TY - JOUR A1 - Carregari, Victor Corasolla A1 - Floriano, Rafael Stuani A1 - Rodrigues-Simioni, Lea A1 - Winck, Flavia V. A1 - Baldasso, Paulo Aparecido A1 - Ponce-Soto, Luis Alberto A1 - Marangoni, Sergio T1 - Biochemical, Pharmacological, and Structural Characterization of New Basic PLA(2) Bbil-TX from Bothriopsis bilineata Snake Venom JF - BioMed research international N2 - Bbil-TX, a PLA(2), was purified from Bothriopsis bilineata snake venom after only one chromatographic step using RP-HPLC on mu-Bondapak C-18 column. A molecular mass of 14243.8 Da was confirmed by -Tof ltima API ESI/ MS (TOF MS mode) mass spectrometry. The partial protein sequence obtained was then submitted to BLASTp, with the search restricted to PLA(2) from snakes and shows high identity values when compared to other PLA(2)s. PLA(2) activity was presented in the presence of a synthetic substrate and showed a minimum sigmoidal behavior, reaching its maximal activity at pH 8.0 and 25-37 degrees C. Maximum PLA(2) activity required Ca2+ and in the presence of Cd2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, and Mg2+ it was reduced in the presence or absence of Ca2+. Crotapotin from Crotalus durissus cascavella rattlesnake venom and antihemorrhagic factor DA2-II from Didelphis albiventris opossum sera under optimal conditions significantly inhibit the enzymatic activity. Bbil-TX induces myonecrosis in mice. The fraction does not show a significant cytotoxic activity in myotubes and myoblasts (C2C12). The infiammatory events induced in the serum of mice by Bbil-TX isolated from Bothriopsis bilineata snake venom were investigated. An increase in vascular permeability and in the levels of TNF-a, IL-6, and IL-1 was was induced. Since Bbil-TX exerts a stronger proinfiammatory effect, the phospholipid hydrolysis may be relevant for these phenomena. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/612649 SN - 2314-6133 SN - 2314-6141 PB - Hindawi Publishing Corp. CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jaramillo-Vogel, David A1 - Strasser, Andre A1 - Frijia, Gianluca A1 - Spezzaferri, Silvia T1 - Neritic isotope and sedimentary records of the Eocene-Oligocene greenhouse-icehouse transition the Calcare di Nago Formation (northern Italy) in a global context JF - Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences N2 - From the Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene, the Earth experienced the most significant climatic cooling of the Cenozoic era. The Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) represents the culmination of this climatic cooling, leading to the onset of the Antarctic glaciation and, consequently, to the beginning of the present-day icehouse world. Whereas the response of deep-sea systems to this climate transition has been widely studied, its impact on the shallow-water carbonate realm is poorly constrained. Here, the sedimentary expression of the EOT in two shallow-marine carbonate successions (Nago and San Valentino, northern Italy) belonging to the Calcare di Nago Formation is presented. The chronostratigraphic framework was constructed by integrating litho-, bio-, and isotope-stratigraphic data (C and Sr isotopes), allowing to correlate these shallow-marine successions with pelagic sections in central Italy (Massignano), Tanzania (TOP Sites 12 and 17), and the Indian Ocean (ODP Site 744). Within several sections in northern Italy, including Nago and San Valentino, a Priabonian (Late Eocene) transgression is recorded. Oxygen isotopes of ODP Site 744 show a coeval negative shift of 0.4 parts per thousand., suggesting a glacio-eustatic origin for this transgression. In the Nago and San Valentino sections, no prominent sequence boundary has been detected that would indicate a rapid sea-level drop occurring together with the positive shift in delta O-18 defining the EOT-1 cooling event. Instead, a gradual shallowing of the depositional environment is observed. At TDP Sites 12 and 17, the EOT-1 is followed by a negative shift in delta O-18 of around 0.4 parts per thousand, which correlates with a relative deepening of the environment in the studied sections and suggests a melting pulse between EOT-1 and the Oligocene isotope event 1 (Oi-1). The positive delta O-18 shift related to the Oi-1 translates in San Valentino into a change in carbonate factory from a photozoan association dominated by larger benthic foraminifera, corals, and red algae to a heterozoan association dominated by bryozoans. The same bryozoan fades occurs in several Italian localities near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. This fades is interpreted to represent an analogue of modern cool-water carbonates and results from a cooling pulse of at least regional scale, associated to the Oi-1 event. KW - Eocene-Oligocene transition KW - Shallow-water carbonates KW - Carbon-isotope stratigraphy KW - Strontium-isotope stratigraphy KW - Sea-level changes Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.11.003 SN - 0031-0182 VL - 369 SP - 361 EP - 376 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chaudhary, Tanja A1 - Walch, Elisabeth A1 - Herold, Birgit A1 - Metze, B. A1 - Lejeune, A. A1 - Burkhardt, F. A1 - Buehrer, C. T1 - Predictive and concurrent validity of standardized neurodevelopmental examinations by the griffiths scales and bayley scales of infant development II JF - Klinische Pädiatrie : clinical research and practice in pediatrics N2 - Background: Standardized examinations of preterm infants are used to identify candidates for early intervention. We aimed to assess the predictive power and concurrent validity of the mental development index of the Bayley scales of infant development II (Bayley MDI) and the Griffiths scales developmental quotient (Griffiths DQ) in healthy term and preterm infants < 1 500 g birth weight without major perinatal complications. Methods: 137 Infants (89 term, 48 preterm) were examined by both tests at a corrected age of 6, 12, and 22 months, and 114 went on to undergo Bayley assessments at 39 months. Results: There were significant correlations between Bayley and Griffiths results at 6, 12, and 22 months (r = 0.530, 0.714, and 0.833, respectively, p < 0.001) but Bland Altman plots revealed major systematic bias at 6 months (Griffiths > Bayley, mean differences 14.3 +/- 9.8) and 22 months (Bayley > Griffiths, mean difference 5.2 +/- 13.9) and wide 95% limits of agreement at 6, 12 and 22 months (35.9%, 40.0%, and 52.4%, respectively). The agreement for a presumptive diagnosis of developmental impairment in the group of preterm infants between Bayley examinations obtained at 39 months corrected age (reference) and previous examinations was poor at 6, 12, and 22 months for both Bayley and Griffiths (Cohen's kappa for Griffiths: 0.225, 0.192, 0.369; for Bayley: 0.121, 0.316, 0.369, respectively). Conclusion: Caution should be exercised when interpreting results from standardized neurodevelopmental examinations obtained during the first 2 years of life in comparatively well preterm infants. KW - very low birth weight infant KW - outcome KW - neurodevelopmental impairment Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0032-1331169 SN - 0300-8630 VL - 225 IS - 1 SP - 8 EP - 12 PB - Thieme CY - Stuttgart ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vicedo, Vicent A1 - Caus, Esmeralda A1 - Frijia, Gianluca T1 - Late Cretaceous alveolinaceans (larger foraminifera) of the Caribbean palaeobioprovince and their stratigraphic distribution JF - Journal of systematic palaeontology N2 - Architectural analysis of the Late Cretaceous alveolinaceans of the Caribbean palaeobioprovince has made it possible to separate four genera: Praechubbina, Chubbinella gen. nov., Chubbina and Caribalveolina. The first three genera belong to the family Rhapydioninidae, while the fourth is placed in the family Alveolinidae. Two species, Praechubbina breviclaustra and P. oxchucensis sp. nov., represent the primitive genus Praechubbina, while the species cardenasensis and obesa, previously ascribed to this genus, must be reassigned respectively to Chubbinella gen. nov. and Caribalveolina. The species Chubbina jamaicensis, C. macgillavryi and C. fourcadei sp. nov. complete the inventory of Chubbina. The alveolinid genus Caribalveolina comprises two species, C. obesa and C. michaudi. Caribbean alveolinaceans include two successive assemblages. The lower assemblage is characterized by Praechubbina oxchucensis, P. brevisclaustra, Chubbinella cardenasensis and Caribalveolina obesa. The upper assemblage is represented by the genus Chubbina, with C. fourcadei, C. jamaicensis and C. macgillavryi, and Caribalveolina michaudi. The age of the lower assemblage is uncertain (probably Late CampanianEarly Maastrichtian), while the upper assemblage has been dated by strontium isotope stratigraphy as Late Maastrichtian. KW - alveolinaceans KW - larger foraminifera KW - shell-architecture KW - Caribbean KW - biostratigraphy KW - Sr-isotope stratigraphy Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2011.637517 SN - 1477-2019 VL - 11 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 25 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Czerwon, Beate A1 - Hohlfeld, Annette A1 - Wiese, Heike A1 - Werheid, Katja T1 - Syntactic structural parallelisms influence processing of positive stimuli evidence from cross-modal ERP priming JF - International journal of psychophysiology N2 - Language can strongly influence the emotional state of the recipient. In contrast to the broad body of experimental and neuroscientific research on semantic information and prosodic speech, the emotional impact