TY - JOUR A1 - Barthelme, Simon A1 - Trukenbrod, Hans Arne A1 - Engbert, Ralf A1 - Wichmann, Felix A. T1 - Modeling fixation locations using spatial point processes JF - Journal of vision N2 - Whenever eye movements are measured, a central part of the analysis has to do with where subjects fixate and why they fixated where they fixated. To a first approximation, a set of fixations can be viewed as a set of points in space; this implies that fixations are spatial data and that the analysis of fixation locations can be beneficially thought of as a spatial statistics problem. We argue that thinking of fixation locations as arising from point processes is a very fruitful framework for eye-movement data, helping turn qualitative questions into quantitative ones. We provide a tutorial introduction to some of the main ideas of the field of spatial statistics, focusing especially on spatial Poisson processes. We show how point processes help relate image properties to fixation locations. In particular we show how point processes naturally express the idea that image features' predictability for fixations may vary from one image to another. We review other methods of analysis used in the literature, show how they relate to point process theory, and argue that thinking in terms of point processes substantially extends the range of analyses that can be performed and clarify their interpretation. KW - eye movements KW - fixation locations KW - saliency KW - modeling KW - point process KW - spatial statistics Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1167/13.12.1 SN - 1534-7362 VL - 13 IS - 12 PB - Association for Research in Vision and Opthalmology CY - Rockville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Barbosa Pfannes, Eva Katharina A1 - Anielski, Alexander A1 - Gerhardt, Matthias A1 - Beta, Carsten T1 - Intracellular photoactivation of caged cGMP induces myosin II and actin responses in motile cells JF - Integrative biology N2 - Cyclic GMP (cGMP) is a ubiquitous second messenger in eukaryotic cells. It is assumed to regulate the association of myosin II with the cytoskeleton of motile cells. When cells of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum are exposed to chemoattractants or to increased osmotic stress, intracellular cGMP levels rise, preceding the accumulation of myosin II in the cell cortex. To directly investigate the impact of intracellular cGMP on cytoskeletal dynamics in a living cell, we released cGMP inside the cell by laser-induced photo-cleavage of a caged precursor. With this approach, we could directly show in a live cell experiment that an increase in intracellular cGMP indeed induces myosin II to accumulate in the cortex. Unexpectedly, we observed for the first time that also the amount of filamentous actin in the cell cortex increases upon a rise in the cGMP concentration, independently of cAMP receptor activation and signaling. We discuss our results in the light of recent work on the cGMP signaling pathway and suggest possible links between cGMP signaling and the actin system. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ib40109j SN - 1757-9694 SN - 1757-9708 VL - 5 IS - 12 SP - 1456 EP - 1463 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfurtscheller, Clemens A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - The price of safety costs for mitigating and coping with Alpine hazards JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - Due to limited public budgets and the need to economize, the analysis of costs of hazard mitigation and emergency management of natural hazards becomes increasingly important for public natural hazard and risk management. In recent years there has been a growing body of literature on the estimation of losses which supported to help to determine benefits of measures in terms of prevented losses. On the contrary, the costs of mitigation are hardly addressed. This paper thus aims to shed some light on expenses for mitigation and emergency services. For this, we analysed the annual costs of mitigation efforts in four regions/countries of the Alpine Arc: Bavaria (Germany), Tyrol (Austria), South Tyrol (Italy) and Switzerland. On the basis of PPP values (purchasing power parities), annual expenses on public safety ranged from EUR 44 per capita in the Free State of Bavaria to EUR 216 in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol. To analyse the (variable) costs for emergency services in case of an event, we used detailed data from the 2005 floods in the Federal State of Tyrol (Austria) as well as aggregated data from the 2002 floods in Germany. The analysis revealed that multi-hazards, the occurrence and intermixture of different natural hazard processes, contribute to increasing emergency costs. Based on these findings, research gaps and recommendations for costing Alpine natural hazards are discussed. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-13-2619-2013 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 13 IS - 10 SP - 2619 EP - 2637 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cammerer, H. A1 - Thieken, Annegret A1 - Lammel, J. T1 - Adaptability and transferability of flood loss functions in residential areas JF - Natural hazards and earth system sciences N2 - Flood loss modeling is an important component within flood risk assessments. Traditionally, stage-damage functions are used for the estimation of direct monetary damage to buildings. Although it is known that such functions are governed by large uncertainties, they are commonly applied - even in different geographical regions - without further validation, mainly due to the lack of real damage data. Until now, little research has been done to investigate the applicability and transferability of such damage models to other regions. In this study, the last severe flood event in the Austrian Lech Valley in 2005 was simulated to test the performance of various damage functions from different geographical regions in Central Europe for the residential sector. In addition to common stage-damage curves, new functions were derived from empirical flood loss data collected in the aftermath of recent flood events in neighboring Germany. Furthermore, a multi-parameter flood loss model for the residential sector was adapted to the study area and also evaluated with official damage data. The analysis reveals that flood loss functions derived from related and more similar regions perform considerably better than those from more heterogeneous data sets of different regions and flood events. While former loss functions estimate the observed damage well, the latter overestimate the reported loss clearly. To illustrate the effect of model choice on the resulting uncertainty of damage estimates, the current flood risk for residential areas was calculated. In the case of extreme events like the 300 yr flood, for example, the range of losses to residential buildings between the highest and the lowest estimates amounts to a factor of 18, in contrast to properly validated models with a factor of 2.3. Even if the risk analysis is only performed for residential areas, our results reveal evidently that a carefree model transfer in other geographical regions might be critical. Therefore, we conclude that loss models should at least be selected or derived from related regions with similar flood and building characteristics, as far as no model validation is possible. To further increase the general reliability of flood loss assessment in the future, more loss data and more comprehensive loss data for model development and validation are needed. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-13-3063-2013 SN - 1561-8633 VL - 13 IS - 11 SP - 3063 EP - 3081 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Feger, Martina A1 - Fajol, Abul A1 - Lebedeva, Aleksandra A1 - Meissner, Adrian A1 - Michael, Diana A1 - Völkl, Jakob A1 - Alesutan, Ioana A1 - Schleicher, Erwin A1 - Reichetzeder, Christoph A1 - Hocher, Berthold A1 - Qadri, Syed M. A1 - Lang, Florian T1 - Effect of Carbon Monoxide Donor CORM-2 on Vitamin D-3 Metabolism JF - Kidney & blood pressure research : official organ of the Gesellschaft für Nephrologie N2 - Background/Aims: Carbon monoxide (CO) interferes with cytochrome-dependent cellular functions and acts as gaseous transmitter. CO is released from CO-releasing molecules (CORM) including tricarbonyl-dichlororuthenium (II) dimer (CORM-2), molecules considered for the treatment of several disorders including vascular dysfunction, inflammation, tissue ischemia and organ rejection. Cytochrome P450-sensitive function include formation of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D-3 (1,25(OH)(2)D-3) by renal 25-hydroxyvitamin D-3 1-alpha-hydroxylase (Cyp27b1). The enzyme is regulated by PTH, FGF23 and klotho. 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 regulates Ca2+ and phosphate transport as well as klotho expression. The present study explored, whether CORM-2 influences 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 formation and klotho expression. Methods: Mice were treated with intravenous CORM-2 (20 mg/kg body weight). Plasma 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 and FGF23 concentrations were determined by ELISA, phosphate, calcium and creatinine concentrations by colorimetric methods, transcript levels by quantitative RT-PCR and protein expression by western blotting. Fgf23 mRNA transcript levels were further determined in rat osteosarcoma UMR106 cells without or with prior treatment for 24 hours with 20 mu M CORM-2. Results: CORM-2 injection within 