RIPARIANET - Prioritising riparian ecotones to sustain and connect multiple biodiversity and functional components in river networks

Europe has committed to upscale ecosystems protection to include 30% of land and sea. However, due to historical overexploitation of natural assets, the available area for biodiversity protection is severely limited. Riparian zones are natural ecotones between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, contributing disproportionately to regional biodiversity and providing multiple ecosystem functions and services. Due to this and their branching geometry, riparian networks form a vast system of ‘blue-green arteries’ which physically and functionally connect multiple ecosystems over elevation gradients, despite covering a relatively small area of the basin. Hence, RIPARIANET argues that developing approaches able to optimise the spatial conservation of natural stream-riparian networks represent a flagship example of biodiversity protection in the EU. Although the integrity of riparian zones is fundamental for the achievement of multiple EU environmental objectives, the lack of a standardised framework for biodiversity assessment and protection across Member States has led to extensive impairment of riparian areas and frequent stakeholder conflicts. The main objective of RIPARIANET is to leverage the increasing resolution of remote sensing information to provide practitioners with evidence-based guidance and approaches to biodiversity conservation. Key questions include: i) how can we remotely assess riparian integrity and identify areas which provide effective connectivity allowing species biodiversity and ecosystem functions to persist through meta-ecological processes? ii) how can we disentangle the influence of local- and network-scale stressors and processes on riparian biodiversity to better implement river basin management schemes? iii) to what extent do currently existing protected areas in rivers account for the geometry of riparian networks and their multifunctionality? We will address these questions in riparian networks within six river basins in Europe, including Boreal, Continental, Alpine, Temperate and Mediterranean systems. First, we will gather local needs and interests from key stakeholders together with satellite imagery and GIS environmental data for all basins. Then, riparian and river ecosystems functions will be modelled and ecological hotspots will be identified through a GIS-based multi-criteria approach, including stakeholder inputs. Then, we will collect in situ data to assess multiple biodiversity and stressors at the local scale and, subsequently, scale-up this information to the network scale using geostatistical tools and advanced modelling. This knowledge will be conveyed to managers at local and EU scales in the form of decision-support tools allowing decision-makers to identify protection gaps and ecological hotspots along riparian networks, based on multiple biodiversity, functional and connectivity criteria

Biografieforschung: theoretische Perspektiven und methodologische Konzepte für eine re-konstruktive Geschlechterforschung

Die Biografieforschung bezeichnet einen komplexen Forschungsansatz, der auf eine lange Geschichte des wissenschaftlichen Interesses an "persönlichen Dokumenten" verweisen kann. Sie ist eine voraussetzungsvolle Forschungsperspektive, die sich in zentralen Aspekten ihres Vorgehens auf Biografien als theoretisches Konzept, als historisch-empirischen Gegenstand und als komplexe methodologische Strategie bezieht. Andere Begriffe, welche oftmals synonym gebraucht, in der Biografieforschung aber systematisch unterschieden werden, sind "Lebensgeschichte" und "Lebenslauf". Die Autorin skizziert die Perspektiven einer rekonstruktiven Geschlechterforschung innerhalb der Biografieforschung, wozu sie auf die Differenzierungen empirischer Forschung, die methodologischen Prinzipien sowie auf Datenerhebung und Datenanalyse eingeht. Sie hebt insbesondere drei Kontextrelationen bei der Interpretation eines biografischen Textes hervor: Biografie, Interaktion, kulturelle Muster und soziale Regeln. Das skizzierte Konzept von Biografieforschung begreift sie als ein offenes Programm, das vielfältige Anknüpfungspunkte zu aktuellen theoretischen Diskussionen in der Geschlechterforschung aufweist. (ICI2

Iron oxide solubility in artificial seawater in the presence of siderophores and humic substances

