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Obstructive sleep apnea is known to be an overall public health problem that, among other things, increases morbidity and mortality. Risk factors as well as symptoms of this multidimensional sleep-related breathing disorder negatively affect quality of life. With our study we aimed to expose the association between obstructive sleep apnea and quality of life in the population of Pomerania, Germany. We utilized data from the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP). Information on health status and risk factors about 4420 participants (2275 women) were gathered within the cohort SHIP-TREND, of which 1209 (559 women) underwent an overnight polysomnography and completed sleep questionnaires. The quality of life of the participants was measured using the Short-Form 12 questionnaire. For our study, an ordinal regression analysis with age, sex, body mass index and the Short-Form 12 health survey as predictors for apnea-hypopnea index was computed. The potential factors affecting quality of life are different between physical and mental dimensions of quality of life. Significant effects were found regarding age, sex, body mass index and the Short-Form 12 Mental Component Score, but not the Physical Component Score.

Adults' mental rotation performance with body-like stimuli is enhanced if these stimuli are anatomically compatible with a human body, but decreased by anatomically incompatible stimuli. In this study, we investigated these effects for kindergartners and first-graders: When asked to mentally rotate cube configurations attached with human body parts in an anatomically compatible way, allowing for the projection of a human body, children performed better than with pure cube combinations. By contrast, when body parts were attached in an anatomically incompatible way, disallowing the projection of a human body, children performed worse than with pure combinations. This experiment is of specific interest against the background of two different theoretical approaches concerning imagery and the motor system in development: One approach assumes an increasing integration of motor processes and imagery over time that enables older children and adults to requisition motor resources for imagery processes, while the other postulates that imagery stems from early sensorimotor processes in the first place, and is disentangled from it over time. The finding that children of the two age groups tested show exactly the same effects as adults when mentally rotating anatomically compatible and incompatible stimuli is interpreted in favour of the latter approach. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? In mental rotation, adults perform better when rotating anatomically possible stimuli as compared to rotating standard cube combinations. Performance is worse when rotating anatomically impossible stimuli. What does this study add? The present study shows that children's mental transformations mirror those of adults in these respects. In case of the anatomically impossible stimuli, this highlights an inflexible use of embodiment in both age groups. This is in line with the Piagetian assumption of imagery being based on sensorimotor processes.

