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The topographic relation of the spine to the great vessels let to the expectation that spondylolisthesis may lead to mechanical irritation of the cauda equina as well as of the great vessels. The angiological examination of 223 patients with spondylolisthesis of the lumbar spine shows that the changes in the anatomy of the great vessels are less significant than expected after experiments involving artificial dislocations of the spine in cadavers. In vivo arterial function is not altered even in true spondyloptosis. Pelvic veins on the other hand show considerable compression and diminished flow in third and fourth degree spondylolisthesis of L5 over S1 as well as in second degree spondylolishtesis of L4 over L5. These patients seem to be disposed to venous disorders involving varices and thrombosis. If therefore a high venous pressure is found and a ventral fusion proposed it should be discussed to combine the procedure with a decompression of the veins.

Arctic sea ice is declining rapidly in extent and thickness, simplifying access to oil and gas fields, enabling trans-Arctic shipping and allowing storms to erode permafrost coasts. This in turn modifies the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nutrients, intensifies land-ocean interactions, as well as it shifts the distribution of harvestable resources. Alarmingly, sea ice reductions are taking place more rapidly than predicted in any global climate model. This persistent mismatch between observed and predicted patterns makes planning activities in the Arctic challenging. Scientific knowledge of the evolving status of the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding land areas and the process-based understanding of the mechanics of change are urgently needed to make useful projections of future conditions throughout the Arctic region. Arctic in Rapid Transition (ART; http://www.iarc.uaf.edu/en/ART/) is an integrative, international, interdisciplinary, pan-Arctic network to study the spatial and temporal changes in biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem functions in the Arctic marine and coastal realm. ART has been developed and is still steered by early-career scientists. Since 2012 it is an official network of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). The first phase of ART (2010-2014) focuses on developing a formal network to bring together scientists working in different geographic and disciplinary areas who share a common interest in improving our understanding of Arctic change. An ART Science Workshop will be held 21-24 October 2014 in Plouzané, France, in collaboration with the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) and the European Institute for Marine Studies. This international workshop entitled “Integrating spatial and temporal scales in the changing Arctic System: towards future research priorities” (ISTAS) will aim at drafting research priorities from an early to mid-career perspective that will feed into the third International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP III) in Toyama, Japan in 2015. This workshop will bring together about 60 early career, mid-career and senior scientists from different Arctic research areas including cryosphere, terrestrial, marine, atmosphere, and socio-economic topics to ensure knowledge transfer across generations and disciplines. The second phase of ART (2014-2018) will be centered on active data collection, such as through the TRANSSIZ expedition planned on the RV ‘Polarstern’ in 2015. The final phase of ART will be a synthesis stage, so that the legacy of ART will be a coherent set of knowledge, which would feed into physical-biological models at various scales in order to develop more robust scenarios regarding the future state of Arctic coastal and marine ecosystems, their productive capacity, how they impact the dynamics of greenhouse gases, as well as their role in global processes.

Endo cellulases of plant pathogenic erwinias degrade cellulose as well as the cellulosic domains of barley (1-3,1-4)-beta-glucan. Depolymerization of the latter substrate is mainly caused by (1-3,1-4)-beta-glucanases, which hydrolyze (1-4)-beta glycosidic linkages adjacent to (1-3)-beta linkages. To construct an enzyme for efficient degradation of barley (1-3,1-4)-beta-glucan, the sequence encoding the catalytic domain and interdomain linker of the cellulase from Erwinia carotovora subspecies atroseptica was fused to that for the heat stable Bacillus hybrid, H(A12-M) delta Y13 (1-3,1-4)-beta glucanase. The chimeric enzyme secreted from Escherichia coli cells did not remain covalently assembled as judged by SDS-PAGE. However, the glycosylated and intact enzyme (denoted CELGLU) is secreted from the yeast Pichia pastoris. CELGLU exhibits both cellulase and (1-3,1-4)-beta-glucanase catalytic activities, and was accordingly classified a true multienzyme. HPLC and NMR analyses revealed that among the products from CELGLU, di- and trimeric oligosaccharides were identical to those produced by the parental cellulase. Tetrameric oligosaccharides, derived from the (1-3,1-4)-beta-glucanase activity of CELGLU, were further degraded by the cellulase moiety to yield glucose and trimers. Compared with the parental enzymes, CELGLU exhibits substantially higher Vmax for degradation of both soluble cellulose and barley (1-3,1-4)-beta-glucan. These findings point to construction of multienzymes as an effective approach for engineering enzymes with novel characteristics.

Einleitung: Gaumenfehlbildungen gehören zu den Hauptsymptomen bei einem 22q11-Deletionssyndrom. Damit vergesellschaftet ist häufig eine velopharyngeale Insuffizienz (VPI) mit typischer Sprechproblematik. Es ist aber noch unklar, ob dem ursächlich eine strukturelle Anomalie und/oder eine Dysfunktion zugrunde liegt. Ziel der Arbeit war die Evaluation einer strukturellen und funktionellen Inkompetenz durch objektive Untersuchungsmethoden. Material und Methodik : Bei 13 22q11-Patienten (8(FEMALE), 5(MALE), Alter von 5;3 bis 17;8 Jahren) mit einer therapieresistenten Rhinophonia aperta wurde eine Videoendoskopie und Videofluoroskopie zur Beurteilung der velopharyngealen Funktion durchgeführt und daraus therapeutische Konsequenzen abgeleitet. Ergebnisse: Bei allen Patienten wurde eine VPI objektiv bestätigt. Hiervon zeigten 4 Patienten eine zuvor nicht erkannte okkulte submuköse Gaumenspalte, 3 Patienten ein ausreichend langes, jedoch hypotones Velum und 9 Patienten einen erweiterten epipharyngealen Raum mit inkonstantem Abschluss trotz relativ guter Velumbeweglichkeit. Bei 1 Patienten hiervon war die VPI durch eine Adenotomie ausgelöst. Konsequenz: 5 Patienten erhielten eine Velopharyngo- bzw. Levatorplastik, 4 eine logopädische Intensivtherapie in einer stationären Rehabilitationseinrichtung. Zusammenfassung: Die velopharyngeale Schlussinsuffizienz bei 22q11-Deletionssyndrom zeigte eine komplexe Kausalität, die aus strukturellen und funktionellen Defiziten besteht. Deshalb kann bei den Betroffenen keine generelle Therapieempfehlung gegeben werden. Es sollten vielmehr immer mittels objektiver Untersuchungsverfahren ein individuelles therapeutisches Konzept erarbeitet werden.

SystemC/sup FL/ is a formal language for hardware/software codesign. Principally, SystemC/sup FL/ is the formalization of SyslemC based on classical process algebra ACP. The language is aimed to give formal specification of SystemC designs and perform formal analysis of SystemC processes. This paper, designed for the first-time user of SystemC/sup FL/, guides the reader through modeling, analyzing and verifying designs using SystemC/sup FL/. This paper illustrates the use of SysternC/sup FL/ with two case studies taken from literature.

By their nature, mixed-signal circuits have to be tested for both structural integrity and parametric performance. For the example of data converters we review test pattern selection strategies geared towards structural and performance testing. We introduce a novel test pattern selection strategy that merges both objectives, and by that we achieve a significant reduction in the size of the set of test patterns applied on the production line.