24 hours significantly increased FGF23 plasma levels and decreased 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 plasma levels, renal Cyp27b1 gene expression as well as renal klotho protein abundance and transcript levels. Moreover, treatment of UMR106 cells with CORM-2 significantly increased Fgf23 transcript levels. Conclusion: CO-releasing molecule CORM-2 enhances FGF23 expression and release and decreases klotho expression and 1,25(OH)(2)D-3 synthesis. KW - CORM-2 KW - 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D-3 KW - Klotho KW - FGF23 KW - Phosphate KW - Calcium Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1159/000355730 SN - 1420-4096 SN - 1423-0143 VL - 37 IS - 4-5 SP - 496 EP - 505 PB - Karger CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hocher, Berthold A1 - Oberthür, Dominik A1 - Slowinski, Torsten A1 - Querfeld, Uwe A1 - Schäfer, Franz A1 - Doyon, Anke A1 - Tepel, Martin A1 - Roth, Heinz J. A1 - Grön, Hans J. A1 - Reichetzeder, Christoph A1 - Betzel, Christian A1 - Armbruster, Franz Paul T1 - Modeling of Oxidized PTH (oxPTH) and Non-oxidized PTH (n-oxPTH) Receptor Binding and Relationship of Oxidized to Non-Oxidized PTH in Children with Chronic Renal Failure, Adult Patients on Hemodialysis and Kidney Transplant Recipients JF - Kidney & blood pressure research : official organ of the Gesellschaft für Nephrologie N2 - Background: The biological properties of oxidized and non-oxidized PTH are substantially different. Oxidized PTH (oxPTH) loses its PTH receptor-stimulating properties, whereas non-oxidized PTH (n-oxPTH) is a full agonist of the receptor. This was described in more than 20 well published studies in the 1970(s) and 80(s). However, PTH oxidation has been ignored during the development of PTH assays for clinical use so far. Even the nowadays used third generation assay systems do not consider oxidation of PTH. We recently developed an assay to differentiate between oxPTH and n-oxPTH. In the current study we established normal values for this assay system. Furthermore, we compare the ratio of oxPTH to n-oxPTH in different population with chronic renal failure: 620 children with renal failure stage 2-4 of the 4C study, 342 adult patients on dialysis, and 602 kidney transplant recipients. In addition, we performed modeling of the interaction of either oxPTH or n-oxPTH with the PTH receptor using biophysical structure approaches. Results: The children had the highest mean as well as maximum n-oxPTH concentrations as compared to adult patients (both patients on dialysis as well as kidney transplant recipients). The relationship between oxPTH and n-oxPTH of individual patients varied substantially in all three populations with renal impairment. The analysis of n-oxPTH in 89 healthy control subjects revealed that n-oxPTH concentrations in patient with renal failure were higher as compared to healthy adult controls (2.25-fold in children with renal failure, 1.53-fold in adult patients on dialysis, and 1.56-fold in kidney transplant recipients, respectively). Computer assisted biophysical structure modeling demonstrated, however, minor sterical- and/or electrostatic changes in oxPTH and n-oxPTH. This indicated that PTH oxidation may induce refolding of PTH and hence alters PTH-PTH receptor interaction via oxidation induced three-dimensional structure alteration of PTH. Conclusion: A huge proportion of circulating PTH measured by current state-of-the-art assay systems is oxidized and thus not biologically active. The relationship between oxPTH and n-oxPTH of individual patients varied substantially. Non-oxidized PTH concentrations are 1.5 - 2.25 fold higher in patients with renal failure as compared to health controls. Measurements of n-oxPTH may reflect the hormone status more precise. The iPTH measures describes most likely oxidative stress in patients with renal failure rather than the PTH hormone status. This, however, needs to be demonstrated in further clinical studies. KW - n-oxPTH KW - Chronic Renal Failure KW - Kidney Transplantation KW - Hemodialysis KW - Oxidation KW - PTH KW - Chronic Renal Failure in Children Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1159/000350149 SN - 1420-4096 SN - 1423-0143 VL - 37 IS - 4-5 SP - 240 EP - 251 PB - Karger CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - McCurdy, Kate A1 - Kentner, Gerrit A1 - Vasishth, Shravan T1 - Implicit prosody and contextual bias in silent reading JF - Journal of Eye Movement Research N2 - Eye-movement research on implicit prosody has found effects of lexical stress on syntactic ambiguity resolution, suggesting that metrical well-formedness constraints interact with syntactic category assignment. Building on these findings, the present eyetracking study investigates whether contextual bias can modulate the