Buntblühende Wintererbsen in der Schweinefütterung unter den Bedingungen des Ökologischen Landbaus

Mit den Versuchen am Friedrich Löffler Institut (FLI) sollten quantifizierbare Unterschiede zwischen behandelten und unbehandelten Körnerleguminosen durch den Verdauungsversuch erarbeitet werden. Darüber hinaus wurde in einem Fütterungsversuch unter Institutsbedingungen der Einsatz von Wintererbsen, die unter den Bedingungen des ökologischen Landbaus erzeugt wurden, geprüft. Der Versuch wurde mit den gleichen Rationen und Tierzahlen in einem ökologischen Betrieb unter Praxisbedingungen wiederholt. Die Bilanzversuche wurden zu Projektbeginn durchgeführt, um die gewonnenen Daten bei der Konzipierung der folgenden Fütterungsversuche nutzen zu können. Ziel des Forschungsvorhabens war es, die Effekte der Wintererbsen mit Bitterstoffgehalten in der Fütterung für Mastschweine zu überprüfen. Durch die Nutzung der Wintererbse in der Monogastrierfütterung könnte der im Rückgang befindliche Anbau der Körnerleguminosen belebt werden. Durch die mögliche Nutzung der buntblühenden, dunkelschaligen Wintererbse besteht die Chance die betriebliche Futterbasis viehhaltender, ökologischer Betriebe zu erweitern und den Anteil an Sojakuchen ausländischer Herkunft zu verringern. Durch die Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem Futtermittelhersteller, der Leguminosen thermisch behandelt, der Beratung im ökologischen Landbau Niedersachsens (Kompetenzzentrum Ökolandbau Neidersachsen GmbH) und der Tierernährungswissenschaft (FLI Braunschweig) sollen Grundlagen gelegt werden um aktuelle Sorten heimischer, bitterstoffhaltiger Wintererbsen hinsichtlich ihres Futterwertes zu beschreiben und Hinweise zum optimierten Einsatz zu gegeben. Das Projekt kommt zu dem Schluss, dass der Einsatz von Wintererbsen in der ökologischen Schweineproduktion anstelle von Sommererbsen möglich ist. Ein positiver Effekt durch eine thermische Behandlung und die Reduzierung der Tanningehalte konnte in den Fütterungsversuchen jedoch nicht nachgewiesen werden. Bei 30% Wintererbsen in der Mastration wurden, offensichtlich durch eine dadurch erhöhte Aminosäurenimbalance, signifikant schlechteren Magerfleischanteile erzeugt

Ausrangiert - Arbeitsmarktprobleme Älterer in den Regionen

Der demographische Wandel wird in den nächsten Jahrzehnten die regionalen Arbeitsmärkte sehr unterschiedlich treffen. Die Arbeitsmarktprobleme Älterer eher zunehmen. Der vorliegende Forschungsbericht liefert regional - vor allem auf der Bundesländerebene - differenziert Daten und Analysen - zur demographischen Entwicklung- zur Erwerbsbeteiligung und Erwerbstätigkeit- zur Arbeitslosigkeit und- zum Rentenzugangsgeschehen

Inverted spin polarization of Heusler alloys for new spintronic devices

A new magnetic logic overcomes the major limitations of field programmable gate arrays while having a 50% smaller unit cell than conventional designs utilizing magnetic tunnel junctions with one Heusler alloy electrode. These show positive and negative TMR values at different bias voltages at room temperature which generally adds an additional degree of freedom to all spintronic devices

Gravitational Contributions to the Running Yang-Mills Coupling in Large Extra-Dimensional Brane Worlds

