Technische Hochschule Würzburg-Schweinfurt Publikationsserver OPUS
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An Investigative Study Exploring Machine Learning Approaches for Optimizing Deep Brain Stimulation Programming
No full textSingle German centre experience with patient journey and care-relevant needs in amyloidosis: The German AMY-NEEDS research and care program
No full textBackground
Amyloidosis is a rare multi-system disorder associated with frequently delayed diagnosis, enormous disease burden and psychosocial distress.
Methods
Systematic assessment of needs was performed by a subtype-spanning questionnaire-based survey within the AMY-NEEDS research and care program.
Results
118 patients with proven amyloidosis (62.7% ATTR, 22.0% AL, 15.3% other forms) were included in August 2020 until February 2021 (mean age 71.2 ±11.3 years; 30% women). The median diagnostic delay between onset of symptoms and diagnosis was 9.0 (range: 2.5; 33.0) months. Local health care providers (HCPs) play a central role on the way to diagnosis. Diagnosis itself typically requires a clinical but not necessarily a university setting. In the treatment phase, the focus moves to the amyloidosis centre as primary contact and coordinator, with general practitioners (GPs) acting predominantly as a contact point in crisis and link to additional services. About half of patients reported impaired quality of life and one third suffering from anxiety and depressed mood, respectively. The majority of patients talk about their concerns with close caregivers and local HCPs. Advance care planning is a relevant, yet insufficiently met need.
Conclusion
The journey of patients with amyloidotic disease, their contact partners and needs at different stages were characterized in detail within the German health care system. An amyloidosis-specific care concept has to master the multitude of interfaces connecting the numerous treatment providers involved with the amyloidosis centre and GPs as key players. Telemedical approaches could be a promising and well-accepted option allowing optimal coordination and communication
Perfusable Tissue Bioprinted into a 3D-Printed Tailored Bioreactor System
No full textBioprinting provides a powerful tool for regenerative medicine, as it allows tissue construction with a patient’s specific geometry. However, tissue culture and maturation, commonly supported by dynamic bioreactors, are needed. We designed a workflow that creates an implant-specific bioreactor system, which is easily producible and customizable and supports cell cultivation and tissue maturation. First, a bioreactor was designed and different tissue geometries were simulated regarding shear stress and nutrient distribution to match cell culture requirements. These tissues were then directly bioprinted into the 3D-printed bioreactor. To prove the ability of cell maintenance, C2C12 cells in two bioinks were printed into the system and successfully cultured for two weeks. Next, human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were successfully differentiated toward an adipocyte lineage. As the last step of the presented strategy, we developed a prototype of an automated mobile docking station for the bioreactor. Overall, we present an open-source bioreactor system that is adaptable to a wound-specific geometry and allows cell culture and differentiation. This interdisciplinary roadmap is intended to close the gap between the lab and clinic and to integrate novel 3D-printing technologies for regenerative medicine
Non-equilibrium steady states of electrolyte interfaces
Get PDFThe non-equilibrium steady states of a semi-infinite quasi-one-dimensional univalent binary electrolyte solution, characterised by non-vanishing electric currents, are investigated by means of Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) theory. Exact analytical expressions of the electric field, the charge density and the number density are derived, which depend on the electric current density as a parameter. From a non-equilibrium version of the Grahame equation, which relates the total space charge per cross-sectional area and the corresponding contribution of the electric potential drop, the current-dependent differential capacitance of the diffuse layer is derived. In the limit of vanishing electric current these results reduce to those within Gouy-Chapman theory. It is shown that improperly chosen boundary conditions lead to non-equilibrium steady state solutions of the PNP equations with negative ion number densities. A necessary and sufficient criterion on surface conductivity constitutive relations is formulated which allows one to detect such unphysical solutions
Implications of Decolonizing Social Work: Critical Reflections on Colonial Pasts, Post-Colonial Presents and Decolonial Futures
