Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (30502)
- Part of Periodical (11870)
- Book (8231)
- Doctoral Thesis (5587)
- Part of a Book (3869)
- Working Paper (3371)
- Review (2921)
- Contribution to a Periodical (2278)
- Preprint (1809)
- Report (1561)
Language
- German (42687)
- English (28417)
- French (1071)
- Portuguese (843)
- Multiple languages (312)
- Spanish (309)
- Croatian (302)
- Italian (197)
- mis (174)
- Turkish (168)
Keywords
- Deutsch (1082)
- Literatur (862)
- taxonomy (737)
- Deutschland (551)
- Rezension (511)
- new species (438)
- Rezeption (349)
- Frankfurt <Main> / Universität (341)
- Übersetzung (311)
- Geschichte (300)
Institute
- Medizin (7362)
- Präsidium (5082)
- Physik (4114)
- Extern (2742)
- Wirtschaftswissenschaften (2657)
- Gesellschaftswissenschaften (2366)
- Biowissenschaften (2110)
- Biochemie und Chemie (1949)
- Center for Financial Studies (CFS) (1609)
- Informatik (1576)
Biological as well as advanced artificial intelligences (AIs) need to decide which goals to pursue. We review nature's solution to the time allocation problem, which is based on a continuously readjusted categorical weighting mechanism we experience introspectively as emotions. One observes phylogenetically that the available number of emotional states increases hand in hand with the cognitive capabilities of animals and that raising levels of intelligence entail ever larger sets of behavioral options. Our ability to experience a multitude of potentially conflicting feelings is in this view not a leftover of a more primitive heritage, but a generic mechanism for attributing values to behavioral options that can not be specified at birth. In this view, emotions are essential for understanding the mind. For concreteness, we propose and discuss a framework which mimics emotions on a functional level. Based on time allocation via emotional stationarity (TAES), emotions are implemented as abstract criteria, such as satisfaction, challenge and boredom, which serve to evaluate activities that have been carried out. The resulting timeline of experienced emotions is compared with the “character” of the agent, which is defined in terms of a preferred distribution of emotional states. The long-term goal of the agent, to align experience with character, is achieved by optimizing the frequency for selecting individual tasks. Upon optimization, the statistics of emotion experience becomes stationary.
Establishing management programs to preserve the benthic communities along the NW Pacific and the Arctic Ocean (AO) requires a deep understanding of the composition of communities and their responses to environmental stressors. In this study, we thus examine patterns of benthic community composition and patterns of species richness along the NW Pacific and Arctic Seas and investigate the most important environmental drivers of those patterns. Overall we found a trend of decreasing species richness toward higher latitudes and deeper waters, peaking in coastal waters of the eastern Philippines. The most dominant taxa along the entire study area were Arthropoda, Mollusca, Cnidaria, Echinodermata, and Annelida. We found that depth, not temperature, was the main driver of community composition along the NW Pacific and neighboring Arctic Seas. Depth has been previously suggested as a factor driving species distribution in benthic fauna. Following depth, the most influential environmental drivers of community composition along the NW Pacific and the Arctic Ocean were silicate, light, and currents. For example, silicate in Hexactinellida, Holothuroidea, and Ophiuroidea; and light in Cephalopoda and Gymnolaemata had the highest correlations with community composition. In this study, based on a combination of new samples and open-access data, we show that different benthic communities might respond differently to future climatic changes based on their taxon-specific biological, physiological, and ecological characteristics. International conservation efforts and habitat preservation should take an adaptive approach and apply measures that take the differences among benthic communities in responding to future climate change into account. This facilitates implementing appropriate conservation management strategies and sustainable utilization of the NW Pacific and Arctic marine ecosystems.
The analysis of ethanol and of its congeners in blood plays an important role in forensic cases, especially when allegations are made that alcohol has been consumed after an accident. In alcoholic beverages, congener alcohols are by-products and are generated during fermentation. The assay of these compounds in serum samples and beverages has been previously performed using headspace-gas chromatography-flame ionization detection methods (HS-GC-FID). As an alternative, a robust headspace-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS) procedure was developed and validated, which has the following advantages:
- Simultaneous determination of ethanol, congener alcohols and other
endogenous substances.
