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Am vergangenen Freitag einigten sich die Spitzen der Ampel-Koalition (erneut) auf einen Bundeshaushaltsentwurf für das kommende Jahr 2025. Dem voran gingen nicht nur zähe politische Debatten innerhalb der Koalition. Auch das Verfassungsrecht spielte – mal wieder – eine hervorgehobene Rolle für die Haushaltspolitik der Bundesrepublik. Im Verlauf der Debatte um den nun vorgesehenen Entwurf, der im Laufe des Jahres vom Bundestag beschlossen werden soll, zeigt sich ein weiteres Mal der übermäßige Fokus haushaltspolitischer Erwägungen auf verfassungsrechtliche Normen.

Am 15. November 2023 hat das Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG) zum ersten Mal über die Vorschriften der Schuldenbremse im Grundgesetz entschieden. Das nun ergangene Urteil verdeutlicht erneut, dass die aktuelle Ausgestaltung des Staatsschuldenrechts in eine finanzrechtliche, vor allem aber finanzpolitische Sackgasse führt. So setzt sich im Urteil durch die restriktive Auslegung der Schuldenbremse die Entpolitisierung des parlamentarischen Haushalts- und Budgetrechts, die „Königsdisziplin des Parlaments“, fort. Daneben beschränkt das Urteil auf erhebliche Art und Weise die Handlungsfähigkeit des Staates und versetzt auch der Wehrhaftigkeit der Demokratie einen Dämpfer. Letztlich ist die Schuldenbremse, wie sie sich nun durch das Urteil darstellt, ein Todesstoß für politisches Denken in langfristigen Zusammenhängen – obgleich dieser Gedanke vom BVerfG erst vor zwei Jahren im sogenannten Klima-Beschluss prominent angebracht wurde.

Optimized user experience and individualized task assistance are key factors for the success of e-business applications because they serve both, users, and service providers. In this paper we present an adaptation agent for observing and analyzing interactive behavior, emotional state and task-accomplishment of individual users while working with interactive e-business applications. The agent recognizes specific situations and can adapt the interactive application at runtime by co-operating with a model-based user interface development framework (MBUID) and by providing domain-specific guidance for the user. After introducing purpose, business context of our approach, and related work, the paper discusses the structure and functionality of the SitAdapt adaptation agent. The operation of the adaptation agent is demonstrated for a travel-booking platform that currently serves as a workbench for testing and evaluating our situation-analytic and emotion-triggered approach for creating highly competitive and individualized business applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hospital-acquired infections due to vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) are emerging globally. The aims of our study were to estimate VRE colonisation prevalence in patients upon admission, to determine possible risk factors for VR acquisition that already exist in the outpatient setting, and to monitor whether VRE-colonised patients developed a VRE infection during their current hospital stay.Methods: In 2014 and 2015, patients admitted to non-intensive care units were screened for rectal VRE carriage. The study patients filled out a questionnaire on potential risk factors. Analyses were restricted to VR carriage. All patients with VRE colonisation were retrospectively monitored for infections with VRE during their current hospital stay. Results: In 4,013 enrolled patients, the VRE colonisation prevalence upon admission was 1.2% (n=48), and colonisation prevalence was 1.1% (n=45) for VR . Only one VRE-colonised patient developed an infection with the detection of a VRE, among others. Colonisation with VR was associated with current antibiotic use. Risk factors of VR colonisation upon admission were increasing age, previous colonisation or infection with multidrug resistant organisms, sampling year 2015, and, within the previous six months, antibiotic exposure, a stay at a rehabilitation center, and a hospital stay.Conclusions: We observed that antibiotic treatment which occurred prior admission influenced VR prevalence upon admission. Thus, wise antibiotic use in outpatient settings plays a major role in the prevention of VR acquisition.

In this paper, we present an experimental and theoretical study of excitation processes for the heaviest stable helium-like ion, that is, He-like uranium occurring in relativistic collisions with hydrogen and argon targets. In particular, we concentrate on angular distributions of the characteristic Kα radiation following the K → L excitation of He-like uranium. We pay special attention to the magnetic sub-level population of the excited 1s2lj states, which is directly related to the angular distribution of the characteristic Kα radiation. We show that the experimental data can be well described by calculations taking into account the excitation by the target nucleus as well as by the target electrons. Moreover, we demonstrate for the first time an important influence of the electron-impact excitation process on the angular distributions of the Kα radiation produced by excitation of He-like uranium in collisions with different targets.

Accurate spectroscopy of highly-charged high- Z ions in a storage ring is demonstrated to be feasible by the use of specially adapted crystal optics. The method has been applied for the measurement of the 1 s Lamb shift in hydrogen-like gold (Au ^+78 ) in a storage ring through spectroscopy of the Lyman x-rays. This measurement represents the first result obtained for a high- Z element using high-resolution wavelength-dispersive spectroscopy in the hard x-ray regime, paving the way for sensitivity to higher-order QED effects.

We report on the first elastic hard x-ray scattering experiment where the linear polarization characteristics of both the incident and the scattered radiation were observed. Rayleigh scattering was investigated in a relativistic regime by using a high- Z target material, namely gold, and a photon energy of 175 keV. Although the incident synchrotron radiation was nearly 100% linearly polarized, at a scattering angle of $\theta =90^\circ $ we observed a strong depolarization for the scattered photons with a degree of linear polarization of $+0.27 \% \pm 0.12 \% $ only. This finding agrees with second-order quantum electrodynamics calculations of Rayleigh scattering, when taking into account a small polarization impurity of the incident photon beam which was determined to be close to 98%. The latter value was obtained independently from the elastic scattering by analyzing photons that were Compton-scattered in the target. Moreover, our results indicate that when relying on state-of-the-art theory, Rayleigh scattering could provide a very accurate method to diagnose polarization impurities in a broad region of hard x-ray energies.

