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Plants, fungi and algae are important components of global biodiversity and are fundamental to all ecosystems. They are the basis for human well-being, providing food, materials and medicines. Specimens of all three groups of organisms are accommodated in herbaria, where they are commonly referred to as botanical specimens.The large number of specimens in herbaria provides an ample, permanent and continuously improving knowledge base on these organisms and an indispensable source for the analysis of the distribution of species in space and time critical for current and future research relating to global biodiversity. In order to make full use of this resource, a research infrastructure has to be built that grants comprehensive and free access to the information in herbaria and botanical collections in general. This can be achieved through digitization of the botanical objects and associated data.The botanical research community can count on a long-standing tradition of collaboration among institutions and individuals. It agreed on data standards and standard services even before the advent of computerization and information networking, an example being the Index Herbariorum as a global registry of herbaria helping towards the unique identification of specimens cited in the literature.In the spirit of this collaborative history, 51 representatives from 30 institutions advocate to start the digitization of botanical collections with the overall wall-to-wall digitization of the flat objects stored in German herbaria. Germany has 70 herbaria holding almost 23 million specimens according to a national survey carried out in 2019. 87% of these specimens are not yet digitized. Experiences from other countries like France, the Netherlands, Finland, the US and Australia show that herbaria can be comprehensively and cost-efficiently digitized in a relatively short time due to established workflows and protocols for the high-throughput digitization of flat objects.Most of the herbaria are part of a university (34), fewer belong to municipal museums (10) or state museums (8), six herbaria belong to institutions also supported by federal funds such as Leibniz institutes, and four belong to non-governmental organizations. A common data infrastructure must therefore integrate different kinds of institutions.Making full use of the data gained by digitization requires the set-up of a digital infrastructure for storage, archiving, content indexing and networking as well as standardized access for the scientific use of digital objects. A standards-based portfolio of technical components has already been developed and successfully tested by the Biodiversity Informatics Community over the last two decades, comprising among others access protocols, collection databases, portals, tools for semantic enrichment and annotation, international networking, storage and archiving in accordance with international standards. This was achieved through the funding by national and international programs and initiatives, which also paved the road for the German contribution to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).Herbaria constitute a large part of the German botanical collections that also comprise living collections in botanical gardens and seed banks, DNA- and tissue samples, specimens preserved in fluids or on microscope slides and more. Once the herbaria are digitized, these resources can be integrated, adding to the value of the overall research infrastructure. The community has agreed on tasks that are shared between the herbaria, as the German GBIF model already successfully demonstrates.We have compiled nine scientific use cases of immediate societal relevance for an integrated infrastructure of botanical collections. They address accelerated biodiversity discovery and research, biomonitoring and conservation planning, biodiversity modelling, the generation of trait information, automated image recognition by artificial intelligence, automated pathogen detection, contextualization by interlinking objects, enabling provenance research, as well as education, outreach and citizen science.We propose to start this initiative now in order to valorize German botanical collections as a vital part of a worldwide biodiversity data pool.
Das Herbarium des Pfarrers Adolf Becker, gesammelt zwischen 1833 und 1863, wurde nachbestimmt. Bei der Mehrzahl der etwa 200 mit Fundorten versehenen Belege handelt es sich um Kulturpflanzen, die vornehmlich in Parkanlagen von Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe und Okarben gesammelt wurden. Diese geben einen Eindruck von den erstaunlich reichhaltigen Bepflanzungen jener Zeit. 81 von uns als Wildpflanzen klassifizierte Arten wurden zumeist um Okarben gesammelt. Wegen ihres Rückganges oder aktuellen Fehlens sind die Belege von Apium graveolens, A. nodiflorum, Juncus gerardii, Nigella arvensis und Oenanthe fistulosa bemerkenswert.
Weitere Notiz zum Erscheinungsdatum der "Flora der Gegend um Frankfurt am Main" von Johannes Becker
(2020)
Der zweite Band von Johannes Beckers "Flora der Gegend um Frankfurt am Main" (Cryptogamie) wurde offenbar zusammen mit dem ersten Teil bereits 1827 herausgegeben. Lediglich ein kleiner Teil ("Zweiter Theil. Kernschwämme") sowie wenige Seiten Nachträge zu Teil 1 wurden vor dem 5. September 1828 publiziert. Dank einer Notiz des Verlegers sowie eines Schreibens Beckers an den Senat der Stadt Frankfurt muss das Erscheinungsdatum dieser Teile nunmehr vorverlegt werden.
Plant diversity change for cities and their surroundings is well documented. For rural areas such studies are difficult as literature data are mostly insufficient. We reconstructed phytodiversity change in the Feldatal community (Germany, Hesse) by comparison of historical herbarium collections (1945–1976, Hans Hupke) with a recent floristic survey (2012). The study area is a rural area typical for Central Europe, dominated by agriculture and forestry and with a stable human population. Floristic diversity decreased (683 to 497 species; 31% of the total flora), principally by disappearance of species of unimproved grassland, fields and villages. The small number of newly documented species (33 spp.; 5% of total flora) comprises mostly naturalized ornamentals and salt tolerant species along roads. Plant diversity change of the last decades in rural landscapes in Central Europe was mainly dependent on the intensification of agriculture.
