Session B1: German Participatory Forum on Fish Protection and Downstream Migration

Abstract Fish protection and downstream fish migration has been an item of intensive and often controversial discussions in recent years in Germany, both from an environmental policy perspective and a technical point of view. In response, the Federal Environment Agency, with support from Ecologic Institute, initiated a Forum on Fish Protection and Downstream Fish Migration in 2012. The Forum includes participants from federal and regional water resource management authorities, nature and angler NGOs, consultancies, water managers and hydropower. More than 200 stakeholders have engaged in a dialogue process on the following jointly-identified key topics: environmental policy and legal framework; river basin-related strategies; applied behavioral and population biology; technical measures for fish protection and downstream migration; monitoring. The Forum has hosted a series of interactive workshops and conferences to foster dialogue and has achieved the exchange of information and experiences on the various topics put on the table. To increase acceptability and engagement of participants in the process, the Forum has not actively sought to reach consensus. In the outcomes of discussion on conflicting topics, both common and differing opinions have been taken on board. In addition, a common understanding has been developed on the current state of knowledge and technology that needs to be taken into account for fish protection, downstream fish migration and the conservation and establishment of fish populations. Next to the identification of key problem areas, the Forum experts proposed initial solutions and identified needs for further research and practical action. In 2014, the Forum produced a synthesis as a result of the discussions taking place so far during the workshops. The Forum participants have highlighted the improvement that has taking place in the debate culture on the topic of fish protection and downstream migration within Germany due to the Forum events. The participants highly recommended continuing this type of dialogue process

Software Challenges For HL-LHC Data Analysis

The high energy physics community is discussing where investment is needed to prepare software for the HL-LHC and its unprecedented challenges. The ROOT project is one of the central software players in high energy physics since decades. From its experience and expectations, the ROOT team has distilled a comprehensive set of areas that should see research and development in the context of data analysis software, for making best use of HL-LHC's physics potential. This work shows what these areas could be, why the ROOT team believes investing in them is needed, which gains are expected, and where related work is ongoing. It can serve as an indication for future research proposals and cooperations

The HADES Tracking System

The tracking system of the dielectron spectrometer HADES at GSI Darmstadt is formed out of 24 low-mass, trapezoidal multi-layer drift chambers providing in total about 30 square meter of active area. Low multiple scattering in the in total four planes of drift chambers before and after the magnetic field is ensured by using helium-based gas mixtures and aluminum cathode and field wires. First in-beam performance results are contrasted with expectations from simulations. Emphasis is placed on the energy loss information, exploring its relevance regarding track recognition.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented at the 10th Vienna Conference on Instrumentation, Vienna, February 2004, to be published in NIM A (special issue

Polo-like kinase 3 regulates CtIP during DNA double-strand break repair in G1

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are repaired by nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) or homologous recombination (HR). The C terminal binding protein–interacting protein (CtIP) is phosphorylated in G2 by cyclin-dependent kinases to initiate resection and promote HR. CtIP also exerts functions during NHEJ, although the mechanism phosphorylating CtIP in G1 is unknown. In this paper, we identify Plk3 (Polo-like kinase 3) as a novel DSB response factor that phosphorylates CtIP in G1 in a damage-inducible manner and impacts on various cellular processes in G1. First, Plk3 and CtIP enhance the formation of ionizing radiation-induced translocations; second, they promote large-scale genomic deletions from restriction enzyme-induced DSBs; third, they are required for resection and repair of complex DSBs; and finally, they regulate alternative NHEJ processes in Ku−/− mutants. We show that mutating CtIP at S327 or T847 to nonphosphorylatable alanine phenocopies Plk3 or CtIP loss. Plk3 binds to CtIP phosphorylated at S327 via its Polo box domains, which is necessary for robust damage-induced CtIP phosphorylation at S327 and subsequent CtIP phosphorylation at T847