Combined stress effect of pH and temperature narrows the niche width of flagellates in acid mining lakes

Strains of the green alga Chlamydomonas acidophila and two chrysomonads, Ochromonas spp., isolated from each of two similar acid mining lakes (AMLs) with extremely low pH (∼2.6) were investigated to consider a possible synergistic stress effect of low pH and unfavourable temperature. We measured flagellate growth rates over a combination of four pH (2.5, 3.5, 5.0 and 7.0) and three temperatures (10, 17.5 and 25°C) in the laboratory. Our hypothesis was that, under highly acidic conditions (pH <3), an obligate acidophil species (C. acidophila) would be less sensitive to the combined stress of pH and temperature than acidotolerant species (Ochromonas spp.). We expected that the difference of the fundamental vs. realized pH niche would be greater in the latter. Another chrysomonad, Poterioochromonas malhamensis strain DS, served as a reference for a closely related neutrophil species. Surprisingly, C. acidophila did not survive temperatures >27°C. The lowest temperature tested reduced growth rates of all three chrysomonad strains significantly. Since all chrysomonads were tolerant to high temperature, growth rate of one Ochromonas spp. strain was measured exemplarily at 35°C. Only at this high temperature was the realized pH niche significantly narrowed. We also recorded significant intraspecific differences within the C. acidophila strains from the two AML, illustrating that the niche width of a species is broader than that of individual clones

Under blood pressure : differentiated versus undifferentiated marketing to increase blood donations

Despite strong evidence in current marketing theory and practice that a differentiated marketing approach increases recruitment success, blood services worldwide often use undifferentiated marketing strategies to address new blood donors. Relying on the assumption that differentiated marketing is highly promising; the authors developed an online experiment among 838 participants who had not donated blood during the past 10 years. The experiment tested the effects of a differentiated in comparison to an undifferentiated marketing campaign on three marketing outcomes: (1) awareness, (2) intention, and (3) behavioral enactment. Surprisingly and in contrast with most marketing studies in the for-profit context, the results of the blood donation experiment suggest that differentiated marketing is not more effective than undifferentiated marketing. This finding has important implications for marketing strategies and actions of blood services

Der Vergleich der intraoperativen und perkutanen Bestrahlung und prädiktiver Faktoren für Nebenwirkungen bei Mamma-Karzinomen

Das Mamma-Karzinom ist die häufigste maligne Erkrankung bei der Frau weltweit. In den letzten Jahrzehnten haben sich die Therapiemöglichkeiten zur Behandlung des Mamma-Karzinoms grundlegend verändert und ermöglichen vielen Patientinnen eine bessere Heilungschance. Die Therapiemöglichkeiten beim frühen Mamma-Karzinom umfassen aufgrund der Vielseitigkeit der Tumorentität ein weites Spektrum von u.a. operativer Therapie über die Systemtherapie bis hin zur Radiatio. In dieser Arbeit haben wir uns speziell Frauen mit einem frühen Mamma-Karzinom angeschaut, die in der brusterhaltenden Operation zusätzlich eine intraoperative Be-strahlung (IORT) des Tumorbetts erhalten haben. Das Patientenkollektiv wurde hinsichtlich der postoperativen Bestrahlung in zwei Gruppen randomisiert. Die eine Gruppe hatte eine post-operative Bestrahlung (WBRT) im Anschluss an die IORT und die andere Gruppe hatte nur die alleinige IORT. Unser Hauptziel war der Vergleich der strahlenassoziierten Spätnebenwirkungen der alleinigen IORT mit denen der IORT-WBRT. In dem Zeitraum von 2005-2012 wurden 120 Patientinnen aus dem Brustzentrum des Sankt Gertrauden-Krankenhauses in Berlin mit einer IORT oder IORT-WBRT behandelt und beginnend vom OP-Tag mit IORT über einen Zeitraum von 3 Jahren pro Patientin beobachtet. Die Nebenwirkungen der Patientinnen wurden in Nachsorgeuntersuchungen einmal im Jahr, beginnend ab 1 Jahr nach Ende der Strahlenthera-pie erhoben. Insgesamt haben von 120 nur 106 Patientinnen alle Untersuchungstermine wahrgenommen (12, 24 und 36 Monate) und wurden als Kollektiv in diesem Zeitraum beobachtet und in dieser Studie eingeschlossen. Nach Erhebung aller Ergebnisse wurde diese analysiert und statistisch ausgewertet. Es wurden folgende Nebenwirkungen erfasst: Erytheme, Indurationen, Retraktionen, Pigmentierungen, Fibrose, Lymphödeme, Nekrosen, Brustödeme und Serome. Ebenfalls wurde das Schmerzempfinden im Bereich der OP-Narbe bzw. im Bestrahlungsbereich dokumentiert. Es zeigte sich ein signifikanter Unterschied zwischen den beiden Gruppen im Hinblick auf die Ausbildung von Brustödemen und Pigmentierungen. Von den 80 Frauen im IORT-WBRT-Arm bildeten 43 Patientinnen ein Brustödem aus und 53 Patientinnen hatten Pigmentierungen im Bereich OP-Narbe/ Bestrahlungsgebiet. Diese Frauen bildeten im Verlauf häufiger diese zwei o.g. Nebenwirkungen aus als die andere Gruppe. Von den 26 Frauen aus der Gruppe der alleinigen IORT hatte nur eine Frau ein Brustödem und 4 Frauen Störungen der Pigmentierung. Die Nebenwirkungen wie Indurationen, Schmerzen und Fibrosen traten ohne signifikanten Unterschied zugunsten eines Studienarmes häufig auf. Der einzige prädikative Faktor für eine geringere strahlenassoziierte Nebenwirkung in unserer Studie war die alleinige IORT. Trotz des kleinen Patientenkollektivs und der kurzen Beobachtungsdauer von 3 Jahren bestätigen fast alle internationalen Studien unsere Beobachtungen hinsichtlich der Ausbildung von Nebenwirkungen.The comparison of intraoperative and percutaneous irradiation and predictive factors for side effects in breast cancer. Mamma's carcinoma is the most common malignant disease in women worldwide. In recent decades, treatment options for the treatment of breast cancer have changed and allow many patients a better chance of healing. Due to the versatility of the tumor entity, the treatment options for early breast cancer cover a wide range of surgical therapy, system therapy and radiatio. In this work, we specifically looked at women with early breast cancer who also received intraoperative irradiation (IORT) of the tumor bed during breast-sustaining surgery. The patient collective was randomized in two groups for postoperative irradiation. One group had postoperative irradiation (WBRT) following the IORT and the other group had only the sole IORT. Our main goal was to compare the radiation-associated late side effects of the only IORT with those of the IORT-WBRT. In the period 2005-2012, 120 patients from the breast centre of the St. Gertrauden Hospital in Berlin were treated with an IORT or IORT-WBRT and observed starting from the operating day with IORT over a period of 3 years. In order to record the side effects of the patients, follow-up examinations were carried out once a year, starting from 1 year after the end of radiotherapy. Only 106 patients attended all examination appointments (12, 24 and 36 months). After all the results were collected, these were analysed and statistically evaluated. The following side effects were recorded: erythema, indurations, retractions, pigmentations, fibrosis, lymphoedema, necrosis, breast edema and seroma. The sensation of pain in the area of the surgical scar or in the radiation area was also documented. There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of breast edema and pigmentation. Of the 80 women in the IORT-WBRT arm, 43 patients had breast edema and 53 patients had pigmentation in the area of surgery and radiation. Of the 26 women in the single IORT group, only one woman had breast edema and 4 women had pigmentation disorders. Side effects such as indurations, pain and fibrosis occurred frequently in favor of a low-study arm with out any significant difference. The only predictive factor in our study for a lower radiation-associated side effect was the sole IORT. Despite the small patient collective and the short observation period of 3 years, almost all international studies confirm our observations regarding the formation of side effects

Cross-sectoral Coordination of Disaster Relief

Coordinating organizational activity across different sectors is crucial in disaster management. We analysed the response of 291 aid workers to the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and found that common incentives and a high degree of equality among aid organizations positively affected perceived network coordination. Large and public organizations were more likely to take leadership roles and high numbers of public organizations involved in the disaster response network led to improved network coordination. These results indicate the need for mechanisms that enable smaller and non-profit organizations to participate in network coordination and leadership

Zur Steigerung der Dienstleistungsqualität von öffentlichen Verwaltungen: eine empirische Evaluation unter Berücksichtigung des CAF-Modells

Das Ziel der Steigerung der Dienstleistungsqualität hat in den letzten Jahren in der Verwaltungspraxis stark an Bedeutung gewonnen und zahlreiche Verwaltungseinheiten evaluieren ihre Dienstleistungsqualität regelmäßig im Rahmen von Bürgerbefragungen. In dieser Untersuchung wird die Dienstleistungsqualität zumeist anhand von denen im Common Assessment Framework definierten Kriterien gemessen, während Indikatoren, die aus der Dienstleistungsforschung bekannt sind, eher weniger implementiert werden. Diese Untersuchung nimmt daher eine integrative Forschungsperspektive ein, um Dienstleistungsqualität, Bürgerzufriedenheit, Vertrauen in die Verwaltung sowie eine positive Mundzu- Mund-Kommunikation von Bürgern vertiefend zu analysieren. Auf der Basis einer umfangreichen empirischen Untersuchung von 2.984 Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in der Schweiz wird gezeigt, welche Aspekte aus Bürgersicht eine gute Dienstleistungsqualität ausmachen und wie Verwaltungen dementsprechend das Ziel Dienstleistungsqualität kontinuierlich steigern können.Citizen surveys are an established method in public administration to evaluate the service quality of local government services. However, most of them are primarily based on indicators used in the common assessment framework (CAF), whereas indicators known from service quality research or customer satisfaction barometers are limited. This study integrates findings of public and service management research in order to measure public service quality, citizen satisfaction, trust and word of mouth. A large empirical study has been conducted among 2984 citizens from Switzerland. The results of the partial least square path analysis show that the two most important driver for citizen satisfaction are public service performance and interaction between citizens and employees. Furthermore, the author find a positive impact of citizen satisfaction on word-of-mouth and citizens trust in public administration. Advantages and limitations of using a extended public service quality approach are discussed

The ‘Donor of the Future Project’ : first results and further research domains

Background: The Alliance of Blood Operators initiated a project labelled ‘Donor of the Future’. This study gives an overview of the project results, in particular with regard to country differences. Study Design and Methods: A large survey (N = 7663) among blood donors in six countries was conducted to analyse the effects of five global areas of change: (1) demographic change; (2) technological developments; (3) health innovations; (4) public, behavioural and attitudinal aspects; and (5) political, economic and environmental issues. Results: The main results exhibited similarities and differences between blood donors of the participating countries. Greater differences were found, for example, regarding technological developments. Whereas only blood donors from the UK and Australia would like to be informed via SMS, blood donors from all countries would like to be informed via email. Conclusion: Different priorities of donors have been uncovered. These differences give suggestions to improve the country-specific donor management. Furthermore, the key findings provide a comprehensive overview of major future research domains

Reverse Evolution: Driving Forces Behind the Loss of Acquired Photosynthetic Traits

BACKGROUND:The loss of photosynthesis has occurred often in eukaryotic evolution, even more than its acquisition, which occurred at least nine times independently and which generated the evolution of the supergroups Archaeplastida, Rhizaria, Chromalveolata and Excavata. This secondary loss of autotrophic capability is essential to explain the evolution of eukaryotes and the high diversity of protists, which has been severely underestimated until recently. However, the ecological and evolutionary scenarios behind this evolutionary "step back" are still largely unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Using a dynamic model of heterotrophic and mixotrophic flagellates and two types of prey, large bacteria and ultramicrobacteria, we examine the influence of DOC concentration, mixotroph's photosynthetic growth rate, and external limitations of photosynthesis on the coexistence of both types of flagellates. Our key premises are: large bacteria grow faster than small ones at high DOC concentrations, and vice versa; and heterotrophic flagellates are more efficient than the mixotrophs grazing small bacteria (both empirically supported). We show that differential efficiency in bacteria grazing, which strongly depends on cell size, is a key factor to explain the loss of photosynthesis in mixotrophs (which combine photosynthesis and bacterivory) leading to purely heterotrophic lineages. Further, we show in what conditions an heterotroph mutant can coexist, or even out-compete, its mixotrophic ancestor, suggesting that bacterivory and cell size reduction may have been major triggers for the diversification of eukaryotes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Our results suggest that, provided the mixotroph's photosynthetic advantage is not too large, the (small) heterotroph will also dominate in nutrient-poor environments and will readily invade a community of mixotrophs and bacteria, due to its higher efficiency exploiting the ultramicrobacteria. As carbon-limited conditions were presumably widespread throughout Earth history, such a scenario may explain the numerous transitions from phototrophy to mixotrophy and further to heterotrophy within virtually all major algal lineages. We challenge prevailing concepts that affiliated the evolution of phagotrophy with eutrophic or strongly light-limited environments only

Die flußgeschichtliche Entwicklung der Niederrheinischen Bucht im Jungtertiär und Altquartär.

Die sedimentologische und petrographische Bearbeitung der Braunkohlen-Deckschichten zeigt für die Niederrheinische Bucht im Miozän und Pliozän ein küstennahes Ablagerungsmilieu. Relativ kleinräumige Faziesverschiebungen und Schwankungen des Klimas zwischen feuchten und trockeneren Phasen verursachen die wechselnden Sedimentationstypen. Größere Relativbewegungen von Meeresspiegel zu Niederrheinischer Bucht sind nur über einige Erosionsdiskordanzen zu fassen. Im Pleistozän herrscht ausschließlich fluviatile Sedimentation, unterbrochen durch markante Erosionsphasen. Der Wechsel zwischen Erosion und Ablagerung und die Änderung in der petrographischen Zusammensetzung der Sedimente wird durch das Zusammenwirken von tektonischen Bewegungen und klimatischen Rhythmen des Altquartärs geprägt.researc

CANGS DB: a stand-alone web-based database tool for processing, managing and analyzing 454 data in biodiversity studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Next generation sequencing (NGS) is widely used in metagenomic and transcriptomic analyses in biodiversity. The ease of data generation provided by NGS platforms has allowed researchers to perform these analyses on their particular study systems. In particular the 454 platform has become the preferred choice for PCR amplicon based biodiversity surveys because it generates the longest sequence reads. Nevertheless, the handling and organization of massive amounts of sequencing data poses a major problem for the research community, particularly when multiple researchers are involved in data acquisition and analysis. An integrated and user-friendly tool, which performs quality control, read trimming, PCR primer removal, and data organization is desperately needed, therefore, to make data interpretation fast and manageable.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We developed CANGS DB (Cleaning and Analyzing Next Generation Sequences DataBase) a flexible, stand alone and user-friendly integrated database tool. CANGS DB is specifically designed to organize and manage the massive amount of sequencing data arising from various NGS projects. CANGS DB also provides an intuitive user interface for sequence trimming and quality control, taxonomy analysis and rarefaction analysis. Our database tool can be easily adapted to handle multiple sequencing projects in parallel with different sample information, amplicon sizes, primer sequences, and quality thresholds, which makes this software especially useful for non-bioinformaticians. Furthermore, CANGS DB is especially suited for projects where multiple users need to access the data. CANGS DB is available at <url>http://code.google.com/p/cangsdb/</url>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>CANGS DB provides a simple and user-friendly solution to process, store and analyze 454 sequencing data. Being a local database that is accessible through a user-friendly interface, CANGS DB provides the perfect tool for collaborative amplicon based biodiversity surveys without requiring prior bioinformatics skills.</p

Zur Geologie der Deckschichten von Kärlich/Mittelrhein

Das Profil der Tongrube Kärlich wurde geologisch neu bearbeitet, mit folgenden Ergebnissen: 1. Die Einstufung von Abschnitt A in den Jaramillo-Event ist nicht bewiesen. Abschnitt A kann jünger sein und damit in den Bavel-Komplex gehören. 2. Der quartäre Vulkanismus der Osteifel setzt in der Warmzeit ein, die Abschnitt F abschließt. Es gibt Hinweise im Profil von Kärlich, daß in der Westeifel der quartäre Vulkanismus schon deutlich früher, schon in der Matuyama-Epoche, einsetzte. 3. Eine Unterteilung von Abschnitt G, im Sinne von Razi Rad (1976), gibt es nicht und hat es nicht gegeben. Alle Sedimente von Abschnitt G zeigen eine Dominanz von brauner Hornblende im Schwermineralspektrum. 4. Abschnitt H ist durch die markanteste Diskordanz des gesamten Profils in Abschnitt H-unten und Abschnitt H-oben geteilt. 5. Das „Kärlicher Interglazial" ist zu unterteilen in ein Kärlicher Interglazial I, unter dem Brockentuff und ein Kärlicher Interglazial II, über dem Brockentuff. Die beiden Interglaziale sind durch mindestens eine Kaltphase voneinander getrennt.researc