- Reduction of matrix interference by increasing selectivity and
specificity.
- Clear separation of the positional isomers 3-methyl-1-butanol and
2-methyl-1-butanol.
Peracarid data were collected in the Southern Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean. Sampling was performed during nine different expeditions on board of RRS James Clark Ross and RV Polarstern, using epibenthic sledges (EBS) at depth ranging between 160–6348 m at 109 locations. The correlation between environmental variables and peracarid abundance was investigated. Abundance data comprise a total of 128570 peracarids (52366 were amphipods, 28516 were cumaceans, 36142 isopods, 5676 mysidaceans and 5870 were tanaidaceans). The presented data are useful to investigate the composition and abundance patterns of peracarid orders at a wide depth range and spatial scale in the Southern Ocean. They can also be reused to compare their abundance with that of other taxa in broader ecological surveys.
Insects with aquatic life stages can transfer sediment and water pollutants to terrestrial ecosystems, which has been described for metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated chemicals. However, knowledge of the transfer of aquatic micropollutants released by wastewater treatment plants is scarce despite some preliminary studies on their occurrence in riparian spiders. In our study, we address a major analytical gap focusing on the transfer of the micropollutant carbamazepine from the larvae to the adult midges of Chironomus riparius using an optimized QuEChERS extraction method and HPLC–MS/MS applicable to both life stages down to the level of about three individuals. We show that the uptake of carbamazepine by larvae is concentration-dependent and reduces the emergence rate. Importantly, the body burden remained constant in adult midges. Using this information, we estimated the daily exposure of insectivorous tree swallows as terrestrial predators to carbamazepine using the energy demand of the predator and the energy content of the prey. Assuming environmentally relevant water concentrations of about 1 μg/L, the daily dose per kilogram of body weight for tree swallows was estimated to be 0.5 μg/kg/day. At places of high water contamination of 10 μg/L, the exposure may reach 5 μg/kg/day for this micropollutant of medium polarity. Considering body burden changes upon metamorphosis, this study fills the missing link between aquatic contamination and exposure in terrestrial habitats showing that wastewater pollutants can impact birds’ life. Clearly, further analytical methods for biota analysis in both habitats are urgently required to improve risk assessment.
Tectonics and geothermal gradients from subduction to collision in the NW Variscan Iberian Massif
(2022)
The earliest tectonometamorphic record of tectonic slices incorporated to the base of an orogen holds the key to understand how an orogen is built. The tectonic pile of the NW Iberian section of the Variscan Orogen includes tectonic slices separated by crustal-scale thrusts. The earliest tectonometamorphic record in the uppermost parautochthon is calculated at 11–14 kbar and 450–500°C (P-T gradient about 13°C/km), suggesting a subduction-related metamorphic recrystallization at lower pressure than the overlying Lower Allochthon. Early conditions calculated in the autochthon (9–10 kbar and 425–450°C; 16°C/km) point to a relatively ‘cold’ collisional setting. Higher thermal gradients obtained from some sections of the autochthon (11–12 kbar and 700–725°C; 21°C/km) and the Lower Parautochthon (7.5 kbar and 550–700°C; 24–31°C/km), correspond to more advanced and ‘hot’ stages of collision. New U–Pb monazite geochronology indicates a 318–311 Ma age for the final formation of HT domes in the region. We propose the rapid decrease in P-T gradient (from <10 to 16°C/km) documents a fail to sustain further burial along a regular subduction zone. We consider the subsequent increase in the geothermal gradient (from 16 to 31°C/km) as the culmination of previous crustal accretion and the onset of crustal underthrusting and later processes in a collisional stage. We propose these switches in the early tectonometamorphic record of individual tectonic slices as potential markers to track the transition from subduction to collision in collisional orogens.
Aim
In the CheckRad-CD8 trial patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer are treated with a single cycle of induction chemo-immunotherapy (ICIT). Patients with pathological complete response (pCR) in the re-biopsy enter radioimmunotherapy. Our goal was to study the value of F-18-FDG PET/CT in the prediction of pCR after induction therapy.
