Distribution of seabirds and waterbirds in the German Baltic Sea throughout the year

Die Verbreitungsmuster ausgewählter See- und Wasservogelarten in den Offshore-Bereichen der deutschen Ostsee werden erstmals für die vier Jahreszeiträume Frühjahr, Sommer, Herbst und Winter dargestellt. Dabei zeigen sich bei den einzelnen Arten sowohl räumliche als auf saisonale Verbreitungsunterschiede. Die deutschen Ostseewässer stellen für See- und Wasservögel ein wichtiges Rast-, Mauser- und Überwinterungsgebiet dar, einige Arten kommen in international bedeutsamen Konzentrationen vor. Für das im Mai 2004 an die EU-Kommission gemeldete Seevogelschutzgebiet „Östliche Pommersche Bucht“ im Ostteil der deutschen Ostsee werden erstmals aktuelle Bestandszahlen der wichtigsten Seevogelarten vorgestellt. Für im Untersuchungsgebiet nur selten auftretende Seevogelarten werden die Gesamtzahlen aller Nachweise aus den Schiffszählungen angegeben. Ziehende oder nur im Küstenbereich vorkommende Wasservogelarten werden lediglich namentlich aufgelistet. In Ergänzung zu früheren Publikationen liefert der vorliegende Artikel umfassende Informationen über das Vorkommen und die jahreszeitlichen Unterschiede der häufigen See- und Wasservogelarten im Offshore-Bereich der deutschen Ostsee.The German Baltic Sea is a very important area for seabirds and waterbirds. 38 species are regularly found in coastal or offshore waters. Many of them occur in international important concentrations and are subject to various conservation-related conventions and directives, especially the EU Birds Directive and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). From 2000 to 2005, several research projects were dedicated to describe and analyse the distribution and abundance of seabirds in the offshore area in the German Baltic Sea at high spatial and temporal resolutions. In this study, we present for the first time the distribution of seabirds and waterbirds in the German Baltic Sea throughout the year, based on transect counts from ships. The main focus is on the offshore areas. For the most numerous species we present the distribution for the four seasons summer, autumn, winter and spring, defined species-specific. The maps clearly show spatial and temporal differences in the distribution of the various species. While Red-breasted Mergansers, Great Crested Grebes or Great Cormorants occur predominantely close to the coast, Red-necked Grebes, Slavonian Grebes and Common Guillemots, among others, prefer offshore-areas. The most numerous and characteristic species are the sea ducks Common Eider, Long-tailed Duck, Common Scoter and Velvet Scoter. They prefer areas with low water depth along the coast or on shallow banks in the offshore area. While Common Eiders occur chiefly in the western parts of the German Baltic Sea, Velvet Scoters are mainly found in the eastern parts. Both species have high densities in the winter half-year but only small numbers during summer. Long-tail Ducks and Common Scoters are distributed over large areas of the German Baltic Sea, but while the former species occurs in the winter half-year only, the latter species is present throughout the whole year. Gulls are widespread throughout the study area and show only local and/or short-term concentrations. Aggregations are often in the vicinity of high fishing activities. The most frequent gull species is the Herring Gull. Terns occur only in very small numbers in the German Baltic Sea, with Black Terns exhibiting small concentrations in the eastern part during late summer. Species that occur predominantly in coastal areas of the German Baltic Sea are not presented in detail. However, for Mute Swan, Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneye and Goosander we present maps for the winter half-year (October-April), as the nearshore distribution of these species sometimes extent into offshore areas. For species occuring only seldom within the study area we present a list with the total number of individuals seen during the surveys. Coastal or migrating waterbird species are only named. Together with previously published information on the distribution of seabirds and waterbirds in the German Baltic Sea, available mainly for the winter and spring periods, this study gives a comprehensive overview about the spatial and temporal distribution of the most numerous and widespread seabirds and waterbirds in the German Baltic Sea. In addition, current population estimates of these species are given for the recently designated Special Protection Area “Pommersche Bucht” in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the eastern part of the German Baltic Sea

Association between a pyroelectric infrared sensor monitoring system and a 3-dimensional accelerometer to assess movement in preweaning dairy calves

The objective of this study was to correlate movement assessed by a pyroelectric infrared sensor system in preweaning dairy calves with lying and standing time assessed by a 3D accelerometer considering the temperature-humidity index (THI). A total of 35 dairy calves (1–7 d of age) were enrolled in the study and 20 calves were included in the final analyses. The lying and standing time of the calves was monitored with a 3D accelerometer (Hobo Pendant G Data Logger, Onset Computer Corporation, USA), which was used as the gold standard reference. The infrared sensor monitoring system (IMS; Calf Monitoring System, Futuro Farming GmbH, Germany) was fixed to the fence of the calf hutch within the calf's reach. Temperature-humidity was monitored with 2 validated THI sensors inside and on outside of each calf hutch. Additionally, one THI sensor was located near the calf hutches. The observation period lasted 14 consecutive days. The average standing time assessed by the 3D accelerometer was 13.4 ± 12.7 (mean ± standard deviation) min/h and the average lying time was 46.6 (±12.7) min/h. The median (25th percentile; 75th percentile) number of movements measured by the IMS was 360 (60; 919) movements per hour. Number of movements per hour measured by the IMS was compared with data obtained with a validated 3D accelerometer. The Pearson correlation coefficient between both standing and lying time and the number of movements was r = 0.85 and r = −0.85, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficients were only slightly influenced by THI (low THI [72]: r = 0.81). Our data show that the number of movements of dairy calves measured by IMS were highly correlated with the chosen gold standard reference method. High THI slightly affects the measurement accuracy of IMS

