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Gardening is a popular pastime, but commercial horticulture is responsible for the introduction of alien species and contributes to invasions in a variety of ways. Although an extensive international literature is available on plant invasions, it is still important at the national level to examine the influence of local factors. Accordingly, 17 nurseries in Estonia that cultivated and sold perennial alien species were selected, and a list of species and prices was compiled. The relationships between species status, and factors such as their abundance in the wild were examined statistically. A qualitative list of the nationally problematic species among herbaceous perennials was also completed. A total of 880 taxa were recorded, of which 10.3% were native and 89.7% alien. In all, 87.3% of the alien species were still confined to cultivated areas. The ecological and socio-economic characteristics of the taxa were described, and lists of the families of casual, naturalised and invasive aliens were provided. Both native and increasing wild alien species have a very similar profile on the market. Alien species that are less expensive, widely available and have more cultivars per species on the market are also more likely to escape. The invasive status and abundance of escaped aliens in an area increases with residence time. In general, socio-economic factors create new and reflect previous propagule pressures from commercial horticulture, which continuously increase the likelihood of alien species surviving and invading new areas. Our findings suggest that these national socioeconomic market-related factors explain much of the invasiveness of various perennial ornamental species, and therefore regional and national authorities urgently need to regulate and control the ornamental plant trade to diminish the risk of new invasions.
The aim of this study is to examine the different grades students’ understanding levels of the concept of religion in elementary education. A total of 107 different grades students taken from elementary schools were asked the concept in using open ended question developed by the researcher. Obtained data showed that students couldn’t understand the concept correctly and scientifically and the majority of the students had a misconception about the concept such as worshipping, worships, being ethical, ethical behaviours and obligatory behaviours. Furthermore, some students had specific conceptual confusions about the concept.
Spread across a number of countries around the world, and concentrated in four Middle Eastern countries, Kurds have yearned for their own country for almost a century, but were forgotten when the region was carved up by the Sykes-Picot Agreement early in the twentieth century. Since then, the creation of a Kurdish state was high on the agenda of all Kurds. This was especially true when we consider the lot of Kurds in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. This book examines the political situation of Kurds in these four countries, looks at how this has changed-particularly in the past decade-and considers what the future might hold for the Kurdish people and for the notion of a state of Kurdistan. It asks the question of whether a Kurdish state is achievable, or, even, desirable. The book is written for policy makers and academics interested in the Middle East region and in Kurdish politics in particular. It is written in an accessible way that makes it easy reading for anyone curious about the region and its people.
Presented is a checklist of the world Trogidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) including synonyms, geographic distributions, type repositories where known, lists of valid species by genera and subgenera, citations of all papers containing original descriptions, and a supplemental literature section containing works on various other aspects of the family. The Literature Cited and Supplemental Literature sections combine to form a comprehensive bibliography.
Aim: The aim of this study was to measure cortico-cortical connectivity in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients by TMS-evoked potential (TEP) latencies in EEG evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the hand area of the primary motor cortex of one hemisphere. TEPs were recorded on the stimulated- and at the homologue site in the non-stimulated contralateral hemisphere. Both interhemispheric directions were tested. Interhemispheric latencies of the two main reproducible TEPs, the positive component at 60 ms and the negative component at 100 ms (P60 and N100, respectively), were expected to be significantly prolonged in MS-patients compared to healthy volunteers.
Material and methods: The study compared interhemispheric propagation of P60 and N100 in groups of 12 patients with early-stage relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and 16 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of the Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main and conformed to the latest revision of the Declaration of Helsinki of 2008. TEPs were recorded by means of EEG and their latencies were statistically evaluated in 10 channels around the stimulation site and in 10 corresponding electrodes in the non-stimulated contralateral hemisphere. Interhemispheric conduction time was calculated by the difference of TEP latency in non-stimulated vs. stimulated hemisphere.
Results: An ANOVA on interhemispheric conduction time showed a significant prolongation for the N100 from left to right hemisphere in MS compared to controls, while no group differences were found for the P60 and the N100 from right to left hemisphere.
Conclusion: The results provide first evidence that the N100 may constitute an interesting marker to measure interhemispheric conduction delays in early-stage RRMS. The specificity of the present finding and its relation to fiber tract pathology should be examined in further correlative analyses with diffusion tensor imaging and other structural MRI data.
Background: Exercise seems to minimize prostate cancer specific mortality risk and treatment related side effects like fatigue and incontinence. However the influence of physical activity on the immunological level remains uncertain. Even prostate cancer patients undergoing palliative treatment often have a relatively long life span compared to other cancer entities. To optimize exercise programs and their outcomes it is essential to investigate the underlying mechanisms. Further, it is important to discriminate between different exercise protocols and therapy regimes.
Methods/Design: The ProImmun study is a prospective multicenter patient preference randomized controlled trial investigating the influence of a 24 week endurance exercise program in 80–100 prostate cancer patients by comparing patients undergoing Antiandrogen therapy combined with exercise (AE), Antiandrogen therapy without exercise (A), Chemotherapy with exercise(CE) or Chemotherapy without exercise (C). The primary outcome of the study is a change in prostate cancer relevant cytokines and hormones (IL-6, MIF, IGF-1, Testosterone). Secondary endpoints are immune cell ratios, oxidative stress and antioxidative capacity levels, VO2 peak, fatigue and quality of life. Patients of the intervention group exercise five times per week, while two sessions are supervised. During the supervised sessions patients (AE and CE) exercise for 33 minutes on a bicycle ergometer at 70-75% of their VO2 peak. To assess long term effects and sustainability of the intervention two follow-up assessments are arranged 12 and 18 month after the intervention.
Discussion: The ProImmun study is the first trial which primarily investigates immunological effects of a six month endurance exercise program in prostate cancer patients during palliative care. Separating patients treated with Antiandrogen therapy from those who are additionally treated with Chemotherapy might allow a more specific view on the influence of endurance training interventions and the impact of different therapy protocols on the immune function.
Trial registration: German Clinical Trials Register: DRKS00004739
The information processing abilities of neural circuits arise from their synaptic connection patterns. Understanding the laws governing these connectivity patterns is essential for understanding brain function. The overall distribution of synaptic strengths of local excitatory connections in cortex and hippocampus is long-tailed, exhibiting a small number of synaptic connections of very large efficacy. At the same time, new synaptic connections are constantly being created and individual synaptic connection strengths show substantial fluctuations across time. It remains unclear through what mechanisms these properties of neural circuits arise and how they contribute to learning and memory. In this study we show that fundamental characteristics of excitatory synaptic connections in cortex and hippocampus can be explained as a consequence of self-organization in a recurrent network combining spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), structural plasticity and different forms of homeostatic plasticity. In the network, associative synaptic plasticity in the form of STDP induces a rich-get-richer dynamics among synapses, while homeostatic mechanisms induce competition. Under distinctly different initial conditions, the ensuing self-organization produces long-tailed synaptic strength distributions matching experimental findings. We show that this self-organization can take place with a purely additive STDP mechanism and that multiplicative weight dynamics emerge as a consequence of network interactions. The observed patterns of fluctuation of synaptic strengths, including elimination and generation of synaptic connections and long-term persistence of strong connections, are consistent with the dynamics of dendritic spines found in rat hippocampus. Beyond this, the model predicts an approximately power-law scaling of the lifetimes of newly established synaptic connection strengths during development. Our results suggest that the combined action of multiple forms of neuronal plasticity plays an essential role in the formation and maintenance of cortical circuits.
Poster presentation: 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)
Significant progress has been made over the last decade towards realizing the potential of natural killer (NK) cells for cancer immunotherapy. NK cells can respond rapidly to transformed and stressed cells, and have the intrinsic potential to extravasate and reach their targets in almost all body tissues. In addition to donor-derived primary NK cells, also continuously expanding cytotoxic cell lines such as NK-92 are being considered for adoptive cancer immunotherapy. High cytotoxicity of NK-92 has previously been shown against malignant cells of hematologic origin in preclinical studies, and general safety of infusion of NK-92 cells has been established in phase I clinical trials. To enhance their therapeutic utility, we genetically modified NK-92 cells to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) specific for tumor-associated surface antigens. Such CAR were composed of a tumor-specific scFv antibody fragment fused via hinge and transmembrane domains to intracellular signaling moieties such as CD3 zeta chain, or composite fusion molecules also containing a costimulatory protein domain in addition to CD3 zeta. For development towards clinical applications, here a codon-optimized second generation CAR was constructed that consists of an ErbB2-specific scFv antibody domain fused via a linker to a composite CD28-CD3 zeta signaling domain. GMP-compliant protocols for vector production, lentiviral transduction and expansion of a genetically modified NK-92 single cell clone (NK-92/5.28.z) were established. Functional analysis of NK-92/5.28.z cells revealed high and stable CAR expression, selective cytotoxicity against ErbB2-expressing but otherwise NK-resistant tumor cells of different origins in vitro, as well as homing to ErbB2-expressing tumors in vivo. Furthermore, antigen specificity and selective cytotoxicity of these cells were retained in vivo, resulting in antitumoral activity against subcutaneous and intracranial glioblastoma xenografts in NSG mice. Ongoing work now focuses on the development of these cells for adoptive immunotherapy of ErbB2-positive glioblastoma.
