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Carniella brignolii Thaler & Steinberger, 1988 was first described based on a male from Austria and still belongs to the rare, scarcely studied species. Based on material from Germany and Switzerland the hitherto unknown female now can be assigned and presented. In this context a new synonymy is also proposed: The cave-dwelling, troglomorphic C. mihaili (Georgescu, 1989) from Romania, originally established as new genus Marianana, is synonymised with C. brignolii.
The spitting spider Scytodes fusca Walckenaer, 1837 is recorded for the first time in Central Europe from both Germany and Slovakia. The species was found in two localities, within the Botanical Garden in Bratislava (Slovakia), specifically from a heated greenhouse with high humidity, and the "Tropical Islands", a tropical holiday resort in Krausnick (Germany). It seems that this Pantropical species has probably been introduced here along with imported plants. A description of diagnostic characters, as well as figures, is given.
An annotated catalogue of the rare mesothele spiders (Araneae: Mesothelae: Liphistiidae) held in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is presented. The museum hosts non-type specimens of nine species representing all three currently recognised genera, namely: Liphistius desultor Schiödte, 1849, L. malayanus cameroni Haupt, 1983, L. cf. thaleban Schwendinger, 1990, Heptathela kikuyai Ono, 1998, H. kimurai (Kishida, 1920), H. yanbaruensis Haupt, 1983, Ryuthela ishigakiensis Haupt, 1983, R. nishihirai (Haupt, 1979) and R. tanikawai Ono, 1997 (spec. reval.). The geographical focus of this collection is Malaysia and Japan, and most of the material was collected by the Berlin-based zoologist Joachim Haupt.
Silometopus ambiguus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1905) is a species occurring in coastal habitats from northeastern to western Europe. S. curtus (Simon, 1881), occurring in southern France and north-eastern Spain, was for a long time mixed up with S. ambiguus, even though corrections have been published very early and several times. This contribution summarizes publications on this topic, discusses doubtful records of both species and proposes corrections for the World Spider Catalog; and thus tries to avoid repetitions of the mistake in the future.
The African species Cheiracanthium furculatum Karsch, 1879 was recognised as being introduced to Germany and is re-described and illustrated in the present study. C. tenuipes Roewer, 1961 is recognised as a junior synonym of C. africanum Lessert, 1921 (new synonymy); both subspecies of C. strasseni Strand, 1915, namely C. strasseni strasseni Strand, 1915 and C. strasseni aharonii Strand, 1915, are recognised as junior synonyms of C. mildei L. Koch, 1864 (new synonymies). Photographic images of the copulatory organs of the types of C. cretense Roewer, 1928, recently synonymised with C. mildei, are provided and discussed in the course of intraspecific variation in C. mildei. The female holotype of C. rehobothense Strand, 1915 is re-described and illustrated. Relations of C. rehobothense to other Cheiracanthium species are discussed.
Desertification is a major problem in Sudano-sahelian West Africa, including the loss of biodiversity and vegetation cover. The loss of related ecosystem services is having a severe impact on human wellbeing. To facilitate assessments of these aspects of desertification, we decided to find plant species suitable as indicators. Based on a large database of vegetation plot data for Burkina Faso, we identified species associated with high or low levels of species richness and vegetation cover by calculating average values of these measures from vegetation plots on which they occur. To account for the differences between the dry Sahel and the more humid Sudan, we separated the plots of our study area in three vegetation zones (Sahel, North Sudan, South Sudan). Furthermore, herbs and woody plants were analysed separately, as they were usually represented in different plot sizes in the primary data. For each combination of species richness or vegetation cover, vegetation zone and growth form we identified ten species indicating low and another ten species indicating high values and assigned indicator values based on the average values of these species in the relevés.
Knowledge about useful plants and their various applications in West Africa is scattered over many publications and often in form of grey literature difficult to access. Several online-databases compile large scale information from these sources and provide comprehensive summarized descriptions of plant usages. Our aim is to additionally build up a database (UseDa) for primary ethnobotanical interview data. Thus, quantitative data can be extracted and synthesized and data sets can be treated according to different research questions analyzing for example uses in specific areas, of different ethnic groups or user groups, which is essential for practical applications on a local level. In this article we give an overview on the technical structure and the content of the database and discuss at the end the possible output for practical application. The database was set up in the frame of the EU-funded Project UNDESERT.
Dynamics of juvenile woody plant communities on termite mounds in a West African savanna landscape
(2014)
Termites are keystone species in savanna ecology, and their mounds are thought to be an important source of habitat heterogeneity and structural complexity of the savanna. Macrotermes termitaria have been shown to allow woody plant colonisation of landscapes otherwise dominated by C4 grasses. In this study, we assess how resource-rich Macrotermes mounds affect juvenile woody plant and non-woody plant species diversity, community composition, biomass and population dynamics. We repeatedly sampled paired termite mound and savanna plots in Pendjari National Park (Sudanian vegetation zone, North Benin, West Africa) over the course of two years. Despite considerable overlap in their species pools, plant communities of mound and savanna plots were clearly separated in ordinations. Species richness and diversity of juvenile woody plants was consistently higher on termite mounds, while no differences could be detected for non-woody plants. Evenness of juvenile woody plants was generally lower on mounds, whereas density and basal area were higher on mounds. In contrast, we did not detect any influence of the mound microhabitat on colonisation, mortality and turnover of woody juveniles. Therefore, we suggest that differences in the communities on and off mounds should be strongly influenced by directed diaspore dispersal through zoochory.
The Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted alphavirus that causes high fever, rash, and recurrent arthritis in humans. The majority of symptoms disappear after about one week. However, arthritis can last for months or even years (in about 30% of cases), which makes people unable to work during this period. The virus is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean islands, India, and Southeast Asia. It has additionally caused several large outbreaks in the last few years, affecting millions of people. The mortality rate is very low (0.1%), but the infection rates are high (sometimes 30%) and the number of asymptomatic cases is rare (about 15%). The first CHIKV outbreak in a country with a moderate climate was detected in Italy in 2007. Furthermore, the virus has spread to the Caribbean in late 2013. Due to climate change, globalization, and vector switching, the virus will most likely continue to cause new worldwide outbreaks. Additionally, more temperate regions of the world like Europe or the USA, which have recently reported their first cases, will likely become targets. Alarmingly, there is no specific treatment or vaccination against CHIKV available so far.
The cell entry process of CHIKV is also not understood in detail, and was thusly the focus of study for this project. The E2 envelope protein is responsible for cell attachment and entry. It consists of the domain C, located close to the viral membrane, domain A, in the center of the protein, and domain B, at the distal end, prominently exposed on the viral surface.
In this work, the important role of cell surface glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) for CHIKV cell attachment was uncovered. GAGs consist of long linear chains of heavily sulfated disaccharide units and can be covalently linked to membrane associated proteins. They play an important role in different cell signaling pathways. So far, solely cell culture passage has revealed an increased GAG-dependency of CHIKV due to mutations in E2 domain A, which was associated with virus attenuation in vivo. However, in this work it could be shown that cell surface GAGs promote CHIKV entry using non-cell culture adapted CHIKV envelope (Env) proteins. Transduction and infection of cell surface GAG-deficient pgsA-745 cells with CHIKV Env pseudotyped vector particles (VPs) and with wild-type CHIKV revealed decreased transduction and replication rates. Furthermore, cell entry and transduction rates of GAG-containing cells were also dose-dependently decreased in the presence of soluble GAGs. In contrast, transduction of pgsA-745 cells with CHIKV Env pseudotyped VPs was enhanced by the addition of soluble GAGs. This data suggests a mechanism by which GAGs activate CHIKV particles for subsequent binding to a cellular receptor. However, at least one GAG-independent entry pathway might exist, as CHIKV entry could not be totally inhibited by soluble GAGs and entry into pgsA-745 was, albeit at a lower rate, still possible. Further binding experiments using recombinant CHIKV E2 domains A, B, and C suggest that domain B is responsible for the GAG binding, domain A possibly for receptor binding, and domain C is not involved in cell binding. These results are in line with the geometry of CHIKV Env on the viral surface. They altogether reveal that GAG binding promotes viral cell entry and that the E2 domain B plays a central role for this mechanism.
As no vaccine against CHIKV has been approved so far, another goal of this project was to test new vaccination approaches. It has been published that a single linear epitope of E2 is the target of the majority of early neutralizing antibodies against CHIKV in patients. Artificial E2-derived proteins were created, expressed in E.coli, and successfully purified. They consisted of 5 repeats of the mentioned linear epitope (L), the surface exposed regions of domain A linked by glycine-serine linkers (sA), the whole domain B plus a part of the β-ribbon connector (B+), or a combination of these 3 modules. Vaccination experiments revealed that B+ was necessary and sufficient to induce a neutralizing immune response in mice, with the protein sAB+ yielding the best results. sAB+, as a protein vaccine, efficiently and significantly reduced viral titers in mice upon CHIKV challenge, which was not the case for recombinant Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA; MVA-CHIKV-sAB+), as a vaccine platform expressing the same protein. These experiments show that a small rationally designed CHIKV Env derived protein might, after optimization of some vaccination parameters, be sufficient as a safe, easy-to-produce, and cheap CHIKV vaccine.
Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is a catechin found in green tea and was, in this work, found to inhibit the CHIKV life cycle at the entry state in in vitro experiments using CHIKV Env VPs and wild-type virus. EGCG was recently published to inhibit attachment of several viruses to cell surface GAGs, which is in line with the role for GAGs in CHIKV entry revealed in this work. EGCG might serve as a lead compound for the development of a small molecule treatment against CHIKV.
Background: Although childhood sexual and/or physical abuse (CSA/CPA) is known to have severe psychopathological consequences, there is little evidence on psychotherapeutic interventions for adolescents and young adults suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Equally sparse are data on moderators of treatment response on PTSD-related epigenetic changes, health care costs and loss of productivity, alterations in cognitive processing, and on how successful interventions affect all of these factors. Early treatment may prevent later (co)morbidity. In this paper, we present a study protocol for the evaluation of a newly developed psychotherapeutic manual for PTSD after CSA/CPA in adolescents and young adults – the Developmentally Adapted Cognitive Processing Therapy (D-CPT).
Methods/design: In a multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) D-CPT is compared to treatment as usual (TAU). A sample of 90 adolescent outpatients aged 14 to 21 years will be randomized to one of these conditions. Four assessments will be carried out at baseline, at end of treatment, and 3 and 6 months after end of therapy. Each time, patients will be assessed via clinical interviews and a wide range of questionnaires. In addition to PTSD symptoms and comorbidities, we will evaluate moderators of treatment response, epigenetic profiles, direct and indirect costs of this disorder, and neurophysiological processing of threat cues in PTSD and their respective changes in the course of these two treatments (D-CPT and TAU).
Discussion: The study will provide new insights in the understudied field of PTSD in adolescents and young adults. A newly developed intervention will be evaluated in this therapeutically underserved population. Results will provide data on treatment efficacy, direct and indirect treatment costs, as well as on associations of treatment outcome and PTSD intensity both to epigenetic profiles and to the neurobiological processing of threat cues. Besides, they will help to learn more about the psychopathology and possible new objective correlates of PTSD.
