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Confinement to farrowing crates is known to prevent sows from performing natural behavior, impairing animal welfare and possibly causing chronic stress. Hair cortisol analyses are increasingly used to detect chronic stress in animals. In the present study, hair samples were collected in the neck of sows kept either in farrowing crates (FC, n = 31) or in a loose-housing system (LH, n = 30) in six batches. Cortisol was extracted and analyzed using chemiluminescence immunoassay. Mean hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) did not differ significantly between the systems (LH: 1.85 ± 0.82 pg/mg, FC: 2.13 ± 1.53 pg/mg, P = 0.631). HCC was also not affected by other factors, such as sows' parity, number of piglets, skin lesion score or sow's weight loss during the farrowing period. However, highly significant differences were found in hair growth rates between different regions within the 20 × 30 cm shaving area. While the hair in both lateral parts of the shaving area grew almost identically (left: 7.48 ± 3.52 mm, right: 7.44 ± 3.24 mm, P = 1.00), the hair grew more in the area above the spine (12.27 + 3.95 mm, P < 0.001). In both systems, the mean individual lesion score of sows declined from the beginning to the end of the housing period (P < 0.001). No difference was found between FC and LH sows at any time (P > 0.05). Since neither the amount of skin lesions nor HCC differed between LH and FC sows, it may be concluded that confining sows in farrowing crates did not affect chronic stress levels. However, results may be affected by a downregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis during long-term stress, resulting in lower cortisol levels over time. HCC in sows may also be influenced by a dominant stressor, such as farrowing or the presence of suckling piglets. Thus, for a comparison of different farrowing systems regarding chronic stress, the use of hair cortisol measurement seems to be limited. The present results revealed that differences in hair growth rate within the same body region exist. This important finding should be considered when collecting hair samples in pigs, since hair cortisol concentrations may vary depending on hair growth and length.

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Introduction: Few studies have evaluated patient-reported outcome measures and the effect of patient educational materials in German patients with skin cancer. We conducted a prospective study to measure the impact of treatment on health-related quality of life in German patients with skin cancer, identify variables that may contribute to changes in health-related quality of life, and evaluate the effect of providing additional information through a patient education brochure.

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To account for the natural variability of material parameters in multiphasic and hydro‐mechanical coupled finite element analyses of soil and earth structure applications, the use of probabilistic methods may be effective. Here, selecting the appropriate soil auto‐correlation functions for random field realizations plays an essential role. In a joint study, the general influence of auto‐correlation lengths on the results of strongly coupled models is determined. Subsequently, a polymorphic approach using fuzzy probability based random fields is used to capture the solution space for fuzzy auto‐correlation lengths. To adequately describe the behavior of the soil the theory of porous media is implemented, which uses a homogenization approach for the multiple phases on the soil microstructure. Its foundations and the differentiated methods used for the polymorphic uncertainty quantification are explained in this contribution. Based on two representative examples, the requirements and advantages of a polymorphic uncertainty model are worked out30.

For a wide range of mechanical application fields, computational analyses are already indispensable due to their advanced impact on engineering developments. They provide a lot of information about the functioning and structural response of an arbitrary structure and the interaction with its surrounding. Nevertheless, despite preliminary investigations or the knowledge about manufacturing process of structures, assumptions of geometrical or material properties are often sources of uncertainties. These can be distinguished into aleatoric (e.g. natural scattering of properties) and epistemic (e.g. accuracy of the numerical approximation) uncertainties. Although measuring devices or process workflows are continuously improved, there always remains a residual risk. In order to provide and improve decision-making tools for end users, the priority program SPP 1886 has been installed by the DFG with the focus on polymorphic uncertainty quantification. The present subproject, which is part of the SPP 1886 (sp12), is focused on fluid saturated soil and earth structures and their multiple uncertainty sources.The very complex micro-structural consolidation mechanism of soil requires a suitable numerical description. For the strongly coupled fluid-solid response behavior, the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) will be used, a macroscopic homogenization approach based on the mixture theory restricted by the concept of volume fraction. In the framework of the Finite Element Method (FEM), arbitrary Boundary Value Problems (BVP) can be investigated. Uncertainty modelling takes place on the stochastic level by introducing random fields with a defined correlation structure for the generation of model initial material parameters. By generating many random field realizations for a FEM material parameter, we receive various FEM outputs for selected scenarios of the stated BVP. These results can be used to identify typical output scenarios, which allows to identify critical material parameter combinations which may cause instabilities.. Fig. 1: Mixture Theory: Superimposition of the homogenized solid and liquid phases on the microscopic level.To describe the complex behavior of soil, one has to incorporate the strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction on pore scale. Since a direct discretization of of the pore structure exceeds the current computational capacities for appropriate large scale applications, the Theory of Porous Media (TPM) bases on the Theory of Mixtures, which is a well-established homogenization approach for multiphase problems, is a suitable approach to account for as much details as needed to derive for a reliable model approach. For fully saturated soil, the fluid water (F) and the solid grains (S) are considered in superimposed and homogenized domains, see figure 1. To solve the set of unknowns R = {u S , λ}, wherein u S denotes the solid displacements and λ the fluid pore pressure, the formulation of mixed balance equations is used. The local forms of the mixture balance equation of mass and momentum in the referenc...

Introduction The German Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention recommends nominating one authorized medical specialist in every medical department as an infection prevention link physician (PLP). It has been roughly described that a PLP serves as a link between the infection prevention team and the respective clinical departments. No detailed evidence about the contribution made by PLPs to the decrease of infection rates is available in Germany. The “HygArzt” project aims to demonstrate the medical and economic benefits of the implementation of hygiene measures by PLP in trauma surgery/orthopedics. Methods A multicenter interventional pre/post cohort study design was chosen. The study will run for a three-year period, including a pre-, post-, and an intervention phase, in four different hospitals, one of which will serve as pilot. A complex intervention containing evidence-based infection control measures will be developed and implemented by a PLP to proof efficacy. After the successful implementation of the preventive measures in the pilot hospital, the concept will be transposed to the three remaining trauma and orthopedic departments to confirm the transferability and generalizability. To enable the PLPs of the non-pilot departments, a subject-specific training program will be developed based on the study results of the pilot hospital and offered to the PLPs. Discussion Data are intended to provide evidence that and, if so, to which extent the implementation of specific preventive measures by a medical department-specific PLP is possible and results in a reduction of nosocomial infections in orthopedic surgery and traumatology. Contribution to the literature The present study describes a novel complex study design to prove the effectiveness of intervention measures for infection prevention. The study design and newly developed methodological approach could serve as a model for similar studies on infection prevention in the future. For the first time, the presented research project “HygArzt” focuses on the implementation of hygiene measures by an infection prevention link physician (PLP) and investigates whether nosocomial infections, especially surgical site infections, can be reduced by the measures implemented. Trial registration German clinical Trials register DRKS-ID:00013,296. Registered on March 5, 2018, https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00013296 .