Kleinkörnige Leguminosen energie- und proteinoptimiert produzieren in Strip-Till-Systemen

Mit dem Projekt Klee_pro_StripS sollte die teilflächenspezifische Aussaat der Leguminosen in bereits vorhandene Ackergrasbestände erforscht werden, d.h. der räumlich getrennte Anbau von Gras und Leguminose in alternierenden Reihen oder durch sensorgestützte Raumzuteilung in vorhandene Lücken. Gegenüber der verbreiteten Aussaat als Leguminosen-Gras-Gemenge können so die Gräser im ersten Anbaujahr intensiv genutzt, mit Gülle gedüngt und z.B. ohne Auswirkungen auf die Leguminosen mit Pflanzenschutzmitteln behandelt werden. Damit könnte die Akzeptanz von Futterleguminosen vor allem in konventionellen Betrieben erhöht, und auch der mehrjährige Futterbau gefördert werden. Es wurden dafür Leguminosen verwendet, die eine gewisse Verträglichkeit gegenüber Trockenheit erwarten lassen: Lotus corniculatus, Trifolium pratense und Medicago sativa. Die Versuche an mehreren haben jedoch deutlich gemacht, dass sich alle Leguminosen in besonders trockenen Jahren, wie die beiden Hauptversuchsjahre 2019 und 2020, sowohl mit neuen als auch bewährten Aussaatmethoden nur schwer in den angestrebten Ertragsanteilen etablieren lassen. Große Probleme ergaben sich durch mangelnden Aufgang, unzureichende Knöllchenbildung und Schädlingsdruck. Die Frässaattechnik war angesichts der zu trockenen Böden sehr schadenanfällig. Vielversprechender war die sensorgestützte Nachsaat in vorhandene Lücken, die nun weiterentwickelt werden soll

Noise Effects on the Complex Patterns of Abnormal Heartbeats

Patients at high risk for sudden death often exhibit complex heart rhythms in which abnormal heartbeats are interspersed with normal heartbeats. We analyze such a complex rhythm in a single patient over a 12-hour period and show that the rhythm can be described by a theoretical model consisting of two interacting oscillators with stochastic elements. By varying the magnitude of the noise, we show that for an intermediate level of noise, the model gives best agreement with key statistical features of the dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTe

Revealing the reporting disparity: VigiBase highlights underreporting of clozapine in other Western European countries compared to the UK

Background: Pharmacovigilance studies indicate clozapine history is marked by adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Objective: In a 2021 article, the United Kingdom (UK) had >90 % of European clozapine-related fatal outcomes in VigiBase, the World Health Organization's pharmacovigilance database. Two possibly opposing hypotheses could explain this disparity: 1) fewer reported fatal outcomes in other Western European countries mainly reflect underreporting to VigiBase, and 2) the higher number of UK reports reflects higher real relative mortality. Methods: VigiBase reports from clozapine's introduction to December 31, 2022, were studied for ADRs and the top 10 causes of fatal outcomes. The UK was compared with 11 other top reporting Western countries (Germany, Denmark, France, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). Nine countries (except Ireland and Switzerland) were compared after controlling for population and clozapine prescriptions. Results: The UK accounted for 29 % of worldwide clozapine-related fatal outcomes, Germany 2 % and <1 % in each of the other countries. The nonspecific label "death" was the top cause in the world (46 %) and in the UK (33 %). "Pneumonia" was second in the world (8 %), the UK (12 %), Ireland (8 %) and Finland (14 %). Assuming that our corrections for population and clozapine use are correct, other countries underreported only 1-10 % of the UK clozapine fatal outcome number. Conclusions: Different Western European countries consistently underreport to VigiBase compared to the UK, but have different reporting/publishing styles for clozapine-related ADRs/fatal outcomes. Three Scandinavian registries suggest lives are saved as clozapine use increases, but this cannot be studied in pharmacovigilance databases

TOI-2119: A transiting brown dwarf orbiting an active M-dwarf from NASA’s TESS mission

We report the discovery of TOI-2119b, a transiting brown dwarf (BD) that orbits and is completely eclipsed by an active M-dwarf star. Using light curve data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite mission and follow-up high-resolution Doppler spectroscopic observations, we find the BD has a radius of $R_b = 1.08 \pm 0.03{\rm R_J}$, a mass of $M_b = 64.4 \pm 2.3{\rm M_J}$, an orbital period of $P = 7.200865 \pm 0.00002$ days, and an eccentricity of $e=0.337\pm 0.002$. The host star has a mass of $M_\star = 0.53 \pm 0.02{\rm M_\odot}$, a radius of $R_\star= 0.50 \pm 0.01{\rm R_\odot}$, an effective temperature of $T_{\rm eff} = 3621 \pm 48$K, and a metallicity of $\rm [Fe/H]=+0.06\pm 0.08$. TOI-2119b joins an emerging population of transiting BDs around M-dwarf host stars, with TOI-2119 being the ninth such system. These M-dwarf--brown dwarf systems typically occupy mass ratios near $q = M_b/M_\star \approx 0.1-0.2$, which separates them from the typical mass ratios for systems with transiting substellar objects and giant exoplanets that orbit more massive stars. The nature of the secondary eclipse of the BD by the star enables us to estimate the effective temperature of the substellar object to be $2030\pm 84$K, which is consistent with predictions by substellar evolutionary models.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables, accepted in MNRA

