Best High Pressure & Drilling Technology (Austria)

Article Im Bann des Bösen. Ilse Koch – ein Kapitel deutscher Gesellschaftsgeschichte 1933 bis 1970 was published on June 1, 2024 in the journal Journal der Juristischen Zeitgeschichte (volume 18, issue 2).

To limit the spread of bovine ringworm, control measures such as movement restrictions are highly recommended. In this context, calves at auction markets in Styria, Austria, displaying skin lesions characteristic for bovine ringworm, are excluded from the auctions. To investigate whether these clinical assessments correspond to laboratory diagnosis, a total of 166 samples taken from skin lesions assigned to the three clinical categories ‘ringworm very likely (v), likely (l) or unlikely (u)’ were mycologically examined using microscopy, culture, and nested PCR followed by amplicon sequencing. Further, the relationships of isolated dermatophytes were determined through multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Overall, a high agreement between clinical assessment and laboratory results were observed with microscopy and nested PCR, providing more consistent results and molecular detection possessing an analytical sensitivity superior to that of cultural isolation (culture 21.7% vs. nested PCR 48.2%). Phylogenetic analyses revealed that most of the isolated dermatophytes belong to a unique Trichophyton verrucosum MLST genotype. In conclusion, clinical assessments were largely confirmed through laboratory diagnosis with nested PCR and sequencing, providing rapid, sensitive, and species-specific detection of dermatophytes in calves at auction markets displaying skin lesions typical for ringworm; this seems to be predominantly caused by a single Trichophyton verrucosum strain.

Bovine mastitis is the most commonly diagnosed disease of dairy cows worldwide and causes extensive economic losses to milk producers. Intramammary infection status before dry-off plays a decisive role with respect to udder health and milk yield in the subsequent lactation. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of antibiotic dry cow therapy (DCT) versus no treatment at dry-off on milk yield, somatic cell count (SCC), inflammation of the mammary gland (IMG), and the incidence of clinical mastitis in the subsequent lactation. Dairy herd data from 251 Austrian dairy farms were recorded over an observation period of 12 mo and subsequently analyzed. The data set included 5,018 dairy cows: 2,078 were treated with antibiotics (abDCT group) and 2,940 were not treated (noDCT group) at dry-off. The abDCT group was subdivided, based on the antimicrobial active substances used for drying off, into 4 different groups (penicillins, cloxacillin, cephalosporins, and rifaximin). Based on bacteriological culture results, infections were grouped into those caused by major, minor, and other pathogens. Additionally, the IMG was defined via SCC from milk recording data using a cutoff of 200,000 cells/mL before drying off and after calving. The incidence of clinical mastitis cases within 30 and 90 d in milk was calculated using veterinary diagnosis data. To investigate the effect of different dry cow therapies on the following parameters: milk yield, SCC, and diagnosed clinical mastitis cases, different linear mixed models were constructed. Overall, the abDCT group was determined to have a significantly higher milk yield over 305 d in milk in the subsequent lactation (increase of 6.18%), compared with the noDCT group (increase of 4.29%). Both groups (abDCT and noDCT) demonstrated a decrease in the first SCC after calving compared with the SCC before dry-off, although the treated cows had a significantly higher reduction. Regarding the different antibiotic groups, with exception of the rifaximin treated cows, all antibiotic groups showed a significant difference from not treated cows with respect to SCC. Additionally, we were able to demonstrate that cows with IMG before dry-off had a 2.073 times higher chance of an increased SCC (>200,000 cells/mL) after calving. With respect to the veterinary diagnosis data, neither the IMG before drying off nor the type of DCT had a significant influence on the probability of developing clinical mastitis within 30 or 90 d in milk. Only a small number of treatments was accompanied with a bacteriological examination before drying off. However, the existing data in this study indicates that the intramammary infection status before dry-off in combination with different dry cow treatments influences udder health and milk yield after calving. Nevertheless, further studies with larger data sets of bacteriological examinations are necessary to enable a more in-depth investigation into the effects of different antibiotic substances used for DCT.

We examine the determinants of the net interest margin (NIM) and the net fee and commission income ratio (NFCIR) of Austrian banks as well as their interrelationship and whether portfolio separation between loan and deposit categories holds. We describe a conceptual framework for the profit optimization problem faced by banks as a Bertrand game with differentiated products and intrafirm product interactions. We contribute to the literature by factoring in banks’ business models in terms of their balance sheet structure. We empirically assess the implications of our conceptual framework using a unique supervisory data set of around 48,000 observations between 1998 and 2014. We estimate two panel vector autoregression models with a novel panel vector autoregression code. Apart from quantifying the contributions of the determinants (e.g., risk weighted assets, leverage ratio, loan loss provision ratio) to NIM and NFCIR, the empirical results show that interest income and fee and commission income should be regarded as strategic complements within a bank. We further conclude that portfolio separation between different loan and deposit categories does not hold.

The GUM and its supplements one and two have come to be regarded as <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">de facto</i> standards for evaluating measurement uncertainty. The latter documents have stressed the benefits of deriving probability density functions (PDFs) for the output quantities instead of just evaluating the standard and expanded uncertainties associated with their best estimates. Those supplements, however, present a brute force numerical method for obtaining the output PDFs. In this paper, we rely instead on the use of the change-of-variables theorem as a way of obtaining analytical expressions for PDFs in the form of integrals that, at least in principle, can be numerically evaluated. But more importantly, the GUM supplements do not include situations in which the available information is more than enough, in the sense that by separately considering its various components one may arrive at concurrent PDFs for the quantity or quantities of interest. In some situations these PDFs will be largely similar, so that implementing some form of merging method would perhaps be reasonable. But it may also happen that significant discrepancies between those PDFs are apparent, in which case a modification of the measurement model might make all information appear to be consistent. Herein we review two procedures for merging concurrent and not too dissimilar PDFs. We also discuss some elements to be considered if extending the measurement model appears to be a better alternative.

The underlying paper and investigations deal with the main functionality and physical parameters of contactless smartcard and NFC (Near Field Communication) devices. The specific need of impedance matching for reader devices is pointed out in particular, as the correct matching represents a major performance indicator of the system. Therefore, in a first step, the dedicated parameters are analyzed for a reader device. Based on these insights, detailed analysis of the concept, the implementation and the verification of an automatic impedance matching circuit for NFC antennas with a frequency of 13.56 MHz is given. Besides an introduction to manual tuning and its issues, the fundamental components of an automatic tuning system are outlined. A lab-scaled prototype is built and demonstrated. Finally, the successful operation of this system is tested with several different antennas. Furthermore, the effects of detuning due to dynamic behavior are pointed out, characterizing the need for further investigations.

Le seul roman connu de Wirnt de Grafenberg, compose vers 1210, constitue la premiere version allemande d’une histoire largement diffusee dans les litteratures medievales europeennes, celle du Bel Inconnu de Renaut de Beaujeu (c. 1190), du Lybaus Desconus moyen anglais (XIIIe siecle) ou encore du Carduino italien (seconde moitie du XVe siecle). C. Lecouteux et V. Levy ont fait ici le choix meritoire de proposer le texte integral en edition bilingue: la traduction, qui allie precision et elegan...