TY - JOUR A1 - Öztürk, Ugur A1 - Bozzolan, Elisa A1 - Holcombe, Elizabeth A. A1 - Shukla, Roopam A1 - Pianosi, Francesca A1 - Wagener, Thorsten T1 - How climate change and unplanned urban sprawl bring more landslides JF - Nature : the international weekly journal of science N2 - More settlements will suffer as heavy rains and unregulated construction destabilize slopes in the tropics, models show. KW - Geophysics KW - Engineering KW - Climate change KW - Policy Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02141-9 SN - 0028-0836 SN - 1476-4687 VL - 608 IS - 7922 SP - 262 EP - 265 PB - Nature portfolio CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Çabuk, Uğur A1 - Ünlü, Ercan Selçuk T1 - A combined de novo assembly approach increases the quality of prokaryotic draft genomes JF - Folia microbiologica : international journal for general, environmental and applied microbiology, and immunology N2 - Next-generation sequencing methods provide comprehensive data for the analysis of structural and functional analysis of the genome. The draft genomes with low contig number and high N50 value can give insight into the structure of the genome as well as provide information on the annotation of the genome. In this study, we designed a pipeline that can be used to assemble prokaryotic draft genomes with low number of contigs and high N50 value. We aimed to use combination of two de novo assembly tools (SPAdes and IDBA-Hybrid) and evaluate the impact of this approach on the quality metrics of the assemblies. The followed pipeline was tested with the raw sequence data with short reads (< 300) for a total of 10 species from four different genera. To obtain the final draft genomes, we firstly assembled the sequences using SPAdes to find closely related organism using the extracted 16 s rRNA from it. IDBA-Hybrid assembler was used to obtain the second assembly data using the closely related organism genome. SPAdes assembler tool was implemented using the second assembly, produced by IDBA-hybrid as a hint. The results were evaluated using QUAST and BUSCO. The pipeline was successful for the reduction of the contig numbers and increasing the N50 statistical values in the draft genome assemblies while preserving the coverage of the draft genomes. KW - De novo assembly KW - Prokaryotes KW - Bacteria KW - NGS KW - Short reads KW - Draft genome Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12223-022-00980-7 SN - 0015-5632 SN - 1874-9356 VL - 67 SP - 801 EP - 810 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ángel Puig-Samper, Miguel ED - Ette, Ottmar ED - Knobloch, Eberhard T1 - Humboldt and his geographical album of New Spain JF - HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; International Review for Humboldtian Studies N2 - During his trip to New Spain in 1803, Alexander von Humboldt visited large tracts of New Spanish territory, which includes modern Mexico and part of the United States. This trip provided the data for his geographical Atlas of the region, as well as information about the ancient Mexican cultures that he would later include in the general Atlas and in other major works, such as Vues des Cordillères. Likewise, Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain displayed a comprehensive physical, natural, economic, and social description of Mexico in the colonial period, which will also be analysed. With these works, Humboldt presented a new geographical and cultural image of New Spain to the European audiences. In addition to this, his work made important contributions to cartographic knowledge. N2 - Alexander von Humboldt en su viaje a Nueva España en 1803 tuvo la oportunidad de viajar por gran parte del territorio novohispano, que incluye Mexico y parte de del actual territorio de Estados Unidos. Este viaje le permitió preparar un Atlas geográfico de la región, además de obtener información sobre las antiguas culturas mexicanas que luego plasmará en el Atlas general del viaje y en algunas de sus principales obras como Vues des Cordillères. Asimismo, Humboldt hizo una excelente descripción física, natural, económica y social de México en la época colonial en su Ensayo político sobre el Reino de la Nueva España que también será analizado. Con estas obras Humboldt logró ofrecer una nueva imagen del territorio novohispano y sus riquezas al mundo europeo, así como un conocimiento cartográfico de gran importancia. N2 - Alexander von Humboldt, lors de son voyage en Nouvelle-Espagne en 1803, a eu l’occasion de parcourir une grande partie du territoire de la Nouvelle-Espagne, qui comprend le Mexique et une partie du territoire actuel des États-Unis. Ce voyage lui a permis de préparer un Atlas géographique de la région, ainsi que d’obtenir des informations sur les anciennes cultures mexicaines qu'il inclura plus tard dans l’Atlas général du voyage et dans certaines de ses œuvres principales comme Vues des Cordillères. Humboldt a également donné une excellente description physique, naturelle, économique et sociale du Mexique à l’époque coloniale dans son Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, qui sera également analysé. Avec ces travaux, Humboldt a réussi à offrir au monde européen une nouvelle image du Nouveau territoire espagnol et de ses richesses, de même qu’une connaissance cartographique de grande importance. KW - New Spain