Environmentally enriched male mink gain more copulations than stereotypic, barren-reared competitors

Wild carnivores in zoos, conservation breeding centres, and farms commonly live in relatively small, unstimulating enclosures. Under these captive conditions, in a range of species including giant pandas, black-footed ferrets, and European mink, male reproductive abilities are often poor. Such problems have long been hypothesized to be caused by these animals' housing conditions. We show for the first time that rearing under welfare-improving (i.e., highly valued and stress-reducing) environmental enrichments enhances male carnivores' copulatory performance: in mate choice competitions, enriched male American mink (Neovison vison) mated more often than non-enriched males. We screened for several potential mediators of this effect. First was physiological stress and its impact on reproductive physiology; second, stress-mediated changes in morphology and variables related to immunocompetence that could influence male attractiveness; and third, behavioural changes likely to affect social competence, particularly autistic-like excessive routine and repetition ('perseveration') as is reflected in the stereotypies common in captive animals. Consistent with physiological stress, excreted steroid metabolites revealed that non-enriched males had higher cortisol levels and lower androgen levels than enriched conspecifics. Their os penises (bacula) also tended to be less developed. Consistent with reduced attractiveness, non-enriched males were lighter, with comparatively small spleens and a trend to greater fluctuating asymmetry. Consistent with impaired social competence, non-enriched males performed more stereotypic behaviour (e. g., pacing) in their home cages. Of all these effects, the only significant predictor of copulation number was stereotypy (a trend suggesting that low bodyweights may also be influential): highly stereotypic males gained the fewest copulations. The neurophysiological changes underlying stereotypy thus handicap males sexually. We hypothesise that such males are abnormally perseverative when interacting with females. Investigating similar problems in other taxa would be worthwhile, since many vertebrates, wild and domestic, live in conditions that cause stereotypic behaviour and/or impair neurological development

Postharvest losses of fruit and vegetables during retail and in consumers’ homes: Quantifications, causes, and means of prevention

The issue of food loss and waste (FLW) reduction has recently achieved much public attention as part of worldwide efforts to combat global hunger and improve food security. Studies conducted by various international and national organizations led by the FAO indicated that about one third of all food produced on the planet and about a half of all fruit and vegetables (F&V) are lost and not consumed. FLW occurs during five key stages of the food supply chain: agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage, processing, distribution, and consumption. Large portions of FLW in developed countries occur during retail and consumption, and are largely related to logistic management operations and consumer behaviors. In light of the great importance of FLW reduction, the United Nations set up in September 2015 an ambitious goal to halve per capita global food waste by 2030, and this decision was adapted by the US Federal Government, the EU Parliament, and many other countries. This first Adel Kader review article is dedicated to the subject of F&V losses during retail and consumption, and contains the following chapters: 1) Introduction of the problem of global food losses; 2) Quantifications of F&V losses during retail and consumption in the UK, US and other countries; 3) Causes and consumer decisions related to F&V wastage; 4) Emerging new technologies for prevention of F&V losses, including advances in logistics and cold chain management, retail packaging and technological innovations; 5) Other means to reduce F&V losses, including consumer awareness campaigns, advertisement of home storage instructions and policy and legislative measures. Due to the great importance of reducing F&V losses, we encourage postharvest researchers to become more engaged with logistics and food supply-chain operations, and to conduct multidisciplinary research incorporating consumer behavior studies into postharvest research

Migration and Evolution of giant ExoPlanets (MEEP) I: Nine Newly Confirmed Hot Jupiters from the TESS Mission

