Periodical honey bee colony losses in Germany: preliminary results from a four years monitoring project

contribution to session V Honey bee poisoning incidents and monitoring schemesWithin the framework of the German Bee Monitoring Project winter losses of bee colonies were evaluated from the database of 120 beekeepers and 1200 bee colonies by assessing the following parameters: data on the apiary (site, nuclei, movement of colonies, Varroa treatment), strength of the colonies in autumn and spring, honey yields, residues in bee bread (stored pollen), bee disease analysis.During the last four years the winter losses of the monitoring beekeepers were between 8 and 16% and showed regional differences. The loss rates were clearly lower than those of non-monitoring beekeepers.In 215 bee bread samples analysed with a sensitive multi-method, more than 55 active ingredients were found. Most active ingredients were found in traces but often in combinations. Primarily fungicides, varroacides and herbicides were found. Clothianidin was not found in any sample. Imidacloprid was found in one sample at the limit of detection. 4400 data sets were statistically analysed for the identification of triggers with negative influence on overwintering. The winter losses were significantly correlated with Varroa infestations and virus infections in autumn. It was concluded that no acute effects on honey bees have to be expected on the basis of the evaluated residue data. For testing potential sublethal or long term effects a useful test design has to be developed. The project will be continued in 2009.Keywords: German Bee Monitoring Project, colony losses, Apis mellifera, overwinterin

Die Situation der Roma in Tschechien aus der Sicht von Jugendlichen

Die Roma, deren Ursprungsgebiet in Nordwestindien auszumachen ist, leben bereits seit dem 13. Jahrhundert in Mitteleuropa, wie zeitgenössische Berichte vermuten lassen. In den folgenden Jahrhunderten sahen sie sich konfrontiert mit Ausgrenzung und Verfolgung. Nach der Machtergreifung der Nationalsozialisten in Deutschland und der Besetzung Tschechiens kam es zur fast gänzlichen Vernichtung der Roma in Tschechien. Die Binnenmigration aus der Ostslowakei in den Westen der Tschechoslowakei sowie die Zwangsumsiedlung vieler Roma nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg ließ ihre Zahl auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Tschechiens in den folgenden Jahrzehnten wieder ansteigen. Das „sozialistische“ Regime versuchte mit allen Mitteln eine Assimilierung der Roma in der Tschechoslowakei zu erreichen, die in der Konsequenz eine entscheidende Ursache für die gegenwärtige problematische Situation vieler Roma in Tschechien darstellt. Die Zahl der Roma in Tschechien wird auf 200.000 bis 300.000 geschätzt, viele von ihnen sehen sich prekären Verhältnissen ausgesetzt, die im Zusammenhang mit einer Benachteiligung im Bildungswesen und der daraus resultierenden Arbeitslosigkeit stehen. Außerdem herrschen den Roma gegenüber stark verwurzelte Vorurteile, die ihr Leben in der tschechischen Gesellschaft zusätzlich erschweren. Die in dieser Arbeit untersuchten Essays von Schülern zweier Prager Grundschulen zeigen die Vorurteile auf Seiten der Nicht-Roma-Schüler gegenüber den Roma, insbesondere auf jener Schule, die von keinen Roma besucht wird. Moderater und konstruktiver hingegen klingt die Kritik jener Nicht-Roma-Schüler, die die „integrative“ Grundschule besuchen, deren Schülerschaft zu 70% aus Roma besteht. Hier lassen sich zahlreiche Ansätze zur Verbesserung der Situation der Roma sowie Chancen zum Aufbau einer funktionierenden multiethnischen Gesellschaft erkennen.The Roma, whose origins are in Northwest India, have been living in Central Europe since the 13th century, according to contemporary reports. In the subsequent centuries, they were victims of segregation and persecution. Nearly all of the Roma in Czechia were murdered during the occupation by Nazi-Germany. The migration of Roma from Eastern Slovakia and their forced settlement in Western Czechoslovakia led to a growing number of Roma in the area of today's Czechia. The "socialist" regime tried every means to assimilate the Roma in Czechoslovakia, which is the main cause of the problematic situation of many Roma in Czechia today. The current number of Roma in Czechia is estimated to be between 200,000 and 300,000. Many of them live in a precarious situation, which can be linked to discrimination in education and the unemployment that results from it. In addition, the Roma are exposed to deeply-rooted prejudices, which make their lives in Czech society even more difficult. This research paper examines essays by students at two elementary schools in Prague. Their essays show the prejudices of non-Roma students toward Roma, especially at the school without Roma students. At the "integrative" school with about 70% Roma students, on the other hand, the critiques made by the non-Roma students are more moderate and constructive. These facts show a way to improve the current situation and a chance to create a functional multi-ethnic society

The impact of atmospheric boundary layer, opening configuration and presence of animals on the ventilation of a cattle barn

Naturally ventilated livestock buildings (NVLB) represent one of the most significant sources of ammonia emissions. However, even the dispersion of passive gas in an NVLB is still not well understood. In this paper, we present a detailed investigation of passive pollutant dispersion in a model of a cattle barn using the wind tunnel experiment method. We simulated the pollution of the barn by a ground-level planar source. We used the time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) and the fast flame ionisation detector (FFID) to study the flow and dispersion processes at high spatial and temporal resolution. We employed the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Oscillating Patterns Decomposition (OPD) methods to detect the coherent structures of the flow. The results show that the type of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and sidewall opening height have a significant impact on the pollutant dispersion in the barn, while the presence of animals and doors openings are insignificant under conditions of winds perpendicular to the sidewall openings. We found that the dynamic coherent structures, developed by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, contribute to the pollutant transport in the barn. We demonstrate that in any of the studied cases the pollutant was not well mixed within the barn and that a significant underestimation (up to by a factor 3) of the barn ventilation might be obtained using, e.g. tracer gas method. © 2020 The Author

CLIP-170 tracks growing microtubule ends by dynamically recognizing composite EB1/tubulin-binding sites

The microtubule cytoskeleton is crucial for the internal organization of eukaryotic cells. Several microtubule-associated proteins link microtubules to subcellular structures. A subclass of these proteins, the plus end–binding proteins (+TIPs), selectively binds to the growing plus ends of microtubules. Here, we reconstitute a vertebrate plus end tracking system composed of the most prominent +TIPs, end-binding protein 1 (EB1) and CLIP-170, in vitro and dissect their end-tracking mechanism. We find that EB1 autonomously recognizes specific binding sites present at growing microtubule ends. In contrast, CLIP-170 does not end-track by itself but requires EB1. CLIP-170 recognizes and turns over rapidly on composite binding sites constituted by end-accumulated EB1 and tyrosinated α-tubulin. In contrast to its fission yeast orthologue Tip1, dynamic end tracking of CLIP-170 does not require the activity of a molecular motor. Our results demonstrate evolutionary diversity of the plus end recognition mechanism of CLIP-170 family members, whereas the autonomous end-tracking mechanism of EB family members is conserved

Fourth Human Parechovirus Serotype

We identified a novel human parechovirus (HPeV) type (K251176-02) from a neonate with fever. Analysis of the complete genome showed K251176-02 to be a new HPeV genotype. Since K251176-02 could not be neutralized with antibodies against known HPeV serotypes 1–3, it should be classified as a fourth HPeV serotype

Elastic moduli, dislocation core energy and melting of hard disks in two dimensions

Elastic moduli and dislocation core energy of the triangular solid of hard disks of diameter $\sigma$ are obtained in the limit of vanishing dislocation- antidislocation pair density, from Monte Carlo simulations which incorporates a constraint, namely that all moves altering the local connectivity away from that of the ideal triangular lattice are rejected. In this limit, we show that the solid is stable against all other fluctuations at least upto densities as low as $\rho \sigma^2 = 0.88$. Our system does not show any phase transition so diverging correlation lengths leading to finite size effects and slow relaxations do not exist. The dislocation pair formation probability is estimated from the fraction of moves rejected due to the constraint which yields, in turn, the core energy E_c and the (bare) dislocation fugacity y. Using these quantities, we check the relative validity of first order and Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young (KTHNY) melting scenarios and obtain numerical estimates of the typical expected transition densities and pressures. We conclude that a KTHNY transition from the solid to a hexatic phase preempts the solid to liquid first order transition in this system albeit by a very small margin, easily masked by crossover effects in unconstrained ``brute-force'' simulations with small number of particles.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Roles for the Conserved Spc105p/Kre28p Complex in Kinetochore-Microtubule Binding and the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint

Kinetochores attach sister chromatids to microtubules of the mitotic spindle and orchestrate chromosome disjunction at anaphase. Although S. cerevisiae has the simplest known kinetochores, they nonetheless contain approximately 70 subunits that assemble on centromeric DNA in a hierarchical manner. Developing an accurate picture of the DNA-binding, linker and microtubule-binding layers of kinetochores, including the functions of individual proteins in these layers, is a key challenge in the field of yeast chromosome segregation. Moreover, comparison of orthologous proteins in yeast and humans promises to extend insight obtained from the study of simple fungal kinetochores to complex animal cell kinetochores.We show that S. cerevisiae Spc105p forms a heterotrimeric complex with Kre28p, the likely orthologue of the metazoan kinetochore protein Zwint-1. Through systematic analysis of interdependencies among kinetochore complexes, focused on Spc105p/Kre28p, we develop a comprehensive picture of the assembly hierarchy of budding yeast kinetochores. We find Spc105p/Kre28p to comprise the third linker complex that, along with the Ndc80 and MIND linker complexes, is responsible for bridging between centromeric heterochromatin and kinetochore MAPs and motors. Like the Ndc80 complex, Spc105p/Kre28p is also essential for kinetochore binding by components of the spindle assembly checkpoint. Moreover, these functions are conserved in human cells.Spc105p/Kre28p is the last of the core linker complexes to be analyzed in yeast and we show it to be required for kinetochore binding by a discrete subset of kMAPs (Bim1p, Bik1p, Slk19p) and motors (Cin8p, Kar3p), all of which are nonessential. Strikingly, dissociation of these proteins from kinetochores prevents bipolar attachment, even though the Ndc80 and DASH complexes, the two best-studied kMAPs, are still present. The failure of Spc105 deficient kinetochores to bind correctly to spindle microtubules and to recruit checkpoint proteins in yeast and human cells explains the observed severity of missegregation phenotypes

Genome sequence of Bacillus anthracis STI, a sterne-like Georgian/Soviet vaccine strain

The Bacillus anthracis strain STI is a Soviet vaccine strain that lacks the pXO2 plasmid. Previous data indicate that this isolate forms a new branch within the B. anthracis sub-group originally identified as A. Br.008/009