Assessment of ecosystem services for urban regions in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals exemplified by the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region

The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the conservation and protection of nature are among the greatest challenges facing urban regions. There are few approaches so far that link the SDGs to natural diversity and related ecosystem services at the local level and track them in terms of increasing sustainable development at the local level. We want to close this gap by developing a set of indicators that capture ecosystem services in the sense of the SDGs and which are based on data that are freely available throughout Germany and Europe. Based on 10 SDGs and 35 SDG indicators, we are developing an ecosystem service and biodiversity-related indicator set for the evaluation of sustainable development in urban areas. We further show that it is possible to close many of the data gaps between SDGs and locally collected data mentioned in the literature and to translate the universal SDGs to the local level. Our example develops this set of indicators for the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg metropolitan area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which comprises both rural and densely populated settlements. This set of indicators can also help improve communication and plan sustainable development by increasing transparency in local sustainability, implementing a visible sustainability monitoring system, and strengthening the collaboration between local stakeholders

Biodiversität

Der Begriff der Biodiversität, im deutschen Sprachgebrauch häufig zur Artenvielfalt verkürzt, bezeichnet allgemein die Vielfalt von Genen, Arten und Lebensräumen. Ihre Bewahrung ist inzwischen Gegenstand zahlreicher sowohl nationaler als auch internationaler biopolitischer Bestimmungen. Dennoch wird der Schutz der Biodiversität und damit auch der Wert, welcher der Natur beigemessen wird, aus verschiedenen Einzelperspektiven höchst unterschiedlich begründet. Im ersten Teil wird aus biologischer Sicht beleuchtet, was unter Biodiversität verstanden wird, inwiefern sie bedroht und zugleich schützenswert ist. Im anschließenden wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Abschnitt wird die Diskussion um den ökonomischen Nutzen der Biologischen Vielfalt dargestellt. Gegenstand des rechtswissenschaftlichen Abschnittes sind einschlägige einzelstaatliche Regelungen wie auch internationale Konventionen und völkerrechtliche Bestimmungen zum Schutz der Biodiversität. Abschließend werden naturphilosophische und ethische Argumente erörtert, die für die Anerkennung der Biologischen Vielfalt als ein eigenständiges Gut sprechen.The term "biodiversity", in the German language often summed up as "diversity of species", indicates the diversity of genes, species and habitats in general. Meanwhile their conservation is listed in numerous international biopolitical regulations. Anyhow, the conservation of biodiversity and with it the value which is attributed to nature is based on many different varied individual perspectives. In the first part it is explored what biodiversity means from biological angles and to what extent it is threatened und worthy of protection. In the following economic chapter the discussion on the economic benefit of biological diversity is presented. Subject matter in the jurisprudential paragraph is the corresponding regulations in individual countries as well as international conventions and under international law regulations protecting biodiversity. In closing natural philosophical and ethical criteria which speak in favour of the acknowledgement of the biological diversity as an independent property are discussed

Non-invasive Drug Monitoring of β-Lactam Antibiotics Using Sweat Analysis-A Pilot Study

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a major challenge in treating infectious diseases. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) can optimize and personalize antibiotic treatment. Previously, antibiotic concentrations in tissues were extrapolated from skin blister studies, but sweat analyses for TDM have not been conducted. Objective: To investigate the potential of sweat analysis as a non-invasive, rapid, and potential bedside TDM method. Methods: We analyzed sweat and blood samples from 13 in-house patients treated with intravenous cefepime, imipenem, or flucloxacillin. For cefepime treatment, full pharmacokinetic sampling was performed (five subsequent sweat samples every 2 h) using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The ClinicalTrials.gov registration number is NCT03678142. Results: In this study, we demonstrated for the first time that flucloxacillin, imipenem, and cefepime are detectable in sweat. Antibiotic concentration changes over time demonstrated comparable (age-adjusted) dynamics in the blood and sweat of patients treated with cefepime. Patients treated with standard flucloxacillin dosage showed the highest mean antibiotic concentration in sweat. Conclusions: Our results provide a proof-of-concept that sweat analysis could potentially serve as a non-invasive, rapid, and reliable method to measure antibiotic concentration and as a surrogate marker for tissue penetration. If combined with smart biosensors, sweat analysis may potentially serve as the first lab-independent, non-invasive antibiotic TDM method

Ultrahigh-Field MRI in Human Ischemic Stroke – a 7 Tesla Study

INTRODUCTION: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using field strengths up to 3 Tesla (T) has proven to be a powerful tool for stroke diagnosis. Recently, ultrahigh-field (UHF) MRI at 7 T has shown relevant diagnostic benefits in imaging of neurological diseases, but its value for stroke imaging has not been investigated yet. We present the first evaluation of a clinically feasible stroke imaging protocol at 7 T. For comparison an established stroke imaging protocol was applied at 3 T. METHODS: In a prospective imaging study seven patients with subacute and chronic stroke were included. Imaging at 3 T was immediately followed by 7 T imaging. Both protocols included T1-weighted 3D Magnetization-Prepared Rapid-Acquired Gradient-Echo (3D-MPRAGE), T2-weighted 2D Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (2D-FLAIR), T2-weighted 2D Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (2D-T2-TSE), T2* weighted 2D Fast Low Angle Shot Gradient Echo (2D-HemoFLASH) and 3D Time-of-Flight angiography (3D-TOF). RESULTS: The diagnostic information relevant for clinical stroke imaging obtained at 3 T was equally available at 7 T. Higher spatial resolution at 7 T revealed more anatomical details precisely depicting ischemic lesions and periinfarct alterations. A clear benefit in anatomical resolution was also demonstrated for vessel imaging at 7 T. RF power deposition constraints induced scan time prolongation and reduced brain coverage for 2D-FLAIR, 2D-T2-TSE and 3D-TOF at 7 T versus 3 T. CONCLUSIONS: The potential of 7 T MRI for human stroke imaging is shown. Our pilot study encourages a further evaluation of the diagnostic benefit of stroke imaging at 7 T in a larger study

