: current clinical practice.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common benign adenoma in men, affecting nearly all of them. BPH represents a clinically significant cause of bladder outflow obstruction in up to 40% of men. The growing frequency of diagnosis is due to increasing life expectancy and a trend toward seeking medical advice at earlier stages of the disease.

Electronically signed documents in health care--analysis and assessment of data formats and transformation.

Objectives: Our objectives were to analyze and assess data formats for their suitability for conclusive and secure long-term archiving and to develop a concept for legally secure transformation of electronically signed documents that are not available in data formats appropriate for long-term archiving.

Methods: On the basis of literature review and Internet searches we developed general evaluation criteria to assess data formats with regard to their suitability for conclusive and secure long-term archiving. The assessment of data formats refers to format specifications and available literature.

Towards clinical bioinformatics: advancing genomic medicine with informatics methods and tools.

Objectives: To summarize the challenges facing clinical applications in the light of growing research results in genomic medicine and bioinformatics.

Methods: Analysis of the contents of the Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2004 of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA).

Results: The Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2004 includes 32 articles selected from 22 peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Deduction of principles on long-term conservation of electronically signed documents by multi professional analyses.

Due to actual equalization of qualified electronic signatures with handwritten signatures and the legal acknowledgment of the electronic form, the opportunity to use electronic patient records instead of classic paper-based ones is given. The archiving of medical records over a period of 10 to 30 years represents an important factor in medical documentation which has to be assured for electronically signed documents as well. The ArchiSig project deduces principles on long-term conservation of electronically signed documents and corresponding technical components to be realized by the means of multi professional analyses.

Data security and protection in cross-institutional electronic patient records.

This paper aims at identifying the specific legal requirements concerning data security and data protection of patient health data that apply to a cross-institutional electronic patient record (EPR) and describes possible solutions for meeting these requirements. In Germany, the legal framework for such records provide that disclosure of patient health information to physicians of third-party institutions is only allowed in case that it is necessary for the joint treatment of the patient, i.e.

Medical informatics and the quality of health: new approaches to support patient care - findings from the IMIA Yearbook of Medical Informatics 2003.

Objectives: The Yearbook of Medical Informatics is published annually by the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and contains a selection of excellent papers on medical informatics research which have been recently published (http://www. yearbook.uni-hd.

Electronic signature for medical documents--integration and evaluation of a public key infrastructure in hospitals.

Objectives: Our objectives were to determine the user-oriented and legal requirements for a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for electronic signatures for medical documents, and to translate these requirements into a general model for a signature system. A prototype of this model was then implemented and evaluated in clinical routine use.

Methods: Analyses of documents, processes, interviews, observations, and of the available literature supplied the foundations for the development of the signature system model.

[First continuous nerve monitoring in thyroid gland surgery].

Unlabelled: A new "all in one" sensing device was developed for continuous transtracheal intraoperative monitoring and in situ detection of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) during thyroid surgery.

Patients And Methods: The new system is based on a double-balloon endotracheal tube with integrated atraumatic stimulating and tracing electrodes. The recurrent laryngeal nerve is stimulated transtracheally and compound action potentials are recorded from the laryngeal muscles.

[Continuous monitoring of the recurrent laryngeal nerve].

A new "all in one" sensing device for tracing and continuous intraoperative monitoring of the recurrent laryngeal nerve during thyroid surgery is described. The system, based on a double ballooned endotracheal tube, is atraumatic, easy to use and sensitive even to imminent trauma to the nerves. The most striking feature of this instrument is that it operates outside the sterile operating field and truly monitors continuously throughout the operation.

Properties and ontogenic development of membrane-bound histidine decarboxylase from rat brain.

Histidine decarboxylase (HD) activity was determined in high-speed fractions (100,000 g for 60 min) obtained from whole rat brain homogenates. Twenty-eight percent of the HD activity was associated with membranes, and the remaining was soluble. Several properties of the soluble and membrane-bound HD were compared.

Histamine stimulated synaptosomal Ca2+ uptake through activation of calcium channels.

Histamine stimulated Ca2+ uptake in synaptosomes was completely inhibited by the slow Ca2+ channel antagonists verapamil, cinnarizine and flunarizine, and slightly inhibited by nifedipine and diltiazem. Ca2+ uptake in synaptosomes depolarized or predepolarized with varying K+ concentrations was increased by histamine, in both conditions, until 30mM K+. At higher K+ concentrations histamine was not able to alter K+ effects in either conditions.

Histamine H2-receptor mediated activation of neonatal rat brain ornithine decarboxylase in vivo.

The effect of histamine (HA) administered via intracerebroventricular injection on ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity was studied in neonatal rat brain. The HA effect was dose and time dependent. Maximal increase in ODC activity was achieved 2 hr after administration of 10 micrograms HA (38% over control levels).

Subcellular localization of brain mast cell histamine in developing rat.

The intracerebroventricular administration of compound 48/80 or polymixin B to rats 0 to 60 days old, produced a decrease both in the histamine which sediments in the crude nuclear fraction, as well as in the number of mast cells in the brain. In contrast, the histamine-releasers did not affect histamine levels in subcellular fractions where neuronal histamine is found. Once released, histamine disappeared rapidly (t 1/2 = 3.