Negotiating Priorities on the Shopfloor: A Design Case Study of Maintainers' Practices.

The coordination of maintenance work in manufacturing poses a crucial productivity factor in small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) but often seems to be rather neglected in practice as well as in much of the literature on maintenance. We shed light upon maintenance coordination work by presenting a design case study conducted in an SME over approximately two years. We took a participatory design-oriented approach, involving all roles on the shopfloor affected by maintenance work.

Video connecting families and social robots: from ideas to practices putting technology to work.

Technology use is a socially embedded process, especially when it comes to older adults and care. However, the restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have limited social contact to protect vulnerable groups in care homes, and even if technology use has increased in other areas, there is little known about the potential uptake of communication technology and changes in social interaction in the care context during a lasting crisis. This paper explores changes in communication technology use triggered by the pandemic at two care homes, using a qualitative diary study, online interviews and observations, and in-situ interviews within the care home with residents and workers.

Exploring user experience and technology acceptance for a fall prevention system: results from a randomized clinical trial and a living lab.

Background: Falls are common in older adults and can result in serious injuries. Due to demographic changes, falls and related healthcare costs are likely to increase over the next years. Participation and motivation of older adults in fall prevention measures remain a challenge.

Reproducibility of retention time and peak area in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography.

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography is used to separate anionic, nonionic, and amphoteric surfactants by substance class, alkyl chain distribution, and degree of ethoxylation. A nearly orthogonal system with a hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) phase in the first and a reversed-phase material in the second dimension is applied to generate a separation with maximum peak capacity. The potential of the developed method is demonstrated by the reproducibility of retention time and peak area, which shows standard deviations less than 5 % and the analysis of real samples.

Improvements to the compressed-sample (CS) technique for MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

A recently developed solvent-free compressed-sample technique for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) analysis allows the reproducible analysis of synthetic polymers and peptides up to 3,500 Da. In this work, we present an improvement in resolution, an increase in intensity and a decrease of the variation coefficient, as illustrated by the analysis of PEG 2000 and MALDI imaging experiments. These advantages were achieved by homogenization of the electrical field, which was disturbed by the drills in the original MALDI target.

Quantitative matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis of synthetic polymers and peptides.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) is a very powerful and widely used mass spectrometric technique to ionize high molecular weight compounds. The most commonly used dried droplet (DD) technique can lead to a concentration distribution of the analyte on the target and is therefore often not suitable for reproducible analyses. We developed a new solvent-free deposition technique, called compressed sample (CS), to prevent the distribution of the analytes caused by the crystallization of the compounds.

Connexin39 deficient mice display accelerated myogenesis and regeneration of skeletal muscle.

During muscle development and regeneration of skeletal muscle in mice connexin43 (Cx43) and connexin39 (Cx39) are specifically expressed: Cx43 in satellite cells and myoblasts, whereas Cx39 is exclusively expressed in myogenin-positive cells. We generated Cx39 deficient mice by replacing the coding region of the Gjd4 gene by DNA coding for the enhanced green fluorescent protein eGFP. Adult Cx39 deficient mice exhibit no obvious phenotypic alterations of skeletal muscle compared to wild type mice in the resting state.

Combination of chemical and electron-impact ionisation with GC x GC-qMS for characterization of fatty alcohol alkoxylate polymers in the low-molecular-weight range up to 700 Da.

The class of fatty alcohol alkoxylates describes surfactants that are synthesised by reaction of fatty alcohols with alkoxides such as ethylene oxide or propylene oxide or a combination of both as copolymers. Such alkoxylates are used, for example, as nonionic surfactants in home and industrial cleaning and washing agents. Chemical characteristics of such alkoxylate copolymers, for example the degree of alkoxylation, the arrangement of building blocks (random or block polymerisation), the type of the starter, and endcapping, play an important role in application behaviour.

Loss of connexin43-mediated gap junctional coupling in the mesenchyme of limb buds leads to altered expression of morphogens in mice.

Mutations in the GJA1 gene coding for connexin43 (Cx43) cause oculodentodigital dysplasia (ODDD), a pleiotropic human disorder with characteristic morphologic anomalies of face, teeth, bones and digits. Interdigital webbings, also called syndactylies, are a characteristic phenotype of this disease showing high intra- and interfamilial penetrance. Therefore, we decided to study the molecular basis of syndactylies caused by Cx43 mutations.

Connexin expression and functional analysis of gap junctional communication in mouse embryonic stem cells.

Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) has been suggested to be necessary for cellular proliferation and differentiation. We wanted to investigate the function of GJIC in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells using pharmacological inhibitors or a genetic approach to inhibit the expression of connexins, that is, the subunit proteins of gap junction channels. For this purpose, we have analyzed all known connexin genes in mouse ES cells but found only three of them, Cx31, Cx43, and Cx45, to be expressed as proteins.

Spatiotemporal expression of connexin 39 and -43 during myoblast differentiation in cultured cells and in the mouse embryo.

Connexin39 (Cx39) and connexin43 (Cx43) are known to be expressed during development of skeletal muscles. Here we have compared the expression pattern of both connexins during differentiation of established C(2)C(12) mouse myoblasts and in the mouse embryo. Cx43 is highly abundant in undifferentiated myoblasts, but no Cx39 protein was detected in these cells.