181 research outputs found

    Fully Interactive and Refined Resolution Simulations of the Martian Dust Cycle by the MarsWRF Model

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    Acknowledgments: First of all, our warmest thanks go to the PlanetWRF development team for providing the MarsWRF model free of charge to us and their proactive attitude in general. We thank Andy Heaps, National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, UK, for his helpful advice regarding the data visualization using cf‐Python. We would also like to thank Michael Mischna, Alexandre Kling, and the Associate Editor Claire Newman for their several detailed and insightful comments and suggestions that helped to significantly improve the quality of the paper. M. P. Z. acknowledges the partial support by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) project MDM‐2017‐0737 Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC‐INTA), Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu. Internally, we would like to express our greatest thanks to the High‐Performance Computing, Division of Information Technology, United Arab Emirates University. Our particular thanks go to Asma AlNeyadi, Anil Thomas, and Nithin Damodaran for their intensive and continuous support in technically demanding questions. Also, we would like to thank the Digitization Unit, UAEU Libraries, for the digitization of auxiliary data on the observational record of the atmospheric T15 temperature and vertical weighting functions of Viking/IRTM. In addition, we thank UAEU Libraries for their assistance in making supporting data of this article available online. In particular, we are grateful to Digitization Technician Shireen M. Wolied, Fadl M. Musa/Digital Library Service, and Student Muhammad Abdul Rahim Sami Ullah. Funding Information: United Arab Emirates University (UAEU). Grant Number: 21R033‐NSS Center 7‐2017 Spanish State Research Agency (AEI). Grant Number: MDM‐2017‐0737Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    Entwicklungen 4.0 - Ausblicke auf zukĂŒnftige Anforderungen an und Auswirkungen auf Arbeit und Ausbildung

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    Wo geht es hin und wie könnte die zukĂŒnftige Arbeitswelt aussehen und wie ist darauf vorzubereiten? Technische Innovationen und Neuanordnungen, z. B. die Digitalisierung und Vernetzung von Wertschöpfungsketten, erfahren durch die Zukunftsvision „Industrie 4.0“ im zunehmenden Maße Aufmerksamkeit. Das Ziel ist ökonomischer Natur: Die Wirtschaft soll nachhaltig gestĂ€rkt werden. Parallel steigt die Notwendigkeit fĂŒr Politik, Wirtschaft, Forschung und Bildung die Eingangsfragen zu beantworten. Es gilt gegenwĂ€rtige Arbeitnehmer/-innen und ihr Know-How, in Bezug auf die ArbeitsfĂ€higkeit in der digitalisierten Arbeitswelt, herauszuzeichnen und einzuschĂ€tzen. Dieser Beitrag gestaltet eine Vorausschau auf Anforderungen an die zukĂŒnftige Arbeit 4.0 und Wirkungen auf die Aus- und Weiterbildung von Facharbeitern.SchlĂŒsselwörter: Berufsausbildung, Zukunftsszenarien, Industrie 4.0, Digitalisierung, Kompetenze

    Ecologically and biophysically optimal allocation of expanded soy production in Bavaria, Germany

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    A debate about cultivation and trading of soy has emerged among scientists, policymakers, and the public in recent years. Export-orientated soy production in regions of South America is associated with large-scale ecosystem destruction. Since soy is an important source of animal fodder, policymakers are developing schemes to support and enhance sustainable domestic soy cultivation, especially in the EU. Expanded soy cultivation should ideally provide high yields and at the same time promote environmental benefits. For this purpose, we applied a multi-objective optimization algorithm that selects areas with maximum soy suitability, minimum erosion risk, need for low fertilizer input due to water quality issues, and need for diversification of monotonous crop rotations. We use the state of Bavaria in Germany as a case study, modeling full self-sufficiency of soy. The results of the optimization indicate synergies between plantation suitability with need for low fertilization input and crop variation, which implies that the environmental benefit of nitrogen fixation and rotation diversification from soy plants can easily be reconciled with food productivity. However, slight trade-offs occur between erosion risk and the three other objectives, i.e., locations with better soy production might be more prone toward erosion risk. As a potential consequence of expanded soy cultivation in Bavaria, we identified winter wheat, grain maize, potatoes, and sugar beet as those crops that have the highest share of displaced cultivation area. To reduce such land use conflicts and ensure self-sufficiency in relevant crops, we recommend to limit the use of soy as animal feed. Nevertheless, we propose to explicitly incorporate the local need for the environmental benefits of soy cultivation in the planning for soy expansion. In doing so, domestic soy can turn into a real sustainable alternative to imported plant protein