This work presents a biochemical, functional and structural characterization of Aquifex aeolicus F1FO ATP synthase obtained using both a native form (AAF1FO) and a heterologous form (EAF1FO) of this enzyme.
F1FO ATP synthases catalyze the synthesis of ATP from ADP and inorganic phosphate driven by ion motive forces across the membrane and therefore play a key cellular function. Because of their central role in supporting life, F1FO ATP synthases are ubiquitous and have been remarkably conserved throughout evolution. For their biological importance, F1FO ATP synthases have been extensively studied for many decades and many of them were characterized from both a functional and a structural standpoint. However, important properties of ATP synthases – specifically properties pertaining to their membrane embedded subunits – have yet to be determined and no structures are available to date for the intact enzyme complex. Therefore, F1FO ATP synthases are still a major focus of research worldwide. Our research group had previously reported an initial characterization of AAF1FO and had indicated that this enzyme presents unique features, i.e. a bent central stalk and a putatively heterodimeric peripheral stalk. Based on such a characterization, this enzyme revealed promising for structural and functional studies on ATP synthases and became the focus of this doctoral thesis. Two different lines of research were followed in this work.
First, the characterization of AAF1FO was extended by bioinformatic, biochemical and enzymatic analyses. The work on AAF1FO led to the identification of a new detergent that maintains a higher homogeneity and integrity of the complex, namely the detergent trans-4-(trans-4’-propylcyclohexyl)cyclohexyl-α-D-maltoside (α-PCC). The characterization of AAF1FO in this new detergent showed that AAF1FO is a proton-dependent, not a sodium ion-dependent ATP synthase and that its ATP hydrolysis mechanism needs to be triggered and activated by high temperatures, possibly inducing a conformational switch in subunit γ. Moreover, this approach suggested that AAF1FO may present unusual features in its membrane subunits, i.e. short N-terminal segments in subunits a and c with implications for the membrane insertion mechanism of these subunits.
Investigating on these unique features of A. aeolicus F1FO ATP synthase could not be done using A. aeolicus cells, because these require a harsh and dangerous environment for growth and they are inaccessible to genetic manipulations. Therefore, a second approach was pursued, in which an expression system was created to produce the enzyme in the heterologous host E. coli. This second approach was experimentally challenging, because A. aeolicus F1FO ATP synthase is a 500-kDa multimeric membrane enzyme with a complicated and still not entirely determined stoichiometry and because its encoding genes are scattered throughout A. aeolicus genome, rather than being organized in one single operon. However, an artificial operon suitable for expression was created in this work and led to the successful production of an active and fully assembled form of Aquifex aeolicus F1FO ATP synthase. Such artificial operon was created using a stepwise approach, in which we expressed and studied first individual subunits, then subcomplexes, and finally the entire F1FO ATP synthase complex. We confirmed experimentally that subunits b1 and b2 form a heterodimeric subcomplex in the E. coli membranes, which is a unique case among ATP synthases of non-photosynthetic organisms. Moreover, we determined that the b1b2 subcomplex is sufficient to recruit the soluble F1 subcomplex to the membranes, without requiring the presence of the other membrane subunits a and c. The latter subunits can be produced in our expression system only when the whole ATP synthase is expressed, but not in isolation nor in the context of smaller FO subcomplexes. These observations led us to propose a novel mechanism for the assembly of ATP synthases, in which first the F1 subcomplex attaches to the membrane via subunit b1b2, and then cring and subunits a assemble to complete the FO subcomplex. Furthermore, we could purify the heterologous ATP synthase (EAF1FO) to homogeneity by chromatography and electro-elution. Enzymatic assays showed that the purified form of EAF1FO is as active as AAF1FO. Peptide mass fingerprinting showed that EAF1FO is composed of the same subunits as AAF1FO and all soluble and membrane subunits could be identified. Finally, single-particle electron microscopy analysis revealed that the structure of EAF1FO is identical to that of AAF1FO. Therefore, the EAF1FO expression system serves as a reliable platform for investigating on properties of AAF1FO.
Specifically, in this work, EAF1FO was used to study the membrane insertion mechanism of rotary subunit c. Subunits c possess different lengths and levels of hydrophobicity across species and by analyzing their N-terminal variability, four phylogenetic groups of subunits c were distinguished (groups 1 to 4). As a member of group 2, the subunit c from A. aeolicus F1FO ATP synthase is characterized by an N-terminal segment that functions as a signal peptide with SRP recognition features, a unique case for bacterial F1FO ATP synthases. By accurately designing mutants of EAF1FO, we determined that such a signal peptide is strictly necessary for membrane insertion of subunit c and we concluded that A. aeolicus subunit c inserts into E. coli membranes using a different pathway than E. coli subunit c. Such a property may be common to other ATP synthases from extremophilic organisms, which all cluster in the same phylogenetic group.
In conclusion, the successful production of the fully assembled and active F1FO ATP synthase from A. aeolicus in E. coli reported in this work provides a novel genetic system to study A. aeolicus F1FO ATP synthase. To a broader extent, it will also serve in the future as a solid reference for designing strategies aimed at producing large multi-subunit complexes with complicated stoichiometry.
Split intein enabled protein trans-splicing (PTS) is a powerful method for the ligation of two protein fragments, thereby paving the way for various protein modification or protein function control applications. PTS activity is strongly influenced by the amino acids directly flanking the splice junctions. However, to date no reliable prediction can be made whether or not a split intein is active in a particular foreign extein context. Here we describe SPLICEFINDER, a PCR-based method, allowing fast and easy screening for active split intein insertions in any target protein. Furthermore we demonstrate the applicability of SPLICEFINDER for segmental isotopic labeling as well as for the generation of multi-domain and enzymatically active proteins.
Background: Novel microscopic techniques which bypass the resolution limit in light microscopy are becoming routinely established today. The higher spatial resolution of super-resolution microscopy techniques demands for precise correction of drift, spectral and spatial offset of images recorded at different axial planes.
Methods: We employ a hydrophilic gel matrix for super-resolution microscopy of cellular structures. The matrix allows distributing fiducial markers in 3D, and using these for drift correction and multi-channel registration. We demonstrate single-molecule super-resolution microscopy with photoswitchable fluorophores at different axial planes. We calculate a correction matrix for each spectral channel, correct for drift, spectral and spatial offset in 3D.
Results and discussion: We demonstrate single-molecule super-resolution microscopy with photoswitchable fluorophores in a hydrophilic gel matrix. We distribute multi-color fiducial markers in the gel matrix and correct for drift and register multiple imaging channels. We perform two-color super-resolution imaging of click-labeled DNA and histone H2B in different axial planes, and demonstrate the quality of drift correction and channel registration quantitatively. This approach delivers robust microscopic data which is a prerequisite for data interpretation.
Epigenetic dysregulation contributes to the high cardiovascular disease burden in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. Although microRNAs (miRNAs) are central epigenetic regulators, which substantially affect the development and progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD), no data on miRNA dysregulation in CKD-associated CVD are available until now. We now performed high-throughput miRNA sequencing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from ten clinically stable hemodialysis (HD) patients and ten healthy controls, which allowed us to identify 182 differentially expressed miRNAs (e.g., miR-21, miR-26b, miR-146b, miR-155). To test biological relevance, we aimed to connect miRNA dysregulation to differential gene expression. Genome-wide gene expression profiling by MACE (Massive Analysis of cDNA Ends) identified 80 genes to be differentially expressed between HD patients and controls, which could be linked to cardiovascular disease (e.g., KLF6, DUSP6, KLF4), to infection / immune disease (e.g., ZFP36, SOCS3, JUND), and to distinct proatherogenic pathways such as the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway (e.g., IL1B, MYD88, TICAM2), the MAPK signaling pathway (e.g., DUSP1, FOS, HSPA1A), and the chemokine signaling pathway (e.g., RHOA, PAK1, CXCL5). Formal interaction network analysis proved biological relevance of miRNA dysregulation, as 68 differentially expressed miRNAs could be connected to 47 reciprocally expressed target genes. Our study is the first comprehensive miRNA analysis in CKD that links dysregulated miRNA expression with differential expression of genes connected to inflammation and CVD. After recent animal data suggested that targeting miRNAs is beneficial in experimental CVD, our data may now spur further research in the field of CKD-associated human CVD.