effects of metrical structure on syntactic ambiguity resolution in silent reading. Contextual bias and potential stress-clash in the ambiguous region were crossed in a 2 x 2 design. Participants read biased context sentences followed by temporarily ambiguous test sentences. In the three-word ambiguous region, main effects of lexical stress were dominant, while early effects of context were absent. Potential stress clash yielded a significant increase in first-pass regressions and re-reading probability across the three words. In the disambiguating region, the disambiguating word itself showed increased processing difficulty (lower skipping and increased re-reading probability) when the disambiguation engendered a stress clash configuration, while the word immediately following showed main effects of context in those same measures. Taken together, effects of lexical stress upon eye movements were swift and pervasive across first-pass and second-pass measures, while effects of context were relatively delayed. These results indicate a strong role for implicit meter in guiding parsing, one that appears insensitive to higher-level constraints. Our findings are problematic for two classes of models, the two-stage garden-path model and the constraint-based competition-integration model, but can be explained by a variation on the two-stage model, the unrestricted race model. KW - silent prosody KW - stress-clash KW - implicit meter KW - context KW - reanalysis KW - gardenpath model KW - competition-integration model KW - unrestricted race model KW - re-reading probability KW - skipping rate Y1 - 2013 SN - 1995-8692 VL - 6 IS - 2 PB - International Group for Eye Movement Research CY - Bern ER - TY - INPR A1 - Kaufmann, Kerstin A1 - Busch, Wolfgang T1 - Plant genomics from weed to wheat T2 - Genome biology : biology for the post-genomic era N2 - A report on the first 'Plant Genomics Congress' meeting, held in London, UK, 12-13 May 2013. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2013-14-6-308 SN - 1465-6906 SN - 1474-760X VL - 14 IS - 6 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - INPR A1 - Burgold, Julia A1 - Frenzel, Fabian A1 - Rolfes, Manfred T1 - Observations on slums and their touristification T2 - Die Erde : journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin ; Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin Y1 - 2013 SN - 0013-9998 VL - 144 IS - 2 SP - CP2 EP - 104 PB - Gesellschaft für Erdkunde CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Burgold, Julia A1 - Rolfes, Manfred T1 - Of voyeuristic safari tours and responsible tourism with educational value observing moral communication in slum and township tourism in Cape Town and Mumbai JF - Die Erde : journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin ; Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin N2 - Sightseeing in the poorest quarters of southern hemisphere cities has been observed occurring in Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai and many other cities. The increasing global interest in touring poor urban environments is accompanied by a strong morally charged debate; so far, this debate has not been critically addressed. This article avoids asking if slum tourism is good or bad, but instead seeks a second-order observation, i.e. to investigate under what conditions the social praxis of slum tourism is considered as good or bad, by processing information on esteem or dis-esteem among tourists and tour providers. Special attention is given to any relation between morality and place, and the thesis posited is that the moral charging of slum tourism is dependent on the presence of specific preconceived notions of slums and poverty. This shall be clarified by means of references to two empirical case studies carried out in (1) Cape Town in 2007 and 2008 and (2) Mumbai in 2009. KW - Slum tourism KW - township tourism KW - morality KW - place Y1 - 2013 SN - 0013-9998 VL - 144 IS - 2 SP - 161 EP - 174 PB - Gesellschaft für Erdkunde CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Jing A1 - Fritzsch, Claire A1 - Bernarding, Johannes A1 - Krause, Thomas A1 - Mauritz, Karl-Heinz A1 - Brunetti, Maddalena A1 - Dohle, Christian T1 - Cerebral activation evoked by the mirror illusion of the hand in stroke patients compared to normal subjects JF - Neurorehabilitation : an interdisciplinary journal N2 - BACKGROUND: Mirror therapy (MT) was found to improve motor function after stroke, but its neural mechanisms remain unclear, especially in single stroke patients. OBJECTIVES: The following imaging study was designed to compare brain activation patterns evoked by the mirror illusion in single stroke patients with normal subjects. METHODS: Fifteen normal volunteers and five stroke patients with severe arm paresis were