of grammatical structure has rarely been investigated. One reason for this might be, that measuring effects of syntactic structure involves the use of complex stimuli, for which the emotional impact of grammar is difficult to isolate. In the present experiment we examined the emotional impact of structural parallelisms, that is, repetitions of syntactic features, on the emotion-sensitive "late positive potential" (LPP) with a cross-modal priming paradigm. Primes were auditory presented nonsense sentences which included grammatical-syntactic parallelisms. Visual targets were positive, neutral, and negative faces, to be classified as emotional or non-emotional by the participants. Electrophysiology revealed diminished LPP amplitudes for positive faces following parallel primes. Thus, our findings suggest that grammatical structure creates an emotional context that facilitates processing of positive emotional information. KW - Language KW - Emotion KW - Priming KW - ERP KW - Late positive potential KW - Structural parallelisms Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.10.014 SN - 0167-8760 SN - 1872-7697 VL - 87 IS - 1 SP - 28 EP - 34 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marwan, Norbert A1 - Schinkel, Stefan A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Recurrence plots 25 years later -Gaining confidence in dynamical transitions JF - epl : a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics N2 - Recurrence-plot-based time series analysis is widely used to study changes and transitions in the dynamics of a system or temporal deviations from its overall dynamical regime. However, most studies do not discuss the significance of the detected variations in the recurrence quantification measures. In this letter we propose a novel method to add a confidence measure to the recurrence quantification analysis. We show how this approach can be used to study significant changes in dynamical systems due to a change in control parameters, chaos-order as well as chaos-chaos transitions. Finally we study and discuss climate transitions by analysing a marine proxy record for past sea surface temperature. This paper is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the introduction of recurrence plots. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/101/20007 SN - 0295-5075 VL - 101 IS - 2 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Mulhouse ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zerbian, Sabine T1 - Prosodic marking of narrow focus across varieties of South African English JF - English world-wide : a journal of varieties of English N2 - This paper reports on an elicited production study which investigates prosodic marking of narrow focus in modified noun phrases in varieties of South African English. The acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency, intensity, and duration in narrow focus is presented and discussed. The results suggest that these three acoustic parameters are manipulated differently in narrow focus in the varieties of English as a Second Language as compared to General South African English. The article compares the results to what is known about prosodic marking of information structure in other varieties of English as a Second Language and underlines the necessity of carefully controlled data in the investigation of phonological and phonetic variation in varieties of English. KW - South African English KW - Black South African English KW - English as a Second Language (ESL) KW - prosody KW - focus KW - fundamental frequency KW - intensity KW - duration KW - contact variety Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.34.1.02zer SN - 0172-8865 VL - 34 IS - 1 SP - 26 EP - 47 PB - Benjamins CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Elsner, Birgit A1 - Jeschonek, Susanna A1 - Pauen, Sabina T1 - Event-related potentials for 7-month-olds' processing of animals and furniture items JF - Developmental cognitive neuroscience : a journal for cognitive, affective and social developmental neuroscience N2 - Event-related potentials (ERPs) to single visual stimuli were recorded in 7-month-old infants. In a three-stimulus oddball paradigm, infants watched one frequently occurring standard stimulus (either an animal or a furniture item) and two infrequently occurring oddball stimuli, presenting one exemplar from the same and one from the different super-ordinate category as compared to the standard stimulus. Additionally, visual attributes of the stimuli were controlled to investigate whether infants focus on category membership or on perceptual similarity when processing the stimuli. Infant ERPs indicated encoding of the standard stimulus and discriminating it from the two oddball stimuli by larger Nc peak amplitude and late-slow-wave activity for the infrequent