KW - Mexico KW - geographical album Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-592335 SN - 2568-3543 SN - 1617-5239 VL - XXIII IS - 45 SP - 29 EP - 71 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zöller, Gert T1 - A note on the estimation of the maximum possible earthquake magnitude based on extreme value theory for the Groningen Gas Field JF - The bulletin of the Seismological Society of America : BSSA N2 - Extreme value statistics is a popular and frequently used tool to model the occurrence of large earthquakes. The problem of poor statistics arising from rare events is addressed by taking advantage of the validity of general statistical properties in asymptotic regimes. In this note, I argue that the use of extreme value statistics for the purpose of practically modeling the tail of the frequency-magnitude distribution of earthquakes can produce biased and thus misleading results because it is unknown to what degree the tail of the true distribution is sampled by data. Using synthetic data allows to quantify this bias in detail. The implicit assumption that the true M-max is close to the maximum observed magnitude M-max,M-observed restricts the class of the potential models a priori to those with M-max = M-max,M-observed + Delta M with an increment Delta M approximate to 0.5... 1.2. This corresponds to the simple heuristic method suggested by Wheeler (2009) and labeled :M-max equals M-obs plus an increment." The incomplete consideration of the entire model family for the frequency-magnitude distribution neglects, however, the scenario of a large so far unobserved earthquake. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1785/0120210307 SN - 0037-1106 SN - 1943-3573 VL - 112 IS - 4 SP - 1825 EP - 1831 PB - Seismological Society of America CY - El Cerito, Calif. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zurell, Damaris A1 - König, Christian A1 - Malchow, Anne-Kathleen A1 - Kapitza, Simon A1 - Bocedi, Greta A1 - Travis, Justin M. J. A1 - Fandos, Guillermo T1 - Spatially explicit models for decision-making in animal conservation and restoration JF - Ecography : pattern and diversity in ecology / Nordic Ecologic Society Oikos N2 - Models are useful tools for understanding and predicting ecological patterns and processes. Under ongoing climate and biodiversity change, they can greatly facilitate decision-making in conservation and restoration and help designing adequate management strategies for an uncertain future. Here, we review the use of spatially explicit models for decision support and to identify key gaps in current modelling in conservation and restoration. Of 650 reviewed publications, 217 publications had a clear management application and were included in our quantitative analyses. Overall, modelling studies were biased towards static models (79%), towards the species and population level (80%) and towards conservation (rather than restoration) applications (71%). Correlative niche models were the most widely used model type. Dynamic models as well as the gene-to-individual level and the community-to-ecosystem level were underrepresented, and explicit cost optimisation approaches were only used in 10% of the studies. We present a new model typology for selecting models for animal conservation and restoration, characterising model types according to organisational levels, biological processes of interest and desired management applications. This typology will help to more closely link models to management goals. Additionally, future efforts need to overcome important challenges related to data integration, model integration and decision-making. We conclude with five key recommendations, suggesting that wider usage of spatially explicit models for decision support can be achieved by 1) developing a toolbox with multiple, easier-to-use methods, 2) improving calibration and validation of dynamic modelling approaches and 3) developing best-practise guidelines for applying these models. Further, more robust decision-making can be achieved by 4) combining multiple modelling approaches to assess uncertainty, and 5) placing models at the core of adaptive management. These efforts must be accompanied by long-term funding for modelling and monitoring, and improved communication between research and practise to ensure optimal conservation and restoration outcomes. KW - adaptive management KW - biodiversity conservation KW - cost optimisation KW - ecosystem restoration KW - global change KW - predictive models Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05787 SN - 1600-0587 IS - 4 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zuhr, Alexandra M. A1 - Dolman, Andrew M. A1 - Ho, Sze Ling A1 - Groeneveld, Jeroen A1 - Loewemark, Ludvig A1 - Grotheer, Hendrik A1 - Su, Chih-Chieh A1 - Laepple, Thomas T1 - Age-heterogeneity in marine sediments revealed by three-dimensional high-resolution radiocarbon measurements JF - Frontiers in Earth Science N2 - Marine sedimentary archives are routinely used to reconstruct past environmental changes. In many cases, bioturbation and sedimentary mixing affect the proxy time-series and the age-depth relationship. While idealized models of bioturbation exist, they usually assume homogeneous mixing, thus that a single sample is representative for the sediment layer it is sampled from. However, it is