Background: Physical activity is an important part of life, and hence exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) can reduce the quality of life. A standardized test is needed to diagnose EIB. The American Thoracic Society (ATS) guidelines recommend an exercise challenge in combination with dry air. We investigated the feasibility of a new, ATS guidelines conform exercise challenge in a cold chamber (ECC) to detect EIB. The aim of this study was to investigate the surrogate marker reaction to methacholine, ECC and exercise challenge in ambient temperature for the prediction of a positive reaction and to re-evaluate the reproducibility of the response to an ECC.
Methods: Seventy-eight subjects aged 6 to 40 years with suspected EIB were recruited for the study. The subjects performed one methacholine challenge, two ECCs, and one exercise challenge at an ambient temperature. To define the sensitivity and specificity of the predictor, a receiver-operating characteristic curve was plotted. The repeatability was evaluated using the method described by Bland and Altman (95% Limits of agreement).
Results: The following cut-off values showed the best combination of sensitivity and specificity: the provocation dose causing a 20% decrease in the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (PD20FEV1) of methacholine: 1.36 mg (AUC 0.69, p < 0.05), the maximal decrease in FEV1 during the ECC: 8.5% (AUC 0.78, p < 0.001) and exercise challenges at ambient temperatures: FEV1 5.2% (AUC 0.64, p = 0.13). The median decline in FEV1 was 14.5% (0.0–64.2) during the first ECC and 10.7% (0.0–52.5) during the second ECC. In the comparison of both ECCs, the Spearman rank correlation of the FEV1 decrease was r = 0.58 (p < 0.001). The 95% limits of agreement (95% LOAs) for the FEV1 decrease were − 17.7 to 26.4%.
Conclusions: The surrogate markers PD20FEV1 of methacholine and maximal decrease in FEV1 during ECC can predict a positive reaction in another ECC, whereas the maximal FEV1 decrease in an exercise challenge at an ambient temperature was not predictive. Compared with previous studies, we can achieve a similar reproducibility with an ECC.
Clinical trial registration: NCT02026492 (retrospectively registered 03/Jan/2014).
The year 1989 represents the starting point of the cooperation between botanists of the Goethe-University in Frankfurt (Germany) and of the University of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Some years later, the University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) joined the cooperation. This paper gives an overview on joint projects, resulting publications and theses, and on other achievements of this fruitful cooperation, which meanwhile also comprises partners of Ivory Coast, Niger and Senegal.
Background: The West African country of Burkina Faso (BFA) is an example for the enduring importance of traditional plant use today. A large proportion of its 17 million inhabitants lives in rural communities and strongly depends on local plant products for their livelihood. However, literature on traditional plant use is still scarce and a comprehensive analysis for the country is still missing.
Methods: In this study we combine the information of a recently published plant checklist with information from ethnobotanical literature for a comprehensive, national scale analysis of plant use in Burkina Faso. We quantify the application of plant species in 10 different use categories, evaluate plant use on a plant family level and use the relative importance index to rank all species in the country according to their usefulness. We focus on traditional medicine and quantify the use of plants as remedy against 22 classes of health disorders, evaluate plant use in traditional medicine on the level of plant families and rank all species used in traditional medicine according to their respective usefulness.
Results: A total of 1033 species (50%) in Burkina Faso had a documented use. Traditional medicine, human nutrition and animal fodder were the most important use categories. The 12 most common plant families in BFA differed considerably in their usefulness and application. Fabaceae, Poaceae and Malvaceae were the plant families with the most used species. In this study Khaya senegalensis, Adansonia digitata and Diospyros mespiliformis were ranked the top useful plants in BFA. Infections/Infestations, digestive system disorders and genitourinary disorders are the health problems most commonly addressed with medicinal plants. Fabaceae, Poaceae, Asteraceae, Apocynaceae, Malvaceae and Rubiaceae were the most important plant families in traditional medicine. Tamarindus indica, Vitellaria paradoxa and Adansonia digitata were ranked the most important medicinal plants.
Conclusions: The national-scale analysis revealed systematic patterns of traditional plant use throughout BFA. These results are of interest for applied research, as a detailed knowledge of traditional plant use can a) help to communicate conservation needs and b) facilitate future research on drug screening.
The neutron sensitivity of the C6D6 detector setup used at n_TOF facility for capture measurements has been studied by means of detailed GEANT4 simulations. A realistic software replica of the entire n_TOF experimental hall, including the neutron beam line, sample, detector supports and the walls of the experimental area has been implemented in the simulations. The simulations have been analyzed in the same manner as experimental data, in particular by applying the Pulse Height Weighting Technique. The simulations have been validated against a measurement of the neutron background performed with a natC sample, showing an excellent agreement above 1 keV. At lower energies, an additional component in the measured natC yield has been discovered, which prevents the use of natC data for neutron background estimates at neutron energies below a few hundred eV. The origin and time structure of the neutron background have been derived from the simulations. Examples of the neutron background for two different samples are demonstrating the important role of accurate simulations of the neutron background in capture cross-section measurements.
The neutron capture cross section of 58Ni was measured at the neutron time of flight facility n_TOF at CERN, from 27 meV to 400 keV neutron energy. Special care has been taken to identify all the possible sources of background, with the so-called neutron background obtained for the first time using high-precision GEANT4 simulations. The energy range up to 122 keV was treated as the resolved resonance region, where 51 resonances were identified and analyzed by a multilevel R-matrix code SAMMY. Above 122 keV the code SESH was used in analyzing the unresolved resonance region of the capture yield. Maxwellian averaged cross sections were calculated in the temperature range of kT = 5 – 100 keV, and their astrophysical implications were investigated.