Purpose: To test if resin CAD/CAM materials should be considered for zirconia implants and how their mechanical properties affect the fracture load.Methods: Fracture load of molar crowns of CAD/CAM materials (VITA CAD-Temp [CT], Cerasmart [CS], Lava Ultimate [LU], Pekkton Ivory [PK]) on zirconia implants (ceramic.implant, 4.0 mm) fixed either with no cement, temporary cement (Harvard Implant semi-permanent [HIS]), self-adhesive (VITA Adiva S-Cem [VAS]) or either one of two adhesive cements (Multilink Automix [MLA], VITA Adiva F-Cem [VAF]) was analyzed. The restorative materials were characterized by their flexural strength, fracture toughness, elemental composition and organic/inorganic ratio while compressive strength of the cements was measured.Results: For the fracture load significantly highest mean values were found overall for PK (2921 ±300 N) > LU (2017 ±499 N) > CS (1463 ±367 N) = CT (1451 ±327 N) (p > 0.05). When analyzing the effect of the cement on the fracture load the overall ranking was VAF (2245 ±650 N) ≥ MLA (2188 ±708 N) ≥ VAS (2017 ±563 N) > HIS (1757 ±668 N) = no cement (1595 ±757 N) (p <0.05), meaning fracture load increased with the compressive strength of the cements. Additionally, a linear trend was found between the fracture load and the fracture toughness of the restorative materials.Conclusions: All restorative materials exhibited fracture load values similar or higher than lithium disilicate tested previously. Fracture load of CT, CS and LU can be significantly increased when an adhesive cement with a high compressive strength is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To test three potential prosthetic material options for zirconia implants in regard to their mechanical properties, loading and retention capacity as well as to record abrasion after chewing simulation followed by thermocyclic aging. Molar crowns (n = 96) of three different computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) materials were produced and cemented on zirconia implants (ceramic.implant, Vita) with a diameter of 4.5 mm. Monolithic zirconia (Vita YZ [YZ] with RelyX Unicem 2 Automix [RUN], polymer-infiltrated ceramic (Vita Enamic [VE]) with Vita Adiva F-Cem [VAF] and acrylate polymer (CAD Temp [CT]) with RelyX Ultimate [RUL]. Fracture load and retentive force of the crowns were measured after 24 h water storage at 37 °C and after a chewing simulation followed by thermocyclic aging. Abrasion was recorded by matching stereolithography-data of the crowns obtained before and after chewing simulation. Additionally, the mechanical properties and bonding capabilities of the crown and cement materials were assessed. Fracture load values were significantly highest for YZ > VE = CT. Retention force values did not differ significantly between the materials. The aging procedure did not affect the fracture load values nor the retention force significantly. Abrasion depth of the crowns was lowest for YZ followed by VE and CT. On unpolished crowns, abrasion of YZ and VE tended to be higher than on polished specimens. Based on the obtained in-vitro results, all tested materials can be recommended for the use on zirconia implants, although CT is only approved for temporary crowns. The loading and retention capacity of the materials were not significantly affected by aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zirconia implants that were restored with veneered zirconia displayed severe chipping rates of the restorations in clinical studies. Purpose of this study was to evaluate the fracture load of different zirconia implant supported monolithic crown materials (zirconia, alumina, lithium disilicate, feldspar ceramic and polymer-infiltrated ceramic) cemented with various cements (Harvard LuteCem SE, Harvard Implant Semi-permanent, Multilink Automix, VITA Adiva F-Cem). Flexural strength and fracture toughness of crown materials and compressive strength of the cements were measured. Fracture load values of crowns fabricated from lithium disilicate, feldspar ceramic and polymer-infiltrated ceramic were increased when cement with high compressive strength was used. Fracture loads for zirconia and alumina crowns were not influenced by the cement. Flexural strength and fracture toughness of the ceramics correlated linearly with the respective fracture load when using adhesive cement with high compressive strength. To achieve sufficient fracture load values, cementation with adhesive cement is essential for feldspar and polymer-infiltrated ceramic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In seinem Beschluss zum Klimaschutzgesetz hat das BVerfG nicht nur den Klimaschutz gestärkt, sondern auch ein anderes Prinzip aus Art. 20a GG betont: die Generationengerechtigkeit. Bisher gelten in Deutschland oftmals Schuldenbremse und schwarze Null als generationengerechtes Optimum. Diese Ausrichtung ist jedoch das genaue Gegenteil einer Generationengerechtigkeit, wie sie nun auch das BVerfG auslegt.

Am 16. November fand vor der Großen Kammer des EuGH die mündliche Verhandlung im Verfahren C-562/21 PPU statt. Es ging um den europäischen Haftbefehl in Zusammenhang mit der Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Polen – einen europarechtlichen Dauerbrenner. Wie alle Fälle mit Bezug zur Rechtsstaatlichkeit in Polen hat auch dieser wieder einmal große politische Brisanz. Dennoch fand das Verfahren in der Öffentlichkeit relativ wenig Beachtung. Der EuGH könnte dabei wegen der langen Inaktivität der politischen Akteur:innen im Konflikt mit Polen und auch aufgrund seiner jüngsten Rechtsstaatsrechtsprechung eine tragische Rolle spielen, die sich aus der starken Verrechtlichung des Konflikts um die Rechtsstaatlichkeit ergibt.

Especially since the migratory pressure of 2015, the agency has discovered the significance of the African pre-frontier area. The rationale behind this reinforced engagement in Africa is one of pre-emptive border control and migration management.