largely unknown to which extent this assumption holds for sediments used for paleoclimate reconstructions. To shed light on 1) the age-depth relationship and its full uncertainty, 2) the magnitude of mixing processes affecting the downcore proxy variations, and 3) the representativity of the discrete sample for the sediment layer, we designed and performed a case study on South China Sea sediment material which was collected using a box corer and which covers the last glacial cycle. Using the radiocarbon content of foraminiferal tests as a tracer of time, we characterize the spatial age-heterogeneity of sediments in a three-dimensional setup. In total, 118 radiocarbon measurements were performed on defined small- and large-volume bulk samples ( similar to 200 specimens each) to investigate the horizontal heterogeneity of the sediment. Additionally, replicated measurements on small numbers of specimens (10 x 5 specimens) were performed to assess the heterogeneity within a sample volume. Visual assessment of X-ray images and a quantitative assessment of the mixing strength show typical mixing from bioturbation corresponding to around 10 cm mixing depth. Notably, our 3D radiocarbon distribution reveals that the horizontal heterogeneity (up to 1,250 years), contributing to the age uncertainty, is several times larger than the typically assumed radiocarbon based age-model error (single errors up to 250 years). Furthermore, the assumption of a perfectly bioturbated layer with no mixing underneath is not met. Our analysis further demonstrates that the age-heterogeneity might be a function of sample size; smaller samples might contain single features from the incomplete mixing and are thus less representative than larger samples. We provide suggestions for future studies, optimal sampling strategies for quantitative paleoclimate reconstructions and realistic uncertainty in age models, as well as discuss possible implications for the interpretation of paleoclimate records. KW - paleoceanography KW - radiocarbon KW - age-heterogeneity KW - marine sediments KW - planktonic foraminifera KW - bioturbation KW - agemodeling KW - South China Sea Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.871902 SN - 2296-6463 VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zoccarato, Luca A1 - Sher, Daniel A1 - Miki, Takeshi A1 - Segre, Daniel A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter T1 - A comparative whole-genome approach identifies bacterial traits for marine microbial interactions JF - Communications biology N2 - Luca Zoccarato, Daniel Sher et al. leverage publicly available bacterial genomes from marine and other environments to examine traits underlying microbial interactions. Their results provide a valuable resource to investigate clusters of functional and linked traits to better understand marine bacteria community assembly and dynamics. Microbial interactions shape the structure and function of microbial communities with profound consequences for biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem health. Yet, most interaction mechanisms are studied only in model systems and their prevalence is unknown. To systematically explore the functional and interaction potential of sequenced marine bacteria, we developed a trait-based approach, and applied it to 473 complete genomes (248 genera), representing a substantial fraction of marine microbial communities. We identified genome functional clusters (GFCs) which group bacterial taxa with common ecology and life history. Most GFCs revealed unique combinations of interaction traits, including the production of siderophores (10% of genomes), phytohormones (3-8%) and different B vitamins (57-70%). Specific GFCs, comprising Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria, displayed more interaction traits than expected by chance, and are thus predicted to preferentially interact synergistically and/or antagonistically with bacteria and phytoplankton. Linked trait clusters (LTCs) identify traits that may have evolved to act together (e.g., secretion systems, nitrogen metabolism regulation and B vitamin transporters), providing testable hypotheses for complex mechanisms of microbial interactions. Our approach translates multidimensional genomic information into an atlas of marine bacteria and their putative functions, relevant for understanding the fundamental rules that govern community assembly and dynamics. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03184-4 SN - 2399-3642 VL - 5 IS - 1 PB - Springer Nature CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zimmermann, Andreas A1 - Schabedoth, John Alexander T1 - Domestic and international criminal justice BT - challenges ahead JF - KFG working paper series N2 - This paper consists of two parts: In the first part, some of the challenges with which the Internationaal Criminal Court is currently confronted are being presented. First of all, the article will describe the current state of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statue. Afterwards, the article analyses the Court’s efforts to deal with cases against third-country nationals and the challenges it is facing in that regard. In addition, the Court’s case law will be analyzed in order to determine an increasing ‘emancipation’ of the case law of the International Criminal Court from international humanitarian law. The second part of the paper will briefly discuss the role of domestic international criminal law and domestic courts in the further development and enforcement of international criminal law. As an example of the role that domestic courts may have in clarifying classic issues in international law, the judgment of the German Supreme Court of January 28, 2021 (3 StR 564/19), which deals with the status of costumary international law on functional immunity of State officials before domestic courts, shall be assessed. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4087189 SN - 2509-3762 SN - 2509-3770 IS - 57 PB - Berlin Potsdam Research Group International Law - Rise or Decline? CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zielhofer, Christoph A1 - Schmidt, Johannes A1 - Reiche, Niklas A1 - Tautenhahn, Marie A1 - Ballasus, Helen A1 - Burkart, Michael A1 - Linstädter, Anja A1 - Dietze, Elisabeth A1 - Kaiser, Knut A1 - Mehler, Natascha T1 - The lower Havel River Region (Brandenburg, Germany) BT - a 230-Year-Long historical map record indicates a decrease in surface water areas and groundwater levels JF - Water N2 - Instrumental data show that the groundwater and lake levels in Northeast Germany have decreased over the past decades, and this process has accelerated over the past few years. In addition to global warming, the direct influence of humans on the local water balance is suspected to be the cause. Since the instrumental data usually go back only a few decades, little is known about the multidecadal to centennial-scale trend, which also takes long-term climate variation and the long-term influence by humans on the water balance into account. This study aims to quantitatively reconstruct the surface water areas in the Lower Havel Inner Delta and of adjacent Lake Gulpe in Brandenburg. The analysis includes the calculation of surface water areas from historical and modern maps from 1797 to 2020. The major finding is that surface water areas have decreased by approximately 30% since the pre-industrial period, with the decline being continuous. Our data show that the comprehensive measures in Lower Havel hydro-engineering correspond with groundwater lowering that started before recent global warming. Further, large-scale melioration measures with increasing water demands in the upstream wetlands beginning from the 1960s to the 1980s may have amplified the decline in downstream surface water areas. KW - long-term hydrological changes KW - historical maps KW - review of written KW - sources KW - preindustrial to industrial period KW - hydro-engineering history; KW - effects of global warming KW - drying trend KW - wetlands KW - drainage works to KW - create cropland KW - Lower Havel River Region KW - Brandenburg KW - Germany Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/w14030480 SN - 2073-4441 VL - 14 IS - 3 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziegler, Joceline A1 - Pfitzner, Bjarne A1 - Schulz, Heinrich A1 - Saalbach, Axel A1 - Arnrich, Bert T1 - Defending against Reconstruction Attacks through Differentially Private Federated Learning for Classification of Heterogeneous Chest X-ray Data JF - Sensors N2 - Privacy regulations and the physical distribution of heterogeneous data are often primary concerns for the development of deep learning models in a medical context. This paper evaluates the feasibility of differentially private federated learning for chest X-ray classification as a defense against data privacy attacks. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to directly compare the impact of differentially private training on two different neural network architectures, DenseNet121 and ResNet50. Extending the federated learning environments previously analyzed in terms of privacy, we simulated a heterogeneous and imbalanced federated setting by distributing images from the public CheXpert and Mendeley chest X-ray datasets unevenly among 36 clients. Both non-private baseline models achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.940.94 on the binary classification task of detecting the presence of a medical finding. We demonstrate that both model architectures are vulnerable to privacy violation by applying image reconstruction attacks to local model updates from individual clients. The attack was particularly successful during later training stages. To mitigate the risk of a privacy breach, we integrated Rényi differential privacy with a Gaussian noise mechanism into local model training. We evaluate model performance and attack vulnerability for privacy budgets ε∈{1,3,6,10}�∈{1,3,6,10}. The DenseNet121 achieved the best utility-privacy trade-off with an AUC of 0.940.94 for ε=6�=6. Model performance deteriorated slightly for individual clients compared to the non-private baseline. The ResNet50 only reached an AUC of 0.760.76 in the same privacy setting. Its performance was inferior to that of the DenseNet121 for all considered privacy constraints, suggesting that the DenseNet121 architecture is more robust to differentially private training. KW - federated learning KW - privacy and security KW - privacy attack KW - X-ray Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/s22145195 SN - 1424-8220 VL - 22 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Schweiz ET - 14 ER -