No full textWhile there is an evident need for establishing thorough processes of decolonizing Social Work in education, research and practice, there is only a limited number of literature available on the complex decolonization project. It includes the co-edited volume Decolonizing Social Work by Mel Gray, John Coates, Michael Yellow Bird and Tiani Hetherington (2013), Trabajo Social y Descolonialidad, by María Eugenia Hermida and Paula Meschini (2017) or the Routledge Handbook of Postcolonial Social Work, by Tanja Kleibl, Ronald Lutz, Ndangwa Noyoo, Benjamin Bunk, Annika Dittmann and Boitumelo Seepamore (2020). These foundational works contribute immensely to the much-needed discussion on the diversification of Social Work theories and methods, yet their foci cannot possibly attempt to address a full scope to the decolonization of all Social Work dimensions in greater detail. Furthermore, most publications (e.g., Tascón and Ife, 2020; Fortier and Hon-Sing Wong, 2018) focus on theoretical reflections, leaving the important gap regarding the necessary knowledge transfer into practice, research and education still broadly opened
Methodological and Pedagogical Implications of Decolonizing Social Work
No full textThe fact that the coloniality of power and knowledge (Quijano; 2000; Mignolo, 2007, 2011; Grosfoguel, 2013) has only been addressed poorly in Social Work contributes to what Paulo Freire (1970: 12) referred to as “a culture of silence”. A culture of silence exists where those who are oppressed are not heard in society, and where a lack of knowledge about their contexts creates a high risk for the perpetuation of racism, discrimination, and the violent process of ‘blaming the victim’. Research methodologies and teaching formats in Social Work have always been embedded in the colonial archives of Eurocentric knowledge (Quijano; 2000; Mbembe, 2016; Grosfoguel, 2013). As Freire (1970: 5) argues that “The social worker, as much as the educator, is not a neutral agent, either in practice or in action”. In the last decade, Social Work education and research methodologies have been continuously criticized for being complicit in downplaying and silencing the brutality of the colonial project (Harms-Smith and Rasool, 2020; Kleibl et al., 2020; Tamburro, 2013). This includes but not only limited to the ignorance of the social, political, ecological and economic implications of colonial legacies as well as post and neocolonial continuities in the 21st century. In addition, the development of Western political and welfare systems ‘from above’ do not result in significant social change and transformative justice. In consequence, many theories do not lead to concepts, approaches and praxis that sufficiently grasp the historical and contemporary situatedness of coloniality of knowledge and power in which Social Work keeps operating (Afeworki Abay, 2023; Daňková et al., 2024; Kleibl et al., 2024). In response to the continuities of colonial epistemologies and methodologies in Social Work, the chapter contributions in this co-edited volume show the relevance of Pluriversality as one of the various decolonial strategies to unsettle the coloniality of Eurocentric knowledge production (Quijano; 2000; Mignolo, 2007, 2017; Grosfoguel, 2013). One of strategies of decolonizing research methodologies and teaching formats is to universalize and normalize ways of knowing and knowledge production that Eurocentric systems of knowledge portray as ‘not valuable’ or ‘not objective enough’ (Tuck and Yang, 2012; Tlostanova and Mignolo. 2012; Afeworki Abay, 2023). Likewise, an important analytic strategy for decolonizing research methodologies is to draw upon marginalized and Indigenous knowledge systems (Smith, 1999; Tamburro, 2013; Zavala, 2016) that have been to taken-for-granted in the social, political, economic, and environmental discourses in Social Work
Transnational Mobility and Externalization of EU Borders: Social Work, Migration Management and Resistance
No full textDrone-based Optimization And Validation Of Numerical Simulations Of Urban Heat Islands
No full textIn this ongoing research project, advanced drone technology is employed in conjunction with simula-tion models to assess the impacts of urban climate, with a specific focus on Urban Heat Islands (UHI). The novel methodology was tested in the historical downtown areas of two German cities. Through the creation of high-resolution 3D-models of urban structures and the analysis of material properties, the research project aims to accurately predict the cli-mate impacts of urban planning decisions.The results of the project provide planners with pre-cise insights for evaluating adaptation measures and mitigating the adverse effects of climate change in cities, ultimately improving living conditions there-in. The research undertaking also pioneers the use of high-temporal-resolution drone data for analyzing temperature patterns and considers various contribu-tions to the heat island effect for comprehensive climate-adaptive urban planning