Pluralization strategies of monolingual German children aged 3-6, median 4;2 (N = 810), and adults aged 18-96, median 24;0 (N = 582), were compared on the basis of eight nonce nouns from the language test SETK 3-5. Differences between younger and older Germans resembled previously described differences between German and immigrant pre-schoolers for most aspects, e.g., use of fewer plural allomorphs (types), more errors in umlauting, and more avoidance strategies in the linguistically weaker groups. However, both German children and adults demonstrated the same universal frequency- and phonology-based pluralization patterns. Surprisingly, ungrammatical plural forms were equally frequent in both children’s and adults' answers.
Modern computational molecular quantum chemical studies, such as the present one, typically employ a wide range of theoretical techniques. The latter are often rather complicated and one should not generally expect that an experimental scientist in the area of physical chemistry, a potential reader of this work, should be familiar with all these techniques. To simplify the reading of the Thesis and to make it self-sufficient, it is supplied with an overview of the employed theoretical methodologies (Chapter 1). The overview explains basic quantum-chemical terminology referred to throughout the Thesis, introduces theoretical foundations of the methods and outlines their properties and limitations. In Part 1.1 of Chapter 1, methods for the solution of the molecular Schrödinger equation are introduced, while in the subsequent Parts 1.2 and 1.3 methods for the solution of the electronic Schrödinger equation are presented to find the ground and excited states, respectively. Part 1.4 is dedicated to basis-set effects which are omnipresent in electronic-structure calculations. It contains a number of unusual insights and concepts proposed by the author and, thus, may be insightful also to experts in quantum chemistry.
In Chapter 2, the phenomenon of acetone-water proton exchange catalyzed by tubular as well as amorphous aggregates of calix[4]hydroquinone (CHQ) macromolecules, which has been observed previously in NMR experiments (Ref. D1D), is investigated by means of correlated quantum-chemical methods. The first part of the study (Section 2.3-2.7) considers concerted proton transfer, assisted by several initially neutral OH-groups in the hydrogen-bonded networks of CHQ aggregates. The second part of the study (Section 2.8-2.13) is dedicated to a second mechanism of proton exchange: step-wise proton transfer via formation of ionic intermediates resulting from CHQ pre-dissociation. CHQ application-specific as well as general conclusions, relevant to the main topic of the Thesis (i.e. influence of specific microsolvation on the considered proton transfer processes), are presented in Section 2.14.
The phenomenon of dual fluorescence observed in clusters of methyl 4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzoate ester (DMABME) and two water molecules in the gas phase, is studied in Chapter 3. Experimentally, the dual fluorescence was detected in experiments combining optical and ground-state ion-depletion infrared spectroscopies in ultracold molecular beams (Ref. D2D). In Section 3.3, calculated ground-state infrared spectra are presented that allow to identify the structures of those isomers, which are present in the gas-phase, as well as the structure of the isomer responsible for dual fluorescence. To further understand the reaction mechanism of dual fluorescence, excited-state potential energy surfaces of the identified isomers were computed along the relevant twisted intermolecular charge-transfer formation coordinate and the mechanism of energy dissipation in these complexes was investigated (Section 3.4-3.5) (Ref. D3D). A brief summary of the main results of this chapter and conclusions are given in Section 3.6. Finally, in Section 3.7 a complementary benchmark study of the quality of ground-state potential energy surfaces of prototypical hydrogen-bonded systems (ammonia-water and formic acid-water dimers) obtained at the level of BSSE-corrected MP2 combined with moderate basis sets, has been conducted. The quality of potential energy surfaces was tested with respect to basis-set size, level of electron correlation and anharmonicity effects and the applied methodology to identify the IR spectrum of hydrated DMABME complexes (Section 3.3) has been found to be sufficient to uniquely assign the IR spectra.
A detailed morphological account of the male copulatory organs of three species of ground spiders, Sergiolus capulatus, Herpyllus propinquus and Callilepis pluto (Araneae, Gnaphosidae), is presented. The large sclerites (subtegulum, tegulum and embolus) appear to be homologous in all spiders. Sergiolus and Zelanda have a plesiomorphic palp organization. The increased complexity in the male bulb organization creates a locking mechanism that fixes the male palp position during intercourse in Callilepis, as well as in Encoptarthria, Trachyzelotes and Zelotes. The palp of Herpyllus, together with Anzacia, Drassodes and Intruda, demonstrates progressive modification of the male bulb.
The classification of the largest subfamily of leafhoppers, Deltocephalinae, including 38 tribes, 923 genera, and 6683 valid species, is reviewed and revised. An updated phylogeny of the subfamily based on molecular (28S, Histone H3) and morphological data and an expanded taxon sample (37 taxa not included in previous analyses) is presented. Based on the results of these analyses and on the morphological examination of many representatives of the subfamily, the classification of the tribes and subtribes of Deltocephalinae is revised. Complete morphological descriptions, illustrations, lists of the included genera, and notes on their distribution, ecology, and important vector species are provided for the 38 recognized tribes and 18 subtribes. A dichotomous key to the tribes is provided. All names in the taxonomic treatments are hyperlinked to online resources for individual taxa which are supported by a comprehensive database for Deltocephalinae compiled using the taxonomic database software package 3I. The online functionality includes an interactive key to tribes and subtribes and advanced database searching options. Each taxon (subspecies through subfamily) has a unique taxon webpage providing nomenclatural information, lists of included taxa, an automated description (if available), images (if available), distributional information, bibliographic references and links to outside resources. Some observations and trends regarding the history of taxonomic descriptions in Deltocephalinae are reported. Four new tribes are described: Bahitini tribe nov. (25 genera), Bonsapeiini tribe nov. (21 genera), Phlepsiini tribe nov. (4 genera), and Vartini tribe nov. (7 genera). The circumscription and morphological characterization of Scaphoideini Oman, 1943 (61 genera) is substantially revised. Eleven new species are described: Acostemma stilleri sp. nov., Arrugada linnavuorii sp. nov., Drabescus zhangi sp. nov., Parabolopona webbi sp. nov., Goniagnathus emeljanovi sp. nov., Hecalus hamiltoni sp. nov., Scaphoideus omani sp. nov., Dwightla delongi sp. nov., Abimwa knighti sp. nov., Gannia viraktamathi sp. nov., and Doratulina dmitrievi sp. nov. Some family-group level taxonomic changes are made: Platymetopiini Haupt, 1929, Anoterostemmini Haupt, 1929, and Allygidiina Dmitriev, 2006 are synonymized with Athysanini Van Duzee, 1892, syn. nov.; Procepitini Dmitriev, 2002 is synonymized with Cicadulini Van Duzee, 1892, syn. nov.; Listrophorini Boulard, 1971 is synonymized with Chiasmini Distant, 1908, syn. nov.; Adamini Linnavuori & Al-Ne’amy, 1983, Dwightlini McKamey, 2003, and Ianeirini Linnavuori, 1978 are synonymized with Selenocephalini Fieber, 1872 syn.nov., and all three are now recognized as valid subtribes in their parent tribe. New placements of many genera to tribe and subtribe are made, and these are described in individual taxon treatments.
Problems of production and study of new neutron-enriched heavy nuclei are discussed. Low-energy multinucleon transfer reactions are shown to be quite appropriate for this purpose. Reactions with actinide beams and targets are of special interest for synthesis of new neutron-enriched transfermium nuclei and not-yet-known nuclei with closed neutron shell N = 126 having the largest impact on the astrophysical r-process. The estimated cross sections for the production of these nuclei look very promising for planning such experiments at currently available accelerators. These experiments, however, are rather expensive and difficult to perform because of low intensities of the massive projectile beams and problems of separating and detecting the heavy reaction products. Thus, realistic predictions of the corresponding cross sections for different projectile-target combinations are definitely required. Some uncertainty still remains in the values of several parameters used for describing the low-energy nuclear dynamics. This uncertainty does not allow one to perform very accurate predictions for the productions of new heavier-than-target (trans-target) nuclei in multinucle on transfer reactions. Nevertheless these predictions are rather promising (large cross sections) to start such experiments at available accelerators if the problem of separation of heavy transfer reaction products would be solved.
The financial services industry worldwide has undergone major transformation since the late 1970s. Technological advancements in information processing and communication facilitated financial innovation and narrowed traditional distinctions in financial products and services, allowing them to become close substitutes for one another. The deregulation process in many major economies prior to the recent financial crisis blurred the traditional lines of demarcation between the distinct types of financial institutions, exposing those firms to new competitors in their traditional business areas, while the increasing globalization of financial markets fostered the provision of financial services across national borders. Against this backdrop, a trend toward consolidation across financial sectors as well as across national borders increasingly manifested itself since the 1990s. The developments in the financial markets ever more intensified competition in the financial services industry and induced financial institutions to redefine their business strategies in search of higher profitability and growth opportunities. Consolidation across distinct financial sectors, i.e. financial conglomeration, in particular became a popular business strategy in light of the potential operational synergies and diversification benefits it can offer. This trend spurred the growth of diversified financial groups, the so-called financial conglomerates, which commingle banking, securities, and insurance activities under one corporate umbrella.5 Still today, large, complex financial conglomerates are represented among major players in the financial markets worldwide, whose activities not only sway across traditional boundaries of banking, securities, and insurance sectors but also across national borders.
