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“Low-loss spraying“ is a new application technique which has been developed by the Association of Styrian Commercial Fruit Growers (Austria), the Marktgemeinschaft Bodenseeobst (Germany) and the South Tyrolean Extension Service for Fruit- and Winegrowing (Italy) and is being put into practice at present.These three fruit-growing regions, which use for the most part the same sprayer types, are faced with new challenges: larger areas per sprayer with higher trees, also in intensive orchards, than in the past (up to 4 m), stricter standards regarding drift reduction, power consumption and noise. The pivotal element of this new application technique is an optimized and controlled air blast. The direction and intensity of the air stream are important factors for the coverage and the losses caused by spray drift. Therefore, the professional school for fruit-growing at Gleisdorf (Austria) constructed an air-flow test bench, which served as a model for three new test stands, which were bought by the Marktgemeinschaft Bodenseeobst, the South Tyrolean Extension Service and the manufacturer of spraying equipment Lochmann.In addition to the usual legal requirements, “low-loss” sprayers have to be equipped with a fan producing an appropriate vertical distribution of the air, drift-reducing flat jet injector nozzles at the top and hollow-cone nozzles below them as well as standardized test ports for the pump and pressure gauge. It is indispensable for the grower to have access to appropriate training and counselling in order to be able to adjust his sprayer in an optimal way to the shape of his trees with regard to air flow, water and pesticide amount, pressure, forward speed and rotation speed of the PTO.

Limited time frames caused by infection threat and weather demand for efficient pesticide application techniques in modern integrated and organic fruit farming. This demand is best complied by low volume spraying, since it minimizes traveling time and number of fillings per spray treatment, but also minimizes the probability of a contamination of the operator with concentrated pesticides. To obtain good spray deposition, low volume spray application demands small droplets which offer numerous benefits, but also carry a high drift potential. This feature threatened the technique, because no method for spray drift reduction has been available in order to make use of reduced buffer zones to water courses and non-target areas. A new method based on cross flow characteristics of the sprayer fan, canopy adapted forward speed and fan speed and a mixed set of hollow cone nozzles and air induction nozzles resulted in an approx. 85% reduction of particle drift deposits, so that the method has been registered in the official German list of drift reducing devices in the 75% drift reduction class. Besides drift reduction a canopy adapted fan speed also results in an enormous reduction of fuel consumption and noise emission as further environmental benefits of small droplets. An assessment of the influence of a canopy adapted forward speed and fan speed on spray deposit, relative spray coverage and droplet deposit density revealed a significant increase of the application efficiency, rising with decreasing canopy width and compensating a reduction of water volume and dose rate from canopy related dosing models. Testing a tower sprayer in orchards for use with reduced fan speed unexpectedly showed an unusable vertical air distribution. Alarmed by this finding, a subsequent testing of various fan types on a test bench disclosed a very unsatisfying vertical air distribution of many fan types and even within a production series the air distribution differed enormously. Especially an uneven horizontal reach of the air stream over working height is a major obstacle for a successful use of canopy adapted fan speed with all its benefits. Since a uniform vertical air distribution is the basic requirement for a highly efficient and environmentally safer spray application not only in terms of the potential to reduce pesticide consumption, but also for reducing fuel consumption and noise emissions, testing and adjusting fans of orchard sprayers on a test bench is urgently needed. Because of the importance of the topic, three fruit growers associations in Austria, Italy and Germany together initiated the development of a new test bench to measure vertical air distribution of orchard sprayers.

Until the 1960s pesticides were applied with a spray gun connected to a long hose or directly to the tank and operated by a worker standing on a platform. This technique was gradually replaced by airassisted sprayers.The purchase of three sprayer test facilities in 1991 signified the start of a new era in pesticide application:• The ejection rate of the individual nozzles as well as the distribution pattern of the liquid could be measured and optimized on a vertical test stand by adjusting the nozzles or adding additional ones. • The ceramic nozzles were replaced by hollow-cone nozzles, which allowed for the first time to calculate the exact amount of liquid per hectare and tree height based on various parameters such as driving speed, spray pressure, number of open nozzles and nozzle output volume. The amount of water was reduced from 500 l/m tree height and hectare to 166 – 100 l. • The efficacy of the pesticides was increased and spray drift reduced, which brings about economic and ecological benefits. • Up to the year 1997 sprayer calibration was optional. Since then, a sprayer calibration in 5-year intervals has become a condition for participation in the South Tyrolean IP-programme. This also facilitates the observance of the GobalGAP control points and Compliance Criteria regarding application equipment.Since 2011 the South Tyrolean sprayer manufacturers and fruit- and winegrowers have been able to measure and optimize the air blast and emission pattern. Thereby we hope to further reduce spray drift and increase the efficacy of the pesticides. A properly calibrated sprayer enables the fruit- and winegrowers to observe more easily the regulations for the distances to residential and public buildings as well as pastures enacted by the South Tyrolean Provincial Government and AGRIOS in 2011. We trust that the South Tyrolean fruit- and winegrowers will have no difficulties in complying with the Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of pesticides with regard to application techniques and sprayer calibration.

This article discusses different interpretations of Callicles and Thrasymachus’ positions. There are good reasons for interpreting Callicles as a critic of democracy and as an aristocratic political thinker whose political views are closer to Plato’s than is usually assumed. The paper argues that Callicles defends a natural right of the best citizens to rule over the crowd. However, in contrast to Plato, for Callicles the rule of the best should not aim at the common good but at their personal advantage. The paper also discusses the view that Thrasymachus is just a sociologist of power who diagnoses what actually happens in politics (Henning Ottmann, Max Salomon). This interpretation is still current, and enables us to understand important aspects of legislation in contemporary democracies. Finally, the paper argues that there are reasons to understand Thrasymachus not only as a political realist, but, similar to Protagoras, as a moral sceptic.