We study the question of a modification of the running gauge coupling of Yang-Mills theories due to quantum gravitational effects in a compact large extra dimensional brane world scenario with a low energy quantum gravity scale. The ADD scenario is applied for a D=d+\delta dimensional space-time in which gravitons freely propagate, whereas the non-abelian gauge fields are confined to a d-dimensional brane. The extra dimensions are taken to be toroidal and the transverse fluctuation modes (branons) of the brane are taken into account. On this basis we have calculated the one-loop corrections due to virtual Kaluza-Klein graviton and branon modes for the gluon two- and three-point functions in an effective field theory treatment. Applying momentum cut-off regularization we find that for a d=4 brane the leading gravitational divergencies cancel irrespective of the number of extra dimensions \delta, generalizing previous results in the absence of extra-dimensions. Hence, again the Yang-Mills \beta-function receives no gravitational corrections at one-loop. This is no longer true in a `universal' extra dimensional scenario with a d>4 dimensional brane. Moreover, the subleading power-law gravitational divergencies induce higher-dimensional counterterms, which we establish in our scheme. Interestingly, for d=4 these gravitationally induced counterterms are of the form recently considered in non-abelian Lee-Wick extensions of the standard model -- now with a possible mass scale in the TeV range due to the presence of large extra dimensions.Comment: Version to be published in JHEP; 16 pages, 3 figures; v3: references update

Controlling In-Vehicle Systems with a Commercial EEG Headset: Performance and Cognitive Load

Humans have dreamed for centuries to control their surroundings solely by the power of their minds. These aspirations have been captured by multiple science fiction creations, such as the Neuromancer novel by William Gibson or the Brainstorm cinematic movie, to name just a few. Nowadays, these dreams are slowly becoming reality due to a variety of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) that detect neural activation patterns and support the control of devices by brain signals. An important field in which BCIs are being successfully integrated is the interaction with vehicular systems. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of BCIs, more specifically a commercial electroencephalographic (EEG) headset in combination with vehicle dashboard systems, and highlight the advantages and limitations of this approach. Further, we investigate the cognitive load that drivers experience when interacting with secondary in-vehicle devices via touch controls or a BCI headset. As in-vehicle systems are increasingly versatile and complex, it becomes vital to capture the level of distraction and errors that controlling these secondary systems might introduce to the primary driving process. Our results suggest that the control with the EEG headset introduces less distraction to the driver, probably as it allows the eyes of the driver to remain focused on the road. Still, the control of the vehicle dashboard by EEG is efficient only for a limited number of functions, after which increasing the number of in-vehicle controls amplifies the detection of false commands

Electron-electron interaction strength in ferromagnetic nickel determined by spin-polarized positron annihilation

The two-photon momentum distribution of annihilating electron-positron pairs in ferromagnetic nickel (Ni) was determined by measuring the spin-polarized two-dimensional angular correlation of annihilation radiation (ACAR). The spectra were compared with theoretical results obtained within LDA+DMFT, a combination of the local density approximation (LDA) and the many-body dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The self-energy describing the electronic correlations in Ni is found to make important anisotropic contributions to the momentum distribution which are not present in LDA. Based on a detailed comparison of the theoretical and experimental results the strength of the local electronic interaction U in ferromagnetic Ni is determined as 2.0 +- 0.1 eV

The Glarus thrust: excursion guide and report of a field trip of the Swiss Tectonic Studies Group (Swiss Geological Society, 14.-16. 09. 2006)

Participants: Ansorge Jörg (ETHZ) den Brok Bas (EAWAG-EMPA) Dèzes Pierre (SANW) Gonzalez Laura (University of Bern) Herwegh Marco (University of Bern) Hürzeler Jean-Pierre (University of Basel) Imper David (GeoPark) Mancktelow Neil (ETHZ) Mullis Josef (University of Basel) Nyffenegger Franziska (Fachhochschule Burgdorf, University of Bern) Pfiffner Adrian (University of Bern) Schreurs Guido (University of Bern) Schmalholz Stefan (ETHZ) Schmid Stefan (University of Basel) Wiederkehr Michael (University of Basel) Wilson Christopher (Melbourne University) Wilson Lilian (Melbourne University

The effect of adipose tissue-derived stem cells in a middle cerebral artery occlusion stroke model depends on their engraftment rate