Until now, a successful application of the mental rotation paradigm was restricted to children 5 years or older. By contrast, recent findings suggest that even infants can perform mental rotation. Unlike the methods used in infant studies (looking time), our new research paradigm allows for the measurement and interpretation of reaction times. Kindergartners (aged 3–6 years) were presented with a stimulus configuration on a touchscreen and asked to bring a rotated stimulus into an upright position using the shortest path. Mean reaction time (RT) increased linearly with angular disparity. The ensuing linear trend was significant not only for the entire sample but also for the youngest age group analysed separately. To exclude the possibility that linearity was due to movement planning, 3-year-olds had to manually rotate a stimulus about the same trajectory without the need for a corresponding mental transformation in a second experiment. Here, no linear trend was observed. These results are interpreted as evidence for an analogue mental transformation in 3-year-olds, equal to the transformation processes in older children's and adults' mental rotation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Die in Einzelfaellen vorzunehmende kontinuierliche Ueberwachung von Bauwerken (Monitoring) kann durch eine Reihe geeigneter Messtechniken realisiert werden. Meist kommen dabei kabelgebundene Ueberwachungssysteme zum Einsatz. In neuerer Zeit werden aber immer haeufiger auch drahtlose Ueberwachungssysteme installiert. Der Beitrag beschreibt die Technologie der Bauwerksueberwachung mit drahtlosen Sensornetzwerken, bei denen die Daten mittels Sensorknoten (Motes) an verschiedenen Stellen des Bauwerks erfasst und dann per Funk an einen oder mehrere Zentralrechner uebertragen werden. Da der Stomverbrauch aller Arten von Monitoringsystemen einen wichtigen Kostenfaktor darstellt, sind alle Komponenten des drahtlosen Sensornetzwerks im Hinblick auf einen geringen Stromverbrauch zu waehlen. Dabei koennen durchaus auch konventionelle und kostenguenstige Sensoren zum Einsatz kommen. Eine aktuelle Weiterentwicklung stellen die MEMS-Sensoren (Micro Electro Mechanical System) dar, die bei Massenfertigung schon fuer wenige Euro kostenguenstig eingekauft werden koennen. Grundsaetzlich bieten sich fuer das drahtlose Monitoring zwei verschieden Arten der Datenerfassung an, die ereignisbasierte Messwerterfassung und die zeitdiskrete Messwerterfassung. Bei der zeitdiskreten Erfassung wird in zuvor festgelegten Zeitabstaenden ein Messwert erfasst und abgespeichert. Die ereignisbasierte Erfassung benoetigt hingegen ein ausloesendes Ereignis, zum Beispiel Ueberfahrt eines bestimmten Fahrzeugs ueber eine Bruecke, Wind oberhalb einer festgelegten Windstaerke, Regen oder Erdbeben. Die ereignisbasierte Messwerterfassung eignet sich insbesondere dann, wenn viele Einzelmesswerte erfasst werden sollen, die nur unter bestimmten Bedingungen auftreten. Bei den im Bericht beschriebenen intelligenten Sensornetzwerken wird, im Gegensatz zu einfachen Telemetriesystemen, ein Teil der Datenanalyse lokal in dem jeweiligen Mote durchgefuehrt. Zu den Aufgaben eines Motes gehoert daher neben der Datenerfassung auch die Datenanalyse, zum Beispiel zur Ermittlung moeglicher Schaedigungen oder Bauteilveraenderungen.

Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, das die Tragfahigkeit und die Steifigkeit eines textilbewehrten Bauteils durch Vorspannung deutlich erhoht werden kann. Besonderheiten, die bei der Vorspannung textiler Bewehrung beachtet werden mussen, werden herausgestellt. Neben den Anforderungen an die Textilien selbst werden insbesondere Fragen zur Einspannung, zum Verbund von textiler Bewehrung im Beton und auch Aspekte zur moglichen Bemessung angesprochen. Der innere und ausere Verbund des Textils sowie die notwendige Verbesserung des inneren Verbunds durch geeignete Masnahmen sind in diesem Zusammenhang von groser Bedeutung. Prestressed Textile reinforced Elements The paper shows that prestressing of textile reinforcement results in a higher load bearing capacity and stiffness of a textile reinforced element. Particularities of textile reinforcement for prestressing compared to textile reinforcement for non-prestressed elements will be described. Special requirements for textiles used for prestressing are explained, which take clamping techniques, bond behaviour and the design of prestressed textile reinforced elements into consideration. In this context, the importance of internal and external bond are discussed.

The specification of distinct classes of neurones in the neural tube is governed by extracellular signals and transcriptional mediators including neurogenic bHLH- and homeobox-containing genes. Despite recent insights in the transcriptional code that controls generation of neuronal subtypes in the dorsal neural tube, the mechanisms that underlie regional identity in dorsal and lateral regions of the mammalian neural tube are not well understood. The homeobox gene Lbx1 is expressed in a subset of interneurons in the early neural tube and later in dorsal parts of the spinal cord. Here we show that Lbx1 is part of the machinery that controls formation of neurones in the dorsal horn. Targeted inactivation of Lbx1 leads to a severe reduction of neurones in the dorsal horn and to down-regulation of dorsal markers such as Lmx1a from E11.5 onwards. In contrast, Pax3, another dorsally expressed homeobox gene, was up-regulated in Lbx1 mutant mice at E18.5, suggesting the existence of a negative regulatory feedback loop. Lbx1/Pax3 double-mutant mice showed an enhanced Pax3 phenotype characterized by a completely open neural tube. We suggest that Lbx1 plays a critical role in the specification of dorsal interneurons and that Lbx1 and Pax3 might act together synergistically to promote neural tube closure.