Huminstoffe werden seit vielen Jahren wissenschaftlich untersucht. Dennoch bleibt die Charakterisierung schwierig, da nach wie vor keine Strukturformeln bekannt sind. Auch hinsichtlich ihrer Funktion in biologischen Systemen gibt es nach wie vor Unklarheiten. Besonders die Bedeutung für den biogeochemischen Eisenkreislauf ist umstritten. Eisen spielt in den oberflächlichen Schichten der Ozeane eine wichtige Rolle, da es in weiten Teilen den limitierenden Faktor für die Primärproduktion des Phytoplanktons darstellt. Diese Stellung als limitierender Faktor rührt daher, dass Eisen(III) im Meerwasser nur eine geringe Löslichkeit aufweist. Organische Verbindungen terrestrischen und ozeanischen Ursprunges können diese Löslichkeit erhöhen. In dieser Arbeit wurden die Versuche zur Charakterisierung von Huminstoffen aus Feuchtgebieten und deren Eisentragfähigkeit von Krachler et al., Kittinger und Plessl fortgeführt. Dazu wurden zwei natürliche Wasserproben aus Hochlandmooren in Nordschottland und Oberösterreich untersucht. Des Weiteren wurden zwei kommerziell erhältliche Referenzsubstanzen aus einem Sumpfgebiet in Georgia und einem Trinkwasserreservoir in Norwegen analysiert. Dabei kam ein mehrstufiges Experiment zum Einsatz: Nach dem Ausfällen von in Meerwasser nicht löslichen Anteilen erfolgte eine Trennung mittels einer Größenausschlusschromatographie in mehrere Fraktionen, die anschließend getrocknet und erneut in künstlichem Meerwasser gelöst wurden. Ein marines Siderophor wurde ebenfalls in künstlichem Meerwasser gelöst und mit allen Proben wurden Löslichkeitsversuche durchgeführt, die die Bedingungen im offenen Ozean simulieren sollten. Die Bestimmung der Eisenlöslichkeit erfolgte mit Gammaspektroskopie nach Zusatz eines 59Fe Tracers. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Werte für die Komplexbildungskonstanten der Eisen-Huminstoffkomplexe gerade so weit unter jenem des Siderophors liegen, dass ein entscheidender Beitrag der terrestrischen Huminstoffe zum bioverfügbaren Eisenreservoir im Ozean wahrscheinlich ist, aber trotzdem ein Ligandenaustausch mit Siderophoren als Aufnahmemechanismus nahe liegt.Humic substances have been subject of scientific investigation for many years. Nevertheless characterizations stay difficult, because there are no structural formulas known yet. Also in respect of their biological function there are still ambiguities. Especially the significance for the global biogeochemical iron cycle is under controversial discussion. Iron plays a vital role in the euphotic zone of the ocean, since it represents the limiting factor for primary production of phytoplankton in wide regions. This is due to the limited solubility of iron(III) in seawater. Terrestrial-derived and marine organic compounds are capable of enhancing this solubility. With this thesis I continued the experiments made by Krachler et al., Kittinger and Plessl, who tried to characterize humic substances from wetlands and their capacity to act as an iron carrier. For this purpose two natural water samples from peat land run offs from northern Scotland and Upper Austria were investigated. Moreover two commercially available reference substances from a swamp in South Georgia and a drinking water reservoir in Norway were analyzed. In this case a multistage experiment was deployed. After precipitation of the fraction not soluble in seawater, further separation was conducted by size exclusion chromatography. The resulting fractions were dried and re-dissolved in artificial seawater. A marine siderophore was dissolved in artificial seawater as well. With all samples experiments were performed, which intended to simulate the conditions of the open ocean. The iron solubility was determined using gamma spectroscopy after addition of a 59Fe tracer. The results show that the values for the complex formation constants of the humic substances are just below the value of the siderophore. This suggests a significant contribution of the terrestrial humic substances to the bioavailable iron reservoir. But still a ligand exchange with siderophores is a possible uptake mechanism

Velocity Determination in High Enthalpy Ground Testing Facilities

The flow velocity is of significant importance in plasma wind tunnels, because the enthalpy and hence the chemical reaction processes in the boundary layer near the surface consist mainly of the high velocity. In real re-entry scenarios, the plasma is resulting from the strong bow shock in front of the vehicle which is again the result of the high velocity. In this paper, a comparison is made between the theoretically estimated velocity from basic equations for hypersonic flow conditions and experimentally gained velocities using Fabry-Perot-Interferometry. This optical diagnostic means is used in the present investigation to measure the translational temperature and velocity of nitrogen atoms. Depending on the ambient pressure, velocities between 1000m/s and 4000m/s have been measured. The detectability limit is the emission spectra of the flow which is influenced by the oxygen mass flow and the input power of the generator. Under the assumption of chemical equilibrium, several possible comparisons are made leading to the result that the pure nitrogen flows are considerably in non-equilibrium

Oxidation Behavior of Siliconcarbide-Based Materials by Using New Probe Techniques

Hysteresis of passive to active and active to passive transition of SiC oxidation behavior has been investigated theoretically, numerically, and experimentally. Theoretical and experimental investigations show a strong interaction between transition and catalysis. Dependence on plasma composition is shown.Arecently developed reaction model has been implemented in the advanced nonequilibrium Navier–Stokes code URANUS. Results are presented for the highly dissociated flow around the MIRKA capsule. In this case, radiation adiabatic surface temperatures have been found to be 120Khigher for active oxidation conditions as compared to passive oxidation conditions. To investigate transition behavior in detail, various new probe measurement techniques have been developed. Important additional observations have been made in chemical nonequilibrium.Within plasma wind-tunnel testing, a sudden temperature increase of up to 400 K was found with the transition from passive to active oxidation. Theoretical and numerical predictions show good qualitative and quantitative agreement with experimental results