stimuli. Moreover, larger Nc latency and positive-slow-wave activity indicated increased processing for the different-category as compared to the same-category oddball. Thus, 7-month-olds seem to encode single stimuli not only by surface perceptual features, but they also regard information of category membership, leading to facilitated processing of the oddball that belongs to the same domain as the standard stimulus. KW - Category identification KW - Infants (age: 7 months) KW - Event-related potentials KW - Visual stimulus processing KW - Recognition memory Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2012.09.002 SN - 1878-9293 VL - 3 IS - 1 SP - 53 EP - 60 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thiel, Kerstin A1 - Zehbe, Rolf A1 - Röser, Jerome A1 - Strauch, Peter A1 - Enthaler, Stephan A1 - Thomas, Arne T1 - A polymer analogous reaction for the formation of imidazolium and NHC based porous polymer networks JF - Polymer Chemistry N2 - A polymer analogous reaction was carried out to generate a porous polymeric network with N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) in the polymer backbone. Using a stepwise approach, first a polyimine network is formed by polymerization of the tetrafunctional amine tetrakis(4-aminophenyl)methane. This polyimine network is converted in the second step into polyimidazolium chloride and finally to a polyNHC network. Furthermore a porous Cu(II)-coordinated polyNHC network can be generated. Supercritical drying generates polymer networks with high permanent surface areas and porosities which can be applied for different catalytic reactions. The catalytic properties were demonstrated for example in the activation of CO2 or in the deoxygenation of sulfoxides to the corresponding sulfides. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c2py20947k SN - 1759-9954 VL - 4 IS - 6 SP - 1848 EP - 1856 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Palm, Juliane A1 - van Schaik, N. Loes M. B. A1 - Schröder-Esselbach, Boris T1 - Modelling distribution patterns of anecic, epigeic and endogeic earthworms at catchment-scale in agro-ecosystems JF - Pedobiologia : international journal of soil biology N2 - Species distribution models are useful for identifying driving environmental factors that determine earthworm distributions as well as for predicting earthworm distribution patterns and abundances at different scales. However, due to large efforts in data acquisition, studies on larger scales are rare and often focus on single species or earthworms in general. In this study, we use boosted regression tree models (BRTs) for predicting the distribution of the three functional earthworm types, i.e. anecics, endogeics and epigeics, in an agricultural area in Baden-Wurttemberg (Southwest Germany). First, we predicted presence and absence and later earthworm abundances, considering predictors depicting land management, topography, and soil conditions as well as biotic interaction by using the abundance of the other functional earthworm types. The final presence-absence models performed reasonably well, with explained deviances between 24 and 51% after crossvalidation. Models for abundances of anecics and endogeics were less successful, since the high small-scale variability and patchiness in earthworm abundance influenced the representativeness of the field measurements. This resulted in a significant model uncertainty, which is practically very difficult to overcome with earthworm sampling campaigns at the catchment scale. Results showed that management practices (i.e. disturbances), topography, soil conditions, and biotic interactions with other earthworm groups are the most relevant predictors for spatial distribution (incidence) patterns of all three functional groups. The response curves and contributions of predictors differ for the three functional earthworm types. Epigeics are also controlled by topographic features, endogeics by soil parameters. KW - Species distribution models KW - Earthworms KW - Soil hydrology KW - Boosted regression trees (BRT) KW - Distribution patterns KW - Biotic interactions Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedobi.2012.08.007 SN - 0031-4056 VL - 56 IS - 1 SP - 23 EP - 31 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Granacher, Urs A1 - Lacroix, Andre A1 - Mühlbauer, Thomas A1 - Röttger, Katrin A1 - Gollhofer, Albert T1 - Effects of core instability strength training on trunk muscle strength, spinal mobility, dynamic balance and functional mobility in older adults JF - Gerontology N2 - Background: Age-related postural misalignment, balance deficits and strength/power losses are associated with impaired functional mobility and an increased risk of falling in seniors. Core instability strength training (CIT) involves exercises that are challenging for