Trial registration: Germanctr.de identifier: DRKS00004787.
Dendritic cells (DCs) are the cutting edge in innate and adaptive immunity. The major functions of these antigen-presenting cells are the capture, endosomal processing and presentation of antigens, providing them an exclusive ability to provoke adaptive immune responses and to induce and control tolerance. Immature DCs capture and process antigens, migrate towards secondary lymphoid organs where they present antigens to naive T cells in a well-synchronized sequence of procedures referred to as maturation. Indeed, recent research indicated that sphingolipids are modulators of essential steps in DC homeostasis. It has been recognized that sphingolipids not only modulate the development of DC subtypes from precursor cells but also influence functional activities of DCs such as antigen capture, and cytokine profiling. Thus, it is not astonishing that sphingolipids and sphingolipid metabolism play a substantial role in inflammatory diseases that are modulated by DCs. Here we highlight the function of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) on DC homeostasis and the role of S1P and S1P metabolism in inflammatory diseases.
Myocardial infarction (MI) induces a complex inflammatory immune response, followed by the remodelling of the heart muscle and scar formation. The rapid regeneration of the blood vessel network system by the attraction of hematopoietic stem cells is beneficial for heart function. Despite the important role of chemokines in these processes, their use in clinical practice has so far been limited by their limited availability over a long time-span in vivo. Here, a method is presented to increase physiological availability of chemokines at the site of injury over a defined time-span and simultaneously control their release using biodegradable hydrogels. Two different biodegradable hydrogels were implemented, a fast degradable hydrogel (FDH) for delivering Met-CCL5 over 24 hrs and a slow degradable hydrogel (SDH) for a gradual release of protease-resistant CXCL12 (S4V) over 4 weeks. We demonstrate that the time-controlled release using Met-CCL5-FDH and CXCL12 (S4V)-SDH suppressed initial neutrophil infiltration, promoted neovascularization and reduced apoptosis in the infarcted myocardium. Thus, we were able to significantly preserve the cardiac function after MI. This study demonstrates that time-controlled, biopolymer-mediated delivery of chemokines represents a novel and feasible strategy to support the endogenous reparatory mechanisms after MI and may compliment cell-based therapies.
Focus on quantum efficiency
(2014)
Technologies which convert light into energy, and vice versa, rely on complex, microscopic transport processes in the condensed phase, which obey the laws of quantum mechanics, but hitherto lack systematic analysis and modeling. Given our much improved understanding of multicomponent, disordered, highly structured, open quantum systems, this ‘focus on’ collection collects cuttingedge research on theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum transport in truly complex systems as defined, e.g., by the macromolecular functional complexes at the heart of photosynthesis, by organic quantum wires, or even photovoltaic devices. To what extent microscopic quantum coherence effects can (be made to) impact on macroscopic transport behavior is an equally challenging and controversial question, and this "focus on" collection provides a setting for the present state of affairs, as well as for the "quantum opportunities" on the horizon.
This paper deals with the control exerted by the mitochondrial translocator FLX1, which catalyzes the movement of the redox cofactor FAD across the mitochondrial membrane, on the efficiency of ATP production, ROS homeostasis, and lifespan of S. cerevisiae. The deletion of the FLX1 gene resulted in respiration-deficient and small-colony phenotype accompanied by a significant ATP shortage and ROS unbalance in glycerol-grown cells. Moreover, the flx1Δ strain showed H2O2 hypersensitivity and decreased lifespan. The impaired biochemical phenotype found in the flx1Δ strain might be justified by an altered expression of the flavoprotein subunit of succinate dehydrogenase, a key enzyme in bioenergetics and cell regulation. A search for possible cis-acting consensus motifs in the regulatory region upstream SDH1-ORF revealed a dozen of upstream motifs that might respond to induced metabolic changes by altering the expression of Flx1p. Among these motifs, two are present in the regulatory region of genes encoding proteins involved in flavin homeostasis. This is the first evidence that the mitochondrial flavin cofactor status is involved in controlling the lifespan of yeasts, maybe by changing the cellular succinate level. This is not the only case in which the homeostasis of redox cofactors underlies complex phenotypical behaviours, as lifespan in yeasts.
Background: The phagocytic enzyme myeloperoxidase (MPO) acts as a front-line defender against microorganisms. However, increased MPO levels have been found to be associated with complex and calcified atherosclerotic lesions and incident cardiovascular disease. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate a predictive role of MPO, a biomarker of inflammation and oxidative stress, for total and cardiovascular mortality in patients referred to coronary angiography.
Methods and results: MPO plasma concentrations along with eight MPO polymorphisms were determined in 3036 participants of the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health study (median follow-up 7.75 years). MPO concentrations were positively associated with age, diabetes, smoking, markers of systemic inflammation (interleukin-6, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A) and vascular damage (vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1) but negatively associated with HDL-cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I. After adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors MPO concentrations in the highest versus the lowest quartile were associated with a 1.34-fold risk (95% CI: 1.09–1.67) for total mortality. In the adjusted model the hazard ratio for cardiovascular mortality in the highest MPO quartile was 1.42 (95% CI: 1.07–1.88). Five MPO polymorphisms were positively associated with MPO concentrations but not with mortality. Using Mendelian randomization, we did not obtain evidence for a causal association of MPO with either total or cardiovascular mortality.
Conclusions: MPO concentrations but not genetic variants at the MPO locus are independently associated with risk for total and cardiovascular mortality in coronary artery disease patients.
Here we present a formal description of Biremis panamae Barka, Witkowski et Weisenborn sp. nov., which was isolated from the marine littoral environment of the Pacific Ocean coast of Panama. The description is based on morphology (light and electron microscopy) and the rbcL, psbC and SSU sequences of one clone of this species. The new species is included in Biremis due to its morphological features; i.e. two marginal rows of foramina, chambered striae, and girdle composed of numerous punctate copulae. The new species also possesses a striated valve face which is not seen in most known representatives of marine littoral Biremis species. In this study we also present the relationship of Biremis to other taxa using morphology, DNA sequence data and observations of auxosporulation. Our results based on these three sources point to an evolutionary relationship between Biremis, Neidium and Scoliopleura. The unusual silicified incunabular caps present in them are known otherwise only in Muelleria, which is probably related to the Neidiaceae and Scoliotropidaceae. We also discuss the relationship between Biremis and the recently described Labellicula and Olifantiella.
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a deadly primary brain malignancy. Glioblastoma stem cells (GSC), which have the ability to self-renew and differentiate into tumor lineages, are believed to cause tumor recurrence due to their resistance to current therapies. A subset of GSCs is marked by cell surface expression of CD133, a glycosylated pentaspan transmembrane protein. The study of CD133-expressing GSCs has been limited by the relative paucity of genetic tools that specifically target them. Here, we present CD133-LV, a lentiviral vector presenting a single chain antibody against CD133 on its envelope, as a vehicle for the selective transduction of CD133-expressing GSCs. We show that CD133-LV selectively transduces CD133+ human GSCs in dose-dependent manner and that transduced cells maintain their stem-like properties. The transduction efficiency of CD133-LV is reduced by an antibody that recognizes the same epitope on CD133 as the viral envelope and by shRNA-mediated knockdown of CD133. Conversely, the rate of transduction by CD133-LV is augmented by overexpression of CD133 in primary human GBM cultures. CD133-LV selectively transduces CD133-expressing cells in intracranial human GBM xenografts in NOD.SCID mice, but spares normal mouse brain tissue, neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells and primary human astrocytes. Our findings indicate that CD133-LV represents a novel tool for the selective genetic manipulation of CD133-expressing GSCs, and can be used to answer important questions about how these cells contribute to tumor biology and therapy resistance.
MTO1-deficient mouse model mirrors the human phenotype showing complex I defect and cardiomyopathy
(2014)
Recently, mutations in the mitochondrial translation optimization factor 1 gene (MTO1) were identified as causative in children with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, lactic acidosis and respiratory chain defect. Here, we describe an MTO1-deficient mouse model generated by gene trap mutagenesis that mirrors the human phenotype remarkably well. As in patients, the most prominent signs and symptoms were cardiovascular and included bradycardia and cardiomyopathy. In addition, the mutant mice showed a marked worsening of arrhythmias during induction and reversal of anaesthesia. The detailed morphological and biochemical workup of murine hearts indicated that the myocardial damage was due to complex I deficiency and mitochondrial dysfunction. In contrast, neurological examination was largely normal in Mto1-deficient mice. A translational consequence of this mouse model may be to caution against anaesthesia-related cardiac arrhythmias which may be fatal in patients.
Sleep is regulated in a time-of-day dependent manner and profits working memory. However, the impact of the circadian timing system as well as contributions of specific sleep properties to this beneficial effect remains largely unexplored. Moreover, it is unclear to which extent inter-individual differences in sleep-wake regulation depend on circadian phase and modulate the association between sleep and working memory. Here, sleep electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during a 40-h multiple nap protocol, and working memory performance was assessed by the n-back task 10 times before and after each scheduled nap sleep episode. Twenty-four participants were genotyped regarding a functional polymorphism in adenosine deaminase (rs73598374, 12 G/A-, 12 G/G-allele carriers), previously associated with differences in sleep-wake regulation. Our results indicate that genotype-driven differences in sleep depend on circadian phase: heterozygous participants were awake longer and slept less at the end of the biological day, while they exhibited longer non rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and slow wave sleep concomitant with reduced power between 8–16 Hz at the end of the biological night. Slow wave sleep and NREM sleep delta EEG activity covaried positively with overall working memory performance, independent of circadian phase and genotype. Moreover, REM sleep duration benefitted working memory particularly when occurring in the early morning hours and specifically in heterozygous individuals. Even though based on a small sample size and thus requiring replication, our results suggest genotype-dependent differences in circadian sleep regulation. They further indicate that REM sleep, being under strong circadian control, boosts working memory performance according to genotype in a time-of-day dependent manner. Finally, our data provide first evidence that slow wave sleep and NREM sleep delta activity, majorly regulated by sleep homeostatic mechanisms, is linked to working memory independent of the timing of the sleep episode within the 24-h cycle.
Escherichia coli α-hemolysin (HlyA) is a pore-forming protein of 110 kDa belonging to the family of RTX toxins. A hydrophobic region between the amino acid residues 238 and 410 in the N-terminal half of HlyA has previously been suggested to form hydrophobic and/or amphipathic α-helices and has been shown to be important for hemolytic activity and pore formation in biological and artificial membranes. The structure of the HlyA transmembrane channel is, however, largely unknown. For further investigation of the channel structure, we deleted in HlyA different stretches of amino acids that could form amphipathic β-strands according to secondary structure predictions (residues 71–110, 158–167, 180–203, and 264–286). These deletions resulted in HlyA mutants with strongly reduced hemolytic activity. Lipid bilayer measurements demonstrated that HlyAΔ71–110 and HlyAΔ264–286 formed channels with much smaller single-channel conductance than wildtype HlyA, whereas their channel-forming activity was virtually as high as that of the wildtype toxin. HlyAΔ158–167 and HlyAΔ180–203 were unable to form defined channels in lipid bilayers. Calculations based on the single-channel data indicated that the channels generated by HlyAΔ71–110 and HlyAΔ264–286 had a smaller size (diameter about 1.4 to 1.8 nm) than wildtype HlyA channels (diameter about 2.0 to 2.6 nm), suggesting that in these mutants part of the channel-forming domain was removed. Osmotic protection experiments with erythrocytes confirmed that HlyA, HlyAΔ71–110, and HlyAΔ264–286 form defined transmembrane pores and suggested channel diameters that largely agreed with those estimated from the single-channel data. Taken together, these results suggest that the channel-forming domain of HlyA might contain β-strands, possibly in addition to α-helical structures.
