Characterizing uncertainties in the ESA-CCI land cover map of the epoch 2010 and their impacts on MPI-ESM climate simulations

Limitations of mapping land surface properties and their conversion into climate model boundary conditions are major sources of uncertainty in climate simulations. In this paper, the range of the largest possible uncertainty in satellite-derived land cover (LC) map is estimated and its impact on climate simulations is quantified with the Earth System Model of the Max-Planck Institute for Meteorology utilizing prescribed sea surface temperature and sea ice. Two types of uncertainty in the LC map are addressed: (i) uncertainty due to classification algorithm of spectral reflectance into LC classes, and (ii) uncertainty due to conversion of LC classes into the climate model vegetation distribution. For forest cover, each of them is about the same order of magnitude as the uncertainty range in recent observations (∼± 700 Mha). Superposing two sources of uncertainty results in LC maps that feature the range of vegetation deviation that is about the same order of magnitude as the recent (since year 1700) forest loss due to agriculture (forest cover uncertainty range ∼± 1700 Mha). These uncertainties in vegetation distribution lead to noticeable variations in near-surface climate variables, local, regional, and global climate forcing. Temperature does not show significant uncertainty in global mean, but rather exhibits regional deviations with an opposite response to LC uncertainty that compensate each other in the global mean (e.g., albedo feedback controls temperature in boreal North America resulting in cooling (warming) with decrease (increase) of vegetation while evaporative cooling controls temperature in South America and sub-Saharan Africa resulting in cooling (warming) with increase (decrease) of vegetation). Large-scale circulation is also affected by the LC uncertainty, and consequently precipitation pattern as well. It is demonstrated that precipitation uncertainty in the monsoonal regions are about the same order of magnitude as in previous studies with idealized perturbations of vegetation. These findings indicate that the range of uncertainty in satellite-derived vegetation maps for climate models is about the same order of magnitude as the uncertainty in recent observations of forest cover or as the forest lost due to agriculture. Consequently, climate simulations have a similar range of uncertainty in variables representing near-surface climate as the observed climate change due to land use. Hence, more accurate methods are needed for mapping and converting LC properties into model vegetation in order to increase reliability of climate model simulations. © 2018, The Author(s)

Influence of environmental factors during seed development and after full-ripeness on pre-harvest sprouting in wheat

Results on environmental and genotypic factors influencing preharvest sprouting of wheat are summarized. Other possible areas where additional research is needed is suggested

Web-Wide Application Customization:The Case of Mashups

Application development of is commonly a balancing of interests, as the question of what should actually be implemented is answered differently by different stakeholders. This paper considers mashups, which are a way of allowing an application to grow beyond the capabilities of the original developers. First, it introduces several approaches to integrate mashups into the services, or Web pages, that they are based upon. These approaches commonly implement ways to determine which mashups are potentially relevant for display in a certain Web page context. One approach, ActiveTags, enables users to create reliable mashups based on tags, which effectively, leads to customized views of Web pages with tagged content. A scenario that demonstrates the potential benefits of this approach is presented. Second, a formalization of the approaches is presented which uses a relational analog to show their commonalities. The abstraction from implementation specifics opens the range of vision for fundamental capabilities and gives a clear picture of future work

From Version 1.0 to Version 2.0:A Brief History of the Web

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Violation and persistence of the K-quantum number in warm rotating nuclei

The validity of the K-quantum number in rapidly rotating warm nuclei is investigated as a function of thermal excitation energy U and angular momentum I, for the rare-earth nucleus 163Er. The quantal eigenstates are described with a shell model which combines a cranked Nilsson mean-field and a residual two-body interaction, together with a term which takes into account the angular momentum carried by the K-quantum number in an approximate way. K-mixing is produced by the interplay of the Coriolis interaction and the residual interaction; it is weak in the region of the discrete rotational bands (U \lesim 1MeV), but it gradually increases until the limit of complete violation of the K-quantum number is approached around U \sim 2 - 2.5 MeV. The calculated matrix elements between bands having different K-quantum numbers decrease exponentially as a function of $\Delta K$, in qualitative agreement with recent data.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure

Web Service Discovery – Reality Check 2.0

In practice the ability to find the right Web service decides between a functionality being implemented anew and at least the possibility of executing it via a service. This report evaluates existing public portals for Web service discovery with respect to their characteristics and their acceptance by developers. For this, we distinguish different possible settings and use cases and evaluate how these are supported in practice. Only few of the publicly available Web service registries are growing in size and importance, with the use case best supported being the pre-programming phase of evaluation of the service landscape. <br

AXL modulates extracellular matrix protein expression and is essential for invasion and metastasis in endometrial cancer

The receptor tyrosine kinase AXL promotes migration, invasion, and metastasis. Here, we evaluated the role of AXL in endometrial cancer. High immunohistochemical expression of AXL was found in 76% (63/83) of advanced-stage, and 77% (82/107) of high-grade specimens and correlated with worse survival in uterine serous cancer patients. In vitro, genetic silencing of AXL inhibited migration and invasion but had no effect on proliferation of ARK1 endometrial cancer cells. AXL-deficient cells showed significantly decreased expression of phospho-AKT as well as uPA, MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-3, and MMP-9. In a xenograft model of human uterine serous carcinoma with AXL-deficient ARK1 cells, there was significantly less tumor burden than xenografts with control ARK1 cells. Together, these findings underscore the therapeutic potentials of AXL as a candidate target for treatment of metastatic endometrial cancer

BoGSy:ein Informationssystem für Botanische Gärten

Botanische Gärten bieten den Botanischen Instituten die Grundlage für deren Forschungen und Besuchern einen Einblick in die Pflanzenwelt. Die mit dem Wissenschaftszweig der Botanik entstanden Universitätsgärten haben ihren Mittelpunkt in der Botanischen Forschung und Lehre, vor allem in den Bereichen Taxonomie und Ökologie. Die Grundlagen und der Inhalt der Botanischen Arbeit sind demnach insbesondere Sammlungen. Darüber hinaus erfordert die Teilnahme im IPEN (International Plant Exchange Network) seit einigen Jahren die Einhaltung strenger Kriterien der CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) beim Austausch von Samen und Pflanzenmaterial. Die Entwicklung eines Datenbank gestützten Informationssystems für Botanische Gärten wird durch eine Reihe von Beobachtungen motiviert und muss diverse Randbedingungen beachten. Dies wird im Folgenden genauer erläutert. Sodann werden der Entwurf und eine erste Realisierung des Informationssystems BoGSy beschrieben, welches an der Universität Münster entwickelt wird und diesen Bedingungen genügt.<br/