Die Fischerei im Nordostatlantik im Jahre 2004

Since 1990 North-east Atlantic fish species – arctic cod, saithe, haddock, redfish and Greenland halibut – have been investigated by on-board observers on the German commercial trawler FMS Kiel. These investigations are part of the national data collection regulation established by the European Union in recent years. Collected data are basic data for the scientific assessment of these important fish stocks of the European fisheries. The results of the observed cruises are used by the Arctic Fisheries Working Group of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). Biological investigations were carried out in Norwegian waters and the Barents Sea (ICES Divisions IIa and IIb) on board FMS Kiel in January to March and in August/September 2004. This report presents results of these cruises and an overview about the general fishery situation in 2004

Förderung des Transfers materialwissenschaftlicher Forschungsergebnisse hin zur Markteinführung durch ein strukturiertes Rahmenprogramm zur interdisziplinären Kompetenzaneignung und Demonstrator-Entwicklung: eine Fallstudie

Das vorliegende Paper beschreibt ein Vorgehen zur Förderung des Transfers materialwissenschaftlicher Forschungsergebnisse hin zur Marktfähigkeit durch ein strukturiertes Rahmenprogramm zur Kompetenzaneignung und zur interdisziplinären kollaborativen Demonstrator-Entwicklung anhand eines Fallbeispiels. Das Rahmenprogramm dient der Vermittlung von Kompetenzen aus Design und Geschäftsmodellentwicklung zur Überwindung des „Valley of Death“, also des scheiternden Transfers von Forschungsergebnissen hin zur Marktreife. Es werden Methodik und Vorgehen im Vorhaben betrachtet. Darüber hinaus werden die observierten Limitationen beschrieben, die bei der Arbeit mit den Methoden beobachtet wurden und das Feld noch weiter einschränken. Die Ergebnisse wurden auf Basis von a) Literaturanalysen, b) einer Umfrage unter Materialwissenschaftlern und c) Beobachtungen bei der Konzeption, Durchführung und Auswertung von Trainings im „Material Demo Lab“ bewertet. Zu den Kernerkenntnissen gehört, die gesteigerte Akzeptanz der neu erlernten Methoden, wenn diese vorrangig die Technologieentwicklung vor dem Hintergrund der Geschäftsmodellentwicklung adressieren. Die Entwicklung eines Technologiedemonstrators wurde als treibende Kraft und Motivationsgeber im beschriebenen Rahmenprogramm identifiziert

Allele-Level KIR Genotyping of More Than a Million Samples: Workflow, Algorithm, and Observations

The killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes regulate natural killer cell activity, influencing predisposition to immune mediated disease, and affecting hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) outcome. Owing to the complexity of the KIR locus, with extensive gene copy number variation (CNV) and allelic diversity, high-resolution characterization of KIR has so far been applied only to relatively small cohorts. Here, we present a comprehensive high-throughput KIR genotyping approach based on next generation sequencing. Through PCR amplification of specific exons, our approach delivers both copy numbers of the individual genes and allelic information for every KIR gene. Ten-fold replicate analysis of a set of 190 samples revealed a precision of 99.9%. Genotyping of an independent set of 360 samples resulted in an accuracy of more than 99% taking into account consistent copy number prediction. We applied the workflow to genotype 1.8 million stem cell donor registry samples. We report on the observed KIR allele diversity and relative abundance of alleles based on a subset of more than 300,000 samples. Furthermore, we identified more than 2,000 previously unreported KIR variants repeatedly in independent samples, underscoring the large diversity of the KIR region that awaits discovery. This cost-efficient high-resolution KIR genotyping approach is now applied to samples of volunteers registering as potential donors for HSCT. This will facilitate the utilization of KIR as additional selection criterion to improve unrelated donor stem cell transplantation outcome. In addition, the approach may serve studies requiring high-resolution KIR genotyping, like population genetics and disease association studies

Seasonality in the north sea during the allerod and late medieval climate optimum using bivalve sclerochronology