Previously we reported modulation of endothelial prostacyclin and interleukin-8 production, cyclooxygenase-2 expression and vasorelaxation by oleoyl-lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC 18:1). In the present study, we examined the impact of this LPC on nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability in vascular endothelial EA.hy926 cells. Basal NO formation in these cells was decreased by LPC 18:1. This was accompanied with a partial disruption of the active endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS)-dimer, leading to eNOS uncoupling and increased formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The LPC 18:1-induced ROS formation was attenuated by the superoxide scavenger Tiron, as well as by the pharmacological inhibitors of eNOS, NADPH oxidases, flavin-containing enzymes and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Intracellular ROS-formation was most prominent in mitochondria, less pronounced in cytosol and undetectable in endoplasmic reticulum. Importantly, Tiron completely prevented the LPC 18:1-induced decrease in NO bioavailability in EA.hy926 cells. The importance of the discovered findings for more in vivo like situations was analyzed by organ bath experiments in mouse aortic rings. LPC 18:1 attenuated the acetylcholine-induced, endothelium dependent vasorelaxation and massively decreased NO bioavailability. We conclude that LPC 18:1 induces eNOS uncoupling and unspecific superoxide production. This results in NO scavenging by ROS, a limited endothelial NO bioavailability and impaired vascular function.
Coevolution of viruses and their hosts represents a dynamic molecular battle between the immune system and viral factors that mediate immune evasion. After the abandonment of smallpox vaccination, cowpox virus infections are an emerging zoonotic health threat, especially for immunocompromised patients. Here we delineate the mechanistic basis of how cowpox viral CPXV012 interferes with MHC class I antigen processing. This type II membrane protein inhibits the coreTAP complex at the step after peptide binding and peptide-induced conformational change, in blocking ATP binding and hydrolysis. Distinct from other immune evasion mechanisms, TAP inhibition is mediated by a short ER-lumenal fragment of CPXV012, which results from a frameshift in the cowpox virus genome. Tethered to the ER membrane, this fragment mimics a high ER-lumenal peptide concentration, thus provoking a trans-inhibition of antigen translocation as supply for MHC I loading. These findings illuminate the evolution of viral immune modulators and the basis of a fine-balanced regulation of antigen processing.
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) lacks non-invasive and easy to measure biomarkers, still largely relying on semi-quantitative tests for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Muscle biopsies provide valuable data, but their use is limited by their invasiveness. microRNA (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs regulating gene expression that are also present in biological fluids and may serve as diseases biomarkers. Thus, we tested plasma miRNAs in the blood of 36 DM1 patients and 36 controls. First, a wide miRNA panel was profiled in a patient subset, followed by validation using all recruited subjects. We identified a signature of nine deregulated miRNAs in DM1 patients: eight miRNAs were increased (miR-133a, miR-193b, miR-191, miR-140-3p, miR-454, miR-574, miR-885-5p, miR-886-3p) and one (miR-27b) was decreased. Next, the levels of these miRNAs were used to calculate a "DM1-miRNAs score". We found that both miR-133a levels and DM1-miRNAs score discriminated DM1 from controls significantly and Receiver-Operator Characteristic curves displayed an area under the curve of 0.94 and 0.97, respectively. Interestingly, both miR-133a levels and DM1-miRNAs score displayed an inverse correlation with skeletal muscle strength and displayed higher values in more compromised patients. In conclusion, we identified a characteristic plasma miRNA signature of DM1. Although preliminary, this study indicates miRNAs as potential DM1 humoral biomarkers.
As part of a wider study of floodplain vegetation along the River Murray, we carried out a field survey in 1987–1988 involving collection of floristic and vegetation condition data from 335 sample plots (each 400 m2 in area), between Hume Dam and Lake Alexandrina (including the Edward-Wakool anabranch system). The floodplain vegetation is dominated by just two tree species, River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and Black Box (Eucalyptus largiflorens), but the composition of the understorey shows much greater variation, both along the river and across the floodplain. A total of 499 plant species, subspecies and varieties were recorded from the survey plots, of which 316 (63%) were native and 183 (37%) were exotic. From analysis of the floristic data we identified 37 vegetation communities, not including the vegetation of permanent wetlands and cleared areas; 21 communities were distinguished in the River Red Gum zone, 12 communities in the Black Box zone, and 4 communities on rises within the floodplain. The main floristic division among the River Red Gum communities was between Riverine Plain/ Headwaters Zone communities of the upper Murray, and Mallee Zone communities of the lower Murray. Among the Black Box communities, the main floristic division was between inner floodplain communities and outer floodplain communities, with a further division between South Australian communities and New South Wales/Victorian communities. Major factors influencing the floristic patterns included flooding frequency/duration and soil salinity.
Eucalypt health declined steadily downstream and was poorest in the lower reaches of the river below the Darling Junction, where 60% of the trees were healthy, 18% unhealthy (at least 40% of the canopy dead) and 22% dead. By comparison, at the upper end of the river, above Tocumwal, 84% of the trees were healthy, 14% unhealthy and only 2% dead. Overall, the condition of Black Box trees (44% unhealthy or dead) was worse than the condition of River Red Gum trees (29% unhealthy or dead). Eucaypt regeneration was also poorest below the Darling Junction, with regenerants present in 77% of plots upstream of the Darling but only 35% of plots downstream. The findings of poor tree health and sparse regeneration below the Darling coincide with the most heavily regulated part of the Murray, where the reduction in flooding due to upstream storages and water extraction, mainly for irrigation, has been greatest. Black Box regeneration was much sparser overall than River Red Gum regeneration (regenerants present in 69% of River Red Gum plots but only 29% of Black Box plots). The poor condition of the Black Box trees, coupled with their poor regeneration, suggests that the long-term future of this species along the Murray, particularly below the Darling Junction, is tenuous, even though it is a dominant component of the vegetation.
The integrity of floodplain vegetation along the Murray has been severely compromised by weed invasion. Weeds were common throughout the survey area, but were most prevalent in the climatically wetter sections of the river, at both the downstream and upstream ends (below Mannum and above Tocumwal). The median number of exotic species per plot equalled or exceeded the number of native species in these sections of the river, whereas native species outnumbered exotic species in the other river sections. Communities of the River Red Gum zone and the rises were generally weedier than those of the Black Box zone. Exotic species strongly influenced the community classification. They were the dominant overstorey species in two communities (Salix species – willows) and outnumbered native species in the understorey of another eight communities. At the lower end of the river, below Mannum, the River Red Gums that originally fringed the river had been mostly replaced by dense thickets of the exotic Weeping Willow, Salix babylonica.
Other factors that have impacted on the floodplain vegetation at the plant community level have been river regulation and soil salinisation. Stabilization of water levels in the lower Murray by construction of a series of weirs and barrages has favoured the spread of some communities at the expense of others. The favoured communities, which are characterised by stands of Common Reed, Phragmites australis, along the water’s edge, appear to be artefacts of river regulation. Salinisation has resulted in death of eucalypts and replacement of eucalypt communities by shrub communities dominated by samphires, Tecticornia species. The samphire community characteristic of the most saline sites is one of the most species-poor communities on the Murray floodplain.
Logging along the Murray in New South Wales and Victoria has resulted in extensive replacement of old growth River Red Gum forests and woodlands by more even-aged stands of straight young trees. Following the recent conversion of many areas of State Forest along the Murray in both New South Wales and Victoria to National Park or Regional Park, and thus the cessation of logging in these areas, they should now revert gradually to mature forest and woodland.
This study is the first to describe broad scale floristic patterns in the floodplain vegetation of the Murray covering most of the length of the river. It also provides data on the vegetation condition in the 1980s, and provides a benchmark of conditions before the prolonged Millenium Drought in south-eastern Australia from 1997 to 2010. More recent surveys of vegetation condition have reported a severe decline in tree health during the drought. The results from our 1987–88 survey are important because they show that the deteriorating condition of the vegetation was already evident in the 1980s and although exacerbated by the subsequent drought, it is not just a consequence of that drought. The results are consistent with the conclusion that the primary cause of the decline has been river regulation and water extraction for irrigation. The rate of deterioration has increased rapidly since the 1980s because of the drought. There has been some improvement since the breaking of the drought, but the poor condition of the River Murray floodplain vegetation, an Australian icon, remains a major conservation and management issue. The impacts of climate change – higher temperatures and reduced rainfall – have compounded the problem and will continue to do so at an increasing rate. The results of the study support listing of the floodplain vegetation of the lower reaches of the river as a critically endangered ecological community.
The riparian rainforest on the streamside levees of the coastal floodplain of the Clarence River on the North Coast of New South Wales was cleared during the 1860s by small landholders seeking fertile land. Only three small remnants remain. Using a combination of historical species lists, corner trees from surveyors’ portion plans, habitat information and the NSW Scientific Committee’s (1999) determination for lowland rainforest on floodplain a conceptual model of the original distribution of rainforest suballiances on the levees of the Clarence River coastal floodplain is proposed.
Population size, and flowering and fruiting developmental stages in the Critically Endangered species Corunastylis sp. ‘Charmhaven’ (Family Orchidaceae, formerly included within genus Genoplesium), were investigated in the Warnervale-Charmhaven area over a three year period. Population size in 2012 was 11 plants, in 2013, 14 plants and in 2014 increased to 26 plants, with new plants appearing near the original plants. Proactive management, including mowing and erecting wire protective cages around groups of orchids was partly responsible for this increase in numbers because it prevented browsing by rabbits but only ten plants carried fruits to maturity in the 2014 season to produce seed. Despite an increase in numbers over a couple of years, a population of 26 individuals is very small and warrants maintaining the current conservation listing of Critically Endangered. The population began to flower between 15th and 29th February in 2012 and from 3rd to 14th March in 2013. However in 2014 flowering began on 11th February and extended to 19th March but it took until 17th June to reach the seed dispersal stage. 2014 involved two phases of flowering; whether climatic factors were responsible for this event is not known.
Acacia pendula, Weeping Myall, (family Fabaceae) is the most legislatively protected plant species in the New South Wales Hunter Valley. Under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 it is listed as an Endangered Population (in the Hunter Valley) and as a component of two Endangered Ecological Communities (one in the Hunter, one elsewhere in NSW); it is also listed as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community (in the Hunter Valley) on the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and listed as threatened in three other eastern Australian States.