recruited. Cerebral activations during movement mirroring by means of a video chain were recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Single-subject analysis was performed using SPM 8. RESULTS: For normal subjects, ten and thirteen subjects displayed lateralized cerebral activations evoked by the mirror illusion while moving their right and left hand respectively. The magnitude of this effect in the precuneus contralateral to the seen hand was not dependent on movement speed or subjective experience. Negative correlation of activation strength with age was found for the right hand only. The activation pattern in stroke patients is comparable to that of normal subjects and present in four out of five patients. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the mirror illusion can elicit cerebral activation contralateral to the perceived hand in the majority of single normal subjects, but not in all of them. This is similar even in stroke patients with severe hemiparesis. KW - Movement KW - mirror illusion KW - imaging KW - mirror therapy KW - stroke Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/NRE-130999 SN - 1053-8135 SN - 1878-6448 VL - 33 IS - 4 SP - 593 EP - 603 PB - IOS Press CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zimmermann, B. A1 - Zimmermann, Alexander A1 - Scheckenbach, H. L. A1 - Schmid, T. A1 - Hall, Jefferson. S. A1 - van Breugel, Michiel T1 - Changes in rainfall interception along a secondary forest succession gradient in lowland Panama JF - Hydrology and earth system sciences : HESS N2 - Secondary forests are rapidly expanding in tropical regions. Yet, despite the importance of understanding the hydrological consequences of land-cover dynamics, the relationship between forest succession and canopy interception is poorly understood. This lack of knowledge is unfortunate because rainfall interception plays an important role in regional water cycles and needs to be quantified for many modeling purposes. To help close this knowledge gap, we designed a throughfall monitoring study along a secondary succession gradient in a tropical forest region of Panama. The investigated gradient comprised 20 forest patches 3 to 130 yr old. We sampled each patch with a minimum of 20 funnel-type throughfall collectors over a continuous 2month period that had nearly 900 mm of rain. During the same period, we acquired forest inventory data and derived several forest structural attributes. We then applied simple and multiple regression models (Bayesian model averaging, BMA) and identified those vegetation parameters that had the strongest influence on the variation of canopy interception. Our analyses yielded three main findings. First, canopy interception changed rapidly during forest succession. After only a decade, throughfall volumes approached levels that are typical for mature forests. Second, a parsimonious (simple linear regression) model based on the ratio of the basal area of small stems to the total basal area outperformed more complex multivariate models (BMA approach). Third, based on complementary forest inventory data, we show that the influence of young secondary forests on interception in realworld fragmented landscapes might be detectable only in regions with a substantial fraction of young forests. Our re-sults suggest that where entire catchments undergo forest regrowth, initial stages of succession may be associated with a substantial decrease of streamflow generation. Our results further highlight the need to study hydrological processes in all forest succession stages, including early ones. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-4659-2013 SN - 1027-5606 SN - 1607-7938 VL - 17 IS - 11 SP - 4659 EP - 4670 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zaourar, N. A1 - Hamoudi, M. A1 - Mandea, M. A1 - Balasis, G. A1 - Holschneider, Matthias T1 - Wavelet-based multiscale analysis of geomagnetic disturbance JF - EARTH PLANETS AND SPACE N2 - The dynamics of external contributions to the geomagnetic field is investigated by applying time-frequency methods to magnetic observatory data. Fractal models and multiscale analysis enable obtaining maximum quantitative information related to the short-term dynamics of the geomagnetic field activity. The stochastic properties of the horizontal component of the transient external field are determined by searching for scaling laws in the power spectra. The spectrum fits a power law with a scaling exponent beta, a typical characteristic of self-affine time-series. Local variations in the power-law exponent are investigated by applying wavelet analysis to the same time-series. These analyses highlight the self-affine properties of geomagnetic perturbations and their persistence. Moreover, they show that the main phases of sudden storm