Notwithstanding the economic benefits that conglomeration may produce as a business strategy, the emergence of financial conglomerates also exacerbated existing and created new prudential risks in the financial system. 6 The mixing of a variety of financial products and services under one corporate roof and the generally large and complex group structure of financial conglomerates expose such organizations to specific group risks such as contagion and arbitrage risk as well as systemic risk. When realized, these risks may not only cause the failure of an entire financial group but threaten the stability of the financial system as a whole, as evidenced by the events during recent financial crisis of 2007-2009...
Pest risk maps are important decision support tools when devising strategies to minimize introductions of invasive organisms and mitigate their impacts. When possible management responses to an invader include costly or socially sensitive activities, decision-makers tend to follow a more certain (i.e., risk-averse) course of action. We presented a new mapping technique that assesses pest invasion risk from the perspective of a risk-averse decision maker. We demonstrated the method by evaluating the likelihood that an invasive forest pest will be transported to one of the U.S. states or Canadian provinces in infested firewood by visitors to U.S. federal campgrounds. We tested the impact of the risk aversion assumption using distributions of plausible pest arrival scenarios generated with a geographically explicit model developed from data documenting camper travel across the study area. Next, we prioritized regions of high and low pest arrival risk via application of two stochastic ordering techniques that employed, respectively, first- and second-degree stochastic dominance rules, the latter of which incorporated the notion of risk aversion. We then identified regions in the study area where the pest risk value changed considerably after incorporating risk aversion. While both methods identified similar areas of highest and lowest risk, they differed in how they demarcated moderate-risk areas. In general, the second-order stochastic dominance method assigned lower risk rankings to moderate-risk areas. Overall, this new method offers a better strategy to deal with the uncertainty typically associated with risk assessments and provides a tractable way to incorporate decisionmaking preferences into final risk estimates, and thus helps to better align these estimates with particular decision-making scenarios about a pest organism of concern. Incorporation of risk aversion also helps prioritize the set of locations to target for inspections and outreach activities, which can be costly. Our results are especially important and useful given the huge number of camping trips that occur each year in the United States and Canada.
Developmental differences in the structure of executive function in middle childhood and adolescence
(2013)
Although it has been argued that the structure of executive function (EF) may change developmentally, there is little empirical research to examine this view in middle childhood and adolescence. The main objective of this study was to examine developmental changes in the component structure of EF in a large sample (N = 457) of 7–15 year olds. Participants completed batteries of tasks that measured three components of EF: updating working memory (UWM), inhibition, and shifting. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test five alternative models in 7–9 year olds, 10–12 year olds, and 13–15 year olds. The results of CFA showed that a single-factor EF model best explained EF performance in 7–9-year-old and 10–12-year-old groups, namely unitary EF, though this single factor explained different amounts of variance at these two ages. In contrast, a three-factor model that included UWM, inhibition, and shifting best accounted for the data from 13–15 year olds, namely diverse EF. In sum, during middle childhood, putative measures of UWM, inhibition, and shifting may rely on similar underlying cognitive processes. Importantly, our findings suggest that developmental dissociations in these three EF components do not emerge until children transition into adolescence. These findings provided empirical evidence for the development of EF structure which progressed from unity to diversity during middle childhood and adolescence.
Running and Other Stories
(2013)
Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories. She takes tradition - be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition - and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and innovative. Bracketed by Xaba's revisitings of Can Themba's influential short story, The Suit, the ten stories in this collection, while strongly independent, are in conversation with one another, resulting in a collection that can be devoured all at once or savoured slowly, story by story. By re-envisioning the ordinary and accepted, Xaba is creating a space in which women's voices are given a rebirth.
June 4th, 2013 marks the formal launch of the third generation of the Equator Principles (EP III) and the tenth anniversary of the EPs – enough reasons for evaluating the EPs initiative from an economic ethics and business ethics perspectives. In particular, this essay deals with the following questions: What are the EPs and where are they going? What has been achieved so far by the EPs? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the EPs? Which necessary reform steps need to be adopted in order to further strengthen the EPs framework? Can the EPs be regarded as a role-model in the field of sustainable finance and CSR? The paper is structured as follows: The first chapter defines the term EPs and introduces the keywords related to the EPs framework. The second chapter gives a brief overview of the history of the EPs. The third chapter discusses the Equator Principles Association, the governing, administering, and managing institution behind the EPs. The fourth chapter summarizes the main features and characteristics of the newly released third generation of the EPs. The fifth chapter critically evaluates the EP III from an economic ethics and business ethics perspectives. The paper concludes with a summary of the main findings.
Following Foucault's analysis of German Neoliberalism (Ordoliberalism) and his thesis of ambiguity, this paper introduces a two-level distinction between individual and regulatory ethics. In particular, its aim is to reassess the importance of individual ethics in the conceptual framework of Ordoliberalism. The individual ethics of Ordoliberalism is based on the heritage of Judeo-Christian values and the Kantian individual liberty and responsibility. The regulatory or formal-institutional ethics of Ordoliberalism which has so far received most attention on the contrary refers to the institutional and legal framework of a socio-economic order. By distinguishing these two dimensions of ethics incorporated in German Neoliberalism, it is feasible to distinguish different varieties of neoliberalism and to link Ordoliberalism to modern economic ethics.
Variations and disparities between von Hayek and Ordoliberalism can be detected on diverse levels: 1. philosophy of science; 2. setting dissimilar priorities; 3. social philosophy; 4. genesis of norms; and, 5. notion of freedom. Therefore, it is possible to make an important distinction within neoliberalism itself, which contains at least two factions: von Hayek’s evolutionary liberalism, and German Ordoliberalism. The following essay not only takes the neoliberal separation of different varieties as granted; it proceeds further. It focuses on the topic of justice and elaborates the (slightly) differing conceptions of justice within neoliberalism. Thus, the specific contribution of the paper is that it adds a sixth dimension of differences (which is highly interconnected with the differing conceptions of genesis of norms). In this paper, I emphasize the (often neglected) subtle differences between von Hayek, Eucken, Röpke, and Rüstow, with special emphasis on their theories of justice. In this regard, I focus not only on Eucken and von Hayek; in addition, I include the concepts of justice developed by Rüstow and Röpke, as well, and, in consequence, broaden the perspective incorporating Eucken as a member of the Freiburg School of Law and Economics, and Rüstow and Röpke as representatives of Ordoliberalism in the wider sense. The paper tackles these topics in three steps. After briefly examining and discussing the existing literature and providing a literature overview on the decade-long debate on von Hayek and Ordoliberalism, I then describe von Hayek’s conception of commutative justice; particularly, justice of rules and procedures (rather than end-state justice). Then, I examine Eucken’s, Rüstow’s, and Röpke’s theories of justice, which consist of a mixture of commutative and distributive justice. Then, I draw a comparison between the ideas of justice developed by Eucken, Röpke, Rüstow, and von Hayek. The essay ends with a summary of my main findings.
4 June 2013 marked the formal launch of the third generation of the Equator Principles (EP III) and the tenth anniversary of the EPs – enough reasons for evaluating the EPs initiative from an economic ethics and business ethics perspective. This chapter deals with the following questions: What has been achieved so far by the EPs? Which reform steps need to be adopted to further strengthen the EPs framework? Can the EPs be regarded as a role model in the field of sustainable finance and CSR? The first part explains the term EPs and introduces the keywords related to the EPs framework. The second part summarises the main characteristics of the newly-released third generation of the EPs. The third part critically evaluates EP III from an economic ethical and business ethics perspective. The chapter concludes with a summary of the main findings.