Association between a pyroelectric infrared sensor monitoring system and a 3-dimensional accelerometer to assess movement in preweaning dairy calves

The objective of this study was to correlate movement assessed by a pyroelectric infrared sensor system in preweaning dairy calves with lying and standing time assessed by a 3D accelerometer considering the temperature-humidity index (THI). A total of 35 dairy calves (1–7 d of age) were enrolled in the study and 20 calves were included in the final analyses. The lying and standing time of the calves was monitored with a 3D accelerometer (Hobo Pendant G Data Logger, Onset Computer Corporation, USA), which was used as the gold standard reference. The infrared sensor monitoring system (IMS; Calf Monitoring System, Futuro Farming GmbH, Germany) was fixed to the fence of the calf hutch within the calf's reach. Temperature-humidity was monitored with 2 validated THI sensors inside and on outside of each calf hutch. Additionally, one THI sensor was located near the calf hutches. The observation period lasted 14 consecutive days. The average standing time assessed by the 3D accelerometer was 13.4 ± 12.7 (mean ± standard deviation) min/h and the average lying time was 46.6 (±12.7) min/h. The median (25th percentile; 75th percentile) number of movements measured by the IMS was 360 (60; 919) movements per hour. Number of movements per hour measured by the IMS was compared with data obtained with a validated 3D accelerometer. The Pearson correlation coefficient between both standing and lying time and the number of movements was r = 0.85 and r = −0.85, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficients were only slightly influenced by THI (low THI [72]: r = 0.81). Our data show that the number of movements of dairy calves measured by IMS were highly correlated with the chosen gold standard reference method. High THI slightly affects the measurement accuracy of IMS

IGGSA-STEPS: Shared Task on Source and Target Extraction from Political Speeches

In this paper, we report on the definition of a shared task considering source (whose opinion?) and target (about what?) extraction in protocols of the Swiss parliament that will be conducted by the Interest Group on German Sentiment Analysis (IGGSA)1

Multiobjective Optimization of Non-Smooth PDE-Constrained Problems

Multiobjective optimization plays an increasingly important role in modern applications, where several criteria are often of equal importance. The task in multiobjective optimization and multiobjective optimal control is therefore to compute the set of optimal compromises (the Pareto set) between the conflicting objectives. The advances in algorithms and the increasing interest in Pareto-optimal solutions have led to a wide range of new applications related to optimal and feedback control - potentially with non-smoothness both on the level of the objectives or in the system dynamics. This results in new challenges such as dealing with expensive models (e.g., governed by partial differential equations (PDEs)) and developing dedicated algorithms handling the non-smoothness. Since in contrast to single-objective optimization, the Pareto set generally consists of an infinite number of solutions, the computational effort can quickly become challenging, which is particularly problematic when the objectives are costly to evaluate or when a solution has to be presented very quickly. This article gives an overview of recent developments in the field of multiobjective optimization of non-smooth PDE-constrained problems. In particular we report on the advances achieved within Project 2 "Multiobjective Optimization of Non-Smooth PDE-Constrained Problems - Switches, State Constraints and Model Order Reduction" of the DFG Priority Programm 1962 "Non-smooth and Complementarity-based Distributed Parameter Systems: Simulation and Hierarchical Optimization"

Systems-level organization of yeast methylotrophic lifestyle

BACKGROUND: Some yeasts have evolved a methylotrophic lifestyle enabling them to utilize the single carbon compound methanol as a carbon and energy source. Among them, Pichia pastoris (syn. Komagataella sp.) is frequently used for the production of heterologous proteins and also serves as a model organism for organelle research. Our current knowledge of methylotrophic lifestyle mainly derives from sophisticated biochemical studies which identified many key methanol utilization enzymes such as alcohol oxidase and dihydroxyacetone synthase and their localization to the peroxisomes. C1 assimilation is supposed to involve the pentose phosphate pathway, but details of these reactions are not known to date. RESULTS: In this work we analyzed the regulation patterns of 5,354 genes, 575 proteins, 141 metabolites, and fluxes through 39 reactions of P. pastoris comparing growth on glucose and on a methanol/glycerol mixed medium, respectively. Contrary to previous assumptions, we found that the entire methanol assimilation pathway is localized to peroxisomes rather than employing part of the cytosolic pentose phosphate pathway for xylulose-5-phosphate regeneration. For this purpose, P. pastoris (and presumably also other methylotrophic yeasts) have evolved a duplicated methanol inducible enzyme set targeted to peroxisomes. This compartmentalized cyclic C1 assimilation process termed xylose-monophosphate cycle resembles the principle of the Calvin cycle and uses sedoheptulose-1,7-bisphosphate as intermediate. The strong induction of alcohol oxidase, dihydroxyacetone synthase, formaldehyde and formate dehydrogenase, and catalase leads to high demand of their cofactors riboflavin, thiamine, nicotinamide, and heme, respectively, which is reflected in strong up-regulation of the respective synthesis pathways on methanol. Methanol-grown cells have a higher protein but lower free amino acid content, which can be attributed to the high drain towards methanol metabolic enzymes and their cofactors. In context with up-regulation of many amino acid biosynthesis genes or proteins, this visualizes an increased flux towards amino acid and protein synthesis which is reflected also in increased levels of transcripts and/or proteins related to ribosome biogenesis and translation. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our work illustrates how concerted interpretation of multiple levels of systems biology data can contribute to elucidation of yet unknown cellular pathways and revolutionize our understanding of cellular biology. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-015-0186-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file