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Physik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Physik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Physik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Only a few years after the implementation of the G-DRG (German Diagnosis Related Group) system physicians already began to complain of its negative effects on the quality of inpatient healthcare. The present study examines the recent experiences senior physicians have made with regard to the impact of the G-DRG system on the quality of healthcare and medical professionalism. Nine qualitative guided expert interviews were conducted focusing on the experiences of physicians in leading positions dealing with the G-DRG system in their everyday work. The interviewees report an intensification of work attributable to an increasing number of inpatient cases, a more lenient definition of medical indications and a reduction in patient retention time. The physicians interviewed have felt increasingly constrained by economic conditions. Additionally, they stated that the G-DRG system's incentive structure encourages the discrimination of older, care-dependent and multimorbid patients. Possible countermeasures include a political revision of incentive regulation as well as a strengthening of up-to-date professional ethical education and teaching., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Introduction: This study focuses on the nutrition of young people in schools. The Saarland state government mandates the implementation of the "quality standards for school meals", developed by the Germany Society of Nutrition (Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ernährung, DGE) in schools offering school meals. This research evaluates the state of implementation., Methods: 4-week menu plans were evaluated using a stratified random sample of selected schools (n25%-sample=5, ntotal=23). In addition, all catering services of the district (ncaterer=5) were interviewed by written survey focused on any information on the company, the type of food, the menu design as well as general information., Results: None of the analysed menu plans met the DGE standard. The analysis of the menu plans allows for an assessment of the nutritional quality of food. Interviews with caterers provide background information on menu design., Discussion: The analysis of a randomised 25%-sample shows that the target specifications of the DGE are only implemented by a small number of schools in the exemplary selected district of St. Wendel, Germany. As the German Child and Youth Health Survey (KiGGS), also this evaluation shows that the quality of school meals deviates significantly from the recommendations of the DGE. There is a clear need for action., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore experience in nurses' interdisciplinary/interprofessional communication on an intensive care unit. The structure of communication and influencing factors were shown and interpreted from the perspective of the nurses. Nurses working on an internal medical intensive care unit at a teaching facility in central Germany were questioned by means of semi-structured interviews. One main result was that for nurses the culture of communication in the investigation unit was characterized primarily by hierarchical structures imposed by the physicians. This dominance was identified in all nursing activities resulting in a considerable adverse effect on the flow of information concerning the patient between nurses and physicians. Especially within the context of daily rounds nurses were confronted with barriers to participate actively with their knowledge and professional competence in the process of decision-making. The problems described are well known in everyday nursing practice and have been dealt with in the English research literature. However, this study's aim is to present and summarize the gained insights and to transfer them in a practice-oriented way into a selected field of work. Possible solutions for the problems of inter-professional communication are suggested in subsequent work steps in order to optimize patient care.

Background: Recently, neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy has been demonstrated to induce tumour remission and to prolong survival of patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the oesophagogastric junction.The present study was performed to re-evaluate these data., Patients and Method: A non-randomised trial of multimodal treatment was conducted in order to investigate histopathologic response and survival of patients with adenocarcinoma of the oesophagogastric junction. Treatment consisted of 2 courses of combined chemotherapy with 15 mg/kg 5-fluorouracil on days 1-5 and 75 mg/m(2) cisplatin on day 8 and simultaneous radiation (40 Gy), and a second course starting on day 36, followed by surgery. Abdomino-thoracic oesophagectomy and systematic 2-field lymphadenectomy were performed in patients with Barrett's carcinoma. D2-gastrectomy was performed in patients with type 2 or 3 cancer of the oesophagogastric junction according to the Siewert classification. Probability of survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method., Results: 16 patients with a mean age of 57 years were enrolled in this study. Surgery was performed in 14 of these patients. Response to treatment was evident in 10 patients, but none of these patients had complete histopathologic response. Toxicity related to radiochemotherapy was mild to moderate (37.5%). Perioperative complications, both medical and surgical, occurred in 71.4% of patients. 2 patients had fatal complications. 30-day mortality was 25.4%. The probability of survival at 2 years after surgery was 61.2%., Conclusion: Neoadjuvant radio-chemotherapy followed by surgery for cancer of the oesophagogastric junction is associated with a considerable rate of complications. Histopathologic response to radio-chemotherapy is poor. In consequence of these preliminary results, the present study was terminated and the protocol of a future study was modified., (Copyright 2001 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg)

During the past 10 years (1987-1996), 842 laparotomies were performed for pancreatic or periampullary neoplasms; in 25 patients (2.9%) a neuroendocrine tumor was diagnosed. In 19 of these 25 patients (76%) a non-functioning endocrine tumor and in 6 patients (24%) a hormone-active tumor (four insulinoma, one gastrinoma, one VIPoma) was found. Of 19 non-functioning neuroendocrine tumors, 14 were malignant. The resection rate of these malignant tumors was 78.6% (11 of 14; 3 resections were palliative); in comparison, the resection rate of ductal pancreatic carcinoma in our hospital was 28.1%. The probability of 5-year survival amounts to 73% after surgical resection in malignant endocrine tumors and to 19% in ductal pancreatic carcinoma (including palliative resections). As it is not always clear whether non-functioning endocrine tumors are benign or malignant, oncological resection is recommended. Adjuvant chemotherapy seems not to be necessary.