both trunk muscles and postural control and may thus have the potential to induce benefits in trunk muscle strength, spinal mobility and balance performance. Objective: The objective was to investigate the effects of CIT on measures of trunk muscle strength, spinal mobility, dynamic balance and functional mobility in seniors. Methods: Thirty-two older adults were randomly assigned to an intervention group (INT; n = 16, aged 70.8 +/- 4.1 years) that conducted a 9-week progressive CIT or to a control group (n = 16, aged 70.2 +/- 4.5 years). Maximal isometric strength of the trunk flexors/extensors/lateral flexors (right, left)/rotators (right, left) as well as of spinal mobility in the sagittal and the coronal plane was measured before and after the intervention program. Dynamic balance (i.e. walking 10 m on an optoelectric walkway, the Functional Reach test) and functional mobility (Timed Up and Go test) were additionally tested. Results: Program compliance was excellent with participants of the INT group completing 92% of the training sessions. Significant group x test interactions were found for the maximal isometric strength of the trunk flexors (34%, p < 0.001), extensors (21%, p < 0.001), lateral flexors (right: 48%, p < 0.001; left: 53%, p < 0.001) and left rotators (42%, p < 0.001) in favor of the INT group. Further, training-related improvements were found for spinal mobility in the sagittal (11%, p < 0.001) and coronal plane (11%, p = 0.06) directions, for stride velocity (9%, p < 0.05), the coefficient of variation in stride velocity (31%, p < 0.05), the Functional Reach test (20%, p < 0.05) and the Timed Up and Go test (4%, p < 0.05) in favor of the INT group. Conclusion: CIT proved to be a feasible exercise program for seniors with a high adherence rate. Age-related deficits in measures of trunk muscle strength, spinal mobility, dynamic balance and functional mobility can be mitigated by CIT. This training regimen could be used as an adjunct or even alternative to traditional balance and/or resistance training. KW - Elderly KW - Gait KW - Muscle strength KW - Physical performance KW - Postural balance Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1159/000343152 SN - 0304-324X VL - 59 IS - 2 SP - 105 EP - 113 PB - Karger CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Menzel, Ralf A1 - Heuer, Axel A1 - Puhlmann, Dirk A1 - Dechoum, K. A1 - Hillery, M. A1 - Spaehn, M. J. A. A1 - Schleich, W. P. T1 - A two-photon double-slit experiment JF - Journal of modern optics N2 - We employ a photon pair created by spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) where the pump laser is in the TEM01 mode to perform a Young's double-slit experiment. The signal photon illuminates the two slits and displays interference fringes in the far-field while the idler photon measured in the near-field in coincidence with the signal photon provides us with which-slit' information. We explain the results of these experiments with the help of an analytical expression for the second-order correlation function derived from an elementary model of SPDC. Our experiment emphasizes the crucial role of the mode function in the quantum theory of radiation. KW - complementarity KW - wave-particle dualism KW - Young's double-slit experiment KW - spontaneous parametric down conversion KW - TEM01 mode Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09500340.2012.746400 SN - 0950-0340 VL - 60 IS - 1 SP - 86 EP - 94 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Messerschmidt, Katrin A1 - Heilmann, Katja T1 - Toxin-antigen conjugates as selection tools for antibody producing cells JF - Journal of immunological methods N2 - The generation of antibodies with designated specificity requires cost-intensive and time-consuming screening procedures. Here we present a new method by which hybridoma cells can be selected based on the specificity of the produced antibody by the use of antigen-toxin-conjugates thus eliminating the need of a screening procedure. Initial experiments were done with methotrexate as low molecular weight toxin and fluorescein as model antigen. Methotrexate and a methotrexate-fluorescein conjugate were characterized regarding their toxicity. Afterwards the effect of the fluorescein-specific antibody B13-DE1 on the toxicity of the methotrexate-fluorescein conjugate was determined. Finally, first results showed that hybridoma cells that produce fluorescein specific antibodies are able to grow in the presence of fluorescein-toxin-conjugates. KW - Monoclonal antibody KW - Hybridoma technology KW - Selection of antibody producing cells Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jim.2012.10.010 SN - 0022-1759 VL - 387 IS - 1-2 SP - 167 EP - 172 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Clahsen, Harald A1 - Balkhair, Loay A1 - Schutter, John-Sebastian A1 - Cunnings, Ian T1 - The time course of morphological processing in a second language JF - Second language research N2 - We report findings from psycholinguistic experiments investigating the detailed timing of processing morphologically complex words by proficient adult second (L2) language learners of English in comparison to adult native (L1) speakers of English. The first study employed the masked priming technique to investigate -ed forms with a group of advanced Arabic-speaking learners of English. The results replicate previously found L1/L2 differences in morphological priming, even though in the present experiment an extra temporal delay was offered after the presentation of the prime words. The second study examined the timing of constraints against inflected forms inside derived words in English using the eye-movement monitoring technique and an additional acceptability judgment task with highly advanced Dutch L2 learners of English in comparison to adult L1 English controls. Whilst offline the L2 learners performed native-like, the eye-movement data showed that their online processing was not affected by the morphological constraint against regular plurals inside derived words in the same way as in native speakers. Taken together, these findings indicate that L2 learners are not just slower than native speakers in processing morphologically complex words, but that the L2 comprehension system employs real-time grammatical analysis (in this case, morphological information) less than the L1 system. KW - compounds KW - derivational morphology KW - English as a seond language KW - inflectional morphology KW - late bilinguals KW - masked priming KW - morphology processing KW - past tense KW - shallow structure hypothesis Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658312464970 SN - 0267-6583 VL - 29 IS - 1 SP - 7 EP - 31 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfestorf, H. A1 - Weiss, L. A1 - Müller, J. A1 - Boch, Steffen A1 - Socher, S. A. A1 - Prati, Daniel A1 - Schöning, Ingo A1 - Weisser, W. A1 - Fischer, M. A1 - Jeltsch, Florian T1 - Community mean traits as additional indicators to monitor effects of land-use intensity On grassland plant diversity JF - Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics N2 - Semi-natural grasslands, biodiversity hotspots in Central-Europe, suffer from the cessation of traditional land-use. Amount and intensity of these changes challenge current monitoring frameworks typically based on classic indicators such as selected target species or diversity indices. Indicators based on plant functional traits provide an interesting extension since they reflect ecological strategies at individual and ecological processes at community levels. They typically show convergent responses to gradients of land-use intensity over scales and regions, are more directly related to environmental drivers than diversity components themselves and enable detecting directional changes in whole community dynamics. However, probably due to their labor- and cost intensive assessment in the field, they have been rarely applied as indicators so far. Here we suggest overcoming these limitations by calculating indicators with plant traits derived from online accessible databases. Aiming to provide a minimal trait set to monitor effects of land-use intensification on plant diversity we investigated relationships between 12 community mean traits, 2 diversity indices and 6 predictors of land-use intensity within grassland communities of 3 different regions in Germany (part of the German 'Biodiversity Exploratory' research network). By standardization of traits and diversity measures, use of null models and linear mixed models we confirmed (i) strong links between functional community composition and plant diversity, (ii) that traits are closely related to land-use intensity, and (iii) that functional indicators are equally, or even more sensitive to land-use intensity than traditional diversity indices. The deduced trait set consisted of 5 traits, i.e., specific leaf area (SLA), leaf dry matter content (LDMC), seed release height, leaf distribution, and onset of flowering. These database derived traits enable the early detection of changes in community structure indicative for future diversity loss. As an addition to current monitoring measures they allow to better link environmental drivers to processes controlling community dynamics. KW - Biodiversity Exploratories KW - Biological conservation KW - (Semi-natural) Grasslands KW - Plant functional traits KW - Indicators KW - Land-use intensity Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2012.10.003 SN - 1433-8319 VL - 15 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dormann, Carsten F. A1 - Elith, Jane A1 - Bacher, Sven A1 - Buchmann, Carsten