Background: In the field of experimental stem cell therapy, intra-arterial (IA) delivery yields the best results concerning, for example, migrated cell number at the targeted site. However, IA application also appears to be associated with increased mortality rates and infarction. Since many rodent studies systemically apply 1 × 106 cells, this could also be a consequence of engrafted cell number. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of different doses of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs) on engraftment rates and stroke outcome measured in vivo using 9.4-T high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: Male Wistar rats (n = 43) underwent a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) for 45 or 90 min, followed by IA delivery of either saline or 1 × 106, 3 × 105, or 5 × 104 ASCs pre-labelled with very small superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (VSOPs). MRI (9.4-T) analysis was performed 48 h and 9 days post-MCAo. Lesion volumes were assessed by analysis of T2-weighted images and cell signal tracking showing cell engraftment and active cell migration by an improved T2*-analysis. Results: The ASC-derived signal intensity increased in the affected hemisphere 48 h post MCAo with injected cell number (p < 0.05). The analysis of stroke volumes revealed an increased infarction after injection of 1 × 106 ASCs compared to controls or application of 5 × 104 ASCs (p < 0.05). At 9 days post-MCAo, injection of 3 × 105 ASCs resulted in reduced infarct volumes (p < 0.05). Correspondingly, MRI analysis revealed no changes in cell numbers between both MRI examinations but showed active ASC migration to the site of infarction. Conclusion: Our results confirm that IA injection is an efficient way of targeting damaged brain tissue but its usefulness strongly depends on the right dose of delivered stem cells since this factor has a strong influence on migration rate and infarct volume, with better results for doses below 1 × 106 cells. Future challenges will include the determination of therapeutic doses for best cellular engraftment and stroke outcome

Genome-Wide Divergence and Linkage Disequilibrium Analyses for Capsicum baccatum Revealed by Genome-Anchored Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms

Principal component analysis (PCA) with 36,621 polymorphic genome-anchored single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified collectively for Capsicum annuum and Capsicum baccatum was used to show the distribution of these 2 important incompatible cultivated pepper species. Estimated mean nucleotide diversity (π) and Tajima’s D across various chromosomes revealed biased distribution toward negative values on all chromosomes (except for chromosome 4) in cultivated C. baccatum, indicating a population bottleneck during domestication of C. baccatum. In contrast, C. annuum chromosomes showed positive π and Tajima’s D on all chromosomes except chromosome 8, which may be because of domestication at multiple sites contributing to wider genetic diversity. For C. baccatum, 13,129 SNPs were available, with minor allele frequency (MAF) ≥0.05; PCA of the SNPs revealed 283 C. baccatum accessions grouped into 3 distinct clusters, for strong population structure. The fixation index (FST) between domesticated C. annuum and C. baccatum was 0.78, which indicates genome-wide divergence. We conducted extensive linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis of C. baccatum var. pendulum cultivars on all adjacent SNP pairs within a chromosome to identify regions of high and low LD interspersed with a genome-wide average LD block size of 99.1 kb. We characterized 1742 haplotypes containing 4420 SNPs (range 9–2 SNPs per haplotype). Genome-wide association study of peduncle length, a trait that differentiates wild and domesticated C. baccatum types, revealed 36 genome-wide SNPs significantly associated. Population structure, identity by state (IBS) and LD patterns across the genome will be of potential use for future genome-wide association study of economically important traits in C. baccatum peppers

Expression of Foxp3 in colorectal cancer but not in Treg cells correlates with disease progression in patients with colorectal cancer

Background: Regulatory T cells (Treg) expressing the transcription factor forkhead-box protein P3 (Foxp3) have been identified to counteract anti-tumor immune responses during tumor progression. Besides, Foxp3 presentation by cancer cells itself may also allow them to evade from effector T-cell responses, resulting in a survival benefit of the tumor. For colorectal cancer (CRC) the clinical relevance of Foxp3 has not been evaluated in detail. Therefore the aim of this study was to study its impact in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods and Findings: Gene and protein analysis of tumor tissues from patients with CRC was performed to quantify the expression of Foxp3 in tumor infiltrating Treg and colon cancer cells. The results were correlated with clinicopathological parameters and patients overall survival. Serial morphological analysis demonstrated Foxp3 to be expressed in cancer cells. High Foxp3 expression of the cancer cells was associated with poor prognosis compared to patients with low Foxp3 expression. In contrast, low and high Foxp3 level in tumor infiltrating Treg cells demonstrated no significant differences in overall patient survival. Conclusions: Our findings strongly suggest that Foxp3 expression mediated by cancer cells rather than by Treg cells contribute to disease progression