CD69 is a transmembrane lectin that can be expressed on most hematopoietic cells. In monocytes, it has been functionally linked to the 5-lipoxygenase pathway in which the leukotrienes, a class of highly potent inflammatory mediators, are produced. However, regarding CD69 gene expression and its regulatory mechanisms in monocytes, only scarce data are available. Here, we report that CD69 mRNA expression, analogous to that of 5-lipoxygenase, is induced by the physiologic stimuli transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) and 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1α,25(OH)2D3) in monocytic cells. Comparison with T- and B-cell lines showed that the effect was specific for monocytes. CD69 expression levels were increased in a concentration-dependent manner, and kinetic analysis revealed a rapid onset of mRNA expression, indicating that CD69 is a primary TGF-β/1α,25(OH)2D3 target gene. PCR analysis of different regions of the CD69 mRNA revealed that de novo transcription was initiated and proximal and distal parts were induced concomitantly. In common with 5-lipoxygenase, no activation of 0.7 kb or ~2.3 kb promoter fragments by TGF-β and 1α,25(OH)2D3 could be observed in transient reporter assays for CD69. Analysis of mRNA stability using a transcription inhibitor and a 3′UTR reporter construct showed that TGF-β and 1α,25(OH)2D3 do not influence CD69 mRNA stability. Functional knockdown of Smad3 clearly demonstrated that upregulation of CD69 mRNA, in contrast to 5-LO, depends on Smad3. Comparative studies with different inhibitors for mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) revealed that MAPK signalling is involved in CD69 gene regulation, whereas 5-lipoxygenase gene expression was only partly affected. Mechanistically, we found evidence that CD69 gene upregulation depends on TAK1-mediated p38 activation. In summary, our data indicate that CD69 gene expression, conforming with 5-lipoxygenase, is regulated monocyte-specifically by the physiologic stimuli TGF-β and 1α,25(OH)2D3 on mRNA level, although different mechanisms account for the upregulation of each gene.
"PULS." – a blog-based online-magazine for students of medicine of the Goethe University Frankfurt
(2013)
In the context of nationwide protests 2009 also students of the faculty of medicine/dentistry at Goethe-University in Frankfurt demanded more transparency and communication. To satisfy these demands, a web 2.0-tool offered an innovative solution: A blog-based online-magazine for students and other faculty-members. The online-magazine "PULS." is realized with the share-ware blog-software (wordpress version 3.1.3) and is conceived and written by an online-journalist. "PULS." is available from https://newsmagazin.puls.med.uni-frankfurt.de/wp/. The articles are generated from own investigations and from ideas of different groups of the faculty– deanship, students and lecturers. A user-analysis is conducted with the open-source software Piwik and considers the data security. Additionally, every year an anonymous online-user-survey (Survey Monkey) is conducted. "PULS." is continuously online since 14.02.2010 and has published 806 articles (state: 27.11.2012) and has about 2400 readers monthly. The content focuses on the needs of Frankfurt medical students. The close cooperation with different groups of the faculty - deanship, students and lecturers - furthermore guarantees themes relevant to the academic faculty. "PULS." flanks complex projects and decisions with background-information and communicates them understandable. The user-evaluation shows a growing number of readers and a high acceptance for the online-magazine, its themes and its style. The web 2.0-tool "Blog" and the web-specific language comply with media habits of the main target group, the students of the faculty medicine/dentistry. Thus, "PULS." has proven as a suitable and strategic instrument. It pushes towards a higher transparency, more communication and a stronger identification of the students with their faculty.
For greater preparedness, pest risk assessors are required to prioritise long lists of pest species with potential to establish and cause significant impact in an endangered area. Such prioritization is often qualitative, subjective, and sometimes biased, relying mostly on expert and stakeholder consultation. In recent years, cluster based analyses have been used to investigate regional pest species assemblages or pest profiles to indicate the risk of new organism establishment. Such an approach is based on the premise that the cooccurrence of well-known global invasive pest species in a region is not random, and that the pest species profile or assemblage integrates complex functional relationships that are difficult to tease apart. In other words, the assemblage can help identify and prioritise species that pose a threat in a target region. A computational intelligence method called a Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM), a type of artificial neural network, was the first clustering method applied to analyse assemblages of invasive pests. The SOM is a well known dimension reduction and visualization method especially useful for high dimensional data that more conventional clustering methods may not analyse suitably. Like all clustering algorithms, the SOM can give details of clusters that identify regions with similar pest assemblages, possible donor and recipient regions. More important, however SOM connection weights that result from the analysis can be used to rank the strength of association of each species within each regional assemblage. Species with high weights that are not already established in the target region are identified as high risk. However, the SOM analysis is only the first step in a process to assess risk to be used alongside or incorporated within other measures. Here we illustrate the application of SOM analyses in a range of contexts in invasive species risk assessment, and discuss other clustering methods such as k-means, hierarchical clustering and the incorporation of the SOM analysis into criteria based approaches to assess pest risk.
Network or graph theory has become a popular tool to represent and analyze large-scale interaction patterns in the brain. To derive a functional network representation from experimentally recorded neural time series one has to identify the structure of the interactions between these time series. In neuroscience, this is often done by pairwise bivariate analysis because a fully multivariate treatment is typically not possible due to limited data and excessive computational cost. Furthermore, a true multivariate analysis would consist of the analysis of the combined effects, including information theoretic synergies and redundancies, of all possible subsets of network components. Since the number of these subsets is the power set of the network components, this leads to a combinatorial explosion (i.e. a problem that is computationally intractable). In contrast, a pairwise bivariate analysis of interactions is typically feasible but introduces the possibility of false detection of spurious interactions between network components, especially due to cascade and common drive effects. These spurious connections in a network representation may introduce a bias to subsequently computed graph theoretical measures (e.g. clustering coefficient or centrality) as these measures depend on the reliability of the graph representation from which they are computed. Strictly speaking, graph theoretical measures are meaningful only if the underlying graph structure can be guaranteed to consist of one type of connections only, i.e. connections in the graph are guaranteed to be non-spurious. ...
We investigate multivariate Laurent polynomials f \in \C[\mathbf{z}^{\pm 1}] = \C[z_1^{\pm 1},\ldots,z_n^{\pm 1}] with varieties \mathcal{V}(f) restricted to the algebraic torus (\C^*)^n = (\C \setminus \{0\})^n. For such Laurent polynomials f one defines the amoeba \mathcal{A}(f) of f as the image of the variety \mathcal{V}(f) under the \Log-map \Log : (\C^*)^n \to \R^n, (z_1,\ldots,z_n) \mapsto (\log|z_1|, \ldots, \log|z_n|). I.e., the amoeba \mathcal{A}(f) is the projection of the variety \mathcal{V}(f) on its (componentwise logarithmized) absolute values. Amoebas were first defined in 1994 by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinksy. Amoeba theory has been strongly developed since the beginning of the new century. It is related to various mathematical subjects, e.g., complex analysis or real algebraic curves. In particular, amoeba theory can be understood as a natural connection between algebraic and tropical geometry.
In this thesis we investigate the geometry, topology and methods for the approximation of amoebas.
Let \C^A denote the space of all Laurent polynomials with a given, finite support set A \subset \Z^n and coefficients in \C^*. It is well known that, in general, the existence of specific complement components of the amoebas \mathcal{A}(f) for f \in \C^A depends on the choice of coefficients of f. One prominent key problem is to provide bounds on the coefficients in order to guarantee the existence of certain complement components. A second key problem is the question whether the set U_\alpha^A \subseteq \C^A of all polynomials whose amoeba has a complement component of order \alpha \in \conv(A) \cap \Z^n is always connected.
We prove such (upper and lower) bounds for multivariate Laurent polynomials supported on a circuit. If the support set A \subset \Z^n satisfies some additional barycentric condition, we can even give an exact description of the particular sets U_\alpha^A and, especially, prove that they are path-connected.
For the univariate case of polynomials supported on a circuit, i.e., trinomials f = z^{s+t} + p z^t + q (with p,q \in \C^*), we show that a couple of classical questions from the late 19th / early 20th century regarding the connection between the coefficients and the roots of trinomials can be traced back to questions in amoeba theory. This yields nice geometrical and topological counterparts for classical algebraic results. We show for example that a trinomial has a root of a certain, given modulus if and only if the coefficient p is located on a particular hypotrochoid curve. Furthermore, there exist two roots with the same modulus if and only if the coefficient p is located on a particular 1-fan. This local description of the configuration space \C^A yields in particular that all sets U_\alpha^A for \alpha \in \{0,1,\ldots,s+t\} \setminus \{t\} are connected but not simply connected.
We show that for a given lattice polytope P the set of all configuration spaces \C^A of amoebas with \conv(A) = P is a boolean lattice with respect to some order relation \sqsubseteq induced by the set theoretic order relation \subseteq. This boolean lattice turns out to have some nice structural properties and gives in particular an independent motivation for Passare's and Rullgard's conjecture about solidness of amoebas of maximally sparse polynomials. We prove this conjecture for special instances of support sets.
A further key problem in the theory of amoebas is the description of their boundaries. Obviously, every boundary point \mathbf{w} \in \partial \mathcal{A}(f) is the image of a critical point under the \Log-map (where \mathcal{V}(f) is supposed to be non-singular here). Mikhalkin showed that this is equivalent to the fact that there exists a point in the intersection of the variety \mathcal{V}(f) and the fiber \F_{\mathbf{w}} of \mathbf{w} (w.r.t. the \Log-map), which has a (projective) real image under the logarithmic Gauss map. We strengthen this result by showing that a point \mathbf{w} may only be contained in the boundary of \mathcal{A}(f), if every point in the intersection of \mathcal{V}(f) and \F_{\mathbf{w}} has a (projective) real image under the logarithmic Gauss map.