To ascertain the likely original distribution of stands of Acacia pendula in the Hunter Valley, this paper examines the writings of early Australian explorers, herbarium and database records, and the species habitat attributes across NSW. None of the journals examined, including those of botanist/explorer Allan Cunningham (who originally collected Acacia pendula from the Lachlan River in 1817), Thomas Mitchell or Ludwig Leichhardt, make note of the species for the Hunter Valley. Several explorers do, however, record Acacia pendula regularly (>100 times) across other parts of NSW, Queensland, and South Australia.
Historical herbarium and database records show a paucity of records from the Hunter prior to the year 2000, after which a 37-fold increase in observations since 1951 is apparent. For the first 128 years of botanical exploration (1823 to 1951), there are no validated collections or records of Acacia pendula from the Hunter Valley. The single exception is a specimen collected by Cunningham from 1825 (lodged at Kew, UK), purported to be from ‘Hunters River’, but which is morphologically different to other collections of Acacia pendula from that time. There is some uncertainty over the origins of this specimen.
Analysis of habitats supporting Acacia pendula in NSW outside of the Hunter show them to differ significantly in geological age, soil type, rainfall and elevation from those in the Hunter.
Collectively, these findings provide a strong circumstantial case that Acacia pendula was absent from the Hunter at the time of European settlement; this has important implications for the conservation and management of Hunter stands. Rather than being a threatened species in the Hunter Valley, it is postulated that Acacia pendula has been intentionally and/or accidentally introduced to the region, and may now be imposing a new and emerging threat to the endangered grassy woodlands and forests there. There is now an urgent need for genetic studies to clarify the origins of the current Hunter Valley stands, and to define the taxonomic limits of Acacia pendula and its close relatives.
The availability of organelle genome sequences of bryophytes provides opportunity to mine this data. Therefore in this study microsatellites in chloroplast genome sequence of Pellia endiviifolia (Accession number: NC_019628), downloaded from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in fasta format, were identified. The sequence was mined with the help of MISA, a Perl script, to detect microsatellites. In total, 16 perfect microsatellites were identified in 120.546 kb sequence mined. An average length of 14.94 bp was calculated for mined microsatellites with a density of 1 SSR/7.09 kb. Depending on the repeat units, the length of microsatellites ranged from 12 to 18 bp. Tetranucleotides (7, 43.75%) were the most frequent repeat type, followed by mononucleotide (3, 18.75%) repeats. Dinucleotide, trinucleotide and pentanucleotide repeats were found with equal frequency (2, 12.5%). Interestingly, hexanucleotide repeats were completely absent in chloroplast genome of Pellia endiviifolia.
Coscinodon humilis was described by Milde from mica schist in the Passeiertal NE Merano (formerly southern Tyrolia in Austria, hence cited as Austria by Greven 1995. now Alto Adige in Italy). Limpricht (1890) regarded it as “verkümmerte Form von C. cribrosus”, and although Mönkemeyer (1927) still cited it, the species got forgotten by the time. Thus the species was no more mentioned by Corley et al (1981) in the European checklist and therefore no more included by Frey et al. (1995) in the German edition of the “Moos- und Farnpflanzen Europas”. Greven (1995) re-established the species in his treatment of Grimmia (and related genera) in Europe. Therefore Frey et al. (2006) included the species, which was, however, not keyed out. Finally Hill et al. (2006) listed it again in the new European checklist as a good species.
Myxobacteria are on order of Gram-negative, soil dwelling bacteria that feature an impressive number of properties: they can glide on solid surfaces by using two different motility motors, subsist by preying on other microorganisms, are often producers of multiple natural products, and upon adverse environmental conditions, they are able to form multicellular structures called “fruiting bodies”. The process, in which these macroscopically visible structures arise from independent single cells, has been the predominant subject of myxobacterial research for many decades. More precisely, researchers have strived for the discovery of genes, proteins and small molecules that act as signals, receivers or modulators of this complex process. In this regard, the species Myxococcus xanthus has evolved into the model organism due to its relatively simple and reliable handling in a laboratory environment. The research underlying this thesis focused on the identification and biosynthesis of lipids that may act as intercellular signaling molecules during the course of fruiting body formation of the myxobacterium Myxococcus xanthus as part of the “E-signal” system. In general, lipids containing branched-chain fatty acids with an uneven number of carbon atoms were found to be important players in this particular process. Nevertheless, their exact roles remain largely unknown as of this day. The first publication that is part of this thesis deals with an aspect that even strengthened the importance of role of iso-branched compounds in myxobacteria: myxobacterial metabolism is able to transform precursors of iso-lipids to isoprenoids. It addresses the question whether isoprenoids in general are important for fruiting body formation. Phenotypic analysis of mutants impaired in the biosynthesis of the central isoprenoid precursor 3-hydroxymethylglutaryl-Coenzyme A (3-HMG-CoA) from acetate and/or branched chain keto acids and their genetic and metabolic complementation clearly showed that isoprenoids are essential for fruiting body formation and confirmed that leucine derived isovalerate is an important source for isoprenoid precursors in myxobacteria. The second, and by far and away most tedious and sophisticated study, addressed the question as to how myxobacteria form fatty acid derived iso-branched ether lipids and to what extent they are important for fruiting body formation and sporulation. In a previous study, those unusual lipids were identified as specific biomarkers for myxobacterial development. No biochemical pathways to ether lipids specific for prokaryotes were known by then. In this study, a putative candidate gene that may be in involved in ether lipid biosynthesis was investigated. A combination of gene disruption and complementation experiments, phenotypic analysis and monitoring of ether lipid formation by means of GC-MS demonstrated its involvement in myxobacterial ether lipid biosynthesis and the importance of these lipids for the developmental process. Heterologous expression and biochemical testing of this gene together with in-silico sequence analysis and docking experiments confirmed the functions of its predicted domains. The discussion section provides an additional suggestion on how the ether bond formation is performed. Furthermore and most importantly, iso-branched ether lipids were found to be essential for sporulation but not for fruiting body formation. In summary, one or several molecules derived from an iso-branched alkylglycerol seem to play a role during sporulation in M. xanthus and a multidomain enzyme unique for myxobacteria is involved in their biosynthesis. The last manuscript addresses the complexity of lipid metabolism in myxobacteria. Prior to this work, there was limited knowledge about the exact composition of the myxobacterial lipidome and no method was available to monitor putative changes in the myxobacterial lipidome down to the single molecular species for studying lipid biosynthesis or regulation. An ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry based method with electrospray ionization (UPLC-ESI-MS) utilizing standard equipment and a water/acetonitrile/isopropanol based eluent system proved to be geared for the construction of lipid profiles for wild type and mutant cells of M. xanthus and to show their differences. Fragmentation spectra based structure elucidation of lipid molecular species resulted in the identification of 99 molecular species comprising glycerophosphoethanolamines, glycerophosphoglycerols, glycerolipids, ceramides and ceramide phosphoinositols. The latter have never been described for any prokaryotes before. Three dimensional plots were created from the relative intensity differences of the single molecular ion species between the different samples to provide an efficient and versatile visualization of the data and enable the researcher to quickly detect differences.
In the present paper, we concentrate on (selected) Bantu and Nilotic bare-passive strategies and lay out the basis for a typology of transitive passive constructions in these languages. We argue that bare-passives constitute an optimal strategy to change prominence relations between arguments, in languages that strongly hold to the default mapping between the highest thematic role available and the grammatical subject (i.e. Spec,TP). The Nilotic and Bantu languages discussed here differ in their way of satisfying this default mapping. In particular, impersonal bare-passives satisfy it by resorting to an agentive place-holder (an indefinite subject marker) and realizing the logical agent as a lower thematic/semantic role (e.g. instrument or locative). Left-dislocation and so called 'subjectobject' reversal bare-passives realize the default matching between agent and subject in a more straightforward way, but locate the patient in a higher argument position within the inflectional domain (Spec,TopP). As argued in Hamlaoui and Makasso (2013) and Hamlaoui (2013), and in line with Noonan (1977), the present languages display a clauseinternal split between subjecthood (being the grammatical subject in Spec,TP) and topicality (being the subject of the predication, in an inflectional-domain internal Spec,TopP).
Inversion constructions in Bantu have been discussed from a variety of perspectives over the last decades. Well-known construction types include locative inversion and subject-object reversal, while more recently semantic locative inversion and instrument inversion have been described. Theoretical studies of Bantu inversion constructions have focused on different aspects of the construction, including the licensing and grammatical function, information structure properties and the formal characteristics of pre- and postverbal NPs. With respect to the status of preverbal NPs in inversion constructions, different analyses have probed the status of the NP as subject or topic, or, more recently, as the subject of a Predication relation. The present paper summarises and compares different analyses of the preverbal domain in inversion constructions and brings out empirical and conceptual similarities and differences. In addition, different analyses are related to comparative studies of Bantu inversion constructions, so as to probe how attested variation across Bantu relates to findings of different formal accounts. The paper aims to summarise current research on the preverbal domain in inversion constructions and to indicate directions for future work.
Nsong is a western Bantu language spoken in the neighbourhood of Kikwit (5°2'28"S 18°48'58"E, Kwilu District, Bandundu Province, DRC) and encoded as B85d in the New Updated Guthrie List (Maho 2009). To this B80 or Tiene-Yanzi group also belongs Mbuun, encoded as B87 by Guthrie (1971: 39) and spoken in the wider vicinity of Idiofa (4°57'35"S 19°35'40", Kwilu District, Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo). Both languages are closely related. They share a high percentage of fundamental and other vocabulary as well as several rather atypical phonological innovations (Bostoen & Koni Muluwa 2014; Koni Muluwa 2014; Koni Muluwa & Bostoen 2012). Preliminary elicitation-based research on Mbuun has pointed out that the pre-verbal domain plays a crucial role in the marking of argument focus in Mbuun (Bostoen & Mundeke 2011, 2012). In this paper, we assess whether this is also the case in Nsong on the basis of a text corpus which the first author has been collecting, transcribing and annotating in 2013 and 2014 as part of an endangered language documentation project funded by the DoBeS program of the Volkswagen Foundation through a 3-year grant (2012-2015). More information on the project can be found on http://www.kwilubantu.ugent.be/. This Nsong text corpus exclusively consists of oral discourse and currently counts 48.022 tokens and 11.973 types. The team’s 2013 fieldwork aimed at documenting Nsong speech events in as many different cultural settings as possible. As a result, the corpus comprises different text genres, such as political speeches, historical traditions, folk music, tales, proverbs, hunting language, ceremonial language used during circumcision and twin rites, and popular biological knowledge. In line with previous research on Mbuun, we concentrate here on mono-clausal argument focus constructions, even if preliminary research has pointed out that bi-clausal focus structures are more common in the Nsong corpus.
