Employee and partner surveys wave 3 of the Linked-Employer-Employee-Panel (LEEP-B3) Project (DFG – 373090005): Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations. Technical Report

Marx C, Abendroth A, Bächmann A-C, et al. Employee and partner surveys wave 3 of the Linked-Employer-Employee-Panel (LEEP-B3) Project (DFG – 373090005): Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations. Technical Report. Bielefeld: Univ., Fak. für Soziologie; 2020

Photosynthesis in C3-C4 intermediate Moricandia species.

Evolution of C4 photosynthesis is not distributed evenly in the plant kingdom. Particularly interesting is the situation in the Brassicaceae, because the family contains no C4 species, but several C3-C4 intermediates, mainly in the genus Moricandia Investigation of leaf anatomy, gas exchange parameters, the metabolome, and the transcriptome of two C3-C4 intermediate Moricandia species, M. arvensis and M. suffruticosa, and their close C3 relative M. moricandioides enabled us to unravel the specific C3-C4 characteristics in these Moricandia lines. Reduced CO2 compensation points in these lines were accompanied by anatomical adjustments, such as centripetal concentration of organelles in the bundle sheath, and metabolic adjustments, such as the balancing of C and N metabolism between mesophyll and bundle sheath cells by multiple pathways. Evolution from C3 to C3-C4 intermediacy was probably facilitated first by loss of one copy of the glycine decarboxylase P-protein, followed by dominant activity of a bundle sheath-specific element in its promoter. In contrast to recent models, installation of the C3-C4 pathway was not accompanied by enhanced activity of the C4 cycle. Our results indicate that metabolic limitations connected to N metabolism or anatomical limitations connected to vein density could have constrained evolution of C4 in Moricandia

Adaptation of Brucella melitensis Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing to the ISO 20776 Standard and Validation of the Method

This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Themes in Brucella and Brucellosis.Brucellosis, mainly caused by Brucella (B.) melitensis, is associated with a risk of chronification and relapses. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) standards for B. melitensis are not available, and the agent is not yet listed in the EUCAST breakpoint tables. CLSI recommendations for B. melitensis exist, but they do not fulfill the requirements of the ISO 20776 standard regarding the culture medium and the incubation conditions. Under the third EU Health Programme, laboratories specializing in the diagnostics of highly pathogenic bacteria in their respective countries formed a working group within a Joint Action aiming to develop a suitable method for the AST of B. melitensis. Under the supervision of EUCAST representatives, this working group adapted the CLSI M45 document to the ISO 20776 standard after testing and validation. These adaptations included the comparison of various culture media, culture conditions and AST methods. A Standard Operation Procedure was derived and an interlaboratory validation was performed in order to evaluate the method. The results showed pros and cons for both of the two methods but also indicate that it is not necessary to abandon Mueller–Hinton without additives for the AST of B. melitensis.This research was funded by the EU Health Programme 2014–2020, through the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA, European Commission), the Joint Action EMERGE (CHAFEA n° 677 066) and the Joint Action SHARP (848096-SHARP JA).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Employer Survey from Wave 3 of the Linked-Employer-Employee-Panel (LEEP-B3) in Project (DFG – 373090005): Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations. Technical Report

Peters E, Abendroth A, Bächmann A-C, et al. Employer Survey from Wave 3 of the Linked-Employer-Employee-Panel (LEEP-B3) in Project (DFG – 373090005): Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations. Technical Report. Bielefeld: Univ., Fak. für Soziologie; 2020

Adaptation of Brucella melitensis Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing to the ISO 20776 Standard and Validation of the Method

Brucellosis, mainly caused by Brucella (B.) melitensis, is associated with a risk of chronification and relapses. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) standards for B. melitensis are not available, and the agent is not yet listed in the EUCAST breakpoint tables. CLSI recommendations for B. melitensis exist, but they do not fulfill the requirements of the ISO 20776 standard regarding the culture medium and the incubation conditions. Under the third EU Health Programme, laboratories specializing in the diagnostics of highly pathogenic bacteria in their respective countries formed a working group within a Joint Action aiming to develop a suitable method for the AST of B. melitensis. Under the supervision of EUCAST representatives, this working group adapted the CLSI M45 document to the ISO 20776 standard after testing and validation. These adaptations included the comparison of various culture media, culture conditions and AST methods. A Standard Operation Procedure was derived and an interlaboratory validation was performed in order to evaluate the method. The results showed pros and cons for both of the two methods but also indicate that it is not necessary to abandon Mueller–Hinton without additives for the AST of B. melitensis

First operation of the KATRIN experiment with tritium

The determination of the neutrino mass is one of the major challenges in astroparticle physics today. Direct neutrino mass experiments, based solely on the kinematics of β β -decay, provide a largely model-independent probe to the neutrino mass scale. The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is designed to directly measure the effective electron antineutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV 0.2 eV (90% 90% CL). In this work we report on the first operation of KATRIN with tritium which took place in 2018. During this commissioning phase of the tritium circulation system, excellent agreement of the theoretical prediction with the recorded spectra was found and stable conditions over a time period of 13 days could be established. These results are an essential prerequisite for the subsequent neutrino mass measurements with KATRIN in 2019

Quantitative Long-Term Monitoring of the Circulating Gases in the KATRIN Experiment Using Raman Spectroscopy.

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims at measuring the effective electron neutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c2, i.e., improving on previous measurements by an order of magnitude. Neutrino mass data taking with KATRIN commenced in early 2019, and after only a few weeks of data recording, analysis of these data showed the success of KATRIN, improving on the known neutrino mass limit by a factor of about two. This success very much could be ascribed to the fact that most of the system components met, or even surpassed, the required specifications during long-term operation. Here, we report on the performance of the laser Raman (LARA) monitoring system which provides continuous high-precision information on the gas composition injected into the experiment's windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS), specifically on its isotopic purity of tritium-one of the key parameters required in the derivation of the electron neutrino mass. The concentrations cx for all six hydrogen isotopologues were monitored simultaneously, with a measurement precision for individual components of the order 10-3 or better throughout the complete KATRIN data taking campaigns to date. From these, the tritium purity, εT, is derived with precision of <10-3 and trueness of <3 × 10-3, being within and surpassing the actual requirements for KATRIN, respectively

Quantitative Long-Term Monitoring of the Circulating Gases in the KATRIN Experiment Using Raman Spectroscopy.

The Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment aims at measuring the effective electron neutrino mass with a sensitivity of 0.2 eV/c2, i.e., improving on previous measurements by an order of magnitude. Neutrino mass data taking with KATRIN commenced in early 2019, and after only a few weeks of data recording, analysis of these data showed the success of KATRIN, improving on the known neutrino mass limit by a factor of about two. This success very much could be ascribed to the fact that most of the system components met, or even surpassed, the required specifications during long-term operation. Here, we report on the performance of the laser Raman (LARA) monitoring system which provides continuous high-precision information on the gas composition injected into the experiment's windowless gaseous tritium source (WGTS), specifically on its isotopic purity of tritium-one of the key parameters required in the derivation of the electron neutrino mass. The concentrations cx for all six hydrogen isotopologues were monitored simultaneously, with a measurement precision for individual components of the order 10-3 or better throughout the complete KATRIN data taking campaigns to date. From these, the tritium purity, εT, is derived with precision of <10-3 and trueness of <3 × 10-3, being within and surpassing the actual requirements for KATRIN, respectively