With respect to the approximation of amoebas one is in particular interested in deciding membership, i.e., whether a given point \mathbf{w} \in \R^n is contained in a given amoeba \mathcal{A}(f). We show that this problem can be traced back to a semidefinite optimization problem (SDP), basically via usage of the Real Nullstellensatz. This SDP can be implemented and solved with standard software (we use SOSTools and SeDuMi here). As main theoretic result we show that, from the complexity point of view, our approach is at least as good as Purbhoo's approximation process (which is state of the art).
The cladoceran Daphnia lumholtzi is a subtropical and tropical zooplankter, and an invasive species in North America. Thus far, D. lumholtzi has not been detected in Europe. Here we investigated whether a hypothetical introduction to Europe could result in a successful invasion, either now or in the near future when facilitated by climate change. In laboratory experiments, we tested whether different clones of D. lumholtzi can invade a resident community consisting of native Daphnia from lake Klostersee, Germany, and how invasion success depends on temperature and the presence or absence of planktivorous fish. In some treatments, invasion success was consistently high, and D. lumholtzi reached densities similar to the native competitors by the end of the experiment. The presence of a planktivorous fish reduced the invasion success of D. lumholtzi, and a clone with an inducible defense against fish predation was a more successful invader than a permanently defended clone. Of the three temperatures tested in this study (15, 20, and 24 °C), invasion success was highest at 20 °C. To understand the competitive interaction between native and introduced Daphnia, we fit a Lotka-Volterra-type competition model to the population dynamics. Our experimental and modeling results suggest that D. lumholtzi can invade European lakes and can cause substantial declines in the population size of native Daphnia, with potential consequences for higher trophic levels.
Vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs), initially thought to act specifically on the vascular system, exert trophic effects on neural cells during development and adulthood. Therefore, the VEGF system serves as a promising therapeutic target for brain pathologies, but its simultaneous action on vascular cells paves the way for harmful side effects. To circumvent these deleterious effects, many studies have aimed to clarify whether VEGFs directly affect neural cells or if the effects are mediated secondarily via other cell types, like vascular cells. A great number of reports have shown the expression and function of VEGF receptors (VEGFRs), mainly VEGFR-1 and -2, in neural cells, where VEGFR-2 has been described as the major mediator of VEGF-A signals. This review aims to summarize and compare the divergent roles of VEGFR-1 and -2 during CNS development and homeostasis.
It is common knowledge that plants have been the world-wide most important source of medicines and that they still play this role in developing countries. However, up to now, complete lists of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) exist for comparatively few countries. A review of all lists know to the authors reveals the following results: A total of 20.7 % of the plant species analyzed by either publications or own research are or were used as MAP. However, regarding single countries, the differences are considerably high. Absolutely leading the list are China (36.2 %), Burkina Faso (35.2 %) and the Korean Republic (34.5 %). Also ahead of other countries or regions are the North of Benin (32.8 %) and the entire Pakistan (30.3 %). Still above average rank Great Britain (26.7 %) and Nepal (23.3 %), while the figures for Bul¬garia (21.0 %), Germany (20.2 %) and France (19.4 %) almost represent the average. Jordan (17.3 %), Vietnam (17.1 %), Sri Lanka (16.6 %), India (16.1 %) and Thailand (15.5 %) rank slightly beneath. Clearly below the average are the percentages of MAP for Hungary (12.2 %) and the USA (11.8 %). The average numbers of MAP in the Philippines (9.5 %) and Malaysia (7.7 %) fall far behind. Calculated on a worldwide scale, every fifth plant can be regarded as MAP. This number matches that from Bulgaria, France and Germany. In northern Benin, Burkina Faso, Korea, China and Pakistan, however, every third plant is or was used as MAP, whereas in Hungary and the USA only every eighth plant can be regarded as MAP. This number drops even further for the Philippines ore Malaysia where only every tenth or thirteenth plant can be attributed to medicinal or aromatic use. These differences might be due to various factors. A geographical component of the results is obvious: in most cases geographically close countries show similar percentages. A correlation between the total number of species and the fraction of those used as MAP cannot be confirmed. The countries with percentage of MAP > 30 % in common show that they belong either entirely (Burkina Faso, Benin) or at least in their rural areas to the poorest countries of the world so that it is (was) impossible for the majority of the people to buy "modern" MAP. In those countries the number of traditional healers outnumbers largely the number of modern doctors. Therefore, the tradition of folk medicine was maintained until today. Additionally, China, Korea and partially Pakistan have a very old and well documented tradition of folk medicine. Due to this documentation even in areas where today "modern MAP" are used, the knowledge was not lost. In neighboring countries or regions, which differ with respect to a more arid or a more humid climate, for the arid country (region) more MAPs are reported than for the humid one. The potential reasons for this phenomenon are discussed in the paper. For many countries the percentage given for MAP in literature is too low. But even these low values represent a striking argument for the importance of a world-wide conservation of biodiversity.
Background: Candida spp. are a frequent cause of nosocomial bloodstream infections worldwide.
Objective: To evaluate the use patterns and outcomes associated with intravenous (IV) fluconazole therapy in intensive care units in Spain and Germany.
Patients and methods: The research reported here was a prospective multicenter longitudinal observational study in adult intensive care unit patients receiving IV fluconazole. Demographic, microbiologic, therapy success, length of hospital stay, adverse event, and all-cause mortality data were collected at 14 sites in Spain and five in Germany, from February 2004 to November 2005.
Results: Patients (n = 303) received prophylaxis (n = 29), empiric therapy (n = 140), preemptive therapy (n = 85), or definitive therapy (n = 49). A total of 298 patients (98.4%) were treated with IV fluconazole as first-line therapy. The treating physicians judged therapy successful in 66% of prophylactic, 55% of empiric, 45% of preemptive, and 43% of definitive group patients. In the subgroup of 152 patients with proven and specified Candida infection only, 32% suffered from Candida specified as potentially resistant to IV fluconazole. The overall mortality rate was 42%.
Conclusion: Our study informs treatment decision makers that approximately 32% of the patients with microbiological results available suffered from Candida specified as potentially resistant to IV fluconazole, highlighting the importance of appropriate therapy.
When studying new particle formation, the uncertainty in determining the "true" nucleation rate is considerably reduced when using condensation particle counters (CPCs) capable of measuring concentrations of aerosol particles at sizes close to or even at the critical cluster size (1–2 nm). Recently, CPCs able to reliably detect particles below 2 nm in size and even close to 1 nm became available. Using these instruments, the corrections needed for calculating nucleation rates are substantially reduced compared to scaling the observed formation rate to the nucleation rate at the critical cluster size. However, this improved instrumentation requires a careful characterization of their cut-off size and the shape of the detection efficiency curve because relatively small shifts in the cut-off size can translate into larger relative errors when measuring particles close to the cut-off size.
Here we describe the development of two continuous-flow CPCs using diethylene glycol (DEG) as the working fluid. The design is based on two TSI 3776 counters. Several sets of measurements to characterize their performance at different temperature settings were carried out. Furthermore, two mixing-type particle size magnifiers (PSM) A09 from Airmodus were characterized in parallel. One PSM was operated at the highest mixing ratio (1 L min−1 saturator flow), and the other was operated in a scanning mode, where the mixing ratios are changed periodically, resulting in a range of cut-off sizes. The mixing ratios are determined by varying the saturator flow, where the aerosol flow stays constant at 2.5 L min−1. Different test aerosols were generated using a nano-differential mobility analyser (nano-DMA) or a high-resolution DMA, to obtain detection efficiency curves for all four CPCs. One calibration setup included a high-resolution mass spectrometer (APi-TOF) for the determination of the chemical composition of the generated clusters. The lowest cut-off sizes were achieved with negatively charged ammonium sulfate clusters, resulting in cut-offs of 1.4 nm for the laminar flow CPCs and 1.2 and 1.1 nm for the PSMs. A comparison of one of the laminar-flow CPCs and one of the PSMs measuring ambient and laboratory air showed good agreement between the instruments.
When studying new particle formation, the uncertainty in determining the "true" nucleation rate is considerably reduced when using Condensation Particle Counters (CPCs) capable of measuring concentrations of aerosol particles at sizes close to or even at the critical cluster size (1–2 nm). Recently CPCs, able to reliably detect particles below 2 nm in size and even close to 1 nm became available. The corrections needed to calculate nucleation rates are substantially reduced compared to scaling the observed formation rate to the nucleation rate at the critical cluster size. However, this improved instrumentation requires a careful characterization of their cut-off size and the shape of the detection efficiency curve because relatively small shifts in the cut-off size can translate into larger relative errors when measuring particles close to the cut-off size.