The present paper aims at describing different pre-verbal focus strategies in Kisikongo (H16a), spoken in the vicinity of Mbanza Kongo, northern Angola. This western Bantu language is part of the Kikongo Language Cluster (KLC), stretching from southern Gabon to northern Angola, including Cabinda and parts of Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa. Kikongo exhibits a clause-internal pre-verbal argument focus position, which has rarely been reported in Bantu languages, except in Mbuun (B87) (Bostoen and Mundeke 2012) and Nsong (B85d) (Koni Muluwa and Bostoen, this volume), both spoken in the neighboring Kwilu region of the DRC. The more extensively studied eastern and southern Bantu languages generally have a post-verbal argument focus position (cf. Watters 1979, Morimoto 2000, Creissels 2004, Güldemann 2007, Buell 2009, van der Wal 2009, among others). In addition to this mono-clausal argument focus strategy, Kisikongo also relies on different bi-clausal constructions to focus arguments, i.e. cleft-constructions.
Nen and Nyokon are unique among the Bantu languages in allowing full nominal objects between the tense/aspect marker and the verb. Despite the fact that the two languages are neighbours and related they make different use of this positional option. In Nen the position is the default one for objects and the post-verbal position renders an object discrete and suitable for quantified objects and for contrast. In Nyokon the position before the verb is functionally equivalent to the one after the verb. The difference is related to the fact that Nyokon allows the preverbal object only in certain tenses whereas in Nen it is not restricted. But contrasted objects in Nyokon too appear after the verb. There is a construction in which both positions are filled with a constituent. This construction is modelled on a secondary predication construction.
Locative inversion in Cuwabo
(2014)
This paper proposes a detailed description of locative inversion (LI) constructions in Cuwabo, in terms of morphosyntactic properties and thematic restrictions. Of particular interest are the use of disjoint verb forms in LI, and the co-existence of formal and semantic LI, which challenges the widespread belief that the two constructions cannot be found in the same language.
This paper deals with left and right dislocation in Embɔsi, a Bantu language (C25) spoken in Congo-Brazzaville. The prosody of dislocation has gathered considerable attention, as it is particularly informative for the theories of the syntax-prosody mapping of Intonation Phrases (a.o. Selkirk, 2009, 2011; Downing, 2011). Concentrating on selected Bantu languages, Downing (2011) identifies two main phrasing patterns. She primarily distinguishes languages in which only right dislocated phrases display a lack of prosodic integration ("asymmetric" languages), from languages in which both left and right dislocations phrase separately ("symmetric" languages). Hiatus avoidance processes, boundary tones and register expansion/reduction indicate that Embɔsi displays a somewhat more intricate phrasing pattern. In this language, both left and right dislocated items sit outside of the Intonation Phrase formed by the core-clause, but only the latter form their own Intonation Phrase. We also discuss the prosody of multiple dislocations (i.e. with two dislocated arguments), which have not so far received all the attention they deserve. What we observe in Embɔsi is that either the two dislocated items phrase together and are not integrated to the core Intonation Phrase, or only the outermost dislocated element phrases separately.
Introduction
(2014)
Bantu languages have been at the heart of the research on the interaction between syntax, prosody and information structure. In these predominantly SVO languages, considerable attention has been devoted to postverbal phenomena. By addressing issues related to Subjects, Topics and Object-Verb word orders, the goal of the present papers is to deepen our understanding of the interaction of different grammatical components (syntax, phonology, semantics/pragmatics) both in individual languages and across the Bantu family. Each paper makes a valuable contribution to ongoing discussions on the preverbal domain.
It has long been observed that subjects cross-linguistically have topic properties: they are typically definite, referential and/or generic (Givón 1976). Bantu languages are said to illustrate this generalization: preverbal position for NPs is equated with both subject and topic status and postverbal position with focus (and non-subject). However, there is a growing body of work showing that preverbal subjects are not necessarily syntactically or semantically equivalent to topics. For example, Zerbian’s (2006) careful study of preverbal position in Northern Sotho shows that preverbal subjects meet few of the semantic tests for aboutness topics. The study of restrictions on preverbal subjects in Durban Zulu presented in this paper builds on Zerbian (2006) and Halpert (2012). In particular, we investigate the interpretational properties of preverbal indefinite subjects. These subjects show us that preverbal subjects carry a presupposition of existence. We explore an analysis connecting the "strong reading" of preverbal subjects with how high the verb moves in Zulu (following Tsai’s 2001 work on Mandarin).
The papers in this volume take up some aspects of the preverbal domain(s) in Bantu languages. They were originally presented at the Workshop BantuSynPhonIS: Preverbal Domain(s), held at the Center for General Linguistics (ZAS), in Berlin, on 14-15 November 2014. This workshop was coorganized by ZAS (Fatima Hamlaoui & Tonjes Veenstra) and the Humboldt University (Tom Güldemann, Yukiko Morimoto and Ines Fiedler).
Part IV of our series "Cyberpeace: Dimensionen eines Gegenentwurfs" on cyberpeace. Matthias Schulze argues that what some perceive as cyberwar is not actually war but rather cyber conflict. The question therefore arises if this conflict will ever be solved. Ben Kamis on the other hand identifies motives in the use of language. He argues that talking about cyberpeace reinforces the impression that we are right in the middle of a cyberwar. I would not agree with that. As Johan Galtung puts it: “The use of the term ‘peace’ may in itself be peace-productive” (Galtung 1969: 167). But how do we define cyberpeace? Who should define it and how do we pursue it?...
How to abolish cyberwar
(2014)
Part III of our series "Cyberpeace: Dimensionen eines Gegenentwurfs" on cyberpeace: Cyberwar is like a discursive plague. After years and years of writing texts about it and against it, the concept is still scary, still spreading, still harmful. Its power is such that it is not simply being used in discourse – but is in fact forcing its specific discursive structures and rules on us. In short, we may keep questioning this concept, but we will never get rid of it...
In this thesis, a novel 257 kHz chopper device was numerically developed, technically designed and experimentally commissioned; a 4-solenoid, low-energy ion beam transport line was numerically investigated, installed and experimentally commissioned; and a novel massless beam-separation system was numerically developed.
The chopper combines a pulsed electric field with a static magnetic field in an ExB or Wien-filter type field configuration. Chopped beam pulses with a 257 kHz repetition rate and rise times of 110 ns were experimentally achieved using a 14 keV helium beam.
Due to the achieved results, the complete LEBT line for the future Frankfurt Neutron Source FRANZ is ready to deliver a dc or a pulsed beam. At the same time, the LEBT section represents an attractive test stand for the study of low-energy ion beams. It combines magnetic lenses, which allow space-charge compensated beam transport, and a chopper system capable of producing short beam pulses in the hundred nanosecond range. Since these beam pulses are transported onwards, their longitudinal and transverse properties can be analyzed. The pulse duration and time of flight are well below the rise time for the space-charge compensation through residual gas ionization. This opens the possibility for dedicated investigations of the transport of short, low-energy beam pulses including longitudinal and transverse space-charge effects and of relevant issues like the dynamics of space-charge compensation and electron effects in short pulses.
This note offers reflections on qualified market access (QMA) - the practice of linking trade agreements to values such as human rights, labour standards, or environmental protection. This idea has been suggested by political theorists as a way of fulfilling our duties to the global poor and of making the global economic system more just, and it has influenced a number of concrete policies, such as European Union (EU) trade policies. Yet, in order to assess its merits tout court, different perspectives and disciplines need to be brought together, such as international law, economics, political science, and philosophy. It is also worth reflecting on existing practices, such as those of the EU. This note summarises some insights about QMA by drawing such research together and considers the areas in which further research is needed, whilst reflecting also on the merits of interdisciplinary exchanges on such topics.
Europe's debt crisis casts doubt on the effectiveness of fiscal austerity in highly-integrated economies. Closed-economy models overestimate its effectiveness, because they underestimate tax-base elasticities and ignore cross-country tax externalities. In contrast, we study tax responses to debt shocks in a two-country model with endogenous utilization that captures those externalities and matches the capital-tax-base elasticity. Quantitative results show that unilateral capital tax hikes cannot restore fiscal solvency in Europe, and have large negative (positive) effects at "home" ("abroad"). Restoring solvency via either Nash competition or Cooperation reduces (increases) capital (labor) taxes significantly, and leaves countries with larger debt shocks preferring autarky.
After the Global Financial Crisis a controversial rush to fiscal austerity followed in many countries. Yet research on the effects of austerity on macroeconomic aggregates was and still is unsettled, mired by the difficulty of identifying multipliers from observational data. This paper reconciles seemingly disparate estimates of multipliers within a unified and state-contingent framework. We achieve identification of causal effects with new propensity-score based methods for time series data. Using this novel approach, we show that austerity is always a drag on growth, and especially so in depressed economies: a one percent of GDP fiscal consolidation translates into 4 percent lower real GDP after five years when implemented in the slump rather than the boom. We illustrate our findings with a counterfactual evaluation of the impact of the U.K. government’s shift to austerity policies in 2010 on subsequent growth.
Austerity
(2014)
We shed light on the function, properties and optimal size of austerity using the standard sovereign model augmented to include incomplete information about credit risk. Austerity is defined as the shortfall of consumption from the level desired by a country and supported by its repayment capacity. We find that austerity serves as a tool for securing a more favorable loan package; that it is associated with over-investment even when investment does not create collateral; and that low risk borrowers may favor more to less severe austerity. These findings imply that the amount of fresh funds obtained by a sovereign is not a reliable measure of austerity suffered; and that austerity may actually be associated with higher growth. Our analysis accommodates costly signalling for gaining credibility and also assigns a novel role to spending multipliers in the determination of optimal austerity.
Does austerity pay off?
(2014)
Policy makers often implement austerity measures when the sustainability of public finances is in doubt and, hence, sovereign yield spreads are high. Is austerity successful in bringing about a reduction in yield spreads? We employ a new panel data set which contains sovereign yield spreads for 31 emerging and advanced economies and estimate the effects of cuts of government consumption on yield spreads and economic activity. The conditions under which austerity takes place are crucial. During times of fiscal stress, spreads rise in response to the spending cuts, at least in the short-run. In contrast, austerity pays off, if conditions are more benign.
In this paper, we investigate how the introduction of complex, model-based capital regulation affected credit risk of financial institutions. Model-based regulation was meant to enhance the stability of the financial sector by making capital charges more sensitive to risk. Exploiting the staggered introduction of the model-based approach in Germany and the richness of our loan-level data set, we show that (1) internal risk estimates employed for regulatory purposes systematically underpredict actual default rates by 0.5 to 1 percentage points; (2) both default rates and loss rates are higher for loans that were originated under the model-based approach, while corresponding risk-weights are significantly lower; and (3) interest rates are higher for loans originated under the model-based approach, suggesting that banks were aware of the higher risk associated with these loans and priced them accordingly. Further, we document that large banks benefited from the reform as they experienced a reduction in capital charges and consequently expanded their lending at the expense of smaller banks that did not introduce the model-based approach. Counter to the stated objectives, the introduction of complex regulation adversely affected the credit risk of financial institutions. Overall, our results highlight the pitfalls of complex regulation and suggest that simpler rules may increase the efficacy of financial regulation.