Methods
Patients treated within the CheckRad-CD8 trial that additionally received FDG- PET/CT imaging at the following two time points were included: 3–14 days before (pre-ICIT) and 21–28 days after (post-ICIT) receiving ICIT. Tracer uptake in primary tumors (PT) and suspicious cervical lymph nodes (LN +) was measured using different quantitative parameters on EANM Research Ltd (EARL) accredited PET reconstructions. In addition, mean FDG uptake levels in lymphatic and hematopoietic organs were examined. Percent decrease (Δ) in FDG uptake was calculated for all parameters. Biopsy of the PT post-ICIT acquired after FDG-PET/CT served as reference. The cohort was divided in patients with pCR and residual tumor (ReTu).
Results
Thirty-one patients were included. In ROC analysis, ΔSUVmax PT performed best (AUC = 0.89) in predicting pCR (n = 17), with a decline of at least 60% (sensitivity, 0.77; specificity, 0.93). Residual SUVmax PT post-ICIT performed best in predicting ReTu (n = 14), at a cutpoint of 6.0 (AUC = 0.91; sensitivity, 0.86; specificity, 0.88). Combining two quantitative parameters (ΔSUVmax ≥ 50% and SUVmax PT post-ICIT ≤ 6.0) conferred a sensitivity of 0.81 and a specificity of 0.93 for determining pCR. Background activity in lymphatic organs or uptake in suspected cervical lymph node metastases lacked significant predictive value.
Conclusion
FDG-PET/CT can identify patients with pCR after ICIT via residual FDG uptake levels in primary tumors and the related changes compared to baseline. FDG-uptake in LN + had no predictive value.
Trial registry
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03426657.
Bird-mediated seed dispersal is crucial for the regeneration and viability of ecosystems, often resulting in complex mutualistic species networks. Yet, how this mutualism drives the evolution of seed dispersing birds is still poorly understood. In the present study we combine whole genome re-sequencing analyses and morphometric data to assess the evolutionary processes that shaped the diversification of the Eurasian nutcracker (Nucifraga), a seed disperser known for its mutualism with pines (Pinus). Our results show that the divergence and phylogeographic patterns of nutcrackers resemble those of other non-mutualistic passerine birds and suggest that their early diversification was shaped by similar biogeographic and climatic processes. The limited variation in foraging traits indicates that local adaptation to pines likely played a minor role. Our study shows that close mutualistic relationships between bird and plant species might not necessarily act as a primary driver of evolution and diversification in resource-specialized birds.
Background and Aims
Prothrombin induced by vitamin K absence-II (PIVKA-II) is a serum biomarker linked to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), showing superiority to alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for early disease detection. We aimed to assess the clinical and analytical performance of the Elecsys® PIVKA-II immunoassay in diagnosing HCC and evaluate PIVKA-II's technical performance.
Methods
Serum samples from adult cases (i.e. patients with a first-time HCC diagnosis; n = 168) and disease controls (i.e. patients without HCC with an at-risk condition; n = 208) were assessed. An AFP cut-off of 20 ng/mL was used to differentiate between HCC cases and disease controls. Clinical performance of the Elecsys PIVKA-II assay was compared with that of comparator assays (Lumipulse G PIVKA-II, μTASWako DCP, ARCHITECT PIVKA-II) using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to determine the area under the curve (AUC) values.
Results
The Elecsys PIVKA-II assay compared favorably with comparator assays. Using a 28.4 ng/mL cut-off, the Elecsys PIVKA-II assay detected HCC with 86.9% sensitivity and 83.7% specificity. Clinical performance of the Elecsys PIVKA-II assay (AUC: 90.8%) was equivalent to that of comparator assays (AUC: 88.3–89.6%). Relatively high PIVKA-II concentrations were observed for cholangiocarcinoma and pancreatic cancer with the Elecsys assay in specificity panel analyses, indicating that high PIVKA-II concentrations should not be used alone in the absence of other clinical data.
Conclusions
The Elecsys PIVKA-II assay showed good analytical performance under routine laboratory conditions, comparing favorably with comparator assays. These findings support the suitability of the Elecsys PIVKA-II assay as an aid in HCC diagnosis.