M. A1 - Carl, Gudrun A1 - Carre, Gabriel A1 - Garcia Marquez, Jaime R. A1 - Gruber, Bernd A1 - Lafourcade, Bruno A1 - Leitao, Pedro J. A1 - Münkemüller, Tamara A1 - McClean, Colin A1 - Osborne, Patrick E. A1 - Reineking, Bjoern A1 - Schröder-Esselbach, Boris A1 - Skidmore, Andrew K. A1 - Zurell, Damaris A1 - Lautenbach, Sven T1 - Collinearity a review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance JF - Ecography : pattern and diversity in ecology ; research papers forum N2 - Collinearity refers to the non independence of predictor variables, usually in a regression-type analysis. It is a common feature of any descriptive ecological data set and can be a problem for parameter estimation because it inflates the variance of regression parameters and hence potentially leads to the wrong identification of relevant predictors in a statistical model. Collinearity is a severe problem when a model is trained on data from one region or time, and predicted to another with a different or unknown structure of collinearity. To demonstrate the reach of the problem of collinearity in ecology, we show how relationships among predictors differ between biomes, change over spatial scales and through time. Across disciplines, different approaches to addressing collinearity problems have been developed, ranging from clustering of predictors, threshold-based pre-selection, through latent variable methods, to shrinkage and regularisation. Using simulated data with five predictor-response relationships of increasing complexity and eight levels of collinearity we compared ways to address collinearity with standard multiple regression and machine-learning approaches. We assessed the performance of each approach by testing its impact on prediction to new data. In the extreme, we tested whether the methods were able to identify the true underlying relationship in a training dataset with strong collinearity by evaluating its performance on a test dataset without any collinearity. We found that methods specifically designed for collinearity, such as latent variable methods and tree based models, did not outperform the traditional GLM and threshold-based pre-selection. Our results highlight the value of GLM in combination with penalised methods (particularly ridge) and threshold-based pre-selection when omitted variables are considered in the final interpretation. However, all approaches tested yielded degraded predictions under change in collinearity structure and the folk lore'-thresholds of correlation coefficients between predictor variables of |r| >0.7 was an appropriate indicator for when collinearity begins to severely distort model estimation and subsequent prediction. The use of ecological understanding of the system in pre-analysis variable selection and the choice of the least sensitive statistical approaches reduce the problems of collinearity, but cannot ultimately solve them. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07348.x SN - 0906-7590 SN - 1600-0587 VL - 36 IS - 1 SP - 27 EP - 46 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Uhlemann, S. A1 - Bertelmann, Roland A1 - Merz, Bruno T1 - Data expansion the potential of grey literature for understanding floods JF - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS N2 - Sophisticated methods have been developed and become standard in analysing floods as well as for assessing flood risk. However, increasingly critique of the current standards and scientific practice can be found both in the flood hydrology community as well as in the risk community who argue that the considerable amount of information already available on natural disasters has not been adequately deployed and brought to effective use. We describe this phenomenon as a failure to synthesize knowledge that results from barriers and ignorance in awareness, use and management of the entire spectrum of relevant content, that is, data, information and knowledge. In this paper we argue that the scientific community in flood risk research ignores event-specific analysis and documentations as another source of data. We present results from a systematic search that includes an intensive study on sources and ways of information dissemination of flood-relevant publications. We obtain 186 documents that contain information on the sources, pathways, receptors and/or consequences for any of the 40 strongest trans-basin floods in Germany in the period 1952-2002. This study therefore provides the most comprehensive metadata collection of flood documentations for the considered geographical space and period. A total of 87.5% of all events have been documented, and especially the most severe floods have received extensive coverage. Only 30% of the material has been produced in the scientific/academic environment, and the majority of all documents (about 80%) can be considered grey literature (i.e. literature not controlled by commercial publishers). Therefore, ignoring grey sources in flood research also means ignoring the largest part of knowledge available on single flood events (in Germany). Further, the results of this study underpin the rapid changes in information dissemination of flood event literature over the last decade. We discuss the options and obstacles of incorporating this data into the knowledge-building process in light of the current technological developments and international, interdisciplinary debates for data curation. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-895-2013 SN - 1027-5606 VL - 17 IS - 3 SP - 895 EP - 911 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heistermann, Maik A1 - Jacobi, S. A1 - Pfaff, T. T1 - Technical note an open source library for processing weather radar data (wradlib) JF - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS N2 - The potential of weather radar observations for hydrological and meteorological research and applications is undisputed, particularly with increasing world-wide radar coverage. However, several barriers impede the use of weather radar data. These barriers are of both scientific and technical nature. The former refers to inherent measurement errors and artefacts, the latter to aspects such as reading specific data formats, geo-referencing, visualisation. The radar processing library wradlib is intended to lower these barriers by providing a free and open source tool for the most important steps in processing weather radar data for hydro-meteorological and hydrological applications. Moreover, the community-based development approach of wradlib allows scientists to share their knowledge about efficient processing algorithms and to make this knowledge available to the weather radar community in a transparent, structured and well-documented way. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-863-2013 SN - 1027-5606 VL - 17 IS - 2 SP - 863 EP - 871 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koppitz, Jörg A1 - Supaporn, Worakrit T1 - Categary equivalences of clones of operations preserving unaryoperations JF - COMPTES RENDUS DE L ACADEMIE BULGARE DES SCIENCES N2 - Any clones on arbitrary set A can be written of the form Pol (A)Q for some set Q of relations on A. We consider clones of the form Pal (A)Q where Q is a set of unary relations on a finite set A. A clone Pol (A)Q is said to be a clone on a set of the smallest cardinality with respect to category equivalence if vertical bar A vertical bar <= vertical bar S vertical bar for all finite sets S and all clones C on S that category equivalent to Pol (A)Q. We characterize the clones on a set of the smallest cardinality with respect to category equivalent and show how we can find a clone on a set of the smallest cardinality that category equivalent to a given clone. KW - category equivalence of clones KW - clone of operations Y1 - 2013 SN - 1310-1331 VL - 66 IS - 2 SP - 177 EP - 184 PB - Publ. House of the Bulgarian Acad. of Sciences CY - Sofia ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hickmann, Thomas T1 - Private authority in global climate governance the case of the clean development mechanism JF - Climate & development N2 - The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a prominent example of the mix of public and private authority in global climate policy-making. While national governments hold the supreme authority in the CDM, the oversight and daily supervision of the project-based mechanism have been delegated via an intergovernmental body to private corporations that evaluate the environmental performance of individual CDM projects. By focusing on the CDM as a particular instance of private authority in global climate governance, this article analyses the consequences associated with the delegation of authority to private actors. The article critically assesses the role of private auditing corporations, labelled Designated Operational Entities, in the regulatory framework of the CDM and points to serious trade-offs which accompany the privatisation of authority. The article's findings suggest that the promise of innovative modes of governance to increase the effectiveness of international regulation is seriously compromised by the profit-seeking behaviour of private actors. Hence, the article underscores the need to reconsider the balance between public and private authority in global (climate) governance. KW - carbon markets KW - Clean Development Mechanism KW - climate policy KW - global climate governance KW - post-2012 negotiations KW - private authority Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2013.768174 SN - 1756-5529 VL - 5 IS - 1 SP - 46 EP - 54 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER -