East Asian history. Research contributions of the University of Heidelberg

Englische Übersetzung von Gotelind Müller, Wolfgang Seifert, Joachim Kurtz: Geschichte Ostasiens: Heidelberger Forschungsbeiträge. In: Arbeitsgemeinschaft historischer Forschungseinrichtungen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch der historischen Forschung 2011. München: Oldenbourg 2012, S. 61-72

Gene expression of adenosine receptors along the nephron

Gene expression of adenosine receptors along the nephron.BackgroundIn view of the multiple effects of adenosine on kidney function, this study aimed to determine the expression of adenosine receptors (AR) along the rat and mouse nephron.MethodsFor this purpose, we semiquantified mRNA abundance for adenosine A1-, A2A-, A2B-, and A3 receptors by RNAse protection and by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in the kidney zones and in the different nephron segments of mice and rats.ResultsWe found very similar expression patterns for rat and mice. For the kidney zones A1-AR mRNA and A2A-AR mRNA abundance displayed a marked difference, with an increase from cortex to the inner medulla. This was not seen for A2B receptors, which showed in general a rather weak expression. Along the nephron, A1-AR was strongly expressed in the thin limbs of Henle and in the collecting duct system and to a lesser extent in the medullary thick ascending limb. A2A-AR mRNA was clearly detected in glomeruli but not in other nephron segments. A2B-AR mRNA was strongly expressed in the cortical thick ascending limb of Henle and in the distal convoluted tubule. A3-AR mRNA was not found in any nephron segment.ConclusionOur data demonstrate a distinct mutual expression of the AR subtypes along the nephron. A1 receptors are expressed in medullary tubular structures, while A2B receptors are predominant in cortical tubular structures. A2A receptor expression in the kidney appears to be restricted to vascular cells

Using virtual reality to visualize extreme rainfall events derived from climate simulations

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging and powerful tool to visualize and explore complex scientific data sets in an intuitive, interactive and user-friendly manner. In this study, we explore the usage of VR to create an immersive visualization of hydrological extreme events based on climate simulations. We aim to make use of the added values of VR to promote the communication of scientific results on potential natural hazards to the public. The visualization data are taken from climate simulations within the ClimEx project, which is an international collaboration between research facilities, universities and public water agencies in Bavaria and Quélbec. The project investigates the effects of climate change on meteorological and hydrological extreme events and implications for water management in the two regions. Within this project, an ensemble of 50 transient runs of the regional climate model CRCM5 were run at approximately 11 km spatial resolution for two domains in Europe and North America from 1950 to 2100. As each of these runs is initialized with only slightly altered starting conditions, this ensemble can be interpreted as modelled natural variability. From this data set, we extracted precipitation data regarding one historical flooding event, the Pentecost flood in Southern Germany and Austria in May 1999, as well as precipitation data for two designated future intense rainfall events in the 2060s and 2080s for the same region. Data for these three extreme rainfall events were visualized in VR using a 3D representation of topography of the region of interest as the background. This VR representation was enhanced with satellite images (on top of the topography), points of interest (for easier navigation) and images of the historic Pentecost flood event (for emphazising the impact of the flood event). We will present the necessary steps to create this immersive virtual reality 3D visualization from the raw scientific data and discuss several aspects of the visual design and the adopted user interface

Ernennungsurkunde

Der vorliegende Band dokumentiert Reden, die anlässlich der Verleihung der Ehrendoktorwürde der Universität Hamburg an Prof. Dr. h. c. Dr. h. c. Manfred Lahnstein gehalten wurden.This volume documents speeches given on the occasion of the award of an honorary doctorate by the University of Hamburg to Prof. Dr. h. c. Dr. h. c. Manfred Lahnstein

Rednerinnen und Redner

Der vorliegende Band dokumentiert Reden, die zur Amtseinführung von Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Monika Auweter-Kurtz als Präsidentin der Universität Hamburg am 1. Februar 2007 gehalten wurden.This volume documents speeches given at the inauguration of Prof. Dr. -Ing. habil. Monika Auweter-Kurtz as President of the University of Hamburg on 1 February 200

Visualization of climate simulation data in virtual reality using commercial game engines

Due to the size of its customer base the video game industry has long been the best-funded proponent of innovative real-time computer graphics. Many advancements in the field of computer graphics, software and hardware, have become cost-effective due to their use in video games, which in turn funded even further research and breakthroughs. Recent changes in the monetization of commercial game engines made their use in less revenue driven institutions affordable and, hence, possible. This allows us, given suitable hardware, to build and run computationally expensive fully interactive real-time visualizations at a fraction of the cost and time. We can thus investigate and explore the data in our virtual reality application far sooner. Additionally, we are able to spend more time to iteratively refine the user interaction as well as the preprocessing of the raw scientific data. We supply our visualization with the output data of ClimEx’ computational run on the SuperMUC. ClimEx is a research project that studies the effects of climate change on meteorological and hydrological extreme events. It features a multitude of climate-relevant variables and observes the time span between 1950 and 2100. For our use case we chose to compare three different precipitation events. Each event consists of simulated 60 hours of rainfall data anteceding a potential 100-year flood, which is a flood event that has an annual exceedance rate of 1%. The first event draws from historical data and represents the rain leading up to the 1999 Pentecost flood. We compare these data with two computer generated prospective events, which take place in 2060 and 2081, respectively. Since we wish to gain knowledge on strong local extrema as well as the comprehensive overall trend of the attributes, we chose to display the data in virtual reality. The virtually unlimited number of perspectives and points of view simplify investigating and understanding the three-dimensional data. We are also able to place the observer at the center of the data and empower them to interact with and steer the visualization in intuitive ways. By utilizing a tool like virtual reality, we are able to create an immersive, interactive and engaging user experience, which further facilitates the user’s ability to focus on the visual display and extract information from the displayed data. This allows users, especially non-expert users, to grasp the data we present in our visualization with less effort. In our paper we present the necessary steps to create an immersive virtual reality 3D visualization from raw scientific data based on our use case. This entails several aspects of pre-processing, a simple, suitable user interface as well as our solutions to the challenges we encountered

Parameters Governing the Community Structure and Element Turnover in Kermadec Volcanic Ash and Hydrothermal Fluids as Monitored by Inorganic Electron Donor Consumption, Autotrophic CO2 Fixation and 16S Tags of the Transcriptome in Incubation Experiments

The microbial community composition and its functionality was assessed for hydrothermal fluids and volcanic ash sediments from Haungaroa and hydrothermal fluids from the Brothers volcano in the Kermadec island arc (New Zealand). The Haungaroa volcanic ash sediments were dominated by epsilonproteobacterial Sulfurovum sp. Ratios of electron donor consumption to CO2 fixation from respective sediment incubations indicated that sulfide oxidation appeared to fuel autotrophic CO2 fixation, coinciding with thermodynamic estimates predicting sulfide oxidation as the major energy source in the environment. Transcript analyses with the sulfide-supplemented sediment slurries demonstrated that Sulfurovum prevailed in the experiments as well. Hence, our sediment incubations appeared to simulate environmental conditions well suggesting that sulfide oxidation catalyzed by Sulfurovum members drive biomass synthesis in the volcanic ash sediments. For the Haungaroa fluids no inorganic electron donor and responsible microorganisms could be identified that clearly stimulated autotrophic CO2 fixation. In the Brothers hydrothermal fluids Sulfurimonas (49%) and Hydrogenovibrio/Thiomicrospira (15%) species prevailed. Respective fluid incubations exhibited highest autotrophic CO2 fixation if supplemented with iron(II) or hydrogen. Likewise catabolic energy calculations predicted primarily iron(II) but also hydrogen oxidation as major energy sources in the natural fluids. According to transcript analyses with material from the incubation experiments Thiomicrospira/Hydrogenovibrio species dominated, outcompeting Sulfurimonas. Given that experimental conditions likely only simulated environmental conditions that cause Thiomicrospira/Hydrogenovibrio but not Sulfurimonas to thrive, it remains unclear which environmental parameters determine Sulfurimonas’ dominance in the Brothers natural hydrothermal fluids

KOI-54: The Kepler Discovery of Tidally Excited Pulsations and Brightenings in a Highly Eccentric Binary

Kepler observations of the star HD 187091 (KIC 8112039, hereafter KOI-54) revealed a remarkable light curve exhibiting sharp periodic brightening events every 41.8 days with a superimposed set of oscillations forming a beating pattern in phase with the brightenings. Spectroscopic observations revealed that this is a binary star with a highly eccentric orbit, e = 0.83. We are able to match the Kepler light curve and radial velocities with a nearly face-on (i = 5 degrees.5) binary star model in which the brightening events are caused by tidal distortion and irradiation of nearly identical A stars during their close periastron passage. The two dominant oscillations in the light curve, responsible for the beating pattern, have frequencies that are the 91st and 90th harmonic of the orbital frequency. The power spectrum of the light curve, after removing the binary star brightening component, reveals a large number of pulsations, 30 of which have a signal-to-noise ratio greater than or similar to 7. Nearly all of these pulsations have frequencies that are either integer multiples of the orbital frequency or are tidally split multiples of the orbital frequency. This pattern of frequencies unambiguously establishes the pulsations as resonances between the dynamic tides at periastron and the free oscillation modes of one or both of the stars. KOI-54 is only the fourth star to show such a phenomenon and is by far the richest in terms of excited modes.NASA, Science Mission DirectorateNASA NNX08AR14GEuropean Research Council under the European Community 227224W.M. Keck FoundationMcDonald Observator