Metrological Prerequisites for Determination of Silage Density Compacted in a Bunker silo using Gamma Rays

In order to produce high quality silage feed it is particularly important to appropriately compact the chopped material upon storage. It was the objective of the research to understand the metrological prerequisites for online density measuring, using a radiometric probe. Caesium 137 with an activity of 37 MBq was used as radiation source in the tests. Source and detector were hovered over the goods to be measured. The number of gamma photons reflected from the goods occurs to be proportional to the density of the silaged goods. The probe was tested in a compaction test arrangement on chopped grass and maize, as well as on different bulk goods. It could be shown that radiometric measuring devices are suitable to measure the density of agricultural goods, particularly ensiled goods, using back-scattering. The measuring built the basis for the development of a probe which shall be deployed on horizontal silos in the future

Radiometric density measurement for silage compaction in bunker silos

Certain minimum densities should be targeted when storing silage in bunker silos.  However, farmers lack facilities to measure the actual density and then steer the compaction passes.  This study was aimed at developing a measuring device for onsite density measurement.  The basis of the measuring device was a source of caesium radiation with an activity of    37 MBq and a sodium iodide scintillation detector.  The measuring device used the backscattering method.  The source and detector were located in a measuring wheel that was connected with the tractor via the rear three-point linkage.  During measuring passes on bunker silos both the density increase in the case of several crossings and the elastic recovery of the material could be seen clearly.  In connection with satellite-based position determination, the silo surface can be mapped according to density.  As a result of the random decay of the caesium, the error in density measurement was only ±4% at   600 kg m-3.   Keywords: silage compaction, bunker silo, silage density, radiometric measuring devic

Genome-wide association study and genomic prediction of resistance to stripe rust in current Central and Northern European winter wheat germplasm

Stripe or yellow rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia striiformis Westend f. sp. tritici, is one of the most destructive wheat diseases. Sustainable management of wheat stripe rust can be achieved through the deployment of rust resistant cultivars. To detect effective resistance loci for use in breeding programs, an association mapping panel of 230 winter wheat cultivars and breeding lines from Northern and Central Europe was employed. Genotyping with the Illumina® iSelect® 25 K Infinium® single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping array yielded 8812 polymorphic markers. Structure analysis revealed two subpopulations with 92 Austrian breeding lines and cultivars, which were separated from the other 138 genotypes from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Switzerland. Genome-wide association study for adult plant stripe rust resistance identified 12 SNP markers on six wheat chromosomes which showed consistent effects over several testing environments. Among these, two marker loci on chromosomes 2BS (RAC875_c1226_652) and 6AL (Tdurum_contig29607_413) were highly predictive in three independent validation populations of 1065, 1001, and 175 breeding lines. Lines with the resistant haplotype at both loci were nearly free of stipe rust symptoms. By using mixed linear models with those markers as fixed effects, we could increase predictive ability in the three populations by 0.13–0.46 compared to a standard genomic best linear unbiased prediction approach. The obtained results facilitate an efficient selection for stripe rust resistance against the current pathogen population in the Northern and Central European winter wheat gene pool.publishedVersio

Auf schwankendem Grund. Dekadenz und Tod im Venedig der Moderne

Anlass des Bandes ist das Centenarium von Thomas Manns Novelle "Der Tod in Venedig" (1912), in der Gustav von Aschenbach als ein der historischen Wissenschaft verpflichteter Schriftsteller in unsicheres Terrain jenseits rationaler Begrifflichkeit gerät, ins Sehnsuchtsland der Liebe und des Schönen, und schließlich in einen Grenzbereich, in dem alles Gestaltete ins Gestaltlose und schließlich in den Tod übergeht. Venedig um 1900, die auf Wasser gebaute, einstige Seerepublik in politischer Dekadenz ist nicht zufällig dafür topisch, und Aschenbach mit seinen ethischen, ästhetischen und epistemologischen Erschütterungen in Venedig nicht allein. Venedig prägte seine eigene Moderne aus und wurde als physisch erlebter wie imaginier­ter Ort für Dichter, Maler und Musiker zum Spiegel der Krisenerfahrungen um 1900. Anders gesagt: Die Stadt fungierte als Seismograph, mit dem sich der Verlust metaphysischer Gewissheiten, der Verlust des Vertrauens in die Evidenz des Wissens, in die Einheit der Person und der Zuverlässigkeit der Sprache aufzeichnen ließ. Die Unbestimmtheit, der Kontrollverlust, die der Lagu­nenstadt eigene Bewegung ›auf schwankendem Grund‹ wird bei Thomas Mann und seinen Zeitgenossen zum Motor der Kreativität

