Patterns of gene flow and selection across multiple species of Acrocephalus warblers: footprints of parallel selection on the Z chromosome

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Software-defined testing facility for component testing with industrial robots

A key aspect of industry 4.0 is the transition of production to batch size one and consequently unique dimensions and structures of components for each product. Since many components are only available in small quantities it is not feasible to design expensive test benches for each of these components, however it is still important to test them to ensure the quality of each individual component. Therefore, we propose an approach for a flexibly programmable robotic test bench for destructive component testing of various components. This includes a concept for planning and execution of different test movements in a component test on robotic test benches and a unified data platform for controlling sensor-based motions as well as the recording of test data

Patterns of gene flow and selection across multiple species of Acrocephalus warblers: footprints of parallel selection on the Z chromosome

Background: Understanding the mechanisms and selective forces leading to adaptive radiations and origin of biodiversity is a major goal of evolutionary biology. Acrocephalus warblers are small passerines that underwent an adaptive radiation in the last approximately 10 million years that gave rise to 37 extant species, many of which still hybridize in nature. Acrocephalus warblers have served as model organisms for a wide variety of ecological and behavioral studies, yet our knowledge of mechanisms and selective forces driving their radiation is limited. Here we studied patterns of interspecific gene flow and selection across three European Acrocephalus warblers to get a first insight into mechanisms of radiation of this avian group.Results: We analyzed nucleotide variation at eight nuclear loci in three hybridizing Acrocephalus species with overlapping breeding ranges in Europe. Using an isolation-with-migration model for multiple populations, we found evidence for unidirectional gene flow from A. scirpaceus to A. palustris and from A. palustris to A. dumetorum. Gene flow was higher between genetically more closely related A. scirpaceus and A. palustris than between ecologically more similar A. palustris and A. dumetorum, suggesting that gradual accumulation of intrinsic barriers rather than divergent ecological selection are more efficient in restricting interspecific gene flow in Acrocephalus warblers. Although levels of genetic differentiation between different species pairs were in general not correlated, we found signatures of apparently independent instances of positive selection at the same two Z-linked loci in multiple species.Conclusions: Our study brings the first evidence that gene flow occurred during Acrocephalus radiation and not only between sister species. Interspecific gene flow could thus be an important source of genetic variation in individual Acrocephalus species and could have accelerated adaptive evolution and speciation rate in this avian group by creating novel genetic combinations and new phenotypes. Independent instances of positive selection at the same loci in multiple species indicate an interesting possibility that the same loci might have contributed to reproductive isolation in several speciation events

RealCaPP: Real-time capable Plug & Produce communication platform with OPC UA over TSN for distributed industrial robot control

The industry of tomorrow is changing from central hierarchical industrial and robot controls to distributed controls on the industrial shop floor. These fundamental changes in network structure make it possible to implement technologies such as Plug & Produce. In other words, to integrate, change and remove devices without much effort at runtime. In order to achieve this goal, a uniform architecture with defined interfaces is necessary to establish real-time communication between the varying devices. Therefore, we propose an approach to use the combination of OPC UA and TSN to automatically configure real-time capable communication paths between robots and other cyber-physical components and execute real-time critical tasks in the distributed control system

Sensor-guided motions for robot-based component testing

This paper presents the use of sensor-guided motions for robot-based component testing to compensate the robot’s path deviations under load. We implemented two different sensor-guided motions consisting of a 3D camera system to minimize the absolute deviation and a force/torque sensor mounted directly to the robot’s end effector to minimize occurring transverse forces and torques. We evaluated these two sensor-guided motions in our testing facility with a classical tensile test and a heavy-duty industrial robot. From the obtained results, it can be stated, that transverse forces as well as the absolute deviation were significantly reduced

Disease burden and direct medical costs of incident adult ADHD:A retrospective longitudinal analysis based on German statutory health insurance claims data

Background. Adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (aADHD) is still a largely unrecognized psychiatric condition despite its strong impact on individuals' well-being. Here, we describe the healthcare situation of individuals with incident aADHD over 4 years before and 4 years after initial administrative diagnosis. Methods. A retrospective, longitudinal cohort analysis was conducted using German claims data. The InGef database contained approximately 5 million member-records from over 60 nationwide statutory health insurances (SHI). Individuals were indexed upon initial diagnosis of aADHD. Results. Average age at diagnosis of aADHD was 35 years, and 60% of individuals were male. Comorbidities, resource use, and healthcare costs were substantial before initial diagnosis and decreased within the 4 years thereafter. Only 32% of individuals received initial ADHD medication and adherence was low. The majority received psychotherapy. Individuals with initial ADHD medication showed the highest share in comorbidities, physician visits, medication use for comorbidities, psychotherapy, and costs. Overall, healthcare costs were at over euro4,000 per individual within the year of aADHD diagnosis. Conclusions. We conclude that earlier recognition of aADHD could prevent the development and aggravation of comorbid mental illnesses. At the same time, comorbid conditions may have masked ("over-shadowed") aADHD and delayed diagnosis. The burden of disease in aADHD is high, which was noticeable especially among individuals who received initial ADHD-medication, suggesting that psychopharmacological treatment was mainly considered for the most severely ill. We conclude that measures to facilitate access of aADHD patients to clinical experts are required to improve reality of care in the outpatient setting

The Mondex case study: from specifications to code

In this paper we introduce three different implementations for the Mondex electronic purse verification challenge [Woo06] [SCW00]. In previous work ([SGHR06] [SGH+07] and [HSGR06]) we verified security and correctness properties of the Mondex money transfer protocol. Here we present a way to translate the formal specifications into running JavaCard code. We introduce three different ways to implement the protocol, one using symmetric cryptography, one using asymmetric cryptography and finally one using special datatypes for cryptographic protocols and symmetric cryptography. All implementations presented in this paper are able to run on a Gemplus GemxpressoRAD ProR3 SmartCard

Field Theoretic Description of Ultrarelativistic Electron-Positron Plasmas

Ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas can be produced in high-intensity laser fields and play a role in various astrophysical situations. Their properties can be calculated using QED at finite temperature. Here we will use perturbative QED at finite temperature for calculating various important properties, such as the equation of state, dispersion relations of collective plasma modes of photons and electrons, Debye screening, damping rates, mean free paths, collision times, transport coefficients, and particle production rates, of ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasmas. In particular, we will focus on electron-positron plasmas produced with ultra-strong lasers.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, published versio

Covariation in population trends and demography reveals targets for conservation action

Wildlife conservation policies directed at common and widespread, but declining, species are difficult to design and implement effectively, as multiple environmental changes are likely to contribute to population declines. Conservation actions ultimately aim to influence demographic rates, but targeting actions towards feasible improvements in these is challenging in widespread species with ranges that encompass a wide range of environmental conditions. Across Europe, sharp declines in the abundance of migratory landbirds have driven international calls for action, but actions that could feasibly contribute to population recovery have yet to be identified. Targeted actions to improve conditions on poor-quality sites could be an effective approach, but only if local conditions consistently influence local demography and hence population trends. Using long-term measures of abundance and demography of breeding birds at survey sites across Europe, we show that co-occurring species with differing migration behaviours have similar directions of local population trends and magnitudes of productivity, but not survival rates. Targeted actions to boost local productivity within Europe, alongside large-scale (non-targeted) environmental protection across non-breeding ranges, could therefore help address the urgent need to halt migrant landbird declines. Such demographic routes to recovery are likely to be increasingly needed to address global wildlife declines.Peer reviewe