Here we describe the development of two continuous flow CPCs using diethylene glycol (DEG) as the working fluid. The design is based on two TSI 3776 counters. Several sets of measurements to characterize their performance at different temperature settings were carried out. Furthermore two mixing-type Particle Size Magnifiers (PSM) A09 from Airmodus were characterized in parallel. One PSM was operated at the highest mixing ratio (1 L min−1 saturator flow), and the other was operated in a scanning mode, where the mixing ratios are changed periodically, resulting in a range of cut-off sizes. Different test aerosols were generated using a nano-Differential Mobility Analyzer (nano-DMA) or a high resolution DMA, to obtain detection efficiency curves for all four CPCs. One calibration setup included a high resolution mass spectrometer (APi-TOF) for the determination of the chemical composition of the generated clusters. The lowest cut-off sizes were achieved with negatively charged ammonium sulphate clusters, resulting in cut-offs of 1.4 nm for the laminar flow CPCs and 1.2 and 1.1 nm for the PSMs. A comparison of one of the laminar-flow CPCs and one of the PSMs measuring ambient and laboratory air showed good agreement between the instruments.
Syntaxonomic revision of the Pannonian grasslands of Austria : 1. Introduction and general overview
(2013)
The Pannonian part of Austria is a diverse landscape situated in the transition zone between the Alps, the Bohemian Massif and the Carpathian Basin. Although the grasslands of this region have been investigated in many botanical and vegetation studies, their phytosociological classification has remained confusing. With this paper, we start a series aiming at a developement of a revised, consistent system of the Austrian Pannonian grasslands. Here we present a general overview focusing on the higher syntaxonomic units. We define grasslands as all types of meadows, pastures, fens and primary steppes. We selected all available relevés of Pannonian grasslands from the Austrian Vegetation Database. Additional unpub-lished data were included from the Danube National Park and the Biosphere Reserve Vienna Woods. To account for the comparatively low number of relevés from the northern part of the Pannonian region of Austria (Weinviertel), we included also data from southern Moravia (Czech Republic). This set of 3384 relevés was classified using TWINSPAN. Relevés that were considered as misclassified at the alliance level according to the summarised cover of diagnostic species were manually re-arranged, and the data-set specific fidelity of species to alliances was calculated using the phi coefficient. The first TWINSPAN division largely corresponded to the traditional border between the classes Festuco-Brometea and Molinio-Arrhenatheretea. The conventional alliance concepts were generally well supported. As an exception, the distinction between Diantho-Seslerion and Bromo-Festucion pallentis was not reproduced at all. Therefore, we unite all rocky grasslands on calcareous soils in a single alliance Seslerio-Festucion pallentis. We also advocate the inclusion of all basiphilous semi-dry grasslands of the study area within a single alliance Cirsio-Brachypodion. Each of the corresponding TWINSPAN clusters showed a clear prevalence of Cirsio-Brachypodion species. Moreover, two separate alliances of semi-dry grasslands would have almost no regional character species.
As second part of a series focusing on the Pannonian grasslands of Austria, we present a detailed classification of the grasslands of the Vienna Woods (Wienerwald). This region, although geographically belonging to the Alps, has strong floristic affinities to the Pannonian Basin. The eastern slopes of the Vienna Woods are a hotspot of xero-thermophytic vegetation and exhibit the highest vascular plant species richness in Austria at a scale of 3' x 5'. We used the TWINSPAN classification of a large data set reported in the first part of this series as starting point. Relevés that were considered as misclassified at the level of alliances were manually re-arranged. From this table, an excerpt containing only the relevés of the Vienna Woods was used for the present study (1055 plots). We re-classified the relevés preliminary labelled as Arrhenatherion with another TWINSPAN run. Clusters for which no ecological difference could be detected were merged. The final delimitation of associations and subassociations was achieved by adjusting their diagnostic species so as to get units that were most informative in terms of environmental conditions. All re-arrangements were based on the summarised cover of diagnostic species within individual relevés. As a result, the grasslands of the Vienna Woods are classified within 22 associations (plus two subassociations) belonging to ten alliances and four classes. Within the Seslerio-Festucion pallentis, a new association Scorzonero austriacae-Caricetum humilis is described. The semi-dry grasslands of the study area previously classified as Onobrychido-Brometum are de-scribed as new association Filipendulo vulgaris-Brometum erecti and assigned to the Cirsio-Brachypodion. The Anthoxantho-Agrostietum tenuis is reported for Austria for the first time, and its syntaxonomy is discussed within a broader geographical context.
Plants absorb sunlight via photosynthetic pigments and convert light energy intochemical energy in the process of photosynthesis. These pigments are mainly bound to antenna protein complexes that funnel the excitation energy to the photosynthetic reaction centres. The peripheral antenna of plant photosystem II (PSII) consists of the major light-harvesting complex of PSII (LHC-II) and the minor LHCs CP29, CP26 and CP24. Light intensity can change frequently and plants need to adapt to high-light conditions in order to avoid photodamage. When more photons are absorbed than can be utilised by the photosynthetic machinery, excessive excitation energy is dissipated as heat by short-term adaptation processes collectively known as non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). A decrease in PSII antenna chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence yield and a reduction in the average Chl fluorescence lifetime are associated with NPQ. The main component of NPQ is the so-called energy-dependent quenching (qE), and it is triggered by the rapid drop in thylakoid lumenal pH resulting from the plant’s photosynthetic activity. This process is thought to take place at the PSII antenna complexes, which therefore not only capture and transfer light energy but are also involved in balancing the energy flow. The decrease in lumenal pH acivates the enzyme violaxanthin de-epoxidase (VDE), which converts the xanthophyll violaxanthin (Vio) into zeaxanthin (Zea) in the xanthophyll cycle. In addition, the PSII subunit PsbS was discovered to be essential for qE by screening qE-deficient Arabidopsis thaliana mutants. This membrane protein is considered a member of the LHC superfamily, which also includes LHC-II and the minor LHCs. Previous studies on PsbS isolated either from native source or refolded in vitro have produced inconsistent results on its pigment binding capacity. Interestingly, a pH-dependent change in the quaternary structure of PsbS under high light conditions has been reported. This observed dimer-tomonomer transition very likely follows the protonation of lumenal glutamates upon the drop in pH and is accompanied by a change in PSII supercomplex localisation. PsbS dimers are preferentially found in association with the PSII core, whereas PsbS monomers co-localise with LHC-II.Despite the identification of !pH, Zea and PsbS as key players in qE, both the nature of the quencher(s) as well as the underlying molecular mechanism leading to excess energy dissipation still remain unknown. Several models have been put forward to explain the reversible switch in the antenna from an energy-transmitting to a quenched state. Proposals include a simple pigment exchange of Vio for Zea, and aggregation or an internal conformational change of LHC-II. Charge transfer (CT)quenching in the minor LHCs or quenching by carotenoid dark state (Car S1)-Chl interactions have also been suggested. However, none of these qE models has so far been capable of accommodating all the physiological observations and available experimental data. Most importantly, the function of PsbS remains an enigma. A recent qE model suggested that monomerisation of PsbS enables the protein to transiently bind a carotenoid and form a quenching unit with a Chl of a PSII LHC. In view of the various proposed qE mechanisms, this thesis aimed at understanding the interplay of the different qE components and the contribution of the PSII subunits LHC-II, the minor LHCs and PsbS to qE. The initial approach was to investigate the properties of the PSII subunits in the most simple in vitro model system, namely in detergent solution. For this purpose, LHC-II was isolated either from native source or refolded from recombinantly produced protein. Investigation of the minor LHCs and PsbS required heterologous expression and refolding. In addition, experiments were performed on aggregated LHC-II. Aggregates of LHC-II have been used as a popular model system for qE because they exhibit highly quenched Chl fluorescence. At the final stage of this doctoral work, a more sophisticated model system to approximate the thylakoid membrane was developed by reconstitution of the PSII subunits LHC-II and PsbS into liposomes. This system not only allowed for investigation of these membrane proteins in their native environment, but also for mimicking the xanthophyll cycle by distribution of Zea within the membrane as well as !pH by outside buffer exchange. The role of Zea in qE was first investigated with detergent solubilised antenna proteins. The requirement of this xanthophyll for qE is well-known, but the specific contribution to the molecular quenching mechansim is unclear. Previous work had shown that replacement of Vio for Zea in LHC-II was not sufficient to induce Chl fluorescence quenching in Zea-LHC-II, as suggested by the so-called molecular gearshift mechanism. However, by means of selective two-photon excitation spectroscopy, an increase in electronic interactions between Car S1 and Chls was observed for LHC-II upon lowering the pH of the detergent buffer. Electronic Car S1-Chl coupling became even stronger when Zea-LHC-II was probed. The extent of Car S1-Chl coupling correlated directly with the extent of Chl fluorescence quenching, in a similar way as observed previously