    A Randomized Controlled Trial on Functional Relaxation as an Adjunct to Psychoeducation for Stress

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    This randomized controlled trial investigated whether adding the psychodynamically based body-oriented psychotherapy “Functional Relaxation” (FR) to psychoeducation (PE) is more effective than PE alone to reduce stress and stress-associated complaints. Eighty-one participants with elevated stress-levels, ≄50 points on the global scale of the Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ), received either 10 sessions of manualized FR + PE (n = 42) or two sessions of manualized PE alone (n = 39) in a group setting. Six FR trainers took part in this study. Stress-level (PSQ) was the primary outcome and secondary outcomes were depression (PHQ-9) and somatization (PHQ-15). Multilevel models for discontinuous change revealed that FR + PE was more helpful to reduce stress-levels than PE from pre-treatment to post-treatment (t0 → t1) as well as from pre-treatment to 6-month follow-up (t0 → t2) (both p < 0.05) with effect sizes (d) being medium for PE (dt0 → t1 = 0.57; dt0 → t2 = 0.67) and large for FR + PE (dt0 → t1 = 1.57; dt0 → t2 = 1.39). Moreover, FR + PE affected depression and somatization more positively than did PE from t0 to t1 as well as from t0 to t2 (all p < 0.05). Effect sizes for depression were small to medium for PE (dt0 → t1 = 0.52; dt0 → t2 = 0.37) and large for FR + PE (dt0 → t1 = 1.04; dt0 → t2 = 0.95). Effect sizes for somatization were small for PE (dt0 → t1 = 0.18; dt0 → t2 = 0.19) and medium to large for FR + PE (dt0 → t1 = 0.73; dt0 → t2 = 0.93). In summary, the combination of FR and PE was more effective than PE alone. The results of the present trial provide first evidence of FR as a potent component of stress interventions. Adding FR to such interventions might better help prevent clinically relevant disorders such as depression or somatization

    Statistical epistasis between candidate gene alleles for complex tuber traits in an association mapping population of tetraploid potato

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    Association mapping using DNA-based markers is a novel tool in plant genetics for the analysis of complex traits. Potato tuber yield, starch content, starch yield and chip color are complex traits of agronomic relevance, for which carbohydrate metabolism plays an important role. At the functional level, the genes and biochemical pathways involved in carbohydrate metabolism are among the best studied in plants. Quantitative traits such as tuber starch and sugar content are therefore models for association genetics in potato based on candidate genes. In an association mapping experiment conducted with a population of 243 tetraploid potato varieties and breeding clones, we previously identified associations between individual candidate gene alleles and tuber starch content, starch yield and chip quality. In the present paper, we tested 190 DNA markers at 36 loci scored in the same association mapping population for pairwise statistical epistatic interactions. Fifty marker pairs were associated mainly with tuber starch content and/or starch yield, at a cut-off value of q ≀ 0.20 for the experiment-wide false discovery rate (FDR). Thirteen marker pairs had an FDR of q ≀ 0.10. Alleles at loci encoding ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activase (Rca), sucrose phosphate synthase (Sps) and vacuolar invertase (Pain1) were most frequently involved in statistical epistatic interactions. The largest effect on tuber starch content and starch yield was observed for the paired alleles Pain1-8c and Rca-1a, explaining 9 and 10% of the total variance, respectively. The combination of these two alleles increased the means of tuber starch content and starch yield. Biological models to explain the observed statistical epistatic interactions are discussed
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