disturbances are uniquely characterized by a scaling exponent varying between 1 and 3, possibly related to the energy contained in the external field. These new findings suggest the existence of a long-range dependence, the scaling exponent being an efficient indicator of geomagnetic activity and singularity detection. These results show that by using magnetogram regularity to reflect the magnetosphere activity, a theoretical analysis of the external geomagnetic field based on local power-law exponents is possible. KW - Geomagnetic field KW - magnetosphere KW - geomagnetic storm KW - multiscale analysis KW - spectral exponent Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5047/eps.2013.05.001 SN - 1343-8832 SN - 1880-5981 VL - 65 IS - 12 SP - 1525 EP - 1540 PB - TERRA SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO CY - TOKYO ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lu, Yong-Ping A1 - Zeng, De-Ying A1 - Chen, You-Peng A1 - Liang, Xu-Jing A1 - Xu, Jie-Ping A1 - Huang, Si-Min A1 - Lai, Zhi-Wei A1 - Wen, Wang-Rong A1 - von Websky, Karoline A1 - Hocher, Berthold T1 - Low birth weight is associated with lower respiratory tract infections in children with hand, foot, and mouth disease JF - Clinical laboratory : the peer reviewed journal for clinical laboratories and laboratories related to blood transfusion N2 - Background: Low birth weight (LBW) might be a risk factor for acquiring lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) associated with disease related complications in early childhood. HFMD, a frequent viral infection in southern China, is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children. We analyzed whether LBW is a risk factor for children with HFMD to develop lower respiratory tract infections. Methods: A total of 298 children with HFMD, admitted to a hospital in Qingyuan city, Guangdong province, were recruited. Demographic data and clinical parameters such as serum glucose level and inflammatory markers including peripheral white blood cell count, serum C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were routinely collected on admission. Birth weight data were derived from birth records. Results: Mean birth weight (BW) was 167 g lower in patients with HFMD and LRTIs as compared to patients with solely HFMD (p = 0.022) and the frequency of birth weight below the tenth percentile was significantly higher in patients with HFMD and LRTIs (p = 0.002). Conclusions: The results of the study show that low birth weight is associated with a higher incidence of lower respiratory tract infections in young children with HFMD. KW - hand KW - foot and mouth disease (HFMD) KW - low birth weight (LBW) KW - lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) KW - pneumonia KW - children Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7754/Clin.Lab.2012.120725 SN - 1433-6510 VL - 59 IS - 9-10 SP - 985 EP - 992 PB - Clin Lab Publ., Verl. Klinisches Labor CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - May, Felix A1 - Giladi, Itamar A1 - Ristow, Michael A1 - Ziv, Yaron A1 - Jeltsch, Florian T1 - Plant functional traits and community assembly along interacting gradients of productivity and fragmentation JF - Perspectives in plant ecology, evolution and systematics N2 - Quantifying the association of plant functional traits to environmental gradients is a promising approach for understanding and projecting community responses to land use and climatic changes. Although habitat fragmentation and climate are expected to affect plant communities interactively, there is a lack of empirical studies addressing trait associations to fragmentation in different climatic regimes. In this study, we analyse data on the key functional traits: specific leaf area (SLA), plant height, seed mass and seed number. First, we assess the evidence for the community assembly mechanisms habitat filtering and competition at different spatial scales, using several null-models and a comprehensive set of community-level trait convergence and divergence indices. Second, we analyse the association of community-mean traits with patch area and connectivity along a south-north productivity gradient. We found clear evidence for trait convergence due to habitat filtering. In contrast, the evidence for trait divergence due to competition fundamentally depended on the null-model used. When the null-model controlled for habitat filtering, there was only evidence for trait divergence at the smallest sampling scale (0.25 m x 0.25 m). All traits varied significantly along the S-N productivity gradient. While plant height and SLA were consistently associated with fragmentation, the association of seed mass and seed number with fragmentation changed along the S-N gradient. Our findings indicate trait convergence due to drought