in live plants under high-light conditions. However, very similar results were obtained with LHC-II aggregates. This implied that the increase in electronic interactions and fluorescence quenching was independent of Zea and low pH. Further experiments on aggregates of LHC-II Chl mutants indicated that the targeted pigments were also not essential for the observed effects. It is proposed that the same molecular mechanism causes an increase in electronic Car S1-Chl interactions and Chl fluorescence quenching in Zea-LHC-II at low pH as well as in aggregated LHC-II. Most likely, surface exposed pigments form random quenching centres in both cases. On the other hand, it was possible that Zea could act as a direct quencher of excess excitation energy in the minor LHCs. However, enrichment of refolded CP29, CP26 and CP24 with Zea did not lead to a change in the Chl excited state lifetime. Formation of a carotenoid radical cation, previously implied in CT quenching, was also not observed, although artificial generation of such a radical cation was principally possible as shown for CP29. During the course of this work, a study reporting the formation of Zea radical cations in minor LHCs was published. Therefore, Zea-enriched minor LHCs were again investigated on the experimental apparatus used in the reported study. Indeed, the presence of at least one carotenoid radical cation for each minor complex was detected. It is suggested that either the preparation method of incubating the refolded minor LHCs with Zea in contrast to refolding the complexes with only Zea and lutein causes the observed differences or that the observed spectral radical cation signatures are due to experimental artifacts. While the experiments with LHC-II and the minor LHCs gave useful insights into the putative qE mechanism, the quencher site and the mode of action of Zea could still not be unambiguously identified. Most importantly, these studies could not explain the function of the qE keyplayer PsbS. Therefore, the focus of the work was shifted to PsbS protein production, purification and characterisation. In view of inconsistent reports on the pigment binding capacity of this PSII subunit, refolding trials with and without photosynthetic pigments were conducted. The formation of a specific pigmentprotein complex typical for other LHCs was not observed and neither was the earlier reported “activation” of Zea for qE by binding to this protein. Nevertheless, PsbS refolded without pigments displayed secondary structure content in agreement with previous studies, indicating pigment-independent folding. Reconstitution of pigmentfree, refolded PsbS into liposomes confirmed that the protein is stable in the absence of pigments. Zea distributed in PsbS-containing liposomes also showed no spectral alteration that would indicate its “activation”. With the ability to reconstitute PsbS, it was then possible to proceed to modelling qE in a proteoliposome system. For this purpose, PsbS was co-reconstituted with LHC-II, which has been reported to interact with PsbS. One-photon excitation (OPE) and two-photon excitation (TPE) spectroscopy measurements were performed on LHC-II- and LHC-II/PsbS-containing liposomes. This enabled both quantification of Chl fluorescence quenching as well as determination of the extent of electronic Car S1-Chl interactions. The effect of Zea was investigated by incorporating it in the proteoliposome membrane. It was shown that Zea alone was not able to induce significant Chl fluorescence quenching when only LHC-II was present. However, when LHC-II and PsbS were co-reconstituted, pronounced Chl fluorescence quenching and an increase in electronic Car S1-Chl interactions were observed and both effects were enhanced when Zea was present. Western blot analysis indicated the presence of a LHC-II/PsbS-heterodimer in these proteoliposomes. In addition to the OPE and TPE measurements, the average Chl fluorescence lifetime was determined in detergent-free buffer at neutral pH and directly after buffer exchange to low pH. No significant changes in the average lifetime were observed for LHC-II proteoliposomes when either Zea was present or after exchange for low pH buffer. This indicated that Zea alone cannot act as a direct quencher, which concurs with the OPE measurements. Moreover, the complex was also properly reconstituted as no aggregation or significant Chl fluorescence quenching were observed. The average lifetime was not significantly affected in LHC-II/PsbS-proteoliposomes, independent of Zea or pH. However, a shortlived component in the presence of a long-lived component was not resolvable with the time resolution of the fluorescence lifetime apparatus.
Implications for qE model systems and the in vivo quenching mechanism are discussed based on the experiments in detergent solution, on LHC-II aggregates and with the proteoliposome model system.
A majority of the plant species that are introduced into new ranges either do not become established, or become naturalized yet do not attain high densities and are thus considered ecologically and economically unproblematic. The factors that limit these relatively “benign” species are not well studied. The biotic resistance hypothesis predicts that herbivores, pathogens and competition reduce growth and reproduction of individual plants and so suppress population growth of non-native species. We explored the effect of insect herbivory and surrounding vegetation on growth and fitness of the non-native biennial plant Verbascum thapsus (common mullein) in Colorado, USA. Mullein is widespread in its introduced North American range, yet is infrequently considered a management concern because populations are often ephemeral and restricted to disturbed sites. To evaluate the impact of insect herbivores on mullein performance, we reduced herbivory using an insecticide treatment and compared sprayed plants to those exposed to ambient levels of herbivory. Reducing herbivory increased survival from rosette to reproduction by 7%, from 70–77%. Of plants that survived, reducing herbivory increased plant area in the first year and plant height, the length of the reproductive spike, and seed set during the second year. Reducing herbivory also had a marked effect on plant fitness, increasing seed set by 50%, from about 48,000 seeds per plant under ambient herbivory to about 98,000 per plant under reduced herbivory. Our findings also highlight that the relationship between herbivory and performance is complex. Among plants exposed to ambient herbivory, we observed a positive relationship between damage and performance, suggesting that, as predicted by the plant vigor hypothesis, insect herbivores choose the largest plants for feeding when their choice is not restricted by insecticide treatment. In contrast to the strong effects of experimentally reduced herbivory, we found that cover of other plants surrounding our focal plants explained relatively little variation in performance outcomes. Overall, we found that herbivore-induced impacts on individual plant performance and seed set are substantial, and thus may help prevent this naturalized species from becoming dominant in undisturbed recipient communities.
A survey on sensory organs of both sexes of the harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus classifies structure and frequency of campaniform sensilla, falciform setae, sensilla basiconica, slit sensilla, solenidia, spines, sensilla chaetica, trichomes (simple hairs) and plumose setae. Sensilla are equally distributed on the pedipalp tarsi of both males and females, but females show higher counts of campaniform and falciform setae than males. Females furthermore have about 1000 glandular plumose setae on each pedipalp, that at the same positions in males are replaced by sensilla chaetica. The walking legs of both sexes show a similar distribution of sensory organs, with females showing more sensilla basiconica at the legs I and II and more solenidia on the first pair of legs. Males have a large number of bipterate setae (about 2200 per specimen) at the metatarsi and tarsi of the third and fourth pair of legs. In females these are replaced by simple hairs. Although females show a similar (or slightly higher) number of leg sensilla than males, their density is higher due to their shorter legs. In both sexes the second pair of legs has the largest number of falciform setae, sensilla basiconica, chaetica and solenidia, followed by the legs I, III and IV. The first pair of legs has the highest density of falciform setae, sensilla basiconica and solenidia, followed by the legs II, III and IV. The genital operculum, sternites and tergites show a multitude of slit sensilla. The slit sensilla of the genital operculum and sternites are associated with insertion plaques of muscles operating the penis/ovipositor and regulating opisthosomal volume and hemolymph-pressure.
A key is provided for the twelve taxonomic groups within the genus Therates Latreille (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). The chennelli group is reviewed here and a key to the 53 species known for this group is provided. Each species is illustrated, and a detailed description of its morphology and distributional records are provided. Therates khaoyaii, Th. pearsoni, Th. safraneki, Th. schuelei and Th. sigridgeissleri are described as new to science. Therates differens Sawada and Wiesner, 1999 is placed into synonymy under Th. concinnus Gestro, 1888. Therates tonkinensis kubani Wiesner, 1988 is placed into synonymy under Th. tonkinensis Horn, 1902 and Th. belokobylskiyi Matalin and Wiesner, 2006 is placed into synonymy under Th. haucki Moravec and Wiesner, 2001. Lectotypes are designated for Th. waagenorum Horn, 1900, Th. clavicornis Horn, 1902, Th. tonkinensis Horn, 1902 and Th. annandalei Horn, 1908. Therates baolocensis Wiesner, 1996 is elevated to species rank.
This is the case report of a 58-year-old male patient who presented with recurring abdominal pain of 4 months duration. He had undergone multiple investigations including upper and lower gastrointestinal tract endoscopies and diagnostic laparoscopy, but there were no significant findings detected.
Capsule endoscopy revealed a submucosal small bowel tumor that was suspected to originate from the distal third of the small bowel. Surgery was indicated and a highly differentiated neuroendocrine tumor was found at laparotomy at the distal ileum. An ileocecal resection was performed confirming a neuroendocrine tumor of the small bowel (G2T2N1M1). This article is part of an expert video encyclopedia.