Seasonal temperature patterns may have changed through time in response to current global warming. However, the temporal resolution of available proxy records is not sufficient to quantify paleotemperature seasonality prior to anthropogenic forcing of the climate. In the present study, we reconstructed seasonal and inter-annual temperature patterns of the North Sea during the last 140 years, the Allerod Interglacial and the Late Medieval Climate Optimum using sclerochronological and delta O-18(aragonite) data from bivalve shells, Arctica islandica. On average, the climate during 1278-1353 AD was ca. 1.1A degrees C colder and seasonality was ca. 60% less than today. During the Allerod, long-term temperatures remained about 3.2A degrees C below present values, and absolute summer and winter anomalies were ca. -4 and -2.7A degrees C, respectively. However, seasonality was statistically indistinguishable from today. Long-term average temperatures compare well with existing data for the Late Medieval and Allerod, but detailed information on seasonality during the studied time intervals has never been presented before. Our data also demonstrated that annual instrumental and delta O-18(aragonite)-derived temperatures did not always match. This difference is explained by (1) NAO-driven salinity changes, which influence the temperature estimation from delta O-18(aragonite) and (2) food-driven changes in growth rates; portions of the shell that formed more rapidly are overrepresented in carbonate samples. Our study indicated that individual bivalve shells can open discrete, near-century long, ultra-high-resolution windows into the climate past. Such information can be vital for testing and verifying numerical climate models

An intractable climate archive - sclerochronological and shell oxygen isotope analyses of the pacific geoduck, panopea abrupta (bivalve mollusk) from protection Island (Washington State, USA)

Annual growth increment patterns of cardinal teeth (CT) of Panopea abrupta (Conrad) can reportedly provide information about past climate variations. However, little is known about the intra-annual timing and rate of shell growth necessary to interpret such records. In addition, it remains unclear whether actual temperatures can be reliably inferred from delta O-18 values of geoduck {goo%27e-duk} shells. This study compared high-resolution nvironmental records (hourly to monthly resolved temperature, bi-weekly to monthly delta O-18(water) and salinity data) with temperatures reconstructed from oxygen isotope values of the outer shell layer (T delta O-18(OSL)) and cardinal tooth portions (T delta O-18(CT)) of different contemporaneous specimens alive at the same locality. Results indicate that shell growth mainly occurred between March/April and November/December with a maximum during May-August. This finding must be considered when comparing the "annual" growth increment width chronologies to environmental parameters. in addition, intra-annual delta O-18(shell) values require the calculation of weighted averages instead of arithmetic means. During ontogeny, the duration of the growing season remained nearly unchanged; an important finding for paleoclimate studies based on inter-annual growth patterns. Seasonal shell growth was strongly correlated with temperature (R=0.93, R-2=0.86, p<0.0001). Presumably due to individual differences in the exchange rate between the extrapallial fluid (EPF) and the ambient water, the outer shell layer of some specimens formed out of oxygen isotopic equilibrium, particularly during summer (high growth rates, increased O-18 depletion of the EPF). This resulted in a T delta O-18(OSL) difference of up to 2 degrees C among different specimens. In addition, a bias was observed in different specimens toward daytime or nighttime temperatures, particularly during summer. Such a bias may be related to individual differences in the physiological activity at ultradian time-scales or to elevated predation pressure. More importantly, CT portions (= inner shell layer) formed in isotopic disequilibrium with the ambient water. Typically, reconstructed temperatures differed by more than 3-4 degrees C from actual water temperatures. Within specimens, T delta O-18(OSL) and T delta O-18(CT) were offset by ca. 2 degrees C. Some T delta O-18(CT) also exhibited unexplained inter-annual trends, so that T delta O-18(CT) among specimens varied by up to 4 degrees C. Given the delta O-18(shell) inconsistency between and among shells, a small seasonal temperature amplitude barely exceeding 4 degrees C and the error bars of T-delta 18O of geoducks at this setting on the order of +/-2 degrees C (error bars of the paleothermometry equation + variable delta O-18(water) values + precision error of the mass spectrometer), the geochemical record of a single P. abrupta may not serve as a suitable paleoclimate archive. A reliable approximation to paleotemperatures may only be achieved by exclusively sampling the outer shell layer of multiple contemporaneous specimens, so that the T delta O-18(OSL) variance among shells can be quantified