Hot Jupiters were many of the first exoplanets discovered in the 1990s, but in the decades since their discovery, the mysteries surrounding their origins remain. Here, we present nine new hot Jupiters (TOI-1855 b, TOI-2107 b, TOI-2368 b, TOI-3321 b, TOI-3894 b, TOI-3919 b, TOI-4153 b, TOI-5232 b, and TOI-5301 b) discovered by NASA's TESS mission and confirmed using ground-based imaging and spectroscopy. These discoveries are the first in a series of papers named the Migration and Evolution of giant ExoPlanets (MEEP) survey and are part of an ongoing effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters orbiting FGK stars, with a limiting Gaia $G$-band magnitude of 12.5. This effort aims to use homogeneous detection and analysis techniques to generate a set of precisely measured stellar and planetary properties that is ripe for statistical analysis. The nine planets presented in this work occupy a range of masses (0.55 Jupiter masses (M$_{\rm{J}}$) $<$ M$_{\rm{P}}$ $<$ 3.88 M$_{\rm{J}}$) and sizes (0.967 Jupiter radii (R$_{\rm{J}}$) $<$ R$_{\rm{P}}$ $<$ 1.438 R$_{\rm{J}}$) and orbit stars that range in temperature from 5360 K $<$ Teff $<$ 6860 K with Gaia $G$-band magnitudes ranging from 11.1 to 12.7. Two of the planets in our sample have detectable orbital eccentricity: TOI-3919 b ($e = 0.259^{+0.033}_{-0.036}$) and TOI-5301 b ($e = 0.33^{+0.11}_{-0.10}$). These eccentric planets join a growing sample of eccentric hot Jupiters that are consistent with high-eccentricity tidal migration, one of the three most prominent theories explaining hot Jupiter formation and evolution.Comment: 35 pages, 7 tables, and 14 figures. Submitted to AAS Journals on 2023 Dec 2

Myc and cell cycle control

Soon after the discovery of the Myc gene (c-Myc), it became clear thatMyc expression levels tightly correlate to cell proliferation. The entry in cell cycle of quiescent cells upon Myc enforced expression has been described in manymodels. Also, the downregulation or inactivation ofMyc results in the impairment of cell cycle progression. Given the frequent deregulation of Myc oncogene in human cancer it is important to dissect out the mechanisms underlying the role ofMyc on cell cycle control. Several parallel mechanisms account forMyc-mediated stimulation of the cell cycle. First,most of the critical positive cell cycle regulators are encoded by genes induced byMyc. These Myc target genes include Cdks, cyclins and E2F transcription factors. Apart from its direct effects on the transcription, Myc is able to hyperactivate cyclin/Cdk complexes through the induction of Cdk activating kinase (CAK) and Cdc25 phosphatases. Moreover, Myc antagonizes the activity of cell cycle inhibitors as p21 and p27 through different mechanisms. Thus, Myc is able to block p21 transcription or to induce Skp2, a protein involved in p27 degradation. Finally, Myc induces DNA replication by binding to replication origins and by upregulating genes encoding proteins required for replication initiation. Myc also regulates genes involved in the mitotic control. A promising approach to treat tumors with deregulated Myc is the synthetic lethality based on the inhibition of Cdks. Thus, the knowledge of the Myc-dependent cell cycle regulatory mechanisms will help to discover new therapeutic approaches directed against malignancies with deregulated Myc. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Myc proteins in cell biology and pathology.The work in the laboratory of the authors is funded by grants SAF11-23796 from Spanish Ministry of Industry and Innovation, and ISCIII-RETIC RD12/0036/0033 from Spanish Ministry of Health to JL, and FIS 11/00397 to MDD. GB is recipient of a fellowship form the FPI Program. We apologize to colleagues whose work has not been cited in the form of their original papers but in reviews and whose work has not been discussed due to space limitations or unintentional omission

Spectroscopic Survey of the Galaxy with Gaia II. The expected science yield from the Radial Velocity Spectrometer

The Gaia mission is designed as a Galaxy explorer, and will measure simultaneously, in a survey mode, the five or six phase space parameters of all stars brighter than 20th magnitude, as well as providing a description of their astrophysical characteristics. These measurements are obtained by combining an astrometric instrument with micro-arcsecond capabilities, a photometric system giving the magnitudes and colours in 15 bands and a medium resolution spectrograph named the Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS). The latter instrument will produce spectra in the 848 to 874 nm wavelength range, with a resolving power R = 11 500, from which radial velocities, rotational velocities, atmospheric parameters and abundances can be derived. A companion paper (Katz et al. 2004) presents the characteristics of the RVS and its performance. This paper details the outstanding scientific impact of this important part of the Gaia satellite on some key open questions in present day astrophysics. The unbiased and simultaneous acquisition of multi-epoch radial velocities and individual abundances of key elements in parallel with the astrometric parameters is essential for the determination of the dynamical state and formation history of our Galaxy. Moreover, for stars brighter than V=15, the resolving power of the RVS will give information about most of the effects which influence the position of a star in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, placing unprecedented constraints on the age, internal structure and evolution of stars of all types. Finally, the RVS multi-epoch observations are ideally suited to the identification, classification and characterisation of the many types of double, multiple and variable stars.Comment: 33 pages, 11 figures, in press at MNRAS. Figs 1, 3 and 9 included at reduced resolution; available in full resolution at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09012.