Development and implementation of blood pressure screening and referral guidelines for German community pharmacists.

Involvement of community pharmacists in the detection and control of hypertension improves patient care. However, current European or North-American guidelines do not provide specific guidance how to implement collaboration between pharmacists and physicians, especially when and how to refer patients with undetected or uncontrolled hypertension to a physician. The German Society of Cardiology and the ABDA - Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists developed and tested referral recommendations for community pharmacists, embedded in two guideline worksheets.

PHARMacy-based interdisciplinary program for patients with Chronic Heart Failure (PHARM-CHF): rationale and design of a randomized controlled trial, and results of the pilot study.

We report the rationale and design of a community PHARMacy-based prospective randomized controlled interdisciplinary study for ambulatory patients with Chronic Heart Failure (PHARM-CHF) and results of its pilot study. The pilot study randomized 50 patients to a pharmacy-based intervention or usual care for 12 months. It demonstrated the feasibility of the design and showed reduced systolic blood pressure in the intervention group as indicator for improved medication adherence.

Protein-protein interaction in purple membrane.

We present experimental evidence for a long-range protein-protein interaction in purple membrane (PM). The interprotein dynamics were quantified by measuring the spectrum of the acoustic phonons in the 2D bacteriorhodopsin (BR) protein lattice using inelastic neutron scattering. Phonon energies of about 1 meV were determined.

Ferroelectricity, nonlinear dynamics, and relaxation effects in monoclinic Sn2P2S6.

An ab initio-based model of the temperature-induced ferroelectric phase transition in Sn2P2S6 (SPS) as a prototype of an unconventional ferroelectric is developed. The order parameter in SPS is found as the valley line on a total-energy surface of the zone-center fully symmetrical Ag and polar Bu distortions. Significant nonlinear coupling between order parameter and strain is observed.

[Environmental and animal hygiene--an indispensable subject for veterinary education?].

Based on conference reports, publications, and personal experiences in the field of veterinary environmental hygiene in Germany and abroad, the question is discussed whether the subjects environmental and animal hygiene have to be considered as indispensable subjects for the curricula in veterinary education or only play a secondary role as a fringe area of veterinary medicine. The analysis and evaluation of the relevant literature have shown that this subject has gained an extraordinary significance for science and practice during the last 4-5 decades. Due to its close interconnections with related fields of science like agriculture, human medicine, biology, ecology, engineering sciences and economics the veterinary environmental and animal hygiene has reached such a high standing that it is now an indispensable component of veterinary education in Germany.