Evaluation of the HadGEM3-A simulations in view of detection and attribution of human influence on extreme events in Europe

A detailed analysis is carried out to assess the HadGEM3-A global atmospheric model skill in simulating extreme temperatures, precipitation and storm surges in Europe in the view of their attribution to human influence. The analysis is performed based on an ensemble of 15 atmospheric simulations forced with observed Sea Surface Temperature of the 54 year period 1960-2013. These simulations, together with dual simulations without human influence in the forcing, are intended to be used in weather and climate event attribution. The analysis investigates the main processes leading to extreme events, including atmospheric circulation patterns, their links with temperature extremes, land-atmosphere and troposphere-stratosphere interactions. It also compares observed and simulated variability, trends and generalized extreme value theory parameters for temperature and precipitation. One of the most striking findings is the ability of the model to capture North Atlantic atmospheric weather regimes as obtained from a cluster analysis of sea level pressure fields. The model also reproduces the main observed weather patterns responsible for temperature and precipitation extreme events. However, biases are found in many physical processes. Slightly excessive drying may be the cause of an overestimated summer interannual variability and too intense heat waves, especially in central/northern Europe. However, this does not seem to hinder proper simulation of summer temperature trends. Cold extremes appear well simulated, as well as the underlying blocking frequency and stratosphere-troposphere interactions. Extreme precipitation amounts are overestimated and too variable. The atmospheric conditions leading to storm surges were also examined in the Baltics region. There, simulated weather conditions appear not to be leading to strong enough storm surges, but winds were found in very good agreement with reanalyses. The performance in reproducing atmospheric weather patterns indicates that biases mainly originate from local and regional physical processes. This makes local bias adjustment meaningful for climate change attribution

Tumour sampling method can significantly influence gene expression profiles derived from neoadjuvant window studies

Patient-matched transcriptomic studies using tumour samples before and after treatment allow inter-patient heterogeneity to be controlled, but tend not to include an untreated comparison. Here, Illumina BeadArray technology was used to measure dynamic changes in gene expression from thirty-seven paired diagnostic core and surgically excised breast cancer biopsies obtained from women receiving no treatment prior to surgery, to determine the impact of sampling method and tumour heterogeneity. Despite a lack of treatment and perhaps surprisingly, consistent changes in gene expression were identified during the diagnosis-surgery interval (48 up, 2 down; Siggenes FDR 0.05) in a manner independent of both subtype and sampling-interval length. Instead, tumour sampling method was seen to directly impact gene expression, with similar effects additionally identified in six published breast cancer datasets. In contrast with previous findings, our data does not support the concept of a significant wounding or immune response following biopsy in the absence of treatment and instead implicates a hypoxic response following the surgical biopsy. Whilst sampling-related gene expression changes are evident in treated samples, they are secondary to those associated with response to treatment. Nonetheless, sampling method remains a potential confounding factor for neoadjuvant study design

Multifaceted highly targeted sequential multidrug treatment of early ambulatory high-risk SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19)

The SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading across the world has led to surges of COVID-19 illness, hospitalizations, and death. The complex and multifaceted pathophysiology of life-threatening COVID-19 illness including viral mediated organ damage, cytokine storm, and thrombosis warrants early interventions to address all components of the devastating illness. In countries where therapeutic nihilism is prevalent, patients endure escalating symptoms and without early treatment can succumb to delayed in-hospital care and death. Prompt early initiation of sequenced multidrug therapy (SMDT) is a widely and currently available solution to stem the tide of hospitalizations and death. A multipronged therapeutic approach includes 1) adjuvant nutraceuticals, 2) combination intracellular anti-infective therapy, 3) inhaled/oral corticosteroids, 4) antiplatelet agents/anticoagulants, 5) supportive care including supplemental oxygen, monitoring, and telemedicine. Randomized trials of individual, novel oral therapies have not delivered tools for physicians to combat the pandemic in practice. No single therapeutic option thus far has been entirely effective and therefore a combination is required at this time. An urgent immediate pivot from single drug to SMDT regimens should be employed as a critical strategy to deal with the large numbers of acute COVID-19 patients with the aim of reducing the intensity and duration of symptoms and avoiding hospitalization and death

Blue Carbon Storage Capacity of Temperate Eelgrass (Zostera marina) Meadows

Despite the importance of coastal ecosystems for the global carbon budgets, knowledge of their carbon storage capacity and the factors driving variability in storage capacity is still limited. Here we provide an estimate on the magnitude and variability of carbon stocks within a widely distributed marine foundation species throughout its distribution area in temperate Northern Hemisphere. We sampled 54 eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows, spread across eight ocean margins and 36° of latitude, to determine abiotic and biotic factors influencing organic carbon (Corg) stocks in Zostera marina sediments. The Corg stocks (integrated over 25‐cm depth) showed a large variability and ranged from 318 to 26,523 g C/m2 with an average of 2,721 g C/m2. The projected Corg stocks obtained by extrapolating over the top 1 m of sediment ranged between 23.1 and 351.7 Mg C/ha, which is in line with estimates for other seagrasses and other blue carbon ecosystems. Most of the variation in Corg stocks was explained by five environmental variables (sediment mud content, dry density and degree of sorting, and salinity and water depth), while plant attributes such as biomass and shoot density were less important to Corg stocks. Carbon isotopic signatures indicated that at most sites <50% of the sediment carbon is derived from seagrass, which is lower than reported previously for seagrass meadows. The high spatial carbon storage variability urges caution in extrapolating carbon storage capacity between geographical areas as well as within and between seagrass species

Evaluierung des Kompetenzaufbaus für angewandte FuE an Fachhochschulen durch die KTU/CTI 1998 – 2004. Endbericht

Die vorliegende Evaluation bezweckt, Konzept, Vollzug und Wirkungen der Förderinitiative der KTI „Kompetenzaufbaus für angewandte FuE an Fachhochschulen“ zu untersuchen und entsprechende Empfehlungen für die Weiterführung zu formulieren. Aus der Umfeld- und Problemanalyse geht ein sehr vielfältiges Bild der FH-Landschaft, als sehr junger Sektor, der in vielerlei Hinsicht noch in einer Aufbau- und Konsolidierungsphase steckt, hervor: Die Vielfalt der Themen, die in Lehre und Forschung angeboten werden, bedeutet unterschiedliches Ausmass an Forschungserfahrung, unterschiedliches Mass an Konzentration bzw. Fragmentierung, unterschiedliche Möglichkeiten, sich im Hochschulsystem insgesamt zu positionieren und vor allem auch unterschiedliche Forschungsbegriffe. Die Konzeptanalyse zeigt, dass die KTI ihren Auftrag hinsichtlich des Kompetenzaufbaus in aFuE an FH klar vor dem Hintergrund ihrer Grundauftrags und ihrer Gesamtstrategie interpretiert. Die Herausforderungen, vor denen die FH mit dem Auftrag standen, aFuE durchzuführen, wurden seitens der KTI erkannt, die verschiedenen Facetten ausgeleuchtet. Die Wirkungsanalyse ist aufgrund der hervorragenden Datenbasis in der Lage, eine Zuordnung von outcomes und impact-Wirkungen sowohl im Falle der Wirtschafts- und Praxispartner, als auch im Falle der Fachhochschulen mit validen Ergebnissen vorzunehmen