Two Sides of the Same Desert: Floristic Connectivity and Isolation Along the Hyperarid Coast and Precordillera in Peru and Chile

In this study we aim at refining our understanding of the floristic connectivity of the loma- and precordillera floras of southern Peru and northern Chile and the parameters determining vegetation cover in this region. We used multivariate analyses to test for floristic- and environmental similarity across 53 precordillera and loma locations in Peru and Chile. We propose the use of predictive modeling in estimating the extent of desert vegetation as a complementary method to remote sensing. We created habitat suitability models for the vegetation on the coast and in the precordillera based on a combination of latent bioclimatic variables and additional environmental predictors using Maxent. We found Peruvian and Chilean lomas to be strongly floristically differentiated, as are the Chilean precordillera and lomas. Conversely, there is clear connectivity between both the Peruvian loma- and precordillera floras on the one hand and the Peruvian and Chilean precordillera floras on the other. Divergent environmental conditions were retrieved as separating the precordillera and lomas, while environmental conditions are not differentiated between Peruvian and Chilean lomas. Peruvian and Chilean precordilleras show a gradual change in environmental conditions. Habitat suitability models of vegetation cover retrieve a gap for the loma vegetation along the coast between Peru and Chile, while a continuous belt of suitable habitats is retrieved along the Andean precordillera. Unsuitable habitat for loma vegetation north and south of the Chilean and Peruvian border likely represents an ecogeographic barrier responsible for the floristic divergence of Chilean and Peruvian lomas. Conversely, environmental parameters change continuously along the precordilleras, explaining the moderate differentiation of the corresponding floras. Our results underscore the idea of the desert core acting as an ecogeographic barrier separating the coast from the precordillera in Chile, while it has a more limited isolating function in Peru. We also find extensive potentially suitable habitats for both loma- and precordillera vegetation so far undetected by methods of remote sensing

Device- and Analytics-Agnostic Infrastructure for Continuous Inpatient Monitoring: A Technical Note

The internet of healthcare things aims at connecting biosensors, clinical information systems and electronic health dossiers. The resulting data expands traditionally available diagnostics with digital biomarkers. In this technical note, we report the implementation and pilot operation of a device- and analytics-agnostic automated monitoring platform for in-house patients at hospitals. Any available sensor, as well as any analytics tool can be integrated if the application programming interface is made available. The platform consists of a network of Bluetooth gateways communicating via the hospital’s secure Wi-Fi network, a server application (Device Hub) and associated databases. Already existing access points or low-cost hardware can be used to run the gateway software. The platform can be extended to a remote patient monitoring solution to close the gap between in-house treatments and follow-up patient monitoring.This infrastructure project was granted by the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Leitwert® is a business and development partner of the University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland

Tropical bryophyte floras: a homogeneous assemblage of highly mobile species? Insights from their spatial patterns of beta diversity

The biotic poverty of tropical Africa has been interpreted in terms of massive extinctions caused by historical climate shifts. While recolonisation has been hampered in tropical angiosperms that are characterized by low dispersal capacities, tropical bryophytes exhibit high dispersal syndromes. Using tropical mosses as a model, we test here the hypotheses that (i) species-turnover is higher within than among continents and (ii) in tropical Africa, extant distribution patterns are better explained by variation in environmental conditions (species turnover) than by the ordered loss of species along gradients of recolonisation from putative refugia (species nestedness). Global beta diversity was slightly, but significantly higher among than within tropical regions, suggesting that geographic isolation rather than regional environmental variation shapes macroecological patterns of moss species distributions. Species turnover was, however, systematically higher than nestedness within each tropical region, and nestedness in tropical Africa was not significantly higher than in other tropical regions. The results therefore do not support the hypothesis of an ordered loss of species due to delays in the recolonisation of formerly savanna areas from refugia. Rather, the low species richness in Africa is interpreted in terms of shifts towards specialized, but species-poor communities along sharp ecological gradients

Tropical bryophyte floras: a homogeneous assemblage of highly mobile species? Insights from their spatial patterns of beta diversity

The impact of Pleistocene climate changes substantially varied between tropical regions, resulting in striking differences in angiosperm species richness caused by post-glacial recolonization delays. Tropical bryophytes, which have been perceived as extremely good dispersers due to biased rates of monoecy and hence spore production, differ strikingly from angiosperms in their similar patterns of species richness among tropical regions. Here, we analyse the patterns of beta diversity of tropical bryophytes to determine whether their high dispersal capacities have balanced patterns of species richness and erased any difference of post-glacial recolonization patterns between tropical regions. The partitioning of beta diversity for 7485 tropical moss species among 164 operational geographical units (OGUs) and 3276 liverwort and hornwort species in 154 OGUs revealed a slight, but significantly higher beta diversity among than within tropical regions. The nestedness component of beta diversity did not significantly differ between tropical regions. This indicates that, although regional migration rates were sufficient to erase differences of the impact of Pleistocene climate changes between tropical regions, the similar bryophyte species richness of tropical regions cannot be interpreted in terms of unrestricted migrations and that oceans act as a barrier to routine dispersal, which is sufficient to shape large-scale floristic patterns.JP and AV acknowledge financial support from the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), the Leopold III Funds and the University of Liège. The research of JP and AB was also funded by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Juan de la Cierva Program) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant CGL2013-43350-P), respectively.Peer Reviewe