Functionalization of parylene during its chemical vapor deposition

Two possible mechanisms for the reaction of four halogenated (metha)acrylate-based molecules with Parylene [poly (paraxylylene)] during its chemical vapor deposition were proposed. The chemical reactivity of acrylate double bond with the paraxylylene biradical was calculated for all four (metha)acrylate-based molecules. These calculations allowed the evaluation of the energetically favorable mechanism and indeed a direct correlation was found between both predicted and experimental reactivities. Next, the reactivity of the (metha)acrylate-modified Parylene films was evaluated through their reaction with different amines. The obtained amidated Parylene films were characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Kaiser test for primary amines, and fluorescence microscopy. The strong reactivity of (metha)acrylate-modified Parylene films toward nucleophilic substitution emphasizes a general method for the functionalization of self-supported Parylene films grown on the reacting solutions using the novel solid on liquid deposition process. This paves the way to the development of multifunctional materials in a one-step process resulting from the deposition Parylene over liquid patterns

Degradation of recombinant proteins of diverse formats by CHO host cell proteases is circumvented via knock-out of CHO matriptase

An increasing number of biologics are entering the pipeline of pharmaceutical companies. Today, the preferred production host for therapeutic proteins are CHO cells. However one of the major hurdles especially for the production of non-antibody glycoproteins is host cell-related proteolytic degradation which can drastically impact developability and timelines of pipeline projects

NANOCI-Nanotechnology Based Cochlear Implant With Gapless Interface to Auditory Neurons

Cochlear implants (CI) restore functional hearing in the majority of deaf patients. Despite the tremendous success of these devices, some limitations remain. The bottleneck for optimal electrical stimulation with CI is caused by the anatomical gap between the electrode array and the auditory neurons in the inner ear. As a consequence, current devices are limited through 1) low frequency resolution, hence suboptimal sound quality and 2), large stimulation currents, hence high energy consumption (responsible for significant battery costs and for impeding the development of fully implantable systems). A recently completed, multinational and interdisciplinary project called NANOCI aimed at overcoming current limitations by creating a gapless interface between auditory nerve fibers and the cochlear implant electrode array. This ambitious goal was achieved in vivo by neurotrophin-induced attraction of neurites through an intra-cochlear gel-nanomatrix onto a modified nanoCI electrode array located in the scala tympani of deafened guinea pigs. Functionally, the gapless interface led to lower stimulation thresholds and a larger dynamic range in vivo, and to reduced stimulation energy requirement (up to fivefold) in an in vitro model using auditory neurons cultured on multi-electrode arrays. In conclusion, the NANOCI project yielded proof of concept that a gapless interface between auditory neurons and cochlear implant electrode arrays is feasible. These findings may be of relevance for the development of future CI systems with better sound quality and performance and lower energy consumption. The present overview/review paper summarizes the NANOCI project history and highlights achievements of the individual work packages

NANOCI—Nanotechnology based cochlear implant with gapless interface to auditory neurons

Cochlear implants (CI) restore functional hearing in the majority of deaf patients. Despite the tremendous success of these devices, some limitations remain. The bottleneck for optimal electrical stimulation with CI is caused by the anatomical gap between the electrode array and the auditory neurons in the inner ear. As a consequence, current devices are limited through 1) low frequency resolution, hence sub-optimal sound quality and 2), large stimulation currents, hence high energy consumption (responsible for significant battery costs and for impeding the development of fully implantable systems). A recently completed, multinational and interdisciplinary project called NANOCI aimed at overcoming current limitations by creating a gapless interface between auditory nerve fibers and the cochlear implant electrode array. This ambitious goal was achieved in vivo by neurotrophin-induced attraction of neurites through an intracochlear gel-nanomatrix onto a modified nanoCI electrode array located in the scala tympani of deafened guinea pigs. Functionally, the gapless interface led to lower stimulation thresholds and a larger dynamic range in vivo, and to reduced stimulation energy requirement (up to fivefold) in an in vitro model using auditory neurons cultured on multi-electrode arrays. In conclusion, the NANOCI project yielded proof of concept that a gapless interface between auditory neurons and cochlear implant electrode arrays is feasible. These findings may be of relevance for the development of future CI systems with better sound quality and performance and lower energy consumption. The present overview/review paper summarizes the NANOCI project history and highlights achievements of the individual work packages