stress in the arid sites and due to higher productivity in the mesic sites. The association of plant traits to fragmentation is likely driven by increased colonization ability in small and/or isolated patches (plant height, seed number) or increased persistence ability in isolated patches (seed mass). Our study provides the first empirical test of trait associations with fragmentation along a productivity gradient. We conclude that it is crucial to study the interactive effects of different ecological drivers on plant functional traits. KW - Connectivity KW - Drought-stress KW - Habitat filtering KW - Limiting similarity KW - Null models KW - Plant height KW - Seed mass KW - Seed number KW - Specific leaf area (SLA) Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2013.08.002 SN - 1433-8319 VL - 15 IS - 6 SP - 304 EP - 318 PB - Elsevier CY - Jena ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Menon, Arathy A1 - Levermann, Anders A1 - Schewe, Jacob A1 - Lehmann, J. A1 - Frieler, Katja T1 - Consistent increase in Indian monsoon rainfall and its variability across CMIP-5 models JF - Earth system dynamics N2 - The possibility of an impact of global warming on the Indian monsoon is of critical importance for the large population of this region. Future projections within the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP-3) showed a wide range of trends with varying magnitude and sign across models. Here the Indian summer monsoon rainfall is evaluated in 20 CMIP-5 models for the period 1850 to 2100. In the new generation of climate models, a consistent increase in seasonal mean rainfall during the summer monsoon periods arises. All models simulate stronger seasonal mean rainfall in the future compared to the historic period under the strongest warming scenario RCP-8.5. Increase in seasonal mean rainfall is the largest for the RCP-8.5 scenario compared to other RCPs. Most of the models show a northward shift in monsoon circulation by the end of the 21st century compared to the historic period under the RCP-8.5 scenario. The interannual variability of the Indian monsoon rainfall also shows a consistent positive trend under unabated global warming. Since both the long-term increase in monsoon rainfall as well as the increase in interannual variability in the future is robust across a wide range of models, some confidence can be attributed to these projected trends. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-287-2013 SN - 2190-4979 SN - 2190-4987 VL - 4 IS - 2 SP - 287 EP - 300 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - INPR A1 - Krahé, Barbara A1 - Abbey, Antonia T1 - Intimate partner violence as a global problem - international and interdisciplinary perspectives T2 - International journal of conflict and violence N2 - This editorial introduces the Focus Section on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) as a worldwide problem, which brings together six papers that are truly international and interdisciplinary. They provide insights into IPV from nine different cultures - China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States - from scholars in the fields of psychology, gender studies, political science, and economics. The first three papers look at how widespread the experience of IPV is among different groups of women, examine selected risk factors associated with heightened vulnerability to victimization, and discuss consequences of intimate partner victimization. Another two papers place the problem of IPV in the wider context of societal perceptions and attitudes about victims and perpetrators of IPV in different countries, whereas the last paper examines the role of individual differences in the management of emotions in the escalation or de-escalation of relationship conflict. In combination, the papers highlight the interplay between the macro level of social and cultural norms condoning the use of violence, the micro level of family relations and construction of couple relationships, and the individual level of attitudes and behaviors that precipitate IPV. Y1 - 2013 SN - 1864-1385 VL - 7 IS - 2 SP - 198 EP - 202 PB - Inst. for Interdisciplinary Conflict and Violence Research, Univ. of Bielefeld CY - Bielefeld ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Van Bel, Michiel A1 - Proost, Sebastian A1 - Van Neste, Christophe A1 - Deforce, Dieter A1 - Van de Peer, Yves A1 - Vandepoele, Klaas T1 - TRAPID - an efficient online tool for the functional and comparative analysis of de novo RNA-Seq transcriptomes JF - Genome biology : biology for the post-genomic era N2 - Transcriptome analysis through next-generation sequencing technologies allows the generation of detailed gene catalogs for non-model species, at the cost of new challenges with regards to computational requirements and bioinformatics expertise. Here, we present TRAPID, an online tool for the fast and efficient processing of assembled RNA-Seq transcriptome data, developed to mitigate these challenges. TRAPID offers high-throughput open reading frame detection, frameshift correction and includes a functional, comparative and phylogenetic toolbox, making use of 175 reference proteomes. Benchmarking and comparison against state-of-the-art transcript analysis tools reveals the efficiency and unique features of the TRAPID system. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2013-14-12-r134 SN - 1465-6906 SN - 1474-760X VL - 14 IS - 12 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rüder, Constantin A1 - Sauter, Tilman A1 - Kratz, Karl A1 - Haase, Tobias A1 - Peter, Jan A1 - Jung, Friedrich A1 - Lendlein, Andreas A1 - Zohlnhöfer, Dietlind T1 - Influence of fibre diameter and orientation of electrospun copolyetheresterurethanes on smooth muscle and endothelial cell behaviour JF - Clinical hemorheology and microcirculation : blood flow and vessels N2 - Polymers exhibiting cell-selective effects represent an extensive research field with high relevance for biomedical applications e.g. in the cardiovascular field supporting re-endothelialization while suppressing smooth muscle cell overgrowth. Such an endothelial cell-selective effect could be recently demonstrated for a copolyetheresterurethane (PDC) containing biodegradable poly(p-dioxanone) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) segments, which selectively enhanced the adhesion of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) while suppressing the attachment of smooth muscle cells (SMC). In this study we investigated the influence of the fibre orientation (random and aligned) and fibre diameter (2 mu m and 500 nm) of electrospun PDC scaffolds on the adhesion, proliferation and apoptosis of HUVEC and SMC. Adhesion, viability and proliferation of HUVEC was diminished when the fibre diameter was reduced to a submicron scale, while the orientation of the microfibres did only slightly influence the cellular behaviour. In contrast, a submicron fibre diameter improved SMC viability. In conclusion, PDC scaffolds with micron-sized single fibres could be promising candidate materials for cell-selective stent coatings. KW - Endothelialization KW - drug eluting stent KW - degradable polymer KW - electrospinning KW - cell selectivity Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3233/CH-131787 SN - 1386-0291 SN - 1875-8622 VL - 55 IS - 4 SP - 513 EP - 522 PB - IOS Press CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Drygala, Frank A1 - Werner, Ulrike A1 - Zoller, Hinrich T1 - Diet composition of the invasive raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and the native red fox (Vulpes vulpes) in north-east Germany JF - Hystrix : the Italian journal of mammalogy N2 - Invasive alien species pose a great threat to the integrity of natural communities by competition with and predation on native species. In Germany the invasive raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) and the native red fox (Vulpes vulpes) occupy a similar ecological niche. Therefore, the aim of our study was to discover the extent of exploitative diet competition between these two generalist carnivores. Carcasses of red foxes (n=256) and raccoon dogs (n=253) were collected throughout Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania (north-east Germany) and stomachs contains were analysed. Frequency of occurrence and biomass share indicate that both canids are omnivorous and pursue opportunistic feeding strategies. Small mammals and edible plant material were the most important food resources for red foxes and raccoon dogs. Nonetheless, interspecies differences were recorded for edible plant material, small mammals and insects. While red foxes mostly feed on voles, raccoon dogs consumed mice and shrews as often as voles. Only raccoon dogs preyed on amphibians. There were no differences in carrion consumption, both species scavenged on wild boar and we found clear competition for carrion year-round. Moreover, there was evidence that two red foxes foraged on raccoon dogs and vice versa. The mean annual interspecies diet overlap index was relatively high. The diets determined for raccoon dogs and red foxes were quite similar and a similar food niche breadth was recorded. However, only minor competition is assumed to take place since differences in feeding habits do exist. KW - Nyctereutes procyonoides KW - Vulpes vulpes KW - invasive species KW - diet competition KW - feeding strategies Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4404/hystrix.-24.2-8867 SN - 0394-1914 SN - 1825-5272 VL - 24 IS - 2 SP - 190 EP - 194 PB - Associazione Teriologica Romana CY - Roma ER -