We show that the correct experiment to evaluate the effects of a fiscal adjustment is the simulation of a multi year fiscal plan rather than of individual fiscal shocks. Simulation of fiscal plans adopted by 16 OECD countries over a 30-year period supports the hypothesis that the effects of consolidations depend on their design. Fiscal adjustments based upon spending cuts are much less costly, in terms of output losses, than tax-based ones and have especially low output costs when they consist of permanent rather than stop and go changes in taxes and spending. The difference between tax-based and spending-based adjustments appears not to be explained by accompanying policies, including monetary policy. It is mainly due to the different response of business confidence and private investment.
This paper investigates the risk channel of monetary policy on the asset side of banks’ balance sheets. We use a factoraugmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) model to show that aggregate lending standards of U.S. banks, such as their collateral requirements for firms, are significantly loosened in response to an unexpected decrease in the Federal Funds rate. Based on this evidence, we reformulate the costly state verification (CSV) contract to allow for an active financial intermediary, embed it in a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model, and show that – consistent with our empirical findings – an expansionary monetary policy shock implies a temporary increase in bank lending relative to borrower collateral. In the model, this is accompanied by a higher default rate of borrowers.
Are rules and boundaries sufficient to limit harmful central bank discretion? Lessons from Europe
(2014)
Marvin Goodfriend’s (2014) insightful, informative and provocative work explains concisely and convincingly why the Fed needs rules and boundaries. This paper reviews the broader institutional design problem regarding the effectiveness of the central bank in practice and confirms the need for rules and boundaries. The framework proposed for improving the Fed incorporates key elements that have already been adopted in the European Union. The case of ELA provision by the ECB and the Central Bank of Cyprus to Marfin-Laiki Bank during the crisis, however, suggests that the existence of rules and boundaries may not be enough to limit harmful discretion. During a crisis, novel interpretations of the legal authority of the central bank may be introduced to create a grey area that might be exploited to justify harmful discretionary decisions even in the presence of rules and boundaries. This raises the question how to ensure that rules and boundaries are respected in practice
This country report was prepared for the 19th World Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Vienna in 2014. It is structured as a questionnaire and provides an overview of the legal framework for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and other alternative license models like (e.g.) Creative Commons under German law. The first set of questions addresses the applicable statutory provisions and the reported case law in this area. The second section concerns contractual issues, in particular with regard to the interpretation and validity of open content licenses. The third section deals with copyright aspects of open content models, for example regarding revocation rights and rights to equitable remuneration. The final set of questions pertains to patent, trademark and competition law issues of open content licenses.
Concepts of legal capacity and legal subjectivity have developed gradually through intermediate stages. Accordingly, there are numerous types of legal subjects and partial legal subjects, and ever-new types can develop, at the latest once the law confronts new social and technological challenges. Today such challenges seem to be making themselves felt especially in the field of information and communication technologies. Their specific communicative conditions resulting from the technological networking of social communication have a particularly pronounced influence on legal attributions of identity and action, and hence above all on issues of liability in electronic commerce. Here in particular it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish concrete human actors and, for example, to identify them as authors of declarations of intent or even as individually responsible agencies of legal transgressions. The communicative processes in this area appear instead as new kinds of chains of effects whose actors seem to be more socio-technical ensembles of people and things – whereby the artificial components of these hybrid human being-thing linkages can sometimes even be represented as driving forces and independent agents.
“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, AND IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”. The slogan from George Orwell’s “1984” dystopia appears to capture the state of Russia’s 2014 official discourse quite accurately. This has not gone unnoticed by public and academic spectators in and outside Russia: while Bild magazine is counting Putin’s lies in his recent ARD interview, a Zeit article declares Russia itself to be a post-modern “lie”...
This article examines how the shale oil revolution has shaped the evolution of U.S. crude oil and gasoline prices. It puts the evolution of shale oil production into historical perspective, highlights uncertainties about future shale oil production, and cautions against the view that the U.S. may become the next Saudi Arabia. It then reviews the role of the ban on U.S. crude oil exports, of capacity constraints in refining and transporting crude oil, of differences in the quality of conventional and unconventional crude oil, and of the recent regional fragmentation of the global market for crude oil for the determination of U.S. oil and gasoline prices. It discusses the reasons for the persistent wedge between U.S. crude oil prices and global crude oil prices in recent years and for the fact that domestic oil prices below global levels need not translate to lower U.S. gasoline prices. It explains why the shale oil revolution unlike the shale gas revolution is unlikely to stimulate a boom in oil-intensive manufacturing industries. It also explores the implications of shale oil production for the transmission of oil price shocks to the U.S. economy.
One of the leading methods of estimating the structural parameters of DSGE models is the VAR-based impulse response matching estimator. The existing asympotic theory for this estimator does not cover situations in which the number of impulse response parameters exceeds the number of VAR model parameters. Situations in which this order condition is violated arise routinely in applied work. We establish the consistency of the impulse response matching estimator in this situation, we derive its asymptotic distribution, and we show how this distribution can be approximated by bootstrap methods. Our methods of inference remain asymptotically valid when the order condition is satisfied, regardless of whether the usual rank condition for the application of the delta method holds. Our analysis sheds new light on the choice of the weighting matrix and covers both weakly and strongly identified DSGE model parameters. We also show that under our assumptions special care is needed to ensure the asymptotic validity of Bayesian methods of inference. A simulation study suggests that the frequentist and Bayesian point and interval estimators we propose are reasonably accurate in finite samples. We also show that using these methods may affect the substantive conclusions in empirical work.
The impacts of climate and environmental changes on migration have gained increasing attention in recent years. Yet the role and significance of the climate as an influencing factor for migratory processes is still poorly understood. Case studies are required which consider the specific historical, socio-cultural and environmental context. The micle project examined the interactions between climate change, land degradation and migration in selected regions in the Sahelian countries Mali and Senegal.
Immune cells are key players in several physiological and pathophysiological events such as acute and chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis and cancer. Especially in acute inflammation, macrophages are indispensable for the switch from the acute inflammatory phase to the resolution phase. Not only the phagocytosis of apoptotic cells, but especially the surrounding cytokines and mediators are able to switch macrophage polarization from inflammatory- to anti-inflammatory phenotypes. Within this cytokine environment, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) plays an important role for immune cell activation, polarization and migration.
Heme-copper oxidases (HCOs) are the terminal enzymes of the aerobic respiratory chain in the inner mitochondrial membrane or the plasma membrane in many prokaryotes. These multi-subunit membrane protein complexes catalyze the reduction of oxygen to water, coupling this exothermic reaction to the establishment of an electrochemical proton gradient across the membrane in which they are embedded. The energy stored in the electrochemical proton gradient is used e.g. by the FOF1-ATP synthase to generate ATP from ADP and inorganic phosphate. The superfamily of HCOs is phylogenetically classified into three major families: A, B and C. The A-family HCOs, represented by the well-studied aa3-type cytochrome c oxidases (aa3-CcOs), are found in mitochondria and many bacteria. The B-family of HCOs contains a number of bacterial and archaeal oxidases. The C-family comprises only the cbb3-type cytochrome c oxidase (cbb3-CcO) and is most distantly related to the mitochondrial respiratory oxidases.
A second Yalta
(2014)
On 11 February, the World Fought back against Mass Surveillance. See those capital letters? They denote Things that Matter – somehow. We don’t necessarily know who ‘We’ are, what the ‘World’ is, nor whether the Mass Surveillance We’re against is the big and sexy kind run by acronymized (foreign) government agencies that We all recently learned about through Edward Snowden or the everyday kind conducted by means of cookies, computer profiles and GPS data we all send to whomever is watching in the course of a normal day’s activities, like checking Facebook, leaving the house to buy some bread or sending family pictures over the holidays via email. But ‘We’ ‘Fought’ ‘Them’, or maybe ‘It’.
The bloody rebellion in Syria has aroused hostilities between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, a religious conflict that dates back to the first Muslim civilwar and the Battle of Siffin in 657 AD which took place on the banks of the Euphrates river, in what is now Ar-Raqqah, Syria. Today we see how the conflict is again spreading from Syria to the rest of the Middle East in places like Tripoli in Libanon, Falludscha in Iraq and Sad’ah in Yemen. But how did it come to this?
Trust me, I’m an expert
(2014)
Given such phenomena as the dramatic leaks of the last decade, the vibrantand inflammatory discourse about ‘cyberwar’ and the conflation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement with the ‘backbone of the European economy’, regulation of what the Internet is supposed to be and what people are allowed to do in it is always and everywhere about security, whether users like it or not. And that regulation comes from people, special people we like to think of as experts.
With the current conflict in Gaza going full tilt, the usual questions have popped up: Who is to blame, what is everyone’s motivation and strategy, how to stop the bloodshed, how to end the conflict. And as usual, the two-state solution, i.e. two separate, sovereign states within the borders of the 1949 armistice agreement, keeps popping up as a purported solution. This is especially prominent in the statements of politicians in countries not directly involved in the conflict. Countries that at least claim to want to help end the conflict, be it through mediation or other diplomatic measures. But for those countries, the two-state solution has become an idea to hide behind. It does not help solve the conflict, neither in the short- nor mid-term. Clinging to the idea merely prolongs the status quo. However, it does allow the rest of the world to avoid facing the facts, which would force them to reevaluate their position on who to support and actually do something about the conflict as it currently is. But it’s high time we face the music and admit it: The two-state solution is no longer a viable option when it comes to mediating this conflict...
Out of area or out of business?: the bourgeois parochialism of international studies conferences
(2014)
Most face-to-face interaction with other IR types happens at conferences, and it’s easy to break conferences down by profile and inclusiveness. The ISA annual conference is supposed to rate pretty highly on both, and almost everyone has been a few times by the end of their post-grad careers. Then there are the conferences that are high profile but less inclusive. APSA, BISA, the ISA regional conferences, and the newly constituted EISA are fairly high profile in that most IR professionals have heard of them, but they’re less inclusive in that few of us would cross broad bodies of water and long customs lines to participate...
Soil water potential is crucial to plant transpiration and thus to carbon cycling and biosphere–atmosphere interactions, yet it is difficult to measure in the field. Volumetric and gravimetric water contents are easy and cheap to measure in the field, but can be a poor proxy of plant-available water. Soil water content can be transformed to water potential using soil moisture retention curves. We provide empirically derived soil moisture retention curves for seven soil types in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Site-specific curves produced excellent estimates of soil water potential from soil water content values. Curves from soils derived from the same geological substrate were similar, potentially allowing for the use of one curve for basalt soils and another for granite soils. It is anticipated that this dataset will help hydrologists and ecophysiologists understand water dynamics, carbon cycling and biosphere–atmosphere interactions under current and changing climatic conditions in the region.
Buff, red, grey – these are common descriptions of pottery in archaeology. Colour is usually part of the recording of ceramic data, but these data are rarely used for more than the most general characterisation of pottery. Despite hesitations concerning the subjective nature of these observations and other factors involved in colour notation, is has been shown that the data can lead the way to broader interpretations, and careful recording with a standardised system such as the Munsell colour charts may reduce the effects of personal perception. A sample of colour notations of pottery from Tell Mozan, Syria, is presented here as an example of the possibilities; it is hoped that this study will provide comparative data for other sites in the region.
Der Radiofrequenzquadrupol (RFQ) wird typischerweise als erstes beschleunigendes Element in Beschleunigeranlagen eingesetzt. Das elektrische Quadrupolfeld ermöglicht die gleichzeitige Fokussierung und Beschleunigung des Ionenstrahls. Zudem ist der RFQ in der Lage den Gleichstromstrahl von der Ionenquelle zu Teilchenpaketen (Bunche) zu formen, die von den nachfolgenden Driftröhrenbeschleunigern benötigt werden. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war die Untersuchung zur Realisierbarkeit eines 325 MHz 4-rod RFQ Beschleunigers. Die Frequenz von 325 MHz stellt eine ungewöhnlich hohe Betriebsfrequenz für die 4-rod Struktur dar und wird z.B. für den Protonenlinac des FAIR Projektes benötigt. Ein Problem hierbei war, dass durch die bauartbedingten unsymmetrischen Elektrodenaufhängung und der hohen Frequenz ein, das Quadrupolfeld überlagerndes, Dipolfeld erzeugt wird. Dieses störende Feld kann z.B. zu einem Versatz der Strahlachse führen. Hierzu wurde die 4-rod Struktur in Simulationen grundlegend auf Einflüsse von verschiedenen Parametern auf die Resonanzfrequenz und das Dipolfeld untersucht. Es wurden Lösungsstrategien erarbeitet das Diopolfeld zu kompensieren und auf einen Prototypen angewendet. Zudem wurde das Verhalten höherer Schwingungsmoden dieser Struktur simuliert. In diesem Rahmen wurden auch Simulationen zu Randfeldern zwischen den 4-rod Elektroden und der Tankwand untersucht, um nachteilige Effekte für die Strahlqualität auszuschließen. Basierend auf den Simulationsergebnissen wurde ein Prototyp angefertigt. Dieser Prototyp wurde zur Demonstration der Betriebseigenschaften mit Leistungen bis 40 kW getestet. Hierbei wurde die Elektrodenspannung mittels Gammaspektroskopie bestimmt und daraus die Shuntimpedanz berechnet. Diese Werte wurden mit anderen Methoden der Shuntimpedanzbes- timmung verglichen. Außerdem wurden alternative RFQ Resonatorkonzepte ebenfalls auf ihre Realisierbarkeit für den Protonenlinac untersucht. Die Einflüsse verschiedener Parameter auf die Betriebsfrequenz, die Möglichkeiten des Frequenztunings und der Einstellung der longitudinalen Spannungsverteilung gefertigter Modelle wurden in einer Diskussion gegenübergestellt.
The neuroanatomical connectivity of cortical circuits is believed to follow certain rules, the exact origins of which are still poorly understood. In particular, numerous nonrandom features, such as common neighbor clustering, overrepresentation of reciprocal connectivity, and overrepresentation of certain triadic graph motifs have been experimentally observed in cortical slice data. Some of these data, particularly regarding bidirectional connectivity are seemingly contradictory, and the reasons for this are unclear. Here we present a simple static geometric network model with distance-dependent connectivity on a realistic scale that naturally gives rise to certain elements of these observed behaviors, and may provide plausible explanations for some of the conflicting findings. Specifically, investigation of the model shows that experimentally measured nonrandom effects, especially bidirectional connectivity, may depend sensitively on experimental parameters such as slice thickness and sampling area, suggesting potential explanations for the seemingly conflicting experimental results.
Background: High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) with autologous stem-cell rescue (ASCR) is a treatment option for pediatric patients with relapsed nephroblastoma. We present long term results of 9 patients treated between 1993 and 2013 at our center.
Procedure: Reinduction therapy was carried out according to GPOH and SIOP recommendations. The conditioning regimen consisted of carboplatin (1 200 mg/m²), etoposide (800 mg/m² or 40 mg/kg) and melphalan (180 mg/m²). Purging of the grafts with immunomagnetic CD34 positive selection was performed in 5 patients.
Results: 8 of 9 Patients (90%) are alive without evidence of disease after a median follow-up of 8.5 years. Leukocyte engraftment occurred after a median of 10 days (range 8-12). Median numbers of 667/µl CD3+, 329/µl CD4+, 369/µl CD8+T cells and 949/µl B cells were reached after 180 days. No negative impact of CD34 selection was observed. No transplantation-related death occurred. Acute toxicity comprised mucositis III°-IV° in all and veno-occlusive disease in one patient. Long term effects probably related to treatment occurred in 3/7 evaluable patients and comprised hearing impairment, reduced renal phosphate reabsorption, mild creatinine elevation and hypothyroidism (n=1, each).
Conclusion: Thus, in our experience HDC with ASCR is an effective treatment of recurrent or refractory nephroblastoma with acceptable side effects. However, a randomized trial proving its efficiency with a high level of evidence is needed.
Introduction - Issue 7
(2014)
A recent trend in international development circles is "New Institutionalism". In a slogan, the idea is just that good institutions matter. The slogan itself is so innocuous as to be hardly worth comment. But the push to improve institutional quality has the potential to have a much less innocuous impact on aid efforts and other aspects of international development. This paper provides a critical introduction to some of the literature on institutional quality. It looks, in particular, at an argument for the conclusion that making aid conditional on good institutional quality will promote development by reducing poverty. This paper suggests that there is little theoretical or empirical evidence that this kind of conditionality is good for the poor.
Justice, not development : Sen and the hegemonic framework for ameliorating global inequality
(2014)
Starting from the merits of Sen's "Development as freedom", the article also explores its shortcomings. It argues that they are related to an uncritical adoption of the discourse of "development", which is the hegemonic framework for ameliorating global inequality today. This discourse implies certain limitations of thought and action, and the article points out three areas where urgent questions of global justice have been largely ignored by development theory and policy as a consequence. Struggles for justice on a global scale, this is the conclusion, should not take the detour of "development".
The debate about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) when they expire in 2015, is moving very quickly. Weighing in on this debate, we argue that if the SDGs are to be as effective as they can realistically be, concrete responsibilities must be assigned to specific competent actors, measurement methods involved in development targets must not be allowed to be changed midway, and the tracking of progress must be left to independent experts. New development goals should aim for inequality reduction, a more comprehensive view of poverty, and, most importantly, systemic reforms of global institutions. The world will not make decent progress against poverty until the most powerful agents accept real action commitments, not only in the marginal area of development assistance, but in all their policy and institutional design decisions, at both the domestic and especially the supranational level. We end with eight examples of institutional reform goals – ranging from deterring trade barriers to mitigating the effects of lost corporate tax revenues on poor populations – that should be included in the new list.
Rising powers are fundamentally shifting the relations of power in the global economic and political landscape. International political theory, however, has so far failed to evaluate this nascent multipolarity. This article fills this lacuna by synthesizing empirical and normative modes of inquiry. It examines the transformation of sovereignty exercised by emerging democracies and focuses especially on the case of Brazil. The paper shows that – in stark contrast to emerging democracies' foreign policy rhetoric – the "softening" of sovereignty, which means that emerging powers gain as well as lose certain aspects of sovereignty, has become the norm. The paper explores this softening of sovereignty from the perspective of global justice by assessing it on the basis of globalist, statist, and internationalist conceptions of global justice. We find that the emergent multipolarity contributes in various ways to the realization of the distinct socioeconomic and political criteria of these three conceptions of global justice. However, we also point out that the transformation of sovereignty generates particular problems for the realization of all three conceptions.
Facts about global justice
(2014)
The recent financial crisis highlighted the limits of the "originate to distribute" model of banking, but its nexus with the macroeconomy remains unexplored. I build a business cycle model with banks engaging in credit risk transfer (CRT) under informational externalities. Markets for CRT provide liquidity insurance to banks, but the emergence of a pooling equilibrium can also impair the banks’ monitoring incentives. In normal times and in face of standard macro shocks the insurance benefits of CRT prevail and the business cycle is stabilized. In face of financial/liquidity shocks the extent of informational asymmetries is larger and the business cycle is amplified. The macro model with CRT can also reproduce well a number of macro and banking statistics over the period of rapid growth of this banks’ business model.
Objective: To examine risk of malignancy and death in patients with kidney transplant who receive the immunosuppressive drug sirolimus.
Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data.
Data sources: Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from inception to March 2013.
Eligibility: Randomized controlled trials comparing immunosuppressive regimens with and without sirolimus in recipients of kidney or combined pancreatic and renal transplant for which the author was willing to provide individual patient level data. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full text reports of potentially eligible trials to identify studies for inclusion. All eligible trials reported data on malignancy or survival.
Results: The search yielded 2365 unique citations. Patient level data were available from 5876 patients from 21 randomized trials. Sirolimus was associated with a 40% reduction in the risk of malignancy (adjusted hazard ratio 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.39 to 0.93) and a 56% reduction in the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer (0.44, 0.30 to 0.63) compared with controls. The most pronounced effect was seen in patients who converted to sirolimus from an established immunosuppressive regimen, resulting in a reduction in risk of malignancy (0.34, 0.28 to 0.41), non-melanoma skin cancer (0.32, 0.24 to 0.42), and other cancers (0.52, 0.38 to 0.69). Sirolimus was associated with an increased risk of death (1.43, 1.21 to 1.71) compared with controls.
Conclusions: Sirolimus was associated with a reduction in the risk of malignancy and non-melanoma skin cancer in transplant recipients. The benefit was most pronounced in patients who converted from an established immunosuppressive regimen to sirolimus. Given the risk of mortality, however, the use of this drug does not seem warranted for most patients with kidney transplant. Further research is needed to determine if different populations, such as those at high risk of cancer, might benefit from sirolimus.
Library Buildings around the World" is a survey based on researches of several years. The objective was to gather library buildings on an international level starting with 1990.
The parts Germany, France, United Kingdom, United States have been thoroughly revised, supplemented and completed for this 2nd edition. A revision of the other countries is planned for the next edition.
Brachiacantha Dejean (Coccinellinae: Hyperaspidini), containing 49 species, is discussed, species described, illustrations provided, and a key to all recognized taxa included. Coccinella octopustulata F., Cleothera groendali Mulsant, Hyperaspis argentinica Weise, Hyperaspis blandula Weise, and Hyperaspis egae Crotch are transferred to Brachiacantha. Cleothera billoti parva Mulsant is recognized as a valid species and transferred to Brachiacantha. Brachiacantha arrowi Brèthes, Brachiacantha australe Leng, Brachiacantha manni Nunenmacher, and Brachiacantha propria Kirsch are recognized as synonyms of Brachiacantha groendali (Mulsant). A total of 29 new species of Brachiacantha are described; B. amber, B. anita, B. april, B. cathy, B. clara, B. charlotte, B. danielle, B. darlene, B. debbie, B. eleanor, B. emma, B. esther, B. eva, B. gail, B. hazel, B. jamie, B. joanne, B. jill, B. juanita, B. lauren, B. leslie, B. lynn, B. monica, B. pauline, B. pseudoarrowi, B. regina, B. sally, B. valerie, and B. veronica. Lectotypes are designated for B. argentinica (Weise), B. armandi (Mulsant), B. arrowi Brèthes, B. bahiensis Brethès, B. bilineata Weise, B. blandula Weise, B. bruchi Weise, B. loricata (Mulsant), B. octopustulata (F.), B. propria Kirsch.
Three new species of Pselnophorus are described from the Nearctic region. Pselnophorus chihuahuaensis Matthews, Gielis, and Watkins, Pselnophorus hodgesi Matthews, Gielis, and Watkins, and Pselnophorus kutisi Matthews, Gielis, and Watkins, are described and distinguished from the only previously named Nearctic congener Pselnophorus belfragei (Fish). Illustrations of the adults and male and female genitalia are provided along with a key to males.
The ladybeetle Anovia sp. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae: Noviini), known as an important natural enemy of the Colombian fluted scale, Crypticeria muticicatrices Kondo and Gullan (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Monophlebidae) is here identified as A. punica Gordon, 1972, and reported for the first time from Peru. Here we provide information and illustrations of the great variation in color and dorsal patterns of A. punica found in Colombia and Peru.
The fauna of the small carrion beetles and round fungus beetles (Leiodidae) of the oceanic islands of the West Indies is reviewed with 11 genera and 81 species recorded. Keys to adults of all genera and species, descriptions, and figures are provided to aid in identification. All species are endemic to the islands of the West Indies. Most species are endemic to a single island, but some species in the Lesser Antilles occur on more than one island. It is certain that more species remain to be discovered, especially on larger and less explored islands. Two new genera are described: Parvocyrtusa (type species Parvocyrtusa hispaniolensis), and Pseudolionothus (type species Pseudolionothus insularis). The genus Pseudoagathidium Angelini is reported from the New World for the first time with one species. The higher taxa and 61 new species and their island distributions are as follows: Cholevinae, Eucatopini, Eucatops Portevin (first West Indian record): E. annulus, Hispaniola. Ptomaphagini, Proptomaphaginus Szymczakowski (four species, no new taxa), Greater Antilles and Bahamas (new genus record). Anemadini, Dissochaetus Reitter (five species, one new species): D. santalucia, St. Lucia. Leiodinae, Agathidiini, Agathidium Panzer (first West Indian record): A. minutum, Hispaniola. Pseudoagathidium Angelini (first New World record): P. ignotum, St. Vincent. Leiodini, Isoplastus Horn (first West Indian record): I. hispaniolensis, Hispaniola. Zeadolopus Broun (five known species, 28 new species): Z. acinaces, Hispaniola; Z. angulatus, St. Vincent; Z. antiguensis, Antigua, Saba, Montserrat; Z. atratus, Cuba; Z. bahamensis, Bahamas Islands (Andros Island); Z. caborojo, Hispaniola; Z. carinatus, Jamaica; Z caymanensis, Cayman Islands (Grand Cayman); Z. cubensis, Cuba; Z. dominica, Dominica; Z. exiguus, Hispaniola; Z. flavidus, Cuba; Z. hatomayor, Hispaniola; Z. hispaniolensis, Hispaniola; Z. iviei, Hispaniola; Z. jarabacoa, Hispaniola; Z. lavega, Hispaniola; Z. longipes, Hispaniola; Z. lucidus, Cuba; Z. miniusculus, Hispaniola; Z. nanus, Hispaniola; Z. nesiotes, St. Lucia and Martinique; Z. oviedoensis, Hispaniola; Z. parvantilliensis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada; Z. paulus, Hispaniola; Z. pedernales, Hispaniola; Z. pusillus, Cuba. Parvocyrtusa (new genus, one new species): P. hispaniolensis, Hispaniola. Pseudolionothus (new genus, two new species): P. andersoni, Cuba; P. insularis, Hispaniola. Scotocryptini, Aglyptinus Cockerell (five known species, 19 new species): A. angulatus, Hispaniola; A. bahamensis, Bahamas Islands (Andros Island); A. biserriatus, Cuba; A. capitaneus, Cuba; A. dominica, Dominica; A. fortipunctatus, Cuba; A. grandis, Hispaniola; A. grenadensis, Grenada; A. hemipterus, Jamaica; A. hispaniolensis, Hispaniola; A. longipalpus, Hispaniola; A. luciae, St. Lucia; A. maculatus, Jamaica; A. martiniquensis, Martinique; A. minutus, Cuba; A. parvoculus, Jamaica; A. parvus, St. Lucia; A. sinuatus, Cuba; A. vincentii, St. Vincent. Creagrophorus Matthews (one known species, seven new species): C. bicolor, Martinique; C. cubensis, Cuba; C. dominica, Dominica; C. hispaniolensis, Hispaniola; C. microdentatus, Hispaniola; C. santalucia, St. Lucia; C. unidentatus, St. Vincent and Grenada.
A new species of soft scale from Mexico, Toumeyella martinezi Kondo and Gonzalez sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Coccidae) collected on Myrtillocactus geometrizans (Mart. ex Pfeiff.) Console (Cactaceae) is described and illustrated. An updated taxonomic key to the soft scale insects of the genus Toumeyella Cockerell known from Mexico is provided. A list of all currently known species of Toumeyella worldwide is given.
We provide new state and county records of biting midges in the genus Culicoides Latreille (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) from the southeastern United States collected with CDC miniature light traps during 2007–2012 in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. The primary goals of the surveys were to identify the presence of exotic Culicoides, and determine the ranges of known and possible vectors of bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV). Included are the fi rst records of: Culicoides (Amossovia) beckae Wirth and Blanton from Louisiana and Mississippi, C. (A.) oklahomensis Khalaf from Alabama and Arkansas, C. (Avaritia) alachua Jamnback and Wirth from Alabama, C. (Culicoides) neopulicaris Wirth from Alabama, C. (Drymodesmyia) butleri Wirth and Hubert from Texas, C. (Hoffmania) insignis Lutz from Mississippi, C. (Oecacta) barbosai Wirth and Blanton from Georgia, C. (Silvaticulicoides) loisae Jamnback from Alabama, and C. kirbyi Glick and Mullen from Mississippi. We also provide new Florida county records for C. alachua, C. barbosai, C. (Beltranmyia) hollensis (Melander and Brues), C. insignis, and C. (Monoculicoides) sonorensis Wirth and Jones; a new Georgia county record for C. alachua; and new Alabama county records for C. insignis, and C. sonorensis.
A revised checklist for the butterfl y families Hedylidae and Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) of Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago) is presented, bringing nomenclature in line with modern usage, and indicating synonyms from earlier lists and papers. The following are new records for Trinidad: Thessia athesis (Hewitson), Bungalotis clusia Evans, Sarmientoia eriopis (Hewitson), Pellicia tyana toza Evans, Quadrus contubernalis contubernalis (Mabille) and Decinea decinea derisor (Mabille). The checklist includes two species of Hedylidae and 314 species of 157 genera of Hesperiidae, comprising 87 species of 37 genera of Eudaminae, 73 species of 41 genera of Pyrginae, and 154 species of 80 genera of Hesperiinae.
We clarify the taxonomy and nomenclature of several species-group names and the family-group name for the anticheirine scarabs (Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Rutelini), a group that includes nearly 550 species and subspecies in 44 genera and subgenera. These clarifications are necessary due to taxonomic and nomenclatural inaccuracies in recent revisionary works. We provide a list of genera included in the anticheirine scarabs sensu Soula. Numerous nomenclatural changes are necessary due to invalid type designations or misspellings: the valid type species of Aequatoria Arrow is Chlorota associata Waterhouse; the valid type species of Chlorota Burmeister is Rutela terminata Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau and Audinet-Serville; the valid type species of Dorysthetus Blanchard is Macraspis chlorophana Burmeister; the valid type species of Anticheira Eschscholtz is Scarabaeus virens Drury. Changes to the type species of Anticheira result in new combinations: Anticheira virens virens (Drury), new combination, Anticheira virens bleuzeni (Soula), new combination and Anticheira virens jossi (Soula), new combination. Some anticheirine species names were not associated with species descriptions or type designations, making these names nomina nuda and unavailable: “Chlorota smithi”, “Macraspis cincta guatemalensis”, “Parachlorota equatoriana”, “Parachlorota pardoi”, “Pseudothyridium (Megathyridium) bousqueti”, “Theuremaripa rivae brasiliensis” and “Thyridium cupriventre blanchardi”. Dorysthaetus rufipennis Dejean is a nomen nudum and an unavailable name. We correct numerous misspellings from Soula’s five volumes on anticheirine scarabs and provide a list to avoid propagation of these errors by future researchers. Eighteen names are unavailable infrasubspecific names, and thirty-six of Soula’s names were misspelled. These names confuse and obscure ruteline systematics. Lastly, we provide a comprehensive list of infrasubspecific names in the anticheirine scarabs and we establish these as available or unavailable names.
Pocket gopher burrows were sampled from 22 counties within Arkansas to determine the associated faunal composition of three major families of Coleoptera (Histeridae, Leiodidae and Scarabaeidae) commonly associated with pocket gopher burrows. We collected eight species of Histeridae, four species of Leiodidae and eight species of Scarabaeidae from the burrows of Geomys breviceps Baird. Three of the Histeridae were new state records, Geomysaprinus goffi Ross, G. rugosifrons (Fall) and Margarinotus felipae (Lewis). All of the Leiodidae were new state records and one Scarabaeidae was a new state record, Dellacasiellus concavus (Say). The most commonly collected scarab beetles were Cryptoscatomaseter haldemani (Horn) and Geomyphilus insolitus (Brown). The most commonly collected hister beetle was Onthophilus kirni Ross. The Leiodidae were infrequently captured.
Trixagus steineri (Coleoptera: Throscidae), a new species and first genus record from The Bahamas
(2014)
Trixagus Kugelann 1794 is the second largest genus of Throscidae with 80 valid species presently assigned. Horn (1885, 1890) reviewed the species for the United States and Mesoamerica, and then Blanchard (1917) revised part of the family for Canada and the United States in a posthumous article edited by H.C. Fall. Schenkling (1928) provided the only published worldwide catalog. Yensen (1975) provided a modern revision for the species for Canada and the United States, and then (Yensen 1980) described T. cobosi from Panama and provided a new key to all of the described American species. Among these studies only T. chevrolati (Bonvouloir 1859) was recorded from southern Florida, thus being a species potentially shared with The Bahamas. Aulonothroscus bicarinatus Fleutiaux (1911, 1947) (Blackwelder 1944), from Guadeloupe, is the only other throscid species previously described from the West Indies. Prior to the work of Lawrence and Newton (1995) the subfamily Lissominae received divergent treatment and was usually treated as a subfamily of Throscidae (e.g., Schenkling 1928, Blackwelder 1944, Yensen 1975). This subfamily is represented in The Bahamas by two species of Drapetes Megerle 1821 (Turnbow and Thomas 2008). Representation of the subsequently restricted family in The Bahamas was provided by two undetermined species of Aulonothroscus Horn listed by Turnbow and Thomas (2008) from Andros, Eleuthera, and Great Inagua islands; these will be treated separately from here. The reporting of a new species of Trixagus from New Providence Island provides a second genus from the country and the entire Lucayan Archipelago, and suggests that related species of both genera from Hispaniola and Cuba are probable and await discovery (Peck 2005; Perez-Gelabert 2008).